Sewing goodies other than masks again (thought not done with masks!)

I guess it's a good sign that mask sales are down! (Can't wait for the vaccine to be injected into my arm!). I did, however, donate 35 masks to a group of educators yesterday. I've been donating masks all along and this donation made me feel particularly proud. The teachers are still teaching in the classroom, even during the pandemic. We need to be safe and keep others safe. Are you sewing masks? 

Here's what I'm sewing these days:

My daughter has been asking for a stocking for her dog, who will be celebrating her first Christmas together this year. I drafted a pattern and made a prototype for her. It's a large bone shape on the back and 3/4 of a bone shape on the front. I have to revising to do to the pattern, but not bad for a first effort. I had all the fabrics on hand (the paw fabrics are from my mask making stash) and added the pre-quilted back and red/white stripe ribbon to add some Christmas flare. I like it and can't wait to try more.

I've been working on these particular placemats for a long, long time. I began making them some time ago and ran out of the corn fabric used for strips on the front. When I had some breathing room, I started searching for more of it. I finally found it at Colorado Creations Quilting. They were pretty marvelous to work with and are going to show these off in their newsletter. I sew 2" strips of denim end to end and wrap it into a roll, then it gets used in this kind of project. I love the way the denim colors flow together and add some contrast and upcycling at the same time. 

You can make strip quilted placemats with denim, corn fabric, or whatever you want using this tutorial I wrote way back when - PLACEMAT TUTORIAL

My newest thing is another baby quilt. I decided on a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern because I wanted it to be hand sewn. I always have a hand sewing project going. It's not easy for me to watch TV without one! I found the rainbow color bandanna fabrics, had the center fabric, and the path that will be going around the flowers is a black bandanna fabric. I want the rainbow colors to stand out and I believe they will.

What are you sewing? I'll keep sewing masks until they're no longer needed. I've just about worn out my 8-1/2" ruler and rotary cutter, not to mention the cutting mat. I'll be glad to retire them all. Let's hope the vaccine does its thing. 

Merry Christmas to you all and as always, keep stitching!

Mentors and mending

Learning to sew - we all did it and are still doing it. Can you ever learn enough? My friends and I made clothing for troll dolls when we were tweens. We helped each other out. Cutting, sewing, and dressing them was fun. It was never a chore. I was even allowed to use my mother's sewing machine! Later, I took home ec in junior high school because my mother made me. That included sewing an outfit using a pattern, from cutting to wearing. Mrs. Esther Batchelder was the teacher and she was encouraging and tough. But I must have learned a little something. I can still use a pattern and make clothing.

As time went on, I turned to hand embroidery and away from traditional sewing. I would sew with DMC floss nearly every day. My sister, Patsy, was my idol and my mentor when it came to embroidery. She would tell me the name of stitches and I'd look them up, learn them, and incorporate them in my pictures. It was like painting. 

Then came children and making clothing. My SIL and a friend (Jan) both sewed. I was grateful to be able to lean on them. Jan turned me on to Home Sew and all the fun sample packages you could get from them. I learned how to do facings without using extra fabric (a shortcut where you turn the existing fabric under and stitch it directly), put in sleeves, and space out buttonholes. Another friend, Sandy, was a pretty experienced sewer. She did a lot of fancy gathering and pleating, and her work was immaculate. She was a mentor by example.

Clotilde, who sadly passed away in 2011, was a mentor from afar. She had the quintessential sewing catalog. I received hers and the one from Home Sew back before the internet was even a gleam in the ether's eye. I took a class from her locally and we talked for some time about our mutual friends and interests. She made everything seem so simple. She wasn't just a mentor, she was a celebrity in my eyes.

The fabric store where I took her seminar, Fabrics Unique, is where I bought my Bernina and often lots of fabric. Two women who worked there were more than helpful, and don't even know they were my mentors. They made sewing seem normal. Not a lot of friends of mine were sewing. I didn't meet that large community until I worked for Sewing.com!  Susan and Betty were able to point me in the right direction many times. I looked up to them and still do.

