Sally Said Sew

I actually have a few items for sale. Click on the "Shop" tab for more info. Right now I am only accepting PayPal payments (unless I happen to know you personally). If you have any questions, please email me.

Now that I no longer have to travel for work, I opted back in on the Doll Quilt Swap for June. This month's theme was "Patriotic". I own a quilt pattern by This & That called Sideways & Byways . One day I will make this quilt, but for now, I thought the block pattern would make a cute mini quilt. "Sideways & Byways" Quilt Pattern Here is my block in a red, white and blue theme. I stitched in the ditch to quilt it. For the red, I used a fabric printed like a bandana. It's an all-American print for me since it reminds me of cowboys. Finished size is 18.5" x 18.5". "Blues & Bandana" Quilt Backing This was a very easy block to make. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow. I highly recommend this pattern.

Three custom ordered totes for tote bags shipped this week. These are made from my pattern and feature four exterior pockets, two interior pockets and a canvas/duck cloth bottom for durability.  Horse Totes Dogs

My travel schedule the past several months has kept me from my sewing machine. I have done a few things, but not much. That is about to change in a serious way! My current job was supposed to be for twelve weeks. That was 31 months ago! We finally found a suitable candidate for my job and I have been in training mode the last few weeks. After the second week in June, I am going to have lots of time to sew and sew and sew some more. One of my goals with the change in job status is launch Sally Said Sew into a home-based business. I still have several things that need to occur to make it a reality, but I am working on checking those to-do's off one by one. One thing you should notice immediately is that it no longer shows blogspot.com in the website address. Yes, I have registered sallysaidsew.com! I have to start somewhere. I will be debuting a storefront, either through Etsy, Facebook or some other format, to sell the things I make in the coming weeks and months. I have a fab...

I got back into the doll quilt swap for the month of January. Once I got through the Christmas rush, I knew I should have time to make a mini quilt. My partner this month was Amy P. from Wisconsin. I knew her favorite colors were red and teal and that she did like modern quilts. I'm not sure the one I made is truly considered modern, but I like what I came up with. "Spool Sisters" When I quilted it, I did a meandering all-over stitch to represent a piece of loose thread. Then I did a tighter stitch pattern on the large spool to represent the thread wound on it.   Stitch Detail I finished it off with faux piping on the binding. I adore the quilt I received from Amy! She stepped out of her comfort zone by making a modern quilt with appliqued hearts. I Heart This! Amy was really clever with her quilting stitch. She used a zig zag pattern that she said reminded her of a heart beating.  Stitch Detail This is a perfect little quilt just in time...

My fabric fast lasted all of FOUR days. FOUR!! I was doing so good up until I left on a business trip and found myself sitting in the airport looking at Facebook when beautiful fabrics started showing up in my feed. "Don't do it," I told myself. And then there was Lulu. I have a few pieces of yardage and a charm pack of Moda's Lulu by Chez Moi stashed away for a quilt project. I love the brightness of this collection. It was one of those cases when you walked into the quilt store you had an immediate liking of the fabrics. I found a couple of yards on sale of two Lulu prints on sale. How can you resist these? I can use these in the quilt I will be making. It's not a UFO, yet. I would like to start on this quilt sometime this year. I still am making an effort to watch my buying but it is hard!

Happy New Year to all! I am going to try something different this year. Last year, I spent time and money building my fabric stash. I knew that eventually my job would come to and end so I bought fabric while I still had the funds to do it. I am still employed but expect that to change in the coming months. My job was only supposed to be temporary but that was over two years ago! This year, in anticipation of the pending change in income, I am putting myself on a fabric fast. Yep, no buying of fabric. I must use what is in my stash. A fellow quilter and I have challenged ourselves to do this. She who breaks first owes the other a yard of fabric. It started out in jest, but honestly, I need to do this. My stash is healthy and I do need to start using what I have on projects. We have one agreed upon deviation and that is to buy fabric that will be used for animal shelter donations (see my previous post on a tote bag I made). Speaking of projects, I am also challenging myself to ...