Farm Girl Vintage Potholders

Made a birthday gift for a chef friend recently and I was excited to have Lori Holt's new "Farm Girl Vintage" pattern book on hand to work from. I'm completely smitten by the blocks and projects in this beautiful book and plan to make a sampler quilt from it someday.

The "Baking Day" and "Canning Season" potholders turned out great ...

Used some cute kitchen print fabric for the backs ...

And my custom Lilla Lotta labels made wonderful hang tags ...

Check out the Bee in My Bonnet blog and the Farm Girl Vintage book. So Much Fun!

So many projects, never enough time ...

A Hug is in the Mail :: On Brave Wings

I mailed a hug yesterday to an amazing family member, a woman I greatly admire who has been through some stuff and still manages to show up and do it all with grace! I believe that shawls are hugs and sometimes you just need a good hug to remind you that you can do it and people are thinking about you and cheering you on!

This is the "On Brave Wings" shawl, with my hand-drawn design first hand embroidered, then layered with batting and backing, quilted by hand, machine quilted and, finally, binding attached by machine and finished by hand. A lot of prayer for good health and happiness has gone into the making of this hug.

Although this was designed with breast cancer in mind, wouldn't it be lovely for a young woman going off to college -- maybe in school colors, or for someone starting a new business or career or moving to a new city or country?

I also got to use one of my new Lilla Lotta custom labels on it ...

I'll be putting a post together with the specifics on making On Brave Wings, along with the pattern for the embroidered design. Soon!

So many projects, never enough time ...

Happy Little Sewing Project - Dog Under My Desk's Circle Zip Earbud Pouch

If you can have a crush on a sewing project, then I am totally going steady with Dog Under My Desk's Circle Zip Earbud Pouch! This has been my absolute favorite thing to sew recently and I am now covertly watching friends and family members to see who uses earbuds.

First, I made a black & white zebra striped case with red polka dot lining for the granddaughter ..

Because I'm working on a 45-year-old Bernina sewing machine, I've had to make a few adjustments to the instructions. Ashley's had a layer of flannel to pad the case and I really struggled to top stitch around the edge of the case -- obviously. 

I made another one the next day for my youngest daughter. I could not make it all the way around on the top stitching. My machine just doesn't have enough clearance under the foot to go over all of the layers.

And I would suggest that you not try to quickly make one while getting ready for work, eating breakfast, making lunch, putting on makeup, etc., because you know, The Hurrier You Go …

The odds go up that you'll put the bottom on upside down so the lining is on the outside. Ahem, lesson learned.

The next one was made to match a tote bag given to a friend in January …

On this one, I switched from flannel padding to fusible interfacing (Pellon 809 Décor Bond), which I ironed on to the outer fabric. I also tried using my serger to finish the inside seam but didn't like the way it worked enough to do it again.

One trick I've found is to use a plastic lid to trace the 4-1/2" circles for the pattern. Many of the food containers we buy -- pretzels, nuts, candy, peanut butter -- come with a 4-1/2" lid. You can use a small rotary cutter to cut out the pieces around the lid.

However, what works best for me is to double my piece of outer fabric, lay the lid on top and draw around it with a chalk pencil, pin the two layers together, then cut them out with pinking shears just outside the drawn line. Do the same with the lining fabric. 

And again with the fusible interfacing but cut with regular fabric scissors right on the line. This makes the interfacing circles slightly smaller than the fabric circles and helps reduce bulk in the seams.
Iron the interfacing circles to the outer fabric circles before cutting the top piece in half. 

Since the inner seams are pinked, I'm not worried about them fraying and I don't do any top stitching on the outside. I use a wooden turner to really push those seams out and then press them well for a crisp outer edge.

These make the best birthday gifts! The friend I made this one for said she was going to tell her kids this is a coin purse so they'll quit swiping her earbuds (if they can't find them, they can't take them) …

Here's the one I made recently for the granddaughter's friend …

She has a cat named Nana and the kids call me Nana so it was doubly appropriate to make her one with kitty fabric. The lining is black with tiny white polka dots.

You seriously have to make at least one of these cases. Bet you can't make just one. Erin at Dog Under My Desk rocked it with this tutorial but if that wasn't enough to bring on adoration, said Dogs under her desk are …

So many projects, never enough time ...

Sewing Geisha Girl Potholders

Having a lovely domestic kind of day ... reading cookbooks, making pesto butter to melt over barbecued steaks tonight, enjoying grilled cheese sandwiches with the granddaughter for lunch along with the latest episode of Master Chef, and finishing up the binding on a couple of cute potholders for a friend at work.

A few years ago, I picked up the Summer 2012 issue of Quilts and More magazine and just had to make the Classic Carryall Tote Bag featured on the cover. This bag provided a lot of firsts for me including half square triangles, chain stitching, using cotton webbing in handles, and grommets. Boy, did grommets scare the daylights out of me. Cut a hole -- even worse, 4 holes -- in this beautiful bag I just painstakingly stitched together? But they work and they're amazing.


I had picked up a small fat quarter bundle of Asian inspired fabrics at Joann's and used them for this bag, adding a few additional fat quarters and some gorgeous blue batik for the lining. Here's the bag …

So I've been carrying this tote to work -- loaded with my lunch, water bottles (love the big pockets inside), the occasional real paper book -- and one of my sweet co-workers raved about how cute it is and how much she loved the fabrics. I told her if I had any left, I'd make her a potholder. I was happy to find that I had enough to make two.

I started by fussy-cutting two of the remaining Geisha Girls out of my tiny piece of leftover fabric to use as the center. I went with a 3" square and laid out the other fabrics to see what looked good.

