Friday finishes

I made market bags for family gifts this year.

The one from the left is from a tea towel I picked up in London,

and the other is made from flag fabric picked up right here in Winnipeg.

My nieces loved them. The one at the right visited London last year,

and was thrilled to locate familiar subway or tube stops on her bag.

My guild exchanged mug rugs for Christmas gifts,

and this is the one I got, as well as

a Sew Together bag just because from my friend C.

The outside, with a pattern if I want to make another one.

I made the mug rug with the 200 HST on the top left.

Some quilty friend gave me these tiny triangles,

and I was just crazy enough to sew them together.

Another couple of bags -- the bottom one from a thrifted piece of canvas,

and the top one made by simply adding handles onto a discarded cotton coin bag.

No more pennies in Canada,

so the mint got rid of their penny coin bags.

Read the back story on how I got this bag here.

Earlier this month, I spent a Saturday sew-in making this denim tote.

It uses circles cut from old jeans with squares cut from

vintage pillowcases.

I had many worn out pillowcases so I saved the embroidery for this project.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Friday Finishes

I've made some progress on long overdue projects.

First up is a baby quilt from solid flying geese 

originally intended for a double quilt for my son.

He got a double quilt recently from grandma

so I decided to sew these into two projects:

a baby quilt for a soon-to-be born neighbour

and a throw quilt for whatever.

I may be late for the baby, but I'm early for this wedding.

I combined a $7 package of denim rectangles

with some Jane Sassaman prints from the bargain bin

for a picnic and beach blanket.

That black patch pocket on the lower right is hiding a zippered pocket

perfect for stowing keys or a phone.

The wedding couple requested purple

and I like how that stripe frames the blanket,

Here's a shot of the two coordinating backing prints--

the stripes and yellow jackets on purple.

I'm not a fan of stinging insects,

but maybe these provide a little insurance against the real thing

during an upcoming picnic.

My friend Val suggested using an old pair of jeans

to make a tote bag for the blanket.

I threw in a set of four napkins from the wasp print

and the new owners loved it all.

Now they have pockets for water bottles and snacks

and a place to keep the blanket clean in the car trunk.

Here's some more repurposing:

I needed red for the back of a pillow for my niece

and I used the strip sets and fabrics left over

from the red and grey chevron quilt I pieced for a friend last year

and my friend Yvonne hand quilted.

This is the floating chevron quilt.

When I was making it, an older and thrifty quilting friend

was concerned I was wasting too much fabric

because there were leftover strips.

I assured her I would find a place for them

and now I did.

This is a better view of the hand quilting by Yvonne.

And this is the front of the pillow.

Kara's favourite colour is red

followed by black and white.

I figured I hit the mark on this one,

and I used up lots of black and white novelty prints

so there's an I Spy quality about it.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Little Man's quilt

Recently I finished a mini quilt I had pieced earlier this year from solid scraps.

That centre block measures just three inches

and the whole quilt is 13 inches square.

My friend C. carries this 4 inch poseable figure in her purse

and photographs her adventures with "Little Man."

As soon as I gave her this quilt to hang in her new office

(she has a new academic appointment)

she saw it as a quilt for Little Man.

C. also has a bigger poseable figure dubbed "Big Man"

who is the perfect size to hold the quilt

by putting his hands in the hanging triangles in the back.

And there were shepherds...

A bunch of them, actually,

along with the holy family.

I lost count on how many I made from this free pattern,

digging into my bag of wool melton and felt.

I love the simplicity of the design,

and now I remember that hand stitching on wool is very tactile and satisfying.

Here's the Holy Family in a variety of colours

And one hanging on the tree.

Merry Stitchmas

and wishing you a creative new year!

Lots of little finishes for Friday

I can show you some gifts now enjoying their new homes.

Here are six little samosa-style pouches

for storing earbuds or charger cords.

I didn't use a tutorial, but there's a good one by Shruti here,

which also includes a recipe for samosas you can eat. Yum!

I made these 'stache ones for the three guys in my life.

The top two are for my sons, the bottom is for my DH.

See that ribbon with the D-ring?

It came from a vintage straw hat from DH's dad.

The hat was done, but I saved the grosgrain ribbon around it,

and now each of these has a little history and sentiment attached.

Last summer I bought 1.5 yards of this cassette print on my Pennsylvania fabric buying spree, 

I showed it to a musician friend celebrating a quarter-century of music-making,

and he got nostaglic over these cassettes.

So I made him and his colleagues some pouches of various sizes.

Here's my first attempt at the boxed in corner pouch I've seen all over the blogosphere.

The secret of this one was to use fusible fleece to give the outer fabric some body.

Actually, all these pouches have fusible fleece.

I usually just use up bits of leftover batting, but this time I purchased the fusible

and I'm happy with how they turned out.

All of these are minimally quilted

and have green Kona interiors.

(And all of these zips were purchased from my local thrift shop,

which sells them for 10 cents a piece.)

And thanks to T. for a lovely fat quarter

and a five-pack of assorted threads.

I'm linking up  with other Friday finishers over at Sarah's and Amanda Jean's.

Merry Quiltmas!

