Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 Sewing Wrap Up

As 2012 comes to an end and we get ready to ring in 2013, I took some time to look at how much sewing I was able to accomplish.  While I traveled more for business this year than any other, I still managed to get quite a bit of sewing accomplished.  Here is what I sewed this year:


  • 59 book bags
  • 14 embroidered towels
  • 12 quilts
  • 11 pillowcases
  • 10 drink cozies
  •  8 table runners
  •  5 aprons
  •  5 lingerie bags
  •  5 laundry bags
  •  5 travel cord bags
  •  4 eyeglass cases
  •  3 shirts
  •  2 shoe bags
  •  2 tote bags
  •  2 scarves
  •  2 handbags
  •  1 embroidered baby bib
  •  1 credit card holder
  •  1 pillow
  •  1 sleeve board cover
  •  1 chemo cap from selvages
  •  1 travel iron carrier and pressing pad
  •  1 sewing chatelaine
  •  1 pin cushion
  •  1 yo yo Christmas garland
In addition to sewing down some of my stash with charity projects, I want to get more garment sewing accomplished in 2013.  I have signed up for a fitting retreat in February and many PR Review and Craftsy classes so I have new excuse.  Garment sewing, here we come!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Drink cozies

Gifts for my friends this Christmas - drink cozies.  Using machine embroidery, I made these in three messages:

Eat. Sleep. Sew.
Eat. Sleep. Quilt.
I'm outdoorsy in that I like getting drunk on patios.

The pattern is self-drafted by taking apart one of the cardboard sleeves as the base pattern, enlarging it and putting Velcro on both sides for closure.  In between the two fabric layers is a layer of insul-brite and cotton batting.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Paris apron

This fabric reminds me of a wonderful trip to Paris many years ago.  I gave it to my friend who joined me on the Paris trip.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Travel set gifts

More travel sets.  The fabric is from Joel Dewberry's line.  The print was too busy to have embroidery show up so I appliqued white onto the fabric then the embroidery.  Each travel set includes a laundry, lingerie, shoe, and charger cord bag.  I had enough of this fabric to make two sets.


Friday, December 21, 2012

Apron and matching towel

I love this reversible apron and made a towel to match.  It was the first time to use the flower design and I put it a little too high on the towel.


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas apron

A modern twist on the Christmas apron.  It turned out so cute I'm not sure I am going to be able to give this one away.


Monday, December 17, 2012

Eyeglass cases

 And for the fourth item of the travel set - eyeglass cases.  These coordinate with the laundry, lingerie, and charger cord bags.  I used a layer of batting between all layers.



Saturday, December 15, 2012

Mad Hatter pin cushion

This is the second project we did at the sewing Christmas party last weekend.  While the others in the group used wild colors and ribbons, I used sewing themed fabrics that I love.  It turned out pretty cute.  Note to self:  Since this pin cushion is so tall, only use large head pins and no needles.


Friday, December 14, 2012

Christmas towels

Got the embroidery machine out again.  These towels coordinate with the a couple of the aprons I made and will also work as hostess gifts for some parties left to attend.


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Sewing chatelaine

My annual Christmas sewing party with friends was last weekend and we made two projects.  This is the first project - a chatelaine (I hope I spelled this correct) to put around your neck while sewing.  You can see that I have a pin cushion, place to attach scissors, hold my stylus and seam ripper.  We each received some of the tape measure fabric and the felt yet each of our chatelaines turned out quite different.





Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Travel bags for charging cords

I am still working on the travel accessories for my co-worker gifts.  These bags are half fabric and half clear vinyl and are meant to hold charger cords for phones and iPads.  I used an in-the-hoop design from Anita Gooddesign for these and they went together pretty quick.



Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Laundry and lingerie bags

My work team travels a lot so I wanted to make something for the team members that would make travel easier or nicer.  Since I have traveled with them and we all use plastic bags now, I thought these would be a nice addition.  I will post later the additions I am planning for these gift sets.





