A new year, a new gadget

 Hello, everyone.

It's been apparent that some organizing needs to happen in my sewing studio.

A small example of the problem:

This is just a tiny corner of mixed up want-to-be's, a collection of little things for making pinnies out of. They get stacked, this dish is actually an improvement over the stacks on the table that get knocked off by sewing on other projects!--then something happens to mix them up and the layout work never gets started.

I found a couple of things on the Youtube that looked interesting. They are project design boards, but not the wall-sized ones people use to lay out whole quilts. These are just little ones for one block at a time. (Links go to two different ways to make them.) I know I once saw a Youtube look at someone's sewing room where the lady had a whole stack of them on her windowsill, each of them a different block in process, and the stack was neat and organized. (Well, it was a video about her neat and organized sewing room, so of course it was neat and organized, but the idea stuck with me.)

I'm not an experienced glue gun lady, but I didn't want to use up the iron on sticky stuff, so I tried Lori Holt's method. I had a 9x30 leftover bit of foam-core board in the studio. And there is a lot of 2.5" stripping in my stash.

The first, smallest one. 9x6. Much of the border was offcuts from placemats done in the past.

The other two were 9x12. Borders also from stash.

I should have ironed the batting. (Who knew that rumple would stay?) I think it will work anyway.

A new pinny soon to come:

The top is the upper one, the bottom is the lower one. And some more stash will leave the room! 

New sewing club project

Hello, everyone. Today's post is of last month's sewing club project. It was a thread catcher and pincushion.

This is more elaborate than some of them are. There is a bit of boning in the top of the basket as well as some interfacing in the bag. there is a removable pincushion on the top and it sits on a weight to keep things from falling on the floor. Our club president made an example before the meeting and she put some of her little Clover type clips on the petals of the daisy. All in all, very nice and very useful. The fabrics were all quilting cottons from stash. The little flange was also in stash, and I was happily surprised by how nicely the whole thing came together. If y'all are learning to sew, or quilt, it would be a great idea to get together with other folks who are also into the hobby. There is always something more to learn!

A new sewing project under way

Hello, everyone.

I have begun a new sewing project--well, it uses a previously sewn orphan block, so it might be called stash usage instead.

This "chenille" Christmas tree block was made by mistake when I was at the Jingle All The Way class at A Block Away. (Selected the wrong size in the pattern choice screen. Oops. there are a LOT of items in that set of patterns, it's important to read the size and check the book before starting to sew it out.) As there isn't any place for the small chenille tree in the quilt, and none of the bonus projects seems to have a spot for it either, the block has languished in my sewing studio. 

I noticed a round pillow form, likewise languishing in disuse, tucked into the tub of "things" and after some mental experimentation concluded that the tree block needed to be a round block to make it look nice. And as the pillow form is 14 inches, there will be a surrounding gathered bit to connect the tree block fabric to the side seams of the pillow. Whether to put a bit of piping in is still up in the air.

This required a nice round circle to be made on the block for trimming. Also for seaming, of course!

Enter my Janome circle sewing guide.

 

Above right, the cute little gizmo almost ready to do its thing. The black bit sticking up is the protective cover on the *sharp* tack point. This is the trick that makes the fabric go in a pretty circle with no divots or bobbles in the line.

Above left, the tack cover was removed and the tree was centered on the tack. I placed the tack cover GENTLY on the point as I'm not fond of bleeding on the work. 

Left, the back of the package, showing where it goes on the machine. 

This worked out very well.

I gathered the border strip in the usual way with a row of long-ish stitches and gentle pulling. It's currently in the process of being basted onto the seam line y'all see in the top left photo. After the basting (hand basting, don't faint, sometimes it's the only way) is done, I will stitch the ruffle down, make the two parts for an envelope closure on the back, and assemble the pillow. 

Scrap busting, problem solving

Hello, everyone.

Some little while back I posted about hexie log cabin pot holders. This little scrap buster is a follow-on to that idea.

The problem: the base of the mixer might scratch the kitchen counters.
Solution:

The mixer mat. 

