Shawl Collar Cardigan

It's not that I haven't been sewing at all, just that I have not been very productive. I did manage to make a few Mega Card Holder Wallets for Suzanne. This sweater is from a pattern I downloaded from Paco Bean, and it's a great pattern. I eliminated the handkerchief hem, since it makes me look hobo-ish. I wasted a long time figuring out how to make a flat rolled seam with my serger because I wanted this to be reversible, but the seam was a bust. I just used the regular 4-thread serger stitch and it came out just fine. See?

Now, it's a fact that my stash blog is not accurate. I have purchased a few orders of fabric since last recording it, but I'm not going to get too excited about this accuracy thing. I still am trying to consume by sewing as much as I buy, but it's not been possible...yet. Today, I had a package of cute strips in my hands. They were 50% off!! But I put them back. I have strips that need to be used, and I will definitely try to get them consumed before buying more. 

Stash Used: 2 for the sweater, 1 for 2 wallets

Stash Used, total: 152.7 yards

Stash Acquired: 17.5 yards ordered yesterday, 16 on 8/21, 16 yards from Hawthorne on 10/1

Stash Acquired, total: 228.25

Empty Nested

We are officially empty in our nest! Sophia went to school last week. Though there have been many trips to see her and bring "stuff," the house feels as if it has tripled in size. I'm cleaning piles of stuff that's become invisible, and the house is staying a lot more tidy than it did this summer. 

This pillow was just a little self-indulgent project I threw together this weekend. We were going to visit Alexandra, a 90 minute drive away, in order to check out how she is doing and drop off some winter clothes. Rather than spend the 3 hours in the car doing almost nothing, I quickly cut out 80 colored squares and 40 white squares in order to make a pillow cover. I did the gluing of the pieces in the car Saturday, and Sunday, put the thing together.

Good news! I’ve gotten back in front of the longarm machine and have put a serious dent in the quilting of my McKenna Ryan Chicken Coop quilt. It wasn’t bad at all, and I really need to do a little more quilting in order to chip away at the backlog. I think in the summer, I just can’t bear to stand up there, A/C or no, to quilt. I’ve got some inspirational new books on free motion quilting, which seems to be all I’m interested in biting off. I also got the quilting discs from the Electric Quilt Company in order to try to inspire more custom quilting ideas for good block quilts. I need a push in order to quilt any of the BOMC quilts I’ve got waiting in the wings. I’ve had paralyzing trepidation when it comes to quilting large quilts. I must work on breaking through whatever barrier is keeping those in my “to quilt” basket.

Pillow

I

Long overdue, this pillow is a gift for Sheila. Why did it take so long?

Lexi has a new diet plan, and a la Richard Simmons, I devised a card system to help her track her portions. She and I designed these cards, which she decorated and laminated. The wallet is a redesign of those in my last post. I made a panel 7.5" tall x 18" wide with 10 pockets, set 1/2" apart. 

Now, if you don't want to make one, ignore this next section because it will not interest you in the least. Fold the panel of pockets in half width-wise, right sides together, and sew along the top and bottom, 1/4" from the raw edge, ONLY the 3 1/2" against the folded edge. Clip the corners, top and bottom, and turn right side out. Press. 

Topstitch along the folded edge, and along the top of the finished section, making sure not to exceed 3 1/2" from the topstitching along the folded edge. Now, stitch a vertical line from the top to the bottom, 3 5/8" from the topstitching along the folded edge. This closes the pockets along the binding edge of the wallet. This is what the pockets look like if you open up the sides:

Now, you will notice tha the sides are about an inch wider than they need to be. I did that to make any errors in the measurements less dire, since I was making this up as I went along. I decided to leave that measurement alone because trimming the extra now makes the whole thing neater and easier in the next step, which is a little tricky.
If you place the pockets, folded edge to the left, on your cutting surface, you will notice that the bulk of the pockets makes the section a little wider on the bottom v. the top edges. Line this baby up straight, even though the left edge will be a little off at the bottom. Trim the two sides by cutting a straight line, 4 5/8" from the vertical seam that you sewed to define those other pockets. It looks like the total width is about 8 3/4". (righties: hold onto the wallet tight by resting your left forearm down on the left side of your ruler, with your left hand holding down the ruler well above the wallet, and not overhanging the right side of the ruler, so your rotary cutter has no chance of meeting fingers. I have only sliced into my left forefinger once, and I hope never to experience that again. Good thing I'm not Yo Yo Ma or my audience would have been disappointed for a several weeks! lefties: as you have had to do your whole life, mirror image these photos.)

