Oh, but I need a light for stitching.

This quilt I kept having endless issues with. In an effort to use up some scraps, they were far too short for any speed strip piecing techniques. I would up spending more time fiddling with strips and ripping out seams than I did putting blocks together. I forged through until I got 16 blocks, then I stopped. It’s lap sized or wall hanging sized. It still needs a border, and then quilting. Not sure how I’m going to quilt it yet, or even what color thread. Then I think I may sell it.

I am quilting my daughter’s quilt, on my mother’s quilt frame, with my grandmother’s tools. I have decided that while I like speed piecing techniques, I adore old-fashioned patterns and quilting. I like some machine quilting as long as it’s on a small machine. I don’t like long-arm computerized machine quilting. It makes the quilt look store bought, and then I think what was the point in that?

And I am cursing myself over Sarah’s quilt. When I pieced it together, I had a new serger and sewed many of the strips together with that. then decided to hand-quilt it. If you don’t just go “ow” I’ll tell you why: serged seams are bulky and stiff. My stitches mostly skip them entirely. And there is a lot, as I also pieced the back. Yes, I have learned a ton of stuff since then.

There’s two stacks of fabric waiting to be cut for quilt tops. One, the old soft florals for Ron & I, another, reds and yellows with white. Can’t wait to see it. I keep swapping out fabric until I am satisfied, and I have an idea for the block layout, but I’m not sure I can pull it off without overthinking, and I don’t want to mess it up either.

It has to be enjoyable for me, this piecing together of fabric and pattern and color and shape, so they all work as a whole. I see it in my head, this quilt. The hard part is getting it out.

Not sure if I want to hand-quilt a third quilt, especially a big one. But either of my machines are to cranky to machine quilt with. My mom will be loaning me hers to try, as an instructor told her it would do machine quilting quite well. If it does, and I get the hang of it, I’m sure I will be doing all mine and mom’s too.

tally:
- one quilt on the frame (Sarah’s blues and pinks)
- 3 finished tops needing to be sandwiched and basted, then quilted (blues, baby and navy/yellow)
- 3 tops in process (purple pinwheels with Nanny’s dress, Amish sunshine & shadow, rainbow stripes)
- 3 stacks of fabric waiting to be cut (faded florals, red/yellow/white disappearing 9 patch, green florals for triple Irish chain)

Oh wow, that’s ten. I’ve got it bad. Right now, I’m mostly trying to use up the stash, and picking out fabric combinations and trying to be inspired.

And I’m annoyed at ebay buyers. I sold a small pile of stuff, answered a HECK of a lot of questions about shipping (yes, I’ll combine) and then after they won, I sent combined shipping charges, no payment. I sent a reminder. No payment.

If it was one person, that would make sense, but out of 4 buyers, two have neglected to pay after a week. Both for multiple items. One won two auctions, the other won 4.

I may have to threaten them with neutral or even negative feedback.

But! I sold an item on etsy! I was pretty happy ’bout that.

See, in addition to the purging items I don’t want, some of it has been hitting another pile labeled “to sell on the internet”. Mostly destined for Etsy, but some for ebay.

I decided to do a “quick” sort of the to-sell stuff and make two piles. It was scattered around in boxes, and as I lugged each one into my craft room, it got bigger and bigger. I was laying out the “to fix” pile so I could take a picture. The “to fix” pile is any item that needs washing, repairs, a retrofit, or made up into some sort of goods (usually a tote bag) before I could list it.

I lost my floor again.

The whole time I was plowing through it all, the only thing I could think of was apologizing to the husband. You see, as we were taking things *out* of the house, a lot of my scoping out of yard sales and thrift stores has been with an eye for what sells online. (I’m not just guessing here, I’m paying attention to trends, picking up one or two to check out when I get home, and if I hit gold, grab more next time I see some.) So for that past couple of years – especially since we moved, although it started before then, I’ve been amassing things to sell online. In the words of my husband, “We’re supposed to be getting RID of things, not bringing new things IN to the house!”

I did have good plans, I was building a site to sell my own goods from, like my own etsy, run by me. Well, honestly at this point, I haven’t done squat except tear it down and partially rebuild it, twice. Plus I don’t have the time to market it. A slight change in plans, and this past week or two I signed up on etsy, plus listed a few things on ebay – just to start things off.

Well, looking at the stack of items and realizing I could stock a small storefront tells me I’d better get cracking.

And Ron was right. (I hate when that happens.) No more yard sales for me until I make a dent in the pile. I’m feeling especially masochistic and wondering exactly how much I spent. Not all of it I bought; some is my old stuff, some inherited and willing to be let go of, and some just stuff people gave me. All told, I think there’s a good hundred dollars of investment there.

