Tool Tip Tuesday: Grabbit!

A friend of mine mentioned her magnetic pincushion.  I was curious enough to buy one.

I ordered the Grabbit on Amazon mostly because it seemed like a good deal and met the requirement of being Prime eligible.  

I don't know that the quality of the pins is that great, but the magnet is awesome!  Pull the pins off one-by-one or by the handful and simple pass over them will pick the lot of them up.

I'll have to write an update at some point to let you know what I think.  right now I think it is great.  I have a tendency to send my little box of pins flying, creating a dangerous carpet of pins.

Do you have tools that you just love?

In The Mail Monday: Amazon Lottery

My Darling Husband says you can't win at the Amazon game unless you play.

I filled up that cart a couple times and this is what happened.  I won the Amazon lottery!

I received these fun things to add to my ruler infatuation, my collection of gadgets and to my growing collection of quilting books.  The Creative Grids ruler was to replace my fading 6" x 24" ruler.  The Accuquilt Go! mat is because I've been using the 5" charm die so much my other mat wore out.  The Angela Walters book is because I can't resist a book from Angela.  

Tomorrow I'll talk about the Grabbit!  

I'll have to give myself some time to read through the book before I give you my review of it.  From the little bit I've paged through it, I think this one needs to be converted to comb binding so I can leave it opened up near the long arm.  

Thread Thursday: Superior Threads and a Secret

At some point I will run out of room to store all this thread.  Let's hope I can keep the dream alive a little longer.

Another fun package from Superior Threads.  My August Magnifico Thread of the Month club shipment.  I added a couple of the Daily Deals to the shipment.  More pre-wound bobbins filled with Bottom Line, a color of Magnifico I didn't have yet and a cone of So Fine!

After I wrote my list of 10 Quilty Little Secrets I realized I had more to say.  Some of that was left over from the culling I did for my post but some were added to my list after I posted.  I'm going to add them to the end of some of these really short posts in an effort to be more interesting.  I'm not promising anything, though.

Another Quilty Little Secret:  I hate it when people with about 20 followers use the anti-bot thing on their blog.  Do you have a real problem with spammers?  I have walked away from a blog without commenting because of that thing.  I've had my blog for years (over 440 posts as of today) and while I'm not overly popular (41 followers as of this writing) I have only ever had two spam posts..  On the same post.  On the same day.  Both were captured by Blogger and never bothered any follower and only bothered me a little bit.  

(Sorry, that one was really more about blogging than about quilting.)

Green Faerie Shrug and an Elder God

A friend of mine shared a link to this great tutorial and pattern from Choly Knight for making a tiny, stuffed Elder God.  I couldn't resist.  While out and about on my Sunday morning, I picked up some sewing patterns and my Darling Husband helped me pick out a couple pieces of fleece from the remnant bin.

That looks like an awful lot of fabric for a stuffie, I know.  We'll come back to the Elder One later.  These two remnants cost me about $6.50 and were more than enough to make the stuffie and a sweater.  I picked up a copy of Simplicity's new pattern number 1293 for $1.99.  It is similar to a design created by TPF Faerie Wear.  I love the designs TPF Faerie Wear puts out but they don't offer patterns.  I really recommend you check out TPF Faerie Wear's Etsy Shop.  Great stuff and way more stuff than just this simple shrug.

Step one was to trace the pattern and make some minor modifications.  I changed the shape of the lower edge of the back of the shrug.  I didn't like the point as I knew it would kind of a pain to finish.

This is the original hood pattern.  I really don't like how it looks on the pattern envelope.  I had to change it.

I kept the bottom edge and the front edge but added a point to the back and a back seam.  This shape is so much nicer to my eye and gives that "pixie" look.  This might be the beginning of a new hooded cowl, too.  We'll let the idea float around for a while.

I traced the sleeve twice so I could make a tapered sleeve.  While I like the look of the bell sleeve I don't like how the cuff gets snagged on things while I'm working.  I went with the bell sleeve for the first mock-up, though.

Easy pattern with only the four pieces.

I cut this quickly with my rotary cutter.  I don't cut fleece with scissors anymore unless I have to.

I followed the instructions for the basic construction except for anywhere I had modified the pattern (like the hood).

I think if I make this one again, I will try doing the majority of the work on the serger.  I think it will make construction quicker and cleaner.

I used a piece of black fleece for the binding.  I didn't have enough bias tape in a suitable color so I improvised.  The binding is just black fleece cut width of fabric so it is plenty stretchy for binding those curves.

The point on the hood curls a little when the hood is down.  Not a problem, just hides it a little.

Here is the shape of the hood.  I like it but I may make it more pronounced.  I haven't decided.

Changes I will make...

• I will change the construction order so I can attach the sleeve before competing the sleeve and underarm seams.  setting in a sleeve isn't hard, I just don't like to do it if I don't have to.
• I will shift from construction with the sewing machine to the serger for a different finish.  
• I will narrow the binding strips the next time.  I cut strips at 2" wide and it was just too much.  I'm sure using the serger to attache the binding will change that width even more.

Oh!  You wanted to see the Elder God.  I almost forgot.

I think I need an army of these.  In blues and purples and even black!  Isn't it just darling!