So many mentors, most of whom don't even know it. No one lives in a vacuum. Part of the mission of this site is to pass along any sewing information we can. That's why it says "steal this stuff" on the front page of the blog. Pass it on - show a friend how to do a button. It's a start!

Now to the mending thing. I made a blanket for my dog to hop on on our bed. Over the years, it's been through a lot and from time to time, I take it off the bed and add patches. I chose today to do that again and lawdy me, it's starting to look like a quilt made out of the patch fabric - fabric with stones all over it. My dog doesn't care, but I do. The various levels of fading of the rock fabric shows the age and how many times the quilt has been washed. Lucky dog, eh?

Go sew something. It's a gloomy day in VA and I'm going back to the machine. 

New Open Weave Vest

I've written about open weave vests before, including a tutorial:  Part 1 and Part 2. I've made them for me using strips of fabric that I've manipulated into warp and weft, and I've made them for dolls using ribbons of all ilk. And I'm making one again today. No photos yet, but will share when it's done.

Traditional basket weaving, which is how I'm working the current vest, is precise and exacting. (The tutorial linked above uses strips laid over one another rather than over/under weaving.) Today, I marked the wash-away stabilizer and started on the front of the vest, the woven part. For about an hour, I enjoyed a cup of coffee and took my time going over and under the strips as a weave began to appear. It grew over the next few hours and then, regardless of my pre-planning, I started to run out of strip fabric. It takes miles of the strip to make these things!

I stopped and started cutting new strips to attach to one another, fold in half, and prep to fold in half again. I'm done for today. I don't want to get sick of the project before I even finish the front! I'm about 2/3 done with one side of the front and am liking the way it looks.

This is one of four vests I'm making, and I have fabric for a couple of colorful tunics. I've been adding more color to my wardrobe and separates are a great way to do that. I also have put more sewing into my days as I'm now retired. It's win-win.

More to come as I tackle the piles of sewing projects I have waiting for me to get busy!

Steal my stuff!

No, seriously, steal it.

Part of the reason I do this blog is to teach others how to do simple stuff; it's not all show and tell, ya know. Those of us who sew need to pass it along. And we need to do it freely. So what if you use a Christmas Stocking project to make money on your own? Good for you. Way to go. You put your own spin on it and you had the initiative to do it. Steal all my projects. I'm down with it. Some are on my projects/tutorial page and some are in the blog itself.

Additionally, if you need help with any of these simple sewing thingies, just ask. You can put a comment with a question and I'll get back to you. If you subscribe to email notifications for replies, you'll get a handy dandy email when I do. If I don't have the answer, I'll see if I can find one.

TheSewingDictionary.com has been redesigned and will launch later today. That's another free site. I add definitions often. If you have any suggestions, contact me and I'll see what I can do about writing it up. Use the dictionary. Share the dictionary.

So here's the deal - you have my permission to use any ideas you see on this site. If you care to, link back to ScrapStitching.com. Use our eBay link to do  your buying if you can. That helps pay the cyber rent. Or don't. No strings attached.

Think of this as open source sewing ideas and instruction. That's about it. Steal my stuff.

Sneak peak at strawberry pinwheel baby quilt I'm finishing today. I was testing out a method of making triangles with two squares like this tutorial shows.

Happy New Year my sewing & nonsewing friends

I've been a sewing fool, it seems; so much so, that I haven't taken time to share it with you!

Christmas meant making Christmas stockings, a lot of them, and other stuff. Here's a sampling of what's been whirring in my machine and by hand. So easy, all of it, and fun to look at and give as gifts.

After Christmas, I took the Christmas mug mats/coasters up and the table looked empty. I remembered my stash of yellow and blue fabrics, but them into 1-1/2" strips, and created log cabin mug mats for myself. The binding is some left over blue bias tape and the back is made from a scrap fabric. I still have some leftovers of the blue and yellow fabric. Who knows where it will end up next. These are a little over 4" in circumference. 