In yard sale prices, that’s quite a pile.

A small list for the curious:
- 28 items of clothing, 16 of them dresses, 21 of the items are vintage
- 6 aprons
- 73 books
- 18 linens of some sort
- 64 patterns, most 30 + years old
- 20 + different craft supply items (in my own defense, some of this is yet more leftovers from my craft store, which has been closed for 6 years)

I’ll be allocating time on the weekends to list items, rather than go yard sailing. And yes I *am* embarrassed with myself.

We scanned in the notes and I’ve uploaded loaded it to Flickr.

You can download the full sized 2504 x 3229 one here. All I ask is that you use this for personal use *only*. That’s non-commerical, peeps.

As a side note, one of my “someday” ideas for a website is a place where I upload scans of all the neat stuff I find in library and secondhand books.

Ready?
First up, I’m assuming you are using purchased bias binding. You can use self-made binding, the procedure is the same, but you will have to press it beforehand, so it is folded the same as the bought stuff. (Fold long cut edges to the middle and press. Fold in half, press again.)

With the purchased bias binding, one side is usually a teensy bit smaller than the other. Take note of that side and keep it facing UP. This is the “front” part of the bias binding.

You may also want to baste the cut edges of your item and trim them even. I normally do NOT cut my binding at this time, I just pull it off the cardboard and go. This way I never cut it too short.

Pick the starting point on your item and line up the cut edge in the middle fold of the start of the binding. Put the wider part of the binding on the bottom. (left) the right side will be folded back over to the front.

See?

We’re just tucking the raw edge inside the binding.

Now pin it from the front side. You can flip it over every so often to make sure the pin catches the edge on the back. This is the important part.

Now we can start sewing! Front side up, remember.

Wi

I line up the edge of the binding just inside the opening on the presser foot, NOT with the left edge of the foot. I find it’s too wide.

Every so often, flip it over to make sure you’re catching the edge of the binding on the back.

Here I decided to wing it and not use pins. A little harder to control. but you can go faster.

When you get back to where you started, you’ll be able to determine where to cut the binding. Leave enough to overlap the beginning AND tuck some inside to hide the cut edge.

Tuck that cut edge inside, make sure it’s neat on the back, fold it around where you started and stitch until you get to the edge of the fold.

Leave the needle in the fabric, turning the wheel so it’s down if you have to. Lift the foot up, pivot your item 90 degrees so the fold is straight towards you. Put the foot back down.

Stitch forward to the edge of the fabric, then stitch backwards a bit, and forward again and off. You are done. It shoudl look liek this:

Yes, it’s a different cozy, You’ll see why next photo.

Remember when I was winging it with no pins? Here’s the back.

It didn’t catch. No worries! We can just pin it and re-stitch this area.

I made note of where it was fine, and stitched from about an inch or so before the gap on the back, to an inch beyond. When pinned, it’s easy to see on the front side.

Sometimes, another minor oops is catching too much on the backside.

I normally just leave it and say “That’s why they call it the back.” Also note the rippling: this is caused by shifting the front & back. Sometimes that happens, and if it’s not a lot, I leave it. If it is a lot, you’ll have to rip it out and do it over. (Sorry!)

In the end, it’s hardly noticeable.

You can click on each picture to see them hosted at Flickr. There, right above them, is a little icon that says “all sizes” where you can see them exceedingly large and close up, if you need to.

If you enjoyed this post, StumbleIt or link to it and tell all your friends.

Mom was here on the weekend and we played with fabric. We also bought fabric, but only a little bit. I sewed some stuff for her, but I’m not supposed to tell because it was for a class and she sucks at binding. She gave me some fabric, and it wasn’t even part of my (belated) birthday present. Aw, she loves me.

And today I got up from the computer, went to start supper, then sewed. And sewed. I sewed for two hours because I was inspired to make a tote bag from a charm pack and some scraps. (Also Ron figured out why the plugs out there weren’t working.) Mom brought me some scraps from her local shop that the lady there was throwing out. I KNOW!  I can’t bear to just toss out fabric – the amount of one print and a bit was enough to completely line my tote bag. All it took was some creative piecing.

I am also jazzed that my library now emails me to tell me when my books are due. Library trip tomorrow, who’s with me? And to tie it in, I’ve made a couple of totes for the library to sell so they can raise money. I’m nice like that.

Anyone need a tote? “Seams” like I’m on a roll.

Charm pack tote:

Using moda’s Natural Garden charm pack, I made two disappearing nine patch blocks  from this tutorial.

I think the charm pack had 32 or 40 5″ squares, all different. I arranged the patches in a pleasing manner first, saving the ones I didn’t like so much for the sides of my box tote. I had 4 blocks left over, which I eventually used on the inside.

