Brenda Gervais has a cute little pincushion called Emery the Sewing Mouse – perfect for any sewing room! I couldn’t resist him , especially with that little thimble hat!
Sewing Mouse
This is a fun afternoon project that requires a bit of this and that. You cut out the mouse body in wool, stitch around the body, arms, and legs and turn these all inside out. The arms and legs are especially challenging since they are so small. Hemostats are great for turning these small pieces since you can working the tips into small openings and get a good grip on the fabric to turn it.
Sewing Mouse
You also do a lot of handwork on this. You stitch the arms and legs on by hand, and then use embroidery floss to create his beady little eyes and pink nose. I added a little mouth as well, so that he has a crooked little smile.
Sewing Mouse
The thimble is glued one (Allene’s Quick Grab is good for this), as is his tail (which is a rusty piece of wire twisted into a tail shape). The strawberry is sewn on the machine and stuffed with a filling of sand, sawdust and fiberfil. Once stuffed, you tack on the green cap by hand. The project is finished when you stitch Emery down on the strawberry. How cute is this?
I really love miniature quilts – they are like little works of art and it’s a great way to use up your scraps. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that since they are so small they will take less time to make. It seems they actually take more time to make since you are dealing with such small pieces and there are a lot of pieces in to sew together!
Little House on the Prairie
I saw this adorable little house in a book called Little Bits of Whimsy by Kathleen Brooks Rindal and decided to attempt my first miniature quilt. The finished product is about 9″ square and has about 175 little bits of fabric. Almost every single piece of fabric in this is unique – look closely to see if you can find where there are repeats (one is VERY obvious – at least to me).
Since the fabric pieces are so small for miniature quilts, it needs to be foundation pieced. This is something I have always wanted to try, but have always been a bit leery of it – it seems so difficult. After doing it, I can honesty say foundation piecing is easy to do and the results are wonderful. You do need to concentrate while doing it, but once you get into a rhythm it all goes smoothy.
Here is a brief tutorial on the basics of foundation piecing. You start by tracing (with a pencil) the pattern onto tracing paper or vellum. This paper template will form the foundation of the block. Each piece on the pattern is numbered, and these number tell the order in which the pieces are sewn onto the foundation (see picture – Step 1).
Step 1 - Pieced Border Template
Once the pattern is traced, you rough cut a piece of fabric that is the shape of the first piece. Include a generous 1/4″ inch seam allowance when rough cutting the piece. Place the fabric right side up on the front of the pattern. Next, rough cut fabric that will be used for the second piece in the pattern. Place this piece right side down on the first piece (see picture – Step 2).
Step 2 - Placing Fabrics
Pin these piece in place. Flip over the paper foundation and you will be able to see the lines of the pattern (this is why the paper needs to be transparent). Sew along the line on the pattern where the two pieces are overlapping (see picture – Step 3).
Step 3 - Sewing First Seam
Once the seam is sewn, flip the foundation over to the right side. Press the two fabric pieces open (see picture – Step 4). If necessary, trim off any excess fabric – but be sure to maintain the extra for the 1/4″ seam allowance.
Step 4 - Pressed Seam
Continue sewing the pieces in this manner following the order of the pattern until completed (see picture – Step 5).
Step 5 - Pieced BorderStep 5 - Back of Pieced Border
Once you have the pattern completed, trim off the excess fabric while still maintaining the 1/4″ seam allowance. To do this, take your ruler and line up the 1/4″ line measurement with the pattern edge and trim with a rotary cutter. This section is completed!
This little house pattern is structured so that you foundation piece the different parts (the house block, the inner border, the outer border) and then sew the whole thing together.
The last step is to quilt and bind it. I did a little of stitch in the ditch quilting around the inner borders. The project is so small you could probably get away with not quilting it at all. However, the quilting around the borders makes it look more finished. There were some places where the machine quilting is obvious, so I may rip it out and just quilt by hand (however, I have to find the time first!).
Here is my first attempt at making a primitive doll – Miss Emily. I made her in cottage style fabrics, so she doesn’t really look prim – but I like the general effect. I might end up staining her with a walnut crystals as she looks too clean :).
Miss Emily
I can’t remember who made the pattern, but it was easy to follow. Dollmaking is a little bit different than I thought it would be (actually easier). For one thing, you don’t cut out the pattern pieces and then sew them together. Instead, you trace the pattern onto the fabric, and then place the fabric right sides together, and sew around the line you traced. This eliminates the problem of the cut pattern pieces sliding around as you are trying to sew around curves.
