Quilting and a Pillow for Technology

You'll have to thank my oldest daughter for this post.  I was working on my quilt and she said that I needed to take pictures and blog it, as well as an iPad pillow I made.

First the quilt...

This is for my room.  I fell in love with this fabric online and was so glad they had it at the quilt shop in town.  It's Moda's 3 Sisters Etchings collection.  The pattern I'm using is Eleanor Burns's make a Quilt in a Day log cabin pattern.

It's really simple once you get started.  At first I was a little confused because I'm not use to following quilt instructions and had to make sure I was putting things in the right order.

Here is the layout for adding the 2nd Dark Fabric.  She just adds the already sewn pieces to the strip as she goes.  I am a pinner so...  

Next step is easy, just sew 1/4 in. seam down the strip.

Last I use my ruler to cut the blocks apart.  

I'm really enjoying this quilt.  I could be a line worker somewhere.  It suits me :). 

Okay Ang, how are my colors?  If you like them I picked them out, if not Greg did!

Pillow for the technilogicly advanced... and not so advanced :D.  

My mother-in-law will be having knee surgery soon and I wanted to give her something for her time of recuperation.  She is not technilogically savy, but my brother-in-law gave her an iPad several months back, so I thought she might play games on it or do some reading the modern way.  I came across this great pattern on Pinterest and loved it.  It was increadably easy to make.  Below are the pics of the one I did.

Tip:

Epsom Salt is a GREAT fabric softener!

No more static cling!

1 Tbls. per load and you'll never use dryer sheets again :)

Dress Skirt

Here is the skirt I mentioned in my last post...

Excuse the wrinkles.  I didn't remember pictures until that evening.

I absolutely love this fabric.  Unfortunately JoAnn's no longer has this one :( .  I wanted to make a vest to go with it and a white poplin shirt.  The pattern which I love is New Look 0136 .  I did have to lengthen this and I didn't find the sizes very accurate to the measurements.  I normally fit pattern size 22 ,  but the one made is size 16. However, this is easy, and fun, to make.

Oh, and the zipper is in the back (I've made several with side zippers).  The zipper was interesting.  I didn't quite follow directions and did my own thing.  I used an invisible zipper, but I sewed the zipper at the 1/2" mark on one side and 5/8" on the other.  Sewing it only to the seam allowance like you would a normal invisible zipper.  I didn't sew around the outside.  I just wanted to see what would happen, ;).  It turned out well although I'm not sure that I like it any different than the usual way I do invisible zippers.  Wow, so is there a synonym for zipper!

Here are just a few of the things we've been up to...

A little gift for a wonderful older lady at church who loves the rain and most importantly the Lord.  

A hold all case for a friend of mine.  She bought and picked out the beautiful fabric.  

She's actually quite good at sewing herself :)
The Pattern: Atkinson Designs' Classmate

I'm working on a shirt for Little Greg.  I am almost finished, just needs buttons and hemming :).

Pattern: Simplicity 4975 View A 

Hubby suggested a pen pocket and that he liked his toward the outside 

of the pocket instead of the side close to the buttons.

Tay working on a flannel doll quilt for a basket she made.  

Didn't get a picture of the basket, yet.

Well nothing for the shop in these photos, but were working on it ;).

Finished!

I had some issues with this shirt. I kept leaving it and coming back to it. A friend came over one day and saw it on my dummy and told me I had to finish it. I was going to have it done the Wednesday before she left for her new life in the mountains :), however, I forgot to get the buttons!!! I absolutely love the ones I wound up finding for it.

I also made another shirt from the same pattern (New Look 6781).

I was told the sleeves look nice but I didn't like either of them.  They seem to big.  Although the cuff on the floral/strip shirt turned out nice with the buttons, it's so cute!  I really need a good camera, lol, mine broke when we moved here and I've either used my phone or my daughter's camera. 

                                                               

Elaine





Old Fashion Sunday

Here are the dresses!! My DD made my dress and I made my friends dress.

I was able to demonstrate the spinning wheel. I was borrowing it from my spinning/weaving teacher (ewedancewool.etsy.com).

The girls gathered sticks that I had my son smooth out and put notches in. I bought a few ounces of roving (also from my teacher) and the kids all got try spinning for themselves.

It was a great day of preaching and fellowship and it went into a great week of revival meetings.

Walking Skirt

Simplicity 2655

This is one of the best patterns I've ever come across.  I love the design!

The fabric I used in the above picture (excuse the worn-the-day-before look :)

is a light weight stretch poplin.

The pockets are great.  They hold quite a bit without you feeling weighed down.

I've also made this skirt with Rip Stop fabric.  I would have liked it in a lighter weight

but the medium I found worked out well. 



Some Past Projects

I finally uploaded pics from my phone.  Phone pics are not the best but here they are:

This is a patchfolio I made for Grace.  I went to Sew and Sew's Place (really!) and saw a little girls rain coat made from these fabrics.  I'd really like to do rain coats for the girls one day.  Until then I thought these would work great for a patchfolio.  Pattern by CraftApple.

I made this folio for a friend.

 This is Grace's "Old Fashioned Day" dress. 

 Here is the bag I mentioned in my last post. 

