Tackling a new skill

When I began quilting a few years ago I just dove right in. No class, little knowledge other than what I gained from years of garment sewing. I asked a few quilting friends some question, but overall I've been self taught and learned by trial and error. I consider myself a liberated quilter. I try and use what I have and I'm not about precision. You'll never find me paper piecing a
"Grandma's flower garden". When I make things for us to use I'm much more relaxed, but when I make items to gift or swap my perfection monster rears it's ugly head. Currently I'm working on a baby quilt for a coworker. I've already quilted, unpicked (oy!) and requilted it once. Now I'm working on the binding. I read somewhere that if you make a baby quilt you should attach the binding by machine so that it holds up to all the washings. Well, I've got a lot to learn. I used the tutorials from here and here and this one with tons of great pictures. I'm sure this should be easier than I'm making it. Anyway, I've been struggling with this so I thought I'd ask you, what do you think...is it good enough to gift?

Yoga mat for a yogi

So, my little fellow E. likes to practice yoga with me. He takes it very seriously and he's really good at it. Whenever I'd roll out my mat, he'd run and get a large bath towel. Well, I had an epiphany, I could make him a yoga mat. I had tons of cotton yarn I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with (got suckered in by a good sale!) but it was perfect for a sturdy mat. The pattern is my own and by all means nothing fancy. I just used 2 skeins double stranded and cast on, I think 70 stitches and then knitted it until I got it to length I thought was big enough, wove in the ends and finito. Easy Peasy. E. loves it and can't wait to get to practicing his poses. Oh and his brother M. thought of another use for it, "a flying carpet". Gotta love a child's imagination.

Very first giveaway!

I'm so excited! I thought and thought...what do I like to make? What can I give away? Then it came to me. I love to make bags. So for my first give away I will give away a bag. Nothing fancy, just something useful with fun fabric. Something you could use to run to the library or the farmer's market. You know an all around bag. So, that's what I'm going to call it. The fat dollar all around bag, fat dollar because it's basically made from 4 fat quarters...get it? It's quite generously sized as you can tell from my modeled photo (thanks O.) and when I say you could go to the market with, I mean you can go to the market with it. There's no pattern to it. I just cut up some fat quarters, made a square bottom bag, lined it, put some pockets on the inside and did some cute knotted handles to give it a bit of zing. Can't remember where the fabric came from, although I think the dots came from the Patsy Aiken's outlet. Post a comment to enter or go crazy and subscribe to my blog. I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday. Good luck.

Work on it Wednesday

All quilt, all the time. I'm going to do some hardcore sewing today. I'm almost, okay actually more like half way done with the quilt I'm working on. But, I will finish it well ahead of the deadline, woo hoo. I might be able to get into this quilting thing since it's turning out much better than I could have imagined. I also seriously need to decide if I'm going to do end of the year teachers gifts. I think it's a weird peer pressure thing around here, but I also know that teachers are underpaid and under appreciated. I really like M.'s teacher so I'll probably do a couple of market bags or something for her. I should be able to whip those up pretty fast, no pattern needed.
Interesting sidebar in my quilting adventures to share. You may know that I love vintage machines and have a few. Well, I've been piecing the quilt top on my lovely Viking, Brownie (I know so original, right). Well, last evening when I was working on attaching one of the borders and I noticed the upper thread tension was just awful. Now you must understand that my Brownie is absolute sewing perfection and I had a real full blown panic attack when I thought something was wrong with it. I rethreaded it (always a simple place to start your troubleshooting). Made sure the bobbin was in correctly, changed the needle. I even broke out my manual. I had to crank the tension way up just to get the stitch a bit tight, but it still looked awful and so different from Brownies normal stitch. What could be wrong? Finally I thought, hmmm...let me change the thread. I had been using a small spool of cream color Coats and Clark XP. I don't have a problem with C&C thread, although I prefer mettler or gutterman, but you know those sales will get you every time. However, something I hadn't noticed was that the thread was considered "heavy". I must have purchased it to sew purses and grabbed it without thinking. Brownie did not like it at all. She's a girl who knows what she likes and C&C ain't it. I switched it out for some gutterman and holding my breath I made a test sample and it was gorgeous as always. I'm not ashamed to admit that I almost started crying when I thought something was wrong with my Brownie. I know it silly, but there it is. Luckily it was an easy fix and I'm back with my foot to the pedal sewing away.

