White Elephant Sewing

At my workplace, we do a white elephant gift exchange every year during the December holiday party. We do a big potluck, eat lots of shared food, exchange gifts, and have a great time outside work. I really enjoy the white elephant gift exchange. It's competitive good fun. We set the limit at $20 but you can really stretch that if you are crafty and use fabric you got for free (see this great video from Professor Pincushion about Aunt Betty to learn how that happens).

Making things often goes quickly if you're making more than one of something. I had this fun Star Wars print I picked up in the remnants bin and it needed to become something that wouldn't hide all that large print. I used the Green Bag Lady pattern, available for free on her blog. There is also a video tutorial if you're a more visual learner. The Green Bag Lady does give-aways almost every week on the blog and on the the Green Bag Lady Facebook page.

Some projects just seem to need all the tools. This quick project was no exception. I used the serger for quickly finishing the seams of the tote.

I used the Juki TL-2010Q to finish the hem at the top of the tote. And a bunch of tools for measuring, marking, cutting, and pinning that are at the bottom of the post. 

I finished the two totes in about an hour from start to finish. 

The Marvel tote is larger so it will fit this knife set. Last year I gifted this knife set with an embroidered apron. You can buy a similar Cuisinart Knife Set on Amazon for less than $20. I have the Cuisinart Printed Knife Set (closer to $25) and love it. I use the small knife almost every day when preparing salads.

Because I wanted to wrap the present as little waste as possible, I used two totes. One from the Green Bag Lady that I won in a give-away, and the fun Marvel print one I made using gifted fabric. 

I used the Green Bag Lady tote to cover one end, then shoved the whole thing into the larger print tote.

I'm ready for the white elephant gift exchange.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Creative Grids 6.5" x 6.5" square - to cut the corners of the tote for boxing
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Juki TL-2010Q
Pilot Frixion Erasable Markers - perfect for marking in the seam allowance!

In the Mail Monday: Embroidered Love

After I returned from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I found the most wonderful package from a friend.

Inside were some cookies (none for you) and this delightful package. I love the hand written note almost as much as the beautiful hand embroidery.

Look at this beauty! The background fabric is re-purposed fabric from a hand-dyed skirt. That makes it even more awesome in my book! Thank you Melissa for this treasure! Now I just have to figure out how to finish it. Because she knows me. She gets my creative drive. I think this little darling will become a wall hanging. But I'm not going to rush it. She's hung on my design wall, to sing her siren song every time I glimpse her shiny scales.

Design is Aquarius - Mermaid by Urban Threads. The hand embroidery design is a very affordable $1.00.

Last Minute Holiday Making

I decided to participate in the the holiday gift exchange at work this year.

I did a quick fabric pull and made this cute pouch using Noodle-head's free tutorial. The Open Wide Pouch can be made in three sizes (and many more, three is just what the tutorial is written for) and it makes a great quick gift. I then filled it with chocolate and holiday flavored teas.

I'm still unpacking boxes. I was so happy when I found this bin full of 4.5" charms and crumb blocks. What would I do without all my scraps? I'm still unpacking boxes.

Charleston MQG: Love and Support

Recently the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild put out a request for blocks to make a quilt in support of the community forever changed by the shooting that occurred at the Emmanuel AME Church in June 2015.  Follow the link above to get the information on the block size, how they want it prepared and where to ship the finished block.

I made and sent along my block to arrive before August 1st as requested.  If you want to see how many blocks they have I recommend checking out the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild's Instagram account.  The last count I saw 552 blocks had been received.  They were still looking for blocks from several states (Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming).  If you have a couple minutes I hope you consider sending them a block to add to this project of love and support.

Embroidered Thank You for a Queen Bee

My Darling Husband asked me to make a thank you gift for a friend.  The somewhat loose request asked for a bag (or something) with a bee embroidery.  Not one to turn down a challenge, I came up with a plan.

I found this tiny bee design from Urban Threads and thought it would really make the zipper tab so much better.

The wide-open pouch design is a free tutorial from Noodle-head.  I've made more than a few of these and I love how easy they are and how great the finished bag can be.  These bags are great for holding your small knitting projects, or a crochet project or even some hand sewing.

Then I picked another great bee design from Urban Threads called Queen Bee.  Urban Threads offers many of their designs as hand embroidery designs.

Stitched up and assembled.  Design stitched on Pfaff Creative Performance with embroidery attachment.  I used fusible fleece for this project so I didn't add quilting.

The lining has a touch of gold in the fabric.

See how awesome that zipper tab turned out?  The final review of the bag was very positive.

I made another one in purple, but the zipper tag isn't as cool.

Have you used Noodle-Head's tutorials?  What about designs from her book Handmade Style?

Embroidered Hearty Good Wishes

There is a very special lady that I met through Instagram. She is cheeky and fun and inspires me to do all sorts of fun projects. During some swap or another she mentioned her love of the Moda fabric line by Janet Clare called Hearty Good Wishes.

I had some leftovers of this from another project so I pulled them out and got cracking.  I wanted to make a notebook cover that incorporated fabrics from the line and some nautical-themed machine embroidery.

I chose this beautiful nautical rose design from Urban Threads.  I love their designs and this one was perfect.  I chose a dark blue that is almost black to work with the scraps of the fabrics.  While the design was stitching out I was pressing a sewing my scraps into something like a piece of fabric.

I did very minimal, straight-line quilting for this project.  It didn't need to be detailed and I didn't want to take away from the embroidery.  I used So Fine! #50 from Superior Threads for the quilting and piecing.

For a cover that was quickly planned I'm really pleased with the finished product.  This cover was designed to fit the Moleskine Cashier Journal, size large = 5.2" by 8.3".

So proud I put my name in the back flap.

