Finished Project of the Day

I just finished my sister's socks for x-mas. The story behind these are she came over one year....notice I said one year! Ok it was two (LOL) and we had a yarn dyeing day. I gave her a crash course in dyeing and this was the results. I was afraid there would be some pooling with the colors but she did wonderful and I clearly see a pattern within the sock. I would have to say this was a success. When I talked with her the other day, the first thing out of her mouth was were are my socks at? Geez! No pressure, please. Ok they are done and ready for x-mas.

Now I am off to make the next project. Due dates are in the mist and x-mas is how far away? I better get on it.

Now go finish a project and make someone in your life happy! T

Project of the Day-Wool Pin Cushion Tutorial

The project of the day: Wool Pin Cushion

Tutorial Purpose: To learn how to apply wool to a project without having frayed edges.

Project Level: Advanced Beginners with some speciality embroidery stitches (please visit www.youtube.com or the web for simple tutorials regarding these stitches)

What a great way to use those scrapes of wool in the scrap bin than to make a pin cushion. It's handy and every sewer can use one. Keep in mind this would be for any wool project you choose to make. Let us get started.

Supply List
Steam-a-Seam2 (This is Key!) NO! NO! to WONDER UNDER or HEAT BOND
Wool Scraps
Sharp Scissors for cutting small pieces
Polyester stuffing or your favorite filler
Matching Embroidery Threads (I am using Valdani for this project)

1. Gather your supplies, your pattern, your wools, threads, etc.





2. Trace your pattern pieces onto your Steam-a-Seam2. PLEASE NOTE: This is a special bonding paper. What makes it special from other bonding agents is it is tacky making it useful in keeping your paper from shifting on your fabrics as well as let's you reposition temporarily without a permanent bond. The tacky side is the side you should be drawing your shapes on with a #2 pencil.
Once you have drawn your shapes onto the tacky side of the paper, it's time to cut them out. Seam-a-seam2 has two paper sides to it, with the tacky sheet in between it. Except you will find there is a loose side that comes off easily, just make sure when cutting out your pieces BOTH sheets are attached when cutting.




3. When cutting out shapes, leave 1/8th to 1/4th inch around each paper piece. DO NOT CUT On THE DRAWN ON LINES prier to tracing.


4. Next iron your pieces onto the wool. Follow your label instructions for this.

5. Now your ready to cut on the drawn on lines. Cut out each piece with precision
sharp scissors. This is the key to keeping your edges from fraying. Steam-a-seam2 serves two purposes here. A.) It's a lite weight bond which makes it easy to stitch through and B.) It seals your edges to keep your wool from fraying.



6. Peel off the back paper from your cut out pieces and positon on your main fabric. Reposition if necessary and iron in place for a permanent fix. Your ready for your specialty stitches. Stitch with your favorite embroidery stitches to finish edges. Here I have used a simple blanket stitch and a bullion stitch with beads to embellish. (YouTube is a great resource for finding these stitches.)

7. Once your done with any specialty stitches, attach your backing fabric, stuff, close your opening and your done!






I hope this method works for you like it works for me. Nothing like viewing someone's beautiful wool hand work to see those edges fraying like crazy. If your gonna put that much time into your work make it look great from every aspect.

Good luck! Have a wonderful creative evening. T

REMINDER!

Ladies and Gents, let's not forget our daylight savings time this weekend. It's Fall so we fall back an hour on November 6, Sunday!

You know what this means don't you?....one more hour's worth of sewing, YEAH!

Have a good one! T

2 Pounds! 2 Pounds of Orange!

What do you do with 2 pounds of freaking carrots? You make Carrot Curry soup of course. Now I have to tell you how I came to the conclusion of making this soup. It comes from shopping without looking to see what you have first....imagine that! LOL I am sure those out there in blogland have certainly done this before, right? I got home and had not one bag but now I had two....geez! Time to get to looking on the web for a recipe and I love soup so I new it was going to be something of that nature. Curry Carrots it is! It turned out great with some of my own tweaking. Here if the recipe if you'd love to try it.




