Gift #3 and #4 of 10 in Progress

I didn't feel like doing any sewing on Friday. My brother hurt his back at work, so I needed to spend some serious quality time at the hospital with him on Saturday. At least it is a muscle sprain and not a broken bone. Apparently it is a family trait. Or maybe it's an old people trait. Don't know, don't like it. I called my sister to let her know, and she was in a talkative mood, so Saturday was a sewless day as well.

Notice how I am moving on to Gift #4 even though I haven't shown you finished Gift #3? That's because it isn't done yet. Since I decided to make the project bigger, I had to think of something to add to all that empty space. First, I decided to switch backgrounds - from white to purple. That meant that I needed to change the purple on the applique to something else that wouldn't blend in with the background. Since I was using Heat and Bond instead of Steam A Seam (I ran out), I thought I would test out all those rules about using the reverse side of the pattern, etc. for you all over again. Yep. They still apply.

Then I decided to add a bird. After tracing and playing around with different bird shapes, I managed to get a feel for how to draw a bird, and cut a pattern piece bigger, since I could always trim. It looked great the size it was, so I'm leaving it the way it is. The Heat and Bond glued just fine to the applique pieces, but it is having trouble sticking to the background fabric. I tried sewing, but it does gum up the needle, and that messes up the tension, so sewing is out of the question. Right now, I am washing the background fabric, in case it hadn't been done before, and tomorrow I'll apply extra heat, if necessary. I don't want to burn the fusible, but this thing has to stick. Hopefully it will be kinder to me tomorrow.


Okay, for Gift #4 I decided to make another warm wall hanging. I bet my family members are afraid to tell me what they want, because they will get the same thing several times in a row. This will be Warm Wallhanging #3. I have a batik Bali Pop, which is like a jelly roll, which means the strips are already cut. I was thinking simple squares would be good, but then decided on bricks. Rectangles would be even faster than squares. Not staggered bricks, which would require lots of sewing, but rectangles sewn in rows, which could be strip pieced.

Then I got the bright idea that I could make a bargello. I've never made one before, and it's been on my to-do list for a while. The rectangles are smaller instead of bigger, but I don't think it will be too much added work. I wish I could imagine quilts in my head better, so I could see what would have been better, random rectangles, or a bargello, but all the strips are sewn together now, so randomness is out. I think a bargello would look better with both vertical and horizontal symmetry, but I'm not sure if I have enough fabric in one strip to do that, plus I already sewed the strips together. I think it will look fine though, just squares and rectangles in a pattern. I need to sew the rows together, and hopefully things will go smoothly on that quilt.

Gift #3 of 10 in process

Just kidding. Just seeing if you were paying attention. Since handmade things can't be returned, I thought a personalized gift would be appreciated, like the door hanger in Gift #1, but tailored for the recipient's tastes. I was thinking it could be used on a door, but also on a wall. In case the Gift Recipient ever forgot her name. I ran out of Steam A Seam so I used Heat and Bond. The directions say "Do Not Sew". Sounds good to me. I've heard that it gums up the needle. I was thinking of just quilting the background, but then I saw on another blog that someone had framed their quilt instead of quilting it. I thought that would work really well for this thing. I happened to have a canvas frame that I had attempted to paint years ago. It is supposed to be a beach scene, and I was going to glue fun stuff on the sand. It doesn't look anything like I had imagined. I obviously didn't get my brother's painting / drawing talent that my daughter and my nieces also managed to pick up since I painted this.



If you look at it sideways, it looks like a silhouette of a face. Maybe it is art, with some deep hidden meaning and I just didn't know it. Anyway, this frame is bigger than the original thing I envisioned, so I have to make some more applique pieces before I can show the finished product.

Gift #2 of 10 - pillowcase

I present to you Gift #2. This was also a special request. It is a pillow case for a body pillow. I had planned to use the blanket that I bought on Black Friday, but the Gift Recipient took it with her to school. While I was tempted to steal another blanket from the bed, I decided to save myself a potential family feud and use backing fabric instead. I don't have a lot of yardage, since I generally buy fat quarters. Backing I generally buy after the quilt is done, so the pickings were slim.

