Fabric Covered Boxes

I took a class on making fabric covered boxes from Lisa Kilgore, owner of Lone Star Mercantile. The process is pretty simple and fast, and there is so much you can do with these. We covered an 8″ round box in class, but she showed us several examples of different shapes, sizes, and fabrics.

There are a good deal of ways to embellish them as well. She had punch needles glued on some boxes, others had wool applique. Some even had pincushions and other trims. I really enjoyed the class and went straight home to make a Halloween box (with my son’s help). He painted the inside black and helped me put the glue on. Later, we are going to cut a Jack-o-latern out of wool and applique it to the lid.

I can just envision a set of three stacking boxes done in complementary fabrics, embellished, and then artfully stacked in a corner of a perfectly decorated room!

Wool Crazy – Making Progress

I have been working on my crazy block on and off for about 2 months and I’ve made a lot of progress. Here is the original foundation I made about 2 months ago. I knew I wanted to feature holidays on my first block, so I picked all kinds of spring, summer, fall colors so that I could display this year-round.

Here is the “rough” layout of my main appliques. Some pieces seemed to naturally fit (like the flag and the snowman), but I was having a hard time figuring out how to place the rest of them. After playing around with these a few days, I decided I needed to switch out some of my foundation colors so the appliques would show up better.

Here is the “refined” layout. I added in some darker backgrounds and settled on the final placement of my main appliques. For the center area, I plan to embroider a big bunch of flowers in the jack-o-lantern and maybe add some bats, candy, etc.

I eventually plan to include some smaller appliques such as chicks and flowers. My plan is to stitch these down, and then go back and start doing all my embellishing. I’m sure that will take some time, but I look forward to it!

Grommet Purse

This is a quick and easy purse pattern called “Wallet and Grommet” that uses large 2.75″ grommets. It’s a nice size to carry around town and the handle is made so that you can easily keep the purse closed. The handle is in one piece and you thread it through all four grommets and tie it off. This allows you to open the purse as wide as you need to, and then “zip” it closed as you throw it over your shoulder.

The pattern is very versatile, especially in fabric choice. You can also quilt a lot or very little on it (I did just the seams on mine) and you could add some fun embroidery or trim embellishments to dress it up or down.

The grommets are easy to install, even though I had some initial trepidation about cutting out the large circles in my almost finished bag! I suggest making a paper template of the circle size you need to cut, and then using a chalk marker to draw around the template. The pattern provides the specific measurements for where you need to place the circles, so you can just plunk down your template, trace around it, and that will remove a lot of the nerves. This also gives you a chance to make sure the circles are even with one another before you cut. I confess that I did not make a paper template, and instead just traced around the inside circle of the grommets directly onto the fabric. As a result, one of my grommets is slightly lower than the other one (can you guess which one?). After you cut out the circle, the plastic grommets just snap right in!

Sundress for Mom

My mom called me a few weeks ago to tell me about the cutest sundress her friend made for her granddaughter — the “Cuppy Cake” dress from Pink Fig Patterns. My mom fell in love with this dress and wanted to make an adult version for herself! Of course, I am always up for sewing with mom, so when I went to visit her we went right to the quilt store to get fabric. My mom picked out some beautiful purple and yellow April Cornell fabric for the skirt and we found a great purple in something else for the bodice.

The pattern was pretty easy, but I did have to re-size it so it would fit her. Luckily, my mom is petite, so we don’t have to change the length or dimensions of the skirt panels. I just needed to create a pattern for a larger bodice. Since the skirt was gathered, it would fit nicely on any size bodice we needed. My mom sewed all the skirt panels together, and then topstitched each one on both sides of the seam (16 panels in all!). I had the easier task of sewing the bodice and doing the shirring on the back:

It was hard to figure out how large to make the shirred panel as we needed to be able to get it over her head and chest, but also wanted to make sure the elastic was tight enough to hold the dress up. When I make this pattern again (one for myself), I can going to skip the shirring and put a zipper in the bodice so it will be more fitted.

I love garage sales!

First, I just want to say how much I love garage sales! My husband hit about 7 garage sales Saturday morning looking for random bargains. When he came home, he had spent less than $20 and found a kid’s table and chairs, puzzles, games, books, toys, and TWO boxes of random sewing notions!!

