A Good Listen

Anyone who is a fan of Sue Hausmann should check out this great interview by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood of CraftSanity Podcast (#118.) Sue hosted America Sews for 15 years, and though it's no longer filming, the project archive is still up at Husqvarna Viking website.

I was lucky enough to take a short seminar from Sue at Sewing Expo a few years ago, and her love of teaching really comes across. There was always something to learn from her shows, even if the end product wasn't something I would want, the techniques demonstrated could be applied to other projects.

Goodbyes

My college-age son left for an adventure yesterday - a year abroad. I didn't schedule any work this week, as he is a last-minute kinda guy. He called this morning to tell us that he'd arrived safely at his destination (as did his checked luggage.) I've also been dealing with my younger brother's belongings, as he died unexpectedly last month. My busy work has been mending and working on charity projects.

Quilting detail on Storybook Quilt - Butterflies. Finished and bound this week.

The Christmas stockings for Toy Rescue Mission are coming along nicely. The eight smaller ones (using the extra backings cut out last year) are finished.

The 23 other scrappy-pieced stockings are sewn and ready for finish work (turning, tying off serged ends, pressing, adding hanging loops.) The top edges will be turned to the inside, and have a hemmed edge.

Another 25 made from a Christmas postcard print are also sewn and ready for turning. They have a cuff sewn from white felt (with sparkles!) that flips to the outside, with an exposed seam on just the felt. I have a meeting tomorrow for charity work and will bring them along for finishing.

Since these stockings will probably become an annual project for me, I've kept better notes on how they were constructed. I answered a sewing blogger's question last month about what to do with "ugly" fabrics, and forgot all about how useful it can be for testing!

This is a sample of the cuff turned inside - much easier assembly if sewn to each side first, then the side seams. My first attempts had a cuff sewn as a tube, and they were clumsy.

The single fabric stockings with felt cuff were definitely the easiest. The larger size that TRM prefers is also easier to work with too. The Christmas fabric stash is largely depleted, though there is a box of Christmas print scraps for a simple strip quilt that will probably yield leftover. There will likely be other fabric gifted to me to build up the supply as well.

Bits and Pieces

Lots of small projects have been finished in the last month, and of course several new projects started.

I made a batik top from some grey and blue batik fabric that a quilter gave me, and a pair of matching pants (cut out months ago) from a lavender/blue cotton. The pants were a test of a pattern that I hadn’t used before, a multi-sized ( ) pattern. I always have to adjust the rise as I am short-waisted, and since the pants have slant pockets and an elastic waist band with drawstring, it makes the pocket openings a bit small. They actually fit pretty well, and I have some gabardine fabric in house to make a fall version of them. Of course, having lost 20 pounds since I cut out the first pair, I will need to revisit the size.

Two kitty beds were made from a recycled sheepskin car seat cover and a recycled homemade corduroy bench seat cover. Murphy LOVES them, so they were worth the effort. The corduroy had been purchased by my mother many many years ago at a yard sale. I made the seat cover twelve years ago for our van. It helped when the van was sold that the seats were nice and clean, even though we have dogs. All of the usable parts were salvaged, and the rest tossed.

I spun a small sampler of superwash sock yarn that came as a gift with a larger order. It's a pretty teal blue, and I think it wants to be plied with some of the shiny rayon thread that isn't strong enough for machine quilting. It will add just a bit of shine plus strength to the wool single.

At a sewing retreat two weeks ago I started working on Christmas stockings for Toy Rescue Mission of Tacoma. I made stockings for them last year, and had a few extra backings leftover. I contacted them about the size, and they do want them as wide as possible, so I drew a new template and my husband kindly cut out an acrylic template for me. For the pieced fronts, muslin was used as a foundation. I started with some fussy-cut birds that had been cut too small for their project, and some small animal caricatures gifted to me. The leftover bits from the bird project, plus other gold, green and red fabrics were added. I have some cream fabric with gold stars to cut the backings for the larger stockings (23 of them). I also cut out about 30 stockings from a print with postcards of Santa – 2 large pieces of the same print given to me by different people, they will be sewn up without additional embellishment.

Binding has been finished on the 4-patch charity and started on the red/cream Christmas quilt that will be a gift. I started some baby washcloths from cotton chenille when I needed a decompress project. We’ve had a lot of the crazy to deal with including several life-changing things happening at the same time. Simple projects bring a sense of calm.