The Polyester Quilt Top Is Sandwiched.

   The backing is solid white Kona cotton.  I'm using a 80/20 blend batting.  This quilt will not be easy to quilt.  I'll start the quilting next week.

Enlarging A Free Pattern To Make A Scrappy Purse

      I love this tutorial for this little Friendship Bag.  Tutorial here.  But the finished Friendship Bag is so small it's only good for gift giving.  I wanted to make it bigger so I could use it as an open purse.  I increased the size of my strips from 1 1/2" x 5" to 2 3/4" x 8" to make this bag bigger.  It's now the perfect size.  All the stuff I carry for local errand running fits in here and since I didn't make a closure for the top, it's all easy to get to.  There are no inside or outside pockets, it's just a boxy, scrappy bag.  I love it.  I used fusible fleece instead of batting, fat quarters for the strips and handles, and some batik yardage that I had for the bottom and the lining.  I also put some fusible fleece in the center part of the handles to make them softer on my hands.   I worked on this for about 2 1/2 hours that includes ironing fabric and cutting.  This was a really easy pattern to enlarge.  My bag measures 12" long x 7 3/4" tall x 5" wide.  This was fun to make.


       

Kitties For All Seasons

   I had these blocks from the A Cat For All Seasons panel for several months.  I bought them to make some quick decorations for my front door.  I backed them with some floral fabric and sewed them up.  No batting, no quilting, no muss, no fuss.

Fun Sewing - Triangle Pouch

     I just had to make a triangle pouch tonight.  I love The Crafty Gemini (Vanessa Wilson) and I have used a lot of her tutorials to make bags, pouches, and other projects over the last several years.  She is so cute and she does a good job explaining all the steps.  Here is a link to her youtube tutorial to make this sweet triangle pouch.  This cute little pouch is just big enough to hold my ipod and the usb cord for the car.  I would love to make more of these.  I have to get some more zippers in some pretty colors.  The cat fabric I used is Purrsnickitty by Terri Degenkolb of Whimiscals for Red Rooster Fabrics.  

   I had to so some fun sewing in between working on the polyester string quilt project.  This quilt is going to take a while to get finished.  I now have the binding and old backing separated from the top and I have mended all the seams that were coming apart.  As I was taking the poor thing apart all the paper towels that the maker used for stabilization of the strings came tumbling out.  I felt so sorry for this poor little quilt.  Tomorrow I will be making my backing and I should have it sandwiched by the end of the week.  The quilting will be tricky on this because a lot of these squares don't lay flat so I may have to do some big stitch hand quilting in some spots to get this quilted sufficiently.  Once I get it quilted I will have to deal with the wonky edges.  No two rows line up on the edges and it's an odd shape.  I hate to trim any of the fabric off, I'm hoping to try to bind it without cutting any of the quilt top.

  

She Who Sews Quilt - Finished

   

    It's done.  I loved working with the yellow polka dot fabric.  I love the look of it with these panel squares and I even used it for the backing and binding.

Sandwiched Quilt Ready To Be Quilted And Re-Making A Quilt

   I have my She Who Sews quilt sandwiched and ready to straight line quilt.  The machine is set up and I meant to start on it today but I got sidetracked with my next project.

   Yesterday I had lunch with Dear Daughter and we did some shopping.  She gave me a string quilt made from polyester fabrics that her grandmother made for her half brother when he was born.  I was supposed to mend the tears in it.  Dear Daughter's half brother was born in 2000 and her almost 90 year old grandmother finished this in 2003.  Dear Daughter remembers that her grandmother was having a hard time making herself finish this quilt.

   Dear Daughter and I assessed her half brother's quilt yesterday and realized that it did not have any batting in it, the binding was made by folding the backing to the front and sewing it on with the machine, it was kind of messy, and it was not very well quilted.  So we decided that I would take the quilt apart, mend the tears, add a batting, a new backing, do some straight line quilting on it and do a proper binding job on it.  The quilt measures about 56" x 56".  So my mending job has turned into re-making a quilt.  Dear Daughter and I went to Joann Fabrics to get backing/binding fabric and a nice new batting.  I spent the day today taking the binding/backing off the quilt and pinning up all the blocks that need mending.  I wanted to get a sense of how much needed to be mended.  Now that I have it ready to be mended I can get back to my She Who Sews quilt project.

    Here's a picture of the polyester quilt that I took yesterday before I dismantled it.

Animal Print Chiffon Scarf

   I bought a beautiful half yard of animal print chiffon today at Joann Fabrics to make myself a scarf.  I was planning to use the rolled hem foot on my Janome 7700 to hem the edges.

    I checked tutorials on youtube on how to use the rolled hem foot and I found a tutorial on making a rolled hem without using the rolled hem foot, meaning I could hem the scarf with any of my machines and I didn't have to set up the Janome.  The tutorial I used is here.   I used a pretty copper polyester thread to finish the hem.

  My scarf is finished and I love it.  I tried to take a picture of the hem, but it's hard to see in the second picture.

She Who Sews Quilt Project Started

   Yesterday I finished the ugliest fabric basket ever made.  I'm not showing a picture because it's hideous.  The fabrics I used were too light in color and the shape is wrong.  I wanted round and I made it oval.  The good news is I still have lots of clothesline leftover so I can make another, I just won't be doing it anytime soon.  It is something I have been wanting to try but just didn't take the time to do before now.  I'm glad I tried it and I only spent $4.00 for the clothesline.

   I did make a start on the She Who Sews quilt.  I have decided that I will not be adding the disappearing hourglass star blocks to this quilt.  I only want the panel blocks and the yellow polka dot fabrics in this one.  Here are three of my favorite blocks framed.

New Year Resolutions (No Pictures In This Post)

  I made a few New Year resolutions.

  1.  Be more tolerant.  Don't jump to conclusions about situations or people and don't think the worst about people especially people you don't know.

  2.  Count my blessings.

  3.  Exercise more and eat better.  (I make this resolution every year).

  4.  Learn how to knit socks.

  5.  Keep my crafting area clean and materials organized.

  6.  Hand embroider more.

  7.  Crochet doilies.

  8.  Make lots of Christmas tree wall hangings.

The first three resolutions are pretty standard for me.  The others I wanted to write down as reminders during the year.

I only have two quilts planned for this year.  I'm getting a little burned out on quilting.  Cutting back on the quilting will give me more time to learn to knit socks.  I have my book, the yarn, and needles ready to start my practice pair of toe up two at a time socks.

I've already started to crochet doilies.  I made one last month with the help of a youtube video and I started a new pattern on Christmas day, but ran into a problem with the pattern.  I've been trying to contact the designer through Ravelry and Craftsy, but I haven't heard from her yet.

The fabric is selected for the Christmas tree wall hangings.  I picked up some red sequins and tiny red, green and white pom poms for embellishments.

I'm in the middle of making a really ugly fabric basket the kind you make wrapping fabric around clothes line.  I may or may not share it with you when it's finished.  Sharing depends on how it looks when I'm done.

I have the panel cut for the So She Sews quilt, I just have to cut the borders for the blocks and get sewing on that one.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.