Not Going My Way

Well things are just not going the way I had hoped.  My bar soap covers did not work out.  Back to the drawing board on that one.  I thought about just a mitten and you can drop the soap in it when done.

The liquid soap didn't turn out so well either.  I will try again using MoSoap's lye soap.  The others are just too oily.  Maybe the little that's in lye will be just the right touch of oil. 

The weaving over all is going well.  I had a little mishap when I tried loosening the part already woven to count my 6" thread markers.  When I rewound it, it pulled in the thread string from shuttle messing up several rows.  After I fixed it and got it wound, I had trouble keeping it from pulling in at the sides.  I redid about 6".  Well it's my first project, and not for me colors, so I'm not to heart broken.

My biscornu turned out great!  I'm just waiting for a bead from In Mom's Eyes .

I made a bag for my neice from Tone Finnanger of Tilda.  I'll post pics after I get the flower on.

This and That

It's been awhile since I've posted about projects I'm working on and thought I'd share a few.

This first one is actually one that Taylor did for a little one at church.

She crocheted the pocket lace and did a hand embroidered stem stitch for the collar. The picture she used was from a greeting card she received.

Here I am doing a small Biscornu. I did a larger one here with a tutorial.

In looking back I see where I wasn't clear in some of the steps. If you have questions, please email me. I will fix the issues as soon as I can.

This is a table loom my MIL gave me just before we moved to NC. It was her grandmothers. I absolutely love it. I contacted a lady about her chickens and wound up with lessons! I saw some really nice guitar and belt weaving patterns that I excited about trying.

I was complaining to my husband about doing a project that I'm not excited about and that I'm one that would rather do a project that is too difficult, but inspiring than one that is easy that I lack enthusiasm over. He loves my corny artist quotes, like, "An artist needs inspiration!" It always gives him a good laugh.

I bought goats milk soap from a vendor at the county fair. I do not like having a mess from the bar in the shower, so I thought I'd make some terry cloth sack like thingys. I'll think of a better name later. I will put some up on my etsy (along with more laundry soap) and see what happens. The fabric I'll be using is Michael Miller's Organic Terry Cloth. MoSoap is an excellent source for lye soaps. They are very generous.

Ostrich Costume

Taylor as Omelet Ostrich

I sewed feathers onto an old t-shirt of little Greg's.

I got the feathers from Hobby Lobby and used my Walking Foot

to keep the feathers from shifting to much or the t-shirt from stretching.

For the neck and sleeves I used white feather boas (also from Hobby Lobby).

I sewed the top neck boa, but the others I used liquid stitch.

It really worked well. I was running out of time and it came in handy.

I also used the liquid stitch for the fill in feathers on the arm. The boa itself was

not quite enough and gluing the feathers in between worked out well.

Now, what do I do with an Ostrich costume?!

Projects I've been working on.

I am a terrible picture taker, lol! Below is a patchfolio using
CraftApple's pattern.
I used some of my machines heirloom and quilting stitches for the design.
Not sure I like the design but didn't want to waste fabric.
The border is a eyelet stitch using the wing needle.

The inside is also done with eyelet stitches.
My pen pocket is a little small but it works.
Below is a skirt that I was going to start and the shirt I wanted to wear with it.
You can't tell in the picture but the fabric is close to a charcoal grey and a little shine to it.
I have finished the skirt and will post pics when I wear it.
The only thing I didn't like was that it has a front seam.

This is a jacket I started ages ago. Needless to say it is a UFO.

The "scarf" is actually the belt to the skirt above.

Last but not least is the start of an attempt to make a Waldorf Doll.
These are so cute!
We'll see if it actually is accomplished.

Cool Tools

When the latest edition of Nancy's Notions arrived I was thrilled to find a multi purpose seam gauge.  Not only multi purpose but almost three times the width of my own little gauge.  I had been dreaming of one and thought it would be great if someone created a longer edge gauge to save me time.  Lo and behold it was in the magazine!  It was on my list of ASAP buys only to be disappointed.  They were out of stock!  So I made sure I checked back on the proposed restock date and was able to order the tool of my dreams...the 5 in 1 Sliding Gauge

Next is my 4" curved Fiskars.  These are great for cutting my embroidery thread close to where I knot it.  Yes!, I do knot when I embroider.  I use these in cutting my quilting thread as well.

3rd is the magnetic wand.  Mine is actually plain red and rectangular.  However JoAnn's didn't have that one and this on is much cutter.

Last is the Mini Iron.  I do not have this item but it's definitely on my wish list.  I can't even begin to tell you the times when I've need a tool like this.  Also at JoAnn's

Out with the Old in with the New

Out with the Old... I am almost finished with a skirt mentioned here. I'll be glad to be done with it. It is a nice look but I don't like the directions. Below is the finished look and pattern number (Simplicity) if your interested.

In with the New...
I came across a free log cabin paper piecing pattern (can't remember where) and loved it. They are so easy to make and great for using up those scrape pieces. My two favorite are the upper right and the bottom left. Not sure what they will end up as, but I have a few ideas.

I'm still working on the bible case pattern. I'm currently focusing on the embroidery that I want to include for the pockets.