Wait! THIS isn’t Quilting!

I had a DH with a very sad face ask me yesterday if I could PLEASE make a bag to replace  the plastic one that he has been hauling his practice tennis balls around in.  His bag was tearing and he needed SOMETHING – FAST.

My first thought?  Uhhhhhh ----isn’t there a tote bag around here that would do the job just fine?

But I thought about it.  How hard could it be?  Heaven knows I have enough fabric here at home, and I could re-purpose the drawstring on the top of the plastic bag….

I didn’t even measure, not really……..it went like this…..

Empty tennis balls into a basket so they don’t all escape all over the floor.

Hold fabric up to plastic bag and  add a bit more length, enough for a casing and for a boxed bottom ----cut two rectangles (one width of fabric was not enough) of the ugliest fabric in the stash that needed to go away!

Sew the two sides together….press side seam open.  Turn over an inch and stitch down for draw string casing, turning in raw edges for the height of the casing so that won’t have exposed edges. ((This is so technical!))

I sewed across the bottom and up the other side, stopping the stitching and back-tacking just below where the casing was, leaving enough free to pass the cording through.

I  boxed the bottom by bringing the side seams down to meet the bottom seam and stitching across the corners to give the bag more body.  If I really cared, I would have matched the side seams to the bottom seams first, but hey, I was in a hurry!

And don’t you agree this fabric really needed to GO!?  Sandi – if you are reading this, this is part of the fabric I got from you!  It’s very masculine looking, a nice quality fabric – it just needed a place where it would be happy.  THIS is it!

I used the selvege edge on the top casing side so that won’t get ravelly through use.  This bag is a bit larger than the original plastic bag…I think it will suit its purpose just fine!

The whole thing took me around 20 minutes to make – and let’s face it, something like this that deals with actual YARDAGE and cutting and sewing is a lot better than having to hem a pair of pants or actually mend anything!

After all, haven’t you heard?

I was walking a fine line here!

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Feb 24 Quilt Cam Time!

Wow ---it feels like forever since we have had time to do this!  I hope I can remember how to hook it all up again!

This is Laura V’s Winchester!

She writes:

Bonnie, here's my Winchester taking possession of my Easy Street while I stitch the binding down.

It looks snuggly to me – I wish I could join him, but then Laura would never get her binding finished!
 
I decided to pull strips for Sister’s Choice, the Re-Do this morning…..
 

 
It’s very very easy to do this --- all you need are 2 2.5” X 11” strips….and ONE 2.5” square –whichever fabric you want in the corner of the 9 patch, that is the fabric you cut the square from.
 
It’s very easy for me to stack strips on my cutting board ---after a couple hours, I’ve got 42 9-patch strip sets all pinned together!
 

 

Stitch the 2.5” X 11” strips together with a 1/4” seam.  MEASURE the height of your strip set.  It should be 4.5” from side to side, not 4 3/8”!  If you fall short, adjust your seam.

 

 

The cutting is simple….cut 4 2.5” sections from your strip set, and rearrange them as shown, placing the bonus square you cut in the bottom right corner. 

 

I’ve got Penny all ready – I’ve tested my seam and my strip sets measure out at 4.5!  I’m good to go!

Today I’ll be sewing  strips into pairs…just wait til you see how Penny zooms –and if we have enough time I’ll be pressing my strip sets and start the sub cutting.  I’ll worry about the star points at another time.  Gonna power through these 9 patches first!

You can find the full Sister’s Choice tutorial HERE!

Let's sew!  Bring a project -- or use the time to kit up a project ---time to get some quilting on!




Streaming Live by Ustream

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Traveling Threads & Pieces Parts!

This is a bit of a disjointed Sunday morning blog post.

Nothing has really happened since I posted about finding Elise last night –we ended up running out for Mexican food, and by the time we were done there wasn’t much else to accomplish for the day ---I did some simple treadling while watching “Bramwell” on Netflix.

Okay, so it’s not Downton Abbey, but it’s about a lady doctor in 1896 London, and all she goes through trying to help people when the men doctors don’t want women doctors around, and dealing with the limited medical knowledge of the day.  Great show for stitching by!

