Bears! As in Teddy

I have had this pattern for so many years I’ve lost count. Just looking at the price of it, you can tell it is an old pattern. It’s been used so much I made a duplicate pattern from woven interfacing. Like the picture, I’ve made fuzzy ones and smooth ones; this time it was leftover chenille from some Christmas sewing (a bathrobe for myself).

Piles of bear parts littered the top of my sewing cabinet. A combination of clips and straight pins was helpful in sewing the pieces together. 

I used a bit of gray felt for the nose and embroidered the eyes with perle cotton to make them safe for the little ones. Separating the layers and then pulling it into bits makes leftover polyester batting a useful stuffing. 

The bear in the center needs a bit more stuffing in his belly but all in all Cuteness Overload!  

Proportion Scale Wheel

This is an odd tool that I use in my sewing room. It is my old proportion wheel from the days when I did technical illustration. Handy tool, this.

Why did I use this when I have quilting software that will do the job for me? Because I am not making a quilt. I am making a Schlepp Bag and have adjusted the size of the squares. The pattern calls for 8" squares but the pant legs of the blue jeans I am using only allowed for 6" squares. The first time I made this bag I followed the pattern explicitly and I found the bag to be a bit too big for my tastes, so cutting 6" squares will work fine.

It was easy to convert all the other measurements until I got to cutting the lining. Um, the pattern called for 22.25" squares. What do I cut?

I started with my known measurements: 8" and 6". I lined up the 8" mark on the inner wheel with the 6" mark on the outer wheel and came up with a 75% reduction (see in the little window?). Follow the markings around the inner wheel until you come to 22.25". It lines up with 16.75". THAT is the measurement of my new lining square.

I think, though, that I'll cut the easier number of 17" and then just deepen the seam. After all, it is the lining and a deeper seam will help. Or I could cut it off by sergeing the seams.

I love this wheel; is is well used. Can you see where I've scratched in the smaller numbers of .25", .5" etc? It covers from .12" all the way up to 90". If you put the smaller number on the inner wheel and the larger number on the outer wheel, then you are enlarging. Cool, huh?

Is It Cheating...

to use a 'cheater panel'? Not that this is a panel, but I thought it would be a wonderful piece of fabric to practice the Cathedral Window/Orange Peel type of quilting.

I backed it with fleece and quilted away! This is a wonderful way to build quilting muscle memory.

It is now bound (don't you love polka dots), labeled and in the donate pile.

I also completed two Infinity scarves from some rayon I found hanging out in the fabric stash. One for me and one for somebody else. Rayon makes a nice scarf, don't you think?

It hasn't been all yarn time

I took a bit of time out and made these two cute pouches.

The first one is just something I made for my grand-niece, Jordan. It accompanied the quilt that I gifted to her.

This pouch is in my purse for things because I hate not being able to find stuff in my bag.

I am having issues with one of my eyes. Sparks and floaters. Floaters and sparks. It has a neat sound for something not very pleasant. I wear glasses and I feel like some one has put petroleum jelly on one of the lenses because I am straining to see through the gunk. The doc said it will somewhat dissipate overtime, but it is highly unsettling to see through this cobwebby stuff. Needless to say, fine hand sewing is out of the question.

The need to sew or why I knit so much

I really want to sew, but my sewing room is in the basement. Yes, I have a furnace in the house, but when there is a fire in the wood burning stove the furnace does not turn on. Another factor is that  passive solar gain in my house also keeps the furnace from turning on. What a dilemma! I love the advantages of the wood burning stove and the solar, not to mention not paying big $$$ to a utility company, but it certainly limits the sewing in the winter.

I have looked around the main floor to see if there is a spot I can carve out for my featherweight but that, too, isn't going to work since I am not the only one in the house.

I have tried doing a bit of hand sewing but frankly, I need to spread out when I work on the current project.

 
So there you have it. I knit in the winter because it is too cold to sew. 

Baby Sewing

Well, hello, there! I should welcome myself back, shouldn't I? You can see from the photos that I've been busy busy busy with grandbaby sewing!

These pacifier tethers were really easy to make. I had some leftover binding that I sewed into a tube and turned right side out. But before I did that, I add a loop of ribbon to one end so that it would be caught in the sewing. Then I threaded the other end through a mitten/suspender clip and just sewed it down. Easy peasy.

The pattern for these bibs came from Heather at Hellomynameisheater and is free. I used a fabric that is new to me. My friend, Mrs. Goodneedle, used it and mentioned it in a blog post, so of course I had to try it. Thanks for mentioning it Mrs. G!

