Finished placemats

Hello, everyone.  The placemats started a few days ago are completed. 

Front view:

The center accent for 2 mats pretty much uses up all of a fat quarter.

Back view:

I do like the spiral quilting for a lot of things: no stressing over which design, no worries about getting out of the "ditch" by a couple of threads, no real need for marking if your fabric has a suitable motif to make the center round. (Here, it was one of the turtles' shell plates.) I used pale blue thread for the quilting. 

The binding is sewn on by machine, with a canned fagoting stitch that came with it. I like that there are little side to side stitches that help convince the back side to stay reasonably flat.

I used the Superior Pima cotton thread for the first time in the bobbin with the binding attachment and it is very nice. The top of the binding attachment is a multi-colored green spool of 30 weight Sulky cotton.

The binding piecing gave me a number of pretty green small triangles, I have to find a partner strip to turn them into half square triangle blocks now. One of these days the various HST scrap blocks will turn into something. 😀

Starting on a pair of placemats

Hello, everyone.  I saw a pieced placemat idea online and thought it would be fun to try out.

Can you see the directionality in the center print? I didn't notice that at first! Fortunately the seahorses are right side up. 

I love these colors. They remind me of the beach--hence the sea life print in the center.

The fabrics are from stash, but I did cut into unused fat quarters that I had bought on spec. 

The second Leaf-Butterfly bag

Hello,  everyone.  Today's post is another little bag.

As before, all parts are from stash. Linen blend for the exterior, quilting cotton for the lining and strap. I made the strap adjustable, so a person can put it on the shoulder or tighten the strap to carry in the hand. It has boxed bottom corners.

Thanks to the lessons learned from Christine's Home Affairs, I measured and marked the boxes after getting the side seams figured out so they lined up correctly.  Mostly. And came out straight in the end.

It's fun to do a small project as a break from something larger, like a quilt. It gives a sense of accomplishment. 

Stash usage for the wins! Twice.

Hello, everyone. In the ongoing Battle of the Stash, I have achieved another couple of small victories. 

These are two pouches. The first is embroidered with a design from the Deer's Embroidery Legacy. It's a butterfly but it's also autumn leaves.

He's kind of cute, isn't he? The fabric is a linen blend pinstripe that was lying around and begging to be used.

The second has an applique design that I digitized myself...with the features in the software, it's not as intimidating as that sounds. This is the first time I tried sewing one out that I have done. 

The fabric is leftover chair fabric, rather thick, and the applique fabrics are quilting cottons. The pouch has an interior slip pocket.

The pouch exteriors, the linings, the zippers: all from stash. It feels so good to get fabric moved out of storage shelves and tubs, even in small increments. 

(Updated to add the link for the embroidery design source.)

Another little pouch completed

Hello, everyone.  I've been studying various videos on crafting, and learning a lot. Today I have completed another small pouch.

The fabric is a scrap from a pillow that was made a while back. (Red and gold is just a pretty combination all around.) The lining is quilting cotton,  also from the stash, as are the zipper and the beads.

It stands up on a flat surface. 

The flowers are acrylic beads from Fire Mountain Gems combined with some of the red perles from DSIL's favorite bead shop. The sparkly sprinkles are 2-cut Delicas, also from Fire Mountain Gems.

Grandma sewing workshop

Hello, everyone.  It's a lovely,  hot summer day today, perfect for a sewing project.

DGD has been learning to sew. Today she made a pencil pouch with an elastic strap. This is a blog post at Sulky.com. It came out really cute.

She picked cheerful colors for it. The blue zip shows well against both the outside and the lining.

A surprise in the art museum

Hello, everyone.  While we were visiting Alaska, we happened to stroll into the Anchorage Museum. This turned out to be a combination of art and ethnographic in nature. There was a sadly didactic multi-media piece on the theme of recycling (?) that was wall-sized.

The phone turned this on its side but I don't think it is any worse for it. 

The curled up can lids work as a unifying element, along with the blues. It's really more of an advocacy poster than a work of art, what with all of the random slogans scattered around on it. 

They did have some more interesting exhibits of various items that were used by the various native groups living there in the past. 

This sewing bag has caribou embroidery decorations.  I imagine that these days the skill of this kind of embroidery has been lost. 

And, the surprise: 

A blast from the 1970's! A crocheted tote bag made from plastic bags. You never know what will be put on display at an art museum.