The need to sew..!!

I had surgery on Feb 24, 2014, and needed to take it easy.  Which was okay, but I began to feel I needed to feed the addition.  While I was resting, Lang decided to paint the living room and hallway.  And then we finally attached the new curtain rod to the wall like it should have been done.  Well, that necessitated getting new curtains.  The ones we saw were of a weave pattern, but needed to have a backing.  Since I had about 20 yards of white linen fabric...sure, piece of cake..  Well, I got one done before I needed to take a day or two off..then I finished the other one.  They came out looking nice, so that fed that fix.

  The outer brown weave is what I put the panels on.  The inner greenish pattern already had a backing on it.

  Before, you could see all the way through the brown curtains.  Lang painted the walls a mint green.

Yesterday, I woke up and just needed to sew something, so came into the craft room and saw a cute little project, so I did that.

This a Sunbonnet Sue Needle Holder.

A lot of times, in your sewing bag/kit/basket, you find that when you are hand sewing something, you often want to use the same needle over again, because it is a comfortable fit to your hand, or whatever.  Where to put the needle so it is handy for the next time.  You carry a bit of fabric with some felt attached to it to store the needle.  Felt absorbs any oils or moisture from your hands and keeps the needle from rusting.

For those unfamiliar with the Sunbonett Sue fanatics out there..haha..here is a sample of what Sunbonnet Sue looks like on a quilt.

So here is the needle holder I made:

  This is the top of the needle holder.  I stuffed her bonnet so that it could be a pin holder.  The dress lifts up to get to the pins and needles inside.

  The red material is felt.  I sewed it down on the black fabric before I attached to floral print.  Missed the mark on my placement of the felt..Better planning next time. haha

  The back of the piece. Once I sewed the head shut after stuffing it, I sewed a ribbon around her neck which hid the other sew lines and made her look prettier.

Now, I can stash this in my sewing bag..and always have a needle holder ready when I need it.

challenges

I saw a needlework piece at a needlework shop..so took a pic of it and then began trying to figure out how to make it work as  a quilt...

So, here are some pics..

So here is the block design I drew up.

The block would be 18 x 18.  This is 16 x 16.  The dark outer color would be the background.  The Star type block would be a Main Fabric, and the blank square would be a complimentary plain fabric.

This would be a full quilt with each of the Star blocks would be one of the blocks above.  It is out of proportion, but it was suggested to me to make the quilt be outside of the borders.

My challenge is the wings on either side.  It needs to look like you are looking at the kimono from the back, and that the front is opened.  So the wings should have the fabric at angles that show the 3D look.  

         

I tried a sample piece and don't see the outer wing as being angled enough.  It has taken a few days of thinking, but I think I know how to change the look.  So will wait til after Valentines Day to work on it.

Table Runner Experiment

I have wanting to learn how to free motion quilt for quite a while.  According to all the books and articles I have read, practice, practice, practice is the key to learning how to do the task.  Since I am in limbo between projects, I decided to put together a simple table runner and see what I can do.  And  so I made the table runner.

I will say that getting to play with the walking foot tool is fun.  Good thing, there is a small instruction sheet on how to hook up the free loop tool.. haha.

So I went for it and I was more impressed by the skill needed to accomplish something that looks good.  So there are going to be lots of pot holders in my future as I learn this skill..haha..

I also got to practice the other skills of making the binding perfect and gluing the edges down to reduce having to use pins on the binding, which are always the death of me.  I usually spend more time cussing because I have snagged my finger on another pin..

And naturally, Gracie had to bless the material first.

Anyway, here is the table runner.

This is the free motion quilting.  I see the long stitches, the short stitches, the side step direction ending in a point cause I didn't know where the heck the piece was headed.  I can also see I will have to move my machine from its small table to my big cutting table, so I have room to maneuver fabric.

The bright orange fabric is the backing and enough left over for the binding.  The binding is glued in place,  so just need to sew on the decorative stitch I like.

The finished piece.

Scarves Are Done

I didn't take enough pics, but saw the cutest pattern on line from Sew 4 Home. It was a basic neck scarf for a man. What I liked about it was that they have you make a small zippered bag and then see it on one end of the scarf. The bag is made from ribbed sport nylon .. I think that is the right verbage for it. Anyway it was clever. The length was 60 inches. For me, that's not long enough, but the person I made it for is small framed, so it should work. I changed my copy of the length of the pattern to 72 inches, because I think most people would find that length more suitable. 

Anyway, here is the one pic I took of it. Note the zippered pocket. You can wear the scarf with bag showing or reverse scarf and have bag next to your body. My friends has a large dog she walks daily, so bag could hold keys, bags for poop scoops, or whatever. 

Another blanket project

I was playing around with some templates I picked up when I was in South Dakota last July.  Want to make a crib quilt and have lots of flannel sitting in the stash drawer.  So thought I would make some test blocks to see how they look.  I really like the look, so will go ahead and make the blanket out of them.

Finished the lap quilt top

I finished up the lap quilt top.  Will send it out to be quilted after the new year.

It is 52 x 52 inches.

Backing and binding will be the same green as the background color.

Ok..came back all quilted, so finished the binding and got it sent off..Came out great.

New Project Starting

I have begun my next project.  It is called a Shimacho Quilt.  I am making a slightly smaller version than the pattern calls for.  I had a stash of Asian type fabric I have been saving for a special project.  This will work perfect for what I have in mind.  The person getting this will like it I think.

So..here are a few photos of the idea.

What the finished piece should look like… I like how the borders form a negative space

The sample shows all the fabrics from my stash.

The green cloth will be the borders (in white on the pattern) and will be the full background front and back and side borders when the whole thing is done.

The overall look..pattern, planned idea, cloth