Peas In A Pod

Tilda's Sewing Kit House

I was thinking I better blog again today so I can keep up the momentum!

Thank you so much for your kind comments yesterday.  I can't tell you how much it meant to me that you noticed I blogged and took the time to acknowledge it!  It really helped motivate me to keep it up!

I figure the best place to start is what I'm up to now.  Here's what I'm working on right now--

I had a hankering for a small project that was "finishable" and that I didn't need to go hunt up all the supplies for.  I had just ordered a fun little kit from Sunny Day Supply Company [if you've never checked them out, you should--great little shop!], and it arrived in the mail the day my fingers were itching for something new.

Have you seen this book?  It has so many cute patterns in it--for the doll; her fish, monkey, whale, and parrot friends; a purse to carry her in; clothes; and an adorable little sewing kit (for big girls).  I really want to make the doll, but I was happy to start with something smaller.

I started by building the components to the house.  All the pieces still needed to be appliquéd down.  The pattern uses a "puffy" appliqué technique.  The appliqué pieces have some fusible fleece behind them.  I couldn't manage that for the tree stem, leaf, and bird.  The pieces were too small.  So, I put fusible web on those and opted for a raw edge technique on those.  I used Bosal In-R-Form for the main house piece.  It's like the Soft n Stable by Annie's, except it's fusible on both sides.

I did hand embroidery on the sign, as per the directions.  I tried it with two strands of floss on the sign at first, but it was too thick!  I pulled it out and redid it with one strand.  Looked much better.

Here it is with all the pieces appliquéd down.  I did a hand blanket stitch on all the raw edge appliqué.  I am thinking adding an eye to the bird and maybe some legs.  Oh, and a door knob.  Maybe I can finish this project next weekend.  I still need to bind the edges and finish the inside.  More later.

My goal is to keep posts brief..I figure brevity will keep effort down, which will increase the probability I can sustain my postings!  See how successful I was with that here?  LOL!  Brevity was never my strong suit!

Hugs,

Mama Pea Stephanie

Madhuri Star Pillow for Lynn

Hello again, all!

I wanted to talk about what I made for Lynn for our swap.  Yesterday, I wrote about what she made for me.  Today I'll show you what I made for her (click on any of the photos in this post to see them larger):

Lynn told me she wanted a new pillow for her sewing room.  I snapped a photo of her sewing room when I was there last summer:

It's not the greatest photo, becuase I was using my cell phone.  But you can see her gorgeous teal/turquoise tubs.  There's a rocking chair in the corner that you cannot see.  That's where the pillow would sit.  I knew I wanted to make something that would pop and fit in with her tubs.

I used some of my Madhuri fabric that Amanda Herring (The Quilted Fish) had given to me, and I paired it with some turqoise and white Kona.  I made the diamonds with Amanda's new diamond ruler.  (This ruler is pretty fun!)  I hand pieced the star using an English Paper Piecing technique (I made the paper pieces myself, using the diamond ruler), then made the pillow top, and finally hand appliquéd the star onto the pillow.

After that, I layered the top onto some batting and hand stitched some big-stitch quilting stitches around the star.  I used different colors of perle cotton--colors that echoed the colors in the fabric--moving from light to dark.

 

I started with closer-together lines, and made them spread out as they radiated outward as they went away from the star. (Here's a secret....after all that hand stitching, I decided maybe I should include some quilting on the star, just for good measure.  I machine stitched, in "invisible thread," in the ditch all the way around and across all the inner seams on the star.  I absolutely hated it.  I then spent three hours upicking all those stitches.  I'm glad I did.  It was totally worth it.)

I didn't want the quilting to get too "busy," so that's why I started spreading them out more as the perle cotton colors got darker.

I sewed some red pom pom fringe around the edges.  That was interesting to do!  I hadn't done that on anything this large or "real" before.  (I'd only sewn a little on some small doll pillows.)  Not easy stuff to attach! (For me, anyway!)

I purposely let this one star tip run off the edge of the pillow and cut it off.  Papa Pea said he did not like that....that it made it look like I had made a mistake.

