still quilting and a few small projects

I hope all of you who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We had a lovely weekend full of family, delicious food, and time to relax together. I could use a few more weekends just like it!

I did not accomplish my goal of getting the binding on this quilt before Thanksgiving. In fact, I'm still working on the quilting today. Turns out it needed more quilting than I was originally planning. That, and I spent a lot more time in the kitchen than I thought I would. (Isn't that always the way?) I figured it's best to add the extra quilting now rather than trying to add more later. I'm almost 75% done quilting at this point, so it shouldn't be too much longer. I am getting excited to bind this one!

I took a little time this weekend to sew up a zip pouch with this lovely scrap of yellow floral fabric that I found, which was designed by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics. I thought it was so pretty that it needed to be a pouch. I'm not a huge fan of sewing zippered pouches, but I sure enjoy using them, so I go through the motions once in awhile anyway. :) This one isn't perfect, but it will work for toting around a knitting or crochet project quite nicely. It's loosely based on this pattern, but I used a single fabric for the exterior. I also used fusible fleece for the outer layer and quilted it before assembly. It is a good combo!

I've been working off and on (mostly off) on a few prototypes of mini thread catchers. The patchwork squares in the one above finish at 1". Why is tiny always so cute? It's quite addictive....and honestly, quite putzy….but it's mostly worth it! Ha!

Last, but not least, I used my friend Anna's new Forage fabric to make this normal sized thread catcher. (Pattern is available here.) This "thread catcher" is currently in my sewing room holding chocolate....which I highly recommend. The patchwork squares in this one finish at 2", which seem huge in comparison to the previous one...but it's good, because it holds more chocolate! (It also works well for catching threads, or giving small gifts like charm packs, mini charms or even fat quarters to your friends. :))

On another note, we tried out a few new recipes this weekend, which I would highly recommend:

Smitten Kitchen's green bean casserole is AMAZING! It was the first thing to disappear at our Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO GOOD that I'm going to make it again tonight. It's totally worth the time and effort!

Chocolate cake in a mug by Pioneer Woman was also amazing! My daughter actually made it for my husband and I to share after dinner last night. It took barely any time at all (especially compared to the green bean casserole mentioned above) which just goes to show, that it all evens out in the end. :)

Alright, that's it for me today! Happy Monday to you!

workshop totes

My friend Jeni hosted a workshop sew along a few weeks ago and I waited until the very last day (in my usual fashion!) to join in. The workshop tote pattern (available here) is straightforward and fun to sew, with a few different options. You can use one fabric, as I did here. You can also use patchwork squares or half-square triangles. (Directions are included in the pattern for all three.) I LOVED making this tote. I gave it to my sister for her birthday a few weeks ago. She plans to use it for her trips to the library with her boys. Hurray for useful gifts!

I have a few workshop totes that I love and use, too. This one was made by my friend Cindy. She used this fun focus fabric for the exterior. (I believe it's called sewing woes by Alexander Henry). It's so funny and perfect for this bag.

She didn't have enough of the focus fabric, so she used some solid colored charm squares to fill in the sides. Isn't that perfect? I love how it turned out and how making do can be a benefit at times.

Here is a half-square triangle version that my friend brianne made for me last summer. I love the black and white paired with the hot pink and orange lining. It's a great combination of her taste and mine. I have used this tote quite a bit and it's holding up quite nicely. It's such a fabulous size for many different uses.

One of my favorite features of this bag is the top stitching on the sides to give the totes structure. Genius! I also love how different each bag looks based on the fabric selection. The possibilities are endless!

retreat gifts, part 1

Every year at my Gruber's retreat we exchange "happies". This year I made 11 (!!!) zipper pouches to share with my friends. (Included in that total: I made one to keep, plus another one for my friend/neighbor, AND I made one that was an inch too short, due to a cutting error. Hahaha! Although it wasn't funny at the time....)

I also spray painted the handles of these bow scissors, which I purchased at Harbor Freight. (I included a pair in each zip pouch.) I can't take credit for the cute scissor idea...I saw it on Instagram. (I used masking tape to cover the blades, then I used a generous layer of spray primer and a few layers of spray paint on the handles only. Once the paint is completely dry, remove the masking tape. From my experience, glossy paint works better than a matte finish. The glossy paint didn't ding up, but the matte paint did.)

 

The measurements are very similar to my two colored zip pouch pattern (available here). In this version I used one fabric for the outsides (obviously), but I made it slightly oversized and I quilted it. After I quilting, I trimmed the panels down to the correct size. This is a great way to use up batting scraps!  I used a layer of SF101 in addition to the batting, for added structure. I purchased the metal zippers from Zipit on Etsy.