She is a basic cylinder with arms and legs sewed on separately. The arms and legs are filled partially with sand so you can pose her easily (she looks great sitting on top of the fireplace). Her hair is made from doll hair (you can get this at the craft store). I decided to give her bangs since she has such a high forehead, but may end up redoing her hair with thin yard instead.
The dress is simple to construct. The shirt is “flat construction”, meaning you cut out the front and back of the shirt and sew it together. The neckline and the sleeves are finished by simply turning the raw edges to the inside. The skirt is a long rectangle that is gathered at the waist. The apron is a rectangle hemmed on 3 sides, with a small waistband. Overall, her outfit turned out really cute!
My son is at that age where he gets invited to lots of birthday parties, so I am always on the look-out for fun little things to make for party favors and little gifts.
This first favor is one I made for my son’s Pirate themed party. The pattern is the Child’s Coloring Bag from Clothesline Quilts. What’s great about these bags is they don’t take up a lot of fabric and you can easily make 8 in about 90 minutes (which includes the time to quilt the fabric). Next, go to the Dollar Tree and pick out some crayons and other little things to go inside!
Pirate's Booty Party Favor
The next favor is a Zipper Critter by Indygo Junction. The pattern comes with three different sizes and three different types of of animals (dog, cat, pig). It’s great for using up scraps and any old zippers you have laying aroud. What’s nice is that you can personalize the fabric choice for each child, or do it all based around a theme. These critters also make nice package decorations – especially the smaller one that is attached to a lanyard. One of these takes about 30 minutes to make (although you can speed things up if you want to make several by cutting them all out at once and sewing them assembly line style).
First, a big Happy Birthday to my friend Sharon Stewart at Liberty Rose. Have a great day!!
Second, Sharon was the master mind behind this project – a Sewing Scrapbook made out of paper lunch bags. She offered this as a one of her scrapbooking classes and I fell in love with it (I hardly ever scrapbook) so I had to take the class.
Sewing Scrapbook - Front CoverSewing Scrapbook - Interior 1
Sharon always does a lot of prep work for her classes and this was no different – she provided all the goodies for each page in the book – including the antique buttons. I added a few more embellishments when I got home – there are tons of great sewing images you can download for free from the internet!
Once you have a collection of images you want for your theme, you can use a color printer to print them out on cardstock. We used off-white and brown kraft cardstock, which coordinates nicely with the paper bags. Once the images are printed, you can cut them out, distress them, and place into the book. You can use this for tons of different themes (I have a few ideas) and they are a great craft for kids. Use colored pencils to add a dash of color to some of the drawings, and scraps of fabric and trim are put to good use as well.
We also used some of the paper from old patterns to add some texture and visual interest. For the pockets, you create square cards, print an image on them, add a tab, and have a little surprise in the book (see Interior 5 for an example, the little girl on the right is one of these tabbed cards that goes inside). Sharon used images of embroidery stitches we would have a handy reference for how to do some basic stitches.
Sewing Scrapbook - Back Cover
They are very easy to make. Start with three brown paper lunch bags and fold them in half. Stack them by alternating where the opening is placed so there two openings on side side and one on the other side (also make sure the bottom bag flaps are on the inside pages, not the front and back covers), and then staple down the middle.
Lunch Bag Scrapbook - View 1Lunch Bag Scrapbook - View 2
Once you have your little book – you can decorate it however you want! I have made a few of these for my son already. He enjoys drawing pictures on each page and using rubber stamps and stickers to embellish them.
My goal is to finish one UFO a month – so here is the one for February – the Patriotic Table Runner! I machine quilted this myself on my Bernina with the BSR. This was one of my first attempts and I can tell that I need a lot of practice with my free motion quilting.
Patriotic Table Runner
I’m also not entirely sure I am using the BSR correctly – I swear my stitches looked much neater when I tried this out in the store. I was able to write my name and everything! However, like anything, this is something that requires a lot of practice in order to do correctly. I don’t see myself doing a lot of my own quilting though, as my favorite part is making the quilt top! For something like table runners or simple quilting, I can handle it.
It’s hard to find bag patterns that are suitable for men, so I decided to create a replica of the trusty bag that Jack Bauer always carries on “24.” Jack’s bag is basically a green canvas army surplus bag (although in later seasons he may have upgraded to something leather).
Messenger Bag - Front
I haven’t written up this pattern yet, but I have all the notes for it (someplace). This is one of the first patterns I plan to write up to include in my line of patterns I am developing. This bag has several exterior pockets, roomy interior, and a small zippered pocket in the lining. I plan to revise the pattern so that the handle is adjustable, and maybe add two front closures to it (instead of just the single one).
