Needle Keep!

  Here in the community craft room, there are many donations of various craft supplies.   So, one afternoon recently, from the donations, I got a few vintage buttons, some embroidery floss, felt, ribbon, and bits of lace and some batting.  All I had to get was the cotton fabric.   And with all that I knew I could sew up a couple of small needle keeps.       

I tried a simple hand stitched design that I appliqued to the front of the needle keep.   And the other, I tried a simple drawing of flowers.  I like it for my first try, but I think the hand stitched is still my favorite.

  

Letter Zip!

I am a member of Atkinson Designs Facebook group called the Groovy Girls Sewing Group.   Terry Atkinson designs patterns and sew alongs.   The Letter Zip is the April sew along.  It's cute.  It's made from recycled jeans.   

I'm in Florida and I didn't have any jeans to recycle.  So one of my quilting friends here rummaged through her husband's jean shorts and she found the perfect well worn pair of jeans.    Out of the shorts, I was able to get enough denim for two bags.  One for Linda and one for me!!      When I give her the bag tomorrow,  I'll say "Here's your hubby's shorts back!"    Isn't that fun... I know she'll get a kick out of it.   She'll be heading to Michigan shortly after we head back to New Brunswick. 

Thread Catchers

A few of my friends here in Florida got together with me to sew up some thread catchers.   Cute, eh!

I'm back!

Well, it's been a lovely winter in Florida.   Once or twice we had a few cold days but that just means it was a good day to sew.   We will be heading north soon, so the sewing machine and all the supplies are getting packed up this week. 

Here's a project that I finished this week.

This is a sweet Simple Sack by Atkinson Designs.  I couldn't resist.  I had to make two.     It's a quick sew and it's intended to hang on the self-serve checkout racks at the grocery store.  A loop in the back and two on the side accommodates any style of rack.    And while it's lightweight, it's more sturdy than your plastic grocery bag.   It folds into itself for neat storage.   Keep one or two in your car.

Lucille the Seal - Block 2 of my North Stars Quilt

I am making good progress on the North Stars Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.  I finished Lucille the Seal seal a week or so ago.  Isn't she sweet!

My next block will be the Willa the Walrus.   I have it all cut out and if it rains today, I'll start stitching the blocks together.   When I'm done Willa the Walrus, that will make three blocks finished.  I plan to make this a quilt-as-you-go project, so after the first three blocks are done, I'll be machine quilting the blocks.    If I can keep up the pace, I should have this quilt done by earlier than expected... say mid-November.  This will be a fun quilt to display at our Quilt Show in May 2018.   

It's Christmas in July - Presenting JOY Table Runner

Another Disa Designs book, More of My Runners.   Thanks to my friend Linda from whom I borrowed the book.  She made the runner before, and her recommendation was to thicken up the "JOY" word.   So I did.  I love that the red JOY really shows up nice.  My Friday coffee friends helped me decide on the quilting pattern.  Just wavy lines to mimic the evening blustery weather.  They were emphatic that I should not quilt over the JOY, and that I should just quilt around it.  So I did, and I'm very pleased.   In the grey stripe, some continuous holly leaves.    Love it!

 This is the third runner for my sister's new kitchen.  This will look great on my sister's side table this Christmas.

Even though I used white thread to free motion the holly leaves, they are very hard to see.  

Sunflower Table Runner

This fun sunflower runner comes from a Disa Designs book called My Runners.   It was so fun and quick to make.   This runner will be one of three runners that I made for my sister who has a new kitchen with a new farm table.   

A great late summer/fall runner.  

Look closely.....Continuous leaves in the border.  

Improv free motion quilting, my fav,  on

the interior part of the runner.  

Eek! There's Spiders in my Pumpkin Patch

A fun finish this week.  Amy Smart's tutorial for the pumpkins was spot on.   It was fast and easy to make.    This size of this runner is about  15 x 57.   That makes it just a little too long for my dining room table or my coffee table.   So, this one will go to my sister who has a new long farm table.    

