Back to quilting again

I haven’t explained my spotty quilting and posting lately. I was diagnosed in July, 2013 with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood. The initial treatments (biologic – pills and injections) caused several side effects including fatigue. I wanted to work as long as I was able to, but that meant I mostly dozed in the evenings and rested on the weekends. I didn’t do much sewing or quilting. In January, 2014 I had a stem cell transplant. My own stem cells were harvested from my blood and returned after high-dose chemotherapy. I’ve recovered stamina and energy since then, so I am back to sewing. As I said, it’s incurable for now, but I am in complete remission for a while.

My niece lived near the major hospital where I had the transplant, 4 hours’ drive from my home. There were a few times I needed to stay in the area for appointments and she graciously allowed my husband and me to stay several nights. She stocked up on foods and drinks we preferred and I enjoyed the energy of her household of 6. As a thank you gift, my first quilting project post-transplant was to make her a wall hanging she would enjoy.

I’ve made a couple of bookshelf quilts and it’s still a favorite of mine. I am able to use scraps from my bins and personalize it for the recipient. For hers, I included a birdhouse as a bookend, a shelf lamp, a framed photo in which I embroidered an image of her cat, and a coffee mug with Detroit Tigers’ logo.

When I make this quilt, I always try to make the leaning or stacked or upright books look as natural as possible. I’ve seen some finished quilts with nothing keeping the upright books in place and that always bothers me! The edges on this one seem wavy because I had just finished the binding and hadn’t pressed it.

(Close-up photos of the wall hanging)

My niece loved it and quickly posted a picture of it hanging near her reading chair. I hope each time she looks at it she sees how much I love and appreciate her and her family.

My husband’s oldest daughter and daughter-in-law both announced they were expecting their next babies, so I have new projects to begin!

New twist on an old favorite

I was pondering the making of a small book purse, of the style that opens at the top. It has always been awkward to me to glue the side pieces in and glue the straight piece into the book cover. I wondered if I could figure out how to sew it all together as one piece, then glue. I think I hit on how to do it.

Since I am using quilting cotton, I used two layers and even decided to have the outer layer a sky blue blender, and the inner layer as a lining, in white on white. For the main straight piece of the lining, I added interfacing to the middle. I’ve found that the craft glue tends to bleed through thinner fabrics. Layer the fabric in this order: interfacing on the bottom, outer fabric facing up, lining fabric facing down. The right sides are together.

For the side pieces, shaped like triangles, I omitted the interfacing because I want them to easily fold together inside the purse when in use. I sewed a straight seam where the top of the piece is, turned and pressed, and then topstitched with a decorative stitch that coordinates with the book cover.

I marked the outer edges of the book cover when open as far as I want the purse to open. To mark the second piece, I stacked the pieces, poked pins through at the points of the line drawn, and turned it over to draw the same on the other piece.

Mark on the straight piece the straight edge of the two long sides of the book cover, with marks for the edges of the cover and the spine portion.

Trim the triangle piece close to the stitching lines marked. Insert it lining side up between the lining and outer fabrics. Line up the marks for the spine on both white fabrics. Sew only that portion of the line.

Make a diagonal clip at the corners, on the side piece only. Pull one side of the side piece so that the stitching lines are lined up and pin like crazy. I was afraid this part would shift on me, but it didn’t. Then stitch just that portion.

Do the same for the other side of the same piece.

Of course, you would repeat for the side piece that goes on the opposite side of the purse. You may need to carefully maneuver the pieces as you sew. This part doesn’t show in the pictures, but trim the fabric close to where you stitched.

Reach inside and pull the side pieces out, turning the white lining fabric to the other side of the whole piece.

Now you have one piece, a complete purse liner! Time to finish the two upper edges.

I took short lengths of bias binding. Line up the stitching line on the binding with the edge where the side piece ends. Do the same on the other side, and pin between, making sure not to stretch the bias binding. Repeat for the other side.

After stitching, trim the excess fabric.

Pull the binding to the inside, pin in place, and stitch.

I chose to use a webbed belt for the handle of this purse. You would attach handles in the manner you choose. When I glue, I glue beneath the purse portion.

Use plenty of craft glue on the spine portion, carefully place your purse lining, and press into place. When it dries, you can glue the rest of the purse into place.

I’m posting this before the glue is dry enough to finish gluing, so I plan to update this post with the finished picture of the purse.

DAY 36 OF MY 50 DAY CHALLENGE

Thrift store score, and 2 more purses done

The exotic book purse was almost complete yesterday, and I decided I needed a much different strap for it. While my mind was on other things, it occurred to me that a gold chain would be the perfect strap. I could even weave a colorful ribbon through it. Among my errands for this morning would be a stop at the local thrift store to see what I could find.

I should have taken a photo of the store, it’s totally crammed with goods. I pawed through the belts hanging on 6 large nails on the wall, but knew it would be nearly impossible to find the location of the correct belt to pull it out of the mass. I considered taking every belt down so that I could take what I wanted and put the rest back, but I happened to glance downward. Under a rack of pants I saw a tub of belts. I pulled it to a spot out of traffic and pawed through that instead.