Ooops, that's not sewing! A couple of plates of cookies found their way into my camera. How'd that happen? I make a butter cookie with my mother's icing - confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, food coloring, and just enough water to make it spreadable. It hardens, but does not get crunchy like royal icing. They're so good! My kids said this year I used weird colors. They're right! 

I saw a Christmas tree skirt with dachshund silhouettes on it. That sent me on a hunt for a German shepherd dog silhouette. I found a coloring page that was just right. I traced that onto Wonder Under, changing a bit here and there, fused the Wonder Under to Christmas fabric, and cut them out. They, then, were fused to an oval of complementary Christmas fabric, satin stitched, and backed with a fun cheater quilt Christmas fabric. I made the bias binding out of a bit of this and that and voila, placemats. 

Joanna is a friend of my daughter's. She painted an amazing portrait of our last three dogs. It was my present to my husband this year. I figured she deserved a tip, so Christmas stocking it was!

She's an avid archer, so I printed a photo she had posted on Facebook onto fabric. Then I worked around it with some candy cane fabric strips. 

When I think of archery, for some reason, I think of fringe. I had happened to have some red suede fringe, so there you go - the finishing touch. 

Oh yeah, a few potholders too. The Redskins one was a gift. They still don't play so well, but she's a fan.  

As usual, it's backed with denim patchwork. Love my recycled denim! Plus, it does add a layer of protection along with the InsulBrite.

I had some Steelers scraps, so why not? Same thing. Denim backing. There's a fan out there somewhere that wants this.

My daughter asked if I could make a stocking for her boyfriend. She sent me a picture of his dog Photoshopped into a Christmas scene, and as with Joanna's stocking, I printed it on fabric and worked around it with a variety of strips that I've been collecting. The strips were all made of 2" squares and cut down to 1-1/2" wide. It was fun to arrange them. Here is it half done. You can see my blue marks where I was aiming to keep things on point. I don't always use marking, but I recommend it for beginners. I'm an old timer, but still wanted them for precision.

This photo is of the front of it before it was attached to the quilted backing. I'll have a photo of that some day! 

Overall, my year-end sewing has been fun. There's more, but I haven't taken pictures yet. Where I used to be a potholder crazy person, now I'm a Christmas stocking crazy person. So much color, so fun, great to give away or sell, and the make me smile.

My one resolution in regard to sewing is the same as last year - Sew a little bit every day and continue to destash the sewing room.

Happy pins and needles to  you. Sew on!

The smallest of things put a kink in my sewing day!

This is driving me crazy.

I helped my daughter with a school project. We did some color blocking on a tee shirt. She did the design and the planning, and I did the sewing. We both did cutting. Along the way, I needed 1" strips, so grabbed my handy dandy 1" x 6" Omnigrid ruler.

You probably have one or something like it that you use often. I have a 2" ruler, a 4" ruler, a 6" ruler (all widths); a curved corner template; wedge rulers; diamond rulers; 4" square ruler; and others. Each is used from time to time, often enough that if one disappears, it's the one I need right now.

Okay, back to the school project. I've taken to cleaning up after a project or cut out immediately so I don't have to face the mess in the morning. If I leave it too long, it becomes invisible and just lives wherever I left it. I know I'm the only one who does that, right? I gathered up scraps of fabric, papers bias tape, and other remnants of goodies left on my table. 

The next morning, I went to grab my 1" x 6 " handy dandy Omnigrid ruler and it wasn't where it is supposed to live! Argh. I made do with what I had on hand - a sort of 1" wide ruler. It wasn't the same. The wooden substitute was a bit wider than an inch and I had to eyeball the correction. It was probably 1/16" inch too wide. 

Then the "woe is me" set in. My handy dandy 1" x 6" Omnigrid ruler was gone. I don't know if I threw it away with the fabric scraps from the school project or if it was hidden behind something, but it's nowhere I can find it; that's for sure. 

