Cozy Afternoon – Free BOM – Blocks 1 and 2

Jacquelynne Steves is offering another series of free blocks-of-the-month called Cozy Afternoon.

http://jacquelynnesteves.com/cozy-afternoon-block-of-the-month/

There will be five blocks, each with a pattern to embroider or applique for the center.  I have a large hassock with a lid which I’m going to cover, using five blocks – one for the top of the lid and four for the sides.  I used a fussy-cut center for the top which will get a lot of wear.

I’ll be adding corner triangles which will make this a perfect size for my hassock.

The embroidery pattern was so cute that I made another block with a redwork cup.  This piece will probably be turned into a gift bag.

Jacquelynne included block 2 in this post which I made using a panel with vintage embroidery of a sailboat.

 

A pattern for a teapot applique (or embroidery) was included and I couldn’t resist making up another block to be used later in another project.

Both of the blocks are very easy with good results.  I particularly like block 1 and will find other good uses for it.

There’s still time to join in the fun and make some really nice blocks.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

 

Laura in Redwork (and Bluework) Wall Hangings

My younger daughter has been a life-long devotee of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books (Little House on the Prairie et al – the TV series, not so much).  She has always wanted to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield, MO, and had a chance to make the trip with her sister last month.  Her excellent report on this trip is here.

One of the souvenirs she brought home was a gift for me – a pattern for a wall hanging called Laura in Redwork by Johanna Wilson (Plum Creek Patchwork*).

I like to do simple embroidery and had red-checked gingham on hand, so I made up the original pattern for my daughter.

I made a label that incorporated a picture of my daughter standing in front of Laura’s house in Mansfield.

I gave her the quilt on Mother’s Day and she was very happy with it.  It measures 38×38 inches – a big wall hanging or a small lap quilt.  Her dog, Daisy, looks anxious to have it on the couch where she can get cuddly with it.

I wanted to make a wall hanging for myself but not that big and I didn’t want to work with the same materials again, so I reduced the pattern by 50% and came up with a wall hanging in blue that is 22×22 inches.

I like both versions very much.  It would be a good pattern for a quilter with a bit of experience rather than a beginner since the instructions aren’t too detailed.

*Plum Creek Patchwork – 1410 County Highway #5 – Walnut Grove, MN 56180

Flat Pocket Gift Bag – Tutorial

  

At Christmas time last year, I had embroidered pillow cases for two friends who live out of state.  I wanted to enclose the cases in something that could be mailed in a padded envelope and that might be useful after the gift was opened.  I designed a flat bag with a deep pocket to hold the gift and the bag could be used to store many items throughout the year.

In this case I used some pretty Amish fabric for the outside of the bag and assorted scraps for the pocket and lining.

For Easter, I made dishtowels with an appliquéd bunny.  Once again, I turned to the flat bag design for a nice gift bag, using orphan blocks for the outside of the bags.

This is an easy bag to put together, can be done in a short amount of time and makes good use of scraps, embroidered pieces or orphan blocks.

Here is how I made the bags (my example finished at 7-½ x 7-½ inches.  It’s easy to change the dimensions to fit whatever item is going into the bag – flat items like books, Cds, DVDs, towels, pillow cases, etc., work best.

You will need:

A piece of focus fabric, quilt block or embroidered piece the size of the gift plus an additional 1-½ inches to width and length.  (Example:  gift is 7 inches square.  Front piece = 8-½ inches square.

A piece of fabric for the back of the bag that is the same size as the front plus ½ inch lengthwise.  (Example:  Cut back fabric 8-½ inches wide by 9 inches long.)

Sew the front panel to the back with ¼ inch seam, joining at the top of the front panel.

Press the seam toward the front panel.

Cut a piece of fabric for the lining that is the exact size of the joined front/back panels.  (Example:  8-½ inches wide x 17 inches long.)

Place lining and front/back panels right sides together, pinning from just below center seam on front/back panel, along side, across bottom of front/back panel and down other side to just below center seam, back-stitching on each side.

Cut ½ inch from edge just below sewing at center seam on both sides and trim corners of sewn portion.

Turn sewn portion and press.

Cut pocket fabric the width of fabric and the length doubled.  (Example:  8-½ inches wide x 17 inches long).

Fold pocket fabric in half lengthwise and press.  Line up fold of pocket with clipped sides and raw edges on the lower part of the front/back panels.  Pin in place or baste.

Beginning at the folded edge, sew ½ inch seams down the side, across the bottom and up the other side, back stitching on each side.  Trim corners and trim the clipped pocket portion on a diagonal.

Turn pocket portion and press.  Top stitch 1/8 inch from edge around piece …

…and fold in half to form flat pocket bag.

Mug Bag-Mug Rug as Easter Gift

Red Brolly is offering a free pattern for a really cute, easy-to-make mug carrier and mug rug.  http://www.red-brolly.com/2015/03/butterfly-mug-bag-have-you-made-yours/

Update 9/20/15 – A reader let me know that there is a problem with the above link and sent me some alternate ones for the pattern itself.  She said these links are intermittent but she was able to get a printout of the pattern.

Page 1 http://www.red-brolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/1.Mug-Bag.pdf

Page 2 http://www.red-brolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2.Butterfly-Mug-Bag-Outer-Casing.pdf

Page 3 http://www.red-brolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/3.Mug-Bag.pdf

Page 4 http://www.red-brolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/4.-Butterfly-Mug-Bag-Making-the-Handle-copy.pdf

Page 5 http://www.red-brolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/5.-Butterfly-Mug-Bag-Template-Page.pdf

The bag is designed to hold a medium sized mug about 6 inches tall x 3 inches diameter …

and has a pocket for some teabags.

There is an accompanying mug rug which folds up in back of the mug bag.

