A Handmade Eyeglass Case For Me

Posted on May 17, 2012 in Sewing | 0 comments

What a quick little project this eyeglass case is, and so fun to make.  I actually need a case for my sunglasses for a roadtrip tomorrow, so finding this is perfect.

I found the project on the very last page of the Summer 2012 issue of Quilts and More magazine.  It’s actually meant to be “stashbusting” project, to use up your fabric scraps.  But since I wanted this case to be blue, and I don’t have any blue scraps, I took my first cut into my couple-yard stash of Amy Butler’s Sky Wall Flower print from her Lotus Collection.   I was totally channeling Sheryl Crow when I started to snip at this gorgeous fabric – the first cut is the deepest…

Instead of the rickrack bright scrappy style, I went for lacy, soothing, and elegant.  I actually hand-quilted for the first time – it wasn’t really that difficult.  The stitching isn’t really that even, but it doesn’t look that bad.  I probably should have used 100% cotton thread, or embroidery thread, but I just used plain ol’ regular all-purpose thread.  In a bright blue, double-stranded.  I outlined just a couple of the flower borders.

Before quilting by hand, I gave free-hand machine quilting a shot.  FAIL.  I just couldn’t get the knack for it, and on THIS fabric – blasphemy.

The instructions were pretty dang easy.  And since I didn’t do any patchwork, I got to skip the first several steps.  Oh, and I think one of the steps is mis-labeled.  It should say “right” instead of “wrong”.

And there you have it, my big-lensed sunglasses even fit in there!  I’m so happy with this little project, and see many more in my future.

Sewing and Craft Supplies, Organized!

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Organization, Productivity and Preparedness, Sewing | 0 comments

All my sewing and craft supplies are now in one place!  Yes, it’s in the garage, but it’s way better than having everything scattered around my house in 3 or 4 different rooms.  I don’t have a dedicated crafting room to store all this stuff, so the garage it is.  Can you tell that bankers boxes and plastic bins are my friends?

Mmm hmm, kettlebell workouts happen here, too.

I gathered various sizes of plastic bins, as well as bankers boxes, and filled them with all my stuff: fabric, lining, interfacing, books, magazines, patterns, and supplies.  Blue painters tape and a black sharpie made great labels – if I want to switch things up, I can easily peel them off and re-do them.  By the way, the kettlebell workout list is my hubby’s, not mine.  There’s no way I could manage #18 Crush Pushup.

I got the bankers boxes from an office supply store.  The standard size works so well with the shelving.

And I can fit a ton of patterns in those things! Two columns fit in there very nicely.

Some of my fabric stash: Specialty, Home Dec, and Felt. It’s so nice to have them organized like that. Before, I had them randomly stacked in my bedroom closet.

No, I’m not really an organization freak, but I am one of those who find it hard to focus on anything (especially a creative pursuit) if my physical space is cluttered. Visible clutter makes me anxious, so tackling this organization project feels SO good. Now I feel like I can actually be creative with these materials!

Baby Quilt For Alyssa

Posted on Apr 7, 2012 in Sewing | 0 comments

This quilt for my cousin’s sweet baby girl was so fun to make. The pink/yellow batik, tone on tone creamy white, and Amy Butler fabric….ahhh, so pretty.  This was the first time I used batik fabric – I just love how it looks like 4 or 5 different colors when you cut it up.  And I have a special fondness for pinwheels.

This was also the first time I used a designer fabric – I always just used material I found at JoAnn Fabrics.  When it came time to cut up Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern fabric, I had a hard time with it – it’s just so gorgeous. So I designed this baby quilt to have pretty big simple square blocks. As for the machine quilting, straight lines are all I can really muster, so diagonal lines it was.

I really wanted to personalize it with her name, using my Singer Futura embroidery sewing machine. So I left the middle square big and empty for this purpose.  However……I made the mistake of piecing the entire top, THEN embroidering her name. Big mistake. HUGE. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I think I ran out of thread or something, so the embroidery was a flop.  To fix, I restarted the embroidery on a scrap piece of batik (thank goodness I had some left), and then I cut it out in an oval shape and sewed it right on to the middle of the quilt top. But then the oval edges just didn’t look smooth. It wasn’t perfectly curved and just looked off. So I sewed on some simple lace I had on-hand, which really smoothed out the curving quite a bit.