I like the webbing belts for straps, and the bonus of two D rings is very helpful. I scored these 4 belts for $2. The chain with the scarf woven through it was just what I imagined.

This is what I had when I quit working yesterday.

This photo shows how well the chain and scarf go with the book cover. I decided to use it as is, and not replace the scarf inside the chain.

In this case, I glued the ends of the scarf to the inside of the spine of the book, then I glued the rest of the book purse over it. After the glue dried, I tied a knot to the end link of the chain using each end of the scarf. I think it’s gorgeous!

Moving on, I wanted to get another book purse complete. I thought the lavender/teal paisly web belt would go great with this book cover:

I can see in my imagination that the purse part needs a great design on the fabric, such as burgers and shakes, or maybe something similar to Steak-N-Shake decor that patrons would immediately recognize. I set it aside to work on another time.

I pulled out the Labrador book. This has been a favorite of mine, and I am finally ready to work on it. I found a few belts that I thought would make great straps for this one, and I decided on the narrowest, tooled leather one. Looked like a leash or collar to me.

The chocolate brown fabric behind makes up the box portion of the purse, and I got so “into” the working of it, that I forgot to take a photo showing the inside cover fabric. It’s a great tan color, rescued from a man’s shirt. Here’s the book purse after concentrated work (and a little bit of sweat!).

Needless to say, these purses will both be listed on Etsy and also for sale at a boutique in Kansas City. I did a great day’s work today!

DAY 22 OF MY 50-DAY CHALLENGE

Etsy success!

I just made my first sale on Etsy today. I love that I have to learn the whole process of acknowledging the sale, sending out the product, confirming payment, and all that. It’s a great feeling, and makes me want to make more and list it all.

Today I worked a bit on this book purse.

I chose a burgundy/gold upholstery fabric for the inside cover of the book, and a silky burgundy fabric for the box part of the purse. I edged the top of the purse in gold trim and lined it with white cotton. I added a magnet catch to the top of the inside cover and the very bottom of the purse, so it’ll stay closed. Sewing stalled when I wasn’t happy with any strap choices I had on hand, and could not easily come up with what I want to use. When I get back to working on it, all that is left to do is attach the strap and glue down the fabric to the covers.

DAY 21 OF MY 50-DAY CHALLENGE

Free for a limited time!

A tutorial for my book purses (my own design) has been requested, and those of you waiting for it have been rewarded. For a limited time, you can download a FREE copy of the pattern for my top-opening, box-style book purses. Click the link below to open a window and you can then save to your computer or print yourself a copy. Please note that the pattern gives you permission to create these purses for yourself or to give as gifts, but not to sell.

Book Purses

If the link no longer works, you may go here to purchase the pattern in my Etsy store.

When the room gets messy…

When the sewing room becomes a mess, it means I have been working hard. It also means I’m not paying attention to my environment. I know that organization makes the sewing go so much faster. Take, for example, my search for a zipper for the pillow I made last week. I knew I had a small box with several zippers in it, hoping to find one long enough to use for the pillow cover. I ended up making it a fold-over instead of a zipper closure. Sure enough, the next thing I did was to come across the zipper collection.

I spent about an hour to begin with today, moving, sorting and putting supplies away. I have a great start to fantastic organization, but somehow I just don’t keep up with it by putting everything away between projects. Not cool.

Afterward, I got the urge to complete the seashell evening bag I started yesterday. I had glued the side gussets to the book cover, and needed to figure out what I was going to do about the handles. I finally came up with three holes in the book cover. I threaded gold-covered thread through the hole twice, and dangled a gold-tone teardrop bead at each site. The thread then looped over the wooden handle and tied near the hole in the back, to be covered by the final fabric part of the purse. With all the wet glue that needs to set, I found an appropriate sized book to insert in the purse, closed the cover, and laid heavy books on top. Now set, here is how it looks, for sale in my Etsy store.

Seaside Date Evening Bag

I wanted to start another book purse, and got this lovely specimen out.

I adore the patterns and colors on the cover. I started cutting away the pages and I lost all interest in continuing. I will, another day, but today I was already done for.

I have an appointment with a boutique owner in a little over a week, and I hope to have plenty of lovely book purses for her to stock her shelves with. Can you imagine coming across the collection in a retail center? I have about 12 purses at this time, and hope to have at least 4 more by then.

DAY 20 OF MY 50-DAY CHALLENGE

Shopping means more fabric

It always does, I can’t help it. Well, of course I can help it, but when it’s so darn cheap at the thrift stores, I don’t want to stop myself.

Yesterday, Monday, I had plenty of errands to run for the camping trailer. I was able to squeeze in visits to two thrift stores that are favorites of mine. Here’s part of the haul:

This was the contents of a bag for $1.99. There are scraps of corduroy in 5 different colors, a bit of velour, and a heavy fabric print, all of which can go to make great book purses.

