Category Archives: Sewing Projects

Crazy Smokey Days

I don’t know how much this makes the news across the country but Northern California is basically on fire. It is horrendous. We had a local fire about a mile from my house two weeks ago. It burned 350 acres and caused a lot of local damage. Before this we had a fire up at Yosemite. It burned 4,700 acres and is just about contained. Along with this fire is the Happy Camp fire (the name is sort of ironic.) Burning still, it has consumed 132,000 acres. It is in a wilderness area so it hasn’t burned many structures. Closer to my home, we are dealing with the King Fire. It is burning near the town of Placerville which is about an hour from my house. But as the crow flies, it is much closer. This fire is now burning just over 92,000 acres. There are over 7,000 firefighters working it and it is only 35% contained as I write this. The fire started over a week ago and has consumed 65 structures so far. It is a horrific fire. The worst part? It was started by an arsonist. The suspect has been arrested. Just unimaginable. Crazy, smokey, frustrating times.

Here is a picture of the smoke we are dealing with. This was taken this morning by my hub.

Luckily this afternoon a breeze came through and cleared the smoke for a while. I am sure it will settle back in by morning. They closed a number of schools on Monday. For today and tomorrow they decided to keep the kids indoors and cancel after school activities. It is completely unhealthy to be outside. The good news is that we have a 60% chance for rain on Thursday. We are so excited! Doing a rain dance for sure. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We need to get the fires contained and we desperately need some (a lot, a lot, a lot!) of rain.

Since I was inside all weekend with the exception of one trip to the grocery store, I spent a great deal of time at the sewing machine. It was a good opportunity to work off my stash because there was no going to the fabric store. Here are a few things I worked on.

I used more of the upcycled burlap that I love creating with. This pennant is hanging up above my (very fancy!!) design wall, inspiring me. On the design wall is a strip that I created with some holiday fabric scraps. I will add some lengthwise strips to the long edges to create a Christmas table runner but I need to find something at the LQS because none of my fabric worked. Love the banner though.

After making the “CREATE” banner I decided to make one for the holidays. First I made this one:

I put up a few odds and ends on the mantle to give it a holiday feel. I like the pennant with the exception of the E on the end. It needs to be a darker color so I will replace that flag.

This is the other one that I made.

I like this one but it needs some embellishment. I think I will add some buttons to the ends of the twine for weight and maybe that will dress it up a bit.

Finally, I made progress on a holiday lattice quilt that I am making. It will be set on point and needs sashing. I am thinking of using a fabric that is a deep cream color, tone on tone, for the sashing. Again, I didn’t have anything for this. I need to get the sashing as well as a fabric to use for the corner and setting triangles. But this is coming along nicely and will sew together quickly.

Not bad for a few days stuck inside! Hoping for clear skies tomorrow and a trip to the fabric store. Simple pleasures, right?

Linking to Stitch by Stitch, Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let’s Bee Social as well as Needle and Thread Thursday. Links to these wonderful sites are found at the top of my page under Link Ups.

Such a fun weekend and a giveaway!

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First of all, you might remember that a couple of weeks ago I went to see my son in the Central Valley. He is all set up in a nice apartment and I left feeling like I wanted to make something for him. He recently bought some furniture and I thought a new pillow for the couch would be a good project. I used scraps that I had and a pillow form that was sitting there waiting to be used. After piecing the strips, I did some quick straight line quilting that is maybe 1/2″ apart. I didn’t mark anything, just eyeballed it. The back is an envelope style backing. It came together so quickly and I bet I have enough fabric left to make another for him.

Last post I mentioned that I was leaving for our annual sisters’ weekend. As always we had such a great time. We don’t see each other often enough, especially considering I don’t live all that far away from three of my sisters. Life just gets in the way. Anyway, the weekend was mostly comprised of visiting, eating, visiting and then eating again. (Really, what more do we need??) One of my sisters lives in Colorado and brought each of us a pair of crazy socks.

