Purses!

I was out of town for almost two weeks on a business trip and haven’t had much chance to sew. I did bring some wool applique with me on the plane, but didn’t really get much done. There is only so much room in the middle seat.

I have some things in the works as far as sewing/quilting goes and will be giving more details in the next few weeks. I am still plugging away for the November sewing club pattern – it should be ready this week. It’s an apron pattern, and if there is time, it will include dimensions for a child’s size as well.

In the meantime, here are some bags that I completed last fall. Which one do you like best?

This is the Black Forest bag (pattern by Melly and Me). I resized the pattern so it was more of handbag size. This is one of my favorite bags – I love the fabric and the color combinations.

The Miranda Bag pattern is by Lazy Girl Designs. This is a roomy tote with 12 pockets inside. People always like this bag because it is the perfect size for carrying books and files, but it looks very stylish.

This is a tote made from a charm pack. I can’t remember who did the pattern, but will let you know when I do remember. Charms are a lot of fun to work with and they are so versatile. It took more time for me to decide how to arrange the charms for this bag, then it did to actually sew it! This is a good bag for taking to sewing class since it is roomy enough to hold fabric, pattern, notions, rulers, etc.

Unfinished Projects

Halloween was great, my son’s trick or treat bag held about 5 lbs of candy, which was about as much as he could carry. For some reason, he was very reluctant to have mom or dad carry his candy for him.

I haven’t been able to get any projects finished this week, so here are some unfinished ones for now. The goal is to complete all three of these by Thanksgiving!

The first one is a Turkey Mat. This is from the book “Autumn Threads” by Need’l Love. The feathers are nice bright colors and his body is a nice warm brown. Each piece will be blanket stitched in gold wool floss, which will really make everything pop. Sharon Stewart changed up the pattern a bit by adding acorns and oak leaves – this is only fitting since Raleigh is known as the City of Oaks.

The second picture is of TWO different Jo Morton projects for her book Vintage Journey. The fabric on the left is for an apple core quilt. For this quilt, I have a rubber stamp of an apple core template (check out Cindy Blackberg’s site for more info). The quilt is made up of at least 96 apple cores. My friends will be asked to part with some fabric scrips, since I want each piece to be a different Jo Morton fabric.

The second project is all the squares needed for the signature quilt that was discussed in a previous post. I really need to get this done so the ladies in my Jo Morton club can sign them!

The November sewing club pattern isn’t ready yet, but it will be posted before the end of the month – I promise!

Almost Ready for Halloween

We’ve been busy unpacking this week, but I still haven’t gotten around to getting my new sewing room organized. It’s more important to get the dishes unpacked so we can eat! My son was excited to see all his toys – they have been slowly dwindling over the past few months as we packed up the house. It was like going to the toy store the day we started unpacking all his old toys.

I did manage to finish his Halloween costume in the middle of all this – well ahead of schedule:

The pattern went together pretty quickly, and the finished result is very cute. I ended up using orange thread for everything (even for sewing on the face and leaves), as I didn’t want to take the extra time to switch thread. The orange thread looked fine because the fleece is so fluffy that it hid most of the stitching anyway. I will get a picture of him actually wearing it when we go trick or treating. I don’t want the novelty to wear off too soon – as he may change his mind about wearing it on Saturday! I am also making jack-o-lantern T-shirts for my husband and me to wear when we go around the neighborhood.

I was out of town a few days this week for business, so I wasn’t able to go to my Jo’s Club on Tuesday. I guess it is just as well since I didn’t have my blocks finished anyway. I will get them finished in the next few weeks thought – we are supposed to start our new Jo’s project in mid-November.

Also, please check back next week for the November Sewing Club pattern. I will be writing it up this week.

Moving Day!

I moved this weekend so I don’t have a chance to post a new project I’ve completed. The past week has been busy with packing, switching utilities, and getting the house ready for the new people moving in. We stayed in the same town, so the move was pretty easy, but you still have just as much work to do as for a cross-country move! Everything went smoothly, and the best thing is that I know have a dedicated sewing room. I will post some pictures after I get it set up.

I am meeting with my Jo’s Club on Tuesday morning and need to have some signature squares completed. We are making the signature quilt on the cover of her latest book “Vintage Journey”. I have all the squares cut out for the signature blocks, I just need to sew them together to make the large “X” signature blocks. Shouldn’t take too long, but I still haven’t unpacked my sewing machine! Back to work!

Professional Tote Class

On Saturday, I taught a fun group of ladies how to make the Professional Tote (pattern by Creative Thimble). This is a great bag for travel – tons of pockets and lots of room to carry all kinds of things. The designer even included a zippered front pocket that is perfectly sized for a passport!