I had some of the PUL left over, after all it is 54" wide. So 2 layers of PUL + 4 layers of flannel stitched together and then turned right side out (like birthing a quilt) and Voilâ! a very wipe-able travel changing pad.

I found this sweet alphabet panel and I turned into a book using 72F Peltex Ultra Firm 2-sided Fusible and a bit of time. Boy do I love the pinking blade for my rotary cutter!

A new camera strap

 

I was never very fond of the camera strap that came with my DSLR. Black and yellow and so stiff it cut into my neck. It was also a bit short so that the camera landed in an awkward spot.

Last summer at a quilt show there was a vendor selling parts of vintage kimono. I was able to snag a piece that would work for making a new camera strap. I love the colors and the softness of it.

Here's a link to the tutorial I used, minus the lens cap pocket. The hardest part, believe it or not, was finding the right dog collars for cheap $$$. I didn't have any fusible batting so I just used regular batting and I also left out the stiffener; after all, that was one of the reasons I didn't like the old strap. I made the new strap is a bit narrower and when I make a new one (there is leftover fabric) I will make it according to the tutorial.

Still Nothing on the Wall

You would be wrong if you think that only knitting has been happening. Do you see those numbers? 433 liberated string blocks that measure 4.5 x 10". There are several layouts floating around my brain for these. Do I want to make a coin quilt? Or do I want to sub-cut these further into 60 degree diamonds for stars? These are a nice size for a piano key border or sashing. What to do, what to do. Something will come to mind, I'm sure.

I use these Kabnet Wax sheets. By cutting them approximately in half along the fold of the sheet, sewing string strips to them and then trimming them down to the required size, I end up with lots of these blocks.  In fact, this session resulted in no more strings. What??! You read that correctly: I am currently out of scrappy strings.

But never fear! The basket was restocked with red, white and blue string that need to be sorted and trimmed down. Some are chunks rather than strings. These blocks will be 10x10, using the whole Kabnet Wax sheet.

I love this rice basket as it holds so many strings. It's size is quite deceptive.

And so, that is what is in my design drawer and basket, not the wall.

Other sewing going on

I have been sewing home dec type things. Oh, yeah! This was gifted at a wedding shower so I can show it to you.

The bride's wedding colors are black and white and so I made some reversible place mats and 'go with' napkins. The place mats are quilted in an organic somewhat straight line .5" apart. I realized first thing, that there was no way I could work on that chevron side so I flipped it and worked on the spotted side. My eyes said 'thank you'.  I measured my favorite place mats and made these 12" x 18" Fat quarter friendly indeed.

I dug out the serger again. Boy howdy, is that thing getting a workout lately! Anyway, I went to the drawer with the serger threads looking for some wooly nylon for the upper looper. Why do I have SO MUCH wooly nylon? Was there a sale? A little of this stuff goes a long way so I'll have this until the end of time. I must start using it in the heels of the knitted socks to add a bit more durability.

So here are the napkins with their rolled hems done on the serger. Napkins, by the way, are a very nice quick gift to make and give. Especially if you have a serger sewing machine. An added bonus is that it uses a goodly amount of stash. I make my napkins a generous 17" square so a fat quarter works wonderfully.

Fabric stashes are wonderful things because everything, including the flannel 'batting', came from the stash.

I told you

it would be soon!

Here it is on the bed. This duvet cover is covering this down alternative comforter. I am very very allergic to feathers and down so I have always had to 'do' down alternative.

After having slept under this comforter for several nights, I have come to the realization that this is a dead-of-winter blanket. The room must be under 65°F. If the temps are higher then a window will have to be opened. :)

But all-in-all, I love my new comforter and duvet cover.

Electric

Carrying a lot of static electricity within your body is not fun. Domestic animals hate you, you kill electronics and you give shocking kisses. Now that fall has necessitated turning on the forced air furnace, the condition worsens. I no longer wear watches with batteries, or any wrist watch for that matter. My cell phone stays in a pocket because if I leave it on a table and then walk to pick it up ZAP! You should see what I do to programmable thermostats: it can't be good on them. I am constantly looking for something metal to touch to discharge the static so I don't inadvertently zap the computer or other electronics.

What does this have to do with sewing/quilting?

Well, I try to wear natural fibers like cotton, hemp, wool or alpaca to help mitigate the static buildup that man-made fibers generate. Since my closet is predominately t-shirts, I started many years ago to make my own shirts. Lately, I haven't been able to find 100% cotton interlock locally, so I have been buying 2X and 3X 100% cotton men's t-shirts on clearance. They have been stacking up and now there are about 12 that need restyling.

