Making Kitchen Curtains Makes Me Happy

I have to admit that I have had a hard time adjusting the last 4 weeks since my work world changed with half of the staff in the office were sent home to work remotely.  Since then I have been sent home to work remotely on the order of the Governor.

It was time to do something that would make me happy and that I have been dreaming of since December.  I have been wanting to buy a bolt of navy blue gingham to make kitchen curtains and a back door curtain.  I was waiting until I had enough money to buy the bolt, and that happened at the end of last month.

I bought my fabric from Fabric.com and I got the navy gingham that is a 60" wide cotton/poly blend.  I think I paid about $4.50 a yard for it. The more yardage you buy on Fabric.com the cheaper the price.

I'm hoping the cotton/poly blend with keep the curtains from fading too bad in the hot sun.

I make my kitchen curtains double sided with the right side of the fabric on the inside and outside.  I sew two pieces together leaving an opening at the top on each side for the casing and an opening at the top for turning the curtain right side out.  I turn the curtain right side out, sew up the opening that I used for turning, then I sew two seams across the top to create the casing.  So simple.  I also make a tie for each curtain and position it about half way down in the center.  I made six panels for my wide kitchen window.

I also made a curtain for my back door using the same method so I can have the right side of the fabric on both sides of the curtain.

I didn't use the entire bold for the curtains.   The rest of the fabric will keep me busy while I make some items to decorate in my kitchen.  Some hanging dishtowels, a new stand mixer cover, some decoupage projects, and a plastic bag holder. 

New Purse Pattern Review

     I recently had the chance to make up some purses from a pattern that my daughter bought from Annies Catalog.  It's a multi pocket cross body bag pattern by Nancy Green.  It came with written instructions and a video.  The video is geared toward a beginner, but the pattern is not.  The pattern is a little messy because she did not label the pieces and there were a lot of pieces with a lot of the same name.  It was confusing. The pattern writer could have labeled the patterns pieces with an number or a letter to make it easier to put this bag together.  I did leave feedback on this pattern for the designer to see.  Hopefully she will take the time to label pattern pieces next time.

    My daughter and I made these as a joint project.  We made three of these, one for my daughter, one for me and one for her aunt.  I made two changes to the strap.  I made our straps wider and I made our straps adjustable.  We bought our hardware from Emmaline Bags and it was perfect.

    This is the front of the bag.  That's an open pocket.  There is a zipper at the top with a an open pocket inside.  As well as a zipper pocket on the back. 

  This is the back of the bag with the zipper pocket.

Another Hobby

    Now that I have all my crafting supplies organized it was inevitable that I found another new hobby.  I just bought a small simple rigid heddle loom.  I purchased an Ashford Samplelt loom in the 10 inch size.  Here it is, all put together.including a fringe twister.

     I have been admiring weaving projects on Ravelry for years and I love how you can put different yarns together and get a beautiful fabric.  I intend to use my loom for weaving scarves which is why I bought a smaller loom.

    There are new terms to learn and weaving is completely different from anything I have done with yarn before, so I imagine it will take several projects before I'm happy with my results.

Happy New Year Everyone!

  I was just sitting here trying to decide on my favorite make in 2018.  And my favorite make for 2018 has to be the long Christmas stocking cap I knit earlier this year.  I really enjoyed wearing it during December.  I wore it as often as I could on the weekends when it wasn't too warm out.  I had one comment from one young lady who thought it was cool.

    I already have projects started for 2019.  I've got pajama pants cut out to sew up, the black hat I'm knitting is almost done and I have an idea for a couple of Christmas table runners that are waiting for additional fabric and then will be ready to be cut out.  All of this should keep me busy in January.  And I still have to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

   I'll be spending New Year's Day cleaning my oven and refrigerator, and taking down Christmas decorations.  I think that's a good way to spend the first day of the year.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME 2019!

I Changed My Mind

    I have a love/hate relationship with sergers.  I bought a Juki serger about three years ago that worked well for about a year and then the tension went wonky and I couldn't fix it.  I took that machine to Goodwill about a year ago and I thought I would be through with sergers forever.

     I really love what you can do with sergers, rolled hems, seam finishing, etc., so every once in a while I try to work out a way to own one without spending a boatload of money.  I wish I could afford a machine with air threading and all the fancy stitches, but that's not happening now.  So I spent the last weekend trying to find a machine I could afford and I settled on the Singer14T968DC, Professional 5, five thread serger that comes with 7 presser feet. I bought it from Allbrands.com.  I have made four purchases from Allbrands.com and I have been happy with all four purchases.

