Anyone Can Quilt

A handmade gift.

I recently purchased this great book.  I love it.  It is great for beginners and has so many fabulous patterns.  There are clothes, tote bags, pillows, curtains, and even a dog coat.  I bought this one along with Sew U, because of my sudden and irrational (for me) urge to make clothes.  Go to Amazon and buy this book right now if you want a great sewing book with tons of helpful info.  

The pattern for this sweet elephant is in this book.  I'm so glad I bought this book when I did.  Just in time for me to make the perfect gift for our sweet little friend who had her 3rd birthday this weekend.  The instructions were clear and straightforward, and this little gal went together pretty quickly.  The elephant pattern comes in two sizes, this is the Mommy size.  My girls each want one in the Baby size.  I decided to add a nice fabric bow to finish her off.  But wasn't in love with it, so I changed it to a pink grosgrain ribbon with turquoise ric rac. 

I think she is going to be well loved.  x

making mama proud.

My Mother is a seamstress.  She can sew anything, and sew it beautifully.  When I decided that I wanted to learn to sew years ago she was so exited!  But I've never had an interest in sewing clothes.....whatsoever.  The thought has always given me hives.  But, I found a couple of wonderful books that make me actually exited about making clothes.  One of them is Sew U, by Wendy Mullin.  I know many of you have heard of it.  The book takes beginners step by step through making cute and simple skirts, shirts and pants.  Clothes patterns have always confused me and I thought were a bit vague for someone who was looking at them for the first time.  But this book explains it all.  I also discovered that pattern sizes are nowhere near ready to wear sizes that you get at clothes stores.  I wear an 8 in most of my clothes, (still hanging on to some 6's... damn it.)  But when I take my measurements and look at the size chart for a clothes pattern,  apparently I wear a size 400.  It's a real confidence booster.  But, after a bit of simple sewing, I made my first skirt!  And it fits!  Even though it's a size 410.  I even put in a zipper.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mom!  (just kidding, Mama doesn't smoke a pipe...she quit years ago....kidding again...)

Voila!  A simple a-line skirt.  Now, there are three things I'd like you to notice about this picture.

1.  The kitty feet.
2.  My pasty white legs. 
3.  My horrid flip flop tan lines on my feet.  I wear jeans and flip flops a lot.  Fancy.

I learned a neato tip in one of my new books, not sure which one at the moment.  But, it was great.  To make your fragile tissue paper pattern pieces more sturdy and longer lasting, you can iron fusible interfacing to the back of them!  Then you can hang them in a closet to save for next time.  Genius!

I am wearing this skirt today and it is so comfy, and it came together in an evening.  I see many more in my future.  x

 

A hand smocked dress for Kewpie.

Look at this little sweetie in her hand smocked dress.  I bought two little handmade smocked dresses when my friend M.T. and I got to go to Quilt Festival in Houston TX, about....say....six years ago.  Six years!!!!!  Wow, I can't believe it's been that long.  It was amazing.  We had so much fun buying fabric and quilt kits, and taking in all of the amazing quilts.  I came across a sweet booth with hand smocked baby clothes.  And there were these teeny doll dresses.  I decided to get a couple of the dresses for my little girls.  My youngest is an animal girl.  She doesn't like too many dolls.  She likes her American Girl doll, but doesn't play with her on a regular basis.  So you can imagine my surprise when she asked for a Kewpie doll for Christmas!  I was so exited and got searching for a Kewpie.  I found this little one on ebay.  She was made as a limited edition a few years ago from the original Kewpie molds.  She was still new in her box.  So now, years later, we find that the little smocked dress that I got for K. finally has a dolly to wear it!  And it fits her perfectly. 

I love everything about this little dress.  The workmanship is amazing.  And I can't get over how cute Kewpies little face is.  I think she's got a naughty streak.

Doesn't it look like she just taped up the cat and threw your watch in the toilet?

Oh, she wouldn't dream of such a thing..... yes she would.

A little yellow

The Cottage Magpie is hosting a color challenge!   April was yellow, perfect for spring!  I got to do a little spring planting yesterday, I can't wait to have colorful flowers sprinkled around the edges of my yard.  It's too rainy today to take pictures of the flowers soooo .... I searched around the house for some pretty yellow things......here's what I came up with:

I absolutely loooove yellow, in all it's beautiful shades.  Join in the yellow challenge!  This was fun!

It's a tea cozy!

So sorry this post took so long by the way....  But here it is!  I kept changing my mind about what to do with my little yo-yos.  I really thought a little cushion would be sweet, and I started sketching.  My yo-yos became little teapots, so I decided a tea cozy was in order!  Now I realize my handle and spout stitching is a bit funky.  That's what I get when I freehand the whole thing.  But I can be impatient... If I do this again, I'll be sure to plan it out better.  I made it small to fit my little 'brown betty', she's just a two cupper. 

And here's little betty, she's quite the reflective little thing... look carefully and you can see me in my pajamas hiding my noggin... you should thank me, I have crazy morning hair at the moment... and sorry about the dust.

I think my cozy is happy with her new friends, my thrifted sugar bowl and creamer.  They're not a matching set, but both have that beautiful robin's egg blue that I looooove.

I thought I'd share with you this picture.  I drew this from a photo of my Grandma Marlys  when I was 15.  It was a birthday gift for my Mother.  My Mom has always had this old photo of her Mother hanging in her home, and I knew how much she loved it.  It was also one of my favorites because I always thought it still looked just like her!  She always had those same kind blue eyes and sweet expression.  So I decided to surprise her and draw it for her birthday.  She was so exited as any Mother would be.  Four years later my Grandma passed away after a short and painful battle with ovarian cancer.  She was the most amazing Grandmother.  Now the original picture and this  sketch from it are even more meaningful, as a reminder of how my Grandma blessed our lives, and how much we desperately miss her.