For the back of the pillow I made a zipper opening, with a flap to cover it.  Usually I do an invisible zipper at the bottom of the pillow, but I wanted to try something new this time.  I used Amy's (of Amy Made That!) tutorial for making this zipper closure.  I have to tell you, this was pretty slick and easy, with a really nice, classy, finished result.  I highly recommend this tutorial!  Aside from the great covered zipper, Amy recommends interfacing the pillow parts.  I like that.  It gives the pillow fabrics more body and weight.  I think it gives a really professional looking finish.  I hope you agree!

Anyway, I had a ton of fun making this.  I think Lynn liked it, which makes me happy.  Papa Pea said it was a shame I had to send it away to someone.  He liked it a lot.  :-)

I'm thinking about writing a tutorial for how I made the star--and perhaps the entire pillow.  If that's something you'd be interested in, let me know.  I may try to do it.  It might be spring (maybe Market time) before I can do it, but let me kow what you think.  Maybe that will motivate me to actually do it.  LOL.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you have a great day!

Until next time,

 

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Mother's Day Running Stitch Scarf--Pattern Review

I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day!  Mine was an interesting one...I'll tell you more about that on Really Random Thursday.  Today, I'd like to share what I made for my mom for Mother's Day.  (Click on any of the photos in this post to make them larger.)

I made her this linen scarf, with a bunch of different colors of peach floss.  (Yes, I used DMC despite my previous experience, because I had already purchased it prior to my last experience.  So, Mom, be careful washing it!)  The "fringe" on the scarf is the beautiful selvedge on this fabric.  I am happy with how it turned out.

Here is a more full view of it.  The morning sun was pretty bright, so you can barely see the hand stitching on it in this shot, but this shot does give you a feel for the size of the scarf.  The half-way point is at the top of the branch.  It's about 17" wide and 80" long.  It's a really nice size for a shawl or scarf.

I used a kit and a tutorial from The Purl Bee, and you can find the tutorial right here.  This is not difficult to make at all, though it did take a little time.  There is one machine-sewn seam in the entire thing.  The rest is all hand sewn.  So, it takes a little time.  But that was okay with me.  You know, one thing I enjoy about making hand-made gifts for people is that while I am working on them, I am reflecting on that person, fun times we've had together, etc.  So, I enjoyed having some quiet time to reflect on my mother and how lucky I am that she's my mom.

The design is made by a series of lines that are running stitches.  So, this would be a great beginner embroidery project.  Very easy.  And all the knots on the ends are hidden in the side hems, which you do last.  The pattern even provides instructions for how to vary your colors on up the way.  I modified the color scheme from the pattern so that the colors graduate from dark to light as they progress up the scarf.

I was having a fun photo shoot with the scarf, because we finally had a summy morning.  Again, the fringe is super easy to do, because it's already tehre as part of the selvedge.  To make the base of the scarf, all I had to do was tear a yard of fabric in half, from selvedge to selvedge and seam it together.

Here is the seam where you sew the selvedges together.  I'm not sure what you would call this seam.  It's almost like a flat-felled (sp?) seam that you have on jeans.  It's nearly invisible, and there are no raw edges on either side.  It's a beautiful way to join two pieces of fabric together when you want both sides to look equally good.

I liked this photo with the shadows of the tree branches on the scarf.  :-)  This linen was absolutely beautiful to work with.  It was heavier than the linen I had used for my Urban Nine Patch quilt.  I found myself wishing I had found and used this in that quilt instead of what I used.  I think I may need to order some of this yardage just to have in my stash.  I really love the hand and drape of it.  It is Essex Yarn Dyed Linen.  The color I used is Flax.  Yummy.

Purl Bee had kits available, but I see they are currently sold out.  At the time of this writing, their website does say they are getting more, and there is a link where you can request to be notified when more are in.  The kits came in this peach and another with blue thread.  However, you could easily go get the supplies yourself and use the tutorial to complete this project.

The tutorial is well written, with good photos to help you along the way.  Very recommended project, kit, and tutorial.  As I said before, I would put this at a beginner/easy project.

