Custom Sewing

Corn Flower Zipper Bag
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Corn Flower Zipper Bag

A wonderful neighbor has been ‘getting her exercise’ by mowing our lawn along with hers.  She has mowed around the wild flowers, leaving beautiful sprays of nature’s color as the seasons change.  I took a picture of the cornflower crop and sent it to https://spoonflower.com, a company that creates fabric and paper products from photos.  As a gift for her, this zipper bag was made from twill fabric and lined with quilting fabric and batting, with free-motion quilting. The bag is 8 x 10 inches with a 48″ strap — just the right size for quick errands. She loved it!

Back of bag
Front of bag with pocket for mobile phone
Adding the inside pocket and finishing inside seams

Time to add backing to the Garden Gate
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Time to add backing to the Garden Gate

Quilting on a flat bed machine is not for the faint of heart!

With Garden Gate, all the ‘quilting’ is already done on the top square — thanks to Steve Wilson and http://www.Anita-Goodesign.com.  On this quilt, even the batting (Warm & Natural) in already sewn into the individual squares.  The pictures below show the steps I took to begin backing the quilt.  The finished product is not going to be perfect and I accept that in advance, with the prayer that even so, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength!  Phil 4:13.

The quilt is quite heavy so I’m thankful for the walking foot on the Bernina 830 that helps me get somewhat even stitches.

Here is the quilt tag that is sewn on the bottom corner of the backing.  The quilt tag is from a Mini Collection by http://www.Anita-Goodesign.com called Quilt Labels.  There are 20 designs total in the collection.

I used the batik fabric for the backing that matches some strips on the front, using two different colors/designs – simply because I like them.

Quilt Tag

To Aubrey from Granny with love 2017

Quilt Backing

Batik sewn in strips for the backing.

Knee pads are important in sewing too!!

Pinning the quilt to the backing – I used at least 80 size 3 basting pins to hold the quilt in place.

Stitch in the ditch

It is only necessary to stitch in the ditch around the blocks for this quilt.  I took the pins out as a square was finished.  That helped to see the progress.

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Slow and steady — sewing around each square took nine hours!

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Ramona Mini Hipster

Thanks to Erin Morris of

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This cute little bag is just right to go out with the girls for lunch and shopping!  It measures 9″ wide and 10″ tall and is 2.5″ deep.  The pattern contained explicit details for cutting and construction.  I appreciate all the work that went into the creation of the pattern!

 

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Pillow Talk with the Word

I made another embroidered pillow today and polished the pillow back with embroidered buttonholes and covered buttons (covered with the material from the front of the pillow.) The embroidered buttonhole instructions came from Designs in Machine Embroidery by Eileen Roche – from her blog of May 15, 2013. The blog included the file to save to your machine – she is very generous!

The pillow inserts can get quite pricey, so I decided to order my own fiberfill on line – 25 lbs for $94 – little did I know how much 25 lb equals in fiberfill:) Will post a picture!

Saree hemming

Saree hemming

Just finishing up the embroidery on 48 aprons with the Cross and Flame for the Manchaca UMC Child Development Center. Now trying my hand at hemming Sarees for a lady from India. This work is very rewarding for its diversity!

The hem needed to be invisible on the right side of the fabric. I used black 60 wt thread in the bobbin and clear monofilament thread on top with the blind hem stitch. For the other hems, I’ll do a rolled hem with Bernina foot 63.