God forbid I cut a thick piece of cardboard an inch wide. That just wouldn't do. 

It's a small piece of my sewing arsenal, but man, it is missed. It's like my last Clover seam ripper took a walk. I can't sew without that little gem being handy, even if I don't use it. I have 3 spares!

As I continued to obsess about my 1" x 6 " handy dandy Omnigrid ruler's disappearance, I decided it was time to fix this dilemma. Guess what I ordered this morning? I'm going to chain it to my table. And I will never do a school project with my 30-year-old daughter ever again. I'm sure there's a way to turn this around and make it her fault. 

Let there be light!

In addition to new sewing projects, I have old ones that need to be finished up. Those pesky UFOs. We all have them, right?

I'm tying two small quilts these days. I get bored with it quickly, but I keep going back. Can't just do the fun stuff like the piecing! One problem, though, is that I have 58-year-old eyes and can't see as well as I used to. The solution? An $8 lamp from Walmart with a bendable stem so I can direct it where I need to see. It did the trick perfectly!

Lesson learned - don't not do something if you are looking for reasons not to do it. Go buy a lamp. Such a simple thing that makes such a huge difference!

Sewing Thoughts - Hexagons and Hand Sewing

I eat, sleep, and breath hexagons. I've been working on a hexie charm quilt for a long time now and am on the home stretch. What that means is that I have about 6 months to go before I finish it! Thousands of 2-1/2" hexagons, none duplicated (unless by accident) have been a part of my life for a while now. Sheesh. Will it ever be done? And will I start another one? The answer to both questions is yes. It's what I do and I love having something to take with me to work on, especially now that I no longer have carpal tunnel!

Which brings me to thoughts on hand sewing. Over at SewDaily.com, there's a great blog entry about hand sewing.  I agree whole heartedly that hand sewing is a completely different "animal." I get into the zone when I have a needle and thread in hand with my thimble tight on my finger. I can take my time and plan, cut, sew, measure, re-measure, and get back to the cut and sew part over and over again.

Rose from SewDaily.com mentions that hand sewing is quiet. Maybe that's part of what I like. It's me an my needle. Anything else is superfluous. I tend to hand sew while watching TV when I'm at home. It's almost a diet aid as I never eat while I sew. You want that quilt done? Then there will be no kitchen raiding! That's not really quiet, but it's my time.

She also stresses portability. I've found that to be one of the most wonderful aspects of hand sewing. I always have a hexagon or Cathedral Window project going - they both use small pieces of fabric, they both require hand sewing, and they both have prep work that can be done before you travel and pack your sewing tote. For now, it's hexagons. Always hexagons.

On a side note, I did go dish towel crazy! I ended up making five of them. I did one with hot air balloon fabric, with leftover red/white/blue binding, with an open cutwork piece I got at a yard sale, the one on the dish towel blog entry, and another one I can't remember. CRS syndrome. It was a fun thing to do. I had an old towel and never began to think about how many dish towels it would make. I just sort of started cutting and sewing. Sometimes, you just gotta do something off-the-cuff like that.

Happy sewing. I'll be traveling for the next several days. I have my hexagons all packed and ready to go with my little portable sewing kit. I'm hooked/doomed/addicted - however you want to classify it.

A wondrous thought

It just dawned on me tonight that I may be able to hand embroider again after my hand heals. I had carpal tunnel and trigger finger surgery last Friday. I'm doing great, but it's amazing to me to think that it took me years to have this done. I have had symptoms of the dreaded carpal tunnel for 20 years, at least. It is 100% gone, even as I heal. It was gone when I came out from anesthesia. I hope to be cleared for sewing and scissors work next week when I get my stitches out. I am having withdrawal from my needle and thread!

P.S. Good thing I've never gotten rid of my basket of DMC floss!

Oh, it is so time to sew!

I really, really need to sew. I have way too many ideas running around inside my head. I want to sew for my 18" dolls, for my great-niece (her dress is cut out and ready to rock and roll), for myself, for my home (I have a set of hand towels I'm working on that basically need to be sized/trimmed and edge finished), and just for fun.

