Monday, March 28, 2016

Catching Threads

A little thread catcher is always handy so I made some to have as a quick gift for friends.  I then started thinking of all the things one could "catch" and came up with this list
  • Pistachio shells as you eat them
  • Put on your desk to hold Staples that you remove from papers with the staples puller
  • Put in cup holder and catch Starbucks to go cup plastic plugs
  • Put by machine to catch binder clips as you take them off
The pattern was from the internet blog Fabric Therapy and was mostly hand sewing. I did some modification to do a bit more of it by machine sewing.
Pattern: http://fabrictherapy.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-tutorial-sweetest-little-thread.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/MJYPq+%28FABRIC+THERAPY%29

 



 My Machine Sewing changes:
  I made the bottom by sandwiching the circle and sewing on the machine


Cut two circles from medium weight cardboard (mine were some old postcards I had laying around) glued batting on each of them them glued them together

Put glued bottoms on fabric

Sandwiched

Used zipper foot to sew around bottom

Nice and easy

Pinked round  Bottom finished



  Followed pattern and used Pringles "can" for the inner ring.  After sewing the side I then folded up in half and inserted the ring.
Folded in half, ring ready to insert

Inserted ring
Then sewed the top together on the machine and hand stitched ring in place. (I did sew one of the rings on the machine, but was just too fiddly making my hand sewing oh so much quicker. )

Top matched at seam and clamped

Ready to sew together

(sorry lite is wonky) Sewing top

Top sewed all ready to slip in bottom and finish


Finished off by hand sewing the bottom in.


Ready to sew in the bottom


Now have a few that will make great gifts for crafty friends and others.

Still thinking of other things one can catch in this handy fold down tread catcher.
Behold it can catch M&Ms.
All ideas welcomed!

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Bunny Snack Table Runner

It is Spring and with the turn of the season also comes for our family the Easter season.  It is always a time of sadness for what our world caused for the one we call Lord to endure but greatest joy as to what our God gave us in the resurrection of our Lord.  No matter a person's belief there is still the beauty of Spring with the budding of a fresh new world after a sleepy Fall and Winter.  The Easter Bunny also has a big job of getting the eggs delivered and candy and gifts.  Bunnies can get hungry what with all the hopping so we leave snacks to keep the bunny going.  Jelly beans, cookies, carrot cake, chocolate...well most anything sugary yummy and we want to make sure the bunny can see quickly where to hop and snack.  To ensure the bunny sees it I made a giant carrot from the pattern All People Quilt  (After seeing how cute I made 4 more for my kid's families and my BFF)  A big plus with this project is I got to use a lot of orange fabric scraps and using scraps is always a good thing. 

Flip & Sew Carrot Table Runner

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/table-runners/flip-sew-carrot-table-runner

Stash for orange fabric

Strips all cut ready to sew

All done - one of five I made

back looking good for this quilt as you go pattern

one already delivered, three to be mailed and one stays with me...the Bunny needs a place for snacks here too.


Thursday, March 3, 2016

Medallion Center for Fort Worth MQG...behold the rainbow

The Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild has a medallion quilt "round robin" going. It is not a round robin where others add borders but every month we add a border, to our own center to get our name in for a drawing each time and there will be a grand prize at the end.  It is nice as there is no pressure to have to do a certain amount of borders or a certain style/pattern but the idea and an example to follow or embrace is on the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild site as they did this last year. I love the rainbow/color wheel quilts with a bit of color blocking and began mine with this in mind.
“This quilt was made using an Autumn Street pattern.” link to the shop:  www.thingsforboys.com/shop


the center block is 18" finished
Now working on the next round...