You see, I’m trying to get myself together to have a “Grand Opening/Re-Opening” of my Etsy store.  I’m not the best at churning out several pieces that are all the same or even similar.  I get bored with them easily and need to move on to something else.  But I wanted to get together some stock that I could list in the shop all at one time and feel proud of the accomplishment.  So, the kaleidoscope pieces that you saw a few posts ago are for some throw pillows that I hope to have ready to sell.  And I’m working on some wonderous totes from a repurposed bedspread that I picked up on my Stash Enhancement eXpedition.  I just received an order of emery sand to make pin cushions for sale and have started cutting out strips to make flower brooches and barrettes/fascinators.  I’m working on writing up the pattern for my reversible crutch covers, and lastly, but not leastly, I even have a few small art quilts to list.  There. It’s out there now, so I have to make it a reality, right?

Now on to the important part of this post.  You see, I was working on those wonderous totes that I mentioned above and this happened:

I have said many times that sewing is a very dangerous activity.  No one seems to believe me, despite the burn scars on my arms from reaching around the iron and the millions of pin pricks on my fingers. It’s a wonder that I have all of my limbs and the house hasn’t burned down yet. So I’m here with this public service announcement.  Kids, do as I say, not as I do. Never pin your pieces on the back where you can’t see the pins. And don’t sew over your pins, even when they’re pinned on the front and you can see where they are relative to your stitching path. Just don’t do it. Also, don’t reach around a hot iron. And maybe wear a thimbles on each of your fingers when you are pinning.

Thank you and goodnight.

Strictly speaking, this was not a holiday gift.  My dad’s birthday falls just a few days prior to Christmas and, because I understand how much it must suck to get a load of Christmas ‘n’ birthday combined gifts each year, I make a concerted effort to give him one gift for each. This year’s birthday gift was a pirate ship necktie.

Now, be honest, a necktie is kind of a lame gift. But a handmade necktie?  It kind of rocks. I used the Osman Tie pattern from burdastyle.com (http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/osman-tie) – it is available in a PDF download for all of $2.  The most painful part of the whole process was taping the pattern together and then copying it out onto pattern paper. I do HIGHLY recommend this step, though. Pattern paper is much easier to deal with than taped together printer paper.

I used cotton, not tie silk; and to make matters “worse” it was quilter’s cotton – already relatively thick and stiff on its own. I also didn’t buy tie interlining, but used a piece of suiting that I had on hand  as suggested in the pattern instructions. The whole thing went together in the matter of an afternoon. I ended up leaving out the interlining all together – the quilter’s cotton was so thick it was unnecessary.

Just a couple lessons learned on this one: don’t just eyeball where the design is on the material. As you can see from my photo, I only ended up with one little pirate ship on the front of the tie because I thought I had it lined up correctly, but I didn’t check. Also, if and when I make this again, I’ll move the stay up a little — the skinny side of the tie is a little short to stay in my stay.

Welcome to the first in my series of holiday gift posts! I handed these cute little pouches out last night to our daycare providers during their holiday party.  I wish I could take credit for the design, but I can’t – they came from Quilting Arts Magazine special Gifts issue (2009/2010).  The pattern was designed by Margarete Steinhauer and appears on page 132 of the mag (almost all the way at the back).  The pouches are circular, drawstring, lined with coordinating fabrics, and contain 8 small pockets to store pieces of jewelry; or anything else that you might want to store. They fit perfectly in a gift box for a standard-sized mug.

Drafting a pattern from instructions in a magazine is always a little fiddly. I needed to be able to draw 4 different circle sizes and I do not have a compass; even if I did, I doubt I would have had one that would make a large enough circle for this tote.  Instead, I opted for my measurements to be a teeny bit off and ended up using a dinner plate for the outer circle, a largish mixing bowl for the drawstring channel, a pasta bowl for the inner/pocket circle and finally, a tiny mis en plase bowl for the base circle.  The bowls I used for my inner circle and my base circle were exactly right, the outer circle and drawstring channel were slightly off.  Luckily, this did not cause any problems with the final outcome.

Jewelry Pouch – inside
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I made seven of these little pouches; the first two as a prototype – once those were done, and I understood how the pattern was supposed to fit together and work, it was easy enough to throw together the other five via the Assembly Line method. I had all of the awesome matching fabrics on hand in my stash, and even the little bits of heavy interfacing needed for the base. The only thing I DID have to buy was the rat tail for the drawstrings. I am absolutely positive that I have a large spool of rat tail somewhere in my sewing room, but it beats me where I put it.  I did not buy enough rat tail so that the pouches will lie flat when opened – I didn’t think it was necessary and I didn’t like the idea that the drawstrings would be so long when the pouches were closed up tight. Overall, I think I would be happy to get one of these as a gift…I really hope the teachers are too!

A close friend of mine found an local interior decorator who was moving offices/going out of business/changing things up (we’re not quite clear exactly what the situation is) and was invited to take a look at the stuff that the interior decorator was getting rid of. She was astonished to find that ”stuff” included ROOMS full of fabric: samples, yardage, upholstery, silk, cottons…

My friend kindly invited me to join her yesterday for some free S.E.X. (if she knew that that is what it is called, I think she would unfriend me immediately) and I happily agreed, though I have to admit I was a touch skeptical. We arrived, and the decorator informed us that we were last on her priority list, first being her staff, second being charity and third, us. This was FINE WITH ME.

The fabric selection was astounding. Being a quilter, I could happily take even the small sample-sized fabric squares. By the time I left, I had 3 trash bags FULL of fabric & even a number of beautiful trims, and they STILL hadn’t finished clearing out the back room. Of course, it turns out that the fabrics I really wanted were in the back of the back room. My wonderfully, amazingly, awesomely fantastic friend volunteered to go back today and pack up even more fabric for me, along with some pillow forms and other wonderful things.

Last night I cut open my garbage bags and sat in my living room sorting fabric.  Quilters cottons, tiny pieces, medium pieces, yardage, shears, other, and trims.  I have ideas for about 50% of it. 

Keep your eyes out for some fabulous carpet bags and vintage style baby quilts to appear in my etsy shop soon!

I finished the grocery bags today. Seven ugly-fabulous bags to collect our groceries in for as long as they should last! I actually have an 8th bag cut out and ready to sew, but I don’t have enough cotton webbing left for the straps.

Of course, it would be most helpful if we remembered to BRING the new bags when we went on our grocery shopping outing this evening.

Oh well.

My new fabrics from Equilter arrived! Also, my new Vogue patterns arrived AND I went to the awesome vintage store and got buttons with toadstools and four leaf clovers on them. How could the day get any better?