I measured the base of the mixer, which didn't actually fit on the larger hexie log cabin trivet already made, and went to the stash for fabrics. As y'all can see, a fair proportion of the red prints on hand also include greens. It wasn't intentionally designed as a Christmas season mat, I just wanted a bright red themed mat to bring some brightness to the room.

The batting inside it is the same InsulBrite that was used in the pot holders...it was in stash. 😉
The binding is a foldover binding of the reverse side fabric.

This project is somewhat of a rough draft, there may be more mixer mats made in the near future. Possibly a spring themed one? Or a Valentines one?

Stash-busting

Hello, everyone.

As y'all know, there is a great lot of stash around the place. Clothing fabric stash, some of it ripstop and the like, zipper stash, quilting fabric stash, bead stash, embroidery thread stash...so much. But various projects are either about to begin or under way to use up the things.

One project that has been done a few times now was found on the blog A Spoonful of Sugar which is hosted by an English lady. It is a fabric bowl made from circles of fabric.

The blue-and-orange one was made first. I used some fabric from a blue blouse and some quilting fabric. The next bowl got a spiral of quilting on the bottom of the bowl to help it sit stably on the table.

Then the bowl became a project for our Sewing Club meeting.

This was an in-progress look at the gathering. The lower round of fabric is an un-gathered bowl.

 All of the demo bowls were made from leftover seersucker that had been used for a dress years ago, combined with quilting muslin for the inside.











This was one of the in-progress bowls about to get its top binding. On this one, instead of using an on-grain strip of quilting fabric (that worked very well!) I got lazy and tried using a piece of bias binding from the stash. It works better with the on-grain fabric, IMHO.








The completed demo bowls (mostly finished off at home), with a bit of rickrack included in the binding seam on the one in front.

The rickrack worked out very well.

As with many of the sewing club projects that have been done, the two at the back have found their way to a new home. The one in front, as it's my very first time with rickrack, is going to the next meeting for show and tell.

Each bowl in this (about 4" across) size takes up 2 8 inch circles of fabric and one of thin batting.

They make great wine bottle coasters and containers for odds and ends on the night stand.

Cute little pouch

Hello, everyone.

In January, our sewing club made these little pouches.

They're a great place to keep the little clips. (Wonder Clips are a great hit, especially with people who aren't super in love with pins to begin with, because they will hold the fabric pieces still while the seam is sewn. I haven't really gotten used to them yet, but they are neat.) The pattern isn't really expensive, either.

We had a lot of fun and discovered how to use only one side of the zipper for a whole closure.

The bluebonnet fabric outside, the green inside, and the zipper were all from stash. If I had another zipper pull the right kind and size, I could even get two pouches from one zipper.

A little kitchen trick

Hello, everyone.
DH and I like to make our coffee from freshly ground beans. We have a little grinder to do this. Over time, ground up bean dust drifts throughout the space under the cover.

The little grinder.

This morning there was a visible brown dust coat on the inside of the base. Problem: the base cannot be immersed in water. I have tried using an old toothbrush--we keep one by the sink for these kinds of jobs--and it didn't work. The bristles point the wrong way to reach into the recess the grinding cup sits in.

Enter the general purpose duster of small nooks and spaces. (A little brush for cleaning sewing machines would also work, if one had a spare that could get coffee grounds in the bristles. It probably won't be usable on the sewing equipment any more, though.)

I turned the base upside down over the kitchen sink and dusted the recess with the paintbrush.

Success!

Sometimes a new tool needs to be made

Hello, everyone.

I have started a project involving lots of narrow hemming. Technically, it's 1/4" hems on lots of straight pieces of fabric.

I began by using the Easy Hem gauge that was inherited from my dear MIL. It had marks at the right distance, and a nice straight edge, and it is thin. I began by pressing the edge of the first piece of fabric up all the way around the piece, and then doing it again so the raw edge would be properly buried in the hem. Oops. The metal hem gauge got hot.

I thought about using various quilting rulers, but they're all plastic, and this needed to be pressed without any marked line, as the fabric is white.

Then I remembered that paper tag board can be pressed. (No, you can't use steam or water with it.) I drove over to the local Michael's store and got a piece of extra thick poster board. Then marked a 2" line across the 22" narrow end of the board and cut along the line.  After that, using the quilting ruler, I marked lines at 1/4" and 1/2" and other useful distances. Last of all, I punched a hole at one end and reinforced it with a bit of scrap.

