Valentine Tussy Mussy

Creative girl sent me a facebook link to make Valentine Tussy Mussy's.
Tussy Mussy refers to a tiny bouquet of flowers or a nosegay given to a sweetheart. 

Also called Penny Pockets in the tutorial. In any case, these little tussy mussy's can hold a few treats  - just perfect for Valentine's Day.
The Sweet Treat Pocket Tutorial is here.

I made four, lost interest by the third one and finished the fourth one a day later - just to clear my cutting counter. They use scrap pieces of fabric and some buttons and beads from stash.
The tutorial is all about buying layer cakes (10" squares of a fabric line) and a fabric roll (?). But stash is good. You just need some 10" squares to cut diagonally in half, ribbon, buttons and some decorative beads.

I used ribbons for the handle instead of fabric because, why not? Why cut and stitch a handle when the ribbon drawer yields much faster results?

Laundry day went fairly well Sunday. After a late start, trying to surf over all the sick peoples around me, I made some fresh green juice, prepared breakfast and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
Then I sewed the above Tussy Mussy's, packed up DD & DS's valentine care packages. 

I finished an  entire Julie Garwood novel too.

And worked outside pruning overgrown - we've been here for thirty years - shrubs for an hour. I can already see about 20 hours in my future - just pruning for the spring which we have started here. We may get a late freeze - in fact  - we had one Sunday morning but the days will become warmer and the flowers have already started their spring blooming marathon here in the Willamette Valley.

First crocus  - ignore the slug snack on the left

Snowdrops

Sunday was a very productive day with me getting around to not only chores but some of the fun stuff.
Not me below - DS sent me photos of his recent hike this weekend.

Glowing Sun sighting.

Mt. Jefferson with Three Sisters in the far background. Sisters are named imaginatively: North Sister, Middle Sister, South Sister.







 


 







 









 

Autumn Table Runner

 I survived matchstick quilting.

 Surfing the internet, I stumbled across Cynthia Frenette's blog and she had a free pattern for a table runner. She used matchstick quilting - that's just quilting lines about a 1/4" apart, mostly parallel with a curvy twist at the end of the table runner.

It was very pretty.
It seemed simple enough....

 It only took all day Sunday.

After about 30 parallel lines, I was ready to free motion quilt (FMQ) this piece. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's how FMQ got started. Some dorky sewist trying to think she can quilt, realizing very quick she hates quilting repetitious lines that never end. She veered off the 'pattern' and started free-wheeling that sewing machine like nobody's business.

I used scraps and stash for this table runner. Most of the low-volume background is from Sweetwater's Road 15 fabrics. See? A tiny bit of quilting and I start spouting out quilting lingo: Low volume!

For this table runner to work, the background colors are all low-key, light, neutral. The berries and the leaves are almost primary loud colors.

 This measures up about 40" long x 10" wide.

The background colors are all pieced together with the berries and leaves ironed on top with wonder-under (fusible web). The matchstick quilting is helping to keep those small pieces attached. Cynthia had you start with parallel lines of quilting and then veer off in a curve towards the end - following the lovely stem curve. The entire table runner is bound with bias tape ( I cut mine straight).


Even though this took all day to sew - with many breaks to keep my sanity - this was an easy sew.   A very pretty sew for Autumn.

 I can now tick matchstick quilting off my bucket list.

{ I  dislike quilting.}