Baby Wearables

Rachel found this online idea for a baby carrier. Everyone comes to my house armed with their own sewing projects they want to work on together. Rachel had brought this gorgeous embroidered linen to make her baby carrier. We lined it with a bright floral and it is reversible. We had decided to make it bigger, It was huge, way way too large. We had to cut it back down, since we made it with the pretty embroidered border we cut off the top.

Here is Rachel using it with Joy, Even after she went home she has used it and even figured out how to get Joy on her back with this carrier. The baby is nice and secure and it is a simple breathable carrier.

Bias Square apron

Simple apron idea copied from a very pricey one at our local store. What is surprising is that the square only has to be about 25 inches and fits my tall daughter sideways. We lined it with a pretty contrasting fabric. This went together so quickly and is a great way to use my quilt fabric stash.

Bodice Ripper handbag continues part 2

Found this great fabric  left over from Valentine's day with LOVE printed all over it. This became the sides, bottom and handles. I made binding and we bound all the edges. These little binder clips seemed like a good idea but kept catching on the machine. I just wanted no pin holes in the vinyl which might weaken it. By binding all the edges it reinforced all the seems and covered any rough vinyl edges. It has pictures on both sides.We did not have to line it because the way we made the bound edges everything is finished inside. 

It is so cute, but too much work. I think next time I'll just buy one of those "grandma brag" handbags for photos and just stick my extra paperback covers in the photo slots... Of course, that won't have love word  handles. The love fabric was one directional and so we had to make all the words line up the right way too!

Bodice Ripper handbag part 1

I had this idea to make a handbag with covers of romance novels for my sister for her birthday. I tried to collect ones with provocative titles. It made me laugh just picking this out from garage sales etc. Then I backed them with fusible web and fused them to this insipid pink calico.

Then I covered them with a medium weight vinyl sold for covering tablecloths, found in the fabric section.

This whole project was a bear to sew, maybe you will take this idea and make it easier? Backing it with fabric made it easier to slide through the feed dogs than vinyl alone would have been, but the vinyl stretches (surprise!) not fun--

Learning Quilt

This really should be called a learning to tie quilt. I had 13 girls around my quilt frame learning to tie. They did not want to learn to cut squares, or piece, or sew or bind a quilt, just tie! My mom taught my sisters' and I to tie simple comforters made of two sheets tied together with yarn and batting between. We used to do these on our driveway, with half of the neighborhood girls on a sunny spring or summer day, I guess I was 10?

I forgot the batting after we got to the church building and had no time to go for any- so we told the girls that this was for a beach blanket or tablecloth. They learned to tie easier without the batting, and then we drew names and one girl got to keep it. She was pretty excited to be the winner.

One day years ago mom and I went to this "all you could stuff in a grocery sack for a dollar" thrift store in Maryland. We bought all the bright colored plaid shirts and Hawaiian shirts, striped oxford cloth etc. We had five full sacks. We took them home and washed them up and cut everything up. We made many different types of quilts from them. This one had all the plaids. Being us we even purchased some plaids to add brightness to this. I had this top in my stash when they asked for a quilt to be taught.

The pastel one has men's striped oxford dress shirts with additional feed sack reproduction prints and the blue one has blue striped dress shirts from those original grocery bags. There is a lot of available fabric in a men's shirt!

Grandbaby and Harley

Our youngest son graduated from high school on his dad's birthday and soon afterwards this Harley Davidson motorcycle appeared. My husband has been wanting and talking for at least 10 years and took advantage of my good nature--

Here is Baby Joy enjoying Gramps new ride!!

High tea with Grandma

I have wanted to hold a fancy tea party for years now, I don't drink tea, but I love those little cookies and sandwiches. I decided to hold a party to introduce mom to my friends from Meetup. I got totally compulsive and carried away on this one.

I made several kinds of little fancy sandwiches, radish and poppy seed on german dark bread was mom's favorite. I also made chicken salad, apple boursin on melba toasts, ham ones, gougere, quiche, rolled ones, and scones. Our least favorite was the traditional cucumber watercress. I found lots of recipes searching under tea parties online.

Their were also all kinds of cookies, creme puffs, tarts, fruit and homemade fresh strawberry jam and lemon curd. Some friends brought cakes and cream mints.

My dear friend Donna loaned me all the beautiful hand painted salad plates and teacups. The were much more impressive in person because the colors were painted inside the fragile porcelain cups. She also had lovely glass pitchers, I am going to get some of those.I bought these tiered plates when I was living in Canada last summer.

Unfortunately, I misjudged badly on this lovely get together. I am diabetic, and I hoped my friends would take away ALL of the leftovers, No such luck the goodies hung around tempting me and I had to get rid of them. I won't do this again for years, or, I will have everyone bring the sweet stuff and take their leftovers home.

Another Fat Quarter style handbag

Another fat quarter bag in Rachel's mod greenish aquas. An early birthday present for her. I am finished with this style handbag for a while.

Home Sweet Felty Home

Mom made me this hand blanket stitched wall hanging last year and I had it quilted to stabilize it further. It was from a pattern featured every month in a quilting magazine. We made our own hand dyed wools and wool felts to add to the dimension in this piece. She stitched with heavy pearl cotton which has a gorgeous sheen and texture.

We bound this on her visit with black grosgrain and a bubblegum pink rick rack to accentuate the homey vintage feel. Half of the rick rack points peek out from under the grosgrain ribbon. Mom said that all little girls had rick rack on their clothes when she was a girl, that there just wasn't that much fabric or trim selection in her rural Florida hometown and moms had to be creative.

Joy's Rickrack Pinwheels

My mom came with her wish-list of sewing and quilting projects and I had some that I wanted to do as well. We alternated things. I bought this darling retro fabric a long time before my sweet grand baby Joy was part of the picture. I love the funny little girls wit their kittens, some are blond and some have dark hair. MY quilter, Lisa, Whipped this up quickly because we knew Rachel would soon be joining our quilting frenzy. We worked on this top for two days and had it back in two more, bound and waiting for their arrival.

We even put the blocks in an original rick rack zig zag setting.

Quilter's in their Native Habitat

Mom came to visit and we sewed and sewed! I had no time to blog so I am going backwards through the 21 projects of her visit! Here she and I are sewing the Father's day aprons we made from nautical home dec fabric. I bought all this fabric at the thrift store for 2 dollars. I pre- washed it and we made 6 butcher style aprons with contrasting bias trim. They all have pockets and were a big hit with our guys. For all the father's we are are crazy about, we customized all the sizes too.

Pergola Clothesline

Richard put this new clothesline up on my pergola for Mother's Day. I am using it mostly for line drying my pre-washed quilt fabrics. My son Zack went on a "high adventure" boy scout kayaking trip this week and I took every single piece of clothing and bedding from his room and washed them. I hung them out on the line. So many t-shirts and shorts etc, It took all day!  The weather has been 95 degrees and windy and they dried pretty quickly. It was a pleasant job to bring in the fresh clothes. Plus how green is my savings!