Can you tell that the sun was shining through the window? Oh, well. The gauge works for the job. It's a little delicate, as it's 22" long and 2" wide, but it's hanging from a peg on the wall when not in use.

After-action Report: dopp boxes

Hello, everyone.

This is a small note about how the dopp boxes worked out in practice.

1. They have enough space, if one uses the elastic loops on the lid for storing some things. Otherwise, if one puts the stuff in there in a heap, it becomes somewhat frustrating.

2. A construction note: while most of the seams were glued with Fray-chek after sewing to keep the fabric from raveling, the zipper seams were double stitched and not glued. This was a mistake. Both ripstop and flag fabric ravel like nobody's business. They should have been glued at the edges like the other seams.

3. The shape of the box was reinforced and somewhat defined by the placement of toothbrush, hairbrush, and the folded camper's towel. If one doesn't use the contents to stabilize the shape, the little square turns into a somewhat shapeless lump. (See comment #1.) The standard blow drying brush fit exactly into the diagonal of the box and the toothbrush did also. The other items fit into the triangles of space on either side of the hairbrush.

It's still a good answer to the toiletries problem, at least after the necessary glue lines are added, and is worth re-use on future trips. As deodorant was kept in a folded plastic bag instead of a push-up tube, it just went into the corner. Cotton swabs were in a small box that exactly fit along the side and was exactly the right height to help with the shape as well.

(No picture needed on this post, I think.)

Pilgrimage 2018 is heading out

Hello everyone.

I think it was Bilbo who is supposed to have said "It's a dangerous thing to go out your door" and then reflected on how the road goes on and on.

The Camino is like that, too. It calls, and when you have answered sometimes you discover that it has built a homing beacon into your heart.

We hope to make it to Santiago's tomb this year, and to pay respects also to Our Lady of Covadonga and at Oviedo. "God willing and the creek don't rise" as they say.

Here is my personal pack load, except for the Teva sandals, hiking poles, and electronics like this device.

Wear one, pack two, as the fellow who posted his 5 kg pack video to the Camino Forum said: 2 shirts, 2 panties, 2 sock pairs (Injinji low cut lightweight) in the pack. 1 bra in the pack. 1 fleece pullover, 1 windbreaker, 1 pair of shorts--wearing the zip off pants, 1 Icebreaker merino tank dress (splurge), 1 rain poncho. The merino Infinity Buff. The two packed shirts are 1 Icebreaker tank and 1 BCG tee, the shirt I am wearing is a long sleeved ripstop.
Dopp box has toothbrush, tiny powder, razor, ear swabs, toothpaste, hairbrush, a head band and a hair liga, and a small bottle of hair/body/clothes wash. Also a poly fast dry towel. Also the little mesh box with hiking pole tips.
The Fabulous Bag to put the pack in for the flight, a dry clothes bag for the shower, a mesh bag for dirty clothes or shopping, the bag for the sleeping bag liner.
Sleeping bag and liner.
If I remember them all correctly!
Ultreia!

New gear for the Camino del Norte

Hello, everyone.

Yes, as the title says, we're attempting the CdN again. And as part of our preparations, we've been looking at gear--especially gear weight.

DH, being a typical fellow, has a dopp kit: a zipper bag that holds his grooming items. It's about 6"x 9"x 3", and it's heavy. Even when empty it's heavy. So we looked it over, and I concluded that, first, he only needs 2/3 of that space for what he carries. And, second, that changing out the materials to something more hiking friendly should help it out a lot.

The new dopp bag:

 Posing on the scale, including its convenient hanger loop, the bag comes in at 1.25 ounces. Materials used: ripstop, a nylon coil zipper, and for interfacing, some nylon flag fabric.

As a comparison, this is the weight of 2 quart-sized freezer bags: 0.5 ounce. But the freezer bags don't have hanger loops. How can they be hung from the cord of the clean-clothes bag during the shower?

This was so encouraging that I discovered a previously unknown need for a dopp bag of my own!

Sewing with pet screen

Hello, everyone.