I love how it turned out, and I hope my mom enjoys it.

Until next time,

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The Hen House Primitive Quilt and Craft Supplies

It's finals week.  But it's still busy!

Yesterday, I did not get a blog post in, becasue I went to Lansing for the day and taught a workshop at our state autism conference.  I think it went okay.

On the way home, I was thirsty.  I decided to pull off the freeway at a McDonald's to get a Diet Coke.  (Don't you love McDonald's all-sizes-of-sodas-are-$1 deal?!  I do.)  As I was pulling into the town at which I exited the freeway, I saw a sign that said I was in the town of Charlotte, MI.

"Oh, my gosh!" I thought.  "I have always wanted to come to Charlotte, because there is a quilt store here all my primitive friends rave about!  I wonder if I have time to sneak in a quick trip?"  I looked at my clock.  It was only 4:15 pm.  "I can do it," I thought.  I figured I could make a stop and still be home around 6:00 or 6:15 pm.

So, I got out my smart phone, googled the address, plugged it into my GPS, and off I went, Diet Coke in hand!  I was only 5 min away!  Woo Hoo!

The shop is called The Hen House, and you may have noticed it was recently featured in the Quilt Sampler as a destination quilt shop.

I drove down one if the main streets in town and was rewarded by this sight!  And tons of on-street parking available right in front of the shop.  I love that!

Here is a closer look at the window display.  I was so happy.  Nothing tops off a long day of work (I was so tired from just having done a 3-hour presentation for about 160 people!) than enjoying a little fabric and quilting.

The window display also promised some nice English paper piecing projects inside!  (You can see it was actually sunny here yesterday, too!  It was a beautiful day.  When I stopped in the shop, it was 64 degrees and sunny.  I really needed that.  Back to clouds and rain today, though.)

When you enter the shop, you are greeted by displays of antiques and wool work projects.  There is a beautiful wool wall, with all sorts of wonderful wools.  Also, there is a nice selection of Valdani threads and other things you might need for your wool work.

There is also a nice selection of Civil War fabrics.  If you love Jo Morton, working small,  "dark and dirty" fabrics, and the primitive style, this shop is for you.  It is full of inspiration and fun stuff.

I always joke that I'm a "bipolar quilter."  Someday I'll do a blog post on that.  I like the bright moderns, but I also love the Civil War style.  And though I haven't dared to try it yet, I really, really love the miniature quilts.  This shop is so full of eye candy and inspiration for projects.  Look at this display of miniature quilts.  I think the patterns are Jo Morton, if I'm not mistaken.  I think they are just wonderful.

The owner, Nancy, was there and we struck up a conversation.  She was working on a gorgeous English paper piecing project, and I complimented her on it.  The pieces she was working with were pretty small.  She said, "If you think this is small, you should see what Elise is working on.  It's tiny."  I saw this project over on the table and asked if that was it.  Oh, my goodness!  Isn't it amazing?!  Maybe you can get a sense of the scale of this project as you see it's laying on an open magazine.

Here, I pulled a penny out of my purse and laid it on the project so you could get a better sense of scale.  This is absolutely wonderful!  How fun would this project be?!

I could have stayed in this shop for hours just poking around.  There were so many neat antiques, finished quilts, and little stuff to play with.  There were English paper piecing projects, velvets, fun threads, notions, wool, fabric, punchneedle projects, wool rug projects, etc.  The store is small, but it's one of those shops that just has the most interesting stuff everywhere you turn and the nicest people working there.  I had fun talking to Nancy and Elise.  What a pleasure to just hang out with them.

While I was there, I reminded Nancy that I had seen her at a trunk show in Battle Creek once.  I told her how I really wanted to learn to hook wool rugs ('cause you all know I need another hobby and more stuff to do!).  I have had a hard time being able to come to one of her classes when they are offered, due to my schedule.  Nancy said I could call her and just come up for a day, and she'd teach me.  So, I picked up this small wool rug project and am going to make an appointment with her sometime in the next few weeks (now that school is out and Sweet Pea is still in school for a while) to learn.  I am really excited.  How nice is that of her to let me come and learn from her on her time?

