Our Creative Homes Archives • Stitches Quilting

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Deanna

Americana Quilt Sewing Home Decor

Americana Home Decor American Flag Quilt

How do you use Americana Quilts in your home decor? I love to use my Patriotic Quilts to hang on the wall and to display United States Flag outside to wave. This year I decided to decorate our patio for lots of family and friends for BBQ celebrations. I laid my Toile American Flag quilt on the table to set a tone with red and blue accent pillows. You will notice the rod iron shelf that I arranged lots of patriotic items I have created through the years.

Our patio is covered and we have lights lining the roof along with Moda Americana Red White and Cream draping fabric in scallops with the lights. This fabric is absolutely beautiful and a great way to drape along a stair banister too! The ideas are endless with this fabric on sale now at Stitches Quilting. This fabric is out of print with 20 yards left in stock. Pick up your bunting fabric now here.

You can see a close up of this fabric and how it is not printed striped fabric but rather the navy blue, red and cream fabrics are stitched together in 10 yard long lengths. Isn’t it amazing what you can do with quality fabrics to adorn your home.

Here is another table that I place the Bargello Waving American Flag Quilt to set the tone for what we are celebrating. I used a large basket with a Patriotic Wreath in it. I love the touches of metal and wood with the fabric. Family and friends have enjoyed time on our covered patio talking about the state of affairs and how we need to be responsible citizens in whatever country we live. You can see embroidered on this quilt, “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” To get the very last Bargello Glory Waving American Flag Quilt Kit click here.

You can see a close up of this wreath with a metal frame purchased from a craft store. Just use mesh wide ribbon that is so easy to find nowadays and weave it through the metal wreath. I love the touch of wooden vintage patriotic signs to add to the wreath along with rod iron stars.

I don’t know about you but I find Needle Punch Embroidery relaxing to do. I love these two patriotic needle punch framed embroideries of a flag flying above a home and Good Ole Sam. Isn’t the wooden star with the flag coming out of it great. I love this simple small American Flag quilt on this outdoor coffe table that has the Star Spangled Banner hand embroidered into the cream strips of the flag. What have you made with fabric and thread to celebrate your nation?

Even our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel loves the patio and the comforts it brings. Who do you use your quilting and sewing items to celebrate your nation? Today is September 11th and a day that brings reverence for our country and the people that have sacrificed so much.

I love this picnic blanket that has fabric to celebrate 9/11 in it. I roll this blanket up and keep it in my car when we need a quilt on the go.

At Stitches Quilting we have the Americana Quilt Kits available with fabric designed by Carrie Quinn with Penny Rose Fabrics. These quilt kits are limited in quantity and listed at a great sale price.

The Americana Quilt Kit comes with all these fabrics and the pattern. Isn’t is beautiful! Are you making Quilts of Valor or just need a quilt in your home to celebrate the holidays?

There are so many great books to read to your children or grandchildren to teach them history. I love reading to my kids snuggled up in a great patriotic quilt. Not only are there great books to read to your grandchildren but there are great book for us or snuggle up in a quilt to watch a movie. To learn more about reading to child wrapped in a quilt of love and increase literacy with additional quilt ideas and great books to read click here.

To learn more about these patriotic quilts click here.

May our flags wave tall and bright on days like today to honor those that make our nation strong.

How do you decorate to celebrate your patriotism? Do you enjoy snuggling in patriotic quilts or happen to hang them on your walls?

All My Best!

Posted on November 16, 2015April 24, 2016 by Deanna — 2 Comments

Thanksgiving Fall Décor Ideas the Simple Quilty Sewing Way

Easy Fast Fall Table Runner to make fast and use those scraps

Its that time of the year welcoming guests into your home for the holidays. Are you starting to get your home ready and planning food? We are and enjoying the process. I have lots of recipes that I would like to share along with simple Fall décor and easy sewing quilting projects to fit in before the holiday comes.

These are very simple table runners that I made just out of scraps of fabric. I used a strip quilting method and how it went together so very fast. I enjoy setting these around during the fall months to bring a bit of Thanksgiving and Fall décor without making too strong of a statement. Here you will see the shorter table runner on my cedar chest. This is a special little spot in the dining room for us to reflect upon those things that we are most grateful for. Making your home ready for Thanksgiving or Fall Festivities doesn’t need to be stressful just lay out some simple items to celebrate the season.

