Pandemic Projects

Like everyone else, I'm at home practicing safe distancing and quarantining. I'm blessed as we have a good sized house and yard to stay busy in. Like many other stitchers and sewers, I  have lots of projects to keep me busy. I am very grateful for not only my home, my wonderful husband, my stash and projects, but also for my health. I hope you also are blessed!

The pandemic projects I've finished so far are varied, fun and some a bit challenging. Here's eye candy (or at least I hope it is!) to inspire and urge you on to staying busy.

I turned a UFO ribbon smocking sampler (taught by Kathy Awender many years ago) into the bodice of an 18" doll dress complete with piping.

Another UFO (self-imposed) was a Halloween stitching set of a pumpkin pincushion complete with spiderweb and spider; an emery with pumpkin flowers, spider and black lace edging; and a black velvet scissor case with a beaded pumpkin, spider web and spider. I used my patterns for these: Victorian Pincushion and Emery, and Victorian Scissor Cases. 

Next was more work on the Cream and Sugar Quilt, a block of the month project from the Fat Quarter Shop. I like to bring out the vintage/antique machines for this. This photo features the 1951 Singer 99K. The little quilt blocks are eventually stitched to larger ones.

 They are a bit of a pain to sew up.

How about a break from stitching?  My husband went to a local farm and picked strawberries for me so I got to make lots of jam for us, most of which I give away to friends and neighbors through the year. This was a batch of Strawberry Lemon Marmalade.

Back to the quilt....this time downstairs to put together blocks in long rows. I needed more sewing space so the dining room table was the best place. I used my 1935 Featherweight for the finishing work: it's a lot lighter to haul downstairs than the 99K! The booklet in the photo shows four long vertical rows that are sewn together after stitching those rows of blocks together..

The quilt top is done, thoroughly pressed and hanging over the railing in my hallway until I find a longarm quilter in the area who can quilt it for me. 

I hope this eye candy has inspired you to work through your projects and stay busy.  I wish you health, joy, peace and blessings during this pandemic!

Thrifting

Okay, I admit it, I stop in at various Thrift stores around my area and check out what's available. There's always a good selection of different things, from great kitchen items, to clothing, to really good books and then occasionally you find something in the sewing and stitching realm. I've been lucky several times to find something unique, antique, or just plain usable.

Just plain usable comes in all sizes: buttons, patterns, zippers, various sewing notions and sometimes some good fabric. I've found all of it and used it. The prices are unbeatable, too. Who's not to like that?

I found a really neat, vintage (I won't say old 'cause this probably was on the market when I was in high school) pattern marking device by Singer. It's called a Tack-It Pattern Marker and originally sold for $4.95 way back when. It marks both layers of fabric at once and came with the original wax marking sheets. I threw out the sheets (the old wax marks do not come out of fabric) and substituted Saral brand transfer paper that can be found at big box hobby and fabric stores. I tried it on a dress that I was making and it was much easier to mark the darts. The bottom of it has felt so it won't scratch the table surface. A great find for $1.98!

Like most sewists, I enjoy scissors and have many pairs. So when I walked into

one of my favorite thrift stores I perused the glass cases only to find these gold shears. "Made by Richards of Sheffield England" is engraved on one side of the handle and "Radiant Golden Age Rustless" is on the other side. What an unusual find and at only $2.98, a steal!

Another found item is this double, folding sleeve board for pressing sleeves, doll dresses and other items. I think I paid $2.98 for it. The covering was in bad shape so I removed all of it (which I would have anyway) and the underlying padding, taking it down to the wood boards then used the old covers as a pattern. I cut new ones out of a cute sewing-themed quilting fabric (a freebie at a local store) and cut the padding out of several layers of cotton batting. I stitched a casing around the covers and used cotton string in the casings to pull up the covers to fit. All of these supplies were in my stash so my "new" double, folding sleeve board cost me very little.

My best sewing find to date was this little beauty..... I was standing in line at the local CHKD (Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters) Thrift Store in Hampton, VA waiting to check out and noticed the bentwood case on the counter and the decal said "Singer". My heart jumped a few beats and I looked inside the case and my mouth dropped open.