Basic Carrot Soup

2pds Carrots, peeled and chopped
6cups chicken Broth
3 Cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp Celery Seeds
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 small onion, chopped

Optional:
1 1/2 Tbsp Curry powder
1/2 tsp Sugar
1/8 tsp Pepper

Saute onions, carrots and garlic in skillet until tender. In a separate deep pot, add chicken broth. Next add your sauteed carrots, add celery seeds and salt. Stir and bring to a rolling boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Next pour mixture in a blender and puree, then put back into your pot and simmer another 30-45 minutes until done. Serve with a sprig of parsley and enjoy!


Project of the day is: Embroidery. More handwork coming down the pipe.




Have a wonderful night and keep those creative juices flowing daily! T

A $3 Dollar Bag

What does a $3 dollar bag have to do with this post you ask? Well, since you ask...this $3 dollar bag contains fabric, fabric, and more fabric. Near where I live is a discounted fabric mart and a HUG grocery bag is your ticket to JOY, pure JOY! You can fill this bag utterly to the point of overflow and only pay $3 dollars for that bag. Now, there a catch....there are tables full of remnants anywhere from half yard pieces to maybe four yards. Some may have a stain or two, and there are all types of fabrics mixed on these tables. Cottons, curtain fabric, and decor fabrics. My goal was to target white cotton for making my bed skirt. I found four and half and five yard pieces along with smaller pieces, some were lightly stained...but guess what, that was nothing a little bleach and hot water couldn't take care of.

I took my bag home, threw the fabric in the washer to bathe in a bath of hot bleach water for about 30min and it came out gorgeous!

So these are the results of my efforts. I simple, uncomplicated custom bed skirt for less then $3 if you calculate all the fabric in the bag. I only used maybe a third of the fabric with plenty more for other projects.



The bed prior to bed skirt.



The design process...keeping it simple.



A organized pile of loveliness...I promise!



Ta da!! I love flowing ruffles which is how I made these and I finished both sides of the bed. The way these are made you don't even need to remove a mattress to add these to your bed. It's majic.

Have a great and creative day! T

Back from the GA Quilt Show

I didn't take any classes this year but had a wonderful time at the show and the most fun was viewing quilts, seeing my guild members, and quilting buddies all in the same day. What fun! You know your having fun when you pass each other for the second time and you see bags getting fuller and bigger you ask " Let me see what you got!" Too funny! Love it, just love it.

Here are my favorites from the show....











...and of course this last one is my quilt "Cherish the Moments" word quilt. The quilt has some embroidery in the center as a focus and the words of the poem are quilted manually in both directions in a readable format by my domestic sewing machine which is how I quilt all of my quilts. Funny, I was taking a picture of my quilt when two ladies walked up to it and said they thought it was done by embroidery....I started laughing! Yep manual all the way with all imperfections baby! Too Cute. But it will probably be a cherished quilt all because of what it says and stands for. Cherish those special moments with friends and family and most of all being thankful.

So with that being said, I cherish those moments with my disfunctional family, why if there weren't disfunction, we wouldn't have stories to tell for future generations.

Have a great day, go quilt or do something wonderful today!
Enjoy, T

Mom's at it again!

Can you guess what pattern this is? When she showed me the pattern I was like ok cool! Then once she started it and has it 95% completed mind you, It looked totally different from the traditional pattern she showed me.

Ok, ready....it's the drunkards path! Just goes to show what colors and how the arrangements of those fabrics can totally change the look of your quilt. But isn't this what quilting is all about? Making it your own and that is really what I believe in, making something your own.

I must say she is really really proud of this quilt and I an really really proud of her. I can't wait to see it quilted up with it's loveliness to show off proudly.

YOU GO MOM!

Go be creative! T