Stitching in the Barn

I wanted to make a quilt. I wanted it to be quick and easy. I wanted it to be flannel, front & back with batting. I had these flannels in my stash from a Black Friday sale at JoAnn's years ago: They're very juvenile but go together perfectly. I saw a free pattern on the internet but I discarded it as it was made for a larger number of fabrics than four and I wanted to use just these and not buy more. I decided I wanted a "simple" rail fence quilt with large blocks for less piecing. Here are the blocks spaced 4 inches apart with a 12 inch border  This looked huge and the scale wasn't right. I then spaced the rails 3 inches apart with a 9 inch border and some white fabric to block it down to 9 inches This looks more balanced to me and the blocks are only slightly smaller. I also searched Google for images of rail fence quilts and decided it needed a small inner border to contain it. I have at least 3 yards of each fabric so I started d...

I got into my sewing space this weekend to make my self a grab bag from All People Quilt.com (links to a .pdf file). I used some black denim I've had for ever and the leftover red tone on tone, from my daughter's lunchbag, for the lining. And looped closed: The denim is very stiff and unsuitable for clothes but perfect for a bag. The original option was to use 2 quilting cottons and batting in between but I didn't want the extra work on the first one I made.   I did do extra work anyways because I zigzagged the edges to finish them. The seam allowance was only a 1/4 inch and I was afraid it would fray too easy. Next time I'll use the same pattern but take a 1/2 inch seam allowance, there's plenty of room for it. I like this bag because there are no separate straps to make which makes it quicker to sew. The handles on this one are funny, IMHO, to sew together but come out awesome. I would recommend basting the loop parts before stitching them c...

I've worked on my hexies and I've gotten them all basted. Here are the next ones I've worked on: And here they are all together, I think that's a nickle in there: I've tried placing them into matching rows but it looks too uniform: Then I tried flowers which I like but they don't really sing to me: I'm working on them tomorrow at my son's music class so I'll sew them into flowers but I think I'm going to make a garland out of them for my sewing room. I don't know if I'll attach them end to end or maybe on a fake vine. Either way, I'm going to back them and either stuff them or batt and quilt them, most likely by hand. BTW my husband came home with a Necchi type 565 yesterday from the charity store for $15! We believe it was one of the first to be made in Japan since I believe the 555 was still made in Italy and this one doesn't say "Made in Italy" anywhere, though the motor and bobbin hook say ...

My son is away at camp with school this week so I managed to get in 15 minutes of play today but it turned into an hour and all I got put together was this bit of a crazy block from scraps This was my first time doing it. I read about it within the last couple of weeks and decided to go for it today because I haven't sewn for myself in ages! I really didn't want to work on a "project" either so I just sewed some scraps onto a dryer sheet. I will never use a dryer sheet again. I've read in several places over the years that you can do this but I had a few problems. I tried to iron my used dryer sheets because they come out of the dryer all wrinkly, I guess they get rid of them from your clothes by absorption. ^_^ My iron was too hot no matter what setting it was on and they left a lot of gunk on it. I gave that up and used it with all the wrinkles in it, after destroying 3 with the iron. Then, I wanted to piece a fairly large piece and the dryer she...

Back to school time has been kicking my butt. I haven't found any time to sew until I had to do this. My daughter got this bento box last weekend. It's square and wouldn't fit in her lunchbox laying flat so I decided to make her one. It's been an experience I don't want to repeat on my home machine. From Sewing projects Its 8 inches high, 7.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep but it kind of puffs out & looks much bigger. Here it is open with plenty of room inside: And here's a front shot: She drew the phonebox on the front pocket. The outside is actually an unfinished tote bag that was in the WIP pile for her. It's black cotton that I had interfaced and sewn into a bag shape. I just took a bigger seam across the points to make it square instead of rectangular. I bought a round and rectangular piece of plastic canvas, trimmed, then layered them to make the bottom stiff. The round one felt sturdier but I wanted nice straight sides....