Category Archives: Crafts

Summer home decorations

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As soon as I saw August Wren’s “Chasing the Sun” fabric collection for Dear Stella, especially the panel print, I knew I had to make a quilt with it. The flower prints were also perfect for some nice summer themed table runners and other home decorations. I continued my habit of making a table runner for the dining room table and also buffet. I also made coordinating pillows for my living room and a front door hanger. All of this matches the wonderful throw blanket with the gorgeous panel.

Summer themed table runner for my dining room table

Summer themed table runner for my buffet

Summer themed front door hanger

Summer themed pillow covers for my living room

Quilt made from “Chasing the Sun” panel and coordinating fabric

Bargello Quilt

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I made my first bargello quilt. I have been exploring the different patterns that can be formed using a bargello technique. For my first, I decided to so something simple, and I designed it to look like a parabola. I also quilted it by connecting the corners of the pieces to emphasize the parabolic shape. I like parabolic shapes. Also I love fluid dynamics, and the velocity profile of laminar flow forms a parabola. While I named this quilt Parabola. I could have named it laminar flow. Also, I am a nerd.

All the fabric is from Island Batik, Gemstones and Rainbow Days series.

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Laptop Tote Bag

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I made a couple of tote bags for relatives for Christmas, and now I wanted to make one for myself. I combined elements of a couple of different designs I have seen to make my own. I designed it to hold my laptop, notebooks, and a few other items. It has one outside pocket, and two interior pockets. One of the interior pockets has divisions sewed into it to make it useful for pens and such. I also attacked an umbrella pocket to the exterior. The interior of the umbrella has an iron on vinyl coating in case the umbrella is wet when I put it in. All the fabric is from the same batik collection.

Exterior of tote bag with pocket side

Exterior of tote bag

Interior of finished tote bag

Umbrella pocket before attached

Interior panel that is divided into four different sections via stitching

Interior panel

Winter decorations

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I’ve been enjoying making holiday decorations, mainly in the form of table runners, pillow covers, and a front door hanger. While it is currently carnival season, I was not quite ready to put up my Mardi Gras decorations, so I decided to make some season decorations for winter. Essentially the decorations are snow themed. For the dining room table runner, I designed a pattern that is supposed to look like three snowflakes. I am not sure if that is clear, but I like how it turned out.

Front door hanger with machine embroidery

Dining room table runner, it is supposed to look like three snowflakes

Dining room table runner

Buffet table runner

Buffet table runner

Pillow covers with machine embroidery

Little Purse

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I wanted a purse, mainly for when I travel, that was light weight but would still hold the essentials. I thought I designed this purse well. I measured my Kindle and my phone to determine what size pockets they need. Then I designed a series of zippered and unzipped pockets for everything. In one of the zippered pockets, I added a card holder for easy access to cards, for example, a public transit card. My design was both a success and a failure. The purse is really cute in my opinion, and it does hold what it was designed to hold. Unfortunately, once I add my wallet and a few other essentials, it is too small. I like to be able to carry my eyeglass case with me, and I can’t put that in here as well as a few other essentials, like a rolled bag for unexpected shopping buys. I should have added a couple of extra inches, but I was trying to keep the bag as small as possible. It was a good learning experience though, and I think if I add about an inch in width and perhaps two inches in height, the bag should work as designed. Thus, that will be next sewing project, to make another that is slightly larger.

The front has a large pocket for my phone, which has a buttoned flip-over piece to hold the phone securely. There are also two zippered pockets.

Front of the purse

The back of the purse has a pocket designed for my Kindle.

Back of the purse

The inside of the purse has a pocket that runs the entire length. My idea for this pocket was to put receipts.

Inside the purse

The top zippered pocket on the front has three card holders.

Front zippered pockets

Christmas decorations

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I am thoroughly getting into decorating my house for various holiday by sewing decorations. Similar to other holidays, I sewed a table runner for the dining room table and for the buffet. For the buffet table runner, I quilted it with a snowflake stitch that came with my sewing machine. I free-motion quilted the dining room table runner. For the dining room table runner, I used all the triangle fabric pieces left over from sewing the Christmas trees on the top to make part of the back. I also sewed pillow covers for a pair of pillows that I switch out the covers for each season. Finally, I sewed a door decoration hanger for my front door. Most of the fabrics are from Dear Stella.

Buffet Christmas table runner

Fabric in buffet Christmas table runner

Christmas dining room table runner

Back of Christmas dining room table runner

Christmas pillow covers

Christmas front door hanger

Thanksgiving decorations

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I found some fabric that I loved from Dear Stella that is Thanksgiving and fall themed. I used it to make table runners, pillows, and a front door hanger for Thanksgiving. I created just a simple design for the table runners. I used machine fabric appliqué for the pillows and the front door hanger. The appliqué pattern is from OESD.

Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Close up of Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Thanksgiving table runner for buffet

Thanksgiving pillows

Thanksgiving front door hanger

Late Summer Door Hanger

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I have really liked decorating my front door for various holidays such as Mardi Gras and Easter. Last month I used some fabric from my Independence Day table runners and the Thanksgiving table runners I have started making to create a door decoration for later summer. No holiday to celebrate. Just a celebration of the season and flowers. I found a nice sunflower appliqué, and I added a button to the center, and it created a perfect focus for the hanger.

Late summer door hanger

Sunflower applique on late summer door hanger

Independence Day Table Runners

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Once again, I made table runners for a holiday. The main reason I made them for the 4th of July is simply, as is often the case, I found wonderful fabric with which I wanted to do something.

The narrow table runner is like the Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter table runners I made and is for the buffet. I just used strips of various red, white, and blue fabrics. I used a straight stitch alternating with a star stitch that came preprogrammed on my sewing machine for the quilting. The stars did not exactly space correctly. I am going to buy a dual-feed foot for my machine that can do a wide stitch, as I think that may be (part of) the problem.

The larger, wider table runner is an original design and is for the dining room table. It is obviously inspired by the U.S.A. flag. The proportions are similar but not exactly the same as the flag, as I altered the proportions a bit to make it easier to use 2.5 inch strips. I used a straight stitch to quilt the stripe portion of the flag. I originally wanted to buy an embroidery quilting pattern that I could use for the star field, but I could not find one that was just plain stars, and I don’t know how to design an embroidery pattern, so I ultimately just free-motion quilted stars on the blue field. I kind of like the way it turned out, but I also kind of wish it were a little more uniform. I made a duplicate flag table runner that hasn’t been quilted yet, and I am going to wait to quilt it until I can decide how to make it a little bit more uniform. [I made a duplicate as well as some extra of the more narrow table runner because I have excess fabric. My plan is to eventually try to sell them once I figure out how to do that.]

USA flag table runner

USA flag table runner closeup

Independence Day table runner

Independence Day table runner

Independence Day table runner closeup