Purrfectly Imperfect

I apologize for not posting any blog last week. It is a difficult time of year for my family and me. My sister passed eight years ago on April 8th, my birthday is April 10th, and my daughter, Brianna’s birthday, is April 11th. It would have been her 20th birthday. I try my best to stay busy and celebrate how I know my sister and Brianna want me to. Honestly, it is a struggle. I managed to sew all day on the tenth, my “happy” zone, at least as happy as I get these days. I did get a new project completed, a purse/bag to carry a portable oxygen concentrator.

I did this project with my friend in mind. She recently found out she needs to have oxygen and was using a rather generic black bag to lug it around. I knew I couldn’t let her not be “fashionable” and decided to look for a pattern for a purse/backpack that I could convert into her much-needed upgrade. Lucky for me, I found a pattern called “Malibu Sling” by Pink Sand Beach Designs on the Missouri Star Quilt Company website. This bag can be used over the shoulder, like a purse, or converted into a backpack! Cool, right? I tried to find a pattern that would be simple, and that would be relatively easy to alter. Alter, you ask? To prevent the concentrator from overheating, I knew I would need to incorporate mesh into the bag.

Since purple is her favorite color, I went through my stash and found a cool paisley (my ode to her most loved musician, Prince) and another shade of purple fabric that went well with the paisley. I ordered a purple flower fabric for the lining, a light purple with silver feathering, and of course, purple mesh. I also needed fusible fleece, Pellon decorbond (fusible stabilizer), Pellon peltex (firm fusible stabilizer), and the purse hardware (snaps/clips/d-rings) to complete the bag.

The things I needed to order came rather quickly, except for the hardware; that was on backorder. So, I waited. I cut all the fabric to the correct sizes and brainstormed how and where to add the mesh. I tried to mimic the generic bag, meaning I placed the mesh in the same areas. Doing this did help make the process a little easier until it came to the lining. I knew I would have a hard time getting it to line up with the bag’s exterior portion. I opted to make 2/3 of the lining sides mesh and the top 1/3 the purple flower fabric. Once I had the mesh and fabric sewn together and cut to the appropriate shapes, it came together like a charm!

There are a few great parts to this project:

1. I have enough stabilizers and an extra set of hardware (because I have no patience and ordered another set from another website) to make myself a bag/purse. I’ve been waiting for the right project to utilize some seriously awesome cat fabric, which is so very me!
2. Most importantly, I have a delighted and appreciative friend that LOVES her fashionable, “I’m proud to carry” & “I want to carry” portable oxygen concentrator bag.

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This week’s blog is all about a retirement quilt I gifted to a friend of ours. He finally retired from the Baltimore Police Department, and good for him! He has wanted me to make him a quilt for a little while now, and I decided that gifting him one for his retirement was the way to go.
I found a quilt kit called “Police Department” at Crafts Direct, and it came with the pattern. The kit includes all the fabric and a police officer panel for the quilt top. I love the color palette, traditional police colors, blue, black, gray, and yellow. In my opinion, the police officer panel is what makes this quilt stand out.
This particular quilt was relatively easy to put together. Simple cuts and piecing made it go quickly. There were a few pieces to applique, the stars and the word “police”. I learned one new technique called a flange. I initially thought it would not be easy, but it went surprisingly well. And it ended up looking fantastic! It is a great way to highlight something on a quilt.
With the quilt top done, it was time to come up with something for the backing. I decided to create the thin blue line. Doing this was super easy; I cut two large pieces of solid black fabric and a small strip of solid blue and pieced them together. However, it needed something more to personalize this quilt for the receiver. I opted to embroider the police department name, recipients rank, name, sequence, and badge numbers.
Time for the fun part, I dropped it off at my favorite quilt shop to have it long arm quilted with a police theme that the recipient chose. It contains badges, handcuffs, guns, radio, and whistles, oh my! A few months later, I picked it up, applied the binding, and appliqued the personalization on the blue stripe on the back. It came out amazing.
We hand-delivered this quilt a few weeks ago to the receiver; he loves it. I made him promise actually to use the quilt and not just hang it up. I prefer my quilts get used. I believe quilts are to be loved, not just displayed. I am sure he will get lots of love from this one!

