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Self Binding the Glam Clam Quilt

Several years ago, I got a stack of fat quarters from the then-newly-released Grafic collection by Latifah Saafir. Immediately I decided I was going to finally put that Clammy ruler to use and make myself a clamshell quilt. First I made a few patchwork squares, then cut those and the rest of the 10” square pack into clamshells.Then I stacked them neatly and put them on a shelf…where they would live for the next five years.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who planned to do a Glam Clam quilt and never actually finished it because in 2021, Latifah started a Glam Clam Finish Along. Brilliant! Lots of folks signed up to cheer each other on and it was just the push I needed to start putting it together.

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Old Dog, New Tricks

For years, I’ve played at the edge of hand-stitching without ever fully indulging in it. As a teenager I loved cross-stitch and made plenty of Christmas gifts for years using a variety of patterns. The first quilt I made was from a pattern using cross-stitch to make the focal clowns.

But then I sort of let the hobby go. I made a few store samples when Alison Glass’ Appliqué: The Essential Guide to Modern Appliqué (Lucky Spool, 2014) came out. I fawned over the Alabama Chanin patterns and books online. I bought, and actually stitched, a couple of kits from the Brooklyn Craft Company. I’ve been hand quilting my great-grandmother’s quilt for nearly a decade. I brought along embroidery hoops and the few floss colors I had with me in the RV. I signed up for Badass Cross Stitch’s Year Of Stitch on Patreon, then never visited the site again.

I’ve dabbled in hand stitching and needlework for decades.

My great-grandmother Emmie Mae Massingill pieced this quilt top by hand; I’m (ever-so-slowly) quilting it by hand.
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Sew Together Tuesday: Apparel Sewing with Cuddle®

I earned a lot of my sewing chops by sewing garments, so when we got a request to do a Sew Together Tuesday about using Cuddle® for clothing, I was down for it, but I knew I’d want some help. I reached out to Bianca at Thanks, I Made Them and Ajaire from Call Ajaire to see if they’d join me to talk all about the patterns, fabrics and sewing techniques they’ve used. They both agreed and yesterday we had the joy of sitting down for an hour-long chit chat for Sew Together Tuesday.

It was great to talk about all the garments that can be made with the fabric thanks to the wide variety of looks, textures, and stretch. We showed a bunch more projects in the video, but here are a few of my favorites:

Lined Open Front Coat (Butterick 6382) made by me and modeled by my daughter
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Making a Coat Out of a Quilt

Back in November, before the recent hubbub about quilt clothes needing to die, I cut up my quilt to make a coat. And I kinda really love it. I’d had the quilt for a while, tucked in the closet with no real purpose (it’s not like I had a guest bedroom or cute display cabinet), so when we were starting to pack up the house to move out, I decided I would finally get to making a jacket out of it. That way I could take it with me as something I’d actually use on-the-road versus something I’d just store for later storage.

To me, that’s the crux of any of the argument about saving quilts from being re-purposed as clothing. If you’re going to use it and love it, heck even if you just like it, re-purposing sounds like a great idea. There are so very many quilts out there; we don’t need to save them all. Anyway…

The quilt was a throw size and almost worked perfectly. If I were to do it again, I would probably trace the pieces on first to make sure I had enough room (I had to piece a sleeve), but for taking about two minutes to make the decision and start cutting it turned out okay.

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Sew Together Tuesday: Rustic Horseshoe Sewing Patterns

During our stop in Mesa, we’d gotten word that the STT RV was fixed and ready to go, so the morning after the show we headed back, yet again, to Las Vegas to pick it up. We did the rodeo between rental RV and the STT RV, took care of some business (like all the Zoom meetings I could fit in one day) and headed south again for our show with Rena Dearden of Rustic Horseshoe in Cornville, Arizona. (An aside: that area of Arizona is one of my most very favorite places in the whole U.S. You can read about some of our adventures over on our Makers at Large blog.)

I made the Rustic Horseshoe Nutty Nag stuffed animal in 2020 for a Sew Together Tuesday and thought it would be super fun to come out, see her and talk about the process of making patterns for stuffed animals (seriously, what an interesting career!).

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Sew Together Tuesday: Conversation Hearts

If you’re anything like me, you grew up with those candy hearts as a part of every February. I not-so-secretly still love them, so when the idea was tossed around to make our own conversation hearts for Sew Together Tuesday, I jumped at the idea. And I’m so glad I did, they turned out so great!

I worked on this in between classes at Road to California and wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to pull it off, but with the help of Hawke, Mary (my friends and fellow Shannon Fabrics Brand Ambassador) and Shannon Fabrics pattern writer, Rose, it all came together the morning of the show. Phew!

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Sew Together Tuesday: Pete the Pup

Several years ago I visited Cozy Creative Center, so when I pulled up and this was the storefront I was confused. This isn’t how I’d remembered it at all and I’m usually really good at remembering that sort of thing. Turns out, they moved down the street, so it was the same street name, different storefront. LOL! Not only is a different building, it’s bigger and better than before.

Located just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, Cozy Creative Center is packed with just about everything you could need including hundreds of Cozy Quilt Designs patterns!

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Sew Together Tuesday: Infinity Scarf with Zipper Pocket

We kicked off Season 8 with no live audience and very little hoop-la (the exact opposite of Season 7’s kick-off at Cali Quilt Co!) but it worked out perfectly with the uptick in COVID cases and our RV going belly up on the first day back on the road. Sigh…

There are a bunch of different tutorials available for adding a pocket to your scarf, including this one from Patterns for Pirates and this pattern from Indygo Junction. I chose to do it my own way and added an invisible zipper.

We broadcast from Sew Yeah Quilting in Las Vegas, Nevada, a sibling-owned shop that has a lovely brick-and-mortar location as well as live sales through their YouTube channel.

Thanks to Brody, Zach, and Teancum for playing host to Sew Together Tuesday, as well as some in-person and Zoom workshops.

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Let’s Hit the Road [and all the fabric/quilt shops]!

In just a few days, we are picking up the Shannon Fabrics RV and hitting the road for our second Sew Together Tuesday: On the Road tour! I can’t believe the time is already here, but here it is.

Earlier this year, we did a more, shall we say erratic, tour and it went so well we got the okay to do it again. But cautioned to chill a little on the race aspect of it (we travelled 9k+ miles in 11 weeks!). This time, we’ll be taking the same 11 weeks to travel about 3k miles as we make our way from the west coast over to nearly-the-east coast with stops in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama along the way.

At each stop, we’ll be doing a Sew Together Tuesday show, live with a studio audience, and then an afternoon workshop. Some shops will be hosting workshops on Wednesday as well. it should be a ton of fun and i’m really excited to share all these shops with everyone.

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