Molly signed up for the class first and then convinced her friends Kim and Arlene to join her. The class was scheduled from 10 am – 6pm so they knew they had a marathon session of sewing ahead of them. It took awhile for everyone to get settled in (we finished Step 1, part B at 11:30am!), but everyone was having a great time chatting and learning something new. Arlene was kind enough to bring lunch for everyone, and Kim went to Bojangle’s and brought back some delicious sweet tea for us! We sewed until 7:30pm as we were bound and determined to make sure everyone completed their bag. Although it was late, and we were pretty fried at the end, everyone had a great time and went home with a beautiful bag.

Molly selected a lovely burgundy duck cloth with a striped accent fabric. She said the stripes reminded her of Joseph’s coat of many colors.

Kim’s bag was beautiful brown accented with lively polka dots. The lining was made of large floral print on a brown background.

Arlene’s bag was a bold print that feature apples, grapes, and berries. Lots of great colors and a deep purple print for the contrast and lining fabric. She purposely picked something that she wouldn’t normally pick, and was very pleased with the results.

I had a lot of fun in the class and look forward to another class with them in the future!

Free Pattern – Trick or Treat Bag

I am pleased to present the first project for KIT Sewing Club – a trick or treat bag I designed for my son! Please see the “Sewing Club” tab at the top of the page for more information on the club. You don’t have to join in order to enjoy this pattern.

Click here to view pattern.

Please send in a picture of your bag when it is completed and I will post it on the blog. I look forward to seeing what everyone makes! Please add a comment if you have any questions about the pattern.

The Witches of Apex

Sharon Stewart of Liberty Rose always has the cutest patterns and it’s tons of fun to take classes from her. I recently took her Wilomena Witch class, and this was the result (the black cat was made at a different time):

This is a basic doll body stuffed with a mixture of sand and sawdust in the base (to give it weight), and then fiberfill for the rest. We used tulle and fancy netting for the skirt, and of course got crazy with the embellishments. I was so inspired after this class I went home and made three more witches!

I now present the Witches of Apex – Wendy, Winifred, and Willow:

I can’t decide which one is my favorite. I’d like to add more embellishments, Sharon always has tons of great stuff to use for decoration. My supplies are more limited – but I did think I was pretty clever for buying the Halloween confetti that has bats, spiders, and pumpkins, and using those as accents. Something for a shawl or brooch would also add more variety.

I also don’t know what I am going to do with so many witches!

Pumpkin Costume

My three year old is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween this year. He has been talking about it for several months, even after I explained that his costume could be anything he wanted it to be. After briefly considering a bumblebee costume for a day, he finally decided that he indeed wanted to be a pumpkin.

We headed down to Joann’s to get the pattern. The Butterick patterns were on sale for 99 cents, so of course that’s the only book we looked in. He was very pleased with the pumpkin costume they had:

I need to get an early start to get his costume finished in time. He has several opportunities to wear his costume in the last part of October, and I definitely want him to get the most out of it! I will post a picture when I am done.

Also, be sure to check back at the beginning of October for the first pattern in sewing club! It’s something you will need for Halloween :).

Finished Quilt Tops

Starting this blog has motivated me to finish up UFO’s (unfinished objects). I guess quilt tops kind of count as UFOs until they are quilted and bound, but I do think completing a pieced quilt top should count as finished project. What do you think?

I just completed this quilt top today. I started it in January 2008! This was a very easy applique project created by Sharon Reilly at Plain and Simple Quilt shop. We cut out three different sizes of hearts from a variety of fabrics then we rough-edge appliqued them onto a neutral background. Each square was cut into fourths, and then reassembled to get the off-kilter effect.

This is the very first quilt top I made, in early 2007. I actually finished it in 2007, but thought it would be fun to share on my blog. This was done with strip-piecing – I really love the red, white, and blue color scheme.

This is a christmas tree skirt I made in 2008. I plan to quilt this in the next month or two so it is ready to use under the tree this year. I am still debating whether I have the guts to cut a slit and circle into it for the tree. I might just use it at a table topper instead. It is based on a free Thangles pattern and went together very quickly.

One More Apron

My son really liked the Church Ladies’ Apron I made yesterday, so I decided to make him one too. I present the “Spongebob Sea Creature Apron”:

He picked out the fabric himself – Spongebob Squarepants for one side and sea creatures for the other. I modified the Church Ladies’ Apron pattern to fit a toddler, and I think it turned out really well. A lot was guess work, so I might tweak the pattern a bit if I make anymore (which I’m sure I will).