**I blurred out the recipients name, sequence and badge numbers to ensure his privacy.**

During the quarantine or “corn-teen” as Marylanders say, you can guess that there has been a spike in baby production. After all, you can only catch up and binge-watch so many shows during confinement. At my place of employment, we have had a set of twins plus two other babies that have arrived, and a few are still waiting to make their debut!

Since I enjoy making things and giving them away, I started sewing gifts for the newest members of this great big world. I found a simple burp cloth pattern; it is quick and easy. I had a difficult time choosing baby-themed flannel to piece these together. There are so many cute options out there. It is super easy to spend a small fortune when looking for just the right fabric. I love when I know what people are expecting. That opens the options versus staying gender-neutral. Lucky for me, grays seem to be the hit right now, and that has made my decision-making a little easier. I typically choose a patterned fabric for the top and a solid fabric for the backs. I also made sure to attach my super adorable personalized labels so the receiver remembers that they were loving made by me. I hit the jackpot at Joann Fabric with a $2.99/yard sale on flannel, plus 20% off your total purchase, so these projects were easy on the purse strings.

Next on the list for the babies, receiving/baby blankets! Simply Stashing Fabrics and Quilts, my favorite local quilt shop, had a super easy self-binding baby blanket pattern. The pattern is from Missouri Star Quilt Company. Fabric choices were flannel again and coordinated printed for front and more solid for the back. Of course, I made a practice blankie for the girls, aka Pearl and Maggie (our very spoiled sphynx cats). Who better to try a new flannel blanket on than the blankie queens! We have blankets in every room of the house for them. They love to be super cozy and certainly deserve nothing but the best! And if they are sphynx approved, you know they will undoubtedly be baby approved! My favorite part of sewing these has got to be the ability to use those decorative stitches on my sewing machine. The only decorative stitch I used before was the zigzag for applique. I have to admit it was pretty fun!

The last items I decided to make were reversible bibs. These are so easy and quick to make. I found a free template online at Craftaholics Anonymous. I chose not to use flannel for both sides; instead, I either used terry cloth (think towel material) or chenille for one side. I purchased the terry cloth at Joann Fabric, and I used a 40% off coupon for this one. I can’t remember the chenille’s cost. I bought it a while ago at fabric.com. But I do know I am budget-conscious, so it must have been a reasonable price. For the bibs, I also needed to buy a snap applicator. Yep, I said it, a snap applicator. I am now an official snapper! LOL! I found this online on Amazon. It was a kit and came with two hundred snap sets, so I should be good with this for a while!

I cannot stress the simplicity and affordability of these baby gifts. I honestly do enjoy making them and giving them away. I do not know many people, especially mom-to-be recipients that don’t appreciate a handmade gift. I love seeing the smiles on their faces it warms my heart.

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During my hiatus I started working on a quilt that made me think about Brianna. It’s called the “Dear Daughter” quilt. I believe I started in sometime in 2018, and it is finally complete!

I love the patchwork look to this quilt and the variety of colors that came with the pattern. It was a 12 month subscription, of course life happens, and I ended up taking much longer than a year to piece this one to completion. The subscription was available through Stitchin Heaven, they are based out of Texas. I will say that if I had not chosen the block of the month option, this quilt could have easily been pieced using scraps from my fabric stash. Which I’m sure most quilters and sewers know, you end up having way more in your scrap and stash pile than you’d like to admit too!

As each month came, I looked forward to seeing what block I got to conquer and what cute and beautiful fabrics were to come. It is filled with extremely appropriate phrases like, choose happiness, have courage, and love deeply. I find that my favorites are the be kind, go wander and in particular with brave wings, she flies. This one more so, since Brianna is our angel now.