Although assembly line sewing isn't my favorite, it was fun to see all the pouches together and it was fun to share them with my friends!

What are some of your go to gifts to give at retreat? What are some of your favorite things that you've received? (I'm always in the market for new ideas.)

a geranium dress for my girl

I'm not a serious garment sewist by any means, but I like to dabble in that arena from time to time. I made this geranium dress for my girl on Saturday evening and she wore it to church on Sunday. (Pattern is available here.) I sewed the size 12 and added 2" to the length, which turned out to be the perfect fit. Hurray for the ability to customize your project! I love how it fits her slender frame. Someday her and I can wear our matching dresses if we care to. (You can see my gingham washi dress here.) I'd better jump at that chance before she gets much older, right?!? :)

I also wanted to take a moment today to say thank you to those of you who left kind comments about my finish it up Friday break. Thanks for understanding and for making it such a fun event for so long. I sure appreciate it!

Happy Monday to you!

annex double zip pouch

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Today's finish is a fun double zip boxy pouch. I bought the supplies at Stitch Supply Co. well over a year ago. I think I was a little intimidated by the double zipper, so I may have procrastinated a little bit. I'm so glad I finally took the time this week to sew it up.

I LOVE a quilted panel on the outside of my zip pouches. Even though it takes extra time, it's totally worth it! This pattern calls for Pellon Flex Foam, which is quite spongy, so it creates a lot of opportunity for the fabric to shift during quilting. Thankfully I had some 505 spray on hand, which I used to keep the fabric in place while quilting the outer panels. It worked like a charm! My Hera marker (by clover) is one of my favorite tools for marking and it came in very handy for this project, too. I marked the fabric BEFORE I placed in on the foam, so I got a nice crisp line/crease to follow.

It was fun to pick out two different fabrics for the lining...

 ....and two different colored zippers, too.

The pattern is called the Annex double-zip box pouch by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness. The zip pouch shown in this post is the largest size. I'm excited to fill it with portable projects and use it! I don't think you can EVER have too many cute zip pouches.

I was showing it to my husband last evening and he hinted that if I ever made a masculine looking one, he might be able to take it off my hands and find a use for it. Ha! I guess I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm thinking I might try it in vinyl, perhaps.

Alright, that's it for me today. Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining for me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

visible mending

I've seen a lot of people sharing their visible mending projects on Instagram and we even had a demo about it at quilt guild a few years back, but until recently I haven't given it a try. I mean, we patched our clothes growing up, but believe me, it wasn't pretty. Ha! A few weeks ago, I finally dipped my toes in the water of visible mending and I'm so glad that I did! It makes my frugal heart happy.

These are my younger son's jeans. He wore a hole in the pocket area from carrying his phone around. The pocket lining started peeking out from the hole and it was just awkward. I used a piece of denim from an old pair of jeans and thin polyester black thread for the stitching. I didn't want to use perle cotton because it would be too visible for his tastes. I went with poly thread because I figured it would be stronger and withstand more wear.

One of the knees had a hole in as well. Thankfully I patched it before it split the entire way, side to side. (I have another pair of his jeans in the mending queue where that happened.....)

I was surprised that the mending turned out as well as it did, honestly. It felt GREAT to give new life to my son's favorite jeans. He wears them a lot since I patched them and he thanked me multiple times for mending them. Isn't that the best?

A few weeks ago, my daughter discovered one of our puppies chewing on a quilt. It was NOT a happy day, let me tell you! The good thing is, of all the quilts that the pup could have chosen to chew on, this is about the best case scenario. (f there is such a thing....)

Last evening, I added a patch of contrasting solid fabric to each side of the quilt and did some big stitch quilting with perle cotton.

The stitching is pretty rustic, especially on the back, but I think that's ok! I'm glad I was able to fix it. Like a friend said, now that's part of this quilt's story. It definitely adds character!

 

Have you given visible mending a try? If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to do so...but hopefully you won't need to do it on any of your quilts! :)

type clutch

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I'm pretty excited about this week's finish! I've wanted to make a hard framed clutch for a LONG time, but they have always intimidated me. Last week when I was teaching in North Carolina, I saw Lee's clutches in person and I knew that it was time. I chose to use fabric (rather than patchwork) for my first attempt. I'm so glad I did! It was a quick and mostly easy project.

 I used some hoarded fabric for the exterior (isn't it so cute???)....

....and more hoarded fabric for the inside, which is from the same line, incidentally. (Fabrics are Type by Julia Rothman for Windham fabrics.)