I made another runner for me.  It only  has four pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.   I'll quilt it the same way with my freeky spiders.

The free pattern tutorial by Amy Smart can be found here. 

Happy Birthday - to me...

It was my birthday last week.  I had such a fun day... kids, gifts, dinner....

One of the other surprises on my birthday was that Diane, my friend and quilt shop owner, dropped by the house and gave me this awesome North Stars pattern by Elizabeth Hartman for my Birthday.  What a surprise!  I was so excited.  I had seen photos of this on new pattern Instagram from the Quilt Market. 

Well.  I decided I needed a strategy to get it done.  It's a big  piecing project.    First off I need to find and organize fabrics.    My first task is to shop my own stash.    I'm hoping to get at least a third of the 60+ colors.   

After a few sorting and organizing sessions with my stash, I have a good start on selecting fabrics.    After all is said and done, I have all the fabrics to start the reindeer. 

I plan to do one block (or maybe two) a month.     It's been hot out.  It's still hot out.  They are calling for at least 3 or 4 more days of this.   That means we are limiting our time outdoors.  And it means an opportunity to spend time in my sewing room.    I cut the fabrics out and labelled on Friday.  It took  a while and a lot of brain power.    On Saturday and Sunday, I put the 24 inch block together.  It's super sweet!!     Stay tuned for another block next month....

Many thanks Diane!.   It's a wonderful gift to keep me busy until next spring.....

Knitting the Honey Cowl

This weeks finish is called the Honey Cowl.  It is the top of the list of Ravelry cowl projects.  Almost 25,000 of Ravelry's population have made this cowl.  And now, I'm one of them and I now know why.  I loved the rhythmic knitting of this small project.  I think that it was the slip stitch that made it so rhythmic.  I wasn't rushing through it and I'm sad that it's done so quick.   Just easy knitting in the evenings while watching an hour of Netflix last week. I like the narrow, close to the neck fit of the cowl.   I can just feel how comfy it will be when walking on a brisk cold morning.   So, this too will go in my box to be used for a gift.  

There's nothing on my needles now.  I have many projects in my Ravelry Queue, but I'm having a difficult time to chose my next project. Maybe another slip stitch project.   Stay tuned.   

Luggage Tag Link Fixed

I hadn't realized that the link to the Luggage Tag was broken.   It's fixed now.  Thanks to those who commented last week.    See the sidebar, and if its not working again, leave me a comment.    thanks

And I now make my tags with a tag shape.  I explain how I use a template to trace and sew off the corners here.

Here are a few hints for you while they are still fresh in my head from last week. 

• I use very heavy gauge clear vinyl for the window part.    I made a few with a remnant of lighter vinyl, and they were flimsy and I had a harder time to control the vinyl fabric from waving as I sewed over it.   So choose heavy vinyl.
• I now don't worry about having the interfacing in the seam. I cut my interfacing  piece around 3.5" wide and let the interfacing go in the seam.  I find it's quicker to just maintain the 1/4" stitch from the edge of the tag fabric and not worry about stitching very close to the edge of the interfacing.  This also ensures that the interfacing is stitched down and stable and makes turning the tag inside out a breeze.
• Make sure you use a scant 1/4" on your tag tail.  I found that to turn my tube with the straw trick, it was hard to push the straw through if I was just a tad over 1/4".  So now I'm careful to do a scant seam.

 



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Step it Up Knit Shawl II

Knitting in the evenings is something I do when it's cool in our family room.   We watch TV or Netflix and I like to have some handwork on the go.

This week I finished off a nice warm shawl scarf.   I cannot not wear any more shawls myself... I have three that I love on the go, and now my new woven one.   So I think I'll put this one away for a winter gift.

This asymmetrical shawl is knit using the free "Step it up Knit Shawl" pattern on Ravelry.  I love the zig zag edge, and I put picot points on the top edge.