This sewing machine was in good shape, the decals were very nice and best of all, the original booklet and several different types of feet were in the box of the case (which also fit my Featherweight). There was an old sticker on it from a sewing machine service center so I knew it probably worked. The case was in good shape but needs some touch up. I had all of the supplies from my Featherweight overhaul to oil, lubricate and polish the machine. The price was $99.98....but the CHKD Thrift store runs a coupon special every Tuesday of 25% off everything in the store if you sign up for the coupon on your cell phone. Guess what...it was Tuesday and I was able to purchase this lovely little 1951 Electric 99K Singer Sewing Machine (made in Britain no less) for $75.00 plus tax.

I love thrifting....you never know what you will find!

That Medallion Quilt: Design as I Go

I finally decided to get back to that Medallion Quilt I started a year ago. I was at an impasse as to how to proceed... procrastination! In my mind I knew I wanted to take it with me to the recent sewing retreat I attended, along with The Beast...The Singer 99K (heavens, it must weigh at least 35 pounds). I figured the machine would help me get in the mood to work on the quilt. After researching more medallion quilt designs online I knew the best way to proceed was one border at a time, sort of a design-as-you-go method. And I wondered why do I always pick out difficult projects to do? Why couldn't I just choose one of those quilts that supplies all the fabric, gives detailed instructions and you just follow along.....

 

I first decided I wanted to make a row/border of half triangle squares...I thought they would bring in all of the fabrics and not use too much since I really didn't know how much I needed in the first place to make this queen size quilt. I carefully cut strips, then squares, then cut those into triangles and sewed them together. Lots of them.... Then I stitched those into strips....but Oops, I didn't like the way they looked against the bordered medallion.

Back to square one. So I started taking fabrics and laying them up against the medallion, and eureka! A 4" wide border of the dark red floral really looked good. And it was simple...yeah!

Then on to another border after getting home. After carefully measuring (the medallion is not perfectly square...another challenge) I realized I could make four-block squares starting with 2 1/4" strips of fabric. After stitching two different strips together I cut them into 2-block strips, and then sewed those together to make the blocks. Then the blocks together into a long strip for each side....you quilters know the drill. I stitched this fairly randomly. Here's a corner of the quilt top.

The Medallion Quit so far: I like it.

I'm going to hang this over the banister so I can see it regularly and ponder the next border. I have some ideas about what should be next: a solid border of cream muslin? What do you think?

My "Old" Quilting Project

I inherited a wonderful red and white fine linen toile panel from my mother. It's dated 1959 by Williamsburg Restoration, Inc.

I absolutely love toile fabrics. I have a guest room featuring rose toile fabrics, and plenty of mismatched red and white transfer ware (looks like toile) china in the kitchen. I've always wanted to make a quilt with this panel as the centerpiece. Even the old poem about Charlie is included and printed on the panel.

I can just see myself bringing out my Featherweight or my 99K and sewing up the quilt top on it (after I design it, of course.)

I had a wonderful opportunity to buy coordinating fabrics during my very recent trip to Keepsake Quilting while on a teaching trip to Boston. Talk about sensory overload of so many bolts of fabrics but I rose to the challenge (who wouldn't??) and started piling up bolts. Terry, who's worked at Keepsake Quilting for at least 10 years, helped me after I decided which ones to buy. She had a wonderful way of stacking up the fabrics (after folding them back and forth at the 18" mark), laying the next one on top of the other the same way and on to the next. She only had to make one cut with the rotary cutter to cut them all at the same time. What a great way to do it!

Then she carefully folded up the whole lot and tucked in the corners so each fabric showed...easy to see and make more choices.

  I added two pre-cut rolls from a nearby bin. These fabrics will look perfect with the Bonny Charlie Toile!!

And to top it all off, they put my fabrics and other purchases into a bag and tied it with a fabric strip (goes into my scrap bag for further use!) How clever and perfect!!

Now all I need is some time to finish my drawings of the quilt and figure out the block sizes. What's your next quilting project?