Some Personal Sewing

 I don't get much time for personal sewing these days. As a shop owner, most of my sewing time is spent on store samples and class samples. One of my nieces is getting married soon and she asked me to make some little duffle bags for her to give to her bridesmaids. So all last week, in between my regular shop duties, I made 7 duffle bags for her.

I used fabrics from my stash so all of the fabrics I used are older, discontinued fabrics. For the zippers, I used a package of By Annie's zipper by the yard. I picked white with multi-colored pulls so that I could make each one slightly different. All of the pulls are different colors and while the outsides of several are the same, the inside is different so all bags are unique.

The pattern I used is also an older pattern, A Little Duffle Do It. The pattern is very similar to a currently available pattern, Chunky Wee Zippy Pouches. The older pattern calls for binding on all 6 of the inside seams, which I really like. The Chunky Wee Zippy Pouches just has you pink the seams instead. Towards the end I was really wishing I had just pinked the seam allowances as the binding took the longest for this project. But they are done now and on their way to my niece!

These are really fun little bags to make! The thing I really like about the Chunky Wee Zippy Pouches is that in addition to the three sizes of finished bag included in the pattern, the pattern writer also gives you fill in the blank "formulas" so that you make whatever size bag you want. You start by filling in the blanks with the finished size you want to end up with, then follow the directions to work your way back to what size you need to cut your fabrics.

Gift Sewing

 My mom pieced all of these and sent them to me for quilting and binding. 

The first is a wall hanging.

Then a set of placemats.

She bought the fabrics and panel in a kit from Jordan Fabrics. I added backing and binding fabric from my shop. 

See mom, I got them done!

Hold Tite :: A Gift

 Here is the last handmade gift I received. Last, but certainly not least!

It's called a Hold Tite. The link will take you to the free pattern.

It's a holder for these SewTite notions. They are magnetic and the holder has metal inside for the magnets to stick to.

As you can see, I have a nice collection of several styles of SewTites. They are great for holding small pieces (applique pieces and English paper piecing and probably other things too) instead of using pins or clips to hold things in place.

And there is also a place for regular pins, needles or clips in between the metal "pages." This was made for me by my friend Stephanie P. She contacted me out of the blue to verify my address. I couldn't for the life of me think of what she would need my address for but I'm sure glad she thought of me! I love it Stephanie!

Admittedly, I don't use the SewTites that much yet. Probably because I could never find enough of them to be useful to me. Now I have a nifty holder for them though so I might actually use them more! I didn't even realize I had so many because they were in four different places.

A Couple Cute Gifts I Received

 My sewing friends are always so creative when it comes to gift giving! I got two adorable little items: a teeny-tiny pin cushion and an adorable needle book.

The pin cushion is so stinkin' cute! The pin in it is a small applique pin. And it looks huge because the pin cushion is so small.

She went to Harbor Freight and looked around to see what she could find that she could repurpose. This is a bolt screw cover less than 1" in diameter.

Someone else made me the needle book. Here is a close-up of the inside.

I have another fun sewing themed gift I received but I haven't photographed it yet so I will have to share that with you another day.

Block Talk Golf Version :: A Finish

 I used two of the Golf themed Itsy Bitsy panels and the Block Talk pattern for this quilt. One of the panels was used for the center blocks and the second was used for the border. The framing fabrics I used are a black print, a gray print and a white print and the accent fabric is a grass print which I also used for the binding.

2021 Ornaments

 I didn't make ornaments the last couple years. Just too much other stuff going on. But I was determined to make some this year.

These are in progress but almost finished. When this photo was taken I needed to add a little embroidery to a couple of them but by now I'm just doing a running stitch around them to finish them off. I will hopefully have them all done soon and ready to be sent off.

I did have the pattern for these in my shop, but they are sold out at the moment. However, if you would like a pattern just let me know. I can order more and send you a link to the pattern so you can purchase it. The pattern includes all 6 designs shown in the photo and is a $9.99 pattern. I did alter the embroidery on some of them to suit my tastes.

Corky Wallet

I am enjoying sewing with cork. Have you tried it yet? I found a great little pattern for a wallet made from cork. 

What I really like about this little pattern is that all you need is cork, thread and your machine. There is no zipper, button, magnetic snap or anything else needed.

The pattern I used is called "Corky Wallet".

In case you are wondering, this is what the cork I used looks like in sheet form. It is pretty cool stuff!