The main reason this quilt took so much time was due to the intricacy of each block. I learned many new techniques that I had not known beforehand. This is the first real applique I have ever done and I have found that I really enjoy it. It is quite rewarding in the end. Having to trace the words and shapes onto the steam-a-seam 2 fusible web, was time-consuming. I quickly realized that I could print right onto the fusible web and just copied everything that I needed directly to the sheets. The hard part was remembering to adhere it to the wrong side of the fabric so that the words were not backward. I made this mistake several times! Lucky for me I realized it before I pressed with my iron and stitched them in place. I also learned English paper piecing. I did not enjoy this as much, but can really appreciate the technique now that I have had to do it.

A while back I purchased a box of small spools of Gutterman thread. It had a variety of colors and happened to be at a very good price a Joann Fabric. After I purchased it and got home, I thought what was I going to do with this, as it was an impulsive purchase. I had not started quilting, the thought had not even entered my mind when I bought it. Thank goodness I did, it came in so handy when attaching the applique. I had every color I needed to match the phrases and shapes. It was fate!

With the quilt being finished, I attached my usual label, added a poem about daughters and a name label for Brianna. We have decided that this quilt will be a family heirloom. Hopefully, our son will have a daughter someday and I will add a name label for her and then her daughter and so on. This quilt has definitely been a labor of love and quite therapeutic. I have shed some tears piecing this one together. It really is fitting for Brianna. I asked my husband yesterday if he thought Brianna would like it and he assured me that she loves it. We will cherish this quilt while we have it and hope that our future grandchildren (hopefully, not until Logan is done with college and married!) will as well.

Now that we had transformed Brianna’s room into my new quilting and sewing sanctuary, it was time to put all of my fabric, notions, and machines in their new home.

As you know, we have been trying to keep Brianna’s things, but healthily. I put the bug in Chris, my hubby’s ear, to convert Brianna’s bed into a bench. He took this task to heart, and the outcome is beautiful. It is a piece of furniture that we will hand down for future generations. I turned her comforter into the cushion cover, so the bench is all hers, literally.

I will start with the fact that I did go ahead and splurge on two big purchases for my new space. I bought myself an Arrow Sewing Station, the Aussie II. I love it. I can raise and lower my main sewing machine and close the cabinet down to a long dresser size when not in use. Of course, this rarely happens as I spend much of my free time sewing! The second purchase was the Martelli Advantage Work Station. I admit I am in love with this too! It is so lovely to have a table, specifically for cutting my fabric. I no longer need to pull my cutting mat out and put it away. Plus, this table raises, lowers, and even tilts!

I also had the idea of refurbishing her long dresser into my ironing station. We painted it with white chalk paint and added a star in blue to the front. It proved to be challenging when taping to paint it, but we were pleasantly surprised by the outcome. Chris cut a piece of plywood several inches wider and longer than the top, added wood braces on the bottom to prevent it from sliding. It sits purrfectly on top of the dresser. I wrapped the wood with a few batting layers and covered that in a vintage sewing fabric. It turned out amazing.

The last piece was her short dresser and bookshelf that sits on top. I painted this with white chalk paint and added blue to the back walls. Chris removed the drawers from the dresser and added a shelf to have more storage space for fabric. Anyone who sews or quilts knows there is NEVER too much storage for your fabric! Somehow, it just seems to keep multiplying!

For the closet, I purchased twelve large plastic shoe boxes. I have them sorted by color for all my scrap fabric. Of course, this makes it easy to find small fabric pieces, especially when I do applique. And it alleviates any frustration when you need a specific color. It is so much easier when things are kept organized.

To finish off the room, I hung a painting my cousin, Lisa painted the day Brianna passed. I also hung a photo of my grandmother (Bachan) and Brianna each sewing. I like to think that they are both hanging out with me in Brianna’s room, also known as Emi’s quilting and sewing sanctuary.

