Tag: sewing

Quilting Small pieces seems easier

I found that quilting this piece was easier than others. I think it is because it is small and it made doing things other than meandering easier. While I feel slightly better about my quilting, I am pretty sure as soon as I go to bigger piece I will have the same issues.

I also like Halloween. I have another embroidered Halloween piece that I need to turn into something. I can’t just sit in front of the TV. My hands must always be occupied. So, I wind up embroidering something that I can put in my quilts.

I know, practice, practice, practice the quilting.

I want to get to a point where I can do the quilting with ease……

Happy Sewing.
Happy Quilting.

Practice the quilting, practice the quilting

As i have mentioned in the past, I fear the quilting… Everyone tells me that it is all about practice, so that is what I am doing. I just get frustrated because I want to do all the beautiful stuff I see and I can’t. Jeez I hope I will get there. I don’t really like this piece much, but I really made it to hang on the front door. I have pieced one other that I am finishing and will show it soon after I get the dreaded quilting done. I like it a lot more because it has a few of my embroidered pieces in it. Someday I will get it right.

Happy Sewing. Happy Quilting.

Embroidered Baby Bibs for my future GrandKid?

So, While I was going through boxes of sewing supplies, fabric etc… I came across these baby bibs. I believe I made them over 20 years ago. I had no children and I was not even thinking about getting married.

Ever since my older sisters had kids and I became an Aunt, I loved making things for babies and kids. My sister Karen’s kids had the greatest Halloween costumes. I made my nephew a dinosaur once. The tail was so long and big he had to tie a roller-skate to it so he did not drag a hole in it. I made my niece Minnie mouse and a belly dancer costume. My daughter has also had a butterfly and a witch costume (with a fancy witch gown). I don’t do much costume making these days, but spend lots of time on quilts and other crafty things.

I remember making these bibs. I used Kona cotton and traced the design with a pencil while I had them taped to the sliding glass door of my single girl condo. Oh the memories. I will put these away for that Grandchild I hope to meet one day.

Happy Sewing.

Red and White with multiple Bindings…

Or at least I think that is what you would call it. I used the same binding on the inside that is on the outside edge. I saw a quilt like this in a magazine many many years ago. I originally made it to hang in my bedroom, but it is currently hanging in our Family Room. I love quilts that are red and white.

Yes, it has a signature mistake as every one of my quilts does. There is always something that I don’t notice until it is complete. This one has one of the inner bindings totally off. It towards the bottom right, but may be hard to see in the photo. It wouldn’t be my quilt unless it had something out of place or not quite right.

Happy Quilting!

The Crafty Widow Brings You: Personal Tags for Everything You Sew

Do you want your own personal tags for the items you sew, just like at the store? If you don’t have a ton of money to spend on them, but still want them I can show you an easy and inexpensive way to have nice professional looking tags that can be sewn into whatever you make.

My tags are made on White ribbon with Fabric Transfer sheets. I like the grossgrain ribbon, but you can use the satin wedding type also.

1.) Purchase ribbon in the width that you would like your tags to be. Easy.

2.) Setup your labels on your computer/printer. There is some testing that goes on here to make sure that your labels will fit on your ribbon. On Duplicate it as many times as possible so you can get as many as possible from each transfer sheet. You will need to reverse the image before it is printed, so when it is ironed it is not backwards.

3.) Once your design is set, duplicated, and reversed, print on the transfer paper. Make sure to follow the directions for the transfer paper you use.

4.) Once printed, you can cut them apart and iron them on to a length of ribbon. Make sure to use a lot of pressure when ironing.

I sew my tags in nearly everything that I make. It gives it a very professional look. It reminds whomever has your handmade item who made it.

Be creative, use your imagination. You can create care labels, labels with your logo and or web address. Whatever you can fit, you can have.

Happy Creating/Happy Sewing

The Actual Process of Quiltng

So, being someone that loves to make quilts it seems a bit odd that I do not look forward to the actual quilting part. It scares me. I think that after all the planning and piecing, now is my greatest opportunity to screw it all up. I actually took a quilt to be professionally quilted once. It cost me about $200 and was nothing spectacular. It was disappointing. So, I vowed to do them myself. Easier said than done, unless you are fortunate to have a long arm and fancy frame. Even then, I would still panic.

I have come a long way these days. I recently moved up from just meandering to putting some hearts in a quilt. Currently I am using the Flynn Quilt Frame
http://www.flynnquilt.com/ (Photo above)

It is not perfect, but it beats trying to do it without anything at all. It is fairly inexpensive and you use your own sewing machine. It is a great way to get started on the actual quilting process. It is a good way to determine if it is worthwhile to purchase something more expensive. I have to admit, I am totally envious of the quilting demoed on the site. I can do nothing like it and panic just thinking about it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I can’t draw. Not sure.

I plan on one day getting an actual frame and long arm. I am sure I will obsessively research it when I am ready. Always looking for opinions and advice here. If you have some, please share.

Charm Squares for my Great Niece

I made this quilt for my Great Niece Addison. I used charm squares of reproduction fabrics. I love precuts, but often find them a bit expensive. I have found a couple of places that has very reasonable prices. I would suggest Missouri Start Quilt Co. https://www.missouriquiltco.com/. They offer a daily deal and very often it is on precuts. On April 1st, they sold a pack of precuts for 25 cents. I just bought the daily deal the other day for $1.95. Now, you do have to pay $5.00 for shipping, but I bought an extra pack of Daily deals at the regular price (8.95) and also received a free pattern for spending over $10.00. I belive my total was less than $16.00 for two charm packs and a pattern, delivered to my door in just a couple of days. Well worth the money.
My other favorite place to buy discount precuts, is http://www.craftsy.com/. They have a clearance section and have had up to 70% off. Shipping is also very reasonable. Craftsy is also a great place for ideas and patterns. More on that later.

I am not paid to say any of this stuff. Just want to pass along good information to fellow sewers/quilters.

A Quilt for my Grandchild…. Wait I don’t have one….

So, 4 weeks before my 40th birthday, my daughter Haley was born. I remember my sister telling me how awesome it will be when I go sign her up for kindergarten and I am old enough to be the other kid’s parents. Funny, but not funny. So, I am a 52 year old with a 12 year old daughter….. Oddly, I was told I could never have children and “surprise”. She is the love of my life, even when she tries me, which happens daily.

One of the many things I love to do is make quilts, especially baby quilts. I make them for friends that are having babies, nieces and nephews etc. I make others also, but for some reason, baby things are appealing to me.

So, if my daughter waits as long as I do to have children, I might not get to meet them. Sad. However, I want to make sure they have a quilt from their grandmother. I have made so many for others. Just sort of like my grandkid insurance. This is the first one I made for my future grandchild. My daughter (AKA future grandchilds parent) is holding the quilt.

I actually started the quilt when Haley was a baby. I love Red and it just appealed to me for some reason. I believe that the pattern was in a Better Homes and Garden quilt book. I should look it up. When I went back and looked at the quilt, I noted my signature mistake. By Signature mistake, I mean that there always is at least one in every quilt I make. There is a piece that is sideways. Maybe I should make that my signature. Make at least one thing sort of goofy.