Pin It Now!
Handmade Quilts~Bags~Knits & More
Sunday, September 15, 2013
For the Love of Hand Embroidery: My Day
I am a guest blogger today over at Jane's Fabrics and Quilts For the Love of Hand Embroidery where Jane is featuring guest blogger each Monday from August-December. Please hop on over to Jane's blog to see what I embroidered. Thanks.
Pin It Now!
Pin It Now!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Are you a No-Reply Blogger Using Google+?
I have received a lot of comments the past few days because of the Pin-It Blog Hop and several of the comments were from no-reply bloggers. This of course means that I cannot contact them since no email address shows up for me in my email where my comments go. I took the time to try and inform some of these people that they were no-reply. I clicked on their names and up came their Google+. Some had an email contact on their Google+ and some did not. I contacted those I could and left replies directly on my blog to the comments they left for me informing them that they were no-reply bloggers. Since I am having a give-away drawing, those whom I cannot contact will sadly be left out of the drawing. Not to mention there are other give-away drawings on several other blogs during this Pin-it blog hop and if they also left comments on those blogs with hopes to win something, well they don't have a chance to win anything if they cannot be contacted. Even the cheerleader for this blog hop came up as a no-reply so I informed her right away. Google+ does funny things to your settings.
Here is a tutorial sent to me by one of my followers who happened to be a no-reply herself and I let her know and she fixed her blog and sent me this link on how to fix it so you are no longer a no-reply. Here is another link from a different blog, so check them both out and see which one works for you.
Pin It Now!
Here is a tutorial sent to me by one of my followers who happened to be a no-reply herself and I let her know and she fixed her blog and sent me this link on how to fix it so you are no longer a no-reply. Here is another link from a different blog, so check them both out and see which one works for you.
Pin It Now!
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
My Day for the Pin it Pincushion Blog Hop
I love making pincushions. I love to use them and to give them as gifts too. Sometimes I follow a pattern and sometimes I make up my own pincushions. Here is a collage showing just a few of the pincushions that I made in the past. The pincushions that I made for this blog hop are after the collage.
I have a give-away too. I will give away a pdf of my newest pattern on Craftsy which is my Needle Book with Pincushion & Pocket. You can make this needle book in fabric or felt and both instructions are included.
Just leave me a comment for one chance to win. For a second chance to win leave me another comment answering this question: What kind of pattern do like to buy? Patterns for quilts, patterns for bags, clothes, sewing accessory items or ? If you answer this question I will give you an additional chance at winning. Followers (new or long time followers) can leave me another comment to get a third chance to win (as long as you answer my question too that is, lol, otherwise you will have 2 chances). Please leave your email address in your comment if you are a no-reply or if you are not sure whether you are a no-reply. I will respond to all comments, but if you are a no-reply I cannot respond, so if you don't hear from me then you are a no-reply. If you are anonymous then you can email me your comment (I no longer allow anonymous comments in the comment section due to the enormous amount of spam that I receive, but you can always email me anytime). I will give away 3 pdf's of my pattern. I will choose the winners on September 21. Good luck to all.
Thanks to Madame Samm for this blog hop and Kristen for being our cheerleader and schedule organizer.
 |
| Collage of a few pincushions that I have made over the years. |
 |
| I knit 3 mushrooms and felted them to create these pincushions. |
 |
| I felted some spots on the one mushroom. |
 |
| These were all made using a small cap from an almond milk container as the base that I covered in felt. They are tiny pincushions that are great for slipping into a bag on-the-go. These make nice little gifts. |
 |
| I turned this and the following small canning jar lids into pincushions. I decorated each with felt and embroidery and I added some beads and sequins on some too. |
 |
| Little Japanese girl pincushion. |
 |
| I store beads in the jar. |
 |
| Flower pincushion on the lid and.... |
 |
| ...flower buttons inside the jar. |
 |
| This pincushion I named Jeanne after my friend who loves to make 3-D flowers on her quilts and bags. I started with a larger plastic lid for the base (probably from an orange juice container). I made the fabric leaves and petals and quilted them. Then I glued the petals and leaves and a wool ball into the lid. I added lace around the base and some eyelash yarn around the wool ball. |
 |
| The wool ball with eyelash yarn and a button in the center. |
 |
| The Jeanne pincushion. |
 |
| Another canning jar pincushion lid. |
 |
| Star pincushion on a canning jar. |
 |
| Here they all are (except for the mushroom pincushions because I made those after I took this photo). |
 |
| Felt version. |
 |
| Fabric version. |
Thanks to Madame Samm for this blog hop and Kristen for being our cheerleader and schedule organizer.