I have made four versions of the bag to use as gifts.  I made this one as an Easter gift for my granddaughter.

The fabric is from scraps of an Easter dress I made for her in 2011, back before she became a sophisticated going-on-12 lady who doesn’t wear pretty lace-trimmed dresses any more.

Instead of a mug, I’m using an 8-oz jar of jelly beans in the bag and will be putting a gift card in the pocket.

For my two daughters, I’ll have the mugs filled with candy and will have gift cards in the pocket.

I made one bag/rug to have ready to give to a good friend from Chicago who visits during the summer.

In her case, I made an embroidered mug rug that shows a painter because she’s a gifted artist.

I enjoyed making these bags and rugs out of scraps, including using up a lot of small batting pieces.  I included a snap and vintage button on each one.  It’s a pleasant afternoon’s project with just a bit of hand sewing.

Red Brolly’s post has some beautiful bags made from her pattern by other readers.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Sew Sweet Simplicity Panel Curtains

Last week, when I completed my Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM blocks and made them into kitchen curtains, I said I would post pictures of the curtains as soon as a non-snowy and sunny day came along.  Well, there are still some small hills of snow around, but the sun is bright and the sky is blue – so, here are the curtains.   The top picture shows the bay window area and this is the panel over the sink.

I tried several approaches to making the blocks into curtains and decided to use a simple, streamlined method of using the blocks with sashing and borders to make panels which are very much like wall hangings with a sleeve on the back rather than regular curtain casings.  I wanted the panels to hang similar to a blind without any gathers.

This project worked out well for me and at a distance and in the right light, the panels look almost like stained glass windows.

Sew Sweet Simplicity Bonus Block #2

I completed the final block in the Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM, which in my case was Bonus Block 2.  It turned out to be my favorite block because of the chevrons in the patchwork and the blue fabrics I used.

Since I only had 5 bluebird embroidery patterns and needed 6, I made a duplicate of one of the blocks and used blue floss for the flowers.

Jacquelynne posted the final instructions and the time has come for me to decide what to do with these pretty blocks.  I really don’t need another wall hanging and the embroidery patterns were of kitchen subjects, so I decided to make panel curtains for my kitchen windows.  I have a bay window with three sections and a large window over the sink.  I decided to make one-block sections for the two small bay windows and two blocks each in the larger windows.

The first step was to pin the blocks to a backing ….

…and then do some very simple big-stitch hand quilting along with some random starbursts.

I auditioned several different approaches to making the curtains, including using some old lace material, but decided to keep it simple and streamlined, using sashing and borders.  I just completed the curtains and the first non-snowy, bright, cheerful day that comes along, I’ll post some pictures.

This has been an interesting BOM series and you can still make your version from Jacquelynne’s web site – she doesn’t archive patterns for very long, so it‘s best to copy the free patterns and save them for when it‘s time for a new project in your sewing room.

The embroidery patterns were found here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29529717@N04/

Valentine Runner or Banner

I combined some hand-embroidered squares with some paper-pieced hearts to make a runner for Valentine’s Day.  Some of the embroidery patterns were found online and I made up some of them using vintage Valentines from my collection as a source.

The boy and girl in the top row of these squares are from a Valentine my mother received from her teacher in 1923.

I added a sleeve to the back so I can also hang this piece.

I like this cheerful addition to my Valentine’s Day decorations.  Hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day.

Projects From a Box of Discards

A couple of weeks ago, my neighbor asked my daughter and me to come to her house to check out some sewing/craft supplies she was going to throw away or donate.  She knew my daughter and I did a lot of sewing, needlework, quilting, crafts – and thought we might find something we could use.  Naturally, we could hardly wait to go across the street and see what was in those boxes!

There were two big cartons full of sewing notions, craft supplies, miscellaneous fabric and even a pair of worn-out jeans.  My daughter used the waistband from the jeans along with some of the white fabric in the box to make a great bracelet/cuff.

I was excited to use a red luncheon cloth that was a nice heavy fabric and had only a small stain on it.  I made three lined bags with it, also incorporating some of the white fabric and a couple of pieced/embroidered orphan blocks.

I also made a two-piece cushion set for my vintage folding chair.

The wonderful part of this story is that we have hardly made a dent in the contents of the boxes.  We have plans for the Christmas season and well beyond it.

 

Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM – Block #1

I was interested in a new BOM offered by JacquelineSteves.com because I have been doing a lot of embroidering from vintage patterns lately and her BOM has a nice 6-1/2 center block to fill with embroidery or applique.  Jacqueline supplies a simple embroidery/applique design but I wanted to use a series of darling bluebird-in-the-kitchen patterns that I found online.

This is the first of the Sew Sweet Simplicty BOM series which finishes at 12-1/2 inches unfinished.

I made this block from scraps using suggested colors except I substituted blue for red to accent the little birds.

This is a fairly easy pattern to sew with a couple of helpful tips from Jacqueline.  We can make a four or six-block wall hanging and I haven’t decided yet how I’ll use my blocks, but they will all be scrappy with a bluebird in the center.

The free vintage embroidery pattern (plus many, many more arranged in albums) is available at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29529717@N04/

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Halloween Vintage Embroidery

I’m continuing with projects that use vintage embroidery and lots of autumn-colored scraps.  I found this free pattrn online and made it into a place mat.

I embroidered another vintage pattern and added fabric to make a Halloween pillow.

The scary, feathered owl was a birthday gift from my younger granddaughter who liked it so well that she bought one for herself.

I made a pillow set for my vintage folding chair.  This design is based on a Helan Barrick decorative painting pattern that I first used about 25 years ago.

It’s fun to take the embroidered pieces and figure out what I can do with them, using scraps and reducing the amount of leftover fabric I have to store.