Pillow Possibilities

August 2, 20186 Comments

Hi, it’s Cindy hosting our blog again today!

Possibility = Reality

I found this pretty buffalo check fleece and decided to make a travel pillow for a friend. Who wouldn’t like a soft, cozy pillow when traveling by land, air or sea? It’s very “packable” at 12 inches x 16 inches.

Since fleece stretches, I used the stretch knit stitch to finish the edges of the envelope closures and to sew the side seams. I like the decorative look AND the fleece can stretch without the stitches breaking.

Here’s the finished product…I think I ~~should~~ will make one for myself!

Possibility Soon to Become Reality

I bought a tea towel with this fun vacation phrase. I am going to find coordinating scraps and surround the phrase with patchwork.

The possibilities are endless…what would you do with it? I’d love to hear from you…all suggestions welcome!

Sofa Siesta – A Free Quilt Pattern

May 3, 2018May 4, 201831 Comments

Got scraps? An extra jelly roll? A fat quarter bundle just waiting to be used? A layer cake languishing in your sewing room? Look no further…we’ve got a pattern to help you use up some of these fabrics (so you can make room for more, of course!)

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The striped blocks in this pattern use 1 1/4 inch x 10 inch strips of fabric. Perfect for those left over jelly roll strips or layer cake blocks you are not sure what to do with!

I designed this pattern while vowing to reduce my stash and make good use of some of the skinny scraps I had on hand. If you prefer a more coordinated color scheme, choose a 40 piece jelly roll from a single fabric line to create your striped blocks.

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Sadie Sue, my Miniature Schnauzer, wanted to show you the green fabric I used for the back of the quilt. It really shows off the quilting!

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This is the perfect quilt for beginners! It provides a lot of straight line cutting practice as well as straight line sewing and chain piecing practice.

A Few Cutting and Sewing Tips

Because of all the cutting and sewing practice this pattern provides, Sandy and I want to share a few tips with you.

How to Avoid the “Ruler Slip Problem” When Cutting Fabric

Almost any quilter can tell stories of frustration (possibly tears) when a ruler has slipped right in the middle of cutting fabric. Yikes! This has happened to me more often that I care to admit. One day I was organizing my kitchen cabinets and had a “light bulb moment”…if my dishes won’t slip in my cabinet because of my shelf liner…maybe my quilting ruler won’t slip either!

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I use a very small piece of non-slip shelf liner, roughly 1/2 inch x 2 inches and place it between my ruler and my fabric. This small piece allows me to easily move my ruler around and place it in just the right location over my fabric. Because the shelf liner is very thin, it does not raise my ruler too high above my fabric AND my ruler does not slip when cutting…hooray! Problem solved!

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Give this tip a try and let us know what you think!

Use a “Leader” When Chain Piecing to Avoid “Bird Nests”

I always us little scraps of fabric for “leaders” when I am chain piecing. I use them to avoid having my bobbin thread get all twisted up creating a “bird nest” of thread on the underside of my fabric.

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Garage Sales Are Great Places to Buy Sewing Room Accessories

I like to have a supply of leaders right next to my sewing machine. I was using a disposable plastic sandwich container to store these little scraps (really classy!) when Sandy suggested I up my game and spring for something better.

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Since Sandy is a garage sale aficionado, she bought a pedestal bowl at a garage sale for $2.00 and gave it to me for “leader” storage. Can we all say cuteness factor + 10??? It’s a practical AND charming way to always be ready for chain piecing!

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Free “Sofa Siesta” Pattern

We hope you like our newest pattern! Be sure to send us pictures of your completed work, we always like to see how others use their stash for greatness!

You can download our free pattern by clicking on this link: Sofa Siesta 05 02 18

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We’ll also be posting this pattern on FaveQuilts, a website that provides us with a lot of quilting inspiration. FaveQuilts has free e-books, videos/tutorials and an entire library of free quilt blocks and patterns. FaveQuilts has a great e-newsletter, Piecing it Together, that Sandy and I subscribe to. This newsletter is a great way to keep up to date on what is happening in the world of quilting. If you’d like to give it a try, you can sign up here.

Thanks for stopping by Gray Barn Designs!

Sewing in the Rain

February 12, 20186 Comments

It was a rainy weekend here in Ohio and I was recovering from a terrible cold. I was down but not out! I just sewed and sewed and sewed. Here are some of my masterpieces (if I do say so myself)!

I made this Sweet Heart Mug Rug for my friend who loves cats (you can download our free pattern by clicking on this link: Sweet Heart Mug Rug). Aren’t these cats the cutest? They are left over from some Cotton + Steel fabric scraps I had on hand.

Here’s another mug rug using pink, white and lime green scraps…I like this combo a lot.

Here’s a mug rug using a romantic black and white print. This black & white print used to be curtains; now up-cycled to another every day use!

After I got tired of making mug rugs, I moved on to quilt my husband’s birthday gift. Quilting this pillow took a long time BUT I am happy with the results.

Norma wanted to get in on the action so of course I took her picture….maybe instead of the fox guarding the hen house, the dog is guarding the fox house?

Snickerdoodle Hop

December 5, 2017December 6, 2017106 Comments

Carol from Just Let Me Quilt came up with a wonderful blog hop idea for the holidays: a Virtual Cookie Exchange. She had us at cookies. Follow the flour dust trail….

Our mother is a terrific baker and one of her specialties is the Snickerdoodle: a bit crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle and coated with a sweet cinnamon and sugar crust.

Helen’s Snickerdoodles

I have to confess that I was never a huge fan as a kid, but I’ve made up for my lack of judgement in the last 10 years or so. Mom can easily bake through a 25 lb. bag of flour from a warehouse store in a couple of weeks when she is preparing for the holidays.

And every grain of that flour traverses through a giant sifter that was extracted from a Hoosier cabinet and installed in a specially built kitchen cabinet for just such a baking enthusiast. (This must have occurred in the ‘40s when the “modern” kitchen was added on to the house and the Hoosier was relegated to the basement (sans flour sifter, of course)).

Flour bin and sifter from a farmhouse Hoosier cabinet

Anyway, for our virtual cookie exchange, we present Helen’s Snickerdoodles. She says the secret to her special version is using extra-large eggs. Since you probably don’t have a Hoosier flour sifter, she recommends measuring the flour and then double sifting it.

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To celebrate the holiday and this unique cookie exchange from Carol at Just Let Me Quilt, Cindy designed the Candy Cane 2.0 placemat that you can whip up quickly.

This placemat can be used as a table decoration while you display all the cookies you make from Carol’s Blog Hop. You can use scraps in your stash OR you can dash out and buy some great Christmas fabrics that coordinate with your decor.

Candy Cane 2.0–a free placemat pattern!

Download this free pattern here: Candy Cane 2.0 Placemat 12 03 17

But wait, there’s more! We’ve learned another secret to delicious Snickerdoodles: the cinnamon! There are different varieties of cinnamon but our favorite is Chinese “Tung Hing”. We’re giving away one 2 oz. jar of Chinese “Tung Hing” Cinnamon from The Spice House (located in Chicago, Illinois), to help the lucky winner re-create a farmhouse Christmas like Cindy and I used to share with our family.

Tung Hing cinnamon, sugar and Snickerdoodle dough balls–just waiting to be popped in the oven!

To enter our giveaway, simply leave a comment for this blog post before December 11, 2017. We’ll pick a winner at random and contact the winner via email to arrange for a jar of cinnamon to be shipped directly from The Spice House to the winner.