Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) Round 2

 The second round prompt for the SAHRR is from Anja Quilt's and the prompt is Half Square Triangles.

The half square triangles was a perfect choice as I was hoping to take this quilt from being on point to squaring it up and so I added 4 corner triangles, one in each corner to now have a square top. I chose this pale green solid fabric, but I also knew I wanted to add more appliqué to keep the tea/teacup theme going as well. I used my Crafter's Edge Teapot, teacup and saucer die cuts and fused them onto the corners and then blanket stitched around them.

Here are the half square triangles sewn to each corner.

I added appliqué teapots and teacups and saucers to keep the tea theme going too. I might later quilt some tea going into the cup from the teapot spout.

I used batik fabric for the teapots and teacups and saucers and made 2 like this and two the opposite like in the photo below.

Two were made like this and 2 like the photos above. Blanket stitching was stitched around each appliqué piece. 

Click on the link like this one above, on the sidebar of my blog to go to Gail's Blog to read all about SAHRR 2025.

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Dust Cover for Iron

Last month in December, I made a dust cover for my iron. No, I am not talking about golf irons, in case any golfers are reading this. This cover is for my iron to press fabric and clothing with. 

For some reason, my iron gets dusty very easily. Maybe it's because it is mostly metal and more noticeable? Or because of where it sits? I have no idea? I never had dust appear so frequently with other irons before, or at least it wasn't as noticeable. Anyhow, I decided I needed to keep a cover on it, especially when it was not being used, so to keep the dust from accumulating so quickly. So a dust cover was made using this pretty sewing theme fabric print. I didn't have a pattern, so I designed this myself to fit my medium size iron.

Here is the top view. I added a handle to the top for easily taking the cover off and putting it back on later.

Side view. The bottom all around in the dark pink is the binding.

The back side view.

It is helping to keep the dust down and it looks pretty too, so a win-win for me! 😁

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SAHRR My First Round: Dancing Daisies

The first round prompt is from Kathleen McMusing and she said to make a block with the letter "K", for her first name, which she chose King's Crown for her block. Or we could choose a block starting with the first letter of our own name, so mine is "D", and for that I chose what I decided to call Dancing Daisies. It's my quilt and I could name my rounds as I please, right? 😉

Below I am showing the background strips that I sewed together in the first photo, and then the Dancing Daisy flowers I fused in place and finally I showed the flowers after I stitched them all down.

I chose 2 fabric borders to stitch together first as my background for my Dancing Daisies appliqué.

Flowers all fused in place awaiting stitching.

Flowers all stitched down in place.

Closeup of stitched flowers.

Click on the link that looks like this one on the sidebar to take you to Quilting Gail's Blog to learn all about this Round Robin and how to join or just follow those of us who have joined this SAHRR 2025.

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2 More Japanese Rice Bags

I made a couple more Rice Bags to hold sewing machine foot pedals and cords. This has been a useful and fun project to make these bags and I am using up some sewing theme fabrics too. I have been experimenting with the sizes of these bags and tweaking how they are sewn as I try new things with the construction of the bags. 

The bag on the left I quilted with a serpentine stitch and the bag on the right a straight stitch. I used fusible fleece for the bag exterior and fusible interfacing for both linings of the bags to provide a bit of structure. Each bag has a total of 8 total casing tab loops for the drawstring to go through; 2 on each side. The cording was made using a Kumihimo disk and various yarns I already had to create each cording for the bag. Two cords were made for each bag so when you pull the cords, it closes the bag. Kumihimo is a Japanese braiding technique and goes perfectly with these Komebukuro (Japanese Rice Bags), plus I love how the cording looks too!

I cut the 5 exterior squares slightly oversize and then quilt each exterior square, square to size and then assemble into the bag. The bag on the left was squared to 8 1/2" for each square, while the bag on the right was 7 3/4". The bag on the right shrunk up a bit more with the quilting, so I trimmed to the largest size I could after quilting and you can see the bag on the right is slightly smaller.

2 Komebukuro or Japanese Rice bags to hold foot pedals and cords for 2 sewing machines. I made clear vinyl windows to hold a paper saying which machine the foot pedals are for. I can easily change the paper names to hold a different machine or even put a name in the window for using the bag as a project bag by slipping in the project name in the clear window instead. 

The Kumihimo cording cinched the bags closed.