I cut strips 1-1/2" wide and started building out from the center square.

Once they were pieced, I ironed lightweight fusible interfacing to the backs of each. Then made a quilt sandwich with 3 layers of flannel inside and quilted around the edge of each square. I'm sure glad I was able to buy a walking foot for my wonderful old 1969 Bernina. She's a workhorse and I love her!

Trimmed the potholders to a nice even square …

Decided to make a hang tab with a small strip of fabric. Stitched them on the top corner and snipped off the extra fabric …

Since I had yardage of the batik fabric, I used it for the back and the binding, cutting the binding strips 2-1/4" wide.

Hand-stitched the binding on the backs of each one …

Ready. To. Use.  Thick, sturdy and completely cute, the finished size is 10-1/2" square. Love 'em!

Wrapped in my favorite tulle ribbon for giving with a sweet little layered tag …

So many projects, never enough time ...

Happy Little Sewing Project - Thimbleanna's Purse Thingy

I enjoy small projects because I've figured out I'm an instant gratification kind of gal. Big quilts call my name -- I've made a few and have several planned -- but give me a tiny sewing project that is ready to use or gift in a few hours and I am sooooo happy. And they're great for using up scraps of fabric.

Now let me tell you what happened at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I always make a quick run past their little fabric clearance section because I can do so much with those just-under-a-yard pieces that they mark down. A woman (and I'm guessing her daughter) approach me. The woman looks extremely serious and says, "Can I ask you something?"

Now I'm wondering if she thinks she knows me but I don't recognize her and we're back in the corner of the store with no one else around. Let's be honest here. Most people who sew and quilt and craft are the nicest people you'll ever meet but you know there has to be a few nutjobs in the mix and Murphy's Law says this might be my moment to meet one.

So I say, "Sure," and brace myself. She gestures to the small bundle in my hand and asks, "What are these little things of left over fabric called?"

Still confused, I look down at my hand and back up at her and say, "Remnants?"

And she hollers, "REMNANTS!" And throws her hands up in the air as she turns to her companion. "That's it ... remnants!"

I had to laugh and said, "I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't remember things like that!" I'm still giggling about it.

So if you like quick little scrap busting projects, too, let me tell you, you'll want to make this adorable Purse Thingy by Thimbleanna.


She provides a wonderful tutorial. The back piece that cushions your cell phone is quilted before assembly (I used a layer of flannel inside). I just stitched around and around in a square from the outside in.


In Thimbelanna's original version, she includes a see through vinyl ID window, which I omitted, just keeping the front solid fabric.



I still put the little pocket inside as a divider.



Here is the back with my cell phone tucked into the pocket.


This is a graduation gift and we included a Visa gift card. Is this sweet or what?

Thanks to Thimbleanna for the fabulous free pattern/tutorial!



So many projects, never enough time ...

B is for Baby Boy, Blanket, Bib and Burp Cloth

Rough year so far. We had a family funeral out of state the second week of March and bid farewell to my beloved mother-in-law. Missed a week of work. Then our youngest daughter was married in our back yard the last week of March. So much fun celebrating with a small group of family and friends but it was at our home so lots and lots of sprucing up and organizing and decorating and cleaning. Missed a week of work. Two weeks later, I'm at work feeling flu-ish. Ended up with lots of lovely symptoms that led to walking pneumonia/bronchitis/viral infection. I had more medical tests than I can count, several dozen doctor appointments, spent a night in the emergency room. Missed four weeks of work. Spring 2014 will be remembered as one of my not-so-favorite seasons, even though the wedding was beautiful and amazing.

So the last thing I posted was the cute little pre-quilted alphabet blanket that needed a simple binding. Much later ...

Also with the green gingham-checked fabric, made a burp cloth lined with flannel and backed with a cute navy blue print with white stars. And a bib with my first attempt at appliqué (the baby's name starts with a Z). Both are reversible.

One of my smile.amazon.com** purchases made during the delirium phase of the illness (if Hubby knew I was ordering stuff online while out of my mind, he'd have taken away all my devices) was a KAM Snap Setter. I've fought with the metal snaps pliers forever and I like the idea of the plastic snaps. Ruined a few snaps and took a little bit to understand how much pressure you have to put on these pliers to flatten the prong, but once the snap is in correctly, it is terrific! Love it!

Glad to be on my feet again, back to work and looking forward to quality time in the craft studio.

So many projects, never enough time.

** I order occasionally from Amazon and have found out that they have a philanthropic site (smile.amazon.com) that allows you to choose your charity of choice. Then when you order using the smile.amazon.com site, a percentage of your purchase benefits your chosen charity. 

Mine is SOS Rescue Baton Rouge, an amazing animal rescue group in Louisiana run by wonderful people! 

Easy as A-B-C Alphabet Baby Blanket

We interrupt all regularly scheduled sewing/quilting/crafting projects for a quick little Alphabet Baby Blanket.

I was going to make a couple of flannel receiving blankets for a family friend who is due soon, but couldn't find anything that appealed to me for a baby boy. I ended up buying something I've never worked with before ... a pre-quilted printed panel. The front is an adorable alphabet print and the back is the border fabric shown on the front. Inside is a light-weight polyester batting, perfect for Phoenix.

Also purchased a yard of light/dark green gingham checked fabric to make my own binding and some dark olive thread. I'm deciding whether I want to round the corners and make the binding on the diagonal or just leave it straight. Either way, this is so cute and so simple. More to come after binding ...

So many projects, never enough time ...