Friday, September 27, 2013

Quilt Label for Charm Crossing


We've been enjoying the Charm Crossing quilt (pattern by craftytammie) for nearly a month now in the family room and I realized I had neglected to make a label for it. I have blankets from 30+ years ago when my daughters were born and wish I could remember who made them so a label is such a great idea. When my 16-year-old granddaughter asked what it was for, I told her, "So when YOUR grandbabies snuggle under it, they'll know who made it, when, and what the pattern was called."

I used my embroidery machine, even adding a cute little dragonfly, who I've decided resides in Charm Crossing ...


Added patchwork pieces of the backing and binding fabrics to frame it ...


Ironed a piece of interfacing over the back of the white embroidered piece to give it substance and keep the quilt's gray backing fabric from showing through. Stitched on lightweight fusible interfacing and did an appliqué turn, making sure the adhesive side would be down when turned. I keep extra pieces of interfacing in a jar for just this kind of thing ...




Once it was turned, I pinned the interfacing to the back and finger pressed the edges. Flipped it right side up, positioned it on the quilt back, carefully removed the pins from the back and repinned on the front. Pressed the edges, but it was so thick it wasn't adhering well so I kept it pinned for sewing ...


Then hand-stitched it, making sure only the binding fabric showed, not the interfacing ...


The label ended up finished at 7-1/2" by 6-1/2" in size. My Mom says it looks like it's floating on the back of the quilt, which is perfect.

Makes me happy!


So many projects, never enough time ...

Monday, September 23, 2013

Lunch Sack with Alphabet Bead Name Pin

So Hubby caught me dipping a frozen chunk of dark chocolate into the peanut butter jar. Not one of my prouder moments but the man gets me ... he laughed, grabbed a piece of chocolate and joined me! Speaking of snacks ...


Our youngest daughter had requested some lunch and snack sacks made with coated PUL fabric (polyurethane laminate). I found the PUL last year at Joann's in the baby section and had also picked up some coordinating fat quarters of cotton. For her recent birthday, I made her this little washable snack sack using a wonderful tutorial by Sew Can Do.

I pulled out fabrics and buttons and things, trying to figure out a way to make it personalized and fun. While digging through the drawers, I found a bag of alphabet beads and some pin backings and had the idea to create a name pin. The prints on my PUL fabrics featured owls or monkeys so I went with the owls plus orange and green cottons pictured on the right. {Note the brown paper lunch sack I had out for my original inspiration. Fortunately, I found the Sew Can Do tutorial, resulting in this great round lunch sack!} 


I made a couple of changes to the instructions:
  • Made the bag taller by a couple of inches
  • Used my serger for all seams and only used my sewing machine to topstitch
  • Used wide satin ribbon that I had on hand for the drawstring rather than the grosgrain ribbon called for


For the pin, I laid out the beads for her name and cut a piece of fabric large enough to allow me to double it, wrong sides together, stitch around leaving an opening for turning, then tuck the open end in and topstitch all the way around. I hand-stitched the beads to this little piece of fabric, starting with the center bead and working my way out on each side to make sure I had it centered nicely. Then I hand-stitched the pin backing to the back side. I pinned it to the lunch sack just below the drawstring casing, but the nice thing about a pin like this is that it can be removed and pinned on anything.


Inside and out, this lunch sack turned out so cute and the Sew Can Do tutorial was easy to follow.


This would make a great little bag to carry knitting and crocheting projects around in, too.

So many projects, never enough time!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

One Stitch at a Time


My youngest daughter sent me a photo from etsy a few weeks ago showing knee socks that rise above the top of the boot, embroidered with a 3-letter monogram -- $20 if you order them made for you. This was the perfect opportunity to use the lovely box of embroidery thread I found at a garage sale last year, even though I had to put a little WD40 on my rusty hand-embroidery skills.



The socks I found at Target for $2.50 a pair. I did purchase a roll of Sulky Water Soluble Stabilizer (with a 40% off coupon at Joann's) that I'll be able to use with my embroidery machine as well. I had the embroidery thread, needle and hoop on my shelves.


The first thing I did was spend a little time on the laptop looking at typestyles to see which font would look good for her monogram. With a 3-letter monogram, they go in this order: small first initial, large last initial, small middle initial. I settled on Snell Roundhand because it's a little fancy but not too much for hand stitching.


I printed this out on plain white paper to get the correct size, cut a small piece of water soluble stabilizer, laid it over the paper and traced the monogram onto the stabilizer with a Sharpie. (Used green ink so it would stand out from the black thread and make it easier to see my stitches.) I laid the stabilizer over the sock, figuring out where I wanted it to land (just under the heavy cuff) and hooped it. I used straight pins to help pin the rest of the cuff out of the way so I didn't accidentally stitch the top of the sock together.


I used black embroidery thread, a back stitch for all letters and went over the middle of the C again with a chain stitch ...


One thing to remember when doing a pair of anything: be sure to put your stitching on the correct side, i.e., to the outside of each sock.