The hardest part of this project was gluing the fabric into the frame. Truthfully, it really wasn't that hard, it was a just a personal hang up. Something about gluing fabric makes me a little (or a lot) nervous. The good thing is, the glue overage that I had was able to be removed easily after it dried. Phew! This particular frame has screws to secure the fabric into the frame to add stability to the clutch. I'm thankful for that feature, because I want this clutch to hold up for a long time!

When I showed this to my son last night, he exclaimed, "you made THAT?" Yep, I sure did! I love that the hard frame gives it such a professional finish. Fun, fun!

The pattern is called Clutched and it is available here. The frames can be purchase here or here. The frame size is 8 x 3. There is a smaller sized pattern called Cased, which can be found here. It uses the same size frame, it is just a shorter version of the Clutched pattern.

That's it for me today! Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend! xo

a little bit vintage

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I'm still plugging away quilting my huge log cabin quilt, so that's where I've spent the bulk of my sewing time this week. I did have time to finish up (and gift!) a few items this week, so that was fun!

This pouch was something that I made around the holidays, I think, but I finally sent it off to it's new home this week. (It was so nice to have it ready to go!) The fabrics for the pouch were acquired from the free table at a retreat last summer compliments of my friend Jeni. I turned them into this cute little pencil pouch (free tutorial here) and sent it back to Jeni as a birthday gift. I figured that she would like it, since she is the one who purchased the fabrics in the first place! Ha!

The exterior fabric was a vintage napkin, originally, and the lining fabric was part of a vintage apron. It was fun to repurpose both fabrics to make this pouch. I used my favorite interfacing (Pellon SF101) to add some stability to the lining.

Since I didn't have the right size zipper on hand, I added zip tabs to the ends. It worked out great! Also, I LOVE a quilted zip pouch. It takes longer to make because you have to quilt the panels, but the texture is totally worth it. Plus, it uses up scrap batting. Gotta love that! I'm happy to say that Jeni loved her pouch. Hurray!

I did a little more playing with churn dash blocks. (I still have more ideas to work out...so don't be surprised when you see the next few installments!) This block is 3 1/2" unfinished, so 3" finished. Pretty small, but I still want to go smaller! I think it's a sickness.

I knew that I was not going to have the patience to make a few hundred of these blocks, so I added a thin outside border (so the points wouldn't get lost around the curved edges) and turned it into a pincushion. I love it so much, it's going into the permanent collection. I used a feedsack fabric that came from my grandma's house on the back, so further excuse to keep it. This is scrap project #200.

The last project of the day is a tiny needle book. I purchased the blue vintage scraps at an antique store (many!) years ago. It was high time to use them! I love the vintage-looking button to finish it off. I made two of these needle books, nearly identical. I gave one to my friend Nancy, (who taught me how to quilt!) and I think I will keep the other one. They are so tiny and cute!

The interior fabric was from the stash and the pages are scrap batting. The elastic thread that I used for the loop closure was also repurposed....originally it held a pair of shoes together. I love that I can repurpose that elastic thread....it feels sooo thrifty and it works like a charm! :) This is scrap project #201!

 

It's kind of fun that all of my projects included some vintage component in the making. It feels good to use those precious little bits rather than hoarding them. Hurray!

 

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday!  

scrappy churn dash block--a tutorial

Hello! I thought that it would be fun to share a tutorial for making a scrappy churn dash block today. I originally planned to include this idea in my book, but I didn't like any of the versions I made while testing, so I switched gears and made the ring me quilt in it's place. I'm glad that things worked out that way, because I adore that quilt. I wasn't going to give up on the scrappy churn dash block completely, so today I revisited the idea. I'm pleased to report that I finally made a version of the block that I LOVE. Hurray!

For the background fabric, I'm using Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman in the color Ecru. (I have a whole bolt of this fabric, which is very exciting!) I love that it looks like Essex linen, but it's actually quilting cotton, which is easier to work with because it's less bulky.

From the background fabric, cut:
(1) 5" square for the center
(2) 3" squares for the corners
(4) 1 1/2" x 5" rectangles for the sides

From a contrast fabric, cut:
(2) 3" squares for the corners

From scraps, piece several together, end to end, to make:
(4) 1 1/2" x 5" scrappy strips

Cut each of the 3" squares in half on the diagonal once, to make a total of 8 triangles. Place one background fabric and one contrast fabric, right sides together. Sew to form a half-square triangle. Make 4 total.

Press the seams. (I like to press my seams open when making half-square triangles, but you can press the fabric in any direction you choose.)  Trim each half-square triangle to 2 1/2" square.

Place one strip of background fabric and one strip of scrappy patchwork, right sides together. Sew along one long side and press seam to the background fabric. Make 4 total.

