Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US!  There will be lots of cooking getting started soon, but before I get going, here’s an upcoming event that’s lots of fun.

It is Sew, Mama, Sew’s giveaway day.  I will be participating with a little giveaway and enjoying visiting all the other blogs.  Last year, I won a nice Moleskin sketchbook and cover from QuiltDad.

 

Sewing/Craft Room Update

When I bought my sewing machine in 1990, I bought a cabinet for it with an electronic lift.  I love being able to easily close the whole thing, but the cabinet was looking very dated.

Sewing Cabinet "Before"

I decided to makeover my sewing cabinet and it was very easy!  First, I removed the handles and painted the wood trim black.  Then, I cut cork contact paper to size to cover the white laminate.  Last, I put new handles on.

Sewing Cabinet "After"

There, that’s better!  It was such an improvement that I decided to tackle the vintage pink sewing machine that I bought for our daughter.

Sewing machine "before"

It looked even worse before I started cleaning it, but I only paid $5 for it and it works!

Sewing machine case "before"

No amount of cleaning was going to make this look better, so back to the cork contact paper.  I covered the center panel with the cork and covered the pink part of the case with self-adhesive book binding tape.  I think it came out pretty well!

Pink vintage sewing machine & case "after"

The last change that I made to my sewing room was to hang a photo of our English Setter mix Ginger.  To make it, I chose to try out Costco’s new one hour poster-size photo printing service.

A 20 x 30 inch print was $9.00.  I bought a piece of foamcore for $3 and sprayed some re-positionable adhesive on it and attached the print to it.  At that price, it’s affordable enough to change out photographs periodically.  I was impressed with the quality of the printing and so was Ginger!

A Little of This, A Little of That

1.  A scarf made using the Cherokee leaf printing technique and backed with chocolate velour. 

These are leaves that I printed over a year ago and the colors are still bright since this wasn’t something that needed to be washed. 

I did not put any batting inside the scarf and just stitched around the leaves and around the edges of the scarf.  The thread is a King Tut very lightly variegated thread. 

2.  Another Bagsket (tutorial by foofangle).

Sometimes you just luck into fabric.  I saw this Michael Miller horseshoe fabric and had to buy some with a specific person in mind.  One of my good friends is married to a master farrier whose name just happens to be . . . Michael Miller!  So, of course, I had to make her something with this fabric and the selvedge needed to be showing.

3.  Stitched up the vintage embroidery panels that were in amongst my Grandmother’s fabric.

Spa Wrap Christmas Presents

A couple of years ago I was given a spa wrap as a gift and I use it all the time.  They are easy and inexpensive to make and have an infinite number of ways they can be personalized.  Here are two that I made this morning:

This one was made using Summer at Grandma’s House flower tutorial.

This one is decorated with some ribbon from my stash.

These are so easy to make and here’s how:

1.  Start with a bath towel and turn under 1.5 inches along the long edge.  Stitch it to form a casing.

2.  Make a mark at 8″ or so in from each end along the casing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Cut a piece of 1″ elastic approximately 20″ long.  Insert it into the casing stitching the ends in place at the 8″ marks.

5.  Attach velcro to opposing sides by sewing it to the casing between the edge and the elastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.  Decorate the front.  Easy peasy!

Edited to add:  These stay up very well even without straps.  The velcro is long enough to allow a lot of adjustment so that it fits snugly.

Snip.Sew.Send for November

These are the Snip.Sew.Send blocks for Gretchen for November.  She sent beautiful fabric and requested squares within squares blocks in sizes of 2, 3.5, 6.5, and 9.5 inches.  It will be fun to see how she puts them together.

Tree of Life Quilt

I’m done!  This is what I am calling the “Tree of Life” Quilt and it is going to be given as a Christmas present.

This quilt was made using the Cherokee leaf printing technique that I showed here.  I set the colors in a salt water bath and you can see that they become much more muted, but now it should be safe for washing.  The tree trunk was raw edge appliqued on first and then the leaves were “printed” on.

I quilted around the printed leaves and added a few more stitched leaves in the border and around the tree.   Pebble quilting surrounds the base of the tree and the words “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” are stitched into the border.

Learning to be much more patient helped in quilting this and I’m relatively pleased with how it turned out even if it isn’t perfect, but at least it is showing a little progress.  Maybe I’m still leaving too much open space?

One present down . . . many more to go!

Happy Veteran’s Day and God bless our troops and America!  For a touching tribute, take a look at how dogs welcome their heroes home.

I’m submitting this as part of AmyLouWho’s Sew and Tell Fridays.  Go take a look to see what everyone else has finished.

A Great Tutorial

Kris from Summer at Grandma’s House made the most beautiful block a couple of weeks ago with these pieced flowers that were fantastic.

Summer at Grandma's House flower tutorial!

See what I’m talking about!  Isn’t this a beautiful block?

I tried to make one or two and they just didn’t turn out that looking as fantastic as hers did, so after a request from several people, she has posted a tutorial!  Her instructions and photos are very clear and now it is easier to see why mine didn’t turn out like hers. I’m finishing my Nov. blocks for Snip.Sew.Send and then I’m going to be making some flowers!

Thank you so much, Kris!

Colonel/Kernel Panic Quilt Finished

Colonel/Kernel Panic is finished! It is the top I made for the Waverunner Quilt-Along at BumbleBeans.

I love the piecing part of quilts, but not the quilting part and this quilt shows my lack of skill in that area.  It needed to be basted more securely and I really, really need to work on getting the stitch lengths a little more consistent.

The quilting is as free-form as the piecing was and although it could have been done much better, I think the look suits the style of the top.

For a “label”  I just free-motion stitched the name of the quilt, my name, and date onto a big section of the red/orange fabric.

Now onto the next project . . . a quilt that will be a Christmas gift.  Here’s a sneak peek:

I think I will call this the “Tree of Life” quilt and it involves Cherokee leaf printing the fabric.  You can see an idea of how that looks here.

Go see more finished quilts at Sew and Tell Fridays.

DIY World Traveler Netbook Cozy

We picked up a netbook for our daughter a few weeks ago and that meant I got to make a fun, new laptop cozy!  She’s been traveling a lot the past couple of years, so a world traveler theme seemed appropriate.

These are so fast and easy to make and are a great, inexpensive, personalized gift idea.  The basic cozy pattern was inspired by the one on Design*Sponge a year or two ago.  Beside personalizing it to suit the recipient, I recommend fusing a lining of cotton to the inside of the cozy to prevent static electricity or fuzz from getting into any of the ports.

Click here for a pdf on how to make one like this:  world traveler netbook cozy

This is a variation I made a year or so ago using some of my Saffron Craig fabric:

 

(Sorry if you are getting this as a duplicate in your RSS reader!)

I Won!

Look at this very cute messenger bag pattern that I won in a giveaway at Hermione J. Schwartz:

The instructions look very clear and it has the thing I love most in a bag – POCKETS for everything!  I can’t wait to make it!

Thank you SO much!