Another one!

A second Jenny Wrapping Pouch.

Oh and I got the cord stoppers. I got un-lazy and stuffed the Grinch one. :)

Grinch bag!!

I just quickly made this bag for my husband. He absolutely loves the Grinch. It's what I was working on when my machine took a poop last night. 

It's from a pattern by ithinksew.com. The pattern is called the Jenny Wrapping Pouch. Seriously easy to make. I think the PDF pattern is on sale for only $2 until the 20th of December. Then it goes up to $4. Whether it's $2 or $4, it's a great deal. I'm not here to promote companies, but I love ithinksew's patterns. Every single one I've tried has come out well and the directions (and pictures) are easy to follow. 

Here's the pouch I made. I should have stuffed it before I took the picture but I didn't feel like it. ;)

 

Sadness.

There's something wrong with my machine. I did what I could, rethreaded it (several times), new needle, new bobbin, but none of it helped. It felt like it was out of sync. All I was sewing was a couple of pieces of quilting weight cotton for a bag. Each time I rethreaded, it would sew fine for a few stitches before messing up again. :/

Thankfully I completed the embroidery projects that I needed before all of this happened. 

I set up my new machine and I'll be taking the Creative Vision in to be worked on. 

One more thing...

Embroidered one more gift today. My husband and I bought two towels from a dollar store and I monogrammed them for my mother in law. We're pretty happy with how they turned out. :)

Niece's Blanket!

I embroidered the blanket for my niece today. I think it came out nicely. :)

This one really stitched out well. I'm very pleased!  I embroidered her name just below it. :)

Embroidery for my nephew

This year for Christmas, I'm embroidering blankets for my niece and nephew.  My nephew loves green and Skylanders and my niece loves purple and unicorns. 

Last night I embroidered a picture of Spyro that I digitized onto my nephew's green blanket.  It was over 54,000 stitches and took almost 4 hours.  I wished I was done half way through.

Tonight I'll embroider his name with glow in the dark thread.  If I finish early enough, I may do my niece's unicorn as well.

Without further ado, here's how it stitched out.


The on-screen image:

Not too far into the stitching:

Almost done!

The finished product!  I did some research.  I found that I needed to change which stabilizer I was using.  No puckering here!  Oh and I hooped the fabric as well.  (I haven't always hooped the fabric, but for this one it worked well)

Last calendar for now...

I churned out one more calendar last night. I love this one. It's for my sister in law.

I have four more - one is for me. I don't know about the other three. One might be for a coworker. 

The trees may be for my coworker while the ocean is for my office. :)

I don't know what to do with the other two. I might give the guitars to my neighbor. 

Well that's all for now. I hope to embroider blankets for my niece and nephew tonight. :)

Just one thing

All I got done tonight was the edges on my MIL's calendar. My SIL's calendar came in today, so I'll need to square up the edges then sew it up as well.

MIL's: (it's doors)

SIL's:

Nothing accomplished.

Nothing accomplished this weekend. Well, nothing craft related. I may still sew this up tonight. 

Done!

I did the second calendar's edges. :)

Now on to wrapping gifts!

(The sewing calendar is actually smaller than the bird one)

Loved this project! I hope my mom and brother's girlfriend enjoy these gifts!

Tea towel calendar

I finished the edges for one of the tea towel calendars! 

Gift card holder.

Super easy!!!

Sew two pieces of fabric together, right sides together, leaving a two inch gap for turning. Turn, press. Fold up pocket (make sure the unsewn gap is at the top in the flap so that it'll be closed when you see the edges), place elastic, pin. Sew 1/8 of an inch from the edge all the way around, leaving the folded edge on the bottom unsewn (see second picture). 

I haven't posted in a while...

For good reason.  I've been busy with holiday shopping and making three mug rugs for someone.

Tonight I hope to 'finish' some tea towel calendars that I'd like to give tomorrow.  They're so fun!  
http://www.spoonflower.com/shop?type=fabric&view=designs&shop=fabric&q=calendar+2014&x=0&y=0

I was hoping to sew up some gift card holders.  They're quick and *easy*!  
http://www.oneartsymama.com/2013/11/diy-fabric-gift-card-holders.html

BUT!  I have a lot of wrapping to do tonight, so that takes precedence.  If I get anything done tonight, I'll post some pictures.

:)

Clutch is Done! :)

I bought the zipper and finished my clutch! I staggered the shoulder strap loops, but I should have centered them.  Generally the staggering will keep the top more straight, but because of the embroidery, it didn't work right.

The above picture shows the staggered loops. It also shows how the boxed bottom accents the embroidery perfectly. :)

The above picture shows it closed and folded before I put on the strap. 

Yay! The chain strap. 

The back. It's hard to see the key embroidery. 

I made this the same way I made the pouches that I detailed the pattern for in the first post. The only difference is that the pieces were much larger. Also, I installed the magnetic clasp before sewing on the front panel. The loops were also inserted while sewing up the front and back sides. 

Bindingless Mug Rug

I created that mug rug without binding. Unfortunately, I didn't get the hang of sewing the corners until the end. I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to quilt it.

