Have Needles, Will Travel

I wanted to make a small bag that closed, to hold a portable sewing project and supplies, that I could take along when I'd have a chance to sew away from home.

I used a small basic tote bag pattern I'd made some years ago (it's 10" tall--just right for a take-along project, or as a child's tote bag), then I added a drawstring cover like the one I made for this lunch bag (a link to the lunch bag tutorial is in the post). To adapt the size of the cover for this larger bag, I measured the width of the opening of the tote bag, then cut the width and height of the two cover pieces large enough to fit.

I sewed the cover into the top edge, between the exterior fabric and the lining. That was simpler than the technique for the lunch bag, and made the project bag as roomy as possible. When I hit the road, I can stuff the cover and ties into the bag, nice and tidy, and everything inside stays clean and all together.
(And thank you, JoAnn, for stocking so many lovely designer fabrics these days! This one is by Patty Young for Modkid. It's one of my favorites; I have it in pink-and-yellow, too. It makes me think of Art Deco peacock feathers.)

 I keep my traveling sewing supplies in this tea tin--a needle book, scissors, small tape measure, a thimble of my grandma's I never use, and a seam ripper which I unfortunately do use.

Those sleepy bears are so sweet. The little ones all tucked in under their bright patchwork quilt. I've treasured this tin a long time--it's around 30 years old now. *gasps to self*

 Let me show you the little needle books I made, a year or so ago. I followed this tutorial by nanaCompany. They are tiny patchwork front and back, a combination of machine and hand stitching, with white felt 'pages'. The one in feedsack fabrics lives in the tea tin; the one in the bright little prints stays home on a shelf.

 A happy weekend to you all, and Happy Halloween!

Lynn

Linked up with Finish It Up Friday , NTT and MontagsMacher.

Haunted Houses

But haunted only by friendly, slightly mischievous spirits, of course.

I first saw cute little houses like this in the book Scandinavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman. She makes such sweet, colorful, charming things (her blog is here).  I fiddled around with the design a bit--sizes, details--and made one just right for me. I love those little windows and rounded doors, button doorknobs and crooked chimneys.

I made some little houses last year for Christmas decorations, to keep and give away...but really, how could I resist making some for Halloween? And how could I not make a small neighborhood??

Applique'ing the windows and doors is so much fun, and so is picking out combinations of fabrics for each house---the wilder, the better. I like to make them with a high contrast of colors and fabrics, so they stand out and look more whimsical.

You never know what you might find in your neighbor's woodpile...

(Linked up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday)

Took You Long Enough

After a little more than a year (!?), my Zephyr quilt top is finished! That's okay that it took so long, I was in no hurry. These improv-style log cabin blocks are so much fun to sew, but can be a little time consuming. They may look totally random, but I give a bit of thought to what fabric I'll add next; I like to have a good balance of patterns and colors. So I'd make a few here and there in between other projects, when I just wanted to play.

I'd originally planned to make smaller scrap blocks, shown above, and surround each with yellow, green and blue solids...but at some point I decided to go full-on scrappy. Sometimes when you're adding 'walls' to your improv log cabins, you just don't want to stop ;)

This was my work area (a.k.a. kitchen table). I was surrounded by lots and lots of (mostly) freehand-cut strips and scraps. And see that little ironing board? Handiest thing I've ever made! It's a wooden tv tray, padded and covered to make a portable ironing board (click here for the tutorial). For any kind of block that needs to be pressed after every seam...I just turn around and there it is.

It's taken so long (I even had a sewing machine upgrade in the meantime), but all those strips and scraps have turned into this queen-size quilt top:

Each finished block measured 12 1/2" x 12 1/2", 56 blocks with a scrap border. It's busy, but the palette is limited, so that keeps it from being too crazy. I wish I had taken a full picture of it, but it's turned way too gray and rainy here, so I'll show you the whole thing when it's all quilted and bound.

Along the way, I had a few roadblocks:

She's like a sweet, loving Godzilla, laying waste to my work area.

The destruction. There's one of the poor blocks, jammed up against my sewing machine.

Or I find someone taking a bath on it. Clearly she was as excited about the top being finished as I was. Normally these kinds of antics are not tolerated, but they're smart enough to know 1. Get into position quickly and 2. Look as adorable as possible.
Sometimes I just sigh and get the camera.

I'm going to machine quilt it. It'll be only the second quilt I'll have machine quilted, and the first full-size quilt...wish me luck! Now let's hope it doesn't take another year :/

Have a happy weekend!

Linked up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

All the Small Things

Do I ever make just one--or even two--of something? Rarely.
Do I need more pouches, purses or bags in my life? Nooooo.
Am I the least bit bothered by either of these facts? Pffft. Never.

When I saw Svetlana's little zip-front coin pouches (tutorial here), I couldn't resist sewing up a few. Putting together matching fabrics and zippers or trims for little things like this is so fun, who can stop at just one? Clearly, not me.

They measure 3" x 4", perfect to hold all sorts of little things in your purse, in an overnight bag, or add a clasp or little carabiner and hang from your belt loop if you're 'traveling light'.

 To be honest, I found these rather fiddly to make. Easy enough, but fiddly--a lot of basting involved, and some blind stitching at the end. Sewing pouches with the zipper at the top is much simpler and quicker. And I haven't used these yet, so I don't know if I'll find them handier than ones with a top zip. The zipper in front does make them awfully cute, though; it's another pretty design element. (With the zip on top, you could sew a contrasting band or ribbon across the front and get the same effect. I'll file that idea away for future reference ;)

If you've sewn pouches and have any opinions about zipper placement, I'd like to hear them. And tell me I'm not the only one who can't resist multiples of everything!