On Saturday afternoon we took a trip to a quilt shop in Sunnyvale, CA. It was called Eddie’s Quilting Bee. This was really indulgent of my sisters since I was the only one that really wanted to check the place out. (They’re so good to me!) Eddie’s shop was fairly well stocked. I wasn’t crazy about the way it was organized, or laid out, but I found a few treasures nevertheless.

The really bright piece with the butterfly showing in the center is from a line of Alexander Henry fabrics called ‘Querida’. It has a Latin flair and the colors are amazing. I don’t have a true plan for it but wanted to have it anyway. The piece with the text will be used as the backing for a table runner. Love the wine themed words. Finally there was a little fat eighth in a basket for a buck and I love the colors. Just another addition to the stash.

I have a really challenging game for you. 😉 This is where the giveaway comes in!

My sisters and I took a selfie (and being that all of us are way too old to be taking selfies, the quality is less than perfect) in front of Eddie’s Quilting Bee. Can you figure out which one is me?

Here is a version of the picture with numbers. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment with the number that corresponds to the picture that you think is me. If you want to have another entry, you can follow me on Bloglovin and leave a comment that you did so (or if you already do, just let me know that).

The giveaway stays open until Saturday, August 16th. At that point,I will use some sort of really scientific method to pick the winner. 🙂 I have three really pretty fat quarters for the winner. They are watercolor inspired, muted florals from Kathy Davis’ line called Enchantment that was designed for Free Spirit. Take a look.

Remember to make sure I have a way to contact you if you are selected! Leave an email address in the comment if you are a no-reply blogger. Giveaway is closed (I’m number 4). Lucky winner is Judy V.!!

Linking up with Anything Goes Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let’s Bee Social. Also with Needle and Foot Thursday, TGIFF, and Finish it up Friday. All of these wonderful link-ups are listed in the tab at the top of the blog.

A Sweet Baby Boy!

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I was honored to attend a baby shower a few months ago. The mama is a sweet woman that I have known since she was two years old. Her mom (Susan) and I are dear friends and way back when, we were stay at home moms with our littles. Each of our children were born within months of each other. Sarah (the new mama) was born three months after my oldest, Andrew. The kids played together all the time and Susan and I would watch each other’s brood as needed. When Sarah and Andrew were seven years old, we moved across country and their friendship didn’t get to continue. Luckily, as time went on, Susan and I ended up living back in the same area. Life is busy so even though we only live an hour’s drive from each other we don’t get to see each other very often. When I received the invite to Sarah’s baby shower I was so excited.

Susan told me that Sarah was expecting a boy so I started to think about what sort of gift I wanted to bring. A short while before all of this, my sister made some adorable baby items to donate to a fundraiser for the Food Ministry that I volunteer for (I posted about the donation quilts that I have made for them here.) The items included some bibs, burpcloths, and little onesies with a necktie appliqued to the front. The onesie was outstanding. I loved it. Before I gave them to the fundraising committee, I made a copy of the onesie on my copier so I would have the template for the necktie. It was clear that this would be an adorable gift.

I used an argyle print flannel for the necktie and also for some coordinating burpcloths. So simple yet so dang cute. I prewashed the onesies and the flannel because both are sure to shrink. After coming out of the dryer, I pressed the onesie nice and flat. I cut out the necktie and then placed a (used and lightly ironed) dryer sheet on top of the right side of the necktie. I sewed around the perimeter with a scant 1/4″ seam. Leaving a few inches open on the side, I was able to turn it rightside out. After pressing this, I had a clean edge to applique. This is a great technique that was posted here by Christina at A Few Small Scraps. (If you haven’t read her blog, I highly recommend it. She had so many good, practical tips; especially with regard to free motion quilting). Back to the project….. after pinning it tight, I appliqued the perimeter. I also quilted a few lines across the little tie, following the lines of the print. Just wanted it to hold tight to the fabric when laundered. For the burpcloths I used Gerber prefolded diapers. I prewashed and dried those as well. I took a strip that measured 1/4″ larger than the center strip of the diaper and pressed under the edges. This was then pinned tightly to the diaper and I stitched the perimeter. Once again, I quilted the center of the flannel with straight lines, following the pattern on the fabric.

