One Sock, Two?

I'm guessing that every person out there who has ever knitted their first sock is fascinated by it.

Sits and stares at it in wonder.

Wow, did I really knit THAT,

(and how am I ever going to do it again)?

Tutorial for My Project Bags--Part Two

Now, to put this bag together! 

After completing all the steps in part one we can move on to what I'm doing here in this picture.

I have placed the lining inside the outside piece and lined up the side seams.

I have folded back and pressed a hem of about 1/2"- 3/4"

on the outside piece and the lining so that the hems face each other.

You'll notice that the lining is a little longer than the outside piece

 (it was cut a little longer for this purpose).

I have done this because I like the lining peeking out along the edge.

If you don't like this you can just fold the lining hem down a little more so the edges line up. 

This shows a very close stitch line, topstitching the two top hems together. 

I did two lines of topstitching along the top.

You can see that the lining is peeking out over the edge of the outer piece. 

Now on to the drawstring casing,

At the ends of the casing I pressed back 1/2"

and then press the two long sides to meet in the middle of the wrong side. 

Then I pressed back the casing ends another 1/2" and stitched it flat.

This provides a good, strong opening for the drawstring. 

I pinned the drawstring casing to the project bag with the ends meeting very closely at one side seam.

Here is the drawstring casing at the side seam after I topstitched it down.

I went back and forth over the open ends of the casing to tack it down well. 

The drawstring is made by folding the drawstring fabric in half,right sides together,

stitching down the length, turning and pressing.

Then the drawstring is threaded through the casing with a safety pin

(to aid the threading process) and.......

Voila!!

You have yourself a project bag. :-)

Please let me know if any of my instructions are confusing.

Also, I would love to see your finished project bags.

Tutorial for My Project Bags--Part One

Here it is!!!

A new project bag with instructions on how I put it together. :-)

OK, so the very first thing to do is pick out two or three fabrics which you like together.

Cut out one piece for the outside of bag (32 1/2" x 16 1/2").

Another piece for the lining cut (32 3/4" x 16 1/2") (just a 1/4" longer than the outside piece).

Cut a piece 2 1/4" x 33 1/2" for a drawstring casing 

and a piece 2 1/4" x 44" for the drawstring.

This will give you the pieces needed for a bag with the finished size of 16" x 16".

I have made bags in other sizes, so you would have to adjust the measurements for that.

Next, plan and make an embroidered project or use another decoration for the front of the bag.

I quilted my embroidery by hand first,

and then I free-motion embroidered the redwork to the front of the bag.

I placed it a little lower than the center to take into account the later drawstring casing placement.

Here I am stitching the outside piece along both sides, leaving the top open.

I placed it right sides together and used a 1/4" seam (included in measurements).

Turn and press the outside piece.

Stitch the two sides of the lining piece with right sides together,

1/4" seams, leaving the top open, but don't turn it.

Next time....putting it all together.

You Just Never Know

You just never know where you are going to run across lovely fabrics.

The other day the girls and I stopped in a Goodwill.

Meg is on an archaeology dig this summer and needed some jeans.

Anyway, I found these very pretty blouses, gingham and flowers--in all the wrong sizes.

A little light bulb flashed and I thought, hey--fabric!

These suckers can be cut up and I get lots of fabric for a really good price.

What a deal, huh? :-)

Tutorial on the way--for Monday and Tuesday.

Have a good weekend!

Perfection in Pink

The weeds are just about doing me in after all the rain we've had.

Have company coming this weekend so I am trying to pretty up my garden.

Feedsacks

At the quilt show, Friday, one of the vendors Lancaster Traditional Quilts 123 sold vintage feedsacks.

They had lots of new fabrics as well cut in assortments packaged in little clear boxes.

Each box had a clear example of each fabric in the assortment. Yummy!

I picked out a small package with an assortment of the vintage feedsacks.

I love the floral best but also the embroidery look-alikes.

Not to forget the red dots either.

Magic Squares!

Last week my mom taught me and Meg a new knitting pattern.

It makes squares as if by magic.

They are knit all in a line with two decreases which magically turns it into squares.

You pick up stitches to start a new square so the squares don't have to be stitched together at the end.

This technique can be found in a pamphlet called The Rambling Rows Afghan, designed by Carol Anderson and Pat Penney, published by Cottage Creations.

