Fabric Covered Box

This is my latest creation.  Some gals I sew with saw some fabric covered boxes at an art show and decided we needed to make some for ourselves.  We started with 8 inches round by 4 inches deep boxes made from some sort of cardboard material.  They are inexpensive and sold at most craft type stores.  The boxes my friends saw had a Crazy Quilt block design on the top and they liked it so well decided to make theirs using the same pattern.  I'm not a Crazy Quilt kinda gal so I made my top design using a foundation pieced pineapple block.  I padded the top with 5 layers of batting.  I used fabric scraps from my stash (wooooohoooo.  Love using scraps!)

Here's a view inside the box.  I like the inside of things (especially purses) to be a light color.  My eyes find things much easier on a light surface.  BUT since I was using scraps I did not have any pieces of the lightest fabric to cover the bottom of the box so.... that's why I pieced a 4-patch for the center, then surrounded it with the silver to make it big enough to cover the bottom.  Improvising, isn't that how we sometimes end up with our best designs.

I had never covered a box with fabric before so didn't have a clue where to start.  The worst part about this project is the lid doesn't fit!  It was a tight fit BEFORE I covered it which is the reason I chose this slippery thin fabric.  This was a FUN project but don't see myself ever doing another one.

Ironing Pad for a Banquet Table



This project has been sitting untouched for about 3 months.  I made one of these 4 months ago for a charity group www.peacebypiecequilters.org  that I sew with every month.  This is like a Big Board only a whole lot easier to make a store.  A couple dozen ladies come to every bee so two ironing surfaces are needed AND the facility we sew at does not give us storage for ironing boards.  So we needed something that was easy to transport back and forth the bees.

It wasn’t in the UFO pile very long.  Which makes me wonder… How long do you go without working on a particular project before it is considered an UFO?  I’ve never heard of a time rule being in the Quilt Police Rule Book!

If you have stumbled on this blog post and think your charity group (or yourself!) would Like to make one drop me a note and I'll share with you how I did it.

Cleaning Out the Closet

Everyday when I enter my closet the same thought crosses my mind, “Man, there’s a LOT of STUFF in here.”  Yesterday was no exception.  Sometimes I’ll pick one (maybe two) things and throw it in the box for Goodwill.  I figure if I remove something (permanently) once in awhile then MAYBE it will gradually come down to a more acceptable level of STUFF.  I’ve tried the traditional, cleaning the closet method where ya just go in there with some boxes and remove everything that I no longer wear and it doesn’t work for me.  Brain takes over and tells me “You might need that for something.”  So yesterday I removed a pair of Capri pants that I haven’t worn in a couple of years.  As I’m walking across the hall with them I’m thinking, “These were really comfortable pants.”  You see, Brain does this to me every time; it tries to talk me out of getting rid of something.  Sometimes Brain wins and sometimes I win.  The conversation continued something like this…  “The only reason I stopped wearing these is because of the cuff.”  And then Brain said, “Well maybe you should just get rid of the cuff instead of the WHOLE pair of pants.”  “Hmmm” I said. “You’re right!  I could turn them into a pair of shorts which I would probably wear often cuz I don’t have a pair of grey shorts!”  So a new project was born!  So much for my mission to work UFO’s.

Here’s the carpi’s, 26 inches long.  As you can see Brain got them from the closet to the sewing room pretty quick!  To figure out how to take these from capri’s to shorts I measured the length of a pair of shorts I like and wear often to give me a  short length I'm comfortable with.

The capri’s were long enough that I could just cut off the cuff and have enough fabric left to give me the length I wanted with a nice size hem.  Much easier than having to remove the original stitching!

So I just laid a tape measure down the front of the capri's and marked the desired finished length, which was 22 inches.

I folded the fabric under (wrong sides together) at the 22 inch mark.

And simply pressed the fold to give me a visual line to start with.

Then I folded the entire bottom edge to the inside, making sure it was straight and level across and pressed across the whole bottom edge.  This not only helps hold the fabric in place but the crease also gives you a visual mark to fold and pin.

Then I folded the top raw edge down (wrong sides together) about a quarter inch making sure the top edge of the fold was 1 ¼ inches from the bottom fold.  Pins were used to hold it in place.  I then stitched along the top edge of the fold with a matching thread.

And here they are finished!  This whole job took less than an hour.  I could have done the sewing by hand which would have given a more tailored look, but I’m a casual kinda gal so the machine stitched hem works for me. 

Cleaning my closet out one piece at a time didn’t work for me this time, but I did get a new pair of shorts as a result of my attempt.  :o)

 

Amy Butler Apron

My youngest daughter had a birthday this month (she's 31 now!).  There are times in the lives of people younger than myself that I find it more difficult to figure out what they would appreciate receiving as a gift.  This dilemma seems to begin when they are teenagers.  I mean REALLY, what do you give a teenager?  I could share some of my age old wisdom... Give them some life advice... But those never go over well.  When they get out on their own and start building a life it gets a little easier.  Then you can get them cool things for their new life as an adult.  When they seem to have their living quarters filled they start appreciating personal things that they haven't been able to purchase in awhile because they have to pay bills every month.  HAHA!  Then they go into the 30 somethings and it seems to become harder again.

