Tag: sewing

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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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# 47 of 100 items in 100 days!

I made these pretty pot holders for my daughter. I will store them for her until she needs them. She cut them out for her quilt and they were left over. They are  bright and colorful.

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Talk to you later,

Karen

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#39- 46 of 100 items in 100 days Challenge!

Here is a huge addition to my 100 items in 100 days Challenge! I was super productive today and many things were started and finished! A huge Thanks to my Mom! She gave me some elastic so I could stay out of the fabric stores!

So here is # 39

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#40

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#41

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#42

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#43

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#44

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And a couple of pot holders that I finished last week but never counted!

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#46

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Thanks, Mom!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Note: Almost all of these are listed in my Etsy shop: www.chocolatedogstudio.etsy.com

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Rats, rats…. and double Rats!

Rats… the fabric I thought was 100% cotton muslin isn’t. There just isn’t any other way around it. It isn’t 100% cotton and it won’t wear well as a quilt, if it isn’t. I am not sure about the pedigree of some of the other larger pieces of fabric. The ones that are 100% cotton are patterned pastel florals, strong stripes, super dark polka dots. None that work with what I am trying to do…which is quilt. I almost have the top done but now I need to wait until April! Unless the fabric fairy comes to visit, which is really not likely and totally against the rules I set at the beginning of the 100 items in 100 days Challenge. So bah!  I might be able to make a baby quilt, or placemats, or pot holders etc… I could make quilt tops but they wouldn’t be finished and that is the key to the whole challenge. I feel a bit lost, and this is a definite monkey wrench in the whole works. I need to regroup and see what else I can do with my scraps. Hmmm, I see some Pinteresting in my future as I pin, unpin repin things!

talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. Almost all of the larger pieces of fabric that I got from my Super organized MIL’s stash was labeled with fabric content and quantity. She was amazing.

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100 items in 100 days: # 23 – 29

Yesterday was productive. I finished up quite a few Use Your Stash projects and thought about others.

Here are the ones that I completed along with the back story.

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When I was a young teenager, my Mom made these stars for our Christmas tree.  Parts of the stars were made from scraps of clothing she made for me. I have always wanted to make some for our tree but lacked the skills to get the points to turn out nice in the center.

Finally, I have made them and I do like them. I made five of them and will probably make more in different colors.

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So, there are my Christmas stars ornaments. I made five out of scraps in my scrap bin. They count in my 100 items in 100 days and make up numbers 23 – 28! Yay!

I also finished a cute crochet pin cushion and I will post a photo later. Here is the photo of it in process.

IMG_1508Which makes number 29!

Woohoo! Only  79  or correctly 71 more items left, today is not a good math day!

Talk to you later,

Karen