    I received the machine on Thursday (it was ordered on the previous Saturday) and took it out of the box.  I also downloaded the owner's manual/workbook from the Singer website and that is on my computer now.

    Here she is: 

   In the bottom picture the machine is threaded for 3 thread overlock stitching.  You can do a variety of stitching  styles with this machine.  It took me a little while to thread the machine last night, but threading this machine was a little more involved than it was on the Juki.  This machine has a few more levers and and knobs to adjust when you are threading for a certain type of stitching.  It's all laid out in the workbook, which is really handy. The 3 thread overlock stitching is actually working and I'm getting ready to make some headbands with some lovely knit jersey I bought.   I'll be sharing those when I finish them.

    I started another knitting project.  I watch several knitting podcasts on Youtube and several knitters are making trying to knit one or two dishcloths each week this year so they can use them for Christmas gift giving.  I love this idea, but I'm not going to make so many.  I'm just going to make as many dishcloths as I can from the four balls of KnitPicks Dishie yarn that I have in the Jalapeno colorway.  I bought this yarn last year to crochet dishcloths, I really like the knitted dishcloths but they take so much longer than crochet, but if I give myself a year, I should be able to get this yarn knitted up.  I'm using a size 8, 24" Bamboo ChiaoGoo circular needles to make Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth.  I found this super easy dishcloth pattern on Ravelry years ago, but if you're not a member of Ravelry, you can find the pattern here. 

    Here's my first dishcloth in the works:

 

Fixing My Knitted Christmas Hat Problem

    I'm knitting another Christmas stocking cap.  The last two that I knitted did not fit right and were too big.  On the other two hats I used a 3 x 2 rib on the white cuff then I switched to stockinette in the red section.  When I switched to stockinette it stretched out the ribbing and made it way too loose.  I even reduced the number of stitches I used on the second hat I knit, but it also stretched.  I'm blaming the stockinette stitch.  I was constantly pulling the hat back onto my head.  Annoying. 

     It is time to replace the poorly fitting hat.  I looked on Ravelry for a pattern and and I found the perfect pattern which should make a great stocking cap for me.  The hat is made with the ribbing for the entire hat until you start to decrease.  Why didn't I think of that.  I love to knit ribbing.  The pattern is in a book called "Holiday Boutique Knitting" by Mary Jean Daigneault.  I found the book used on Amazon.  The stocking cap is actually a child's pattern so I just used the ribbing pattern from my favorite knitted hat pattern which is a 3 x 2 rib.  I'm going to make this about 4.0 feet long all in the lovely rib until I start to decrease after the 3 foot mark. 

     I started this project a couple of weeks ago.  I couldn't resist because I was ready for a knitting project.  I haven't done any knitting for quite a while.  I should have waited until I finished my poncho but the knitting needles were calling.   I even bought new needles to make this hat.  I bought a pair of Knit Picks size 7, 16" Sunstruck fixed circulars.  They are lovely.  I also bought two pair of interchangeable needles (same size in the Sunstruck material) and 32" cords to use when I start the decreases.  I use two circular needles to do decreases on my hats.  I never got the hang of double pointed needles, I was always worried about dropping stitches, so two circulars is the easiest way I have found for me to work decreases on my hats.  I learned this technique from a youtube video. 

     I knitted the white cuff with Knit Picks Brava Worsted in white and the red yarn is Lion Brand Pound of Love in the Cherry colorway (that is over a thousand yards of red yarn.  Yes, that ball of yarn is huge).   All acrylic.  I made the cuff 6" wide which is enough to be able to turn it up.  I'll be knitting the red yarn for a while.  I figure if I do a couple of inches every couple of days, I will have it done in a few months. 

  I do use a lot of stitch markers on this rib pattern.  The stitch markers make it easy to keep track of which stitches are where on my project.  There are ten stitches between each stitch marker, 3 knit, 2 purl, 3 knit and 2 purl.  I always know what I'm doing as long as I can count to 3.
   

The Return

     I've been too busy to blog the last five months but I have been crafting and trying new things so I'll try to do a little catch up here.

     I finished my Carpenter Star quilt with simple quilting and an equally simple backing.  This quilt is made up of 100 squares, I made the half square triangles with 8" squares.  I love it.

    I finished my colorful pinwheel quilt and did simple quilting with a pretty lavender back and binding.

