Red work Monogram

One of my interests is calligraphy, and another is embroidery.  I also like cushions.  What better than to combine the three in one project!

I have a soft, red, knitted rectangle that I had intended for a cushion cover.  I was using yarn left over from another project so I had only enough to make one side of a cushion.

I also had on hand some thick, tea towel cotton that has quite a pronounced weave to it that I decided to use for the other side.  

With a rather nebulous idea, I started to draw on the fabric using a blue, water soluble ink pen.  ( I love that pen, it has come in handy for so many things)

To draw a circle, I have various sizes of inexpensive embroidery hoops, 

This is what I started with,

After I had those lines embroidered,

I decided to fill in the rest by just repeating the flowers and leaves.

The stitches used are mainly 

      backstitching, to outline all the lines inside the two circles

      Chain stitch to make a heavier line for the circles

      French Knots to add accents on the flowers

I thought about stitching a pattern on the H, but I am pretty much out of this thread.

Time to sew up the cushion now! 

Very cute dress

this is a very cute dress you could sew!

It is from the Free Spirit website, here.   It is a McCalls pattern, number 5882 
I really like the combination of fabrics.  Too bad I don't wear dresses...maybe someday I will....

Zippered Pouch,

Another zippered pouch!

I have had a copy of this book for some time now:
It is the "textbook" that Sandy uses for her class "Learn to Quilt with focus on Improvisational techniques"

I fell in love with Sandy's quilt which she uses as a sample for the class, and I wanted to learn more about how to create such quilts,

So, because I am on this Handbag maging spree, I decided to make some sample blocks from the book and convert them to handbags. 
This is the first technique I tried,

I had a few scraps of beautiful turquoises left over from a quilt i did last year,

Remember me?

I combined them with a really cute black and white dot,
Making the block itself was pretty straightforward,   I cut a piece of freezer paper to about 12" x 15" and just made the block fit within that rectangle,

I quilted the sections with separate patterns.    The turquoise thread is quite heavy, a 10 wt, so I used a size 16 needle.  It worked well on straight lines, but when I switched to some free motion quilting, it didn't work so well, so I used a thinner ivory colored thread.

the bottom of the bag has boxed corners,

the inside,

its not lined, (which I have found out that some bag makers think is heinous, oh well) the side seams are just zig-zagged, and the zipper tape makes the facing over the top seam edge,

I decided to start adding some zipper pulls to my bags, 

For this one, i cut a wee strip of a thin leather that i had on hand and threaded it through the hole on the zipper pull.  To secure it, I just cut a bit of washi tape in half to make it about 1/8 " wide and wrapped it around the folded over leather to secure it.

I liked having the book to refer to.  I think i will definitely make more of this sort of block!

Settings: Two Side Sashing

I will try to post some patterns to use for setting 12 inch finished blocks.

 It is not as simple as I thought it would be, because the images can't just be copied and pasted into the blogger template, but have to be uploaded separately. Plus, I can't figure out how to add in a table that I usually use for yardage and cutting instructions, so I will add that as a list, instead. 
At the store, we have a booklet available which I wrote some years ago, which contains 21 patterns.  Unfortunately I can't just upload all of those at once either, as the computer that 19 of them were stored on crashed a few years ago, so I would have to re-type them all. (And I have no clue which USB stick they were backed up on.)  Not to say that I wouldn't do that sometime, but not all at once.  

This is Setting number 20 from the booklet and has been very popular in previous years. 

 20. Two Side Sashing

a Setting Pattern for 12-Inch Blocks
uses 20 blocks
finished size is about 74" x 88"

a Periwinkle Pattern by Michelle Harris, 2012, free to print out and use for personal use

The sampler blocks are 12-1/2" with the seam allowances; they will finish at 12" when sewn into the quilt.

There are sashing strips only on  2 sides of the blocks.  When laid out to form the pattern, the blocks rotate back and forth.
(NB, This is a good pattern for when your sampler blocks have not all come out at the same size!  you could cut the sashings wider, and then trim them all to one size before you assemble them into the quilt top, thus absorbing the size differences from block to block)

Fabrics:
A.  Light Grey in the picture , used for Sashing for Blocks
            1.1m (44") 
                 Cut 2 strips, 15" by the wof,*
                  from these strips, sub-cut 20 rectangles,  3" x 15"

                 Cut 1 strip, 12-1/2" x wof
                  from this strip, and from the leftovers above, sub-cut 20 rectangles, 3" x 12-1/2"

B.  Inner Border Fabric (finishes at 1-1/2")
              .5m (18")  
                      Cut 8 strips, 2" x wof

C. Outer Border Fabric  (finishes at 6-1/2")
              1.5m (60")  
                       Cut 8 strips, 7" x wof

D.  Binding Fabric
              .7m (24")
                       Cut 9 strips, 2-1/2" x wof

*wof means the width of fabric from selvage to selvage, usually between 42" and 44"



Step One: Sew the Sashing rectangles to the sides of each block.  If there is any variation in the size of your blocks, now is the time to even them all up!
Measure them, and then trim them all to the same size, cutting the extra bits off of the sashing rectangles to keep the points on your sampler block intact.

Step Two: Lay out the 20 blocks into a 4 column, 5 row arrangement, referring to the diagram above  to see how to rotate the block.  You might want to shift the blocks around until you are pleased with the way that the colors balance out.

Sew the blocks into rows, and then sew the rows together.

Step Three: Add the borders.  To make the strips long enough, you will have to join the strips end to end and the cut the border to the size needed. 
When joining lengths, some people prefer to use a diagonal join .  To do that, just overlap the ends of the strips at a 90° angle ,and then sew from corner to corner.  Trim off the extra fabric and press. 
Cut the length of the borders as you go, because the length of them depends on the size of your central unit as it grows larger.

Using the narrow, 2" strips for the inner border, cut the two side borders to the same measurement as the height of your center unit.  Sew them to the sides and press seams out. 
Cut the top and bottom borders to the new width of the center unit and sew them on. 
Repeat this for the outer borders.

Step Four:
Layer the quilt with the batting and backing, and baste.  Quilt!

Step Five: Binding.  Trim away the extra batting and backing fabric.
This uses a double fold binding.
Sew the 2-1/2" strips of binding fabric end to end with 45° diagonal seams.  Trip away the extra fabric, and then press the strip in half lengthwise, with right side facing out, matching the raw edges.  Starting partway along one of the sides, stitch the raw edges of the binding to the top side of the quilt, folding the strip into a false iter at each corner.
 Turn the folded edge of binding to the back of the quilt and had stitch it into place.

Garment sewing....

I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but a few days ago, I made a reference to "Garment" sewing!
(Lightening bolt)
This is a type of sewing that a lot of quilters have avoided, or maybe aren't interested in.  I haven't sewn garments for a long time, although I think I tried a top or two last year.

Between sewing handbags, and loving all the amazing designer fabrics that have been coming available, I keep getting drawn to the idea.

Funnily enough, I decided to try sewing a shirt that you might have often seen me wear in the past.
Yes, a white cotton button up shirt with a collar.  I've had countless incarnations of this shirt.  It is always my go-to shirt that I might have 4 or 5 versions hanging up in my closet.  The only drawback with the white shirt is that I inevitably get stains on it, or somehow wear it until it looks shabby,

I had bought the pattern, but no fabric at the time.
A few days later, I spied a 6 yard piece of white Kona cotton that I had acquired, just to have on hand,
within minutes, the pattern was out of it's envelope.

I used a cute fabric for the neck and cuff facings,

It was quite interesting to sew, although I haven't yet done the buttonholes....

Do you make garments? for yourself or for others?  I am quite interested in this topic now!