I love this pattern from Pamela's Patterns.  I have used it over and over because it is just so flattering. When I use a 2X shirt, the shirt needs to be evaluated to see if the cuffs can be used or not. Sometimes the sleeves are so long, I cut off the cuff and just hem the sleeve. I do, however, carefully unsew the neck ribbing from any of the shirts because the ribbing will be reused on the new shirt, but for the most part, I can just cut the shirts apart.

Because a man's shirt is usually in neutral colors, I have started using brighter colors in a top layer. And you wondered why I knit so much. Sweaters are great for a top layer.

All I Wanna Do

The universe is fairly perverse when all you want to do is sew but it doesn't give you the time. If you have ever wondered why I knit so many pairs of socks, this is one answer. Socks are so portable, unlike sewing, and I can knit in public.

This weekend will be spent in Denver-town with familial obligations. The following weekend (Labor Day weekend here in the states: where did the summer go?) will be the last camping trip of the year, so the trailer can get winterized. I won't be able to sew for eleven days! Withdrawal symptoms have already begun.

Rag Doll Baby

Well, not really. She is a doll baby made from fabric.

 Isn't she cute? I used some of my precious time over the weekend to finish her. That hair, oh that hair! Took hours to do but it works so well.

And here is her sleeping sister.

Want to know a secret? It is two doll babies in one!

Do you want to make one? I've put the free pattern up under the Freebies tab. If you make one, please let me know how it went and I'd love to see a photo.

Red

And I wondered why I was having trouble seeing my stitches. LOL!

Receiving Blankets

A family member is preggers and I found yards and yards of white flannel in the Great Fabric Sort and Organization. There was 6 or 7 yards total. I pulled out the serger and using wooly nylon and a narrow hem, I whipped out these 6 receiving blankets. What a great stash buster!

Wordless Wednesday - 26 Dinner Napkins

Calendar Cover

The 2012 calendar cover is made, finally. I carry a calendar every week day because of work and I decided many years ago that it did not have to look utilitarian. This one is the Quilt Art 2012 calendar published by American Quilting Society. Small projects like this are a wonderful place to use up cheap fabric. Want to make one for yourself? Search for notepad/portfolio/journal cover tutorials.

How to make a ribbon scarf

I was asked if I would explain how I made the ribbon scarf. It is really very simple. Start with Sulky Solvy which is a water soluble stabilizer. Mine was old and and some was missing due to being used so I do not know how long it was, but I'd guess about 36" by the width of the stabilizer.

Since I am out of the stabilizer, I'll show the next step using waxed paper. Open the stabilizer flat and if you want to, spray it lightly with a bit of washable spray adhesive as this will keep the fibers from shifting. Lay the fibers on half of the stabilizer lengthwise, leaving tails at each end. Fold the other half of the stabilizer over the fiber-covered half. Pin the edges and transport it carefully to your sewing machine.

Put a walking foot on your sewing machine and stitch across the fibers every inch or so and then do a large  'x' to further stabilize the fibers.

Now comes the tedious part. Carefully remove the stabilizer from the stitching lines. You do not have to get it all out from under the stitches. Once you have the larger pieces of the stabilizer removed , dunk the scarf in a bowl or basin of warm water and swish around. I let it sit in the water for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the bowl and roll the scarf into a terry towel to squeeze out the remaining water. Block or dry flat.

That's all there is to it! Here's a photo of the finished product again.

The Ribbon Scarf

Here is a closer look at that ribbon scarf on Monday's design wall. This ribbon was so slippery that when I tried to wind it on the yarn ball winder and I removed my hand from the top of the ball the ribbon just exploded into a mushroom. Once I got it contained in a zip lock baggie I tried to knit it up into a scarf. O my. Once again this yarn was a PITA and twisted and knotted. So this was a really good solution because I could cut this silly stuff if needed and I ended up doing so several times. I added bits and pieces of other yarns and fibers to add a bit of texture and interest. The scarf turned out very soft and drapey. It may become a Christmas present for someone.

Grampa's Chair

Grampa's rocking chair resides in my living room once again.

For a while, it was relegated to the sewing room awaiting a new cushion cover. Two layers of 3" foam (one of them high density) covered with a felted wool bat (we won't discuss how that felting occurred will we?) awaited a cover. Over this past weekend I drew up a pattern and made the cover. In fact, I made a cushion for the back too. I'm not sure I like that thickness of cushion to sit upon, but time will tell. I can always redo it.

Here it is before the re-do.

TaDa!