This right here is the best part of this entire project.  The thank you note I got from Weenachaweena.  I told you she is awesome!

An an unrelated note, I recommend you go check out Cheryl's recent blog post about how she deals with her jealousy of others.  I suffer from some of this and have to remind myself that nothing is easy or free.  It is a good read and I recommend you take a read.   (In case you've never heard of Cheryl, she is the amazing mind behind muppin.com.  She posts weekly videos on various products and amazes me with all the things she does.)

Embroidered Composition Book Cover

I've shared posts about embroidered bags, embroidered clothing and embroidered hand towels.  Today let's look at a custom cover for a composition book.

The composition book is a great way to keep notes on all sorts of things.  But how do you keep someone else from picking your composition book up from the table and walking off with it?  You get a custom cover that no one else has.  These make great gifts for that note-taker, list-maker or doodler in your life.  I really like the graph notebooks for quilt design on the move.

First, go to Urban Threads or another embroidery designer and find a good embroidery.  Since this one is for the game master for a table-top role-playing game set in a fantasy world I thought the dragon and swords design would be good.  Don't think you have to have an embroidery machine to make something like this.  Urban Threads has loads and loads of designs that are also released in hand-embroidery.  Their designs are great for so many things and they aren't not about teddy bears and flowers.  Don't want to try embroidery?  You can piece the cover or even print out blocks on your inkjet printer.

I create all my notebook covers using my own pattern developed through trial and many errors.  Even this one needed a little ripping before it was done.  The cover is made with four pieces.  One continuous piece for the outside, two end pieces (this is where I sometimes add a pocket or pen holder) and the lining.  When complete, there are no raw edges on the outside and I think the cover holds up really well over time.

If I was really worried about the edges coming unraveled I would take a run around the outside edge after sewing it all together with a zig-zag stitch or with the serger.

I think I used fusible fleece for this one.  If you wanted to use regular batting and some quilting that would work, too.  I've also made these using flannel as the backing for the outer cover.

I embroidered a signature and a name inside the back cover before assembly.

Add one composition book.

Gift and hope the GM remembers it and doesn't try to kill you and the rest of the party.

There are loads of notebook cover tutorials out there in the world.  Maybe someday I'll get around to writing a tutorial for this one like I did for the scoodie, the zippered dice bag and cloth napkins.

Embroidering the Bag

Step one:  Find this great design from Urban Threads Embroidery.  Try to figure out what to do with it.  Find out that a friend is having surgery and that you have been meaning to make something and then be reminded of this.  The ah-ha moment hits and it's time to get busy!  (Don't tell anyone that it is about two weeks late.  That isn't really important.)

Pull a plain canvas remnant out of the stash.  Decide that just embroidery on canvas isn't good enough.  You need at least one pocket.  This means you need another great embroidery design.

Is there an easier tote pattern than the one from The Green Bag Lady?  I don't think so.  I did do some modifications.  This bag is bigger and made from cotton canvas instead of quilting cotton but the basic shape is the same.

I also used the purple fabric to make the handles a little fancier.

The back of the bag sports this great big pocket with tentacles.

The front has this fun embroidery design to let everyone know a little about the fantastic lady holding the bag.

Finally, the inside is big enough to hold a crib quilt that needs binding.  I think this bag is a huge win.

Have you added embroidery, machine or hand, to your projects?

I'm linking up with the Sew My Stash 2015 Bag Challenge.

Open Wide: Stitching Up Fun!

I finally got some bigger zippers from ZipIt!  It was time to make the biggest size bag from Noodle-Head's free tutorial.  I talked about this fun bag tutorial a few weeks ago.

This time I decided to make the largest size.  The largest size uses a 14" zipper.  I pieced the outer fabrics and quilted the panels on the long arm.

I used Magnifico thread for the top so the stitching has a little shine.  The quilting is hand-guided without stitch regulator engaged.  I just like the smoothness you get without the stitch regulator.

The lining has more darling yarn/knitting fabric to continue the look.  This fabric is just fun!

This bag is a great size to hold a couple balls of yarn and your needles.  Even bulky yarn!

The best part about this bag?  This zipper tab:  Cutest. Tab. Ever!

The Green Bag Lady

If you haven't heard of The Green Bag Lady you totally need to head over to her site and check it out.

I've entered a couple of their give-away events and have won a couple bags.  I won this bag (#31414) just this month.  Here it is with a charity quilt inside.  I'll hand over the quilt to another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids for finishing.  I'll have to hope I get my great Hawaiian print bag back!

This bag (#27877) I won a few months ago and I sent it to The Coast Guard Lady for the winter holiday.  I also included one I made so she would have more than one.

I went through my stash and found some older fabrics that I've had hanging around for years.  Since this is Sew My Stash 2015 I figured this was a great way to use up some of these fabrics and get them off my shelves.  Not all of these are the large size, a few of them ended up smaller based on the amount of fabric I had available.

The pattern for these is available for free on The Green Bag Lady's site (just look in the sidebar of her site for a link to a pdf pattern and a video tutorial).

I made up 14 bags, ten of them are the large size.  Four of them are smaller bags.  I did all the construction on my serger and the top-stitch finishing the top of the bags was done with my sewing machine.  They make up quick once you've got them cut.

Thirteen of these bags and a stack of cloth napkins will be headed to my cousin.  If more people used cloth napkins and fabric shopping bags the world would be a little nicer.  A boring paper napkin or plastic bag just can't compare to the smiles fabric bags or napkins can make.

What have you sewn for Sew Your Stash 2015 (#sewmystash2015)?  If you have some fabric that you know you won't put into a new project this is a great way to use some of it up and make some great shopping totes that fold up and fit in your handbag.  Save the plastic trees!