6-Year Old’s Quilt Progress

Posted on November 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

 

Laurel with finished quilt top

Laurel with finished quilt top

 

Laurel is so eager to finish her quilt.  Even though she hasn’t taken a nap for 3 1/2 years, she declares that she needs one now and wants her quilt for a cover.   So we are rushing to finish this project so the poor child can get some rest.

Yesterday, she finished joining all the blocks together and today managed to sew on the borders. She is sewing on a wonderful little Brother machine, a Pacesetter 300S.  The machine is probably 10 years old but it is a honey.

This petite sweet thing weighs only 11 pounds, making it very portable.  It has an embroidery unit with a 4 x 4 field, several built in alphabets, more than 70 built in designs and more than 30 stitches, including a pin stitch and other heirloom favorites.  The original suggested manufacturer’s retail price was $2500, and worth every penny.  Recently I saw the new and improved version at WalMart with built in Disney designs for just $450!  If I didn’t have this one in perfect working order, I’d be  tempted to snatch up this bargain.  It is just a great little machine.

 

L sews

 

The quilt design I came up with works so well for children or beginning quilters.  With 7 machine embroidered redwork designs and 8 foundation pieced blocks stitched on 10″ squares, it was easy to cut them down to 9″.  Had there been any major mistakes, they could have been selectively reduced to 7″ or 8″.    Continue reading →

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Posted in Kids Sew, machine embroidery, Nana fun, quilts

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Hideaway Hanger

Posted on November 2, 2010 | 2 comments

A hideaway hanger is a fabulous travel accessory.  With a zippered pocket concealed beneath the scallops, it provides a secure place to hide jewelry and other valuables when you are staying in a hotel.  I’ll never forget when a teacher at a huge sewing school had all of her jewelry stolen while she was in class.  A hanger like this might have prevented that heart wrenching theft.

This classic heirloom style hanger is packed in my suitcase every time I go out of town, a lovely and useful gift from my dear friend Barbara Chatelaine of Baton Rouge.   It was stitched on her beloved Pfaff 7570.  Barbara is an incredibly talented sewist, a fabulous cook–her shrimp etouffee is legendary–and altogether a delightful and charming Cajun lady.

enlarge to see clean scallops

 

She declares this to be an easy project.  By simply tracing the outline of a wooden hanger, a pattern can be drawn.  Add a seam allowance and trace the shape onto fabric which has been pressed onto an iron-on low loft bonded batt.  The batting gives the cover body as well as  cushions and disguises the contents of the hanger.  Before cutting it out, embroider a monogram or other design.  Or just leave it plain. Continue reading →

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Posted in home dec, machine embroidery, techniques, uncategorized

Back to the Drawing Board~Christmas Dress ’10

Posted on October 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

 

It’s back to the drawing board for Laurel’s Christmas dress.  The day after it was ordered, the luscious black velveteen arrived from The Sewing Studio.  I was already working, full steam ahead, on the ivory Swiss batiste pinafore bib to slip over the black dress (see previous post), when it arrived.  Then disaster struck.

But let me back up a minute.  I like to stitch the shoulder seams before inserting laces, so  the lace is a continuous piece, from bottom of the front yoke to the bottom of the back yoke.  By doing so, there is no break in the lace pattern and no fudging to get the laces to match up absolutely perfectly at the shoulder.

So after inserting one row of  Swiss beading from front to back, nearly 20″, I discovered it was defective.

www.oh no.com

 

There was a gap between the fabric and one of the eyelets for the ribbon.  It had never occurred to me to check for flaws.  Imported trims are expensive and thus, perfect, I foolishly thought. WRONG!   I stand corrected. Okay, so nothing is perfect, right?  Well, except for my grandchildren, of course.

Enlarge to see the defects/gaps beside ribbon carrier eyelets.

Ever so carefully, I removed the tiny zig zag stitches, removed the beading and pulled out another length of this lovely stuff.  Half way through that application, I was heartsick to see not just one but several such defects.  I unrolled the entire 10 yard bold and saw defects no less frequently than every 10″.  I cannot even remember where, several years ago,  I purchased this and the matching insertion.   So I’ve put it away and will have to use it in short lengths.  The partially finished pinafore bib goes in the scrap bag.  Maybe I will make a doll dress to match. But for now,  I was back to square one for Laurel’s pinafore bib. Continue reading →

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Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Ingredients~Christmas Dress ’10

Posted on October 29, 2010 | 2 comments

For almost three weeks now I have wrestled with designs and plans for Christmas outfits for all three grandchildren.  I desperately wanted them coordinated, as it seems that my opportunities for brother-sister-cousin holiday clothes are diminishing.  Sweet and cooperative as 5 1/2 year old Robert is, I think the era of easy compliance with “sweet” clothes  is drawing near an end.

But time flies and the outfits need to be finished for Christmas pictures as well as for The Nutcracker Ballet, which Robert and Laurel will be attending mid-December.  So I have finally settled on basic  black velveteen as the unifying factor.

While awaiting the arrival of my mail order shipment of velveteen from The Sewing Studio in Maitland (Florida), I have started a pinafore bib for Laurel.  This will be worn over her black yoke dress. Continue reading →

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Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Crayola Fun

Posted on October 28, 2010 | 2 comments

This topic is mostly Nana Fun and only remotely sewing related, but I think it’s wonderful.  To see the needlework connection, you will have to read to the end of the post, beyond the explanation. This program turns any digital photo into a coloring page!  And you can even add fun extras, such as hats or funny hair or mustaches.