Here are the other fabulous pincushion makers for today, so be sure to pay them a visit too:
Pin It Now!
Tip of the Morning Tuesday: DIY Stiletto
Hello friends, it's time for another Tip of the Morning Tuesday today. There are times I like to use a stiletto to help guide the fabric while I am sewing. A stiletto is especially helpful for guiding thick seams or holding applique pieces as you stitch. You can buy metal stilettos or bamboo stilettos or even plastic ones or you can do what I do and use a bamboo skewer. I found a package of thick, short bamboo skewers a few years ago and then thought I would jazz them up a bit by adding some polymer clay to the end. I didn't do the most professional looking job with the clay, but you get the idea. You could also glue a button or bead on the end if you want to make it fancy or just leave the skewer plain. Besides using a skewer, you could also use a chopstick or a wooden dowel too. If the point of the chopstick isn't pointy enough just sharpen it in a pencil sharpener.
The skewer, chopstick or dowel seem safer to me too, because if you purchase a metal stiletto and if your sewing machine needle accidentally hits the tip of the stiletto, the metal could fly and hit you in the eye! With the wood, chances are the wood will split, but won't cause as much damage in an accident. I have never had the needle touch the stiletto tip, but it is a possibility, so please be careful when you use a stiletto, because the needle tip could fly too if it breaks.
You can buy quilting, applique, sewing stilettos, but it's so much cheaper to use a skewer, dowel or a chopstick. You can get free chopsticks when you eat at Chinese restaurants. If you have a chopstick, dowel or skewer that is too long, just saw off the end to the size you want and sand it smooth.
I hope you all enjoyed my tip for this Tuesday. And even though my mom doesn't have a computer and will never see this I want to wish her a Happy Birthday today, so Happy Birthday Mom. And Happy Birthday Matt too (my brother was born on my mom's birthday, what a birthday my mom got, huh?)
Pin It Now!
The skewer, chopstick or dowel seem safer to me too, because if you purchase a metal stiletto and if your sewing machine needle accidentally hits the tip of the stiletto, the metal could fly and hit you in the eye! With the wood, chances are the wood will split, but won't cause as much damage in an accident. I have never had the needle touch the stiletto tip, but it is a possibility, so please be careful when you use a stiletto, because the needle tip could fly too if it breaks.
You can buy quilting, applique, sewing stilettos, but it's so much cheaper to use a skewer, dowel or a chopstick. You can get free chopsticks when you eat at Chinese restaurants. If you have a chopstick, dowel or skewer that is too long, just saw off the end to the size you want and sand it smooth.
 |
| Bamboo skewer with polymer clay. |
 |
| The clay even had sparkles already in it. |
 |
| Add polymer clay on the end and bake or leave plain or glue a bead or button to jazz up your stiletto. |
Pin It Now!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
What's on My Needles Plus Another Crocheted Rug
 |
| This is the photo of the Antique Lace Cardigan I am knitting now. I am using a burgundy colored yarn. |
I got the back of the cardigan done and on a stitch holder and am working on the right front of the cardigan now.
 |
| Here is the back of the cardigan on a stitch holder and the start of the right front of the needles. |
 |
| Close-up of the lace pattern. |
 |
| That yellow was a bright tee-shirt as you can see. |
 |
I used 2 bulky weight yarns held together to knit this. I had enough brown yarn, but not enough of one blue yarn, so I used a medium and a light blue, and I knit the medium blue and brown together and then switched to the light blue and brown and then back to the medium blue and brown. But unfortunately you cannot see all 3 because the first medium blue and brown in on the bottom of the stool where it doesn't show. In the photo below you can see the light blue and brown and then the medium blue and brown. |
Pin It Now!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Upcoming Pin-it Blog Hop Schedule~
Pin-It Pincushion Blog Hop Schedule~
Pin It Now!