I always have my hexagon quilt to work on. That's 100% hand sewing. i want to fire up the Bernina and get going!

I think my plan is to take advantage of my now semi-retired state. Sewing with Nancy used to tell us to make time to sew every day, even if it's only 15-20 minutes. I may not make it every day, but I'm going to shoot for a few days a week until I figure out my rhythm. My hand sewing has taught me patience; I do not need to finish everything lickety split! That should help with sewing in small spurts. My machine is set up (that's my machine in the picture) all the time and so is my ironing board. My in-progress pile has shrunken over the past months. I have no excuse. None. I need to just do it.

So, here's hoping I have more to share with you soon - how-to's, just stuff about what I'm sewing, pictures, or whatever. I finished Adam and Sandy's baby quilt. I'll take pictures of that in a day or so. It looks a lot like the progress photo, but now it's complete with hand made, bias ruffle binding. I could do a how-to of that, huh? Note to self: Do that!

Get to sewing everyone!

Life, quilting, and scraps of thought

A lot has happened in my life lately, much of it in the realm of life-changing events. My best pal, Lindsey, pictured on the left, took ill and ended up being euthanized a few days later. What we didn't know was that she had cancer all throughout her body. My companion of 11 years is now resting peacefully, and we're still sorting through the loss of our "empty nest dog." The same night, my husband's mother died in her sleep. She had been extremely ill for years and though it is not easy, we were prepared. That event put a lot of activity in motion, culminating with her funeral a week ago. Prior to all of this, I had knee replacement surgery on January 19, and have been recovering beautifully. That includes a lot of at home therapy followed by outpatient physical therapy. To say the least, it's been a busy time.

Part of what I have done to maintain my sanity through this all is to sew. I've mentioned before that I'm making a hexagon scrap quilt. It will be about 2000 pieces when it's done, each one hand sewn. I'm in my second year of working on it. I tend to pick it up when life gets too busy and I need to rest my psyche. I've done a lot of that lately. Every stitch is combined with a thought or two, every pairing of hexagons is filled with a moment of my pondering, and the whole of the project is filled with wistfulness and love. The making of this quilt will span two knee replacements, the passing of friends and family, and other memorable events. When it is completed, it will be seen as something that keeps you warm by most people, but by me, I will be taken back to this time in life in happy and not so happy ways. I should call it my sanity quilt, but I'll come up with something more uplifting at another time.

Life's short, my friends. Get out there and sew something, make a memory, or just relax a bit with needle and thread and your own outlet. Turn a batch of scraps into something beautiful or something to wear or something with which to decorate your walls. That unfinished project won't get done without its most important "ingredient" - you.

Live and be grateful.

ScrapStitching is coming back online and I hope to bring more projects and ideas  your way. If you have anything you'd like me to sew or to try, let me know and I'll do my best.

Short hiatus

I spent this morning hemming sweat pants to 3/4 length rather than full length, adding a touch of embellishment, and cleaning/organizing my sewing area. I'll be away from sewing for a while, probably two or three months. 

I'm not really going fishing, though. I just love the concept. I'll be getting my knee replaced. This is a good thing! But there is a long road of rehab and recovery ahead, so I won't be updating the site during that time.

Think of it as sitting by the ocean with a line in the surf, and throw back all the fish you catch so you can wile away more than a few hours.

See you when I get back!

Wow - MIA much or how the Scrap Stitcher does holidays!

Happy Christmas season everyone. As with every December, I've been busier than I care to admit. I had planned on coming in and doing oodles of Christmas sewing projects with you and tutorials about how to this and how to that, and lookie here... I didn't! Trust me, it would have been a blast. Okay, so maybe I stretch the truth a little bit there. But I have indeed been making Christmas stockings using my instructions, pot holders, placemats, and even a few items of clothing at the sewing machine. I've done very little sewing on the hexagon quilt, but I'll get to it. I refuse to allow it to be a UFO forever!