If you haven't tried sewing with cork yet, give it a try. You don't need anything special - no special machine, thread, needle or anything. It cuts easily with a regular rotary cutter or scissors.

Pineapple Pillow :: A Finish

I got it finished and in the mail.

I had a cute green and white chevron fabric in my stash that I used for the back of the pillow. The binding is one of the greens from the pineapple tops - the only one I had enough of to use for binding. I put a piece of the chevron fabric on the back of the pieced top and quilted it from the back so I could use the printed chevrons as my quilting lines.

Happy Birthday Faith!

Pineapple Pillow Cover

I have a niece with a birthday coming up who loves pineapples. Over the weekend I pieced her a pillow cover.

Now to get it quilted up, finished and in the mail this week.

Gift Sewing

I've been making some gifts for Christmas this year.

26 napkins and 2 pillowcases!

Unexpected Sewing Time

Two things happened last week that provided me with some unexpected sewing time on Friday morning. 

First, some ladies wanted to take a class that is taught by one of my employees. This employee was not scheduled to work on Friday, but agreed to teach the class to these ladies on Friday since that is what worked best for them. The easiest thing to do was to change the schedule so that the teacher worked on Friday instead of me. So I ended up with an unplanned day away from the store. My plan was to get caught up and ahead on some computer work for the shop.

Second, Thursday afternoon internet access went out for much of Alamosa. Some cable was damaged along the Front Range but it effected us too. We were without internet for almost 24 hours! Which meant that I couldn't do any of the work I had planned to do on Friday morning.

I was frustrated at first, but then quickly realized that this could be a good thing. So ... I sewed all morning!

I made these two Whatcha Got Bags.

The big one in the back is for a gift exchange I'm participating in later this week. The front one will be a Christmas gift.

The internet was restored around noon on Friday and my sewing time ended. It was fun while it lasted!

Gifts

A friend recently went to Alaska and brought me back a gift!

She knows me well. It is blue with circles. Love it!

Another gift, this one from a customer.

She has an embroidery machine, loves to use it, and is quite good with it too. She makes these adorable zipper pouches with various designs on the front. She gifted me this one last week.

Busy as a Bee

Lots going on here but not that much sewing. The little sewing time I've had over the last two weekends was spent making these four Whatcha Got? bags for my employees.

We decided not to exchange gifts at Christmas since our One Year Anniversary was coming up in February. It was last week so we had a little party Wednesday evening and exchanged our gifts.

I made these photo collages of my shop for the newsletter so I thought I'd share them with you too.

These photos were taken in February 2016.

And these were taken this month, February 2017.

We've come a long way in one year and this is why I'm not able to sew and blog as often as I would like. 

2016 Ornament

My ornaments for this year are made!

The center one, the one with a button, is the first one I made. My original plan was to put a button in the center of them all. I'm rethinking that now. I don't have any more of those black buttons and I don't have enough of any one button for the rest of them. They don't all need to have the same button in the center, but I don't have enough buttons I think will work for these. And I think they are pretty cute without buttons. So I'm calling them done.

These are each made from five 2.5 squares. I used mini charm packs of the three Moda Christmas lines I have in my shop: Jol, Cookie Exchange and Juniper Berry. They finish at 2" square.

The construction method I used is similar to this folded fabric hot pad tutorial. I only used 5 squares and no batting for these since they are just ornaments, but the idea is the same.

Blog Friends are the Best!

Yesterday I received this adorable little guy in the mail from Caroll.

She made him for my new shop. I hung him by the front door. The wall is curved which is why the bottom right corner looks a bit funky. It's the wall, not the quilt.

Thank you so much Caroll! I LOVE it!

Another Nancy Tote

My goal was to get this made before my stores opens. It opens today and I finished this on Saturday.

This one is just like the other two I've made. Click here to see mine and click here to see the one I made for my mom.

I made this as a gift. I'm pretty sure the recipient doesn't read my blog, but just to be on the safe side I will not name names. This used the last of the bag inserts I purchased. I may need to get some more of them. I would love to make my own inserts, but I can't even purchase the materials to make one for less than these cost already made!

The Nancy Tote

I showed you one version of this bag already. Click here to see the one I made for me. Below is the one I made for my mom for Christmas.

It is my own pattern so I named it "The Nancy Tote" after my mom.

I got my mom a red insert for her bag.

Alamosa Quilt Company Update:

The painting is done, I hope.

Next, I get to open those boxes!