   I also made a a third string quilt which I offered for sale to my two older brothers.  The oldest brother bought it and loves it.  I make 10" string blocks using full size paper towels which finish at 9.5" and I make the quilt 7 blocks by 7 rows.  They make great size lap quilts.

  I found a Youtube video on how to knit fingerless mitts and I made a pair for myself and for my daughter out of acrylic yarn.  Love these.

   I bought myself some pom pom makers and I had to crochet a hat to try them out.

    I used my embroidery machine and made some embroidered hanging dishtowels for my brothers for St. Patrick's Day.  I wanted to remind them of our Mom who was 100% Irish and she loved St. Patrick's Day.

    I just recently finished this basket weave quilt.  I took the pattern from this website.  I counted how many squares the blogger used of each color and I cut 6" squares of three different colors of fabric and put mine together.  Love this quilt.

   I made a country floral quilt that I absolutely love.  I bought 49 - 10" floral squares from an eBay seller, put them together and had a quilt top in no time.  I backed it with some simple floral fabric and did my usual grid and diagonal quilting.

    I made another scrappy top using 3" squares of fabric and I backed it with a fun zebra print.  Love this quilt as well.

    I've been wanting a spool pin doily for all of my sewing machines and I couldn't find any for sale so I made up my own pattern.  It took me three tries to find something really nice to make them with.  I tried yarn and number 10 crochet thread, but the yarn was too thick and the crochet thread was too thin.  I settled on embroidery thread.  I had a ton of of it and this was a good way to use it up.  I ended up crocheting a lot of these little doilies, it turned into a little obsession.  I did give some away but I still have a bunch that I want to use for a pillow cover.   Here is how I make my doilies. 

I used six strands of embroidery floss with a size 1 (2.35 mm) steel crochet hook.

Round 1: Chain 4, join with a slip stitch to the first chain to make a ring.

Round 2: Chain 3 (counts as a double crochet) and make 11 double crochets in the ring for a total of 12 stitches, join with a slip stitch to the third chain in the beginning chain 3.

Round 3: Chain 1, make a single crochet in the first stitch, chain 3 and single crochet in the same stitch(these are picot stitches), make a single crochet in the next stitch, chain 3 and single crochet in the same stitch, do this in each of the 12 stitches around, join with a slip stitch to the beginning 
chain 1.

Round 4: (Another round of picot stitches) Chain 1, make a single crochet in the first chain 3 space, chain 3 and single crochet in the chain 3 space, make a single crochet in the next chain 3 space, chain 3 and single crochet in the same chain 3 space, do this in each of the 12 chain 3 spaces around, join with a slip stitch to the beginning chain 1, cut yarn and weave in ends.

    Each doily takes about 15 minutes to make.  I also made up some two and three color versions as well that were fun to do.  

    I knitted a tea pot cozy for the tea pot I keep on my stove top.  Color stranded knitting is new to me and I had a good time trying this out.  The curly q decorations are crocheted.

   I crocheted a shawl using the free Frosted Layer Cake pattern.   Here is a link to the YouTube video on how to do it.  Youtube video on how to make frosted layer cake shawl.  It was a fun pattern and so simple.  

     I'm currently working on making a new Irish Chain quilt to replace this one that I recently gave away to a friend.  I can't make it exactly because the fabric is no longer available, but I'm making it similar.

  

A Short Post About Irons

    My old faith Rowenta iron bit the dust last week.  It was over 9 years old and I have used it in my sewing and quilting for the last 6 years.  I didn't buy it for my sewing/quilting hobby, but it worked really well for a long time in that capacity and I was very happy with it.

    I bought a Black and Decker Classic Iron about 3 years ago as a back up iron in anticipation of the end of my Rowenta.  I thought that a $25.00 iron would work just as well for me as my $90.00 Rowenta.  Yes, price does make a difference when you buy an iron.

    I was disappointed in the Black and Decker Classic.  It had several problems and these are things I just don't want to deal with so I'll keep it for a back up but I will not use it every day.  This iron got very hot, not a problem, but it stayed hot for a couple of hours after unplugging it, which is a problem.  This iron does not glide over my fabric the way my Rowenta did and the Black and Decker iron also had balance problems.  I set it down a couple of times and it just fell flat.

    I went to Target this afternoon and purchased a Rowenta Professional, Model DW8061 (link to the Target description and price here) for my quilting needs.  I hope it will last as long as my other Rowenta did.

