Category: Sewing

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Flannel Blankets

I love flannel blankets for babies. They are so warm, cuddly and comforting. These three were made for baby boys with their bright colors and woven plaids.

My favorite a Stewart plaid. #612014-03-01 13.30.15

This beautiful blue, black and white plaid. #622014-03-01 13.32.39

#63

2014-03-01 13.31.57I love the black in this plaid. These are pre-washed for softness and hemmed for durability. They are woven with the different colors so both sides are exactly the same print.  The shop has bibs to match and would make a great baby shower gift set.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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60 Items and Counting

I never thought that I would reach this number quite so quickly. I wondered if I would be able to create even 50 items. Here I am sitting at 60. Here is a quick look at them all.

I am glad that I challenged myself to the 100 items in 100 days Challenge. I have used quite a few supplies. I am also a little staggered at how much I still have. While I have run out of a few key elements like the batting I use in the coffee cozies, pot holders, and cup sleeves. I have used up three spools of white thread and quite a few buttons. I have given to a teacher friend my rubber stamps, stamp pads and card stock for use in her classroom. I removed several vintage tea towels to use in my kitchen. I still have an excess of supplies sitting in my studio. I am wondering if I could continue the challenge to use up even more supplies in my shop. I would need to buy the batting I need though, I would NOT need to buy any yarn for quite awhile. I have enough yarn to last until June, August or even October, barring any flights of creativity.

I have been challenged to think outside the box and to use what I already have rather than rush out the store when I am low on creativity. While, I do pin ideas to my Pinterest boards, I try to use those ideas as a spring board for my own creativity. I have three or four  several things in the works for the next couple of weeks.

  • I still need to baste and quilt the quilt top
  • I have at least two or three crochet blankets in the works
  • I have three or four crochet patterns that I need to write up and publish
  • I have the supplies to create another weekender bag and the pattern free from the internet
  • I can crochet a ton of fingerless gloves, scarves and maybe hats! I am not fond of hats as everyone’s head is a very different size.
  • I have some small sewing ideas floating around in my head as well.

We will see what happens as I will have a full house next week as it is Spring Break for the college girl and she is bringing her room mates home for the week. The other kids also have Spring break at the same time so it will be a  busy week full of food, fun and laughter. I hope the weather cooperates as a hot dog roast/marshmallow toasting are in the works, along with some trips to museums in the area and of course bargain shopping! May you have a great week! It is icy and snowing here today as I write this, but by the time you read this it should be warm and sunny.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Scarves, scarves, scarves!

When cleaning out the studio last week, I ran across a bunch of lovely silky fabric. It wasn’t anything that I would sew as it tends to spit out the pins as you sew. It is way above my comfort level to sew with and was given to me by both my Mother in Law and my Mom. I had been on a recent shopping trip with my teenage daughter and noticed that infinity scarves and scarves in general were the latest thing. (They have probably been the latest thing for quite awhile.)  I had enough to create a variety of different scarves. Some are infinity and some are not. I am counting these for the challenge.

I made an infinity scarf out of the beautiful green, black and blue optical print.

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I made two of these long rectangular scarves with this lovely black fringe from my supplies. They came out quite nice.

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I also made an infinity scarf out of the same fabric. It reminds me of storm clouds.2014-03-01 13.40.48

This is a beautiful silky feel window pane plaid of purple, green and red on a blue background. While I was taking the photos I found an alternate way to wear it. A simple pull through knot.

2014-03-01 13.41.44So five scarves would be numbers #56, 57, 58, 59, 60! I haven’t decided if these will be in listed in the shop or for personal use. We will see!

talk to you later,

Karen

 

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100 Items in 100 Days Challenge: The downhill slide!

I bought a ton of these embroidery hoops on Ebay last year. They have been hanging around the studio cluttering it up. It was time to make some cute hoop art with them and move them out of storage into my shop. When I was cleaning I found some beautiful largish vintage linen scraps, non-vintage linen, and some white cotton fabric. So they are:  #51 Snail Mail

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#52 Red Tulips2014-03-01 11.15.52

#53 Sing for Joy!

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#54 Another Snail Mail

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#55 A little Sunshine!

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They are cute and should do well in the shop. They will be listed in the shop this week, so keep checking back. www.chocolatedogstudio.com They were fun to make and my favorites are the red tulips and the snail mails.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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#49 and #50!

It has been awhile since I posted in my 100 items in 100 days. I have been working on it nearly every day. I have just not had time to post photos of my work. It will be another couple days until I can sit down and take some great photos. It has also been overcast and cloudy, which makes for drab and dull photos. I will leave you with these quick pictures I took of some embroidery hoops I am working on. I am in the process of using up these embroidery hoops. As you can see there are so very many that need to be used!

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So these would numbers 49 and 50, which makes me half way there and on the downhill slope of the Challenge. I never thought I would be able to get this far but this is working out quite well! I have been forced to think outside the box and work on bit and small projects for my shop! It has been exciting to sit down and sew everyday.  I have made about 10 or more items that I need to photograph so I can show you.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Scrap Busting with Quilts

IMG_0994-001Quilts are a time honored way to use scraps. These quilts were made by the women in my family, Grandmothers and Great- Grandmothers and I think one Great-Great Grandmother.

