Back in the Saddle

My free time has been seriously limited for a couple months so I have had to resign my creative time to portable knitting and hand sewing, but I've gotten back into the sewing room at last.   I'm getting caught up on do Good Stitches blocks as quick as I can.  My little buddy has finally decided the new pillow I made for the sewing room is acceptable to her.  She doesn't look too happy that I'm taking pictures though, does she?

I've been wanting to play with half square triangles (HSTs) in a format other than pinwheels, and decided to seize the day.  It took forever to choose a color concept, but eventually I picked out three Anthropology fabrics and two coordinating solids.  I was inspired by Jeni's Vintage Sheet Pillow Cover Tutorial at In Color Order. I loved how her placement starts in one corner, rather than creating a diamond bulls eye in the center. I wanted more stripes though, so I went with smaller piecing. These were 3 inch squares, creating 2.5 inch HSTs.



Like the pretty pink tape on my sewing machine?  It helps me keep my seam allowances a little more accurate.  Chain piecing makes this type of project roll right along fairly quickly once the cutting is done. Leaving the pieces connected makes the second seam on HSTs go super quick!  After some trimming you get to arrange them and the fun really begins.

Chocolate and teal!  Its very simple, and might be more interesting with more than 3 fabric choices but I like it so far.   I'm just not too confident in mixing fabrics yet. 

Sorry for the quality of the cell phone photos - my camera was at work.

What are you working on?

Growing Inventory



Glass Frog Beaded Stitch Markers



My little Etsy shop is growing!  I've put together a few more sets of stitch markers for knitting and crochet (like these adorable little frogs), added to the fabric de-stash items and I've started making zippered pouches for knitting notions!

Zippered Notions Pouch

I love making these little pouches, and its a great way to enjoy using my fabric stash.  I'm in the process of finishing up a few more but I was anxious to get one up and on display.  Its tons of fun choosing the fabrics for the exterior and the lining, and then matching up a zipper.  Some are classic, some are unexpected.  My pouches are about 9 x 4, so they're a great size for dpns, for pens & pencils, cosmetics, a couple toys, electronics, you name it!  I've got one with my quilt binding clips and another with the mp3 player and its charger.  These are flat pouches, but my next project will be to create a sample with a gusset in the bottom to allow more room for bulky contents.  I could add a little strap and make them wristlets too.  Oh the possibilities!  My goal is to start a 'serger fund' with the proceeds of what I sell. 

Click on the Etsy widget at the top right to see more of my shop!

Quick sew project

Have you ever done a booth at a craft fair, or helped out a friend with one?  My sister will be showing her jewelry at a fair this weekend and I'm going to help.  I thought instead of a cash box we might use short aprons instead.  The One Yard Wonders book has a cute little apron for holding clothespins that I thought would be just the thing.

Of course it calls for one yard of the fabric you'll be using, and since I'm a rebel I chose a favorite fat quarter along with some solid yardage to coordinate for mine.  I figured I should do mine first and get the proverbial kinks out of my techniques.  A fat quarter wasn't really enough to do the pattern properly so I fudged it.  Took about 2 hours from cutting to finish and I'm hoping the second one goes quicker.  Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out the instructions, especially when it comes to right sides and wrong sides. 

Here's my Granny's Clothespin Apron Inspired Apron.

And for anyone attempting the pattern out of the book, please go to their errata page found here.  The measurements for the waistband and ties are incorrect and won't fit together smoothly if you follow the pattern as printed.  There are actually 16 patterns with errata notes.  Probably not bad for a book that full of fun projects!

The Moda Snob and a new Dog Bed Slipcover

I am so happy that I finished a knitting project this past week just in time for the publisher's deadline.  It was weighing on me heavily, and I was avoiding other fun projects because I had to get that knitting finished and written up and tested.  Its been mailed & delivered, and now I'm free as a bird to craft to my hearts delight! 

Katie comes to work with me almost every day and of course in addition to her food & water bowls, she has a bed at the shop.  Ages ago I found this awesome dragonfly fabric and I made her a bed cover when I first opened my shop in late 2006.  That bed cover has seen better days - its travelled, been washed many many times and its past time for a new one. 

I woke up early this morning and decided today's project was for Katie!  I went to the fabric cupboard and looked ... and looked ... and looked at all the pretty quilting fabrics I have.  There's tons of Moda and Heather Bailey and Amy Butler.  And I looked at it all, and said to myself, "Moda?  On the DOG BED?"  Now, you'd have to know me to understand how insane that statement is.  Katie means everything to me.  My daily schedule is really all about her and she's one of my top priorities.  She travels with me, and I make people eat in the car so she doesn't have to stay locked up.  I'm that kind of dog-mom. 

But I found the line I wouldn't cross today - its the fabric line.  The quilting fabric line.  The sublimely smooth, soft to the touch, prettiest material in the world fabric line.  No Moda for the dog.  (Notice how when I talk about her in relation to fabric, she's "the dog" but when I talk about how I love her, she has a name?)

What can I tell you?  I'm a fabric snob.  No quilting fabrics for the dog bed.

I found this really cute lime, yellow and teal floral instead - its like a seersucker almost and just about the same coloring as Katie's old bed.  The teal is just about the color of my new shop logo, so it's perfect!  I measured twice, cut once, thought about a inserting a zipper and then got lazy and just did the ole whipstitch seam sewing. 

