Half Stitched and Mollie Makes Giveaway

I'm carving out some stitching time. I had some errands in the next town over and ran by Joann's, 'cuz that's what you do when you're out and about.

They had the May issue of Mollie Makes on the rack plus some Portland Timbers' fabric in the clearance bin at $3 bucks a yard.

And weirdly enough, they now carry EOS lip balm and hand lotion. Which my friend's daughter likes. At 50% off with the coupon.

Successful outing on all fronts.

I  enjoy small embroidery projects. I did some cross stitch when the kids were babes. The only thing I got out of cross stitch was to mind how the backside looks - 'cuz people (diehards) look.

I can't quite decide what I'll make with this finished floral heart. I'll either make a card with it or stitch it into a frame purse. Or, it will wallow in the drawer to age it a bit. It's a cute little thing at less than four inches across.

I, ahem, also have an unfinished sashiko project of pretty pink cherry blossoms. It's almost halfway stitched. This is definitely a small space project, suitable for airplane rides up to Anchorage in May to visit my dear daughter.

GIVEAWAY!!!

I read through this latest issue and almost tried my hand at crochet and a fun granny square pattern. I'm in my spring clutter-free mode and I would love to give this magazine away to someone who can use this magazine or just wants a fun read through. It will be missing it's project ('cuz I did do the stitching fun).

All the projects inside are detailed on the cover on the left. Pretty botanical papers in the middle, a cork wallet, that super fun granny square pattern, some awesome felt bakery food items.

If you're interested, I'll ship anywhere in the US or Canada.

Leave me a comment. If you aren't a blogger, please leave your contact email in this format: You(at)email(dot)com.

I'll pick a winner this weekend - April 8th, 2017.

Stitch on!

Holiday Candy Dish

 I had a small ball of clothesline left over from my last rope bowl. As I was sewing a medium sized gift last Saturday, I kept bumping into it. And then I saw a rope bowl online that used small strips of fabric wrapping to provide color and Voila!  --- another 20 minute gift completed.

I used one- inch strips of fabric from my scrap basket. I originally pulled whatever colors that got my eye and then as I was sitting down, ruminating on the purpose of this gift, I decided to just do red strips.

These strips are between 4 and 5 inches long - little pops of color on the neutral base.

Finishing off, I did  a little loop with the intention of doing four more. My process is very organic. As I was marking those four spots for the loops, I decided it was such a small candy dish size bowl , that it just needed two loops, which organically, ended in the spiral thingy.

While photographing the bowl for this post, the candy dish looked slightly "off". In a massive "Aha!" moment, I stitched that weird spiral down against the side and now I am very happy with my newest rope bowl.

Styled with my beautiful persimmons. I am waiting for the persimmons to become ripe which actually occurred slightly after Thanksgiving last year. The yellow will  become more orange and there will be a slight give to the fruit when you handle them.

Can You Stand More Rope Bowls

My friend, Pencil Girl, hand dyed some more clothesline for me.
I scored on the styling end as I happened to have some hops and white pumpkins in my kitchen table centerpiece. They offset the autumnal colors of the clothesline perfectly.

 I just love all the random swirls this method of dying creates. She keeps the hank of clothesline intact and uses a tall vase for dying.

I will say, I wasn't as enthused about this orangy and dusty purple combo when she handed it to me. I loved the blue/green combo she dyed for me before, so these colors weren't as exciting to me.

But my friend hand-dyed it for me, so I jumped in and fell in love with the autumnal colors that emerged as I designed as I zigzagged along.

I wanted to do those loopy things again  - for no particular reason.

 There was enough left to do a small saucer which is just darling.

  I had in mind a black & white version and what emerged from the sewing machine is another piece of awesomeness. It doesn't scream black and white as much as my vision but I did a couple of new techniques on this one.

For more color at the top, I did a final round of zigzagging so it shows more.
I also made my three knots looser and just attached them with the sewing machine for a cleaner finish.

I also discovered when turning it inside out, I like the loops inside and I also like the top edge rolled down.

You might say, I have found my groove.
So much fun and quick to do.

If you search for Rope Bowl over on my sidebar (web version - won't appear on the mobile version), you can see all the posts I've done on Rope Bowls.

I am amazed I haven't gotten tired of making these yet. They are super quick to do -- less than two hours, and they come off the sewing machine all different. Very organic designing - very freeing.

Wallet Design

 The thing about sewing purses and wallets is eventually, you have enough techniques to design your own.