Today began the cooking/baking phase of Christmas. My tree is done and most of the ingredients for goodies are purchased. We have a nice steak dinner for Christmas and I went to the high end grocery today to pick the steaks themselves up. This week, I'll pick up the rest of the food and anything I've ordered from the gourmet shop. I have family coming Saturday, Sunday, and Monday next week! That means at least two meals, maybe more. It'll be great.

On a personal note, I'll be having a planned surgical procedure in January and may be a bit quiet again, but never fear, I'll definitely be back and will be sewing during my recuperation. Hexagon quilt anyone?

If you have any ideas for projects or something you'd like for which you'd like me to try a tutorial, just let me know by comment or mail.

For now, Happy Holidays to all. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate or if you celebrate none at all, we're all citizens of a wonderful planet. As the children's song goes, "we're all a family under one sky." Keep that in mind as you hang with family and friends.

Stash busting - UFOs - Hand Sewing

We've talked before about half finished projects or items that merely need that last bit of hand sewing done, right? For instance, when I make placemats or pot holders, I apply the binding with machine on one side and by hand on the other. I have a really bad habit of finishing them up to the point of the hand sewing. I bet I am not alone on this!

 

The latest is a set of Peter Max and M&M potholders. I finally finished the hand stitching on the binding on the one bound in green last night. It's been sitting around for about a week or so just waiting for me! I still have remnants of the Peter Max and of the M&M fabric and who knows what comes next for them. For now, I have one more placemat to bind! 

I had a bag that I put all my hand sewing in and took it to the living room with threads, needles, and all the other items I'd need to finish them up. Every night while we hang out, I work on a different piece. I've made a deal with myself not to start something new till these are done. That includes no machine stitching on the Peter Max tote bags I have cut out. It feels good to finally be using those fabrics that I've been sitting on for so long!

One last stash busting note - I sent out five boxes to people from my email group and have three more to fill when I get the postage together. It sure feels good knowing that fabric has found a good home. It has also been an eye opener for me, reminding me what I have on hand and what I don't need to keep. Bust away fellow sewing people!

P.S. for an easy how-to for potholders, I have a generic potholder project/instructional/tutorial for you on the Scrapstitching project page. These are easy, use up all sorts of scrap fabrics, and require very little in the way of buying. The only thing you really need to buy is Insul-Bright Mylar/Poly Batting. The rest of the parts, you already have. If you don't have Fiberfill, use an old towel.

Zen and the art of sewing

I have owned the domain ZenSewing.com for some years now. I don't maintain the site any longer and, in fact, it redirects to the ScrapStitching blog. Interestingly, one of the reasons I began this blog was to put all of my online sewing articles, projects, thoughts, ideas, etc. in one place, to simplify. They say that the only word you need to understand Zen is "is." Simple, but ever so deep. I wrote a piece about zen and the art of sewing for the ZenSewing site, and thought I'd share it with you here. The reason I'm doing this now is related to some lightswitch covers I'm working on. I spent a quiet hour with fabric, ModPodge, paint brushes, and other tools working toward a focused goal. I was reminded of this article and wondered if I still had a copy. I didn't. I had to go to the Wayback Machine on line to find a copy! (A lot of my writing is missing due to a recent burglary.) So, without further ado, here you go - Zen and the Art of Sewing.

Zen Sewing is sewing what you need to sew as well as what you want to sew, using items and fabrics you have on hand whenever possible, seeing the full potential in the process and in the materials. Making something out of what was once potentially nothing. Or turning a pile of yuck into a gorgeous garment or craft item. It's quilt making. It's sewing for children and for their children, garments of your choice or in the design of the late 70s and early 80s, as well as boutique items and fancy clothes or accessories. It's designing and creating clothing for 18" dolls or making the dolls themselves. It's making a set of placemats or embellishing a pair of pillowcases. It's recycling denim and making all sorts of things out it. It's stitching up something for donation to a local nursing home or hospital. Zen Sewing is something you get lost in, are directed to, and need to do to satisfy not only your receiver/customer, but yourself. Something that you do for you. Something you do because it is there to be done.

