Sunday, February 22, 2015

Simplicity 8300

This fleece jacket was given to me all already cut out so it was a really quick make and finished a project I had sitting around for over a year



The sewing is simple and the instructions clear.  The only part that requires any thinking is the zipper insertion and it wasn't difficult at all.  You might  note however, that the pattern description calls this an over sized pull over and that is certainty correct.  I sewed a size 14 and it fit me with room to spare.  The only change I made was to add a band with elastic to the bottom of each sleeve for a bit of extra length.  Even though this fit me, the style and pattern look horrible so I will be giving this to one of my nephews who hopefully will like wearing this better than I would.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Snowpeople & a Heart Pillow

 Snow people & a heart  made a cute and easy decorative pillow project

One of the projects on the get it done list was   the snow people pillow.  Laurie, had given me the black felt and the cut out snow people several years ago.  I had done some of the sewing on the snow people and then put it aside.  When I pulled the project back out I found some bits of felt and needle felted the hats and noses on then added some beads for eyes and added an embroidered smile.  I found one snowflake button in my stash and sewed it on the pillow but couldn't find any more.  I didn't think 1 flake was enough so I purchased a package of snow flakes for 1.97 from Walmart.    I may add some embroidery arms but maybe not.







When I finished my last red block I has some small  pieces of fabric from trimming the sub blocks.  I thought it would make a perfect heart but I didn't really have anywhere to put the heart.  I decided that the back of the snow people would be perfect as I love the high contrast of red and black.    I fused the little scraps adding just a bit of solid red wool to one side of paperback fusible web, cut the heart shape,  fused it to the pillow and just randomly stitched all over the heart both attaching the heart to the pillow and adding interest and some dimension to it at the same time.  Another fun,  quick project. 



Monday, February 9, 2015

Americana Quilt completed

I finished the Americana Quilt that my best friend Laurie gave me.  Laurie had pieced  the quilt top several years ago from  block of the month kits and I think she got tired of looking at it.  This was perfect for me to practice quilting on.




I purchased fabric for the back but didn't use it,  I ended up piecing what I already had here.  I would have liked to have had more of the star fabric in the middle but only had a small piece.  It did however work perfectly as a bridge between the other two fabrics.  . 
 
 
 
 
 

Here is a little of the quilting.  I rented a long arm machine at Back Door Fabric & Quilts in Greenwood.  I think the price is reasonable at $15 per hour.  It took me 5-1/2 hours to quilt this.





When you put a quilt on the frame you have to cut the backing larger than the top all the way around to ensure that your backing is as large or larger than the front after quilting.   I cut the back a bit bigger than necessary but the trimmed off strips worked perfectly for the binding.

The binding was made from 3" strips folded in half sewn to the front and them flipped to the back and sewn down by hand.  Perfect job for a couple of long car rides and some television watching.  You can see how the backing fabrics, binding and front border all go together nicely.


This is one of the projects I listed earlier to be done and now it is!