Before the start of the school year, I bought new boxes of Crayolas for  Robert and Laurel.  Though I hadn’t noticed the box cover promo for this free–except for the cost of the crayolas–program,  Robert spotted it immediately and couldn’t wait to get started.  That boy can spot a .com from across the room.

#1--digital photo

Much to my chagrin, I just couldn’t seem to get around to checking this out until this past week.  Robert was delighted and so were Laurel and I. It is soooooo neat!

Just go to the website www.crayola.com/colorme and click on the free  trial or log in with the code stamped inside the lid of the crayola box.

We’re starting a diary/coloring book of memories from this school year.  Laurel’s sewing and Robert’s “shopping”–his term for shop class–will be documented and recalled even more vividly as they relive the activity with crayons.  Here  is an example, using a photo from our trip to North Carolina.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Nana fun, uncategorized

Thanksgiving Suit in Progress

Posted on October 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  We have so much to be thankful for and our precious grandchildren are near the top of the list.  My passion for sewing is another blessing that enriches my life.  Grandchildren and sewing are major factors of my happiness that go hand in hand.

Of course, I love making holiday garments for them.  This little suit is a work in progress for 19 month old Alastair to wear Thanksgiving Day when we all gather for thanks and dinner at  the home of his paternal grandmother.  Of course, he is the apple of everyone’s eye and will get more attention than the turkey and pumpkin pies.

Once again, I have chosen one of my favorite patterns, the John-John included in the Martha Pullen book, Applique’, Martha’s Favorites.  I use this so often that I have traced off all sizes of both the John-John and the girl’s jumper.  Each pattern is kept  paper clipped together and stored in an envelope tucked into the book.  It probably took less time to trace off all sizes at one time than it would have taken to assemble the newsprint paper, ruler, marker, etc.,   haul it to the glass topped table on the breakfast porch and trace off  even two patterns.

With the help of an edge stitch foot, a black straight stitch has been worked around the perimeter, top and bottom.  This keeps the white lining from peeking around the black houndstooth check body of the suit.

Rather than embroider on the suit itself, I made a patch that will button onto the front of the John-John.  The turkey is from Designs by JuJu’s Autumn Harvest collection. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, clothing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, techniques

6 year old Quilter

Posted on October 23, 2010 | 6 comments

sewing blocks together

Laurel  is making her first quilt.  I don’t know who is more excited, my little granddaughter or her Nana.

We started this project mid-summer as part of our homeschool curriculum.  While she sewed, 5 year old Robert had shop class with  Granddad.  But one thing and another seemed to impede our progress and by the end of September, she had only embroidered 9 blocks, more than enough for this quilt.  But piecing had not yet begun.

Children do not have great attention spans. I learned long ago when teaching my Rebecca to sew that they need completion in a relatively short period of time.  By Oct. 1, Laurel’s quilt was already in overtime as we began piecing.  She absolutely loved selecting the fabric strips and sewing up those blocks.   I knew we had to keep our momentum and wrap this up soon.

But it’s football season.  On Saturdays, our family gathers here to watch the  day’s games so very little sewing gets done.  The Florida had a bye this week—a blessed relief for the Gator Nation considering the way the season is going—so we could enjoy college football without biting our nails and groaning and wailing.  This also gave me a chance to sew today with Laurel, whose limited but growing knowledge of college football prevented her from understanding that the Gators did not play today.  Still, she arrived decked out with her Gator cap and ever-faithful game day companion, Gator Barbie.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Kids Sew, machine embroidery, Nana fun, quilts, techniques

Boo Bouh

Posted on October 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Making Halloween shirts is just plain fun.  I have little enthusiasm  for  costume making, but a quickie shirt makes the grandchildren as happy as if I had whipped up Spiderman or Cinderella.

Amy Spriggs made the little white cutie on the left, along with the spooky hair bow.   She used the Bouh Bouh font in BabyLock’s Masterworks, CustomWorks and LetterWorks.

I’ve used the same font on a onesie for 18 month old Alastair.  His name is longer than Ashlyn’s and his shirt is smaller, so the ghosts were flocked together more closely. The Happy Halloween text is from Babylock’s Halloween collection.  It comes with a sassy little spider hanging off the bottom of the “y” in Happy, but with all those ghost it just seemed like overkill.  So I left it out. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, embroidery blanks, girls, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Margaret Tully Sews

Posted on October 19, 2010 | 2 comments

This past weekend Margaret Tully taught a class at the Sewing Garret in South Daytona.  As always, she was delightfully entertaining while she teaching her students fabulous techniques and tips.

I was unable to stay for the sit and sew portion, but snapped these pictures of some of her inspiring samples.

Margaret is best known for her serging expertise, but she is equally adept with sewing.  The creativity and variety of her samples shows just how diverse her talents are. Continue reading →

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Posted in baby accessories, bags, heirloom sewing, home dec, linen blanks, machine embroidery, serger, techniques, uncategorized

Model Bedroom

Posted on October 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

 

Home dec projects appeal to everyone.  Whether or not we have little ones to sew for, each of us has a bedroom where we seek a calm and quiet atmosphere, away from the demands of our busy days.

This model bedroom was done for the Springfield, MO,  Babylock dealer, BSewInn, by my friend Judy Day.  Her unfailing good taste, skillful color coordination and attention to detail make this model bedroom a soothing refuge.  It is both classic and contemporary.

There are several other items in this grouping, but they will be posted at a later date.  There is so much meat in the pieces shown that any more items would make for a very lengthy post. Continue reading →

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Posted in heirloom sewing, home dec, Judy Day's creations, machine embroidery