I wish we could all share a pot of tea today and tell the wonderful stories of our Mothers and Grandmothers who taught us so many things.  How to sew, knit, bake cookies, make play-dough, and on and on..... I know I am a better person for just knowing my Grandma.  I sometimes wonder what she would think of all of this craftiness that goes on around here.  My Grandpa often tells me in his old timer Texan accent, "Sug, (short for Sugar, his nickname for me since I was a baby) your Grandma sure would be proud of all of that quilting that you do."  I think we would have had so much fun sewing together!  Will there be quilting in heaven?  I hope so! x

What could it be?

Last night while the girls played, my husband played his guitar, and the Mr. Precious and Rosie reenacted a WWF wrestling match in my living room, I got a little stitching done.  It's not perfect as I decided to just wing it.  I should have drawn it out on my fabric so I'd have a bit of a guideline, but of course, I did not.  I have to admit it's still looking pretty cute, wonky bits and all.  What is it you ask?  I'll reveal the finished project later in the day.  Hopefully....

I'm so happy that my tulips finally bloomed!  They showed their lovely faces last week on a sunny day.  Then I heard we were to have a bit of snow....hugh??  I don't know what's going on with the weather this year.  But, I decided to clip some of the lovelies to enjoy indoors.  I got the best pictures I could on my kitchen table on the dark no sunshine day.

It was a cold and rainy/snowy day, but the tulips inside made it a bit more cheerful.  It was a perfect day to catch up on some of my favorite blogs and do a bit of yummy desert baking.  See my laptop next to the stove?  That's mostly where I keep it.  I'm standing there at this very second.  I really like to look up wonderful recipes and have them right next to me on my laptop while I cook.  And of course the wine fridge is strategically right below......  Sorry about the ironing board, I had to iron my pretty vintage sheet table cloth!

This next picture is of the bridge that goes over the bay in Newport.  I love this bridge.  It's a great part of my little community.  I took these pictures the other day when I was driving home from the girls dance classes.  It is such a routine thing for me to drive over and under the bridge.  I don't always stop to think of how beautiful it is.  This post is turning into quite the hodge-podge!

And now, last but not least....I mentioned above about the chubby cat and the baby dog wrestling.  They are getting along now!  Almost too well at times.  They constantly wrestle.  I'm glad they're having fun but sometimes I have to separate the two so they don't get too carried away!

New friends...

And it starts...

Soon it will be a flurry of brown and black on the floor, giving me heart palpitations......Lord help me....

Two ways to make a yo-yo

Let's make yo-yos!  They are quick and fun and too cute.  I recently found a neato new tool to make y-yos.  I am going to show you the new way first, then we'll make them how grandma did. 

This is the new yo-yo maker, by Clover.  They cost $5-$6,  and come in a variety of sizes and shapes.  They have the classic circle, flowers, and hearts!

Here's what you'll need.  Fabric, yo-yo maker in the size of your choice,  (I think this one is medium.....or was it large...?  I don't remember and I threw out the packaging....it says 45mm on the back and it's the orangey-yellow one), needle & thread, and scissors. 

This yo-yo business is pretty fun.  With the new yo-yo maker, you just insert your fabric, trim around the fabric, and stitch in and out of the little slots in the back.  The directions show you how to do it step by step.  Once you get the hang of it, it's very easy and fun. 

The yo-yo maker comes in two pieces, the 'disk' part, and the 'cup' part.  At least that's what I call them.

First you make sure you put your fabric in correctly, and line up one of the lines on the disk, with one of the little bumps along the edge of the 'cup' part.  The wrong side of the fabric faces the 'disk' part.

Then you trim around the little fella.  Leaving approx. about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fabric all around.

Then you make a knot in the little flap of fabric you see here.  The best way to make a knot on these is to knot your thread and take a stitch.  Then take another stitch, but don't pull your thread all the way through.  Leave a little loop, and pull your needle through that loop.  Do this a couple of times in the same spot and you'll have a nice sturdy knot.

Now you stitch down through the holes in the 'disk', and up through the slots in the 'cup'.  Down and up and down and up, all the way around.  When you get to the end, you stitch once through the first stitch you did.

Once you're done stitching, you remove your fabric from the yo-yo maker.  And puuuulll the thread.  It will gather up and look funky.  So you have to shape it with your fingers a bit.  Then it will be beautiful.  Once it's beautiful, you make a knot on one of the middle folds somewhere.  Try to make it down in there a bit so you can't see it easily.  Use the same knot we used in the beginning.  If you know you'll be sewing it onto something where you won't see the back, you can poke your needle through the middle and make the knot in the back.  I won't judge you. 

Voila!  A perfect yo-yo.  Now if you want to make one right this very minute and you don't have a yo-yo maker, don't get all panicky.  Take a deep breath and grab some fabric, a needle & thread, scissors, a pen, and a round object like a small bowl, or saucer, or as I did, the lid to your new sugar bowl you bought at the thrift store yesterday.

Now, trace around your lid on the wrong side of the fabric.  Hey look!  A yo-yo turtle!

Now cut it out on the line you just drew.

Now you simply fold over the edge you'll be working on, just a little at a time as you stitch.  Make a knot as we did above, and stitch 1/4 inch long stitches all the way around.

Then pull to gather, reshape, and knot!  I took the easy route and made a knot in the back of this one. 

There!  An 'old fashioned' yo-yo.  Both are easy and fun.  I do like using the yo-yo maker though.  It makes them the same each and every time.  And there is no accuracy or tracing round things involved.  But if you're a purist, the old fashioned way is wonderful too!  I love making these out of 30's reproductions.   You'll have to check back soon to see the project I have in mind for these......I'll try not to take too long, I promise!

Happy yo-yo making everyone!