The gift was a hit at the shower. See?

A few weeks after the shower her sweet boy was born. Recently Sarah tagged me in a picture on Instagram. Her sweet boy was wearing the little onesie. So adorable.

Don’t you think he looks sophisticated for such a little guy.

These projects were so simple and fun to make. I had some supplies leftover so I made another set.

They are posted on Etsy here.

Congrats Sarah!!!

Linking to Sew Darn Crafty at SewManyWays.blogspot.com and Anything Goes Monday with Marelize. Another great link up at Fort Worth Fabric Studios too!

Upcycling, recycling, using stuff more than once.

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Let it be known that I am a recycler. I am not ok with the amount of plastic that is thrown away on a daily basis. Someday my (future) great-grandchildren are going to have one huge mess on their hands. In an attempt to minimize our household’s contribution to this mess, I recycle everything, re-using as much as possible. I am one of those who uses a zip lock bag until it no longer zips. (In case you haven’t tried this, the bags can be rinsed, dried and used over and over.) My daughter and husband both take their lunches to work or school, as the case may be, in reusable, plastic zipper pouches. I buy them online at Blue Avocado. I bought four bags over two years ago and three of them are still in great shape. I can’t even count how many zip lock sandwich bags that saved us from using. (I know there are lots of people who make their own bags and I may give that a try as well).

Along with recycling, I have been trying to reuse, or upcycle, (a trendier term) items. This week I found a great use for the huge coffee bean sacks that I purchased a while back at our local coffee roaster. I knew they would come in handy and I was so excited to create something from them!

I was hanging my laundry on the clothesline (which I do quite often). It is so hot here in the summer and I don’t like to run the clothes dryer if I can avoid it. It just heats up the house and makes our A/C unit run overtime. My clothesline is above our back deck and the clothespins are usually in this old basket. See? Not exactly gorgeous, right?

For the past couple of years I have set this old basket on the deck railing and hung the clothes. Numerous times the basket has dumped and the clothespins scatter over the deck or, worse, they fall over the edge down to the ground below. You’d think I would have fixed this critical life problem a long while ago. But I just kept picking up the pins and muttering sounds of irritation under my breath. This week I decided to make something for the clothespins.

I made a simple, lined bag with boxed corners and added a long tab off of the back. Next I created a small sack and filled it with dry, white rice. Sewed up that pouch and inserted it into the bottom of the long tab. The tab hangs over the railing and acts as a counter weight for the bag holding the clothespins. It looks so much nicer than that basket. I was filled with wonder as I hung the clothes with my clothespins staying where they are supposed to! Simple pleasures, right??

Here is the back to show the tab with the counter weight. Not a great shot, but then I was leaning over the railing and hoping not to drop my phone…… 🙂

After I made one for myself, I decided to make a few more. I modified them such that the tab is much shorter and doesn’t have the counter weight. I added some buttonholes and a button to the back. This way the tab can be looped over the clothesline and will just slide along as the clothes are hung. Again, pure joy. 🙂 Look how cute this is:

I love the burlap from those coffee sacks.

I put two different buttonholes in along the tab so the length can be adjusted as needed.

