TTMT #591 - nmjewells - July 21, 2026 - Embiggened Heart & Geese (Crafty Show & Tell)

Hey look at that, I'm posting 2 weeks in a row! This week is a relatively short video about the quilt project I started last week for which I got some piecing done at Paper Piecing Club on Thursday. Probably not a ton of sewing/crafting happening this week as this Saturday is the Hip Stitch Birthday Bash. July 1st marked 18 years since Hip Stitch opened in its original location, and so we're celebrating with a big party this weekend with prize giveaways, a tattoo artist, craft fair, sewing machine maintenance demos, cake, and League of Women's Voters will be registering people to vote. It's going to be fun! And then, of course, I will need a nap, lol.

Stay Crafty Y'all

Love,

jewells

 

TTMT #590 - nmjewells - July 14, 2026 - Dragon Jeans (Crafty Show & Tell)

Hey I'm back! AND I'm wearing my newly reconstructed "Dragon Jeans". I really love how these jeans turned out and I can't wait to do more recon projects like this. I used part of a Fireglow charm pack from Moda. This collection has flown out of the shop where I work faster than a herd (flock?) of dragons, so we ordered another casepack from the reprint that's arriving in the store at the end of October. I truly love these jeans but I think my next reconstructed jeans will use scraps/orphan blocks again instead of stuff all from one collection. I love that scrappy look.

Stay crafty y'all

Love,

nmjewells

You can get my tee AND the Fireglow fabrics at Hip Stitch!

TTMT #589 - nmjewells - June 23, 2026 - BFF Retreat (Crafty Show & Tell)

 

This past week Jennifer O came to visit me here in Albuquerque and we had such a great time! She came to my Paper Piecing Club at Hip Stitch and we worked on a quilt for her impending grandbaby. We also sat in our hotel room and hand embrroidered on my Doctor Who quilt. I even had time to finish binding the quilt I designed and made for my nephew Joel.

There was, of course, plenty of thrifting, we even visited one I'd never visited before. It was fantastic to have this time together and we need to make it a priority at least once each year FOREVER.

Stay crafty!

Love,

nmjewells

Video where I talk about finishing Joel's quilt top in 2022 (that's not as far back as I thought, thank goodness!)

 

TTMT #588 – nmjewells – June 16, 2026 – Again with the Coffee Talk (Quilty Show & Tell)

 

This week I’m talking to you about my OLDEST UFO my project room. Remember when online swaps were a “thing”? Well, in 2012 I belonged to a swap group on Livejourmal called Birthday Blocks, and over the past week I pulled out the quilt top that I pieced many years ago with those swap blocks and I pieced a backing for that quilt! OMG y’all, I had no idea it had been SO VERY LONG since I pieced this quilt top. Wow. It’s officially my oldest UFO, and this past week I moved it along one step further. Now I need to get batting and quilt this thang.

Stay crafty, y’all.

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #587 - nmjewells - Trippin' - May 26, 2026 Crafty Show & Tell

 

I'm back from a 3 week hiatus to talk about what I'm been working on lately, (including an apron from upcycled overalls and a block sample for the quilt shop where I work) and my recent trip to St. Louis to visit family.

Stay crafty, y'all!

Love,

nmjewells

My video unveiling my finished Mini Book Nerd Wall hanging

Book Nerd pattern by Angela Pingel

Mini Book Nerd instructions by me (requires Angela's pattern)

TTMT #586 - nmjewells - April 28, 2026 - PP Club Wall Hanging (crafty show & tell)

 

Firstly, Happy Birthday to Jennifer O (@ofenjen)! Founder of this group, enabler of craftiness, and the bestest bestie a person could have. All my love to you Jennifer!

I'm back this week with a quilt top finish that I started last year: a 37"x37" wall hanging using my patterns from the 2025 Paper Piecing Club Pattern Series. While the original plan was for a bed-sized on-point quilt, I decided I wanted this to be a wall hanging, probably for my Project Room.

I also started the bench pillow cover for my daughter using the Furruit Platter panel I got a week or so ago. It's great to be sewing again.