It does have an Asian flavor - that muted orange is the color I think of when I think of Asian fabrics, don't really know why. It looks more pink on my computer and more orange in real life. I've seen plenty of Asian fabrics in other colors. If you don't think it is Asian-ish, don't worry about it. I once bought a Southwestern fabric when I needed something African-ish. This is the only available fabric and it has to work even if it isn't Asian-ish. I grabbed the other fabrics quickly, without giving myself time to debate whether they properly coordinate, but I think it looks pretty good overall.



This is the first time I've made a pillowcase, and I did it properly, with french fold to eliminate ugly seams. You should be especially proud of me, because I made the mistake, yelled at the fabric, and fixed it all in one day. I don't have the body pillow to make sure the size is right, so I hope it fits!

Edited to add: This post is a part of Sew and Tell Friday that Amy is sponsoring. Please click on her name to see more Sew and Tell blog posts by bloggers around the world. And if you are here from her post, please feel free to look around my blog. I'm making 10 gifts, and the pillowcase is the most simple one so far.

Gift #1 of 10

This is a door hanger designed by the Gift Recipient. He drew out the pattern for me and my mother a few months back. I can't find the original drawing, so hopefully he wasn't particular about which colors went where.

It is made to hang on the door so people will know which room belongs to him. I'm glad he chose the only solid colors I remembered having. I did find a couple other colors in a scrap box sent by a fellow quilter when I was looking for binding fabric.

Here's how I made it:

I played around with different fonts to find an S that I liked. I traced it on paper, using my monitor as the light source, and cut it a little thicker so it would fit better on the background. I used fusible applique. Did you know you needed to reverse the shape when you fusible applique. Yeah, so did I. Did you know there is a particular side you need to put your shape template on your fusible applique? Yep, knew that too. Did you know that you need to make sure that the color of the shape isn't the same color as the color of the background? Yeah, me too. I knew all of that. I was just testing it all to make sure it was really true.

I used pinking shears, since I was talking about getting my money's worth in the previous post. Had to get my money's worth out of those pinking shears. And to make it special without additional effort. I hope the fancy font and the pinking shears doesn't make this door hanger feminine. Hope it still looks like an S.

I saved some time by not stitching down the applique, except as part of the straight line stitching. I also saved time by not trying to see if free motion quilting would work for me on this project. The lines are randomly straight, as in, I was following a seam line, but I was sewing fast, so no guarantees, and randomly distanced apart. This made it easier to sew some lines closer to make sure the applique was stitched down, and the hanging sleeve is secured with a quilting stitch as well. The thread used is the color that isn't on the background or the applique, so all three sections have all three colors.

Then I tried to do that single fold binding I told you about last post. Ugh. I found some black fabric already cut, folded and sewn together. Some of it was inside out so it was part of some other project. It was just the right size. The stitches were too close together to undo, but I went ahead and put it on this quilt, as is. You can't see the black stitching on black fabric anyway, unless you look real close. But I think that it would make a great design idea for someone who can sew straight lines. And it went on without any tears, which is a plus.

I did have some "What was I thinking, will he really appreciate it?" feeling while I was making it. But now, I think it looks good and he will appreciate a quilt that he designed.

Santa's Workshop

Today, I planned on showing you my first finish of the season. Gift #1 of 10. One of the 10 gifts I plan to make for the holidays. I was going to tell you that my math doesn't seem to be working. I need three days to make a gift - one to make the mistake, one day to cry about it, and one day to fix it. 3 days x 10 gifts = missed deadline. I was thinking that I needed to cry faster, and hopefully try to avoid a mistake or two. Sigh. I forgot about my special talent to make mistakes while I am fixing, so maybe I need five days. Five days x 10 gifts = lots of missing gifts. No worries, whatever I don't finish, I can just go out and buy. I am only going to work on one gift at a time, so there won't be half finished products.

On Sunday I remembered that besides the holiday, there are four birthdays this month. One of the birthday people likes to collect antiques, and thrift store stuff. Last year, I went to several thrift stores, and was unable to find anything. It has to either be antique, and what do I know about antiques, or it has to be something fun that she would want. I didn't find anything. But I decided to stop at the thrift store since I was driving by it. I found these great containers. They are probably not antique, but they are useful, and if she doesn't like them, she can give them back to me. The first time I saw these at a doctor's office, I wanted them. The plaque looks old, and has a nice cheery saying. The bowl I might keep for me.