Holiday Gift Planning

It's know it's only April, but my abundance of yarn and fabric, along with the sage words of my dear friend Linda have inspired me to do handmade gifts for the majority of gifts I will be giving this year. I have been carefully considering all the people in my life and what would be the perfect gift for them. I've scoured magazine, my patterns (both knitting and sewing), looked through my abundant stash and I think I'm ready to begin. I have some birthday presents that I need to get done and then it's full steam ahead for Christmas sewing/knitting. It's kind of exciting and a real challenge to myself to endeavor to gift handmade. I'm not the fastest knitter in the world and while I can sew quite well, finding the time and motivation to do so isn't always a reality. I hope others will join in and try to gift more handmade items, even if you didn't make them yourself. I think it's wonderful to support the artisans in our communities.
What will I be making you ask? Well, I can't tell you now can I, or it wouldn't be surprise.

A simple holiday

I haven't been online much this week as you can tell. In fact I've been hard at work crafting. I've been talking about how I want a scaled back, low key holiday. The funny thing is as part of a very consumer driven society sometimes it's hard for me to stay focused on that. So I thought I'd develop some rules to live by
1. A want
2. A need
3. Play
4. Read
So far, so good, right? Sounds like it should be simple. Yet, it's not. Coming up with thoughtful, not "crap" stuff is pretty hard...especially when you have four very different children to get gifts for. So, let's start w/O. I haven't figured out the want yet, although I might do a Barbie since she absolutely loves Barbie. I think the quilt is the need...well, sort of. For the play, the dollhouse and the read...a book of fairytales. Then there's S. as a tween he's got very specific ideas about what he deems a good gift, lol. But, I think I have him pretty well figured out. It's just not terribly frugal though. There's E & M. I'm not above regifting. So the other day I found a huge and I mean huge...probably at least a $100 worth of leggo for $5 at a thrift store. I'm going to get a nice big rubbermaid container and put them in and use my labelmaker to make a clever title for them such as "M & E's imagination kit". I've picked up a bunch of Thomas the tank stuff and sock yarn from A.C. Moore on sale. I did get a game for E. yesterday. I think he'll love it. I'll probably do the crayon roll & portfolio set if I get time, but that will be something extra.
I'm starting to feel like coming up with clever ideas is harder than just going shopping. But...I forge on. I'm almost done with one of E.'s socks. I hope I can finish before Christmas. I see on Ravelry where people finish socks in a few days...uh yeah.
Well, I just thought I'd check in, now it's back to my list.

Holiday Gift Giving Goals

Of course with the holidays approaching, I've been thinking a lot about what to give. I committed our family to doing a less commercial, more thoughtfully given Christmas a few years ago and I have to say it's been much nicer in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I have or will purchase some items. I've have a wooden dollhouse for O., Leggo, trains and other items for the boys. But, I'd like to make a good portion of the gifts, but I don't know if I'll have the time to do all I want. I hope that I can accomplish a good deal though. But, what to make? O. should be easy right? I think because she loves to help me cook so much I'm going to make her a chef set with a hat, apron and oven mit. Of course I'm finishing the quilt and perhaps I can make a doll quilt for her Waldorf doll. For the boys? Hmm...that's a bit harder, I'll have to think about that. My friend Dawn of the blog Olabelhe had a great idea about an artist portfolio and crayon/pencil roll. I think I'm going to borrow that idea. I'll also probably do another bag or two for M.'s train collection to go in. I'm not sure what to make for E. yet, bedside knitting him a hat and socks. For S. I'm going to make a hoodie sweatshirt, some boxer shorts and lounge pants. Gosh with the length of that list I should be sitting at my sewing machine right now. I also wanted to make a couple things for my sisters. Thank goodness I started some of these items in the summer. I let you know how things go. Wish me luck!

A birthday gift and a new toy

So, look at me, plugging away at that to do list. I finished N.'s birthday gift and go it in the mail this morning. I also have just about finished another knitting project and got the stuff to start on another one. Progress I tell you is a good thing.
I love how the dress for N's came out, but I'm not at all pleased with the neckline on the shirt...from the outside it looks fine, but the inside...I don't know and I have a feeling it might be too wide and gappy (excuse me as I make up some new words) in the back. I always have trouble with the knit neckline on Ottobre, and I don't know why exactly...I've never done one where I didn't redo it at least once, it's very frustrating. There's got to be some trick.
Oh and my beloved Pfaff serger has been acting up...I've figured out that it's the foot pedal and the machine itself is fine (although being that the company that made it is no longer in existence...not pfaff the actual manufacturer, it's only a matter of time before something happens that spells the demise of my machine). In my panic to finish my gift and of course knowing I use my serger every time I sew, I got on craigslist and found 2 used sergers that I was interested in. I checked out the reviews for them on PR and both got glowing reports and I asked the sewing mamas and each had a legion of fans. In the end it came down to age and price. The Viking was cheaper and younger than the Imagine serger. I really was impressed with how each machine serged, but I was concerned that the imagine that was at least 13 years old, but probably older and would give me some trouble. So I bought the viking. So far I like the viking 905 and as long as my pfaff keeps serging I will keep that set up for serging and the Viking set to roll hem. I'm excited about that since it's a pain in the ass to convert the pfaff to rolled hem. You have to change the needle plate, take out the left needle and change all your settings. The viking was much less involved, plus the rolled hem it produces is gorgeous. Anyways...more toys for me to play with.

Baby gift bonanza

One of the best things about being able to sew and just being crafty in general is making stuff for other folks. I get a big thrill in gifting homemade. My dear friend Brandy is expecting twin girls any day now. It's a great blessing to her and her family as she has struggled with infertility. I wanted to make her a few special items to welcome her baby girls. Nothing fancy really, but just personal and unique. I made her some bibs, burp cloths and a bag that she can use a diaper bag (I put 2 generous size pockets inside it). The fabric came from my stash...it's nice to have a fabric stash. I can usually find something to use whenever I want to make an item. I also didn't want to leave out her little daughter, MacKenzie who will soon be a big sister. I made her a little bag that Brandy can fill with special goodies and Mackenzie can carry them along with her when she goes to meet her new little sisters. I really enjoyed doing the embroidery on the items. I think it added a sweet touch. All the embroidery designs came from a wonderful online site called SewForum they have a great forum for sharing free designs. As soon as I get my software I hope to contribute some of my own designs to share. Anyway,her shower is tomorrow. I hope she likes her gifts.

Hallelujah! It's done!!!

The Amy Butler weekend travel bag is finished! Even with my many mistakes I'm still proud of how it turned out. I will be popping it in to the mail today, at long last.
What I learned. Well, I won't use such a challenging fabric next time. I have all quilters and home dec for my next foray. I won't use an upholstery zipper, I don't feel like it's opens and closes as smoothly as a sports zipper would have. I will sew the template down earlier in the process and I will put the lining in the way I did by machine and not the way she said which was by hand. It wasn't as hard IMHO...but I only needed to hand stitch it in couple of places and that made me so much happier than doing the whole thing by hand. Oh, and a good thimble is your friend. Also, I learned that it's ok to step back from a tedious project and work on other stuff until you get your mojo back, lol. I hope my mom likes it...I think she will.
There's O. modeling it for me. You can see the bag and I tried to show the detail of the piping and of course the dreaded lining.
I would encourage even a beginner to try this bag. It's not difficult, it just takes a bit of time and patience. The results are well worth it.

Well, it's day 3...making progress

Ok, a couple things I thought of to share. Fabric selection is essential. I wanted my bag to look high end, perhaps like a knockoff of Louise or Coach. Anyways I'm using this lovely chocolate brown microsuede. It's a bitch to work with! I'm a pretty seasoned sewer and bag maker, but if I weren't I'd probably be in tears. It's slick and stretchy for one, but oh does it look good. So something to consider strongly is your fabric choice. AB recommends home dec weight, that's a great choice and there's some great fabrics to be found, but I had to be different so you know it serves me right if I'm finding my microsuede a less than forgiving choice. The other thing I learned is about helpful feet to use, she suggest a zipper foot and she's not kidding. So far I've been sewing this on my PC 6000 (I know, I said I'd use the necchi...but the Brother is my dear friend and she didn't want to be left out, besides I have a lot of feet for her and apparently I have every foot for the necchi except a zipper foot or cording foot, so boohoo for me)and alternating between my zipper foot and my 1/4" foot.

So progress for today. I've made the outer pocket. I altered the way she had you attach the lining to pocket. I couldn't seem to get it stitched without the stitching showing through even though the directions said they shouldn't...I tried her way, then my way , my way was to make a little hem 1/4 at the top of the lining and then attach it right side together to the cording and then stitching in the ditch stitch the lining down. On further consideration I was obsessing a bit too much about it. It's an interior pocket...it lays flat and it's stitched straight and now you can't see the stitching on the outside. I think it would pass inspector #8's scrutiny.

So here are pictures of the two front panels w/the handles attached. I used her measurement, but I think next time I'd like the handles a tad wider and longer. The length they are now will require that it be carried by hand, it wouldn't go over the shoulder, so for the next bag I'll add 12 inches to the length and an inch to the width. Oh well, live and learn.

The Amy Butler Weekender Bag...day two

Alright, on to day 2. Oh, I thought of another hint to share as you embark on making this bag. After you read through the instructions you'll realize that her way of organizing them is a bit unusual. She has you cutting out pattern pieces and fabric 3 separate steps. I understand why she does this, but kept having to get pattern pieces out to use again. So read through and take note of what all you need to cut for the exterior,interior lining, timtex/peltex and interfacing and cut everything out in the beginning. What I mean is cut all the pieces that need to be cut using a particular pattern piece and then put that pattern piece away. That's what I'd highly recommend to someone who likes to be organized when they start on a project. Get all your pieces together and cut them out systematically.
Well...I think today I will cut out the five gazillion strips I need to make the piping. Some reviews I read said they used bought piping or bias tape, God knows I would have too if I could have found some that worked with my fabric choices. Sadly, I'm left to make my own. It's pretty simple though. You find the true bias of the fabric and cut strips at 45 degrees and then miter them together to make even longer strips, lol. Here's a cool site to learn how to make your own bias tape in several different ways.
So this is me cutting out my fabric strips and then sewing them around the purchased cord to make coordinating piping for my bag

The Amy Butler Weekender Bag...day one

So, I've been planning to make my mother a AB weekender bag for Mother's Day for months. I want it to be really special. She's a nurse and works in a neighboring city and when she works she goes and stays her three shifts and then returns home so she could really use a cute bag. I've agonized over what fabric to pick, I finally thought I had settled on some Alexander Henry for the exterior, but I couldn't find anything that looked good as a coordinate with it and I didn't want to use cream for the handles and the piping since it would show dirt so easily. So I've dug in my stash and found this really nice chocolate microsuede. I think that will work. I'll use the AH as the lining and trim and the microsuede as the exterior fabric.
So...I'm photographing the process. I don't know if it would be considered a sew along or a tutorial (I'm not really sure what the difference is), but I thought it might be helpful to someone to see how I made my bag. First off...I'm not using my usual machine which is a Brother PC6000, which I just adore. However after reading a bunch of reviews about this pattern on Patternreview I've opted to use one of my vintage machines and the lucky winner was my Necchi Bu Nova. She's black and beautiful. I haven't used her in over a year so I dusted her off and gave her a drink last night and she's ready to go.




Alright, first things first. Here's a bit of a criticism. When I pay $12 for a pattern I expect all of the pieces to be there. It might not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but she has you measure and cut out the bottom pieces and the straps. Could she not have made the pattern pieces one more page and included these pieces? Ugh! So...off I go to create my own since I do plan to make this bag for myself and perhaps if all goes well 2 for my sisters for Christmas and I don't want to spend nearly as much time as the first. So there's a hint. Create pattern pieces of these pieces for the bag for future use. Jeez Amy!



So here are my missing pattern pieces. I traced them on freezer paper using a yardstick and a sharpie, oh and of course my kai self healing mat was pretty helpful too.
Boy...I'm beat. Off to bed. I'll work on it some more tomorrow.

Panic Mode! The quilt

I've been slack...I'll admit it, I don't just love quilting...I like quilts, just not the quilting process it's so less fun to me than sewing clothes and purses. However I said I would make O a quilt for her birthday and it's just under a month away...so I have got to get cracking. If I work on it diligently I should finish in time. I'm probably a 1/3 of the way done.