I have been seeing these wallets with the strap that secures your credit cards all year (on other people) and contemplating how hard it could be to sew one up.

Well, first, you have to identify what you want that wallet to hold:

Credit cards (5 slots) and the strap to secure them - check.
Photo ID vinyl pocket - check.
Cash pocket - mad money - check.
Zippered pocket  - for change and other weird stuff - check.
Key Ring - check.
Small enough to hold in your hand - the essentials. - check!

Some of my inspiration was from these two tutorials that I sewed up on my blog.

Thimbleanna - A Purse Thingy  which I sewed up here, and here.
I liked the back pocket and the zip pocket but it was short on credit card pockets, This is where I made my ID template for my license. Hers was too small - easy to enlarge.


Fabric Mutt - Key Pouch Tutorial.   I didn't sew this one. Her card pockets were constructed in a way that would all be the same depth and I didn't quite get this. I loved the picture of it. It encompassed the 'look' I was after. 
I recently sewed her Malibu Satchel which turned out fantastic.

 The ID pocket was perfect.
I changed the template from the original inspiration to show more of my photo ID and not lop off the address portion. Oregon also puts their ID # at the top. The vinyl is big enough to show  most of the card.

For this one, I did ironing on both the inner and outside and then top-stitched it down.

 The strap is inserted when you sew up the zipper pouch. Secured with a metal snap. The strap also doubles as a more secure way to hold this wallet.

This wallet is made with a typical zipper pouch technique. All I am doing is adding things to the sides before I sew lining to lining, outside to outside and turning it .  There's room to do patchwork or other fun things to decorate it the way you want to.

 I made two.

The second one was made because I had a lot of bulk in my seams. My credit card pockets were the entire width and I narrowed them down by doing a trim tape finish and sewing that down before the zipper seam. This allowed my lining to sit nicer as well because the giant seam was not pushing it out.

And, even though, the wallet is not long enough to insert cash flat, I still wanted to sneak another slip pocket in and did so on the ID side.

 Snuck some dragonfly's inside.

 The second one is not quite an inch longer and today, I'm gonna make a third and see what another half-inch will do.
Plus, I'm not entirely happy with fabric placement on the second. I like the airplane and postage stamp showing from the first wallet....

99% Success

Easy to hold, carries most of the every day running around stuff. Just working on the nit-picky fussy cutting.


One more thing: Small zippered pouches like this with bulky seams seem to created havoc with the zippered ends. I used this Nancy Zieman technique to create fabric ends which neaten up the zipper amazingly. (sorry - forgot to take photo of how nice it looks when turned.)

Long Arm Quilting

I need a tote bag for SewExpo in two weeks. I got distracted into finishing up this tote bag.
A while back, Pencil Girl and I took a long arm quilting class.  It was designed and taught by the folks at Boersma's in McMinnville, Oregon.

The Boersma folks set up 16 long arm quilting machines for the class. They had prepped the fabric beforehand (main, batting, base). 
All basted together.  All we had to do was DRAW.

Here I am - driving.
Intense - as in - keep remembering to loosen up your knees and your lockjaw from concentrating so hard.


The object is to fill in the spaces - draw inside the lines.
With patterns.
A dry-erase board was very handy.

And when you drive to the left with your pattern, you have to mirror-image it coming back.

Very intense.

I did manage to free-hand 'draw' my airplanes. I was impressed with myself.


Pencil Girl drawing with chalk or tying off threads.


Pretty much done.
Except for part two - sewn into a tote bag. The lines at top are going to be the straps.

Thinking how to get out of the star into the next motif.

Boersma's drawn in thread was to be the bottom of the tote bag, but I found this bag to be very very deep, so this 4" was sacrificed.

I recently cut the hardware out of a previous (sad looking) tote bag - which had an inside pocket with zipper - which was still in good condition. I took a scrap of the base fabric and topstitched it onto the pocket front, hand-sewing it in place by the zipper. I then re-inserted the old pocket into my new tote. I am a pocket hound.

Here's what I started with. You can see the long vertical lines to the right - they will be the straps.

I serged all the edges, sewing up the sides first. I tried it with the Boersma-scribed bottom but it was way too deep, so I serged that off.
I then boxed the corners.

To finish - I just folded down the top. I pinned my pocket in place and my straps, folded the top down to cover and sewed in place. I then turned the strap back upright and sewed again near edge.

I don't think I am gonna be a long arm quilter.
This was a fun class but physically and mentally tiring.
A fascinating look into another creative world.

Pencil Girl - have you finished your bag???