Have a great weekend!

Linked up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

Fiddlehead Fern Skirt

I have long admired the work and designs of Alabama Chanin, a company in Florence, AL that makes clothing out of organic cotton jersey knit (t-shirt fabric), sewn and embellished completely by hand by local stitchers. An item of their clothing can cost hundreds of dollars, sometimes more, so I am very grateful the company's founder, Natalie Chanin, has authored three books (first, second, third ) where she generously shares patterns, stencils and techniques to make your own. They are three of my favorite sewing books; I return to them often for inspiration. This is my third version of the Swing Skirt from the first book. (Please ignore the wrinkles, they aren't really there. Trick of the light, I guess.)

I love this skirt style--fitted, but still stretchy and so comfy. I prefer mine to fall just below the knee, shorter than the pattern given in the book (I'm 5'6"). It's two layers--the under layer is brown--to give it more body, which is important when you are embellishing stretchy knit fabric. The seams of the four skirt panels are sewn with running stitch and felled (folded over and stitched with two rows, like blue jean seams).

I embellished this one minimally. I drew the fiddlehead ferns on freehand, but this simple and lovely design is not my own--I saw it in a sewing book (also on a knit skirt) that I got from the library, but I'll be darned if I can remember the book's title or authors ( I believe there were two). I did a quick browse around Amazon and still couldn't find it, so if any reader recognizes it, please tell me the book's title and authors so I can give credit where it's due. To give the fiddleheads a nice, defined outline, I used a backstitch with four strands of embroidery floss in many leafy shades of green. I wanted the colors and embroidery to be soft and subtle. (I know: Me? Sew something subtle? I can hardly believe it myself.)

I have about as many embellished knit ideas as I have quilt ideas--so enough to keep me very busy ;) Here's a peek at my next skirt: purple! This one will be my second version using the spiral applique's from the second book.

These knit projects are wonderfully portable. They often take me forever to finish, because I tend to 'save' them for occasions when I want something portable to work on. But they get done, little by little, stitch by stitch. This current one is progressing quite quickly, though. Probably because, you know...purple!

Have you ever done any hand-sewing with cotton jersey?

Have a good week!

Linked up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and Nilya for MontagsMacher

Hookin' a Rug

For a long time I've wanted to crochet a rag rug from fabric strips. It was just an idea in the back of my head, until I read  this tutorial by Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. It was easy to make and I love how colorful and random it is and how 'homespun' it looks.

I've never used yarn this bulky or a hook this big (size P), so I found it really hard to get my crochet groove on, but I'll get better and quicker with practice. Of course I want to make more!

And man, oh man, does this use up the scraps! All my scrap 'strings' are history, and I had to cut lots more from my stash. This rug is a perfect way to make some of those fabrics you don't like anymore go away--you know, the ones you regret buying, but you paid good money for them, darn it. Yeah, those fabrics. Let's not speak of them, shall we? Let's just cut them up into strips for pretty rugs and pretend that's what we meant to do with them all along ;)

 There are lots of flowers in there, some fish, some Christmas trees, some Spider-Man (don't ask)...

"You made this for me, right?"

During photos, it quickly became the place to be.

It measures 22"x 29", and now lives by the side of the bed. Feels so nice under foot.

Have a good weekend!

Linked up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Ode to Joy Quilt

When I saw this little cross wall quilt , I wanted to make one, too. It's made with lovely Liberty of London fabrics--so many pretty, delicate florals. But the cost of Liberty fabrics means they, sadly, aren't a part of my stash. *sigh* But that's okay, I have plenty of pretties in my scrap baskets. I used a variety of colors and prints in bright, saturated jewel tones.

The colors just glow in the morning light.

These little blocks are really fun and quick to make. You can find directions for this slice-and-insert technique--and examples from simple to complex--in "Quilting Modern"  (one of my favorite quilting books) by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson , but this basic block is simple to figure out by looking at it. Just make sure your background square is ~1/2" larger than you want your final block to be, so you have a little leeway when squaring up your block. I squared my blocks to 5". I definitely see more of these cross blocks in my future :) Likely with colored solids or subtle prints for the background, like this one.

I prefer a wider binding (this one is 1/2" wide), but I didn't want to cover up any more of the outer edge crosses than I had to, so I added a narrow white border. The backing/binding is a Robert Kaufman print called "The Enchanted Desert" that looks like painted tiles. I bought a boatload of it some years ago at a big discount, and I'm so glad I did; I've used it in many projects.

I quilted it with wavy intersecting lines, to soften all the straight lines and angles of the crosses. This is the first quilt I've machine quilted...and I have mixed feelings about that. I love how it turned out! It looks good, the machine quilting went smoothly, it was SO much faster, and my wrist has been hurting lately from quilting and sewing (and gardening, etc.). But it feels stiffer, it doesn't have that wonderful drape and softness from being handled so much during hand-quilting, or that tactile look you can only get from hand stitches. Washing it would make it softer, and it's a wall quilt, so the hand (how fabric feels) doesn't matter as much...but still, I miss the hand-quilted look and texture, and the time spent with it draped over my lap. So, I'm torn.

This little quilt is one of my favorites. It measures 30"x 43", and will hang in the bedroom over the bed. The crosses remind me of colorful birds in flight. What beautiful things to wake up to!