Sunday, December 2, 2012

Embroidery club towel

I just joined the embroidery club at my local Baby Lock dealer where we meet once a month and do a project.  This towel is the December project and was created by embroidering over mylar to make the ornaments shiny.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Yo-Yo garland for Christmas tree

While sitting in hotel rooms watching TV at night, I turned some polyester fabric scraps into a yo-yo garland for the Christmas tree in my office.  I love how this turned out and have been getting lots of compliments from my coworkers.



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

First gift apron

This apron is for a going away present for a coworker who is leaving at the end of the week.  She loves to cook so this will be a perfect remembrance for her.  For this apron, pockets were created double sided with one pocket placed on each side.



Sample apron

One gift request this year was for aprons.  I wanted to try something different and tried a reversible apron as a sample before working on the gift ones.  Using a pattern by Mary Mulari, the only change made was cutting three inches off the bottom of each side and sewing on the bottom of each as trim.  Since this was for me, I didn't put on pockets.  The fabrics used were from my stash and while they were purchased decades apart, I think they coordinated together pretty good.



Monday, November 19, 2012

Cat wall hanging for Kate

I made this wall hanging back in February for Kate's birthday but since she reads this blog, I couldn't post the photo until today.  This was from a kit I found in Oregon last summer.  I added the border, backing and binding from my stash.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Book bags 56-59

This is the last of the book bags for a while.  I am quite pleased that I made 59 book bags for the local shelter.  I suppose I could make one more for an even 60 but I am over making book bags for the year.:)  I turn them in next week at the quilt guild meeting.  Work travel is almost done for the year so I hope to get back to sewing more soon.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Book bags 53-55

Another set of blue fabric bags.  The animal print should go over well.



Thursday, October 18, 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

Book bags 41-47

This is one of the blue groups of book bags for the shelter.  Hopefully some of these will work for boys as I mostly have fabric geared towards girls.




Monday, October 8, 2012

Book bags 38-40

There is very little novelty fabric in my stash but these made for cute book bags.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Book bags 30-37

Mom gave me a lot of her stash a couple years ago  This red and white polka dot was part of the stash.  I hope the shelter can use all of these bags.  More are coming.....

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Book bags 26-29

These bags are a little heavier than the others as they are made with or lined with denim.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Book bags 20-25

These are my favorite bags so far.  The cherry fabric is vintage Daisy Kingdom and they are lined with a red and white polka dot.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Book bags 17-19

As you can see, I ran across some 80's or 90's country fabrics in my stash for this group of bags.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Book bags 13-16

This is the green group of bags.  As you can see from the photo, I worked on these bags in my hotel room at night.  Found a way to carry a sewing machine in my briefcase for those rare trips where I have some free time in the evenings.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Book bags 8-12

These are my favorite bags.  The first one is a vintage Daisy Kingdom fabric and the second one has images of some pretty good desserts.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Book bags 5-7

These bags were made from some vintage fabric and I think they look cute.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Book bags 1-4

In an effort to reduce my scraps and stash, I decided to do more charity sewing.  Our guild is donating book bags to a local shelter so I decided this would be a good project to use up some fabric as well as scraps.  Here is the first four book bags.


Friday, September 14, 2012

Christmas Tree table runner

This table runner coordinates with the Christmas Present table runner and is another kit from Connecting Threads.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Christmas present table runner

I am getting organized for the office holiday decorating contest early by making some table runners to coordinate with the white tree with pink and green lights I bought last year.  This was a kit from Connecting Threads.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Blue, yellow and brown wall hanging

A kit from Connecting Threads for my fall decorating.  Not much time to sew lately and am starting to enjoy these quick finish projects.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Small blue wall hanging

This small wall hanging is yet another kit from Connecting Threads and coordinates with the lattice table runner.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Blue lattice tablerunner

This is from a kit from Connecting Threads I pieced at a sewing retreat last month and just got around to quilting and putting the binding on.


Sunday, September 9, 2012

Nine pillowcases for charity

I have been doing some sewing and just got around to taking photos of my projects.

Our quilt guild has been donating pillowcases to a local shelter.  I finally got around to making up some of the kits I picked up at a meeting earlier this year.  The main body and band were provided in the kit and we provided the trim.  I used up some yellow fabric in my stash.  My goal is to use up more stash this year as it just seems to grow and grow.