After I did the block, I sewed nine patches in a very long row for the sides and bottom of the bag. I had to carefully piece one long edge around three edges of one block, then the other edge to the other block. Then my outer bag was done. Since I need to work on my accuracy, I was extra careful to iron, pin and align seams. Iron every seam before it crosses another seam – this is the difference between something looking handmade and it looking hand crafted.

I pieced all of the scraps I had from one coordinating print all together, continually holding them up to the blocks as I went to best take advantage and minimize waste.

When I saw that I needed a bit more, as luck would have it 4 of the leftover charms fit right in. I put that strip right up the middle of one inside panel. Since the inside is pieced differently, I boxed the bottom by pinching the corners and sewing a triangle shape.

I still have to make the handles using a scrap piece and some plain fabric from my stash. All in all, given half of the fabric was free, and mom got a discount on the charm pack, this is my $7 CAN tote.

(Not counting the two hours to sew it together, and the other hour to arrange the fabric and do the math.)

You’ll need some tinfoil, that’s pretty much it.

Pull off a sheet of tinfoil, any size. It doesn’t have to be square, just not too long.

Make two tears down from the top, and one tear up from the bottom. You can cut it, but it’s not necessary.

Squish the sections together a little to form limbs, and scrunch the top middle section loosely to form a head.

Bend the limbs a bit to give it personality.

You only have to show a child how to do this once, and it keeps them occupied for a few minutes as they make more and use their imagination, although it’s not really super-quiet. Especially with boys around.

I got this idea out of an old craft book I had from Sunshine publishers – remember them? They did a whole array of seventies craft books. I loaned my Children’s Crafts book to a fellow Girl Guide leader about ten years ago and haven’t seen it since. I miss that book.

I’ve been on a quest for a decent purse for me for *ages*. Part of the problem is I’m not sure what I want. I like small bags, but I like being organized. Despite my messy creative tendencies, there’s organization in there, I swear. I am also picky about straps and how they feel and hang off my shoulder.

For some reason, I have been drawn to the Miranda Day Bag from lazy girl designs, and mom graciously bought me the pattern. We didn’t roll our eyes at each other oncethrough the whole store. (It’s tiny though.)

This afternoon, I figured I was too tired and scattered for anything else, plus I was surrounded by fabric, so I made the bag. It took four hours, including picking out fabric, familiarizing myself with the directions, skipping over a chunk of them and figuring out my alternatives. Initially, the sides are designed ot be quilted, but since my chosen fabric is a heavy canvas type I decided to skip it. Also, I was going for quick gratification. (ie; I’m LAZY. ) I also cooked a bit for Emma, cuddled Ron and talked to the girls. The other thing I skipped was interfacing – I’m ether out of it or I can’t find it to save my life. Like I said, the fabirc is reather heavy, and when I ironed it with the batting, the battign stiffened up a bit too. My lining turned out rather sheer for black, so I’m definitely going to make sure I interface the next bag.

See? I already said I’d make it again, it’s that nice. I really like it. Now I have to make a wallet. They have a pattern for that as well, but I’m gonna wing it. You can get Lazy girl Designs online, but hit up your local quilt shop first to support the little guys. I thought the Miranda bag was well-designed and cleverly constructed. I’d definitely look for their patterns again.

Picture will be added as soon as my batteries recharge, both for the camera and my own.
I used a beige & black fabric ofarchitectural drawings of Roman columns with a black heavy twill with a fine woven stripe. I lined it with black cotton and more of the colum fabric from the end of the piece I had that was all wrecked with the dye runs. That made it look really interesting though, and inside I’m the only one who sees it.

Well, probably only me will see it, as the bag seems sturdy enough to keep me from dumping it upside down accidentally like the one I have now.

I am glad Thanksgiving is over in Canada, otherwise my mom would have found some way to wear this hat. I am not sure what is more remarkable – the skill level, the ugliness, or the fact the model is actually smiling.

On the other hand, I kinda wish I’d seen this tutorial on making roses from maple leaves back when we still had leaves. At least not dried up ones.

My friend Heather writes in two blogs. At Chocolate Bytes, she’s giving away a theobromine molecule t-shirt. Mmmmmm, theobromine. On her other blog, The Food Bowl, you can send in submissions for the Pet of the Week. I know you have pets out there!

And to finish, a quiz:

91%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

That was a no-brainer. Duh.

Also, I found a great quilting blog my mom would love to read. Crazy Mom Quilts. Are you on my sidebar? Chances are my mom reads you to. Sorry about that.

In related news, I got my craft table all cleared off and my stuff together to make Christmas cards. I had a burst of energy when Ron ticked me off because I ticked him off, but we’ll gloss that over and revel in the fact I got three rooms pretty clean while we stewed.