Sew I See!

More pincushions from right here on the homestead! Yee-haw! It's a pincushion round-up! (Wait. That didn't really make much sense, did it? You'll have to excuse me. I may tend to go a bit wild on this blog, from time to time, since I don't think many people are actually reading it. As opposed to the ten or twenty souls who read my personal blog. (g)) So. As I was saying. . . I don't believe I ever got around to posting a photo of this "girly-girl pincushion" before. It's "girly-girl" because it's so pink and purple, of course. It's inspired by those penny rugs that had such a resurgence in popularity a while ago. I topped it off with one of my handmade polymer clay buttons. (I do so love to work those into my little sewing projects!) While I had the camera warmed up, I snapped a couple photos of one of my first, simplest pincushions, which is now serving in the capacity of a needle-cushion. (I suppose I ought to make mysel...

I'm still obsessed with pincushions! --Jen Segrest's Flickr tutorial for making a "basic bottlecap pincushion" (which can be adapted and/or decorated however you like). She also has a blog , with lots of pincushiony goodness. --Bella Dia's "Little Houses" on Flickr. They're a charming set of pincushions made in the shapes of houses and mushroom homes (for fairies, I presume). (Actually, I'm not sure these are strictly meant as pincushions, but that's what I see when I look at them.) -- "The Adventures of Henrietta Hedgehog (Pincushion)" (Very cute!) --A Flickr group for pincushion photos . (Have I linked here before? Oh well...) That'll do for now. . . Hope you enjoy those sites as much as I have! :o)

Don't worry; it's not real! ;o) Some time ago, I came across a pattern for a very cute mouse pincushion -- one that I only recently got around to trying. I changed a couple of things, as you'll probably notice if you clicked over to the tutorial. The most obvious difference is that I made my stitches visible. (I used the whip stitch in a color that contrasted with the felt.) I also stitched around the ears and used teensy-tiny buttons (that I made myself from polymer clay) for the eyes. My stitching skills could use some polishing. I imagine this is another instance of "practice makes perfect", and as such, is a great excuse for making a few more of these little felt mice! (I stuck this one in with a gift, so my sewing box is still mouse-less.) Hm. What colors should I make the next one. . .? I love these pincushion projects-- just enough hand stitching to let me play around with thread and needle, but not so much that I get impatient with my lack of skil...

Yep, my plastic grocery bags now have a home. ;o) I basically followed the tutorial that I linked to in my last entry, though I did tweak it a bit. I didn't start with quite as wide a rectangle as in the tutorial, because my fabric wasn't wide enough (more on that later). I think my rectangle ended up being about 14 inches wide. Also, I didn't have any elastic on hand, so I came up with another solution. I sewed the "tube" at the bottom, fed a piece of yarn through it, gathered the fabric up to tighten the hole a bit (but not too much), and knotted the yarn. Unless I'm missing something, I think this will work just as well as the elastic, and it's free (assuming you have a little bit of yarn or string lying around the house). I used fabric scraps I happened to have on hand, because I hate wasting nice, new fabric on a project before I know how it'll turn out. (Besides, this is going inside the pantry, where hardly anyone will ever see it.) Actu...

Ok, I'll admit it: The perceived usefulness of these links will vary greatly from person to person. I've gotten by for years just using one plastic grocery bag to hold all of the rest. Or, actually, several plastic grocery bags crammed to the bursting point with the rest. I take them back to the store to be recycled, but most of the time I forget, so I end up with lots of them stuffed on the bottom shelf of the pantry. However, "getting by" and doing it with style are two very different things. ;o) If, like me, you're tired of looking at plastic bags, you may want to give this grocery bag dispenser tutorial a look. It seems like a very quick and easy project-- and if I had some elastic on hand, I'd probably give it a try right away. (I have an idea that might allow me to do it even without waiting for my next shopping trip. We'll see. . .) If you're less interested in the looks of the thing and happen to have an old sweatshirt destined for t...

My mother mentioned faux chenille to me a long while back-- over a year ago, probably. I'm interested, now, too-- probably because of my "experience" (oh, yeah, I'm so experienced! (g)) with rag quilting. (Rag quilting and making faux chenille aren't the same thing, but I think it's fair to say that they're related...) A quick search revealed at least a few good links with basic information. I don't know when I'll ever get around to trying it, but here are a few links to refer to, somewhere down the road: "A Primer for Constructing Faux Chenille" (on Nannette Holmberg's site) "Creating GREAT Slash-Fabrics" , by McKenna Linn "Faux Chenille" , by Sue Bleiweiss "Faux Chenille Purse Tutorial" , by "Butterflyspain"

I finally completed the ragging process on my lap quilt, this afternoon. Here's the detailed play-by-play, in case anyone's interested (and in case I should forget my own process, if it takes me another couple of years to get the next rag quilt ready for ragging): First, I made a "blanket bag" for washing the quilt in, to catch the lint and loose threads that might otherwise clog the drain. I took an old queen size flat sheet, folded it in half, and pinned the two halves together. I sewed together two of the open sides, leaving one of the two shorter sides unsewn. I then removed the pins and turned the whole thing so that the seam was hidden inside. (That might not have been necessary, but it's a force of habit.) I decided to try out one of the tips I recently wrote about-- that of throwing the quilt into the dryer on "air" (without heat) for a few minutes prior to washing. It did take out a fair bit of lint and loose threads, but I don't know t...

I don't think I've linked to these pages before. . . The following are a handful of rag quilting-related sites and photos I came across within the past couple of weeks. - - - - - - - - - - - - I really like this type of rag quilt , with its "circles and diamonds" pattern. It's a nice change from the rows of squares you typically see. (Don't get me wrong-- I like the simple squares, too, but if you're going to be making very many rag quilts, you'll likely want to spice things up a bit, somewhere down the line.) This pattern reminds me of a stained glass window, for some reason. (Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I've seen photos of that pattern done as a traditional quilt-- without exposed seams-- but I'm such a quilting novice that I have no idea what the design might be called. Anyone care to educate me? (g)) If you like the quilt, too, and are interested in giving it a try, then you're in luck; Cathy Brose has generously provided us ...

I finished snipping my rag-quilted lap quilt last night, during the commercial breaks in the LOST season premiere. Now I just need to figure out how to wash it. I think I'm going to make a "washing bag" out of an old sheet. I've used an old pillow case before, to catch the loose threads from smaller projects. We'll see how it works for a small quilt. . . The snipping wasn't too bad. Doing it in stages really helped keep it from becoming too much of a chore. Be advised, though, that when people talk about "watching TV" while they snip a rag quilt, what they really mean is listening to the TV. (g) It's best to do this with something that's more audio than visual. (As a matter of fact, I think I'll listen to an audio book the next time I have some snipping to do.) The snipping went much faster and easier after I oiled my snippers. I wrote yesterday that they were sticking-- not springing open as much as they were supposed to. I ...

Here are a few rag quilting-related tips I stumbled across on a message board (I think) called something like "Craft Exchange Friends". I was only able to read them thanks to Google's cache, so I thought it worthwhile copying them down for future use, while they're still available: "Cutting Tip: If you cut the squares diagonal on the fabric instead of on the straight grain of the fabric you don't have to spend all that time ragging the edges. After sewing all the squares together place the finished quilt top in your washing machine and dryer, the edges will come out fringed. This method is called Faux Chenille." --Sharon I haven't tried this myself, so I can't recommend it from personal experience, but it makes sense to me. There might be times, though (such as when you're cutting squares from cast-off clothes), when it would be impractical to have to cut on the bias-- mainly because it takes more room. . . if you understand what I mean. (...