Arrange the pieces as shown.

Sew the block units into rows. Press the seams in the top and the bottom rows toward the triangles. Press the seams in the middle row toward the center.

Sew the rows together to assemble the block. Press seams toward the center. The block should measure 9" square.

Here are my three original scrappy churn dash blocks that I made in the testing phases. Like I said, I wasn't thrilled with any of them, but they do make dandy hot pads. If you'd like to turn your scrappy churn dash block into a hot pad, you can use this tutorial as a guide. I like to turn orphan blocks into usable objects, because that means less clutter hanging around the sewing room.

 

If you give this block a try, I'd love to see it. Have fun sewing up your teeny tiny scraps!

 

Happy Monday to you!

small projects

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I made my first pincushion of the year! It's about time, no? I had 5 of the 6 sections pieced for months and then it got set aside. Yesterday I finally pieced the final section and finished it up. I got hung up on fabric placement, (and then distracted by 100 other things!) which is why it took me so long to finish it. Seems silly now, because I love how it turned out! It's scrap project #198. (Pattern can be found in Plenty of Pincushions, Volume 2.)

This week I finished my 10th block for my Mark Twain quilt. It's pretty exciting to see the pile growing! I have a low-key goal to make 5 blocks a month, so I'm about a week ahead of schedule. (I'm rarely ahead of schedule on ANYTHING, so I'll celebrate that miniscule victory. Ha!) I have been enjoying hand stitching so much!

I decided that this project needed a brand new WIP bag. (Pattern can be found here.) This version is extra large...it measures about 18" x 20"! I was happy to discover that it was very easy to upsize the pattern. (I have a post about sewing with vinyl and shortening zippers here, that you might find helpful.)

It's really hard to convey the size of the bag, so I took a photo of it on my 18" x 24" cutting mat for scale. It's HUGE! I look forward to filling it up with finished blocks!

If you have the Work In Progress Bag pattern and would like to make an 18" x 20" bag, here are the measurements you will need:
Use a 16" zipper.
Cut 1 piece of vinyl 2 1/2" x 18"
Cut 1 piece of vinyl 17" x 18".
Cut 1 piece of vinyl 18" x 20".
Cut 2 pieces of fabric 2" x 18" for the zipper casings
Cut 2 (or 3?) strips of fabric 2 1/4" x WOF for the binding
Zipper with tabs should measure 17 3/4".
Assemble the bag according to the pattern directions.

Alright! I think that's it for me today! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

scrap and stash projects

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I've been working on this boxy pouch off and on over the past week or more. I broke up the steps (patchwork, quilting, assembly) over several days, which seemed to work out well. It was time consuming, but I love how it turned out!

I used this tutorial by Pink Stitches and I made the larger size. I was happy to use that pink strap for the handle, which was previously made for a purse, but then I decided not to use it after all. I hung on to it for several years, knowing that I would use it eventually. I'm extremely surprised that I was able to find it when I needed it! Ha!

I used a cheery spring green gingham from my stash for the lining.

I love that I was able to use up so many random scraps in this project! I pieced the patchwork as I did in my Scrap Vortex quilt along. (You can find the tutorial links at the bottom of this page.)

Remember my 101 scrap project challenge? I was looking back at some old blog posts the other day and realized that I fizzled out on that sometime last January. Since I was so close to completing my challenge for the second time, I decided that I needed to resume it. (We will just say that I took a nice long hiatus....ok?) All that to say, this is scrap project #194!

This next zip pouch was a much faster project....

I made this one for my daughter's friend as a belated Christmas gift. My daughter picked out the fabrics and I did the sewing. It looks perfect for a tween girl, doesn't it? (It's good to have some purple in the stash after all, I guess! Who knew? Ha!)

For the lining I used a stripe that compliments the exterior. I used my two color zip pouch pattern (available here), with a few modifications. I used one fabric for the exterior instead of two and I quilted the exterior panels onto a thin cotton batting before assembling the pouch. It adds a little bit of extra structure and texture.

I'm happy to report that my daughter's friend LOVES the pouch and uses it every day at school. Woohoo!

One more project from the stash to share....

I made these cloth napkins for my neighbor's son who just moved into his first house. He was hinting last summer that his mom needed to learn how to make some so he could have a set or two for when he moved to his new place. Well, I remembered that hint and was happy to sew them up for him. He was thrilled. What a great guy! :) I cut 18" squares and hemmed them up. Quick, easy and practical!

 

That's it for me today! Now it's your turn to link up your finishes for the week. Thanks so much for joining me for finish it up Friday! I hope you have a GREAT weekend!