Tag Archives: sewing

Thanksgiving week – Part 1

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I know I’m late posting about our American Thanksgiving week. What’s new?

First up: I finally finished a puppy sized quilt for our Mini-schnauzer Pepper. I used leftover scraps of fabric in reds, blacks, and whites. I tried to go with an animal theme so I had some paw-prints, cows, and one flamingo fabrics along with flowers, some kites, polka dots, and miscellaneous red, black, and white prints.

I framed it with solid white and charcoal. The back consists of two different pieces of grey flannel that I had to piece together to get the right size. Boring so no picture.

I didn’t bind the edges but simply sewed the front and back together leaving a 4-5 inch open section to turn it right-side out. Then I machine quilted about a 1/4-inch inside each block.

I keep it on the ottoman that Pepper likes to sit/lay/jump on to try to keep it cleaner.

I spent the night with a friend (who lives an hour and a half away) so we could get a jump start on a craft show in her city on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. She used to always bring a plate of homemade cookies or her delicious buckeyes to me whenever she was in the area, so I thought I’d make something edible as a hostess gift for the weekend.

With one decorated sugar cookie success under my belt, I made and decorated some autumn inspired leaf cookies.

I forgot I had these leaf shaped cookie cutters that must have been a gift with purchase or something similar from Nutella some years ago. (Confession: I am not a huge fan of Nutella, so that means more for you!) Perfect for the season.

I think these turned out pretty nice. I’m still learning how to use Royal Icing and practice makes perfect. I plan on making more cookies this week for our church Christmas Party next Sunday.

Stay tuned for a sock update!

Recovering

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I needed another project after our party so I tackled recovering a desk chair that needed some TLC. Mr. Aitch uses this chair when practicing his saxophone. The seat has seen better days.

This was the easiest project and only took a few hours. Taking the screws out and back in probably took the longest time!

The fabric was leftover from another chair I recovered for work so I didn’t have to buy anything. Fortunately I had the perfect size piece of foam for the seat. I just covered the chair back with the new fabric and used a super sticky double-sided tape to hold the fabric together while I hand sewed the seam under the back panel.

Patti

Pepper’s travel bag

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Mr. Aitch, Pepper, and I went to my brother’s “cottage” on Lake Chautauqua last week for wine tastings at various vineyards in the area. The weather wasn’t as cooperative as predicted but we still had fun, tasted multiple wines, and ate well. (Too well. I’m glad I packed elastic waist pants!)

We’ve only taken Pepper with us on the road one other time and boarded her other times. She needed her own travel bag. I used a heavy canvas bag for her before but it was a bit small and promoted my former working environment. Not that that’s a bad thing but I wanted a bigger bag with dog-related fabric or designs.

Some of the fabric I acquired from my BFF had the perfect design. Five and a half yards of the blue bone fabric. The piece was evidently leftover from a quilt as it was only 20 inches wide. Whatever, it would work for my purpose.

I cut the solid back and handles off the original canvas bag for the bottom section and handles for Pepper’s bag. I used a layer of fusible fleece on both the outer and lining fabrics to give the bag more stability.

I added a vinyl pocket to the front, a slip pocket inside, and a snap to keep it closed. The best part was that I used what I had. The straps/handles are dark green but I’m OK with that. And Pepper doesn’t care either.

Perfect for a Doggie Travel Bag!

Patti

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!