I'm making only the large and small squares right now--a long term project. :-) 

Quilts

Snail's Trails is one of my very favorite patchwork patterns.

It was on view at a quilt show that I had a chance to go to on Friday.

I shared the day with Mom and Meg and we exhausted ourselves with fun. :-) 

This vintage r/w/b quilt was in a vendor's booth.

Isn't it lovely? 

All those curves......

A different vendor was upset that I was taking pictures of his gorgeous booth

(there wasn't a "no photos" sign at his booth),

but I promised not to share the photos anywhere. I wish I could.... 

Anyway, the gorgeous booth was filled with buttons, ribbons and sewing ephemera all arranged by color.

So there was a blue area, a red area, purple, etc.--it was so very pretty.

So many pretty colors!

Dad

Happy Day!!

XXXOOO

Strawberries Au Natural

Straight out of the garden.

The mice (slugs and bugs) didn't get them all.

First Socks

My very first pair of socks.

I feel like I have about 50 thumbs getting this started.

The yarn is a Deborah Norville brand.

I am liking the turquoise. :-)

Wee Kokeshi

Meg led a workshop on painting little kokeshi.

This is mine.

I made a few different sized ones a couple of years ago.

I forgot how much fun it is--tho I needed my glasses this time.

Maple Tree Camp 2011

Camp has begun again!

Every summer the girls and I try to get together a little camp for each other.

To us this means lots of art projects, a field trip or two and lots of fun. 

We began this year with a little drawing and sketching.

We decorated our sketchbooks with stickers made from Allsorts downloads, here and here.

Thank You Jenny! :-)

Dinky Bag

Another variant of the bags I've been making.

This time with a little ric-rac to go with the gingham on a wee baglet.

I thought to use it to take cotton floss around in when I'm embroidering.

Maybe I won't get it as tangled up as usual. 

I have a tutorial in the works for the project bags,

but it will probably be next week before I get it up here.

Thanks for being patient. :-)

Flutter

Gorgeous photo my husband captured in the yard.

Sharing

We have collected many strawberries--yum--from our little garden,

but have had to share some with Mousie.

It is terribly frustrating when Mousie leaves a half eaten berry.....he must have gotten full.

Mousie

A mouse for you to embroider.

Please use only for personal use. Thanks!

Dots and a Doll

I can't stop making these project bags.

This time using my embroidery pattern for a friendship doll that you can find on my side bar.

After I did the initial redwork, I traced an oval with a disappearing pen and also diagonal lines going both right to left and left to right. (not inside the dolls image)

Then I quilted the lines with off-white thread.

I washed the embroidery to get the quilting to wrinkle up. 

Then to attach the quilted piece to the bag front I used red thread.

I put on the free-motion embroidery foot and went to town.

I circled the piece with two concentric ovals, each oval stitched three times.

I used a disappearing pen again to draw on the scalloping.

I then free-motioned my way around the scallops twice.

After all this stitching I just cut the excess white fabric near the scallops,

 leaving kind of a rough edge which will soften over time. 

The inside fabric is a polka-dot of course. :-)

I think that all the fabric is Moda.

Lake Love

Our first trip out this year in my favorite red boat.

Green and cool.

This is just about the place where we ran into some submerged stumps---oops.

No harm done,,,,,,thank goodness! 

Some of the time I just drifted along watching the water dribble.

Right about now it can be observed that I do indeed like to skipper my own boat. :-)

Drift....paddle slowly.....paddle fast....whatever.....

Lily of the Day

New bloom in my garden. :-)

I put this in the ground just under a month ago after much care.

I babied this from a root with a couple of green stubby leaves.

I bought it in a bag in early March and the store had it inside in the warmth.

This had made it sprout too soon, so I planted it in a pot of soil.

Then every day with the daylight lamp, fuss, fuss, fuss.

But, it is all worth it for this pretty bloom.

It's name is Crimson Pirate.

On another note, Meg showed me how to change the main background of my blog, Yahoo!

and now I have a new one. I changed the header, as well.

Ronald McDonald House

Making taco salad kits to take to Ronald McDonald House today.

Also bringing lots of brownies.

RMH--truly a home away from home when you most need it.

Lots of people volunteer to bring meals in

for those parents and siblings of very sick kids in the hospital.

We stayed in Cleveland, Ohio's RMH in 2000

 when Em needed open heart surgery right after she was born.