Fabric bins

I used this easy tutorial to make my very first fabric bin. 

Since I couldn't find my iron-on lining stabilizer stuff (Pellon-equivakent), I used batting and quilted all over the place. It's not super sturdy, but I don't have any comparison of what it would be like with the Pellon... and it stands up without problem, so the bin works for me.

Now I gotta figure out what to put inside... :-)

Circle Curtains

By accident, I came across this pretty fabric in the department store. A quick brainstorming resulted in a plan to sew bedroom curtains.
I improvised it, deciding in the end to use loops to hang the curtain up. I have to say, this project went amazingly smoothly and quickly.

I'm very pleased with the results and am sure I sleep better because of it, especially now that the sun rises earlier again.

iPad cover

I used some of my treasured fabric from the magnolia series to make an iPad cover. After my last experience making one for a friend (the iPad cover kept being too small, despite my careful measuring...), I added even more to my measurements. And it still came out tight! Argh! But, it fit, and with time it will probably stretch a bit.

Instead of quilting a pattern, I free-motion outlined the flowers and stems. I didn't use any basting pins, and the batting shifted a bit by the times I reached the other end, but the problem was solvable with a bit of pulling and stretching.

I'm getting to be a pro at doing lined, reversible (i.e. no raw edges visible) pouches, so I'm skipping all the layering and turning steps. Here's the final cover:

I decided a gainst velcro this time (I've noticed on my cellphone cover that the velcro does not hold the pouch shut after a while of frequent use) and want to use buttons instead. That's what the loops are for. I'm still looking for two light coloured buttons to attach.

iLike :-)

A non-quilty finish

I don't always quilt in my spare time. One of the other crafts besides sewing useful things other than quilts, is knitting and crocheting. This granny square blanket was started in Canada, with sheep wool produced on Prince Edward Island. After about 60 squares, and seeing how little a piece of blanket those squares made, I was actually fed up with the project. However, I spent the last 3+ years plowing through the rest. Unfortunately, it took so long that when I had a friend send me additional wool from the same store, the brown was slightly different (darker). Cause I don't think woold bleaches that fast, does it???

I liked the combination of wine red, brown, purple and pale rose. The colours already imply warmth to me (the purple is much less blue than in this photo). I crocheted a scalloped edge along the long sides of the blanket and want to use the left over wool to make frills along the short sides. Some day. The blanket is over my lap right now and lovely and warm!

Scrappy bowl protector — the whole set

So here it is, the whole trio:

I'm quite pleased with them and have been using them with joy. These bowls are my lunch bowls, so I use them almost every day.

It feels a lot nicer to handle these protectors than the ones made from cardboard I used before!

Scrappy bowl protector — medium

The last one, interestingly, was the most difficult one.

I again started with all kinds of scraps in roughly the right shapes for 2 centers and 4 arms.

Found some matching batting pieces.

Here you see how I made the arms. Folded one rectangular piece of fabric in half, then laid a batting piece on top and sewed along each side to get a tube open on one side. I made the seams so that I just barely caught the batting, to minimize bulk.

And this is why it got tricky. After turning the arms inside out and laying them on the center pieces, I realized that I had no side left to turn the whole thing inside out. Shucks! So I left one arm off and one side open for turning.

It was a pain (and no fotos of it), but I blind stitched the opening shut with the arm inside. The part of the arm was blind-stitched on the front and on the back, rather than going all the way through all the fabric layers at once. I guess that would have been an option too. Oh well, it's a scrappy bowl protector,  destined to spend its life in a cupboard. I really don't have very high expectations for this thing, when it comes to craftmanship :)

Important thing: it fits!

And it works!

Scrappy bowl protector — large

For the largest bowl protector, I started with an improv log-cabin style tree I had left from a quilt-guild challenge.

For the back, I used some triangles left from some other project.

Any old piece of batting that is big enough will do for these things. Piece them together if necessary.

I cut the center so that it had 4 sides approximately opposite each other.

Made some protector-'arms' with a single layer of batting inside.

Sandwiched everything together for a turn-it-inside-out project. It was pretty bulky, so I used pins to keep the arms in place. I had to fold the arms out of the way so that they didn't get caught in some of the outside seams on the wrong side...

I'll spare you the torturous view of the turning-process :)

Good thing there was a fifth side to this protector, so that I could leave a space to turn the whole thing inside out.

Tada!

Looks good, and...

... it works too!

Scrappy bowl protector — small

I wanted to used up some scraps AND I needed something better than cardboard to put between a set of glass bowls I have, to prevent them from hitting against each other when I stack them or open/close the drawer they're in.

For the smallest one, I took unfinished christmas ornaments, found some batting leftovers in approximately the right size and sewed all around the edge, leaving a little opening for turning the whole thing inside out. trimmed the edges of the batting as needed.

Here you can see the layering: top and bottom facing each other, with the batting on the outside, so that it's all in the right place after turning. Oh, and I eventually did trim this batting down to the right size ;)

Tada... time for my favourite blind-stitch to close the opening.

And it fits.

That was easy! And looks much nicer than cardboard.

And last but not least: it used up some scraps/UFOs! Always a good thing, eh?

Tic Tac Toe

A couple of boys I know were visiting here recently. They spent some time playing TicTacToe on paper, and I remembered how tedious it is to always redraw the lines for the game. Then I saw a tutorial for take along games via Sew Mama Sew and thought: Great idea for a christmas gift!

I adapted the idea to my own liking, of course, since these boys are not into checkers (as far as I know).

 I started with 2 pieces of background fabric (about 8" square). Then machine-appliqued white stripes (about 7"x0.5") in the TicTacToe pattern onto one piece. Placed the 2 pieces face to face, sewed around them, turned them inside out and fortified the edge with a seam (about 1/8" from the edge). I "quilted" (there's no batting inside, but hey) around the white stripes (about 1/4" from the stripes) to keep the 2 layers of background fabric together.

The game pieces are simple flanelette circles, sewn together by machine (the edges are raw, but I zigzagged near the edge to minimize fraying). I used a thread spool to trace the circles.

Rather than making extra draw-string bags for the game pieces and the game-board, I decided to minimize parts (that could be lost) and made the gameboard itself into the game "box".

All the game pieces are stacked in the middle, then the board is folded up along the natural fold lines of the white stripes.

Out of a 2" strip, I made a tube with a loop at one end and attached this tube (ironed flat) with a button to the back of the game board. I matched the tube length to fit once around the folded up game board and voila, the whole game becomes a neat package that can be chucked into a backpack to go to the pool or for a car journey etc.

I've been told the gift was a hit on Christmas morning and the boys tried it out right away. That's the best kind of "thanks" once could wish for!

Similar to visiting friends and finding a gifted quilt being well-used, with some signs of wear and tear, right?