Category Archives: Sewing

2021-1st garden update – Onions, Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes

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Spring has brought some wonderful weather.
We’ve began our gardening season.
I’m still using my Blue Jean Water Tote
that I made back in 2014. It’s held up really well.


I got two slips off the sweet potato vine.
Hopefully they’ll produce a sweet potato or two.
Happy Gardening Season!

 

 

A Return to Redwork

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I haven’t worked on my redwork since 2014. We had a lot going on in our lives back then and I couldn’t give it the attention it requires. So, I folded it up and put it away. Fortunately, I had the good sense to put the redwork fabric, embroidery thread and supplies all together in a bag and there they stayed in the drawer for the past 4 years. Having the supplies altogether sure made it handy for me when I decided to return to it.

I went back through my blog posts and read about my redwork. I’ve changed a couple of my plans for it. I’m not going to dye the fabric and I’ve cut the blocks apart. I plan to add a small print red fabric border on the blocks. As it turns out, planning to use a border and cutting the blocks apart was a good move for me because now I only have a few blocks to go, whereas when I had the fabric in one large piece I needed like 16 more pictures to embroider.

This morning, in an effort to try to arrange the blocks in some sort of order, I laid a sheet on the floor and began to lay out the blocks. Shelibean decided that what the blocks needed was for him to test them for comfort. He found them to be quite comfortable and napped there for about 20 minutes. I didn’t mind, he was cute sleeping peacefully and I was busy going through my coloring pictures and trying to choose some for the last few blocks.I’m glad to have my redwork as an active work-in-progress once again. My Redwork is the perfect example of my starting a project and some times needing to leave it alone until the time is right for me to finish it. It doesn’t really bother me having unfinished projects, matters-a-fact there’s a strange sense of comfort in it for me. Although, from time-to-time I need to finish my unfinished projects before starting new ones. Now that I’ve got my redwork going again, I hope I can keep up my motivation and finish it before the Summer is over, that would make me so happy.

Have a happy weekend.

*Related Redwork Posts

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I finished my wallet

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0-clutchSurprize! I finished my wallet that I posted about 7-14-2016. It only took me a month to get back to working on it, that’s not too bad a length of time for me.

The wallet turned out okay. It’s not perfect, but it’ll be just fine for me.

I messed up by using the foam fusable lining on the main part and it made the oraganizer a bit too bulky.

Two things I didn’t care for about the pattern was:
1) Having to use the method of putting on binding where you have to hand sew the second side.
2) I didn’t like that the bottom part of the dividers wasn’t attached to the wallet base. They free float.
I remedied the free floating problem by running a line of hot glue in the bottom of each divider bottom and glued it to the wallet base. It was an easy fix.

I’m happy I bought and made the pattern. Organizer wallets come in handy.

Happy Creating!

McCall’s Fashion Accessories Pattern
M6768 Design G without the strapP1030975bc

Tracing Paper Troubles

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tracing1I had to take a break from making my wallet because the pattern has oodles of fold lines and guide dots that needs to be marked on the fabric. When I was doing redwork, I used a makeshift light-box to trace the designs on my fabric. That method won’t work with my printed fabric. I decided to use tracing paper to make sure I get the placement guides and fold lines in the right spots.

I have a pack of tracing paper that I bought about 1985. I used tracing paper a lot in them days. I sewed constantly back then making toys and clothes. I went to my old sewing box and got out my old tracing paper and my tracing wheels. I lined the tracing paper in the fabric and pattern. And began to trace a test spot… imagine my surprise when no line was on my fabric. I tried a dark color and again no marks.
Well, horse-feathers I reckon that after 3 decades my old tracing paper doesn’t work anymore. Imagine that? :/

Time to go shopping:
I went to 2 different department stores: they had fabric, patterns, pins, scissors, buttons and many other notions, but not nary a bit of tracing paper. ~bummer~

I know that sewing is a fairly big industry since so many folks are running home businesses selling homesewn bags, clothes, accessories, etc… A lot of patterns have fold lines and guides that needs to be marked or traced.  I think tracing paper is best for that task. I went online and nosed around to see what the sewers are using now-a-days. Well, I discovered that the favorite suggestions was to either use a long baste stitch along the pattern guides or take a sheet of paper and heavily scribble/color on it making it tracing paper; they did warn that it was awfully hard to remove the traced color lines from your fabric.
Um, nope… I don’t want to fight with removing color marks from my fabric. If the color lines won’t come off, the newly sewn project would be odd looking.
*I’ve always used a baste stitch for darts. However, I choose not to use basting stitches for marking oodles of fold lines and guides.

tracing2I shopped online and ordered some tracing paper. I had to wait for a few days for it to arrive.  Of course when I have to wait, I get sidetracked with other projects. Finally, the tracing paper arrived, but I haven’t used it yet.  At least it’s on hand whenever I need it. Hopefully, I’ll have an updated sewing post on my wallet soon.