Love,
nmjewells

TTMT #585 - nmjewells - April 21,2026 - Sewin' and Shoppin' (Crafty Show 'n Tell)

I recorded this yesterday but never got around to editing and uploading. I really need to get back to filming a day or two early. This week I talk about taking a class to made a simple pair of pj pants (100 Acts of Sewing, Pants No. 1), and, um, buying more fabric. But it's so cute! And it has cute cats! I couldn't help myself.

Fabric I talk about in this video: Classic Movie Monsters, Furruit Platter, Kokka Fabrics

Stay Crafty Y'all,

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #584 - nmjewells - April 7, 2026 - A Bit Patchy (crafty show & tell)

 

This week I'm back in the Project Room and I've got something finished! I patched jeans that have been in my mending pile since it got too cold to wear jeans with a giant hole, lol. I'm super excited with how they turned out and excited to finally start putting this new-to-me machine through it's paces and see what it can do. The fabric I used was from my bin of cat-themed quilt fabric (yes, I have a whole container of cat-themed fabric, lol). one of the things I really wanted to do this year was use that bin of cat fabric. I do plan to design a quilt for it, but this seemed like the perfect craft for a scrap from that bin. It was really easier than I even expected it to be.

As always, stay crafty my friends,

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #583 - nmjewells - March 31, 2026 - All Tell, Mostly No Show

 

Hey y'all, it's been a minute since I made a video. I'm back this week just to remind you I exist, and I'm going to be working on getting back to posting every week. The tee I cut up can be seen on the AANMSH swag page on the Hip Stitch website. You can see it's a seriously boxy tee. So glad I don't feel like it's strangling me anymore, lol.

Stay crafty y'all.

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #582 – nmjewells – March 10, 2026 – Cats in Space (Creative Show & Tell)

 

I’m coming to you this week with a tiny bit of progress in my studio (aka project room) and a fun video made for the shop where I work featuring a new fabric collection by Robert Kaufman that arrived last week. Written by me, co-directed by my friend Elizabeth and me, and a a “pawsome” editing and effects job by Elizabeth.

Galaxy Cats

Watch Galaxy Cats on Instagram (and don’t forget to follow @hipstitchabq on IG)

Stay Crafty Y’all

Love,

@nmjewells

TTMT #581 - Feb 25, 2026

 

I really didn’t want to skip two weeks in a row, so I dragged myself into the Project Room before my grocery store trip this morning. Just a short video to talk about progress in the Project Room Organizing/Decluttering process as well as looking ahead to to patching some jeans and looking for suggestions for that project.

Stay Crafty y’all, take care of yourselves and each other.

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #580 - nmjewells - February 10, 2026 - Pegboards n' Cubes (Crafty Show & Tell)

Not sure why youtube isn't cooperating with blogger right now, when they are both owned by the same company, but here's the link to this week's video:

I'm still working on rearranging/reorganizing my Project Room in my spare time. There's not that much of that at the moment, because when I get home from work I'm pretty beat, but it's a good kind of tired. So this week I just show you a bit of progress organizing my project room. When I find myself with at home with both time AND energy, that's what I'm working on these days.

Stay crafty, be kind, and take care of each other, y'all.

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #579 - nmjewells - February 3, 2026 - The Project Room's the Projec...

So this week I am giving you the lowdown on what's been happening in my space, which is a whole lot of sorting, purging, and rearranging of furniture. I scored a foldaway sewing table with an extension and drawers at my local Animal Humane Thrift store, and I had to make room for it. I have been using those "Fakea" cubes (bought years ago) that are the same interior dimension as the Kallax cube system. And so I bought a drawer insert for that, but I haven't been happy with it, and I really wanted drawers so that I wasn't having to keep so many things on my actual sewing table. Now I have a sewing table with a couple of really good sized drawers. I've given my 2-cube unit to my daughter, so that's one less piece of furniture (albeit the smallest piece of furniture) in my room. Every step I'm taking in this journey is getting me closer to a room in which I'm excited to create/make.

<3

@nmjewells

TTMT #578 - nmjewells - January 20, 2026 - Hazy Shade of Winter (Crafty ...

This week I talk about getting a new-to-me sewing machine, a Juki DX7. The throat is only a half inch shorter than my Juki 2000qi and it has a free arm. My plan for now is for this to be my everyday machine, and I'm going to put my older Juki straight stitch only machine away on my shelf, in case I have to put this one in the shop for any length of time. I can piece, quilt (small stuff like wall hangings, pot holders, etc), mend, alter, and construct garments on the DX7.