I found two Halloween prints (one is Debbie Mumm, though I don’t pay much attention to the names in the selvages), one tiny gingerbread men print, a crackle paint texture print, and a great floral. All were $1/yard and I’m sure at that price I can find plenty of uses for them.

Shopping also means books! These are the books I picked up to make purses out of.  The two in the foreground were irresistible! The exotic print was what I found after taking off the dust cover, and the ideas for the purse are already swimming in my head. the small photo album with shells on the cover will make a great evening bag, and I’ve already started working on it. I added a length of chain with seaside charms, and started choosing fabrics.

It was my intention to take enough photos of the process to do a tutorial here on book purses, but I ran into some difficulty with the materials I chose. Hence, no tutorial today. I will soon, though. I love the concept of sharing my abilities with others that appreciate and want to do their own.

DAY 19 of the 50-Day Challenge

Erik, I’m ready!

Day Seven of sewing was actually on Saturday. That was a busy day!

I worked on finishing a book purse I had started the day before. I had to finish sewing the box form to the backing fabric, glue it all to the book cover with the purse handle, and make the closure. For the closure, I made a simple flower shape from an olive green ribbon and sewed a pearly button in the center. It took a little work to make the holes through the book cover for the thread, but it wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it might be. I sewed a length of ribbon with a loop on the end to the underside of the purse.  Now complete and ready to post in my Etsy store.

Then I got to work on step Four of the mystery quilt. More cutting, larger pieces, and sewing some of the squares to make half-square triangles. My stack after completing this page:

I’m really ready, Erik Homemade, to start making rows of blocks! At this point I have caught up with the instructions released so far, so if I’m going to be sewing every day I need to look toward something else to work on between pages.

After the sewing yesterday I helped my husband as he was cutting down trees. When we quit around sunset, I was a little too tired to think clearly enough to write a blog post.

Sewing Interrupted

Well, since it has been a day or so, I thought I’d better get to the sewing room and do a little work.

Today I completed another page in the mystery quilt, which of course means more cutting and more sewing. After completing step 3 (which is page 4), my cutting table looks like this:

It’s a pile of (mostly) blue that keeps growing. I looked ahead and what I need to cut next time, and I really am running out of blue now. I know, that was the reason to do this mystery quilt, but it really defeats the purpose to purchase more fabric in order to have some variety in the prints, and I really don’t want to add another color at this late date and time. I don’t know yet what I’ll do; tomorrow is another day.

I looked around and decided to work on another book purse. I got out this book cover and found that this floral fabric coordinates well.

I backed it with interfacing for the part that is glued down over the end papers of the book cover. I found burgundy corduroy to use for the box part, and also backed that with interfacing. I was working on this when I was…..interrupted. My stepson had come over and so I reluctantly left behind the sewing for a while. It turned out to be a short visit, actually an errand for him to retrieve something from the barn, so I was able to go back to sewing.

I keep re-designing how I make these purses. Each time, it seems to be a new process. Once again, I tried to force too much fabric through the machine (an older mechanical machine) and broke a needle. Seemed like a good place to stop for the day.

So, in summary, Day Six yields one more page of the mystery quilt completed, enough of a book purse completed to haunt me for several days, and I’m done sewing in time to get ready for my “date” with my husband. We have some boat shopping to do.

Sunday thoughts and busy-ness

What is it about this book?

I’m talking about the peach colored one titled Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. In the past 10 months I’ve seen and bought 3 copies of this book at thrift and second-hand stores. It makes a beautiful book purse of an adequate size. Many books I’ve bought make purses on the smallish side. My guess is that this book was a popular gift for mothers, but that those same mothers didn’t see the value in keeping and/or reading the book.

In the past two days I’ve made two book purses. The blue one in the photo above was started on Saturday and completed on Sunday.

I liked the gold lettering on the navy blue fabric cover, so I was thrilled to find a braided belt in navy and gold to use as the strap. The fabric inside was a thin cotton, navy with tiny yellow paisley. Because it is such a thin fabric I used a white cotton lining and a heavyweight interfacing. By lifting the front cover of the book you can reach from the top into the “box” of the purse. I designed it myself after playing with the other type of book purse I’ve seen.

(a glance inside)

The purse I made on Saturday is brown faux leather binding, titled The Desire of Ages. I was so intrigued by the title! I had a beautiful upholstery sample that I used for the lining and “box” of the purse. Black satin twisted cording was crocheted with a simple chain stitch to make a lightweight but sturdy strap.

I did think some more about the Christmas table runners I’m in the middle of.  I’m half-deciding not to applique the poinsettia, since the fabrics I chose are mostly gold and green. I think it might look like a bold red splash. I’ll have to think some more about what to do with the end squares. I have plenty of time, I think.

I managed to get to the thrift store this morning. I found 6 belts, some white satin fabric (more than a yard), two shirts and three purses, and got away with it all for $3.24. I love the sale day, but after two weeks in a row of the crowds and short tempers, I think it’ll be a couple weeks before I go back again.