Now, out of your exterior fabric, cut a piece 7.5" tall by 9"wide. Cut two 3" squares. Interface as the other pattern has you do, and attach the tab with velcro as in the other wallet. Attach the velcro to the exterior panel, and place, right sides together, over this pocket thing, with the middle "page" off to the right side. Match up corners and sew the left edge, along with no more than 2" of the left edge of the top, and no more than 3" of the left edge of the bottom, backstitching at the start and stops for stability.

Now, slide your middle page into the part you just sewed, and line up the right side of the exterior with the right side of your pocket panel. Sew that as you did the left side. You are leaving a nice-sized area on the top to turn right side out, and leaving a tiny opening on the bottom to make the binding lay flat for topstitching later. Clip corners and turn that baby inside out, poking the corners out with a blunt instrument to make nice corners. Press and topstich the left side and right side separately. Now, sew two vertical lines, 3 5/8" from the sides topstitching on each side to make the pockets on the exteriors a little bit more than 3 1/2" wide. woohoo!!

Stash Used: 1 yard for the pillow, 3 for 4 wallets
Stash Used total: 149.7 yards

Stash Acquired: 0 yards
Stash Acquired Total: 178.75 yards

Card Wallets

It took three attempts, but this one, I'm finally happy with. The pattern is from a delightful blog,
http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2013/07/business-card-wallet.html
where creative people tell you how to do stuff...out of the kindness of their hearts!! As Julia, my late mother would say, "What a world!!"

Well, this pattern wasn't perfect, but I am sorely indebted anyhow since I would not have known how to approach such a project without clear instructions. A little trial and error, (well, a lot of error,) later, and I'm happy to say that I have a mustard and grey wallet to hold all the cards that don't go in the primary wallet. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? All the frequent flyer types of cards, all the insurance cards, the weird coupons without which I will scold myself, the AAA card in case my rattletrap of a car decides to give up the ghost, etc...

So, if you're one of my friends, and you want one, I'll make you one. I'm giving the one on the right away, to Laura, if she wants it. Though I don't charge for my work, Laura says I should have an etsy account. I suppose I could, but then I'd be making stuff for people I don't know...I only want to make stuff for people I like. Laura knows a little about doing things for the good of the community. She has been bringing excellent music to the community of Milford, NH, for their pleasure and enrichment. Laura is an amazing pianist. My world is better because she play piano in it. She is doing a recital with Brian Lewis on 9/21/13: here's a link to the tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/449735

Mustard and Grey

I'm growing fond of the color mustard. I really hated it when I was little, (opinionated as always,) but it seems that all of my deeply held convictions are softening a little. Is it lack of energy? Anyway, this weekend, I am sorely in need of some restorative crafting, so I have taken advantage of a quiet house to finish this bag, as well as try the adorable pattern for soft baby shoes I discovered on the web. Though baby shoes barely use any fabric, and most of what I used came from the scrap bucket, this bag did allow me to use some inventory. Ma's interfacing is in this one. 

Stash Used: 4.25 yards
Stash Used total: 145.7 yards
Stash Acquired: 0 yards
Stash Acquired Total: 178.75 yards

Baby Shoes

The pattern for these adorable shoes is from michellequigley.com. The shoes are for Lilah.

This pattern is so hard to find! Here...I found it again. 

http://michelequigley.com/blog/soft-baby-shoes-pattern-and-tutorial/

Stash Used: 0.25 yards
Stash Used total: 141.45 yards
Stash Acquired: 0 yards
Stash Acquired Total: 178.75 yards

Stashing Again

Pink Chalk has a beautiful site, and I am surprised that I don't buy more from them, but this time, I got lured in by their beautiful newsletter, and from there, it was too easy. 


I'm not into the paint by number theme, nor the deer, but those paint blobs and the bark in the spa blue color were too tempting for me to pass up. I also found good stuff in the sale section; 
this:

which I've been dating elsewhere, and this:

linen, which is a lot like the sage green I already have and love, and this:
 in home dec weight.

Hey, I know I was doing really well with the fabric acquisition control, but it was a very hard morning of pretty stressful cases, and then I needed a little pressure valve release. Imagine the soothing feel of that linen in my hands, or the sateen feel of the home dec in lime greens, and stripes that make the summer seem, well, relaxing, which it actually has NOT been. My creative juices were flowing and the good feeling I got from ordering this stuff was well worth the slip in the stash log count, which, by the way, looks like this:

Stash Used: 0 yards
Stash used total: 141.2 yards
Stash acquired: 10.5 yards
Stash acquired total: 171.75 yards

But I also bought fabric at Quilted Threads yesterday, taking advantage of the sale stuff...almost all solids, which is important to have on hand, :) 
will post a picture when I take one. Should be tonight.

Stash Used: 0 yards
Stash used total: 141.2 yards
Stash acquired: 7 yards
Stash acquired total: 178.75 yards