Do you use tracing paper or something else for guides, fold lines or darts on patterns, when you sew?

Do you have problems finding supplies for your crafts and creations in your area or do you have to order them online like me?

Wishing you all much success in your creative projects.

*Just an added note here:
I haven’t finished my redwork project. I stopped working on it in early 2014. I put it away until I’m ready to work on it again. I hope to get back to it and finish it someday.

Sewing & Juicing

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P1030975bc
Except for doing repairs and making some adjustments, I haven’t sewn anything in a while. I’ve been in the mood to make a wallet or clutch or coupon keeper or whatever you’d like to call it. I chose this pattern ‘McCalls Fashion Accessories M6768’. I’m making the yellow wallet in the pattern photo; mine’s going to be greens & beiges. I’m going to attempt to go by the pattern as close as possible. It’s a real challenge for me to follow a pattern because I always want to make changes (and complicate things.) I hope this wallet works out okay. I’ll post an update and let you know if I made it or tossed it away.

P1030970Last evening, I had a brainstorm of an idea for my tomato juice. If I freeze it in water bottles, it’ll take up less space and can be thawed out for drinking and/or cooking just like the juice frozen in the bowls. My husband liked the idea too. So today after I made and cooled the tomato juice, I poured it in bottles and set it in the freezer. Hopefully it’ll do just fine.
*I’m going to edit this photo into my tomato juicing post as another idea for freezing containers.

That’s all for me at the moment.

I hope you all have an enjoyable rest of the week.

2015 WP Weekly Photo Challenge – ROY G. BIV

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2015
WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
~ROY G. BIV~

When our Grandson, was old enough to climb out of his playpen, we bought him a new twin size bed. We set it up, put on new sheets, but we didn’t have a comforter set for it yet.

I immediately wanted to make a quilt for the bed. My Mom was always quick to make new quilts for new beds or new folks. It took me a couple of days to search for a pattern and I didn’t like any of the ones I found. In the tradition of my Mom,  I sat down and designed my own special pattern for our Grandson’s quilt.

I decided to go with a lake theme in honor of all the fishermen in our families. The fish are all the colors of the rainbow except blue. I decided to use the blue for the background representing a water in lake.

I was amazed at how easily my pattern went together. It turned out quite well.

Here’s the picture of the quilt top before I quilted it.
rainbowlake1lgI think Every special quilt needs a story with it and here’s the one that I made up for our Grandson.
The pinwheels in each corner represent the propeller of a boat.
In the 1st boat is Grandson and his Dad (our son)
In the 2nd boat is Grandpa & Grandma (me & my husband)
In the 3rd boat is his Mom and other Grandparents (his Mom’s parents)
In the 4th boat he could pretend that anyone he wanted to be in it. Sometimes he chose his sometimes his cousins, sometimes his friends, sometimes the power rangers, sometimes his aunts and/or uncles. His favorite was when he pretended that his and our puppy dog and/or kitty cat was in it. lol

The story line took on many different aspects and adventures as our Grandson got older, but basically the story is:
The quilt story is ‘Rainbow Lake’. We all are in our boats on a fishing trip. We have a wonderful time and our Grandson always catches all the fish. 😉

I know it’s a simple story and some folks might find it quite silly, but it has always been such fun watching and listening to our Grandson pretending about our imaginary fishing trips.

Back to my mention of our planning to take our Grandson shopping for a comforter set for his new twin size bed, well, he loved the Rainbow Lake quilt so much that he didn’t want a store bought comforter. I was so surprised and tickled pink. It sure did my heart good to see him so happy about a quilt that I made for him.

Here’s the quilt set all finished.
rainbowlake2lg
I quilted the quilt on my sewing machine.
I used a low pile poly batting.