This is the slightly smaller bag, but still roomy.

This bottom I used this fabric as I didn't have enough of the fabric I used for the sides.

Looking into empty bag you can see how roomy it is.

Sewing machine foot pedal and cord for Kenmore inside bag.

Foot pedal and cord for Pfaff sewing machine inside bag.

After placing the foot pedal into each bag, I saw the Pfaff was a larger foot pedal, so I later switched the foot pedals and machine labels and placed them in the opposite bags, which worked out better.

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Sew Powerful Purse #13 (2025)

Lucky purse number 13 for this year! Donating to Sew Powerful.

The "Busy Hands" fabric I had for ages and I have a few more from that fabric I made into flaps too. The scraps were from a friend and the plaid fabric for the purse body was a donation from years ago. The plaid is a sturdy fabric and I cut out a few more purses from it that I am sewing now, so will share those when they are finished.

Back with pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purses #10-12 (2025)

Using up a couple of miscellaneous quilt blocks, plus a painted fabric with an appliqué.

I found the quilt block on the left and on the right and made them into purse flaps. The star on the right I had to add some strips to make it the flap size needed. The center flap is another painted texture background with a Hawaiian butterfly flower appliqué in the corner using an upcycled rainbow knit tank top.

Center is an upcycled denim jeans purse body.

Back of purses.

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Sew Powerful Purses #6-9 (2025)

Another 4 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Appliqué hexagon flower, 2 raw edge scrappy purse flaps, a pieced quilted block with added strips and all with the same batik purse bodies.

The second from the left and the far right are flaps made using raw edge scraps with tulle. They were quilted, then added embellishments and some yarn couching on the far right flap. 

Close up of one of the scrappy raw edge purse flaps with tulle.

Batik purse bodies.

Backs with pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #2-5 (for 2025)

4 more purses finished! 3 I used selvages on the flaps and one I painted the flap and added an appliqué Hawaiian flower in the corner.

I used a small quilt block in the center of 2 of these and then sewed selvages around them, while the center purse I used a small rectangle scrap. I loved upcycling selvages and denim jeans! The purse bodies are indeed upcycled denim jeans as you can see in the photos below.

The front jean pockets are perfect as the front of these purses and gives an extra bonus pocket (or 2 as in the left purse). I also sometimes add the front jean pocket to the back of the purse, but I think I prefer it this way on the front.

I used the black back denim pockets on the outer 2 purses and created a slip pocket for the blue denim purse. Oftentimes the denim jeans are so large that the back pockets would be cut nearly in half if I used them on the back, so I have to see if they will fit first.

The flower on the flap below is another upcycle I cut from this rainbow tie dye knit tank top I have. Every time I cut an appliqué shape from the tank top, different parts of the tank top are used, so this one was the section of these purple and blue colors. Some I cut were more reds, yellow and orange. It's fun to see so many colors and so many appliqué shapes that I can get from this tank top.

I painted this white canvas material first with different textures and then added a quarter of a Hawaiian flower appliqué into the corner of the flap. 

Black upcylcled denim jeans purse body.

Back with a slip pocket.

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Sew Powerful Purse #1 (for 2025)

This is my first finished purse this year (2025) to donate to the Sew Powerful Purse Project. I used my circular attachment on my sewing machine to create the decorative stitched circles, or partial circles for this flap. It's so fun to play! I added some embroidered flower appliqué trim flowers and even made French knots by hand on stitch that looks like an asterisk. It sure jazzed up this plain purple fabric. 

I may set this purse aside and use it for the Picture Your Purse fundraiser campaign. I joined in last year (the first time they did this), where you make a purse and later send it to one of the people going on the trip to Zambia (which will be this May) and they find a girl to give your purse to and take a photo of them holding your purse. Later you receive an 8"x 10" color photo of the girl holding the purse that you made and they tell you the first name of the girl too. That connection makes it more real to be able to see one girl with a purse that you made. Since I cannot go to Zambia myself, this is the next best thing. 

Decorative stitches done in a circle.

Front pocket under the flap. I love this fabric. Has metallic dots and what looks like paint brushed metallic too over the pretty fabric print.

The back pocket and the entire flap shown here. The top 2 inches or so of the flap folds to the back and isn't seen, but here you can see that orange was a full circle that was stitched.

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