Have you signed up for my first giveaway? Hurry, I'll be drawing next Thursday, April 15th. Leave me a comment to win!
We are experiencing one of the worst pollen weeks I've seen in a few years. It is always bad this time of year, but this year we haven't had any rain to wash it away. Look for yourself!
I wet down the hose to show you what the deck and hose should look like.
This is the mat on my covered front porch with foot prints from the UPS guy. I had to wipe off the box when I got it in the house, it was covered in green yuck!
It makes me feel gritty just looking at it. I guess I'll try a rain dance.
I am very excited to announce my very first giveaway! I also just sent out my very first newsletter, and to celebrate I am going to give away a completed Kangaroo Tote (below) and pattern to one lucky person.
The Kangaroo Tote folds into its own pouch/pocket and is very easy to make. It is lightweight and portable so you can clip it onto your belt loop or purse and have a shopping bag at your fingertips when it’s needed. It is best to use a fabric that looks the same on both sides like a Batik. All of the seams are finished so there are no raw edges showing anywhere. The pattern includes 3 different styles to choose and is not lined.
Shopping Tote – Use this when you go to the mall and add your purchases to one bag and leave the paper and plastic bags behind. Of course this can be used at the grocery store!
Drawstring Bag – This is great to bring with you on vacation to put your dirty laundry in, or fill with small toys for the kids in the car.
Drawstring Backpack – I use this style anytime I want my hands free but still want carry a few things with me.
Below are pictures of the steps to fold up your Kangaroo Tote for travel.
Step 1. Place bag pocket side down on a table
Step 2. Fold down handles onto bag, and fold each side of the bag over towards the center.
The folds will be up against the pocket.
Step 3. Fold the top and bottom of the bag towards the center butting up against the pocket.
The folded bag will be the same size as the pocket at this point
Step 4. Reach inside of the pocket while grabbing all of the folded parts and turn the pocket wrong side out, placing the folded bag inside the pocket.
Step 5. Kangaroo Tote all folded up! This view shows the inside of the pocket, which shows when the tote is folded and I embroidered the Laurel Burch design on it.
To enter the drawing for a Kangaroo Tote and pattern, do one or all of the following to enter.
Leave a comment on this blog. (1 entry)
Become a follower of the blog (2 entries)
Subscribe to the newsletter (1 entry)
Blog about this giveaway and link to my blog post (3 entries)
The drawing will be on April 15th at 9:00am EST, so you have time to tell all your friends to take a look and enter. Maybe you will get a happy suprise on tax day!
Click on the word "comment" below to enter the contest.
There is this really cool program "thingy" (that's a technical term) that I found on Google to follow “something or someone”. It’s called Google Alerts. It’s kind of cool and scary at the same time. For instance, if you want to follow the news on George Clooney (and who wouldn’t) you can add his name to Google Alerts and every time there is something on the web about him, you will be notified.
So….I have done that with all of my pattern names, Professional Tote, Kangaroo Tote, Janet’s Jewelry Case, etc. to see if anyone is talking about my patterns out there. I have found a few blogs and web sites that have mentioned my patterns. The scary part is that I can do this at all!! I feel like I am snooping around where I shouldn’t be. I can thankfully say that everything that I have seen have been nice comments.
The word professional from the Professional Tote pattern gets lots of hits so I get things sent to me that have nothing to do with my patterns, and Janet’s Jewelry Case always brings in stories about Janet Jackson. It’s kind of fun snooping around!
Here are a few people and websites that are working on making my patterns.
I promised more flap ideas and this one is super easy and was actually done by one of my students during a class I taught.
She has sewn Rick Rack diagonally across the front of a flap and then interspersed a few buttons in- between. This could be done on a Decor Bond base or a batting base. Put a large scale print or holiday print on the other side of the flap and it will be reversible.
This is so quick and easy that you could make it today and use it tonight for your guild meeting.
Dear Anonymous!
You asked, "I would like to know if any of you have made the Professional Tote using an iron-on light-weight batting instead of decor bond. I would assume I would have to quilt or stipple the two layers together."
The tote would look great with quilted fabric, BUT, make sure you only quilt the main fabric. You can put a muslin backing on it or just quilt together with the fabric and the batting, the lining will cover the back side of your quilting. The bag will be softer when finished then it would be with Decor Bond and it will be like a pair of jeans and get softer with use. Make sure to Decor Bond the contrast fabric and lining fabric as stated in the pattern.
My DH and I took a weekend trip to Charlotte, NC. It is about a 2 1/2 hour driving trip for us and we just wanted to get away. There is a new IKEA store there and I wanted to look around. I had never been to one before and heard great things about it. We started off with breakfast at IKEA's cafeteria, what a bargin. They were having a special, buy one breakfast and get one free. We each had scrambled eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, hash brown potatoes and 3 French toast sticks, coffee, one orange juice and we spilt a 5" round cinnamon bun. The total for all of that was $5.97. Wow, we were impressed and it was delicious, especially the cinnamon bun! I love to organize things almost as much as I like to sew and they have so many things to help you do that. I managed to only spend $42.00, but came home with lots of ideas.