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Now that I’m back, it’s time to CATch you up. I’ll start with the fact that we finally decided to morph our daughter Brianna’s room. It took us a little over four years to be “ready” to take this step and to help with our healing process since losing her. As most of you know, I started quilting after she passed away. We wanted to keep her clothes but healthily—what better way than preserving them by making them into quilts. We can wrap ourselves up with them, kind of like a hug from our angel. Looking at the quilts, I will say that it brings up many memories of her when she was here. In turn, this warms our hearts and makes us smile.
We started this process, and I do mean it was a process in 2019. Of course, this happened to fall not long after my previous employer decided to retire and close his business. I was unemployed and had ample free time to take on this endeavor. Emptying her room was challenging; however, knowing she would, without a doubt, love the idea of turning her room into my sewing/quilting room made it much more manageable. Brianna was a very artistic young lady.
Once the room was empty, it was time to paint. I chose white walls and a bright turquoise for an accent wall. My husband thought it might be too “loud” and overbearing, but I assured him that since blue was Brianna’s favorite color, it would work out purrfectly.
The next step was attacking the floors. Lovely oak floors that needed sanding, staining, and sealing oh my! On a side note, I did call a flooring place to price refinishing them, and I received a quote of a couple of thousand dollars. I made a deal with the hubby. We rent a sander, do the floors ourselves, and finally buy the last two windows for her room and our son’s room. Thankfully, he went for it!
Refinishing hardwood floors are quite the task. My husband did this portion, as I did all the painting. We tackled the window installations together.
Once we had all of that completed, I was able to install a new led light fixture. Doing this has proved to be a wise choice; it provides ample lighting while I am sewing. Less strain on these aging eyes! I washed and reinstalled Brianna’s white curtains. Chris (my hubby) was worried that it would wash out with the walls being white, but again, I reassured him that there would be plenty of “color” in the room once I filled it up with fabric and quilts.
Chris and Logan (our son) made me a quilt wall. We purchased foam insulation board at Home Depot. I covered them with my hanging quilt design wall. They did not understand why I needed the insulation board at first, but once we got home and they helped me wrap and secure the hanging quilt wall around them, they immediately got it. They proceeded to mount the covered boards onto the wall, and voila, quilt wall ready to be used!
The room was now ready to be set up for its new purpose: Emi’s sewing and quilting room.

I know it has been quite some time since I have posted on my blog. Three years and four months, to be exact. Long story short, the Out of the Darkness walk in 2017 was not a good experience for us and caused me to disconnect from many people who weren’t around for the right reasons. (In turn, this led me not to raffle the butterfly quilt I made (2018); I ended up keeping it.) I also felt that I needed to take a break from social media and all its glory. Sometimes you need to unplug and take a hiatus of sorts to clear your head and reboot.
And most importantly, you ultimately have to do what is right for you, even though others may not agree.
Even though I have not written in quite a while, it certainly does not mean I have not been busy sewing and quilting. On the contrary, I have managed to make several quilts, sewed gifts for new-to-be moms, and even started a new career!
I ended up have almost 1 1/2 years in between jobs (2018-2019) when my old job closed. During that time, I made five charity quilts. Yes, indeed! I made a quilt for the Little Longears Minature Donkey Rescue; they auctioned it at their annual Dinner with the Donkeys fundraiser event, which we attended. This rescue is a place we hold near and dear to our hearts since we previously volunteered here with our daughter. The other quilts I made were for the Baltimore City FOP, Hampstead Volunteer Fire Department (our local fire department), For the Love of Dogs Rescue, and Carroll County AFSP– Out of the Darkness walk 2019. I have shared pictures of these quilts. One quilt is missing, I will add the fire department quilt, “Thin Red Line” photos when I find them.
I do thoroughly enjoy creating, making, and giving away my quilts.
It has been very therapeutic for me and warms my heart to see the joy on people’s faces when they receive them.
I promise to be better and not have long periods of silence with my blog. I will share some of my other projects in my future posts!

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