I made the dust ruffle a darker blue because the water in a real lake seems darker near the bottom. I made the pillow sham the same color as the dust ruffle to pull the set together, so-to-speak.

The set washes up beautifully.
It’s been washed regularly over the years and it’s colors has held up wonderfully.

It’s been about 12 years since I made the quilt and up until this past weekend, our Grandson still didn’t want a store bought comforter set… even though we’d put a full size bed in his room a few months ago and gave his twin to his little cousin. He still loved the quilt and the story that goes with it. I kept the quilt on the bed as a comforter even though it was way too short on the sides and looked quite goofy.

After much searching, I found a full size comforter that I thought our Grandson might like. It’s solid gray with geometrical lines and has matching striped sheets. I gave it to him this weekend and he was quite pleased with it.

Our Grandson still loves his Rainbow Lake quilt and it’ll always be here for him. I hope someday in the far far far future to give it his child. I do hope that they enjoy it as much and we have. There’s alot of special memories in that Rainbow Lake.

Wishing you all beautiful memories of rainbows and smiles.rainbow

The theme for this week challenge is ROY G. BIV. The first thing that came to my mind to share was about the Rainbow Lake quilt. I went back in my old files trying to find my original unedited photos, but I couldn’t find them, so I had to use old edited ones. I edited the photos to make them bigger and that explains the lower quality. For this challenge I hope the story helps makes up for the photo quality.

 ~*~*~*~

Wishing you all fun with the WP photo challenge!z00m

spgrnbgln

Attention Computer Techs & Crafters – I have a question

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I’m thinking about making a fabric handbag/tote large enough to carry my kindlefire 8.9. I’m playing with the idea of making a flap with a magnetic closure to keep one of the large pockets closed.
I hesitate to use the magnetic closures because I thought that magnets tend to cause electronic devices (like computers or phones) problems and could damage them.
However, my kindlefire cover/case that I bought through Amamzon has magnets in the edges to keep it shut. Also, If I’m not mistaken when I close the cover, the magnets in the edges turn the kindlefire off somehow or another.

I decided to post this question and see if any of you folks have any thoughts on if the magnetic closures would damage an electronic handheld device like a phone or tablet.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have bout this.

Happy Crafting!

t6001spgrnbgln

Farm Kids Quilt (2)

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Repost from –> August 31, 2011 (edited)
My Farm-Kids Quilt is finished
How I quilt a quilt on my regular sewing machine

August 31, 2011 –> I finished my farm-boy & sunbonnet sue quilt today. I’m pleased as peaches with it. Especially since it was the first queen size quilt I ever made. Originally I made the quilt top full-size to fit our bed. I decided to change it to a queen-size because someday we’re going to need a new bed and I figure we’ll buy a queen-size instead of getting another full-size. Because of the extra-added size, I ran into a few issues, but I managed to work them out okay.

I want to share the method I used to quilt it. I’m lousy at taking quilt photos because I can’t get a really good angle, but hopefully, you all can figure out the gist of what I did.

q11) Lay backing on the floor wrong-side up

q22) Lay batting on top of backing

q33) Lay quilt top right-side up on top of batting.

q44) Starting from the outer edge, Use safety-pins to join the top, batting & backing together.
Put safety-pins every so many inches all across the quilt.
q4aI roll the quilt up as I go because it makes it easier to handle.
q5

q65) After it’s pinned all the way across,
unroll quilt and spread it out flat.

q76) Starting at outer edge, roll each side to the middle

q87) Carefully slide the quilt under the pressure foot.

q98) Starting in the middle, Sew in the seam (ditch) or near the seam.
Be careful and remove the safety pins as you go and don’t sew over them.
Unroll the quilt as you go.
After you finish the first half, flip the unrolled half around and place the quilt back under the pressure foot and continue until you reach the outer edge.
*The main idea is to start at the center of the quilt and work your way to the outer edges.

q109) Here’s the finish quilted quilt
It’s 90″x93″ inches

q1110) Above photo is the middle after it’s quilted.

q1211) Here’s what the back of the finished quilt looks like

q1312) Here’s a close up of the back of the finished quilt.

All-in-all I think it turned out quite well.
It’s soft and snugly and will be warm this winter.