It was fun to wash the water soluble stabilizer out of each sock and see it magically disappear. I ended up doing it twice because after they air dried the first time, I could still feel a little gluey stiffness that was left over. Rinsed them in the kitchen sink with a little warm tap water and a dab of hand soap.

We were finally able to celebrate Heidi's birthday with her belatedly last night and I think she liked her personalized knee socks. Hopefully, it will be chilly enough for her to wear them soon with her cute boots!


On an ooey gooey delicious dessert note, I made the Gluten Free version of Caramel Apple Butterfinger Bars by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen as a substitute birthday cake. A little heaven on earth that includes fresh Granny Smith apples, oatmeal, Butterfinger candy bars and Caramel ice cream topping. I didn't say it was calorie free, just gluten free, using GF Bisquick and Red Mill GF Oatmeal ...


Warmed up with a scoop of French Vanilla melting into all that caramel-y goodness ... just yum!


So many projects, never enough time!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The diet is working or Halloween, here we come


Excuse me, my quirky side is showing. Believe it or not, this is another destashing project. I found this bag full of unfinished wood skeletons, ghosts and Halloween ribbon on my craft room shelf that I think I bought around 2004. I had this idea way back then to put our photos on the painted wood pieces and use them for Halloween decorations on our double front doors.

Our ghost dogs ~ Louie and Milesyoulittlebastard ~ are being walked {floated?} by the Granddaughter. Cracks me up!


Everything was purchased at Michael's Craft Store. The skeletons are called Small Mr. Bones and were $2.99 each; the ghosts were $.49 each. I used a 4-yard spool of the orange and black gingham checked ribbon ($2.99) and part of the 3-yard spool of pumpkin ribbon ($1.99). The 1/4" dowel that we are suspended from was in the garage and Hubby cut two 12" lengths for me that I covered in ribbon. Used white acrylic paint, super glue gel and hot glue.


The photos are printed on regular white paper. I did one run to gauge size, had to enlarge them all and used the fine print setting on the second go round. I opened the photos in iPages on my Macbook, used the masking tool to draw a circle around our heads, then enlarged, printed and cut out. I printed the Granddaughter's photo in full so I could leave her hair long in front.


I know you could laminate the photos, but I decided to just use clear shipping tape that I had on hand. Taped strips over the back first, carefully flipped right side up and taped over the front. Then I cut out each photo leaving about a 1/16" edge of tape.




In the meantime, the Granddaughter was painting, which obviously required sustenance in the form of goldfish and Dr. Pepper ...



Ribbons were glued on the dog/ghosts to represent collars ...


Loops of ribbon were glued on the backs to hook them over the dowel for hanging ...


The skeletons came with wire hangers so I just looped and glued ribbons through the wires ...


And now we're just hanging around! Holding hands ... so romantic!


Actually, it's still too soon for these to go up but I wanted to share the idea early just in case anyone else had any cute skeletons in the family closet ...


Happy Halloweenies!

So many projects, never enough time ...

Saturday, September 7, 2013

BBQin' in Style

Has your Hubby ever said something that he thinks is hilariously funny and when you give him the that's-not-funny blank stare, he gets exasperated and announces, "I need a better audience," or is that just me? *sigh*


Humor aside, my Hubby is the BBQ king. He has the slow cooking of juicy burgers, steaks and chicken down to a fine science. We also have a nephew who is a supreme BBQer and I wanted to send him something handmade for his last birthday so I dove into my bag of Hubby's nice-but-discarded shirts, added some quilting cotton and made him a BBQ apron.

I used the basic instructions from the Purl Bee's Adjustable Unisex Apron, then made adjustments to suit my shirt and add the lining.

The shirt is 100% cotton, soft and a little crinkly ...


Cut off the sleeves at the inset line ...


Sew the button placket closed down the front of the shirt ...


Cut the shirt front off in a straight line underneath the collar -- this will be the front of the apron ...


Lay the shirt piece on the lining fabric -- cut around the top and sides even with the shirt (no seam allowance needed) ...


Cut around the finished hem of the shirt with approximately 1" extra to create a hem on the lining ...


Press the lining hemline under twice to the wrong side of the fabric to match the shirt hemline as closely as possible -- this was a little wonky because of the curved hem on the shirt -- then stitch the lining hem down ...


With right sides of the shirt and lining together, sew around the sides and top (I used the serger for this), leaving the bottom (hem) open for turning. Then turn right side out and press ...


Fold each upper side of the shirt toward the lining, press and stitch to make a casing large enough for your apron strings. I did a double line of stitching here ...


I used strips of fabric cut from the back of the shirt to make the apron strings ...


Thread the strings through each side of the apron casings, making sure not to twist. The strings/neck strap are adjustable, depending on whether you like your apron to fit higher or lower. The front ...


The back ...


I personalized his apron by embroidering our nephew's name on a piece of the shirt fabric, then stitched it onto the pocket flap. Even though the shirt front placket has been stitched closed, the pockets are functional ...


Happy birthday, happy BBQ, happy sewing!

So many projects, never enough time ...