My Sewing Space

When I made this quilt , I made it a little different than the pattern suggests.  Mine was four feet square and the pattern includes directions for one that is four feet by five feet. That was bigger than I wanted on the wall, but I still made the number of squares as directed in the pattern. That meant I had four leftover from where the bottom row would be, but there were four more also - just extras, I guess.  I took those eight leftover squares and made two small wall-hangings with them. Pardon the shadows in the picture, but I thought the blue sky in the background was too lovely not to capture. I'm not entirely sure that I like them on their own or if I just see them as a smaller variety of the larger one and like them because of that.  They'll go in the box of things for the art sale , I'll forget about them and then re-evaluate at a later date.  Maybe I'll try to sell them, maybe not but I knew for sure that if I didn't finish them now, I never would.

About 30 minutes after I finished the last closet clutch , S called to ask me to make more wine bags as she only had one left. I dropped these off on Friday: I wanted one of them to have the same sort of look as the notecard that I liked so much. Next up :  finishing two little quilts...not very exciting...but still must be done.

I've been referring to these various ways: hanger pouches, hanger pockets, hanger things, etc.  I dropped them off yesterday and M called today to say that she was calling them "Closet Clutches."  I thought that was a great name.  Naming something gives it (more) value. M had described these closet clutches to me as she had seen it somewhere else.  She thought they could be used for holding a sachet or jewelry or for hiding money or the family jewels.  (Ideally, none of my readers are into burglary, since I've just given away a big secret).  Honestly, this seems like a strange thing to me and like the angels , I wonder who will buy these?  But, as the wise Preacher said, I don't have to sell them - just make them.  M was really happy with them, so maybe she'll have no problem selling them. The construction is really pretty simple.  There is an outer piece with something decorative on the front, a lining/inside piece with a pocket attached.  The pocket is d

I said that I was going to be making some hanger pouch things next, and that's what I should be doing, but these notecards jumped rank and begged to be made. I'm quite excited about them!  I'm pretty sure I have seen this sort of thing on the internet before, but when searching for it, this is all I found and I know I had not seen it before.  Regardless, it's pretty simple - just sew on cardstock. With the exception of the cards with the 12 tiny squares, all of the fabric is adhered to the cardstock with fusible web.  For the 12 tiny square cards, I just used a glue stick.  This probably could work with the other shapes, too. However, I liked how the fusible web kept the edges from raveling and smearing the glue stick on the pieces did distort them a bit. The cards are 3.5" x 5" and came from Michael's.  I'm sure I'll be doing more of these.  It was a fun project. This one is my favorite: I used a zigzag stitch and off-white thread f

Compared to the angels project , these were exceedingly simple and quick. These are also to sell in M's shop and just like the angels, someone else was sewing these and wasn't interested in continuing.  There was no pattern, but it was really simple to make up.  I just traced around the water bottle and then added 0.75".  Of that, 0.5" was for the seam allowance and 0.25" was for "ease."  The fleece is a little stretchy and it turned out to be a great fit. The band across the front is a 2" wide overlap to allow the cover to come off the bottle.  The buttons are decorative only. Next up: a  hanger pouch (still sewing for M's store...)

In my last post I mentioned that I was working on making some dolls.  Actually, they are angels. However, that fact didn't really make them any more enjoyable for me to sew. These are for M's shop here in my town.  Someone else had been sewing these for her, but she was no longer interested in doing it.  So, she asked if I would.  I agreed and started with two. It is hard to tell what size they are from the picture, but from head to toe, they are about 18" long. I found the hair styling to be the hardest part of the project.  The hair on the angel above is embroidery floss.  I wrapped it around a knitting needle, got it soaking wet and then let it dry overnight.  When you pull it off of the needle, it stays very curly.  I tried this first because I really wanted to use materials that I already had.  But, I wasn't all that impressed and the angels made by the other woman had the special hair that you buy for making dolls.  So, I thought I should try that, too.

My daughter's school is having a fashion show and silent auction fundraiser later this month.  I was asked to make "something" for the auction.  This is what I came up with... ...an apron/potholder/tea towel/dish cloth set. For the apron, I used Butterick 4945 .  Usually, aprons are good beginner projects and I think they are pretty simple.  Not so with this apron.  I was looking forward to just cutting out a pattern with no alterations and then just sewing it up following the directions without too much thinking. For the most part, the no alterations thing worked.  The only thing I changed was the waist ties.  The ties in the pattern were a single layer and rather wide.  It seemed to me that they would be hard to get to look good when tied on a person.  So, I made them double layer and narrower. I should have thought through the directions instead of blindly following them.  The apron turned out okay, but it could have been simplified.  The lower band is faced.

Today was the first day this week that we didn't have rain or snow, so I headed outside to photograph the quilt . I'm quite happy with how it came out.  I hope I like it on the wall in our living room.  From a little more distance, you can see the different patterns in the squares/diamonds.  Almost like one of those Magic Eye things (that I have to admit I have never, ever  gotten to work for me.  Not even once). The part of quilting that I like best is the precise piecework.  I just love all those neatly matched seams. I quilted the entire thing with a random meandering/stippling pattern in a medium gray thread.  For this quilt, I like the contrast of the curvy lines with all the straight seams.  It also gives the quilt a cool overall texture.  The stitching is most easily seen from the back of the quilt. When it came time to finish the binding, I was torn about whether or not to do it by hand.  I think that doing it by hand looks much nicer, but this quilt is 48&

I guess I'm calling these Easter dresses, but my girls actually wore these last week and I initially intended them to just be spring dresses.  But, whatever....having a new Easter dress is nice, so we'll go with that for today. My daughters are five and two and they were both so thrilled about having matching dresses.  I was a little surprised, actually.  I bought this fabric at Fabricland during their closing sale when they were considering a meter to be about as long as a full arm span.  I think I asked for three meters and came home with at least five.  So, there was plenty to make a dress for each girl and I have lots of this leftover.  (Please, no one suggest that I make something matching for me.  I heard that no less than five times at church.  It's just not going to happen). The girls look very cute together, but I had a hard time getting a good picture of them together.  We headed outside this morning, but didn't find a good spot for a picture. Too dark.