I also talk about making a new shop sample using a giant picturesque panel. The quilt I made with it was super easy and just used between 5/8-2/3 yard of the sashing/fabric (2.5 inch strips).

Stay Crafty Y'all and see you again soon!

Love,

jewells

TTMT #577 - nmjewells - Greetings from NM Quilt Show and Tell - January ...

It's a New Year and it's kicking off with some shop hop excitement. The inaugural All Arizona New Mexico Shop Hop starts February 1, and I just got my quilt back from Shop Hop Inc. The magazines are already in stores and the pattern for my quilt, Greetings from New Mexico (or Arizona) is one of the quilts featured in the magazine! This is the first time I've had anything like this published, so that's pretty fun. It features fabrics you'll only be able to get at the participating stores and a lot of fun and chances for prizes. I hope you enjoy my quilt and I look forward to hanging it up at the shop where I work.

Get the magazine (in stores now)

Preorder the quilt kits and fabrics (in-store February 1)

Happy New Year - Be Well and Stay Crafty my friends!

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #576 - nmjewells - December 23, 2025 - Stained Glass Stars (Crafty ...

This week I show you my 12th and final blocks in my 2025 Paper Piecing Club Pattern Series, I named it "Stained Glass Star". Now I can finish sashing the last few blocks and make some final decisions on my layout for this quilt featuring all 24 of my test blocks. I have had many ideas but have finally settled on something (I think, lol). Hopefully y'all will get to see that finished top soon.

Now is the time to rest and recharge and starting thinking about what I'm going to focus on in 2026. May your holiday(s) be ones of rest and time with friends/family and time to take care of YOU.

Love,

@nmjewells

TTMT #575 -nmjewells - December 16, 2025 - Quilting Again/I did a thing!...

This week I talk about quilting with my Moxie midarm and the upcoming inaugural All Arizona and New Mexico Shop Hop (spoiler - my pattern is in the magazine!)

Here's better pics of my quilt that I turned in to Project Linus this past weekend. It was the Side by Side Quiltalong that Project Linus hosted during the pandemic. I did NOT get all the blocks made because I got bored, lol. But I do love how fun and scrappy it is. The backing fabric is also from some retail therapy I did during the pandemic.

 

Stay Crafty y'all!

Love,

@nmjewells

Scrappy Patching - TTMT #574 - December 2, 2025 - nmjewells (Crafty Show...

This week I talk about repairing an old pair of thrifted jeans with a GIANT knee hole and another smaller hole using improv quilt blocks made during one of the first sessions of Scrappy Sewcial. I love how quick this project went, how easy it was to do, and well, just EVERYTHING about it. As you know I've been working on downsizing my stash and giving myself a creative space where I can work on things I want to do without having to dig for what I need. I'm not there yet, but I feel good about the progress I've made so far and will keep on plugging away at it. The more projects I complete, the more mental bandwidth I have to continue working at organizing my space and tackling another project on my list.

Stay crafty my friends!

Love,

nmjewells

Testing Trees - TTMT #573 - nmjewells - November 18, 2025 (Crafty Show &...

This week I talk about making more progress in clearing out my fabric stash, selling it to ReCreate at Hip Stitch for store credit (you can also just donate fabric, books, notions, etc), and also about my latest pattern for the 2025 Paper Piecing Club Pattern Series called "Tree Time". I had fun creating this beginner-friendly, 2-option pattern that is very scrap friendly. I did some image searching and managed to identify the background fabric that I bought in Japan that I love so much... it's a cotton poplin by Sevenberry fabrics of Japan. It's from a line called Petit Sophila, and the name of the print is Mini Blooms.

As usual, the thing about this pattern that was the most time-consuming was just choosing fabrics from my stash... the actual sewing went lickety-split!

Stay Crafty Y'all!

Love,

nmjewells

TTMT #572 - nmjewells - November 11, 2025 - One Bin Down (crafty show & ...

This week I talk about re-donating fabric and blocks, etc back to Project Linus to make some progress in this disaster of a project room. One bin less in the room means more space under my quilt frame. Every bit helps!

Stay Crafty, y'all

Love,

nmjewells