6 New Drawstring Pouches

   I've been making these for the last few days.  I love this pattern [link to the tutorial is here] and I really enjoyed making all of these for myself.  All of these pouches were made with fabric from my stash.

    I think my favorite is this one with the cute winter camper fabric that I found several years ago.  I couldn't resist it when I bought it, and there was also a summer camper print that I had to have as well.

      I also did a little organizing.  Yesterday I labeled all my thread containers.  I have had all my different threads separated into different containers for a while, but I wanted to slap a label on the boxes to make sure anyone else looking would know what was in the box.

    The top boxes are those plastic boxes with the spikes and they hold all my multi-purpose polyester thread.  That's the small collection of thread from the last 15 years or so of garment, accessory, and home dec sewing.  

    When I started quilting 4 years ago I wanted to use only cotton thread in my quilts and I bought lots of thread from connectingthreads.com for quilting and it's all in the middle box.  I even organized it by color in the box and laid the spools on their side to make it easy to see.  

     The bottom box is my messy collection of polyester embroidery thread I purchased in the last year to do embroidery with my Brother PE 770.  I bought all those small spools from threadart.com.  They sell them in sets so you can get a nice variety of color without having to shop individual spools.

    I think I have enough thread to last me quite a while.

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.

A Little Featherweight Maintenance

   I read a lot of posts on the Quilting Board about vintage machines and I learned about the vintage sewing machine bed cushions from the folks that refurbish vintage machines.  

    This morning I replaced the bed cushions on the bottom of my new Singer featherweight.  Two of the cushions was flattened on one side and all of them were very dry.  I also replaced the screws because I wasn't sure what condition the old screws would be in.  The old screws are in good condition. I'll keep them in my featherweight tool box for spares.  The machine will sit better on the table and the cushions will absorb some of the vibration from the motor.  This was an easy inexpensive fix.  

    I bought the new bed cushions and screws from april1930s.com.  She specializes in vintage Singer machine parts.  

   The new bed cushions and screws are on top.

I Love This Fun Sewing Machine - Window Shopping

      While I was shopping for my vintage Singer Model 221, I saw this cute little machine.  So sweet.  I've heard a lot of people say that they wouldn't buy a new Singer sewing machine because they are worthless, but this machine has a really sweet shape (kind of like the Model 221) and I could totally see myself using this for a lot of craft sewing.

    This is a Singer One, it has 24 stitches including buttonholes and 4 stretch stitches.  It comes with an all purpose presser foot, blind hem foot, satin stitch foot, zipper foot and buttonhole foot.  The base on the left side slides off for free arm sewing and there is also an accessory storage box there. It's so adorable and it's on sale all over the internet.

    The best deals I saw were on Amazon and Walmart.  Amazon had it for $179.00 with free Prime shipping  and Walmart had it for $179.00 at Walmart with free shipping or free site to store pickup.  Overstock advertises it at $179.00 as well but they are out of stock.

    There is also a Singer One Plus that is a little more expensive because it has loads of features like the needle up and down and 231 stitches.  The Singer One Plus is also on sale all over the internet.

Replacing Old Hand Sewing Needles

   I have had my collection of hand sewing needles for years and I think some of them are older than me because I inherited some from Great Aunt Margaret's sewing box.

   It's time to get new, sharper hand sewing needles.  Funny, I never thought of them getting dull like a machine needle does.

   I just purchased a large variety of hand sewing needles from Amazon.com including some self threading needles.  Amazon.com carries a nice selection of brands and I ended up getting several different sets, but the one I'm most happy about is the John James 100 needle assortment.

Super Quick Sewing Machine Service

     This past Wednesday I took Martha, my Bernina 1530, in to the shop for a service and to have the electrical cord fixed.  I wasn't expecting it back for a couple of weeks at the earliest, but on Thursday I received a call that my machine was ready for pick up and it was fixed.  That's what I call super quick service.  I picked the machine up yesterday.

    This machine has a retracting electrical cord which I love.  When I finish using the machine and want to move it, I just push a button in the back of the machine and the electrical cord retracts into the machine.  It's a neat feature.  The foot pedal cord does the same thing.  I never have to worry about losing either cord for this machine.

    Martha and her new cord.

  The machine cord and the foot pedal cord all tucked in.

    Close up of the foot pedal cord retracted.

   I'm hanging my bedroom curtains today (finished them last night) and I am getting ready to cut that lovely yellow fabric for the dining room and living room curtains.