I wanted to share a little hint that came in from a reader:

Bonnie, glad your home safe and sound and I am looking forward to Quilt cam on Sunday. I was looking at this Colgate Dental Floss container that was empty and wondered what it could be used for.

I opened it and discovered 2 little discs on spool pins. I used my exacto knife to cut off the bigger one because my bobbin would not fit on it. My bobbin does fit on the narrower one and I was thinking this would a great way to have thread and a cutter handy for plane travel.

I did have to use a piece of tape to keep it closed because the 2 spool pins were the locking mechanism.

Thanks for sharing your hint with us!  What a great way to repurpose an empty dental floss container!  ((And this looks like the cute mini one you get with cleanings and check-ups…))

I also want to share what came in the mail while I was gone to Georgia:

1940s double wedding ring sections in feed sacks!

These came from Marsha, and what a great catalogue of fabrics of the day these are--

They are also LARGE rings…my favorite of all.  I love them big and chunky --- look:

Big & Bold!

There are only 17 rings.  Not enough for a quilt….but I’d love to do SOMETHING with these – the fabrics are fabulous!  Thank you so much, Marsha!

I’m torn between what I want to pull out for Quilt-Cam today.  My Sow-Along blocks have languished on my wall.  I have an idea I want to do for sashing  (Thanks to a border I put on another quilt!) and before I can get to that I need to finish the last of the blocks.

I also wanted to get busy RE-MAKING the Sister’s Choice quilt that is in the  free pattern section above --- this poor one has been loved and used and washed and dried and drug all over the country and it is showing its wear.  I teach this class quite a bit still, and I think the class sample needs an up-do.  I was thinking if we did this as a “Quilt-Cam” project---that those of you who always wanted to do it, could sew along WITH me.

And I’m stuck between these two “Want to do’s” and not sure which one to go with!

Whatever we do --- Quilt Cam will go live at 2pm Eastern!  See you then!

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Her Name Was Elise!

When I picked up the copper colored “Household” in Georgia on my way home the other day, I was so excited to see if I could get it running that I neglected to check out the goodies and notions that were in a plastic bag, stuffed down into the cubby hole in the right side of the machine base.

The usual stuff was in there…old thread, old bobbins, some rusty, some good – needles ---some snaps.  A broken seam ripper.  A needle threader.

And two folded pieces of paper.

Two receipts from previous servicings, complete with name, address, phone number and dates!

A quick search of the name on the invoice let me know that Mrs. Elise Connally lived in this house (approximate ---according to google maps) in Atlanta, Georgia

Once I had a name and an address, it was easy to search for an obituary.

She was born in 1922 and passed from this life on Jan 24, 2004.

We know that she lived at this address at LEAST since 1978 up until the time of her passing.

From her obituary, I also learned that her maiden name was Turnipseed.

If she had indeed had this machine since it was new in the 1950’s ---it went a good long time in between servicings, or I think that there would be more receipts! She cared enough to save THESE receipts...it goes with the thought that if there were others, they would be here too.

Invoice dated April, 1978

In 1978 a full servicing and replacement of the check spring that caused the top thread to not pick up the bobbin thread cost $19.77

I absolutely love that every step taken in the course of fixing the machine was listed plain as day on the invoice.

Invoice dated March 30th, 1994

Evidently she had sewn enough that she needed a new needle plate!  Perhaps there was a burr ---and her tension had to be repaired again.  This time the service cost her $47.31.  The price had more than doubled in 16 years.  Of course the price of the needle plate itself was a big chunk of that.

Was this the last time the machine had been professionally serviced?  I looked at the headers of both receipts and they were done at the same place – Home Sewing Center.  I tried to look them up online,but I couldn’t find them – maybe they were bought out or the name was changed?

This sticker was evidently placed on the machine at the last tune-up:

You can see where I tried to peel a corner and get it OFF of there – but it is very securely STUCK.  And after discovering what I have about Elise, I think I’ll keep it there.

Dear Elise ---

I hope you would be pleased that I have rescued your beloved Household sewing machine!  If only she could talk and tell me of the things you sewed on her.  These machines were built to last a lifetime, and you put 50 years worth of sewing into her.  Only two receipts in that period of time?  Sounds like a swell running machine to me!

She will have a good home here with me --- sewing quilts for at least another 30 years if I have anything to say about it!

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