Category Archives: sewing

What happened to November?

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Well, I got really, really, really busy with several projects: knitting, sewing, refinishing and reupholstering a desk chair, sewing, knitting, sewing, knitting, and getting ready for a new addition to our home.

I finished (finally) the November socks for my daughter. These socks seemed to take forever. I put them on hold while I was helping my sister recover from surgery, then one of her precious greyhounds got involved, our two closest grandkids moved to Michigan, my birthday happened, and the list could go on and on. Here are the socks in all their glory.

November Socks
November Socks legs
Closeup of leg and truest color shot

I love the colors and it’s really hard to capture how pretty they really are. The honeycomb pattern was fairly easy but I did have to concentrate on those rows.

My sister gave me some fabric with a plate and silverware design so I made six placemats for my daughter.

These two chairs have been sitting in my basement since I rescued them from iPad aunt’s garage in 2015. I stripped one chair, refinished it, and put on new upholstery suede fabric. I took lots of pictures during the process but I’ll just show you the before and after. If you really want to see all the work-in-progress pictures, let me know and I’ll try to make some sense of them for you. Personally the before and after pictures should be enough. I plan to redo the other chair but that will have to wait till next spring as I have to do some of the work outside.

Before…..
After…..

This quick sewing project took about an hour or two. I made mesh laundry bags to send with all of the socks I made with the hand-dyed yarn we dyed in June.

The Karate Kid’s socks were next on the project list and I finished them in record time (for me at least). I used this Syncopation Sock pattern that I’ve used before. The pattern is written for toe-up socks but I made these from the top down. I love the colors and wish I could keep them for myself! They deserve a post of their own so I’ll just show the finished project for now.

All of the socks I knit for my three grands and my daughter along with the mesh bags and placemats will be boxed up and sent to Colorado ASAP.

Another quick and easy sewing project was this leash. The fabric is a heavy brushed cotton that looks like a patchwork quilt. I had everything in my sewing stash so, in less than 30 minutes, it was done.

I just started this sweater (I’m just using one color) the other day and have a deadline of December 16 to get it off the needles…

…because we are getting ready for a new addition to our family.

A female miniature schnauzer puppy! No pictures of her right now but I will soon. Very soon! For the next several days puppy-proofing the house will be our #1 priority!

Gifts

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I’m at my sister’s house helping out after her hip replacement surgery. Along with sending her the walker bag, last month, I brought some other gifts for her.

The Double Moss socks, a handmade satiny pillowcase, an amazing lotion stick, a towel for her hair, and some tinted lip balm (not pictured).

We haven’t seen each other in person for three years so we get sidetracked with talking instead of watching the clock and getting her moving around. She is doing very well but I need to dig deep and find the Nurse Ratchet** in me. As with any recovery there are challenges as well as celebrations. I’ll be helping her out until Thursday.

I brought some knitting with me but haven’t done much.

On another note…my hat’s off to all you fellow bloggers who post from your phones or tablets. I have posted on the road before but mostly post from home using my desktop computer. I hope this post is readable, the links work, and the photo is visible.

** One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest reference

Later…

I need to change this image. I got new glasses!

My Secret Sewing Project

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I haven’t done anything with the Karate Kid’s sock, not even ripped it back into a ball. I will need to do that before I make the ball into a skein to redye the yarn.

I have finished my secret sewing project though!

What is it?

A walker caddy for my sister who has a hip replacement scheduled in a couple of weeks.

I purchased this pattern and made some modifications to accommodate a walker.

It has tons of pockets plus some zippered pockets for more secure storage.

Here it is in action…

I had to put on my thinking cap to change the pattern to my wants, such as lining the pockets with white fabric, adding binding where none was used, adjusting and adding the straps, eliminating zippers, and making slip pockets.

It was worth it when I received this text from my sister:

Now back to my yarn…

Patti

Quilted cover

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Sewing is one of my more regular craft-type pursuits.  Quilting is a more recent one and I’m willing to experiment with my sewing machine.  Specifically the quilting, free-motion, or darning foot.

Without getting too technical when using this particular foot, the feed dogs are lowered and the pressure on the foot is set to light.  This allows the sew-er to gently maneuver the fabric in any direction while sewing, not just in a straight line.

I wanted to experiment with free-motion quilting and our heating pad needed a new cover.  No one would ever see this so what better way to learn than to practice!

I layered a piece of 100% cotton batting between two pieces of cotton fabric and pinned this all together before taking it to my sewing machine.  The total size was 12 inches by 27 inches. I began stitching in the center and made my way out toward the edges.

My stitches aren’t even as I moved the fabric around.  Going slowly gave me better control of stitch length.  You can see some longer stitches and very short stitches as I tried to make this star.

I drew a leaf with pink chalk and tried to go over the lines here.

More leaves and a heart.

Can you see the hidden messages below?

 

All quilted.

I added binding around the entire piece (don’t look at the horrible corners!) then folded it in half to make a padded envelope for our heating pad. I also made a new flannel cover to conceal it all and make it removable for washing.

I do need lots more practice using this foot on my sewing machine before I tackle a regular-sized quilt. It was fun and I learned a few things.

Do you sew and have you tried using all of the feet that came with your machine?Patti