September 10~
Patchouli Moon Studio {that's me}
September 12~
September 13~
September 16~
September 17~
Pin It Now!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Tip of the Morning Tuesday: Quilt Basting Small Quilts My Way
I am thrifty (okay I'm really cheap! There I said it, lol) and a saver of things that I can reuse or find a different use for. One of the things that I save that most people would throw away is tiny scraps of fusible web. I do a lot of fusible applique, so I have lots of fusible web scraps on hand.
That's it. You just fuse-basted your quilt together and it is now ready to quilt and there's no pins to deal with. You used scraps of fusible web that you would have normally thrown out.
I recommend using my fuse-basted quilt tip for small quilts like wall quilts and it's really great for bag making too when you are quilting a bag and you don't have fusible fleece on hand. For larger quilts you can use safety pins or fusible batting or those basting sprays. I find that the fusible batting and sprays don't stay fused on large quilt that you handle a lot. They tend to come apart around the edges, plus I find it hard to iron a large quilt and batting together because of the large size. If you have luck with those products then by all means use them. They just don't work well for me.
Pin It Now!
 |
| I save these large plastic salad containers to keep my fusible web scraps in. I also have another container like this that I save my interfacing scraps in too. Plus the containers are great for fabric scraps...but I have way too many fabric scraps to fit in these. Using these containers is just one of my bonus tips for today, the real tip I am sharing today is coming up, so hang in there. |
 |
| I use an address label and print out labels for my containers. I add one to the side of the container so that I know what's inside when they are all stacked on the shelf. I also print one label for the top of the lid as you can see if the photo above. No address labels? You can write directly on the box with a permanent marker or use a piece of masking tape and write on the masking tape and stick it to the box instead of an address label. |
 |
| You can see all the scraps of paper-backed fusible web I save; even tiny pieces. Here's the reason why... |
 |
| ...I take those small pieces of fusible web and iron them onto the wrong side of the fabric that I am using for the back of my small quilt. I fuse them all over the backing fabric spacing them like you would if you are pin-basting a quilt. |
 |
| Here are several pieces of fusible web scraps that I fused onto the wrong side of the backing fabric. Sometimes it is hard to see those tiny pieces as they might blend into the fabric, so I take a marker and scribble on the paper so that I can see where the fusible pieces are. It's best to scribble as you go of course. I used a red scribble here thinking that red would show up, but not thinking that the cherries and dots are red and I should have used a blue marker instead. If you look closely you will see the fusible scraps with a squiggle of red. Once they are fused on your fabric, then remove the paper. Make sure you look really well and remove all the paper off the fusible pieces. Then once you have removed the paper, you will lay your batting on top of the fabric with the fusible pieces. |
 |
| Smooth out your batting. Then roll up the fabric and batting together like in the photo. |
 |
| After you rolled up your batting and backing pieces together, then turn it over and carefully unroll so that the fabric is on top and the batting is on the bottom like the photo above. Smooth it out with your hands. Now you will press your fabric with the batting underneath so that the fusible scraps stick to the batting. Be extra careful if you use a polyester batting as polyester batting can melt! Next, take the top of your quilt and fuse fusible web scraps to the wrong side of the quilt top, just as you did for the backing fabric. Once the quilt top has been fused and you peeled off the papers, lay the quilt top on top of the batting. Smooth it out and press on the quilt top so that the quilt top now is fused to the other side of the batting. |
I recommend using my fuse-basted quilt tip for small quilts like wall quilts and it's really great for bag making too when you are quilting a bag and you don't have fusible fleece on hand. For larger quilts you can use safety pins or fusible batting or those basting sprays. I find that the fusible batting and sprays don't stay fused on large quilt that you handle a lot. They tend to come apart around the edges, plus I find it hard to iron a large quilt and batting together because of the large size. If you have luck with those products then by all means use them. They just don't work well for me.
Pin It Now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