This daughter just relocated to another state and it seems that every time I talked with her she was sharing a new recipe.  This is the daughter that DOESN'T COOK!  Recently she asked me to make her a Potato Bag (which I blogged about).  So I thought if she is getting into all this cooking and asked for a Potato Bag MAYBE she would like an apron!  So I collected all the supplies and made her an apron.

Pattern Domestic Goddess Aprons by Amy Butler Designs.  Print fabric comes from the Cook's Kitchen collection by Makower uk.  The orange accent fabric if from the Puzzle Pieces collection by Moda fabrics.

The pattern calls for the long ties to be placed on the half apron but I put them on the bodice apron.  I find it much easier to tie in front of me rather than behind my back.  Isn't having to tie behind your back kinda like a test in dexterity?  I need to SEE what I'm doing!  When you get a project done you HAVE TO try it on and SEE what it looks like!  I was surprised when I tried it on and discovered it has an umpire waist (is it even called an umpire waist these days?)  The picture on the pattern looks like it ties around the waist NOT right under the BOOBS!  Oh well, it's DONE.  As you can see it has a little towel loop, which I thought was a handy feature.

If I ever make another one I'll make the bodice BIGGER, the overall length shorter and the towel loop closer to the center.  This towel loop puts the towel under your elbow which was awkward feeling.

Her comment when asked how she liked it, "It will fit the boyfriend great."  I guess that means she has already given up her cooking career and it's now on the boyfriends list of responsibilities!

Potato Bag

Several (or what some would call MANY) months ago my youngest daughter (the one that DOESN'T sew) asked me to make her a potato bag.  I'm sure you know what these are... a container made of cloth that one uses to successfully microwave potatoes... think baked potato.  Funny how times change... I don't think my mother ever BAKED a potato in her life (at least not the part of her life when I lived with her).  She said, "It takes to long and runs up the electric bill!".  Evidently there are others out there that felt the same way as dear ol' mom and one of them came up with a way to modernize the process using a microwave. 

Several months ago (NOT MANY) I purchased a couple fat quarters to make dear daughter her potato bag.  One fabric is a potato print (how original) and the other is a print of corn on the cob.  Corn on the cob because, in case you didn't know... these little bags also work well for cooking corn on the cob in the microwave.  This daughter does not have many domestic bones and I thought using prints that represent the foods that can be cooked in the bag would be helpful to her.  The only other things needed was some leftover binding and batting from other projects.

Finally!  A project that got completed (in a timely manner) instead of becoming an addition to the UFO pile!  The finished size is 12"x9", big enough for three good size potatoes.  One for her and each of her two roommates.  As for dear ol' mom... sometimes I imagine her watching over me amazed at the new fangled way some things get done today.

My Recent Trip Through The Fabric Aisles

As you may know I work in a fabric shop a couple of days a week.  It really is more like getting paid to hang out some place where quilters go to have FUN.  The last time they paid me to hang out there I discovered a couple pieces of fabric that spoke to me, so I brought some home with me. :o)  Isn't it FUN !?  It will make the perfect little quilt for my cats who often hang out on the couch with me during the evenings.

Call me CRAZY, but I talk to my cats all the time.  So they do know that this fabric is to be used to make them a quilt.  Here they are laying on my cutting table that is neatly tucked away into the corner.  They may have chosen this spot for todays nap so WHEN I do start on their little quilt they'll be the first to know.  

What A Cutie

When my daughter was little she had a wrap dress.  She loved it!  It was like a new kinda toy.  I mean, when you're a little girl learning how to dress yourself, how FUN is it to have a dress with three armholes?  AND you can put it on with the flap in the back OR in the front.  So when I saw this little Mary Go 'Round dress pattern by Patterns by Figgy's it took me back a few years and I had to make one.  This pattern has an extra bonus cuz it's REVERSIBLE!  So it's like having TWO dresses with three armholes.  My daughter would test her ability to get the flap in the front or back... it was kinda like having a babysitter.

Anyway, next spring I am going to be doing a class on how to make this little dress.  It is a FUN easy project for Moms and Grandmas to make.

Last Stitch Taken

Yesterday evening I finished up this Thanksgiving tableunner.  It is a Briarwood Cottage pattern,  http://www.briarwoodcottage.net/.  It is the November offering of their Calendar Pocket Series.  The series has a themed tablerunner pattern for each month of the year.  This one will be used as a store sample in the quilt shop I work in.  The finished size is SUPPOSED to be 15"x38".  I got the 38 part right but scerwed up on the 15 part.  I contacted the designer on the fact that mine ended up 17" and she straighted me out on the topic.  It was a matter of me quilting like a child and just looking at the pictures instead of actually reading the directions.  Oh well, just me and the designer would know that... except that I just shared it with you.  I don't think anything I make actually ends up like the pattern says it should.