I'd been feeling for a week or two that I should go. I thought it might be the blogs I read, but it might have been intuition, because there were several quilty and crafty things there. All of this stuff - in both pictures - for less than the price of a retail store bought gift.


I used the single fold bias binding I got at the thrift store to speed things along on Gift #1, but even with glue and pins, it is a messy job, and I am going to have to unsew and redo the binding. Hopefully I can do that and start on Gift #2 today.

Santa's Workshop

Santa has decided that my vacation is over. I was able to take Thanksgiving and Black Friday off, and now, even though it is the weekend, I must work, work, work, in order to make gifts for 10 people.

During my vacation, I did manage to come up with some gift ideas of what these 10 people (well actually 7, still need to figure out the men) would appreciate getting. So, I've set aside the African Circle quilt - not too far away, I want to get back to it right away.



I didn't have a good recent picture to add to the blog, so I looked back for one I hadn't shown you, and it seemed like I kept looking back and back (each upload is in its own folder). So I decided to show you one from late November last year. Since there was a new crane made for Thanksgiving this year, I thought I should photograph that for you as well. It seems to be slightly incomplete. The picture at the top of the page is this year's edition. And already on the camera was a picture of an African circle, so I threw that in the post for you as well.

Happy Black Friday!

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. We had a gathering here at my house, around lunchtime. Everybody else brought all the food. My sister-in-law was not able to attend, because she was getting ready for an evening gathering with her family. We watched the slideshow I made for my daughter, and played Pictionary.

I let them know that I would be making all my gifts, and if anyone had any requests, to let me know. My niece was the only one with a request. She wanted a warm fuzzy blanket. I didn't tell her that her request had to use available supplies, because I didn't want her to know I as being cheap, but I figured I could buy some fuzzy fabric. Or buy a warm fuzzy blanket. They are pretty inexpensive anyway. It's a good thing nobody else had any requests!

Since the gathering was in the afternoon, I had time in the evening to laze around and read some blogs and watch TV and see all the ads. And to look at the free newspaper with all of its ads. How can a bargain shopper resist Black Friday, I ask you? It is impossible. One of the blogs I read, I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts, Ryan has recently purchased a sewing machine table, the kind I've dreamed about for years. I kept seeing all these cabinets, and wishing for a simple table with a hole in it for a sewing machine. I want a flat bed for my sewing machine, but not the expense, and the cabinet space which may or may not fit my needs, and will definitely not fit my limited available space in my house. His table is perfectly simple! And it folds for easy storage! The reviews say it is heavy but since my ironing board is open all the time, I figure I'm not going to be folding it very often, and I can handle the weight for when I have company. And heavy = sturdy, right? I couldn't get it for any cheaper than he did, $110, when you include shipping.

Then when I saw that Joann had what looks like the same exact table for $80, well I just had to wake up early and go. I know that it is expensive, especially when you know I'm going to be a cheapskate with the gift giving, but it is an investment, and I'll definitely get my moneys worth of use out of it. They had already made, fuzzy blankets for $2.99. How could I not go? What else do I have to do at dark o'thirty?

I didn't try to get there when the store opened, so no waiting in line in the rain. I went early, when it was still dark. It was easy. There were lots of people there, but I didn't buy anything that needed to be cut. Temptation was great though, and other things were purchased. I bought an organizer for stuff. Also bought a Cricut. I'm not sure about that one, it was a great price, but I'm not sure I'll get my money's worth out of it. I know people who use it rave about it, but the lady standing next to me in line said she hadn't bothered to figure out how to use hers yet, and I'm not sure how often I would be cutting the same shape, especially since you have to buy new cartridges for different shapes. What do you think? Would you get your money's worth with a Cricut? I might be returning it.

There were lots of people in the store, but there was plenty of supply, so there was no pushing or shoving. The cashier's line was very very long, but it went incredibly fast, about 10 minutes. And they gave us Hershey's Kisses to give us energy while we waited.

Then I went home, woke up the daughter, and took her to Kohls to buy luggage for her upcoming trip. Also at an amazing price. Of course she threw a couple of pairs of jeans in the cart, and I added gloves. The line was also long there, but also very fast. I think people are friendlier on Black Friday than later in the shopping season. They haven't gotten tired of it yet. Or maybe they are still half asleep!

Now we are going to attempt to stay away from stores for the rest of the holiday season.