This is a wonderful shop.  I highly recommend it if you are in the area.  If you like brights and modern, you won't find it here.  Come here if you are looking for the primitive style, Jo Morton style, wool work, and miniature quilts.  You'll find a ton of fun stuff to capture your attention.  And you can't imagine a nicer shop owner and staff.

I felt bad after I left, because I realized I didn't even make it into the back room, which I think is the classroom.  I was on The Hen House Facebook page this morning and saw photos of the back room.  It even had basket weaving materials in it.  There were Facebook posts of the "Crankers" group--a group that does all their sewing on hand crank sewing machines.  (Wouldn't I love to have one of those machines?!)  I believe Nancy has lots of different sewing groups you can get involved in.  Check out their Facebook page for lots of fun photos.

EDIT:  I went back to the shop for a rug hooking lesson and blogged lots of photos of the classroom here if you are interested!

You can shop on-line at The Hen House website.  In addition, there is also a gallery of projects, a class list, etc. on the website.

Sue, if you haven't been to this shop before, you would love it. 

Everytime I think I'm kind of "over" the primitive stuff, I realize I'm not really.  This shop could so easily suck me back in!  I'll keep you posted on my wool rug working!

Hope you enjoyed the review.  I tell you, it just made my day to add a little fabric love to it, especially because I got absolutely NO sewing done this weekend.  I spent a better part of Sunday in my office, preparing for my presentation.  So, it was nice to sneak in a little fiber and fabric inspiration.  Thank you Nancy and Elise for being the highlight of my day!

Until next time,

Hazel's Summer Garden Block #3

Hi All!  Sorry I've been absent again.  This time between February and March is so, so busy, both personally and professionally.  I was supposed to fly to Iowa this morning to do some consulting, but with the winter storm, my flight got cancelled.  I was going to try to drive it, but I got talked out of that this morning by folks in Iowa.  I guess it's pretty bad.  (We haven't had any snow from the storm here yet, though it's said to be coming.)  I'm going to try to fly tomorrow and see if we can at least get one day's worth in!  But the upside is that this gave me a little downtime to get in a blog post or two.  :-)

I have been plugging away on Hazel's Summer Garden.  Remember, this is a quilt along that Shelly is doing over at Prairie Moon Quilts.  (Click here to go to Shelly's page about Hazel's Diary...scroll down on the right-hand sidebar.  You'll see the 1953 quilt along there.  All the blocks and info about the quilt along can be found there.)  I managed to finish Block #3 this past week.  And here it is!  Trying to find good light for a photo is a challenge for me these days.  This is my best attempt...hanging off the porch railing.

Here it is from another angle.  I am still having a lot of fun with all the stitches and flowers.

I feel like there is so much texture with all the French knots, satin stitching, etc.

And each of the flowers is so different.  I use Shelly's color selections as a guide (I am using similar colors), but I substitute other colors in sometimes.  Like here, I am using yellow in the center of the flower.  I have some yellow in the fabrics I'm using to coordinate with these blocks, so I wanted a touch of yellow in the blocks.

And I enjoy all the flower shapes.  This flower was pretty quick to do, but I really like it.

Well, I'll have to tell Shelly that's ONE block for my 365 Blocks Challenge she is hosting.  I felt bad counting all those pinwheels that were small, easy, and that Caroll helped me with.  But this block makes up for it!  LOL.  As many hours in this one block (or more) than there were in all 65 pinwheels!

Shelly hasn't put out Block #4 yet, so I am officially caught up on this project...at least for a minute.  I keep telling Shelly that she does not have to rush getting Block #4 up yet.  I want to bask in the joy of being caught up for a minute. 

I'm back down to the sewing room to see what else I can get caught up on today with my "found time."

I have much more to report.  Had a good trip to see relatives last weekend, and I finished that project for Sweet Pea I gave you a sneak peek for earlier.  I can't wait to show you.

Hope you are all staying warm.  I am craving spring.

Until next time,

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