This is our narrow long farm house dining room table, that I made this table runner extra long for. Gathering together just a few items with the table runner is just enough to set the tone. I tend to purchase through the years metal holiday décor and one thing that I really love about it is that it just doesn’t break! I gathered clumps of sunflowers to brighten up the table with a couple acorn salt and pepper shakers and I am certain you probably have a fantastic turkey or holiday platter that rarely comes out of the closet that you can use on a metal easel to make that Fall Thanksgiving mood. When I pieced this table runner together by strip quilting, I just didn’t fuss about what fabric was touching which one and there are a couple of the same fabrics touching each other. I like to not have to spend so much time thinking through something, get a project done and enjoy it! What do you think?

Fall Dining Room Table Decor with Quilted Table Runner

These quilted fall Thanksgiving Pillows are perfect to toss around for your family and guests, especially after eating that turkey dinner! These pillows are so fun to make with just four cream squares in the center, leaves blanket stitched appliqued after a couple borders. What another great way to use scrappy fabrics laying around just begging to be used. I am going to make some more pillows this week with feathers reminding of the First Thanksgiving and the generosity of the Indians! May those pillows remind us to always be accepting of those around us and know that by uniting we have much that we can share and enrich each others lives. The feather pillows will be a full tutorial with downloadable pattern for you.

Toss around some Fall Thanksgiving Quilted Pillows for people to nap with

For anyone that has been entertained at our home they know that I love to make guests feel welcome. One of the things I do is having inviting places for people to sit and visit. Our backyard patio is really an extension of our home with pillows, tablecloths and holiday décor to greet all. We spend lots of time on the back patio entertaining, so I keep the table cloths and decorative table squares always on the tables. The couches and chairs are full of bright pillows to cozy up to and of course there are quilts to wrap up in to stay warm if it is a little breezy. I love pops of color! You will notice that I have used Riley Blake’s home dec fabric to create matching fabric squares and table runners for the tables. I just used a 1 1/2 yards of fabrics for a table square and then just hemmed the edge. They are outside all year long and wash very well! I throw placemats to add color for the different seasons. Easy way to create warmth for you and your guests. The fabric is available in the online store to ship immediately.

Outdoor Patio Fall Table Squares to invite your guests to

I’ll even stitch together a quick table runner for the coffee table of the coordinating Riley Blake Home Dec fabric with a bit of their extra wide ric rac stitched down the center. I just love the yellow fall aspen tree leaves that are falling everywhere.

Riley Blake Home Dec Fabric used for Table Squares and Table Runner

Our family loves to separate our pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin to bake and nibble on. It is a tradition that goes back a long way, that my great nieces and nephews along with my own children look forward too. Notice the fabric I’m planning to use for the feather fall pillow tutorial later this week! I can’t wait!

Fun in the Kitchen with Pumpkin Seeds and cooking up plans for those new quilted pillows!

Now remember that the pumpkins we buy are not just for decoration or pumpkin carving. We always buy small pumpkins that we slice open the top and then microwave until the sides are soft and then use that raw pumpkin for real homemade pumpkin pies. The challenge is worth it along with the full your children and family members will have watching a small pumpkin become a pumpkin pie. I don’t save these pumpkins for Thanksgiving Day but cook these up so the kids can do it with me and marvel at how simple it is to make pumpkin pie! When we make ours this week, I will take lots of pictures and post our recipe with complete instructions online!

Don't forget to cook up your small pumpkins for pumpkin pie — Don’t forget to cook up your small pumpkins for pumpkin pie

We have a very wide fireplace mantle. This is just some simple classy decorating of the fireplace mantle. Dried gourds that I have kept through the years, our two small pumpkins for pumpkin pie, sunflowers, metal pumpkin and a cornucopia basket. These are the things that have lasted through the years. After I set it up and thought – I didn’t use any burlap that I have so much of but I think it looks simple and clean. I think I might just use that burlap to create a fresh wreath for the front door that can be versatile from holiday to holiday. I’ll keep you updated. I would love to see all of your fantastic ideas and thoughts. What have you used this holiday season?

