Finished object and report

The last pictures of the repurposed fabric weren't very attractive, but the bags finished up very nicely. I like the weight of the double layer, as it feels more substantial than even a lined bag. We ended up stuffing 42 bags with cosmetics and other sundries at the American Sewing Guild meeting earlier this month for the local domestic violence housing program. There is enough of the sturdy plaid lining for quite a few more bags, and they'll be ready for next year's donations.

When you make multiples of a project, there is always a learning curve, as something you may be willing to do once (i.e. zig-zag the edges and fold them over and re-stitch), is quickly replaced with serging the edges in one pass (and also containing fraying edges.) The notes are updated for the next time this project is worked on. I'll cut the outside and lining pieces the same size, pin together, serge the edges together then do the quilting.

Repurposing Fabric, Part 1

More "gifted" fabric has arrived, and has been sorted, assigned, gifted or tossed. In progress are cosmetic bags for my American Sewing Guild's December charity project. I started with a simple pattern from Better Homes and Garden that uses two rectangles for easy zipper sewing. The pieces are being layered with a pants-weight plaid fabric that has lines for easy quilting. By itself, I didn't find this fabric attractive, but it's working out great as a lining.

The lining is cut to the finished size, and the outside fabric 1" larger. The thin lines make a good scale grid for quilting. On my test sample, after folding the outside fabric in and zig-zag stitching, I realized that I'll need to trim the folded edge to about 1/4" all around before folding, so the finished edges will be hidden in the seams (except along the zipper edge.) Taking good notes on projects helps me step right back in after taking a break from them.

Some of the donated fabric was in strips about 6" wide, and I needed larger pieces, so they were seamed. My hat basket of ribbon pieces had this fun polka-dot ribbon that covers the seam. It was added after quilting the layers.

Five bags with this floral bag are in progress.

Vrooom....gag, cough!

That's the sound of the vacuum pulling in 11 1/4 yards of fabric!

I was at a crossroads about my Christmas stockings for Toy Rescue Mission - the finished stockings are ready to pack and mail off, and my local quilting group had expressed interest in helping me make more, as per my last post. As my Christmas fabric supply had been radically reduced, it was coming to

1. repurposing fabric from a project box


2. asking for donations


3. buying fabric

My family's schedule was causing some conflict with the upcoming November retreat, and I was considering calling it good for this year, and starting a new cycle after the holidays. And then Wednesday brought one of my regular and kindest quilt customers, who had seen some of my stockings in progress and shopped her stash for donations - one 3 2/3 yard piece of adorable snowmen and 7 1/2 yards of Christmas sayings! She qualified that I could use it any way I choose, and I have to admit the snowmen have a vintage look that is just adorable.

Both fabrics are directional, so I'll pre-cut pieces to stack and cut 6-8 layers at once. I've also decided that I'll make a small adjustment to the stocking template. It flares slightly at the top, which can be challenging if the facing isn't flared the opposite direction when it's attached. This is one of those small things that you can put up with if you're only making a few, but becomes a pain when you're working in larger quantities. Some of the more experiences sewists in the group would have figured this out earlier, I'm sure! At any rate, simplifying the pattern will make it easier for all of us. If I get them cut out earlier, the "kits" will be passed out early with simple instructions. The facing can be inside or outside, fancy or plain, and they need a sturdy hanging loop.

Project Vacuum

Have you ever finished a project that you are so glad to be done with, only to have a new project fall in your lap? It feels like a vacuum to me—something new gets sucked right in. I had to set aside almost all fiber crafts for a few weeks while working diligently to clean out two storage units that belonged to my late brother, a big big project. I almost forgot what it was like to have some free time, but took advantage of having last weekend to myself and got several things finished.

The charity Christmas stockings are finished—all 100 of them. I didn’t start out to make 100, just as many as I could. Some are strip pieced, some are one fabric in front and another on the back, some the same fabric front and back. I brought the last 12 of them to a quilt meeting on Tuesday, which turned out to be newsletter folding night. After the newsletters were finished, I pulled out the stockings to turn and finger press them. Within five minutes, the stockings were literally flying through the air as everyone wanted to help turn them. And now they want to help make more of them during our November meeting. Yippee! This is a good thing, and I need to write up dimensions so anyone interested can check their stash beforehand and pack the fabric. With the nice plastic template that DH made me, I can cut up to 8 layers at a time.

The second mystery quilt top (blue/lime) is done too, and the backing is pieced. Unless I’m donating just a top to charity, quilts are always three projects – piecing, quilting, and binding. I’m still hand-finishing the binding on the red/cream version of the mystery quilt. I chose a different setting for the blue/lime version, and will post pictures of the two together soon.

Finally the replacement barbeque cover is finished…and then I washed the panels for the room divider screen that my neighbor gifted me—only to have them shrink 6” in length! Currently the panels are swaying from the top brace. Yesterday’s endurance shopping bus trip to Portland yielded some pretty blue fabric that happened to be 60” wide, so all three new panels can be cut from 2 yards, purchased for $12.80.

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.