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This sun bonnet sue is one of my favorites.

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My Grandma was a member of a quilting group. They would meet once a week or month and quilt the top of a member’s quilt.  It was a social time and also a time to get much needed work done. These quilts were made for use and they kept the family warm on the cold winter nights.  My Aunts can sit down and tell you where each piece of fabric came from. They came from a time when women made their own clothes and skill with a needle and thread was valued. My Mom taught me to sew and I am teaching my girls or at least making sure they learn the basics.  Sewing is expensive  these days unlike my Grandmothers’ days when everyone had to have some skill at sewing.

I have been thinking about sewing some quilts with my scraps. I have sewn one quilt top that is just strips of fabric but the more complicated patterns are calling to me. I need to baste all the layers together but I keep putting it off.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Friday!

I have several ideas rolling around in my head to sew today. A couple of receiving blankets, pot holders, another coffee press cozy and then some things to finish up. I have a quilt to layout and baste. I have some other wrist warmers I can crochet, grey, yellow and brown and maybe navy. I want to make some place mats for the shop and more potholders.  There is decidedly too much to do and not enough time to get things done. I am feeling overwhelmed. It seems no matter how much I use up what I have there are still tons of supplies to use. Here are a few photos to prove the point. Yes, it is really a mess but I have been cleaning and these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of supplies in my studio.There are several laundry baskets of yarn, 6-7 large plastic tubs of fabric. I have received 5-6 large plastic tubs and drawer units of fabric from my MIL’s long term stash of items. It is overwhelming me. The little things that I keep making only seems to be making more scraps that take up more and more room! I need to clean the studio this weekend and make order out of creative chaos! So, that is my plan for the weekend and hopefully I will also get some items cut out and ready to go! The good news is that I do have enough of what is needed to make another weekender bag, maybe two!

talk to you later,

Karen

NOTE: So that you know I am human and weird things happen to us. We now have a water leak that requires repairs. So, I will be cleaning up the mess today and probably tomorrow after the repairs are done.

NOTE: I am cleaning the studio and why oh why must it look worse before it looks better….? 2014-02-21 13.10.26But it is improving…slowly but surely. The house is repaired and running properly.

The cleaning is coming along slowly but it is getting done. I am trying to integrate my MIL’s fabric with my fabric so I am not buying things I don’t need. I would rather just sew it all up and get it out of my hair. Cleaning craft supplies drives me crazy.

 

 

 

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The Overnight bag #48 out of 100

I love these overnight bags or weekender bags as they are called. I really needed one as I travel  more frequently for overnight stays rather than week long trips. The wheeled suitcase that we used when adopting our youngest is OLD and huge. In fact hubs and I can both use it for a weekend or longer! I had this fabric in my stash.

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Here is another photo of the main fabric I chose.

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I had the zipper, piping, lining and inner liner all there sitting in my stash. I drew up my own pattern and the sewing and then ripping out commenced! I found that it is easiest to baste by hand the parts you are sewing together.

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Here is the finished bag and I am happy with it.

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There are a few things I would change next time. I would buy a pattern that comes complete with instructions. I would baste everything from the beginning by hand. I do like the way it turned out and I even put some pockets on the inside. I would also buy the metal feet that fit on the bottom and keep it off the ground.

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You can just see them inside here. There are three and they are nice and deep. My laptop will fit with my clothes. The cords will slide into those deep pockets. The handles of the bag are long enough to fit over my shoulder but not so long that the bag drags the floor when I carry it by hand (which can be a problem when you are short!) I found a pattern for another weekender bag that is for free and I think I am going to try to make another one in different fabric!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Pot holder Tutorial/pattern

I had some questions about these pot holders that I made for my daughter.

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I am not big on piecing tons of tiny squares so I found this tutorial on Sew Mamma Sew that sent me here: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2009/10/elizabeths-fabric-focus-quick-piece-tiny-squares/

Basically you line the squares up on iron on interfacing (sticky side up) and iron them down. Then follow her tutorial for stitching them together.

At the time I thought that I would make some place mats (yes, we do have that many squares). I put them aside (for months) until I was making pot holders this weekend. When I decided to see if they would work better for pot holders. Then I simply cut them into 9″ squares placed them on top of one piece of batting and quilted the front of each pot holder. I cut the backings to fit and placed them over another piece of batting and quilted each back of the pot holder. I added small pieces of ribbon for the hanger loops to each corner and basted them in place. I like basting better than pining. It isn’t as hard on my sewing machine to sew over.

If you need to see the tutorial I used it is here: http://www.mygirlthursday.com/2011/05/diy-scrap-busting-pot-holders.html

They worked out quite well! I’m sorry I don’t have any photos but I was on a sewing kick and I needed to get a bunch done! So this isn’t really my tutorial but a combination of several techniques!

 

talk to you later,

Karen