My Christmas goodies from left:

Winding Ways die for my Go! cutter

True Colors design roll

Minimal Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston

Handknit mitts in a fun variegated yarn

Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shah

I may or may  not have picked out most of these, lol.

Merry Quiltmas!

Fabric from across the pond

My sister sent me these fat quarters from Barrington Patchwork in the UK.

The clerk assured her these fabrics are not available in Canada.

And now I can have the fun of deciding what to make

with three fat quarters in Lewis and Irene's Timsbury Lane line.

Thanks sis, for thinking of me!

I'm getting a reputation as the crazy fabric lady!

I must be known out there for collecting linen, because today this package of linen goodies,

mostly napkins and hankies, walked up to my door in the arms of my friend Gerry.

She's given me vintage bits before, and this stuff is fun -- four yellow napkins all embroidered with a different name, causing me to wonder about the story behind them. Did four friends embroider them for a special occasion to give to a fifth friend? Did she treasure them so much she never used them?

Then there's the green linen hankerchief/napkin on top.

Click on the picture to see it closer.

It says " Registered Irish Linen. It's Lovely. It Lasts. Made in Ireland."

True enough. I'm thinking these are all many decades old.

I really have to get to that linen quilt soon!

A good place to rest weary heads

I spent an hour or so over the long weekend finishing pillowcases

from novelty fabrics.

From left: Superman comics for DS2, chess print for DS1,  retro patio chairs for me,

and a fish/shell print in reserve for the next time I need a quick gift.

All are made according to the burrito method, which you can find on various tutorials.

I also got some quilty gifts this week. My friend Terry mailed me two text fabrics -- thanks for thinking of me.

And Mr. Scraps came home from Pennsylvania with four set of DS Quilts fat quarters from JoAnn's.

I asked him if he would buy me one set, but he came home with all four. Lovely.

Birthday sewing

I scored this Singer Featherweight Three-Way Table

 for $10 at an estate sale recently.

It has a beautiful wooden top in great condition

and wooden folding legs.

When it was originally manufactured,

it was advertized as good for sewing, dining, or playing cards.

It's designed for a Featherweight 221 to sit flush in it.

My 222K (with the free arm) sits a bit higher, but its all good.

I'm celebrating my birthday today by sewing with a friend.

Here she is machine quilting on my Juki in one corner of my dining room

while I have the FW set up in another corner.

K. brought me fabric goodies from her stash

and the local secondhand market in Iraq,

where she lives half the year.

Design Deck Monday

Today I'm showing you what's on my deck

because it doesn't fit on my wall or cutting table.

My friend's mother gave me a generous quantity of wax print  and block printed fabrics

she picked up on her international travels.

This one on the table has four of those circles,

and it measures about four metres long.

This indigo and white one is already quilted onto a blue polycotton backing.

I could live with the pre-quilting, but I'm not keen about the thin foam backing

so I may be taking the seam ripper to it and liberating the cotton from the poly.

It measures about one metre square.

And here's the whole bunch. Both the green and the pink are also a generous four metres.

I'm pre-washing these right now to get rid of any excess dye

(thanks to Shout's colourcatchers for doing a good job)

and contemplating all kinds of projects.

Most of all, I'm thankful that someone like Jeannette

who appreciates beautiful textiles

trusted me enough to send some beauties to live with me.

I'm linking to Judy for Design Wall Mondays.

Gifts, gifts, and little Amish quilts

A week or so ago I saw Susan's little miniature Amish bars quilt and pattern and I decided to make one. Well, maybe a few more than one. Here's nine that I've finished. Most measure around 9 by 11 inches, some less, depending on how accurate I was with the seam allowances and pressing.

I invited my guild members to make some, since we were asked to provide some small quilty gifts for international visitors to our city. The bottom row has two made by fellow guild members and one made by me -- Amish modern bars.

These little quiltlets are a good for practicing skills like quilting and binding. I had some fun with the machine quilting.

Lots of vines and leaves here, inspired by the bright spring colours in this green and orange quilt.

Feathered wreathes and borders. I'm getting the hang of free-hand feathers.

Some bubbles and feathers here.

Straight line stitching with the walking foot for this modern version.

My birthday gift books came last week, with some more ideas on machine quilting Amish design.

And a few shopping bags made from upholstery fabric for a friend's birthday

coming soon to a mailbox near you

I'm having fun in NYC this weekend, as part of the celebrations for my upcoming big birthday. But while I'm out there, take a look at what's flying through the mail to some of you in blogland.

First up, a 9.5 inch COW (cranky old woman) block for Nancy.

Then some goodies for Julie's white coat project -- these are the cuffs for the bottom of the sleeves.

Two mini quilts made from leftover blocks from Midnight Blooms

a 16 by 20 quilt made by my cousin, which I machine quilted for her (my first custom quilting project.)

A set of placemats cut from my mom's stash, on which I practise feathers. She's going to get them back for the binding process.

A half dozen fat quarters for me, since there was some gift malfunction on Mother's Day, so I bought my own gift.

And a rearranged and cleaned up sewing room, waiting for more quilty fun when I get home.