As many of you will recall immediately, last summer while on the Camino del Norte, we had a bad day, and DH was injured. We concluded, after reflection, that both of us need to be using hiking poles.

Poles have tips--little rubber ends that screw on so that if you're using them to keep from falling on slick pavement, they don't go "click, click, click" and also don't make holes or catch in pavement that is, like some asphalt, a little bit rough. The tips are not large, and I became worried that they would fall to the bottom of the pack and be unfindable--totally a word, guys!--when needed along the trail.

Thus the pole tip bag was conceived.

Tip bag, closed.

Tip bag with tip sticking out of opening.

The little bags are about 3"x3" in finished size. The chief difference between these and your standard boxed-corner utility bag (like a dopp kit) is that these have an overlap on the top for the Velcro closure. They were made of pet screening, a sturdier version of window screening that can be found in one or two colors at the hardware store (it's used to screen windows that pets scratch on as it's resistant to the damage caused) or many colors online at sewing/crafting shops. I have seen a bolt of black pet screen on the Utility Fabrics shelf at my local JoAnn store as well.

The blue fabric is ripstop nylon that was on hand, and the Velcro tape was also on hand. Stash usage! (Well, the pet screen was stash as well--we have pets.)

The idea with these little bags is that we will tuck them into the top zipper pocket of our packs, or if the tips inside are wet maybe we will hang them from a loop on the side, and when taking the pole tips off to walk on dirt trails, we will put them into their very own place so they don't get lost.

(Links go to examples of the thing described. The fabric may have been purchased at Fabric.com or the local JoAnn store instead, but these links were handy to illustrate with.)

Updating on the spin mop

Hello, everyone.

A year or two back, I mentioned that we'd acquired a spin mop. (The Salad Spinner of floor cleaning!)

Well, it got its feelings hurt that I went out of town for a week and when I got home, DH told me that the fool gadget was failing to spin properly. It's hard to mop floors--or shower walls for that matter--if the mop head doesn't drain properly.

I had recently had no luck at all with a similar mop at a relative's house, so several of the ideas that would have been tried were already eliminated. I decided to fall back on one of the more tried-and-true fixes for sticky devices.

Liquid Wrench, next to the mop head. (Strands removed for the moment.)

 Below, photos of parts that were sticking and needed lubrication.

Body pillows

Hello, everyone.

With DH being laid up with Da Boot, we’re learning new things without getting out as much.

Da Boot has rigid plastic on the bottom, and metal splints along the sides. It weighs a bit. And when DH would move in his sleep, his other ankle would get clobbered by Da Boot. Sometimes it got hit so hard that a scab resulted. This is suboptimal sleeping, to say the least. I thought of all the ladies I know who have used a Body Pillow (about 5 feet long) to support their legs and hips during pregnancy. They all love the things.

So I bought one, and also a washable cover for it. Then I was faced with getting the cover onto the (long, long) pillow. After trying a couple of ways, this was what I came up with.

1       With the end zipper open, crumple up the pillow cover sides into a donut, trying not to twist the cover. This will be a little bit like getting ready to put on one leg of a pair of pantyhose. 

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2      Insert the end of the pillow into the bottom of the cover, which is next to the top because of the crumpling.

      

3       Pull the sides up over the pillow, switching from side to side as needed. 

4      When you have it up to the top, zip the cover and place it into the ready position for use. (pic of pillow on end of bed)

The Body Pillow is much more popular now than it was when it came home. It protects the other ankle very well and supports the injured leg into the bargain.

If any interested readers have found another way to get that long bag onto the long pillow, please feel free to chime in with a comment. 

Mystery in the Mail

Hello, everyone.

In yesterday's mail, we got a package. It looked like a lot of Christmas packages that came not long ago, and we kind of thought it might be a delayed one. We aren't sure.

More to the point, since it had no label or instructions in the package, we aren't sure what it is!

Is it a spigot for 2-liter soda bottles?

There isn't any weight on the bottom, but if it's supposed to hook up to a bottle that would fix that. There is a moving clear-plastic thing that might be the release control for a spigot. It didn't show up very well in the photo.

Please feel free to chime in in the comments if you know what this object is!