Whew, we are in the midst of a heatwave right now in NC and it’s hard to stay cool. I’ve been busy getting ready for the garage sale this week – I expect a healthy turn out! It feels good to get rid of some of this stuff – when the fabric is piled around you it is hard to think.
A sampling of my wares
I am also working hard on writing up my tote pattern. I hope to get this ready by the end of August. Not much else to report right now, but I did find a great new blog run by Jen Lopez of “Sew Fun” that has a lot of great sewing advice. One of her recent blog posts discussed what to do with your stash when you have your house on the market. Check her out!
Sew many things, sew little time! Sorry, it just had to be said – there are a lot of things going on in the next few months and I need to be better about managing my sewing and designing time. This is the year I really want to take a step forward with turning Keep It Thimble into something more than a blog – and I working over the past few months on some things that are helping in that regard.
One thing I am planning is to have three of my patterns written, tested, and published before the end of this year. The first pattern is called “Carry All Project Tote”. This is a working title, so if you have any title suggestions, please send them my way!
Carry All Project Tote
This tote was inspired by the popular L.L Bean tote bags, but with a twist (of course). My version features two exterior pockets, one in front of the other, and it also has a bit of the lining that peeks out on the top to form a nice contrasting edge. Another nice feature is that this tote is very sturdy and stiff so you can easily reach inside to get things without the bag flopping over. The dimensions are the perfect size for a few books, sewing supplies, and other project needs. It would also make an ideal library tote.
The pattern will be written up by the end of July and then it will be tested in August/September and ready for purchase in October – if all goes well. That may be an optimistic schedule, but I have to start somewhere don’t I?
In other news, the group involved in the Porch Sale had a meeting yesterday. We have expanded to about 17 vendors and should have a nice variety of things to offer. Mark your calendars for Oct 14th and 15th.
Tomatoes always remind me of summer time and sewing! I’m sure you can remember your grandmother’s well-worn tomato pincushions. My friend Liberty Rose loves tomatoes pin cushions so much, she made this delightful pattern for a tomato penny rug.
Tomato Penny Rug
I started this project last summer and it is listed as one of the UFOs to finish for this year. It can now be crossed off the list. Right now it is sitting on top of the antique spool chest in my sewing room! This is the fifth penny rug I’ve made in the past few years. These little projects are fun to make because you can easily carry a few pennies around in your purse and stitch on them when you can. Pennies are also fun because there is so much you can do with this as far as embellishments and embroidery!
I have a few ideas for my own penny rug designs based on Liberty Rose’s basic template (with her permission of course). I plan to get the patterns finished up by the end of the year as part of the pattern line I am creating.
Also, I have decided on the date for the quilter’s yard sale – July 23rd from 8am – 12pm. If you want to do some virtual shopping, just let me know. For those of you in the area, stop by (email me offline for my address).
Renee Plains is one of my favorite designers and I have been meaning to make a project from her “Bird In the Hand” book. This little pillow attracted me because it was small and featured needle-turn applique – a technique I’ve been wanting to try for awhile.
Crow Pillow
The original project features the word “Bird” across the top, but I change mine to say “Crow.” I also made the linen square in the bottom left larger and embroidered the word “buttons” – I thought this added a nice touch. Finally, I added a few french knots on the strawberry so it looked like it had seeds (the lighting is not so great so it is hard to see the berry agains the red background).
Sharon at Liberty Rose was kind enough to show me the basics of needle-turn applique, and it is really isn’t as difficult as it seems. I do agree it will take some practice to get good at it so that my appliques look nice and have tiny stitches. However, if I can learn how to do it well, it will save me a lot of time! I have done both the templar/starch method (tutorial by Suppose Quilt Boutique) and freezer paper method (tutorial by the Golden Thimble) and find these both to be time consuming since a lot of time is spent “prepping” the shapes before they are sewn onto the background.
Both of these methods are easier for newbies to use since they eliminate a lot of the guess work of how much of the edge you need to turn under before you sew. One reason why I really enjoy wool applique is because you can just cut and stitch – no extra steps to get the shapes ready – so projects can go pretty quickly.
Also, I have been doing a major clean out of my sewing room and will be having a crafter’s/quilter’s yard sale in a few weeks. I plan to sell off part of my stash and other miscellaneous crafting supplies that I haven’t used for at least a year. If you are interested in finding out the details, please email me (email link in the upper right of my blog).
Hope everyone has a great Fourth! The weather is beautiful and we are heading off to the big parade in downtown Apex. The kids decorate their bikes, wagons, baby strollers, and march down main street waving flags and cheering! At the end of the parade, the fire station has a firetruck set up to spray water on the kids so they can cool off. Should be a lot of fun.
Wool Flags
There are some fun little wool flags made from a pattern by Debbie Busby 0f Wooden Spool Designs. A vintage flower frog holds the flags quite nicely. The sticks will be painted black and maybe a bow will be tied around some of the sticks. I thought this would be a fairly quick project, but there is a lot of hand stitching involved, so it took a few hours to complete all 5. They are small enough to carry around in your purse if you want to work on something for a few minutes while you are waiting.
Keep it Thimble 