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Today, January 24, 2015

q00After I finished the quilt I didn’t like the squared corners, so I rounded them off.
Also, originally, when I made this quilt we didn’t have a queen size bed. I guessed at the dimensions.
We got a queen size bed this past fall and I was surprised delighted to see my quilt fit perfectly.

Wishing you all happy crafting.
t6001
spgrnbgln

Farm Kids Quilt (1)

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frmkds1

Repost from –> July 11, 2011 (edited)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Old Fashioned

The topic for July 11, 2011 week’s photo challenge hit right in sync with what I’ve been up to lately. I get nostalgic from time-to-time and try to find or make something from the past to reconnect with my memories. Gardening season is particularly nostalgic for me because my parents planted a big garden every year. My Mom loved it and spent as much time as possible tending it and harvesting the scrumptious veggies. I’m thankful I live where I can have a garden because gardening makes a special connection of so many treasured memories for me.

This year along with my thoughts of Mom’s joy of gardening came the memories of her joys of sewing and quilting. These thoughts put me into the quilt making mood. I wanted to make one like a sampler quilt of the ‘old fashioned’ designs that were Mom’s and my favorites.  Mom made many beautiful quilts. In the early years all her quilts were to keep our large family warm and snug at night. In later years after we young’uns were grown and in our own homes, she’d make quilts and donate most of them to charities, but a few she gave to family. I have a couple that she made me and I truly treasure them.

I’m having to make the patterns from scratch and it’s not been an easy thing to do. I look online for the closest design and then I take paper, pencil and ruler and make them like I remember Mom’s to have been. I’ve a great admiration for my Mom and the way she would whip through making a pattern by grabbing a piece of paper and scissors and just cut it out freehand with no measuring. After she finished a quilt top, she would either quilt it on her sewing machine or do the tacking method. Mom was a talented seamstress and could sew up most any design of quilt or clothing or anything else without a store bought pattern. She was truly an artist with fabric.

When I started making my quilt blocks I wanted a couple of them to be farm kids. My Mom had a farm-boy quilt top that she made when she was a teenager. She also had an incomplete unfinished farm-girl quilt top. I always loved the quilt tops and wish she had of finished them into full quilts. Every so often, she would take the farm-boy quilt top and lay it out on the bed and speak about it in such loving nostalgic tones. It was just wonderful. Mom hand sewed each applique into place. It must have taken her months of dedicated work to get them all together. I recall that some of the fabric pieces had their own story of where she got them. I wish I could recall everything she’d said about it. The farm-boy squares were pieced together with red fabric borders (that’s the color I remember it to be.) It was such a fun and cheerful quilt top.

I don’t know where Mom’s quilt tops are now and I didn’t have them to go by. I had to create the farm-boy from memory. I couldn’t find anything online that resembled him. There’s a Sunbonnet-Sam but he isn’t like Mom’s farm-boy. It took me a few days, but I finally managed to design what I think is a close rendition of him. The farm-girl was a bit easier, she’s known as Sunbonnet-Sue. She has many variations. I wish I had better memories of her but Mom didn’t get her quilt top out but just a couple of times. I’m lucky I even recall her at all. I think my farm-kids look okay. I cheated and used the sewing machine to applique them on. I’m too lazy and impatient to hand-sew them on.

Anyway, at this moment I have all my blocks made and will make a post on the quilt top when I get it all sewn together. I think Mom would be proud of my efforts. I remember how much she enjoyed when I made quilts for my son and grandson. I sure wish I had her talents for the ease of design and making the quilts. Mom was truly a wonderful homemaker: sewing, cooking, canning, gardening, yardening and so many other things.

Do you ever get in nostalgic moods and try to find or recreate a something from scattered bits of memory? How did it go? Are you like me and fairly satisfied with the results of your efforts?

Wishing you all good old fashioned down-home fun times of making memories and carrying on traditions.

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July 25, 2011

I’m happy to report that
I found time today to finish my quilt top.
I think it turned out pretty well.
quilt-2011
My husband looked at it and told me, “That’s pretty. I feel warmer already.” lol
I hope I get it quilted before winter so we both can feel it’s warmth. :p

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Today, January 23, 2015
Check back soon for the last post of the
quilting and finishing of my Farm Kids Quilt.

Wishing you all a happy weekend.
cloudhug
spgrnbgln