Thanksgiving Fall Fireplace Mantle Ideas

One thing our family does enjoy is lighting the fireplace and feeling that cozy feeling. There are lots of quilts folded on the edges of the couches and chairs waiting for people to get comfortable and cozy! Enjoy your family and focus on your blessings this season. Remembering our bounty can take away the feeling that we just don’t have enough!

Happy Stitching!

Posted on November 2, 2015April 24, 2016 by Deanna

Beginning of a Grinch Christmas

Our Quilted Grinch Tree Skirt that I longarmed Grinch stuff creatures to it! Tutorial coming later this week.

The Beginnings of a Glammy Grinch Christmas

The Beginnings of a Glammy Grinch Christmas – My husband absolutely loves the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I was one that didn’t really relate to that story and focused on other ones. When we play the DVD of the Jim Carrey movie of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, will bring my husband to gravitate to the couch and then invariably start laughing so much that we see his sparkly white teeth. The children just get a kick out of watching my husband do this and they start the movie to just watch the phenomena and start quoting Grinch quotes from memory. I’m adding a link to the book and movie because I actually had someone message me from another country not familiar with the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Our two dogs get involved in the movie watching too by barking at poor Max while we watch the movie. Since my husband’s birthday is November 22, the kids and I would always buy my husband Grinch things and we dedicated a corner, then a room and now most of the house to decorating Christmas Grinchy. I now have the dining room for my angel tree and all the nativity displays. Funny isn’t? We do a lot of spiritual things during Christmas but I have to say by embracing the Grinch everyone is certainly having a lot more fun helping me decorate the house (which is good). Each year the family comes up with some more great ideas that we need to execute – including my husband.

I don’t have the BEST Grinchy Christmas decorations PHOTOS but we will be getting our Grinch bins out soon to start getting up to enjoy a long time and share with all of you. I will post regularly on how to make all this stuff yourself with many easy ideas coming soon. I recommend signing up for the Stitches Quilting newsletter so you don’t miss a single post. There will be free downloads, printables, instruction by photograph and video that you just won’t want to miss!

I never understood the message of the Grinch book but now I have a better idea. The message brings in family discussions of character, compassion, sharing, acceptance, respect, positive thinking, increasing love in our life and more. I will not only provide tons of big or small ways to bring a bit a the Grinch into your Christmas traditions.

If you are ever facing a hard Christmas from either a loss or financial distress – then the things I will teach you are easy practical fun things to implement as a family and really embrace the spirit of Christmas in a playful way. We still decorate in a traditional way but use some of our things in a Glammy Grinchy way too.

My husband used to dread the Christmas season with extra financial stress of buying things that we might not need but buy for the sake of holiday gift giving. My husband is a family law attorney and not many people are hiring divorce attorneys in the month of December, so being the conscientious man that he is – he just doesn’t feel passionate about spending when he is feeling the flow pull back. People usually put off the paperwork of filing a divorce until after the holiday season. So with my extra resourceful nature along with my deep belief in repurposing; pulling together a bit of a Grinchy decorated Christmas is practically brilliant.

Here are a few photographs for you to get a hint of what we did last year, I took these photographs just right before we packed everything back up. May they inspire you to do something just a little different this year!

Our 2014 Grinch Christmas Tree. Notice the quilted Grinch Tree Skirt.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the ornaments that we are using on our Grinch Christmas tree.

Look at these simple Grinch Christmas Tree Ornaments

I got a large FREE used artificial Christmas Tree and we will have a post on how to take a traditional looking tree to looking like a Glammy Grinch Tree. Tutorial coming soon!

Now let’s take a peak at what we did to Grinch Glam up our Christmas Fireplace Mantle. Do you notice the green directional lighting? My husband does the green lighting. I never really noticed it until years later when someone was visiting us and asked if that was a green light bulb and I answered, “Well yes it is.”

Let's Glam Grinch out our Christmas Fireplace Mantle! We even use green directional lighting! — Let’s Glam Grinch out our Christmas Fireplace Mantle! We even use green directional lighting!