Zen also includes giving. To give is to receive. One of our community project ideas is dolls for donation. We collect 18" dolls, clean them up if they're used, give them a haircut if they need one, and then make clothing for them. These dolls and an outfit or two are then donated to a child at the battered women's shelter or the Child Protective Services Department. You can also contact your fire department or police department and see if they would be willing to give them to a child in crisis. Work on a local level and encourage others to do the same. If you have 18" dolls (like American Girl Dolls, Tolly Tots, Our Generation, and many other manufacturers), fix it up and donate it to someone in need.

How often have you gotten lost in your sewing projects? I do it all the time. I may start out with an end result in mind, but there are times when I am not exactly sure of every step I took from start to finish. Think about those times you have driven home or somewhere else and you looked up and wondered, "How did I get here so quickly?" (Or even "How did I get here?" at all!) Though your safety could be an issue on the highway, I look at the act of sewing in the same manner - how'd I get that done? Let's start from the beginning.

Life is fairly chaotic for most of us these days. We live in a hurry up world and have many deadlines for ourselves, our children, our pets, our jobs, our everything! We have to make time to sew. And when we do, there is a process that should be followed in order to get the project done. Say it's a garment - pick out a pattern (contemplate the books or the internet for choices), choose a fabric (with sight, touch, whimsical fancy), prepare the fabric (wash, dry, fold, press), lay out the pattern (order, planning, or even a mish-mosh of pieces here and there), pin it or weight it (taking control of the fabric and the pattern), cut it out (slowly, methodically reshaping the fabric to your will), and then sit down and put the pieces together to create a whole. You may or may not refer to your pattern, you may or may not pin the pieces, but you will put thread to needle (either by hand or machine) and begin to sew at some point. The sewing by machine - that's where the meditation can come in. The sound, annoying to some, is music to my ears. The hum of the machine as it makes stitch after stitch, controlled by my foot on the pedal, and the fabric controlled by my hands. I don't hear the sound after some time. I get lost in the project, putting one piece here, another piece there, stopping to press seams or serge them finished, and using a life's experience of sewing how-to in one setting. I think back to days when my children were young and I made smaller items of clothing, back to Christmases past when I would make gifts from fabric or hand embroider items. I find myself being calm when I sew. Whether it be the hum and lull of the machine that takes me down a meditative path or the constant movement of my hand as I take stitch after stitch with a hand quilting project.

I take refuge in the sewing, I "become one" with the machine. The act of sewing takes me away, brings me some sanity and peace when I need it most. Isn't that the enlightenment we all need from time to time? No wonder I come back time and again to my machine and my hand sewing. I need it as much as I need the item I am producing.

Who knew sewing could be this deep?

Stash busting motivation

Hoarders is on all day on A&E today. If that show doesn't make you want to get into your stash of fabric and sew something, nothing will. I have literally cleaned my sewing room twice in the time I've watched this show. By cleaning, I mean, the three piles - keep, donate, dispose. Rarely is there an item in the dispose pile. I just can't do it, but I have been known to donate quite a few pieces of theme fabric. '

Thankfully, I do not have the hoarding issue that the folks on this show do and am able to make sense of what I own and what I have to work with. If you're remotely crazy, though, and most of us who sew are a wee bit on the nutty side, go through that stash today! Or at least make a path so you can get to all of it ;)

Critters and the things we make

I made some denim pillows for a friend recently. She sent me a picture of her cat enjoying one of the pillows:

This picture reminded me of a picture I took a couple of years ago of my dog on my old couch with a bunch of pillows I had made:

Both animals are in critter heaven. You can't see it well, but the dog has pillows at the back of her body as well, one made from a ham bag and another made from some patchwork of days gone by.

