~For a friend~

Ever since I have seen the "Disappearing Nine-Patch" quilts around the sewing blogs, I have wanted to make one. The perfect opportunity came when my friend was having a baby shower. Only thing--I didn't quite finish it in time for the shower. Oh well...a little late was just fine. The baby still isn't here anyhow! :-)

Do you know who Paddington Bear is? I didn't. Since I'm not "up" on all the cartoons and characters, I asked the lady in the fabric store who Paddington Bear was. According to her, everyone should know who he is. (Well, excuse me!)


Paddington Bear

So one drizzly, gray afternoon, I snipped away with my scissors:



And then I made my nine patches. Each nine patch had a blue center square.



(And then I forgot to take any more pictures of the process! LOL)

After making the nine patches, you cut them in fourths, and then sew them back together again (tutorial found here). You can sew them randomly, as this quilter did (scroll down), or you can sew them in a pattern, like this. I chose to sew them into a pattern.

And this is the finished quilt! I really adore this quilt. It was a very fun project.





I finished it off by tying it with embroidery floss. Hand quilting would have been nice, but I wanted to get it to my friend before her son is in college! ;-)

While I was making this quilt, I was thinking of Hawaiian quilting. When American missionaries went to the Hawaiian islands, one of the things they did was teach the women to quilt. The Hawaiian women thought that the whole process of cutting and restructuring the fabric was a serious waste of time and fabric. So they came up with their own style of quilting.


(Image source)

I'm sure the Hawaiians would have thought this quilt even more laborious than the missionaries patterns! First you cut and sew, then you cut and sew again! But it is much faster to do it this way, then it would be to sew all those little rectangles and tiny squares together!

~Oh rats, I'm out of zippers!~

I've made two little zippered pouches, the one I showed you yesterday, and one previous to that. I was pleased with both, but the zipper end bugged me, where it curved way in, instead of being straight all the way across the top.

Through a Google search and a walk during lunch I figured out how to make it straight:



I love these little pouches! The only thing stopping me from making more is lack of zippers!

~Little Zippered Pouch~

To go in my new purse, and keep my lip balm and lipstick handy, a little zippered pouch, with vinyl pocket:




I followed the tutorial found here. The only thing I did differently was to install the zipper close to the zipper teeth, and I left off the ring, since I won't be attaching it to anything. It's a quick, fun little project. I used scraps left from my fabric win from Sew, Mama, Sew!

~Tea Cozy~

Last November, Jodi posted about "window shopping" for tea products, and it further enhanced a desire I had to have a tea cozy.

My sisters and brother gave Kevin and me a beautiful tea set for our wedding. They purchased it at an antique store, and it includes: a teapot, a sugar and creamer, six teacups with saucers, a serving plate, and six plates that are a bit larger than the saucers.

I think the tea cozies here are just lovely. They seemed so expensive to me, especially since I can sew.

I purchased a pattern at JoAnn's when they were on sale, and thought about what fabric I would like to use. Remember the fabric I won from Sew, Mama, Sew!? One night I yawned and dragged myself out of the living room to get ready for bed. The next time Kevin saw me, I was sitting on the sewing room floor, with a huge smile on my face, cutting out fabric! LOL It dawned on me that the fabric just might work for a tea cozy!

And it did:



Won't you have a spot of tea with me?

~Blue Bag~

My latest sewing project:

~Fabulous Fabric~

A little over a month ago, I was hopping about blogs, and came across Sew, Mama, Sew. It is a fun blog with lots of sewing inspiration. And a "Free Fabric Friday" every single week. I actually won fabric a few weeks ago!

Four gorgeous fat quarters, just waiting for me to do something with them:




Any ideas? I've never bought or used fat quarters before. Not that I haven't used scraps...but I do not want to waste an inch of this fabric!

~Dishtowel Aprons~

Once again, my two youngest sisters are going to profit from my blog hopping. *Smiles*

I found this tutorial, and couldn't resist making some darling little aprons!



I found a package of three cheerful dishtowels on clearance for $1.99. One of the aprons has trim across the top, which was 50% off. Each apron takes almost a whole package of wide double fold bias tape. It wasn't on sale, but bias tape isn't expensive.



If you have a little girl in your life, and you know how to sew a straight line, she needs you to make one for her. *Grin* It is a quick, fun, inexpensive project!

~Scotty X 2~

My newest crafting venture:


Softies!


Pattern here.

These little doggies need some names. Any suggestions?

~Valentine's Table Runner~

I've been in a sewing/crafting mood lately, and last Thursday night found me cutting and sewing. I made this runner using scrap fabric I already had, and two heart-shaped doilies that I bought years ago.



For each end, I used scraps with pink and red in them. It's very Valentiney!