The burlap looks great and wasn’t that difficult to sew with. I did reinforce the raw edge of each piece of burlap with a zig zag stitch to minimize any fray. I fused some heavy weight interfacing to the lining fabric. Various fabrics from my stash make up the linings and ribbon accents were added. I opened an Etsy shop and these are my first items up for sale! Check them out here.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Richard and Tanya Quilt, also at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Scrappy Pleasures

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About 18 months ago I finally finished a quilt for my daughter’s bed. It was one of my first really challenging projects. I am happy with the way the quilt finished up, though it was harder than I expected. I used a pattern from Natalia Bonner’s wonderful book, Beginner’s Guide to Free Motion Quilting. This book has excellent information for those that, like myself, are trying to learn to FMQ. I am not sure the pattern that I used was really one for a new beginner. The piecing was a challenge. Long story short, I bit off way more than I had thought but now that it is done, I am happy I did it. Here is a picture of the quilt:

The pebbling took roughly 1.5 billion hours. Or at least, it felt that way The spirals were really hard because I quilted this on a fairly old Janome that isn’t equipped for FMQ. I couldn’t drop the feed dogs and I was fighting the machine the whole time. If you look closely at the quilting on this, it is painfully apparent that I was just learning. Again, glad I did this one and even happier that it is done!! (And happier yet that ,since then, I bought a newer Janome that quilts with ease!)

Once I finished this quilt I had amassed a huge pile of scraps. Cutting the lavender circles left a lot of waste. Here we are 18 months later and I finally used some of the leftover scraps.

I decided to make a throw pillow for Julia’s bed. l created a checkerboard with some blue and lavender squares and then added some borders. I love the floral print. It is an older Kaffe Fassett print that I used for the backing of this quilt. To quilt it, I made a quick sandwich with a piece of leftover batting and some lightweight muslin. I quilted a cross hatch pattern and then added the back.

I made the pillow cover “envelope style” so it all came together quickly.

Pretty cute.

I also made a little mat for Julia’s desk. My husband made her a desk for her 12th birthday. It has a walnut top and Julia had been putting a couple of pieces of felt underneath her desk lamp and some other items so the top wouldn’t get scratched. I made a rectangular mat (11 x 18″) for her to use instead.

This was a fun little project. I took an assortment of scraps and just played around with them until I found an arrangement that I liked. It was my first attempt at improv piecing. Just slicing and dicing and moving things around instead of drawing a sketch and measuring each piece. I am not one for doing things without a pattern or direction. I (usually) cook from recipes rather than just making things up as I go. As a kid, I colored within the lines. Get it? So playing with the fabric and just moving the pieces around was a fun exercise. As far as improv piecing goes, this is pretty tame. None of the pieces are wonky – it all lines up. Baby steps, right?? I used straight line quilting and machine binding.

Two scrappy projects completed and they brighten Julia’s room. (Honestly though, these two projects made hardly a dent in that scrap pile!) She is at camp this week and these will be fun surprises for her to come home to.

Linking up with: Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River; Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story; Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Quilts; WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

A quick project

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Recently I traveled to Chicago with my daughter, Julia, and my mom. We went to see my middle son, Kyle. Julia and I had not been to Chicago before but my mom had lived there as a young girl. We had the best time. Chicago is a gorgeous city. The architecture is fascinating. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather. Sunny days with clear blue skies.

Julia was on a mission to see some of the parts of Chicago that were used in the recent movie, “Divergent”. We saw the ferris wheel at Navy Pier (which was used when Tris was climbing it to find the other team’s flag during the game of Capture the Flag played during Dauntless Initiation).

We were only there for four short days. We packed as much of Chicago into those days as we possibly could. What a fantastic trip.

When I was getting ready to go on this vacation I decided I needed a different bag for my camera. The bag that I have is bulky and I didn’t want to take up that much space in my backpack. The day before we left I made a quick drawstring bag to use instead. I used a tutorial by the talented Jeni Baker. Jeni’s tutorial is so clear and easily understood. I chose to add a fusible interfacing to the body of the bag and also quilted some batting to the body as well. I wanted it to be a bit sturdier so the camera would be safely cushioned in the bag. I used some fat quarters that I have had from a Henry Glass collection designed by Jill Finley, “Beyond the Gate”. The bag came together in short order and was perfect for the trip.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart, Free Motion by the River, Freshly Pieced’s WIP Wednesday, Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation. Linking to Amanda Jean at CrazyMomQuilts!!