   I'm also going to make a scissor pouch for my big, expensive Gingher scissors.  I found this youtube tutorial to make this cute pouch.  Scissor pouch tutorial link here.

Thank You Mr. Electrician

   I finally had a ceiling fan installed in my bedroom.  I love it.  I've been meaning to have this done for the last 7 years.  It was so worth the wait.

 

Preliminary Review of my Janome Memory Craft 7700 QCP, Magnolia

 

 I took Magnolia out the same day my company left last week.  I rearranged all my furniture so I could put my sewing studio back into the living room, and I put her in a nice spot right in front of the windows.  I love sewing in the living room, there is lots of light and lots of room.

   This is a preliminary review because I have only been piecing my disappearing hourglass blocks with her.  I haven't done any speciality sewing or used any of the various feet that came with her other than the 1/4" patchwork foot that I need for my piecing.  I haven't even used the knee lift yet, I keep forgetting to put it on.  I love the big acrylic table I bought for her.  It gives me lots of space to set my pieces up for sewing.

    I have to say I love the size of the machine and the sturdy feel when I'm sewing.  She's a big one.    The machine is super easy to thread.  I used the needle threader a couple of times, but I don't use it every time I have to thread the machine because I find them to be too time consuming.  Her straight stitch is perfect.  I did adjust the presser foot pressure because I found my fabric wasn't feeding through like the presser foot was too tight for my cotton seams.  I lowered it to 5 from 7.  The manual says 7 is normal.  It may be because the machine is new and I have to break it in,  Bobbin winding is easy.  The drop in bobbin is under a clear cover, but there is a glare on the cover and I'm using black  thread so it's hard for me to see how much thread is left on the bobbin before I run out unless I lift the cover up.   Other than that, I am enjoying the lighting on the machine, there are lights in the throat area and over the needle.

   I plan to quilt my current quilt project with this machine so I'll let you know how the dual feed foot works.    

New Fun Fabrics Coming Out

 
   This is one of the fabrics from the Time With Friends line by Lynette Anderson.  Those doggies and kitties are super cute.  I love Lynette Anderson's designs.  I have her book, "It's Quilting Cats and Dogs" and although I haven't made anything from the book, I love looking at it and dreaming.

    This is Elizabeth by Tula Pink.  I pre-ordered a yard of this (this is the tart colorway) from an etsy store this morning.  So pretty and so pink.  It also comes in sky colorway and plum colorway.

Time To Buy A Bathmat

     I'm going to buy a bathmat from Walmart today.  I will not be finishing the crochet bathmat I planned to make with the the 1" strips of fabric I sewed together to make fabric yarn.  I did a test crochet last night with the ball of yarn I made the other night and I hate it.  I just wanted to let you know that I will not be working on this project anymore and you won't see a picture of the little bit I crocheted last night.  It is completely U G L Y.   I wasted about a week on this sewing/crochet fail and I'm moving on to the items listed below.


1.  Recover the cardinal pillow I made last year with red plaid fabric I bought a couple of weeks ago.

2.  Cut the squares for my Civil War Buckshot pincushion  and order the emery sand.

3.  Make the 4 pillow cases with the yardage of Tanya Whelan fabric I purchased last year.

4.  Iron the muslin and trace the pattern for the hand embroidery, Never Underestimate A Woman
     With A Sewing Machine.   Then pick the colors of floss for the embroidery.

5.  Organize the box holding more projects, fabrics and supplies.

6.  Start the pink fluffy granny square afghan for my bedroom.


 
 

Holy Pin Cushions, Batman!

   I'm sure Batman would not find pin cushion patterns as interesting and fun as I do, but I'd like to think Robin would.  

   So, I'm finding more pin cushion projects to make.  Here is the link to a new cute birdie pin cushion pattern.  I'm adding this to my to do list.  

     I've also been thinking about making an Eight Pointed Civil War Buckshot pin cushion for a while.  That pattern link is here.  This has the shape of an octopus to me and is super cute.  I love the history behind it.  I bought a half yard of Civil War reproduction blue fabric this morning for this project but instead of buckshot, I'm planning to use emery sand in it.

  Here's the fabric I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop for this project.  I only need to order my emery sand from Amazon.  

Got My New Embroidery Fanny Frame

I bought this at Needle In A Haystack on line and it's called the Hardwicke Manor Fanny Frame.  You sit on the paddle so your hands are free to work.  I've been waiting for this for 3 weeks because they were out of stock and I had to wait for them to get more.   I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this gadget.