Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2014

[BookSaver]

Mat for DMIL to put under her sewing machine:
* Cut 24" square of pre-quilted fabric with bright floral cotton prints on each side.
* Cut 2.5" binding strips from 1/2 yard teal batik (shades ranging from very light to very dark) -- straight cut binding strips, no need to cut on the bias.
* Press the strips in half right sides out. Sew the short ends of the strips together with mitered seam. Re-press the sections with the seams.
* Decide which edge will be the bottom/pockets of the mat, and bind it.
* Fold up the bottom 5" and baste the left & right edges. (This is why having the pretty coordinating fabric on both sides is needed.) Sew vertical lines every 4" or so across the bottom of the mat to make the pockets.
* Bind the other 3 edges of the mat, mitering the corners.
* Do a final press to make it look nice.

The sewing machine holds the mat in place on the table and the pockets hang over the edge to hold seam ripper, small ruler, thread clippers, etc.

[BookSaver]

School uniforms for children in Haiti:
The sewing group chose this as our main project for the year, to help a consortium of Catholic church groups sew 900 school uniforms. The children are not allowed to go to school unless they have an official uniform. A church in The Big City will be shipping the uniforms at the end of January.

My sewing group is not affiliated with any church, but we thought this to be a worthy project and decided to help.

The uniform consists of a cotton shirt and shorts for boys, and the same style shirt with a simple skirt for girls. The shorts and skirts have elastic waists. The fabrics are all non-stretchy cotton broadcloth.

At the last sewing group meeting I picket up a packet of school uniform shirts to put together. The fabric is kelly green broadcloth. There are 5 shirts in the packet, with the pieces already cut out and most of the edges serged. There is an instruction sheet in the packet; it's actually a pajama shirt pattern with a collar, short sleeves, and button front. I don't have to do the buttons or buttonholes, someone else has offered to do all of them for our group.

I have started sewing them assembly-line style, an hour at a time, so it will take awhile to look like I'm making any progress. My deadline is the January 17th charity sewing day, although if I get far enough on them by our regular meeting on the 10th I will pick up another set of 5 to start.

[FelineFriend]

I'm in a conundrum. I walked into my office this morning, the door had been opened to it all night, since last evening and this morning. When I walked into my office, it smelled kinda musty, but not REAL bad musty, like the material in the 3 bins and the spools of almost-gone P 'n' C yarns, need to be sorted through.

I have every "intention" of doing lap quilting in the New Year, but in the 1st - 2nd week of Jan. I'll be tied up with a colonoscopy and G. I. Dr. follow-up appt., so can't really jump in full throttle then. I was thinking if I sent through the bin of spools of yarn first, discarded the spools, which are nearly gone, then added dryer sheets to that bin, it'd help.

Then, there are 3 bins with fabric scraps in them. I believe I should probably:
1- wash them ALL,
2- iron them flat,
3- sort them by color, prints, types,
4- put them into Ziploc gallon bags,
5- label them,
6- go through my quilting leaflets and books,
7- pick out a simple lap quilting first-ever project to do,
8- get any supplies I need extra, but I DO have a LOT of supplies, because I've been planning this for years, but writing stories got in the way, but now I'm taking a step back, to ONLY write 1 story a month, if even that, so I can wake up, smell the roses, to pursue other hobbies/interests,
9- after I pick out all the material, the pattern, etc... just jump in and DO it, BUT------
10- I feel the cotton scraps ALL need to be laundered, pressed, and put into tidy Ziploc bags, for protection.

Does that "plan" sound good to you, who know anything about sewing or quilting? I don't want to do it all in one day. I'd like to do it over 3 - 4 days, and slowly float into the quilting life, starting with lap quilting, just because I've "heard" how relaxing it is. I can do it in the great room, near the TV, and fireplace insert, keeping warm, under the marvelous can lighting. I can quilt, which DH watches his movies, sports, and documentaries. I don't want to be in the colder spare room, because the lighting is not as good and it's colder in there. I'm so embarrassed I've had Grandma's scraps so long and have only washed them once and never put them into Ziploc bags. Grandma's scraps DESERVE more TLC than that! ♥ I want to make Grandma proud! She's gone now, but in Spirit, I know I'll feel her around me, as I do what she did all of her life.

I guess that's all for now. I guess I need some tips, inspiration, and advice. I don't know if I should send the bigger fabric pieces to DDIL for DGD or not or use it for my smaller hanging wall-hangings, which I'd love to decorate our home with. I have a thimble, and quilting pins, and more! So I'm very prepared, except for this first step of pre-washing, sorting, and ironing fabrics to get them ready. Thanks for reading this, too. Ya'll are are so supportive!

[FelineFriend]

I've sorted through the cotton cones of P 'n' C. I decided to keep all cones b/c I remembered a very frugal friend once. She'd use scraps of cotton kitchen yarn, to make stripes in dishcloths and on potholders and to edge dishcloths in C. C. colors. I put the leftover yarn cones in tote bags, in my walk-in closet, because currently, I'm getting "ready" to:
1- crochet an Alaska friend facecloths/potholders for her March b-day,
2- crochet dishcloths for another friend's March b-day, perhaps a hanging dishtowel, too,
3- crochet a friend a hanging dishtowel for her May b-day,
4- crochet a hanging dishtowel for a June BFF.