Start looking at your online classified ads in your area to see if people are selling their Grinch décor items really inexpensive. The stuffed Grinch hanging out on the left of the mantle we actually picked up for $10. You never know what you can find.

Here are more details of how we decorated the Glammed out Grinch Fireplace Mantle.

Grinch Decor Mantle Glittery Sprigs and Peppermint Candy. Here are more details of how we decorated the Glammed out Grinch Fireplace Mantle.

Grinch Decor Mantle Glittery Fanned Out Sprigs. Here are more details of how we decorated the Glammed out Grinch Fireplace Mantle.

What ideas do you have? What traditions do you celebrate? Well more Glammy Grinchy Christmas ideas and instructions coming to you, so sign up for the Stitches Quilting Newsletter! We will see you tomorrow – this is only the beginning!

I have officially as of today become an affiliate blogger to point readers to items that they might want to purchase. I do this as a service to you and may be paid for the link but I do not recommend items that I do not have confidence in.

Posted on April 27, 2015July 24, 2015 by Deanna

Honoring Mothers for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is a special day of the year to honor mothers and women important to you that have played a critical role in your life. It is an unique time to let all those special people out there know just how really important and valued they are. I love nothing more to receive homemade, handmade or personalized gifts or share ideas for Mothers Day gifts. For gift giving, I just love to make something personal for those I am trying to honor. Now I can only number on maybe two hands the handmade gifts given to me, but those gifts are certainly the gifts I cherish those above and beyond anything else.

At Stitches Quilting, we have some unique fabrics for you to use to honor those mother’s, grandmother’s and daughters our there everywhere. First we have these out of print toile fabrics from the collection “Watch Over Me” designed by J Roche & C Kramer for Chanteclaire fabric pattern 322 color navy blue 1 color red 7. The toile scene features a vintage mother and child carefully walking along with a beautiful angel watching over them from above. I love this fabric because as we are watching over our loved ones there are others watching over all of us. We are never alone. This fabric comes in the hue of a red wine type color and a navy blue. Below you can see a pillow sham that I created out of the Navy Blue “Watch Over Me” and a table runner made out of the Red Wine “Watch Over Me”. I have seen beautiful quilts made from these fabrics. You would want to design the quilt so that it had large blocks to feature the scenes depicted in the toile fabric. It would be simple to create a very quick quilt from these fabrics as you would want to accent the fabric and allow the toile scene to be the feature. There are many shades of reds and wines along with navy blue fabrics to coordinate with these toiles.

At Stitches quilting, we have another unique set of coordinates designed by Nicole de Leon actually called Mother’s Day Bouquet manufactured by Alexander Henry. The main piece titled “Mother’s Day” features mothers with their children in various settings with bright colors and flowers for Mother’s Day. I have never seen a piece of quilting fabric like this. The coordinating fabric is a gorgeous bouet of brightly colored flowers. These fabrics could be used to create a beautiful quilt honoring the generations of motherhood. It would be easy to combine a contrasting black, white or other brightly colored fabrics to feature these coordinates. This fabric is a 100% cotton high quality quilting fabric by a the well renowned manufacturer of Alexander Henry. Another excellent gift to make from these fabrics would be a diaper bag, tote, zipper pouches, bibs, burp pads, diaper changing mat, quilt for mother or quilt for a brand new mother to celebrate. A.H. Prints 15146 D12 and 15147 D Made in Japan

Below are just a few ideas of items I have already made with these fabrics. The King Sized Pillow Sham is cross hatched quilted on the front of it with a scalloped edge. The table runner is diagonally quilted with four lines of extra quilting around the scalloped edges. Both of these items were machine quilted on my domestic machine. Included in the pictures is a photo of my mother, Deanna, that passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2005. If you would like to subscribe to the blog, I will send you the pattern for the King Sized Pillow Sham and Table Runner. I will also publish this week a video tutorial to learn how to machine quilt a cross hatched scalloped pillow sham on your domestic sewing machine. It is extremely simple and easy to do.

Items to create with these fabric collections are really up to you and your imagination and how you want to celebrate the mothers and those women around you!