So what if the pillows were made for people. It's fine with me if our furry family members get to enjoy our artsy fartsy ways too, right? Yup, right! Sleep well little munchkins!

Unfinished projects - UFOs

It's been a sewing few days:

• I'm getting ready to travel, so I got a small Cathedral Window quilt cut out and all the machine work done. That's ready to go with me for hand sewing on the road.
• There was a set of prequilted placemats waiting to be bound in my placemats container. I got out the strawberry fabric today, made bias binding, bound the strawberry quilted placemats  by machine, and they now are on the table, adding some much needed color and love to the room.
• I have a stack of 4" square Halloween fabrics. I've wanted to make trick-or-treat bags, so I started stitching the squares together and cut some 2" strips to go with them, made handles, and made a prototype lined bag. I didn't like the size, so I redesigned and made another one - perfect! I now have a design for trick-or-treat bags that I can work with and made one more. Those will make a nice sale item. I have models in mind and will take some photos when I get back from AZ. 
• Though this is not sewing, per se; I've rounded up all the denim pieces and jeans I have around the house and have been dissecting them to beat the band. I've got a nice stack of 5" squares to work with when I return from vacation. I want to make another Smurf quilt. 

So there you have it - my sewing room has not been sitting quiet. I've been a busy beaver. I have a lot of projects left to finish and many more to begin, but it's all going to have to wait. I have another trick-or-treat bag to finish first!

Getting Smurfier!

The Smurfs quilt is almost done. All the fabric's been cut and every day, I've done a little something.

Patchwork - done.

Backing - done.

Machine "quilting" - done.

Binding made - done.

Binding applied - working on it! I suck at quilt binding. I have to do it by hand because I can't get the hang of doing it by machine. 

I should have the binding done in another couple days. It will take a while.

Sewing may not be on the top of the priority list here soon. I'm going to be traveling in May, so I want to work really hard in April to get my knee up to snuff so I can walk as much as I want to. That's a lofty goal, but I can make it at least halfway to there, I'm sure! I definitely will continue to hand sew the hexagon quilt (it's going to take a year to finish) and will start a small project to take with me on the plane in May. It might be a small Cathedral Window again. I have one almost done using M&M fabric that is doll sized.

I also have two ideas for items to make and sell. More about them as the ideas develop. Wouldn't it be great to make my whole 'paycheck' with sewing and Amazon, Etsy, and eBay? Well yes, it would!

Cleaning!

I took a day off from sewing and decided it was time to clean up all my sewing project mess. Every time I make something, I have a pile of fabric scraps, thread, and sundry other items on my sewing table. Recently, I've made Valentine's Day hearts for my tree, placemats for sale, and did some mending. That left behind fabric with hearts and flowers in various shades of red, the backing fabric and the strip quilting fabrics for the placemats, and the things I haven't mended yet.

It's amazing how much stuff you can collect! As I cleaned and organized, I also went through my spare buttons (some purchased wholesale for sale on line and which have seemed to collect en mass in a box under my sewing machine table) and project containers. I have containers with placemat projects in various states of completion; another one with potholder patterns, fabrics, and partially completed items; containers with like fabrics in shades of brown, rainbow Michael Miller Krystal fabrics; containers with batting and bags of polyfil next to those; and oh gosh, containers of all sorts of stuff. Even just talking about it makes me tired!

I had a couple pair of jeans that needed to be taken apart, so go that done and put the resultant fabric in its container along with the pockets. I might use them someday, right?

I "found" my container that I take with me to the theater to do mending on costumes and restocked that, putting away older items in the container that I may never use again. And next to this was a small metal container that I use for hand sewing items. So that's where all my hand sewing needles "went!" And under another pile of fabric was my bobbin winder. Darn, been wondering where that was. I also learned that the small screwdriver that goes with my trusty Bernina isn't in its container; I'll find that on the floor someday when I bend down to find a button that falls.

Overall, it was a great adventure in sewing land. I now have things all tidied up and ready to mess up once more. What's next?