I wanted the yarns to be accessible and within reach and available for a real "go-to" project.

This frees up 1 long narrow bin. Under it was a matching bin, with fabric scraps. My plan is, to sort scraps, perhaps put them into tote bags, by color, print, so when I go to launder them, the sorting will already have been done. Also, after I sort the scraps into the totes, I can browse my numerous books/leaflets, for that "perfect" first-ever lap quilting pattern for a wall-hanging. If I put the scraps together, by project, bag them, label the bag with book name/page #, it's half the battle. I won't launder scraps this weekend, as we're having a dreadful storm, both, Saturday/Sunday. But on Monday, since I'll be awaiting my G. I. Dr. appt. to come up later this week, I can launder scraps then, and press them on Tuesday and/or Wednesday. I'll take Christmas Day off, but I can resume my project, to organize this new fun challenging project, that evening or the day after Christmas. I feel that half the fun is in the planning and organizing. I'm going to see if I might be able to get the 3 bins of scraps put into the 2 long/narrow bins, which are more easily accessible. This means I'd have 2 empty bins in the office, which I could use for excess storage, of something or of books, or other craft things. I could also streamline my built-in shelves, store file boxes of old family photos, in the bins, to use later for scrapbooking. And, not only that, I have numerous magazines I've written for and am published inside, which I want to save, and they're taking up shelf space in the main office. If I put them into the bins, it'd free up some shelf space in there, making it easier to tidy up and organize those shelves.

I must remember: "Baby-Steps", don't get out more than you can put away in 1 hour, and I'm thankful I have the spare room, at the end of the house, which is my sanctuary, where nobody goes, and it's out of traffic areas. It's a good room to sort scraps in, too. Well, I must be getting back to my project. I'm glad I got a good start. I'm off to s2s, since I woke up late and we had NO hot water then. We do now, as DH has fixed the thing on the hot water heater. He got his shower. I've been waiting for a good time, which is now, as we still have power. Happy crafting, sewing, and making of creative things, everybody! It's wonderful to read what everyone's working on, too.

[FelineFriend]

I found the info on-line, about sorting scraps, etc... Been sorting by larger pieces and remnants, then color, then size. I put 2 bins of yarn in the office, will put quilting scraps/supplies in two long bins, underneath the bottom built-in shelves in the office, which will make them easily accessible to. I can put 2 bins of scraps, if I get those 2 filled up, into the main office closet, between the filing cabinet and closet wall. It's easy to get to in there, will free up bin clutter in the spare room, except for the other yarn bins already there. Everything's coming along quite nicely. I found some panels I hadn't expected to find; i. e. stamped pillows, etc... I have oodles of remnants and also 4" pre-cut squares, which I purchased from a craft supplies catalog. I have a 26" tall 5-drawer mini-dresser, to label the drawers, and add cut squares in the drawers. It was a You Tube idea I saw. I'll browse through my pattern books/leaflets as soon as I find the time. Have found wonderful prints of remnants, great for children, too. I've decided on my Christmas 2015 list for the 3 youngest grands: 1 quilt each, 1 afghan each, 1 pillow sewn, each, and perhaps crochet a puppet each or weave the squares on my loom, to make them square bean bags, stuffed with fiber fill, rather than the beans or pellets, because of the ages of the 2 youngest grands. Would hate to have beans or pellets all over their floor, which they could ingest.

After Christmas, I'll resume the finishing of my black main color Granny afghan, too. I might make myself a quilt and tie it off, in the twin size, for a throw over me for napping. Found some 9-patch squares, too. This is a "can-do" interest.

[Nancy]

One of two camo dish clothes done.
Half of a sweater front I am knitting on done.yea for progress.
Ff I got some huge zip bags for storage that might work for you.

[FelineFriend]

Nancy, I've used those very, very large big Ziploc Big Bags, for storage before. They did not work, were more work, I couldn't find anything in them. I like my bins a lot better.

I've been browsing through quilting, etc... pattern leaflets/books, reading all about quilting, before deciding which projects to do first. I continue to wash/dry/fold/store my remnants, scraps, pre-stamped fabrics, in bins. I've filled 1 up, it's stored under a lower shelf in my small office, and I'll fill up its mate this evening, as I continue to wash/dry, etc... I've only got left, 1 bin to sort through/launder, etc... I'm finally seeing light at the end of the rainbow. Hoping to have the laundering/sorting all done, and put away by or on Christmas evening. It will be a nice after-Christmas/New Year interest to get into and try my hand at.

I'm crocheting myself ponytail hair scrunchies, too.

After they're all done, I'll continue putting the heather grey fringe on my scarf, then will re-crochet myself a matching hat, b/c DD got my matching hat for a Christmas gift, as she said she loved that color. It's the Ugly but Warm hat pattern, on-line, in a lot of different places, which takes you back to Crochetville, where they've got the pattern. It's NOT an UGLY hat! It's very pretty, very warm in 2-strands crocheted together, I've made numerous numbers of them, for myself and friends.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I never post in here, but today I felt I had something to offer. The truly crafty SHEs can take this idea and perfect it!

(BTW: the gifts are two pairs of snowshoes and a throw blanket and heavy socks.)

[lucylee]

I LOVE THIS, Kathryn!!! BIG WTG!!!

[FelineFriend]

Those are way TOO CUTE, Kathryn! Thanks for sharing!