Old and New Tools

      Beaded Stilettos

      I love seeing the pretty beaded stilettos that are being swapped on the Quilting Board.  I got one in a swap a couple of years ago.  I usually use a bamboo double pointed knitting needle as a stiletto because I have a ton of these.  I also have these porcupine quill that I bought because they are so pretty.  I don't always use a stiletto when I'm sewing, but I should.  I moving my stiletto collection to my handy tool box that I keep by the machine.

     Here's my stiletto collection.  

 

      And guess what?  I found a tutorial on how to make beaded stilettos at this link. and I'll be adding that idea to my projects list.

   
    Wooden Ruler Holder

     I just got this cool wooden ruler holder from a seller on etsy.  I've been wanting one for a couple of years, but I needed so many things, it always got pushed to the end of the list.

   

   Mini Quilt Frame

    I had to have this mini quilt frame.  I bought it from Connecting Threads.  I like the scrolly feet and the wavy pattern all the way around the frame.  So cute.  The piece that is draped on the frame is my attempt at a mini quilt that I make last week but I don't love it.  Yesterday while I was reading quilt blogs I found a tutorial to make a small 5" snail trail block, (link here) and I'll be pulling fabrics for that soon. My mini quilt frame deserves something pretty on it.

Time To Start A Knitting Project

    So I bought some red and white yarn a couple of weeks ago.  I'm going to make myself a Santa hat.  I made one a few years ago and gave it away in a Christmas swap.  I really wish I had kept it.  I don't think it was appreciated.  So I'm going to make one just for me.  I'll be using Wool of the Andes yarn that I bought from Knitpicks.com.  I love Wool of the Andes yarn, it comes in a great selection of colors, it felts well and it's cheap.  I bought three skeins of red and one skein of  white to make my hat.

    Here is a picture of the hat I gave away.   This one was started with 100 stitches and I knit a 3 x 2 rib section in white for about 3 inches. I'll be using 16" size 8 circular needles to start.  This one was a  little too big (you can see how big it is with the white section on the neck of the head model) so I'm going to reduce that number of ribbing stitches to 80.  The red section is knit in stockinette stitch, and I reduce the number of stitches every 7 or 8 rounds.

Felted Wool Pin Cushions

   I made more wool pin cushions last year and I'm just getting around to giving them away on the Quilting Board.  These pin cushions are a big hit with my quilting buddies.  I posted the give away last night about 8:00 p.m. and these pin cushions are already spoken for.

    I got the idea to make these from making wool dryer balls.  The only difference is I try to wind the pin cushions flatter so they will sit and not roll around.   Here's how I make them.  I wind up 100% wool yarn (I used Wool of the Andes bulky yarn from KnitPicks.com for these) into a ball then I start to tighten the yarn and I squeeze the ball flat while I'm winding and I continue to wind until I get a ball about as big as a tennis ball or so.  I secure the end of the yarn by threading a big needle and running it through the yarn ball a few of times.  The yarn ball is put inside an old knee high stocking or you can use a tube sock (you can get about 6 balls of yarn in one knee high).  I like using a knee high because I can see how much the yarn is felting.  Make sure you knot the knee high or sock next to the yarn ball to keep it secure, this keeps it from unraveling.  I wet the whole thing or you can also put it in a load of wash, the soap is supposed to help with the felting process and I pop it into the dryer for several cycles.  It takes about 2 hours to get the yarn to felt.  The balls won't be anywhere near dry so I let them dry out for a couple of days then I remove the knee high.  The wool yarn grabs the fabric of the knee high and you have to peel it off the yarn ball, but it does come off.  Then you have a fun wool pin cushion.

 

Pretty Mini Quilt Stand

      I just had to have this little quilt stand I found at Connecting Threads.  It's super cute and I can't wait to make a mini quilt to hang on it.

My Sewing Notions Tool Box

   This tool box is my favorite place where I stash miscellaneous notions like my extra scissors, old broken sewing machine needles (they are in the orange pill bottle), my seam rippers, new sewing machine needles, serger tweezers, porcupine quill stillettos,  sewing machine brush, a tracing wheel, measuring tape, silicon finger protectors, needle threaders, and a couple of seam gauges.

   My favorite part of this tool box is the accordion trays that open up but they stay on the box, you don't have to lift them out.  I can't find a tool box like this anymore.  I wish I had three more just like it for various sewing supplies.

Crocheted Flowers on Brown Fabric

      So I crocheted these flowers a couple of months ago and last week I finally finished this project.  Not exactly as I had envisioned it.  I had a really hard time figuring out what fabric I wanted to put the flowers on and I ended up with this brown fat quarter that I pulled out at the start of the project.   I hand sewed the green buttons I bought especially for this project into the quilt sandwich to secure the flowers and I free motion quilted around each flower to give it some stability.  I'm planning on hanging this somewhere, I just can't decide how to hang it.  It will sit for a few months while I think about it.

    I'm working on making a quilt ladder and I have to start a new fabric project.