Then I spotted a scrap of the old dragonfly fabric and decided Katie's new floral pillow needed a dragonfly.  So I cut out a dragonfly and appliqued it to the dog bed.  When I say I appliqued it to the bed, I really mean it.  Obviously the best case scenario would have been to get it stitched on before I stuffed it & sewed the seam shut.  So as I was stitching, I often ended up going through more than just the two layers of fabric.  This dragonfly is staying put!

Cute, isn't it?  I took it to work today (did I just confess that I'm blogging at work? yup!) but she hasn't used it yet.  Silly pooch.  I wanted a shot for the blog!  She just doesn't understand my priorities.

It feels good to have another project crossed of my list of things I want to do.  Hope you are enjoying the weekend too!

Pretty as a Peacock

I did it!  I finished a sewing project!  Between the bobbin issue and my serious time management issues, I haven't gotten any projects done til last night.  I was determined though, so after another lovely evening at my sisters I finally sat down at the machine and worked on priority number one - the bathroom window curtain.  It wasn't a top priority because of privacy issues, it just was something I was dying to do!

So here's my lovely spa blue bathroom before ...

I recently decided I am enamoured of peacocks.  I ordered this beautiful vase for the shop a little while ago, but I loved it so much I bought it for myself.  Recently I found this adorable peacock fabric from by Dena Designs / Free Spirit, called Peacocks.  It was so cute, I had to have it. 

On to the sewing - it was a super simple way to make a curtain. First I hemmed the sides and the bottom by folding over the fabric about a quarter of an inch twice to tuck the raw edge inside, fingering pressing and pinning it down.  Those hems took a quick trip through the machine.  To make it a little fancier than having a simple pocket for the tension rod, I made the pocket twice as large as what I needed for the rod and sewed an extra seam halfway between the hem and the top (folded) edge of the hemmed fabric.  This allows for a little gathered ruffle at the very top because the fabric is about twice as wide as the curtain rod.  Super easy and fairly quick.  I haven't sewed in ages, so it took a minute or two for me to get back in the groove, but its just like riding a bike - you remember what to do in no time flat! 



I just love it!  One reason I wanted to add a curtain is because I'm renting the house and I don't want to put too many holes in the place.  Adding a curtain on a tension rod is an easy way of personalizing the space in a temporary way.  The other reason is that when the light is on in my bathroom at night, there is a flood of light that shines out into my neighbor's yard.  It just seemed too bright to me, and I felt like I wanted a little more privacy than the window film provides.  It felt like I was announcing to the world that I was in the bathroom.  Yick! 

So now I have a personalized perky peacock spa bathroom where I am totally comfortable.  I was so tickled to see it this morning - it started my day off just great!

Check out the buffet of creativity at the blogs where I linked up

Bobbin lesson: All bobbins are not created equal

I took my sewing machine into the Singer Sewing Repair Center yesterday for some help on my thread-gets-caught-up-on-the-bobbin issue.  There are sewing machine repair places that are closer, but I figured with my luck I'd end up with some wacky, rare problem that only a Singer person could fix and decided it was better to take her to a dedicated professional.  A 45 minute drive later, it turns out that it was an easy fix.  I was using the wrong bobbin size. 

Credit

Did you know that there are different bobbin sizes?  There are!  My Singer came with some clear plastic bobbins and I loaded them up with various colors for specific projects.  When I needed more I just bought a package of metal ones, and wound a white one first.  I needed white for the bathroom curtain that I wanted to hem last week, so I popped in the metal bobbin with the white thread.  Its too tall!  The lovely ladies at the Singer Center informed me that my machine will only use Class 66 bobbins.

So the next time you go to buy bobbins, make sure you know what size fits in your machine.  All bobbins are not created equal!  You probably knew this already. I probably would have known this if I read the manual a little more carefully. 

So I got some Class 66 bobbins and made my way home, with dreams of sewing through the night.  Then my niece called and invited me over to watch the new Tinkerbell dvd and who could resist that?  The sewing has been postponed until this evening.  (And its a great movie! Tinkerbell is the cutest.)

Re-thread is the old re-boot

Its been a busy week for me between work and my niece having surgery on Thursday.  My plan was to spend a little time sewing before work this morning and I got all set up with the machine in its new home in the sunroom.  Its a simple Singer machine and I call her "little bird" since she's well, a Singer.  (I crack myself up.)  I haven't used her in probably 3 or 4 years so I needed to refamiliarize myself with everything.  Put the spool on and got the thread all threaded properly.  Found a white bobbin and loaded it.  I had a little trouble bringing up the bobbin thread so I took that part of the machine apart and blew some air in to get the dust out.  My project was going to be hemming a simple curtain for the bathroom window, and I had the brilliant idea of doing a test patch of sewing before I put the good fabric in.  I am so relieved I did, because the bobbin thread got all wound around itself and there are loops on the backside of the fabric and the whole thing is a big ole mess. 

I checked the manual and of course it says to re-thread the machine and try again.  Apparently re-threading the machine is the equivalent of re-booting one's computer.  I am not amused.  The manual suggests that the tension isn't right, but I don't think I've ever touched the tension so that doesn't seem to be the answer.  I suppose something may have happened during the move, but I made sure she came in a car instead of the moving truck because I wanted her to have an easy ride.  900 miles in the car is alot of jiggling and jostling.  So anyhow,

I rethreaded and the same darn thing happened. 

I checked Singer's website for troubleshooting help.  It said to rethread the machine.

I rethreaded and the same darn thing happened.

So I left my little patch there and I'm going to have to take it in somewhere.  I am very sad.  If anyone happens to have any ideas for me between now and Tuesday morning please feel free to pass them on.  Tuesday is my day off, so the little bird and I will be taking a ride to the sewing machine doctor.