Folded Patchwork Star

This is a folded patchwork star that is easy to make. These make great Christmas gifts and it’s a great way to use up some of your stash (to make room for new fabric). My grandmother showed me how to make these stars when I was little – I can still remember carefully looking through all the fabrics in her stash to pick the fabrics for the star I made. Once the star was completed, we got an old round cheese box, covered it in fabric, and sewed the star on top!

Buy Pattern – Sale! $2.99

The pattern is available for purchase in my shop. It contains step by step directions for creating the Folded Star, with photos showing the key steps. It has finishing instructions for both a fabric covered box and a table topper.

Radiant Folded Star Pattern — Radiant Folded Star and Covered Box

Keep it Thimble!

Christmas Stocking Giveaway!

Announcing Keep It Thimble’s first giveaway! Put your name in the hat for a chance to win this Christmas stocking I made. The pattern is free from the McCall’s website. You will need to enter your email in order to get it – and so far I haven’t been spammed by them.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. Be sure to provide a valid email address. The winner will be chosen at random on December 18th. You will be contacted for your mailing address if you are the winner!

Gingerbread House

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I ate my fair share of turkey and treats and am ready for Christmas to begin.

To kick off the Christmas season, my son and I made a gingerbread house. He ate about half the candy (practically all of the gum drops) and had frosting all over his hands and face. Of course, I didn’t eat a thing, not one bite, not even a gumdrop….

Disclaimer: this was not made from scratch. I’ve tried doing that in the past, but always end up with a big mess of frosting, candy, and gingerbread that looks like a demolished house. This year, I found a kit at Walgreen’s that had pre-made frosting and the house went together beautifully – it actually looks a lot like the picture on the box. Hurrah! Of course, the gingerbread in these kits does not taste very good (the frosting is not so bad…), but since this is for show, who cares?

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.

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 :).

Christmas and Halloween In July

My favorite holidays are 4th of July, Halloween, and Christmas (who doesn’t love Christmas?), and some of my favorite projects reflect these holidays. I have a 4th of July Table Runner that I almost completed in time this year, but my sewing machine broke in the middle of quilting it, so I will have to finish it in a few weeks. At least it will be ready next year!

I just finished a Halloween Penny Rug that I started last year, and am excited to show it off here:

Halloween Penny Rug

It is all stitched by hand with scraps of wool. The pattern is by Sharon Stewart of Liberty Rose (check out her blog!)

I made this adorable Snowman Pillow from another Liberty Rose Pattern:

It is all hand-stitched in wool. I added black piping to the edge of the pillow which really makes the snowman pop! Also, I ironed fusible fleece onto the front and back of the pillow faces before I stitched them together. This makes a more durable pillow that stands up nicely so you can see the snowman.