Top picture is before sewing the front and back together but after sewing on side panels. 

Bottom picture is after the back is sewn on. 

Finally had a little bit of time tonight!

I finally had some time tonight to work on stuff!

I embroidered the panels for my fold over clutch as well as some fabric for a zippered pouch. 

The clutch I did tone on tone. :) All designs are from Urban Threads. 

This is how it'll look when folded:

It's hard to see the detail in the picture though. I plan to pick up a metal zipper. As you see in the top picture, I installed a magnetic clasp to hold it folded. 

Next I worked on a pouch that I am sending to someone. 

Here's the embroidery:

And the completed pouch:

I had also embroidered her name on the back. :) I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but this is a dark teal linen. The inside is a natural linen like the zipper pull. 

Planning a bag...

Last night I didn't sew a thing.  I did iron and cut some fabric to make a bag with.  I also browsed embroideries.

I'd like to do a light line embroidery on the front of the bag because it's going to be a very simple looking thing.  Here's the fabric I cut:

 The lime will be the lining.  I thought it was bright and funky.

I love the look of linen.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do for a strap.  This bag is going to be taller than it is wide.  I was going to install a snap closure, but I'm rethinking that.  I may do a zip.  Maybe make it a fold-over with a small snap on the outside.  I'd also then sew loops in where I want it to fold and attach the strap there.  This shouldn't take very long to sew up once I get it embroidered.  :)

I'll post the embroidery as soon as I decide what to do.  I've been going through Urban Threads.  Sooo many wonderful designs to choose from!  With my new ideas of how I'm going to design this bag, I may put a small embroidery on the 'flap over' with a larger one at the bottom of the front panel.

The Blocks

I brought this one into work. :)

It's kind of large, though. I may bring it home and use it there. Make one half this size for work. 

Tonight is Embroidery.

So I haven't felt like embroidering for a while, but I promised an embroidered coin purse for my niece. Tonight I embroidered the outside panel. My sister in law wants to learn how to make the zippered pouch, so all of the pieces are ready for her now.

The onscreen image:

Part way through the stitch out:

Done!

Because the embroidery is so heavy and the fabric was so thin, it puckered. :(

I also embroidered her name with glow in the dark thread. I've never used the glow thread. I was really impressed with how well it stitched out. :)

Now I'm working on an embroidery panel for a mug rug for my mom. 

The onscreen image:

I'm using purple where the green is. 

I love how the black is popping!

Not even half way through at this point.  This one is over 40000 stitches. :/

It took way too long to stitch out. :p

Here's the finished embroidery:

Tomorrow I'll piece it and make the rug. Can't wait to do that!! I might embroider another panel for my niece first (while I still have the embroidery arm on my machine) Too bad I don't have an extra work table and walking foot for my other machine. Then I could work on the rug and let the embroidery machine do its thing at the same time. 

My First...

Tumbling blocks!  The pink one is a little wonky, it was the first Y seam I tried, so I went onto YouTube and found a great tutorial! Very easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08AlOM5COBU

I'll have to find that ruler, too. :)

Here's my concoction. I made it from some charm pack pieces I had laying around. 

I may just piece some plain fabric around it. Quite fun!

EDIT: I went to Joann's and picked up some fabric to frame it with. Next step will be quilting. 

The back will be the same cream as the background and I finally bought some bias tape so I can even bind it all up!  :)

Here is the 'batting' I've been using. It's fusible fleece and it's very thin, so I double it up, fusing a piece to both the top and the bottom. I need to do some research to figure out what I should use and not have to double. FYI - it's great for purse making. 

Here's the quilting front and back. I only did some simple lines. 

Front:

Back:

Now onto binding.  That's the part I dread. :/

Question: What's the fastest way for me to screw up a project?

Answer: By attempting to bind it. 

Second binding job. Second fail. I probably need binding clips. I only have pins. :/

It looks like crap. I definitely need to keep practicing my binding. Hopefully one day I'll figure it all out. 

For the next mini quilt / mug rug I make, I may just 'turn it' before quilting. (I'd sew the border front and back, right sides together, leaving a couple of inches unstitched so I could turn it right side out. Then stitch 1/8" from the edge all the way around.) Sad because I really do like the way binding looks when it goes on properly. 

Tonight's mug rug experiment.

So my experimentation continues. I think that I'm getting the hang of making these.  I'm trying to use up the scraps from my charm pack purse still. I've been wanting to do a 1600 quilt (a quilt made from a jelly roll), so tonight I tried making a miniature one with 4" strips instead of the 40" jelly roll strips.

Before quilting:

It was as easy as the Internet makes it sound. So then I had to quilt. This time I decided on trying a sort of diamond shape. 

And here's the back. I figured that I'd throw a pic in because I haven't yet. I went with a solid back for this one. Yesterday's had two panels. Maybe I'll throw up a pic of it when I bind it. 

Well. That's all for now. :) I really need to hit up Joann's this weekend so I can work on embroidering that coin purse for my niece. I also need to get some bias tape so that I can bind these rugs.