One Hour Shorts

The "One Hour Skort" sewing project went well, and I've actually been wearing the skort, so I decided to sew some shorts from the same pattern.  I picked out some lightweight fabric in a classic black and white check from my miscellaneous fabric bins.

This is the pattern I used.  Super easy.  Even I can do it.

Pinning to the fabric.

 Cutting out the waistband.

Marking the pieces.  Don't you just love my lime green kitchen table?  

And...voila!  I sewed these on my Pink Atlas - what fun.

Here they are hanging up in my wardrobe.  Super easy to sew & super easy to wear, too.  

If you are inspired to sew some clothing, I have lots of fabby vintage patterns available in my Etsy shop in the Dress Patterns Section.  And send me a pic.  I would love to see what you sew!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Monday Romance

A few more blocks for the Romantic Quilt.

Five together.

One block up close.

Two blocks in vintage shades of brown.  For beautiful vintage fabrics like these, see the Vintage Fabric Section of my Etsy shop.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Beautiful Batik Fat Quarters in the Shop

Red Batik Fabric

Flowery bursts of red shoot across this fantastic fabric. Printed in a gorgeous pure red, this fabric is perfect for your next quilting or home sewing project. 

Green Batik Fabric

This pattern evokes the tall Savannah grasses, bending in the breeze. 

Florida Green Batik Fabric

A lush, thicket of green palmetto branches covers this fabric in spiky splendor. Printed in a gorgeous range of greens, this fabric is perfect for your next quilting or home sewing project. 

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Quilting Sally's Mystery Quilt

I fixed my little boo-boo on this quilt, and now I'm working on the quilting.  This quilt has a lot of open spaces - a little scary for me!  I drew out this tulip motif to stitch into each corner of the blank blocks.

  

Here's one tulip by itself.

I'm stitching some swirls into the white squares of the Jacob's ladder blocks, and doing loopy quilting in the balance of the white spaces on these blocks.  I hope it makes the orange stand out.

The bottom half of a blank block with the tulip motif.

In this photo you can see a little bit of the borders.  The outer border is getting a wavy/flame look, and the inner border is all swirls.  I'm stitching these with a gorgeous King Tut variegated thread from Superior Threads.  My fave thread for quilting!  I love it!  

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Aura - Day 5

Love these lavenders and deep, deep violets.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Aura - Day 4

We're diving into purple territory now, plus yellow hexie #3 has been added.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Super Scrappy Double Irish Chain Quilt Top

Here is the top with all the borders on for the Double Irish Chain.  I'm looking for a good title for this quilt.  Trent likes the name, "The Pretty Quilt".  Any ideas?

Here's the fabric I chose for the backing.  It's a cutie pie 1980's vintage goose/duck type of print.  The photo shows the reverse side, but you can see what it looks like.  It's a light blue fabric with white ducks/geese (not sure which!), and a few little yellow tulip looking flowers.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

What is it?????

I need some help!  I bought an old bag of yarn at a yard sale and these two mysterious items were included.  I have no idea what they are.

This one is about the size of a half-dollar coin.

When you turn the center knob - eeek! - scary spikes poke out around the edges.  Watch out, fingers!

If you know what this is, please comment on this post.

Here's the second mystery object.  It is about the same size as the round one, and also has a lot of metal spikes, but no moving parts.

Here is another view from the side.

Help!  What is it?

Here's a couple of pics of my recent yarn work.  I've been knitting lots and lots of dishcloths while my son is driving me around town.  He is driving very well, but it makes me less nervous if I have something in my hands.

I'm running out of room for dishcloths, and I really don't need a lifetime supply, so here's my next car project.  It's a crocheted rug for my laundry room.  This is super easy single crochet.  I'm using a skein of black yarn (from the garage sale bag) along with scraps left over from the dishcloths and crocheting them together, seven stitches per row.  I'm making about 100 rows per strip and then I plan to stitch them together.  This is fun, and a super easy project for the car, plus I'm not buying any supplies, just using up old yarn - Hooray!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Aaaaaaah - The Romantic Quilt.

It's the return of  "The Romantic Quilt".

How embarrassing!  I haven't worked on this in over a year.

All the blocks are completed.  They just need to be sewn together.

The pattern for this quilt is known as Improved Nine Patch, or Glorified Nine Patch.  I'm sewing mine in all vintage fabrics.  Fun, fun, fun!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Aura - Day 3

Aura - Day 3: This is all of the blues - next up, purple!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Aura - Day 2

Aura - Day 2:  A little more blue with a spot of yellow here and there.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Super Scrappy Abstract Double Irish Chain

Here's another experimental design I've been working on.  It's a Double Irish Chain quilt in black, blue, and yellow.  I'm sewing it super scrappy and randomly mixing up the black pieces to give it a non-traditional look.  After sewing the blocks, I auditioned a few different arrangements on the design wall.  I first tried a four blocks by six blocks arrangement.

Then, I tried a square top.  I decided I like the square arrangement better.  This top is five by five.

The large black squares with the rose prints seemed to jump out in the quilt top, so I moved them further apart into this design.  I'm sewing the blocks together from here, and adding a few borders.

I used a yellow batik for the first border.  I had a lot of blue squares left over from the blocks, so I cut a few more and did scrappy squares for border #2.

I'm going to finish it off with a solid jet black all the way around.  I've got half of it sewn on in the above photo.  Black always looks good!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas 

Aura - The Beginning

Here's the beginning of my Hexie project.  I'm calling it Aura.  This quilt idea has been milling around in my mind for years.  I'm so excited to finally be working on it.  I wasn't sure if I would like making the hexies or not, but once I got started, oh dear!---It's an addiction.  I got out my Accuquilt Go and cut up a lot of my scrap basket to start.  It's going to be an all scrap hexie quilt.  Because of that, they are pretty small with 3/4" sides.  I hope you enjoy watching it progress.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Starberry Harvest Quilt

My Starberry Harvest quilt has made it back home.  I'm so happy to see it and cuddle it again!

This quilt was a lot of fun to design and sew.  I really played with the colors when I designed this quilt.  At first glance, your eye is drawn across the quilt from the upper left corner to the lower right corner as the stars go through a medium to light to dark color progression.  But, if you look closer, you can see other progressions of color going on in the diagonal squares crossing both ways over the quilt, too.  

It was also fun to frame the quilt in a two tone border.  All the fabrics in this quilt are Timeless Treasures batiks.  I love the color saturation you get with batiks, and that waxy crayon smell when you iron - oh yes!

The Starberry Harvest quilt pattern appears in Fons and Porter's Scrap Quilts 2014, available now.  I'm thrilled to be a part of this special issue.  The quilts included in this magazine are all very colorful and fun to sew.

My husband is out of town this week, working on our future Blue Ridge Mountain vacation house, so I'm enjoying sleeping under this quilt all by myself.  It's like sleeping under the stars, but without all the mosquitoes and bears and stuff.

I like the Starberry block so much, that I used it as the block for our home.  We have joined the Quilt Trails of the Tar River - Woo Hoo!  You can read more about the trail here: Quilt Trails of the Tar River, or get updates at the Facebook group here:  Quilt Trails of the Tar River Facebook Page.  Please come and visit our growing quilt trail!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Garden Walk

Happy Independence Day to all my American readers.  For the holiday, I thought we would take a stroll through my garden.  Here's what's blooming.

Lovely lilies...

Really romantic roses...

A pretty pot of annuals...

Purple Allium and an Angel...

Coneflower closeup.

Thanks for joining me!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas