Knitting Project Bag

These fruity ladies grace my newest sewing project completed today. I quilted a panel of the fabric with some batting and a neutral backing fabric to give the completed bag more stability. The bag has a flat bottom detail and straps that match the inner lining. It is just the right size to carry around knitting WIPS (works in progress.)

Pictured next to the new bag are two new leashes. I whipped them up today as well. They are made from the hemmed tops of 2 different flat sheets. I used other parts of the sheets for quilting projects and had not discarded the nicely pressed top hems. I folded them to a suitably narrow width, pinned and top stitched them to make a nice smooth leash. Using hardware from leashes at the dollar store, I fashioned the handle and clip. I was careful to do a good deal of backstitching for reinforcement. The last thing we would want is leash failure when it is attached to one of the furry children. I have hardware for making another one, maybe later tonight!

OBX Vacation!

No sewing so far today. I have spent some time looking online for current info about Hatteras Village, where my sister and I will be spending a week this summer. We have not stayed in Hatteras Village since my nephew was a very small baby--and he is 19 now. We have stayed at the National Park Service campground at Oregon Inlet a few summers ago and also at the KOA on the Outer Banks. This year we have opted not to camp, but instead to find a place to lay our sandy heads at night where there is electricity, hot and cold running water, a private bathroom, kitchen facilities, and a leak-free roof over our heads.

We are taking 2 of our dogs and staying in a little one room condo called a cabana. This link shows details about the cabana complex and one of the cabanas for rent, but not the one we are renting. They are so cute and just perfect for 2 middle aged women and their dogs.

These cabanas were rebuilt after Hurricane Isabel cut a new channel across the Island of Hatteras in 2003. The new inlet which the locals called "Isabel Inlet" went through almost where the cabanas stood. One web site I looked at proclaimed that there were 40 foot waves at the Hatteras Cabanas during that storm. God willing there will be no foul weather while we are there.

Looking forward to shell gathering, dolphin sightings, swimming, experiencing pirate lore and history, boat riding (maybe fishing), island touring, seafood and more.

Zig Zag Quilt

This is a baby sized zig zag quilt I worked on in May. I have not posted this project before because I did not have a good picture of it.

I used scraps left over from piecing the zig zags together to create a border. The border is 2 rows wide.

I love the blues and aquas in this quilt. It is machine quilted following the zig zags.

I Stippled A Wallhanging!

Here is a cheater panel that I made into a wall hanging. This one is quilted in a different way than I usually do it.

I put the free motion quilting foot on the machine and stippled it. That basically means that I used my hands to push the fabric under the needle making designs. The designs were mostly loops and swirls.

It is challenging to quilt this way. The fabric has to be guided with both hands and it is easy to get the stitches to sew over top of each other (which you should not do.) It is important to set the speed so that you can complete your design without losing control of where you are stitching.

I tried not to get the stitches over the colored parts of the panel, instead opting to quilt around the design in each square. I also chose to stipple only the 5 largest blocks. The smaller designs are just outlined with stitching.

I learned how to do the stippling on Youtube. I have found that in addition to millions of videos showing stupid people doing stupid things, Youtube has many instructional videos. There are some skilled quilters who demonstrate techniques to help out us novices.

They say that practice makes perfect. I will keep at it.

Log Cabin Quilt Finished!

Here is the completed log cabin quilt. I pieced and quilted it on the machine. The backing fabric is from a custom made bedding set I found at a recent yard sale. That set included an incredible amount of home decorator fabric that I will be using for other quilts to come.

Works in Progress

Here are 2 quilt tops I have completed this week. The first one is a scrap quilt made almost entirely from the aforementioned box of fabric scraps. It is in the log cabin pattern. The red fabric in the center is a fat quarter from Joanne Fabrics and the blue border is the last of the blue chambray sheet I used in this quilt. I have not found a backing fabric for it which suits me yet.


The next quilt top I completed today from 2 charm packs in the Neptune collection from Tula Pink. I am crazy about her fabrics. In addition to the charm packs I also had a yard of her navy blue with green pattern with sea turtles and sea horses hidden in the design.


This quilt top was made using the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern. I had enough 5 inch squares to create 7 largish blocks. I quartered them and arranged the resulting 28 blocks to suit me. I used 24 of them to make a 4x6 rectangle and had four quarter blocks left over. Whew, this math is making my head spin! (I teach reading !) Then I decided that the left over 4 blocks would be great at the corners of the borders.


That was a difficult trick getting all those corners lined up and if you look carefully at the picture you will see the wonky corner that resulted. No backing is picked out for this yet, either.

I Just Love Word Clouds

wordle created here

Did She Say "Drive-In?"

Yes, you read correctly--There is a drive in movie theatre within 30 minutes of my home. The Fork Union Drive-In is open during the fair weather seasons and shows 2 movies per night each weekend.

It is not paved like some other drive-ins which are no longer in business. Instead you park on terraced lawn and many of the movie goers watch the movie outside their vehicles. It is quaint and family friendly and very much like an outdoor picnic with a couple of movies thrown in.

During the intermission between movies, kids get out in the field in front of the screen and play ball or chase each other around. There are folks in lawn chairs in the beds of their trucks and kids piled up on mattresses in the backs of station wagons. When Ivy was little and we used to take him, he usually fell asleep before the second movie finished.

My sister and I usually start watching outside and then get in the car later after dew falls and it gets chilly. Last night there were some unexpected mechanical problems with her car and we could not use the car's electrical system to hear the movie through the radio. So we sat near the traditional drive-in speakers on poles and covered up with quilts and fleece throws.

Luckily she has a manual transmission and she was able to roll start the car and get us home safely. The dad next to us helped push the car to get it started rolling. Even more luckily, we had parked right at the end of one of the rows near the top of the hill. We could not have been in better position for roll starting the car if we had planned it.

And yes, we both have roadside assistance with the cell phones, but didn't want to call them unless necessary.

This evening is an outdoor music concert in Scottsville. Stacey and I are meeting one of her friends for a picnic supper. We should have a good time. I am driving and then tomorrow I will take her to work after she has a chance to talk to her mechanic about her car. I am crossing my fingers that it is nothing serious!

Thrift Store Quilt Update

I used the new lap quilt last night at the drive-in while watching Monsters Vs. Aliens. Before it got dark enough for the movie to start I noticed some seams that came loose when I washed the quilt. I had only used a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance in an effort to make my strip of pieced blocks as wide as possible.

I spent some time this morning making repairs and adding some additional machine quilting. I am going to wash it again on the gentle cycle. I want to be able to give it away and I cannot do that if it is falling apart at the seams already!

Sizzix Creations

Here are some things I have made using felted wool cut from my Sizzix BigKick. Most of these were made during the winter and spring. Now I am not making many things with wool, I have switched over to cotton for the hot months.

Finished Lap Quilt

Today was rainy and dreary. I finished my thrift store quilt. Last night I looked in my stash and found a large sheet with pale blue roses all over it. A perfect material to back my quilt in.

I sandwiched some Warm and Natural Batting in between the layers and pinned it all together. I chose to quilt in straight lines through the solid blue blocks. I could not wait to drive into Cville and buy matching thread, so I used white thread for the quilting. It looks nice enough with the blue fabric. For the border, I turned the excess backing fabric to the front, folded it under and pinned it. Then I machine stitched close to the edge to finish off the binding. For about 5 minutes I planned to hand stitch the edges of the binding, but that is hard on my fingers.

It is about 36 inches wide and about 62 inches long. Good size for covering up while watching tv. Or laying across the back seat of the car for dogs to lay on. Or using as a sand blanket at the beach... If I add some elastic to the end I could roll it up and stow it easily. HMMM.... the wheels are turning and the gears are smokin'!

I may enter this in the recycling category at the county fair. The only new material in it was the batting and the thread.

Thrift Store Quilt Top

Yesterday after getting 2 new tires on my car, I went by the Salvation Army Thrift Store looking for deals on precious treasures. I found a box of fabric scraps for $1.00. Among the scraps were some Schumacher decorator fabric samples. After some consideration, I thought I could cut the samples in half to make squares that I would piece into a quilt top.

This pattern I made reminds me of the Chinese Coin pattern. To construct it I sewed the squares of printed fabric right sides together, down two sides. Then I cut the squares in half and pressed them open. Now I had the same amount of squares I started out with, but half of each square was a different print. I divided the pile of squares into thirds and sewed them together into 3 long strips.

Between each long pieced strip I inserted chambray blue fabric cut from a cotton thrift store sheet. Then I added strips to the top and bottom of the same fabric. It looks wonderful! I have no idea what fabric I am going to use to back it. I have a couple of choices. More on this quilt when it is finished.

Beach Photos

We watched surfers, we sat in the sun, we played in the cold surf, we demolished one cheap frisbee, we got sand in every crevice. A good time was had by all.

No Crafting Today--Gone to the Shore!

Memorial Day Weekend, 2009

Got up at 5:15 this morning to pack the car, get ice and cooler drinks and head to Stacey's to pick up her and Merle. We hit the road around 6:45 and we were parking at First Landing State Park at noon. This after taking the scenic route through Petersburg instead of going through Colonial Heights as planned. Need to get that GPS soon!

After 3.5 hours at the beach, we headed to our room at the Red Roof Inn, a dog friendly establishment. We are in the dog wing at the back of the hotel and have so far seen another schnauzer, a cocker spaniel, and several other breeds. We have heard some barking from adjacent rooms, but not loud enough to disturb. The main thing that is bothersome is when Merle and Conner sound the alarm that someone is walking by on the side walk.

They were good enough to let us run out for a take out dinner from a restaurant we discovered last July when we came to the beach for 4th of July. The Dockside has a bar and restaurant, fishing boat charters, sightseeing tours, a fish cleaning and bait center and some souvenirs. We went on their Fireworks cruise last year and it was fabulous.

Going to bed earlier than 11:00 tonight!

Redbirds in the Bower Wall Art

This wall hanging is a quilted cheater panel called Redbird in the Bowers by Kathy Schmidt. It is too dark to decorate with this time of year, but I love the primitive folk art illustrations in each section. I machine quilted it and then embellished with some buttons.

For a backing fabric I used a soft cream colored sheet with roses which I obtained from the Goodwill. Other bloggers have mentioned that they use sheets to sew some of their projects. Last time I went to Goodwill I found some great sheets in good condition to cut up and use for backing fabric. There is no longer anywhere in the town in which I work to buy fabric, and I was feeling desperate one day for some backing fabric to use on some panels that had come in the mail the day before. That is what drove me to buying the sheets from the Goodwill. Normally that is not a source I would use for cotton quilting fabric. You cannot beat the price--$2 per sheet for several yards of fabric.

Fresh Tulip Wall Hanging

I love this cheater panel so much I had to buy another one. Which may indeed lead to a third purchase because my sister wants one too. It has all the things I love about the coming of warmer weather-- flowers, butterflies, birds, vibrant colors. This panel has lots of "blocks" of different color and design. It was fun to stitch around all these "blocks" to make them look pieced.

I sandwiched the layers, stitched around three sides and turned it right sides out. Doing this allows me to do without a binding strip.After machine quilting most of the top I stitched the remaining side and finished the quilting. Once I run this through the washing machine, the wrinkles will disappear and it will be ready to go to its lucky recipient.

This fabric is from the Fresh line by Deb Strain for Moda. I have enjoyed surfing the 'net and finding these wonderful cheater panels. The best thing about them is the quick completion time--almost instant gratification. I have several more waiting to be sewn and a list of others to buy when they are available.

Disappearing 9 Patch

Here is a small quilt made from a charm pack of Charisma by Chez Moi for Moda. The pattern I found on this blog is called the Disappearing 9 Patch. Basically, you sew 9 patch blocks (some of the easiest to sew blocks of all) and then chop them up, rearrange them and sew them back together. The result is decidedly not your typical boring 9 patch quilt. I used 36 of the 5 inch charms to make this 4 block lap/doll quilt. It is roughly 45 inches per side, minus seam allowances.

I pieced the four blocks and then put together the quilt by making a "sandwich." The bottom layer was the quilt batting and then I placed the top right sides up. The top layer was the backing fabric face down on the quilt top. I trimmed the batting and the backing fabric to be very close in size to the top and pinned it all together. I sewed around 3 sides making sure to catch all three layers in the seam. (I did have to repair one area where the batting was showing through after I turned it.) I turned the quilt right sides out and repinned it to make it smooth enough to quilt. Then I machine quilted down the seams to make it look more dimensional. I left the bottom open until almost all the top was quilted. Then I trimmed more of the batting away, turned under the last unfinished side and pinned it securely. I topstitched the last side closed and finished the machine quilting.

What I find very interesting about this pattern is that depending on what your 9 patch squares look like, you can vary the look of the pattern. Since the charm pack has all different squares of fabric, my quilt is very "scrappy" looking. If you use traditional color choices for a 9 patch, you get a distinctive pattern after you quarter the blocks and resew them. Here are some examples from Google Images.

I will definitely try this pattern again with a larger end result. I only had one charm pack of this particular fabric. Don't know who is getting this one yet.

What I Have Been Making

I got a new sewing machine at Easter and have switched over from working with wool to working with cotton. I have made several projects since my last crafting post.

The fruit ladies fabric has been made into a beach bag. I have enough fabric for 2 bags, but have only made one so far. In the photo it looks pretty floppy and it is true that I did not use any interfacing or batting to give it stiffness. I figure that once it is filled with beach towels, books, sunscreen and dog treats the shape will be okay.

I used these directions to help me create this bag. The denim straps and bottom came from a pair of $1 jeans from the Goodwill. I broke a needle making the straps because I thought I had put in a heavy weight needle and it was not. Breaking a needle while sewing is pretty scary. Luckily there was no bleeding. Once I got the correct needle in the machine, the denim was not a problem at all.

More finished projects after I let Conner outside. He is "ooffing" at me to get off the computer.

The School Year is Ending--Finally!

Whew! I have four more school days if I count the teacher workday at the end. This time of year is so tiring and stressful. Most of the last 2 weeks I have been assisting with Standards of Learning Tests for 3rd and 4th graders. Everyone's nerves are frayed and ragged. The bright spot is that I have a three day weekend coming up.

My sister and I are going to VA Beach with two of our dogs--my Schnauzer and her Australian Cattle Dog. Conner has been to the beach many times and he could really care less. I take him because I do not want to be away from him. Merle has never been to the beach, but if the way he enjoys his fish pond and trips to the river is any indication, he is in for the time of his life.

The weather is going to be pretty warm for this time of year--80 degrees. Stacey would prefer it to be hotter if she is going in the water. I am sure we are in for a good time.

Cheater Quilt Panels

I am not a skilled seamstress. I sometimes have trouble sewing a straight line. The fact that many fabric design lines include cheater panels is a bonus for me. Cheater panels are blocks of designs printed all ready to sew into a quick and easy project. Some quilters use the panel as the center block and add pieced blocks to make it large enough for a bed.

Here is a cheater panel door hanging (or wallhanging) I made from a springy panel with a garden theme. I am giving it to a special gardener I love.

I am especially proud of the hanging loops I stitched to the top of this piece. I pinned them between the layers and stitched around the outside. When I flipped the layers right side out, the hanging loops were perfect! Yay- another sewing skill accomplished.

Last weekend at the quilt store I purchased a set of panels to make beach bags with Fruity Ladies on them. Several more are on their way to me from ebay. It will be interesting to see how these projects end up--I cannot predict yet.

Birthday Wishes for Stacey!!

Today is my only (younger) sister's birthday-- best wishes to her for a happy year!

My new sewing machine is getting a workout. I have made a raggedy quilt on it using some Tula Pink Charm Packs. I have not measured it exactly, but it is a generous lap quilt size. The front (raggedy) side is pieced with 2 packs of Nest fabrics. The opposite side is sewn with 2 packs of the Flutterby fabric line. I am in love with these fabrics and with the designer. I have a Neptune Charm Pack and some matching yardage that is going to be made into something fabulous--I just don't know what yet.

I added some border bands using some tonal fabrics in complementary colors. The quilt store did not have any yardage from either of these lines. I am finding out that fabrics tend to sell out pretty quickly when a new line is introduced.

Here is a cool thing about the Internet-- you can find images of fabric you love and use them as your desktop background. Now I have lots of favorite fabrics to choose from--but currently my background is this bird hidden in flowers fabric from Tula Pink. It comes in more vibrant colorways, but this one still allows me to see my desktop icons.