There just happens to be the biggest fabric store near Charlotte in Gastonia. Mary Jo's fabric store. If you live in the tri state area of South Carolina, Tenn and NC and haven't been there, you need to go. This store used to be a large grocery store and is now a fabric store. They have every kind of fabric that you can think of and laces and trims to match. If you watch Project Runway on television, it is NC's version of Mood Fabrics. Anyway, DH let me wander through the aisles of MaryJo's for almost an hour. It's hard looking at fabric when "he" is following you around like a puppy dog, but I did make a few small purchases.
We then went to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens in Belmont, NC (just west of Charlotte) and happened upon a small quilt show. There is a beautiful Orchid Conservatory at the garden and the quilt show was inspired by the Orchids. "Fiber Art Options" is a group of 7 artists in the Charlotte area that work with fabric, paper and thread. These artists took pictures of the orchids and used them as inspiration for their quilts.
Purple Phalaenopsis by Susan Brubaker Knapp
Cymbidium by Linda Stegall
Orchid Pictures by Deborah M. Langsam
This purplish orchid quilt above is made up of 1/2" photo squares, hundreds of them. The picture just above is a close up view of the upper left corner of the quilt. Every picture is an orchid. SPECTACULAR!!
The quilt below is the black and white version of the same orchid above, with all the same pictures in black and white.
Freckles by Susan Brubaker Knapp
The Daniel Stowe Gardens are beautiful. Last weekend there wasn't much blooming, but the gardens, fountains and walkways were still wonderful. Here are a few pictures that I took in the Orchid Observatory and the grounds. Maybe I will be inspired to make an orchid quilt, too!
It was fun to get away for the weekend, we hope to do it again soon.
Well it's about time I posted some flap ideas for the "As You Like It" Purse. I have procrastinated too long!
This first idea is a Western theme, but could be used with any fabrics or trim to change the look. Below is one I made with Western fabrics a concha and fringe. The directions below with make a reversible flap. Two, two flaps in one!! Two for the price of one... you get the idea!
PRINT THE YOKE TEMPLATE BELOW
Click on the orange Menu Tab on the left side of the document and choose Print.
The purple flap shown below has a beaded trim instead of the fringe.
Step 1. Pick three fabrics for your flap. 1 for the front, 1 for the yoke and 1 for the back and a piece of batting the same size as the flap, using the measurements included in the pattern as a guide, I rough cut out all of the pieces so I have some room to play with. I used a large print for the back and fussy cut it to show the design.
I also traced my yoke pattern onto a piece of template plastic so I could see through it, but paper is fine. Trace around the pattern onto your yoke fabric, but do not cut it out yet.
Back of flap - rough cut around the edges.
Step 2. Take the traced yoke fabric and sew 1/4" away from your traced line along the curved edge only. Now you can cut out the yoke along the traced line.
With a hot iron, turn under 1/4" seam allowance right along the line of stitches you just made. I actually press the stitches to the underside of the yoke. The stitches allow you to turn a very precise edge and no clipping of curves is needed.
Step 3. Stack your fabrics together with the Backing fabric face down on the table, then add the batting on top of that and the Flap fabric (purple on mine) face up. I spray basted the layers together. Place pressed yoke fabric on top of the flap positioned where you would like it. The yoke pattern piece is sized for the large bag, and needs to be centered left to right on your flap. The edges will hang over if you are making a smaller purse. All of my pieces so far are rough cut so you don't have to worry about matching anything except the center (left to right) and make sure the yoke fabric goes close to the top of your flap fabric. The center point of my yoke is about 1/2" to an 1" above the center of the flap (top to bottom).
Pin any trim that you want to add under the folded edge of the yoke.
Step 4. Stitch the yoke through all of the fabric layers in place very close to the folded edge of the yoke with your zipper foot. Position the zipper foot to the right of your needle as shown below.
I sewed a second row of stitches along the folded edge of the yoke.
Below the beaded trim, I added some echo quilting following the curved edge of the yoke. Draw a chalk line down the center of the front flap and that will help you know when to pivot your stitching.
Step 5. Use the Flap template from the pattern for the size purse you are making and cut your flap down to the finished size. Follow the steps in the pattern on page 12, Step 15 for making the buttonholes. Finish your flap with bias binding following Step 12 in the pattern. Make sure you use bias binding so you can sew around the corners of the flap.
Note: I sewed my bias binding on the back side of the flap and then turned it to the front side and machine stitched the binding in place from the front.
Bias tape sewn to back side of flap.
Completed back of flap
Front of flap before sewing binding in place.
Completed Flap - Front View
I look forward to adding more designs in the NEAR future! Promises, promises!:)