Please comment about this post with additional ideas that you have to celebrate the women around you this special time of year. What are your traditions in your family to honor those lovely women that sacrifice so much on your behalf? I would love to hear your ideas of items that you have made in the past, received in the past or other acts of service or traditions that you do to celebrate those you love. Send me photos of items or ideas that you have made either with these featured fabrics or with other fabrics you already have collected and used and also indicate if you would like to give me permission to publish them on the website to share with others.

May the work of your hands, delight the soul!

With love,

Deanna from Stitches Quilting

Posted on March 26, 2015June 1, 2016 by Deanna

The World is Just so Distracting

Deanna Wall

There are just so many things to do in life with working, raising families, being a member of a family and our community that we need to focus on the right things in life. We live in a world where we are so distracted by the constant stimuli that we no longer focus on the truly important things in life. I have been blessed with many many obstacles in my life that I have learned to really concentrate on the right things in life and why. These obstacles have been challenges that I have embraced to my fullest to allow myself to be chiseled to be the soul that God intends me to be. Through this blog I will share with you things that have been set in my path that have made me to pause in life and truly focus on what is important. It is a time in the world to simplify and focus on what is truly important. I have found that through my challenges that I have developed gifts, skills and desires that I never imagined that I would learn in life. I never imagined that some of my most intense growth in life would come with the age that I am. But the refining has come and I have chosen to stay the good soul that I am and not allow difficulties to change my spirit but just allow my spirit to lift and grow in ways to help others. As I have faced the challenges that I have had through the years, there are many interests that I have acquired and would like to share with all of you. In the quiet moments, I have turned to quilting, sewing, crafting, re-purposing, cooking, photography, jewelry making and more to fill my soul with the emptiness that it might have felt with the beautiful people that I have enjoyed things with. I have always strived to have my home be a warm loving place of refuge and peace for my family to come home to. I have found by simplifying my life that I can live a more authentic life and have more cognitive space/awareness for improving myself as a person. Nothing makes me more pleased than to make or share something for my family members, loved ones, people in need or just simply for myself. I hope that I can share that love for the things I do with all of you in your homes to improve where you are in life. This blog is dedicated to sharing those ideas and lessons learned by stitching along through life. I say stitching because I am not always sewing but I am piecing the layers of life together to learn what I am intended to become and continue to evolve to be. We have so much to learn in life and hopefully here we can share some of the things learned to share with others. I have many posts ready to share that will be coming to you soon. There are Stitches Through Life Blog Categories in the upper left column and right side bottom footer of posts to wander through and be inspired and resourceful in life! The resourcefulness that we learn in life gives us confidence, builds self-sufficiency to have courage to do just about anything that we may have to face. May the work of your hands inspire the soul!

Threads of Topics that are Coming SOON!!!!!

Making Life’s Hard Things Feel EASIER!
How the Way We Think Changes the Things we DO!
Being Grateful, Thinking Positively and using to the Fullest the Things we Already Have
Finding a Center of Happiness and Core Just Right Exactly Where We Are Right NOW
Developing a Devotion to our Spouses to keep our Families Intact
Developing a Foundation of Faith that will Never Collapse Under the Weight that We Carry Throughout Life
Having Adult Issues be Adult Issues and allowing our children to grow up without having to Navigate Adult Issues
Raising Children Practically
Raising Children with Structure and an Abundance of Love
Raising Special Needs Children taking in the Complexities Involved
Raising Children in Blended/Single Homes while Living with Dignity after a Divorce
Being Practical! Creatively Making the Best of Our Homes
Being Practical! Re-purposing the World Around Us into Needed Items
Stitches “DeWall” homemade beauty and household products to make in your own home
Stitches Jewelry Creating to give me strength and share as a gift to others
Stitches Photography tips and my own images that document life and its adventures

AND I will always continue to post things about fabric, quilting, sewing, home products and more. That has always been a consistent thread of life and always around us to improve upon and enjoy.

I know I we can’t be completely self-sufficient in this life as we are interconnected and weaved into the society of our families, communities, and the world. Where ever we might be we can certainly carve out a piece of serenity no matter where we are.