Messenger Bag - Interior
This bag is made out of black canvas, and I used a light black cotton for the lining. I broke at least two needles sewing the bottom seams where all the pockets, lining, etc. come together (the thickness is about 8 – 10 layers of fabric).
Messenger Bag - Side
This would look great in leather or any type of canvas. If making for a woman, you could even use some of the funky oilcloth with the super-saturated colors. I hope to have the pattern written up sometime in the next few months – so stay tuned!
I guess the groundhog was right, Spring is coming early this year! For the past week, we’ve been having 60 degree weather – perfect for going outside and sewing! Here’s a cute Springtime Table Topper I made from a Kansas Trouble Quilter’s pattern in celebration of Spring.
Springtime Pleasures Topper
This is fusible applique, which is a lot faster than other types of applique. With fusible applique, you trace the shapes onto a fusible backing, cut them out, arrange them on the background, and then fuse them down with the iron. The last step is to do a small zig-zag stitch around the edge of the applique pieces to secure them. This is important because if you forget to sew them down, all the appliques will fall off when it is washed!
After I stitched down the appliques, I did “echo” quilting around the flowers. “Echo” quilting is when you trace around the outline of the shapes in a continuous line until you get to the edge of the quilt. In the middle of the quilt I did a simple spiral shape. My machine quilting is not so great, so the spiral seemed like the easiest option. After quilting, I used bias binding to finish it.
This is a quilt top that is currently on my UFO list because it still needs to be quilted. However, I thought it would be appropriate for today’s post :).
This split applique is very easy to do – I learned how to do it in a class taught at Plain and Simple. Basically you create a heart template in 3 sizes – small, medium, large. You get scraps of red fabric and cut out one of each heart for each block you want to make. You begin by sewing small heart on top of the medium, then sewing this unit on top of the large heart, and then sewing this onto your applique background.
This is rough edge applique, meaning that you don’t need to prep the pieces to turn the edges and you don’t need to hide your stitches. You just sew around the rough edges of each shape, about 1/4″ in from the edge. After completing your blocks, you cut each one into fourths. Then you randomly select 4 pieces and sew them back together as a new heart. I really enjoyed this project, and it’s a great for people who are just learning how to quilt.
I haven’t quite decided how to quilt this yet, because I don’t want to quilt over the hearts. When this is washed, the rough edges will ravel and the hearts will look like they have a bit of a ruffle or fringe around the edge. It’s a nice effect for something like this.
Now that the holidays are over, I’ve been hitting up the thrift stores and flea markets again. People donate a lot of stuff at the end of the year, so I figure this is prime time to check out the local Goodwill and Salvation Army. I’m still looking for things for the house – I’ll be doing some painting in the next month or so and then I will be able to arrange all the great pieces I’ve found so far.
Schoolhouse QuiltSchoolhouse Quilt Detail
This is a schoolhouse block quilt I found at the local flea market. It’s probably from the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. It is pretty good condition, there is some minor repair work to be done and it needs washed. The lady who sold it me said I could wash it by hand in the bathtub with Orvus Quilt soap. It would probably take 5 – 6 rinses, but she thinks a lot of the stains will come out. The backing is made from old feedsacks and it is entirely made by hand. I love it!
Storage Bin
This is a funny little wooden storage bin. It’s solid wood and in good condition, it just needs some TLC. I am going to use this piece as my test case for learning how to refinish furniture. It will be stripped and I will either paint it or stain it something very dark and replace all the hardware. I am also going to sand off the scratches and fix it up. It will look great in my sewing room!
Child's Rocking ChairChild's Rocker - Side View
This is the sweetest little child’s rocker. I found this for only $5!!! It is handmade and probably about 40+ years old. The best part is the section on the back where you can store books or other things. I imagine having a quilt draped on it and some type of prim flower arrangement in the back. Any suggestions?
Playskool Barn
Another fun child’s thing – an old Playskool Barn. This is probably from the 60’s or 70’s. It includes a set of blocks with the Farmer and his wife. My son wants to know why the wife looks so sad – she has quite a frown on her face. Maybe the farmer tracked mud all over the house?
Little Brass Owl
Finally, here is a cute little brass owl. He’s about 3″ high and is the perfect knick knack for my sewing room. He looks like a spooky Halloween owl and I couldn’t resist him (he was only 50 cents).
Keep it Thimble 