These were filled with zippers, lace, rick-rack, and other vintage embellishments. One batch even came in a cool biscuit tin:

Wow, time has really flown this summer! I had all these big plans for the tons of stuff I would make this summer and my list is not getting any shorter. Several projects are in various stages of completeness, and they must be finished in the next two weeks:

Professional Tote Class Sample
Grommet Purse Class Sample
Tulip Purse Class Sample

As you can see, I am gearing up to teach a few purse classes this fall. I will be posting dates, times, locations in a few weeks! The other thing I am hoping to finish by the end of August is some new patterns! I know I was supposed to post something new once a month and it’s been almost 6 months. However, it does take time to write these up and do the samples :).

Finally, I saw this cool fabric called “Prairie Gothic” that I had to have. I’m not sure what I will make with it, but likely some type of bag or apron.

Giveaway Winner!!!

Well, by default, Mrs. B is the winner of my blog giveaway! Congratulations to her – I guess she got rid of the other competition :). I’m sure she will enjoy her red, white, and blue fabric and homemade pincushion.

Here’s another little Liberty Rose pincushion that honors the Red Cross. It is complemented by a vintage Red Cross pin. I have some other projects in the works, but it’s been hard to find time to finish them. Hopefully, I can get caught up in the next few weeks.

One Year Anniversary Giveaway!

Today is the first anniversary for Keep It Thimble! I want to thank all my readers – you’ve helped me keep this going! I look forward to doing this another year :).

Traditionally, you celebrate the first year with a gift of paper, but I figured fabric would be more appropriate. Here are a few things I pulled from my stash that will be given away to one lucky reader:

A Red, White and Bold charm pack, coordinating fabric (1/2 yard each), and a tomato pincushion (handmade by yours truly!). To enter, just post a comment below – simple! The contest closes at 8pm (ET) this Sunday, and a winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday night.

Meet Max the Ladybug

Like any typical four year old, my son loves bugs – any shape, size, or kind. He is especially fond of ladybugs and bumblebees, so you can imagine that when I saw Heather Bailey’s “Flutterby” pattern I had to get it. This pattern shows you how to make a butterfly, bumblebee, and a ladybug pincushion. Of course my son pointed out that he “didn’t want antenna pins” on his bugs :). I started with the ladybug, since I had some great red and black scraps left over from a dress I am making (to be posted later…) and it seemed like least time consuming since there is no additional applique or embroidery required. That said, it still took a few hours to put it together because it has so many pieces (15 I think). Here is the finished product:

I think he turned out pretty cute, but I am planning to make another one this week now that I understand the pattern better. For the next one, I also plan to add on the legs and antenna (I left these off my first one since my son would have likely pulled them off), embroider a mouth, and do something different for the eyes (the wool felt I used for the gold part has started fraying, so I think I will glue the felt down first and then sew on the eye).

Also, July 23rd marks my one year blog anniversary!! Thanks to all who have started reading my blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Check back on the 23rd for a special anniversay giveway – I will be pulling something from my stash and giving it away to some lucky reader!!

I’ve Gone Wool Crazy!

Wool Crazy is sweeping the nation! JoAnn Mullaly’s book, Wool Crazy has inspired many mild-mannered people to start cutting up their wool skirts in order to get material for their crazy quilt blocks!

I saw this book a few months ago, and was really impressed with the color and chaos of this quilt. When Sharon of Liberty Rose decided to teach this as a class, I signed up without a second thought. The bonus part of taking a class with Sharon is that you get to go through her wool stash – so I knew I would be able to create the perfect background for my crazy block:

You start off with a 25″ square piece of batting and muslin for a foundation, and then start adding pieces of wool, working from the center out. First, the pieces are pinned onto the foundation, and when all the pieces are laid out, each one is stitched down with a tack stitch (in a neutral thread). This makes it a lot easier when you add the appliques and finish it up with crazy quilt stitches, so you end up with something that will look like this (photo is from JoAnn’s original quilt):

The theme for my first block is going to be holidays, which is one reason why I selected so many different types of colors. The background needed to compliment holidays of all seasons (not just fall and winter). It took about 4 hours for me to place the wool pieces (this includes the time I spent digging through Sharon’s stash), and then another 4 hours to stitch the pieces down. Now that the hard part is over, the fun will begin. There are already have plans to make at least one more block (and possibly 3 more so I can have a quilt). Pictures will be posted each month of my project – so be sure to check back!

Watermelon Table Runner

The All People Quilt website has a quick and easy pattern for this Watermelon Table Runner. I got a kit from a local quilt shop 2 years ago and decided to stitch it up on Saturday. It took less than 2 hours (including the cutting) and turned out perfectly. This uses the quilt as you go method, so when you are sewing on the strips, you are also quilting it. It’s just the right accent for your summer table!