Off to the Farmers Market

I picked up a new book while I was at Piece by Peace Quilts in Fort St. John last month (last month already?) by Terri Degenkolb called Reminiscing: a whimsicals collection. Actually, I bought it for the Rusted Moons pattern, but it has lots of other neat patterns in it, including the Tag Along Tote. It just caught my eye. Well, really, it doesn’t take much for a bag pattern to catch my eye these days, but I decided to actually make one for my best friend whose birthday was last week. I had just bought the Summer 2014 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects and no bags, but lots of intriguing patterns and designs. Terri had a flower as the centrepiece on the bag, but Primitive Quilts had Henrietta Little (by Deb Day) outlined as a needlepunch project, and my friend loves her chickens. I don’t do rugs, but it was easy to turn her drawing into an applique project. 

Chicken + Bag = birthday present. Terri’s pattern is so simple that I figured I’d have it done in a day! Well, except for the chicken applique. That always takes a bit of time. But her pattern was so simple, it threw me for a loop. I was expecting the straps to be much more complicated than they were and so couldn’t understand her instructions. Looking back on them now that I’ve finished, I see exactly how I messed up. Anyway, a little bit of unsewing and a little bit of improvising, and the bag was finished and delivered.

Because there were no pockets inside, I made up a matching Cake Clutch, which did take me less than a day to make because I’ve been making so many of them lately. I added a fob inside the bag and a d-ring outside the clutch so it could be attached to the bag. Oh yeah – the lining is dotted with chicken fabric! Just the thing for shopping at the local Farmers Market.

Until next time,

Back to work

I didn’t mean to take such a long break from blogging – it just happened. Yesterday I went back to work after four weeks of holidays, and just before that, I was so busy getting my work finished up so that I could leave on holiday…. It’s always something, isn’t it?

I barely spent any time at all on my computer this past month, but I did manage to get a fair amount of sewing in as I divided my time between the garden and my sewing machine. It’s raining today (and yesterday, on my first day back to work – how appropriate!), but it was smoking hot here just up until last week, and I spent every minute that I could outside. Yes, those are some of my tomatoes up above.

I’ve been working on a few things, but I’m still making more of these cute little Cake Clutches from Make it Handmade. I made one for a co-worker as a Christmas present, and she loves it. She wanted a black and white one for her mother, so I put one together with some pretty fabrics I bought while vacationing. I visit Piece by Peace Quilts every summer when we visit family and friends in Fort St. John and I always leave with a pile of beautiful fabrics and the occasional book.

The free Cake Clutch pattern doesn’t call for an inside pocket, but I almost always add one (I think I’ve made over a dozen of these handy little critters so far). And a tab with a clasp to hold a key ring or something else small that you want quick access to. Inside welt pockets are pretty easy to add. When I first started making them, I googled welt pocket tutorials until I found instructions that I could follow.

But after I finished her mother’s, my co-worker asked me to make her another one. Just a little bigger than the last one I made for her, in black, and with an inside pocket with a zipper. I haven’t done many inside zippers, and the last one I did looked horrible. So I was as careful with this one as I could be, using Seam-A-Seam 2 double-sided fusible tape. I’ve used the tape before when making zippers, and it’s useful for holding them in place while you sew. But last time I tried it on an inside zip pocket, a lot of the tape was exposed because there was more of the zipper showing. This time I fused the tape to the back of the pocket where it wouldn’t be seen, and then ironed it onto the zipper. I think it turned out pretty well – neat and even. Hope she likes it!

Until next time,

Friday Furballs – Relaxin’

What I’ve been up to

in my new greenhouse… Growing about a million or so tomato plants, and half as many pepper plants. Seemed like it, anyway, but probably more like just over 200 tomatoes about 50 peppers. Mostly heirloom varieties. Far too many to keep, so I’ve been hauling them down to the local Farmers Market for the past three (rainy) Saturdays. Managed to sell most of them. What I have left are the “exotic” varieties that ripen green or black. And, for some reason, the Amish Paste – only sold one out of 30-some plants. The Super Italian Paste went quick enough. Perhaps I should have renamed them “Super Amish Paste”! Adding the unsold plants to those I held back for my own planting (2 of each of 12 tomato varieties), I have about 90 tomato plants to stick in the ground somewhere. And about 30 pepper plants – mostly hot peppers.

My vegetable garden still has a tonne of dirt mixed with rocks sitting of it from last year’s renovations, so it’s not likely that I’ll be able to use that this year. I guess there’s always the front yard. I promised all of the would-be buyers that I’d be dragging truckloads of green and black tomatoes back to the market come summer! Need to start shopping for a pressure cooker. I have dozens of herb plants that I have to repot now and take to the market.

And what have I been sewing lately? Not a lot. My new needle plate arrived and my sewing machine is happy again. Even though I pounded my old plate back into shape, I noticed when I compared it to the new one that it was still missing a spring. Anyhow, the machine is humming along, but I wasn’t. For weeks, it seemed like every time I sat down to sew, I’d make another big, ugly mistake that would take time to correct. After I ruined the third of the clutches, I gave up and went out the greenhouse. You can’t tell by the picture, but I sewed too close to the zipper on the top clutch and can’t zip it without catching material in it. The one on the bottom, I made a mess of the inside pocket. The latest one… I unstitched it today so I can redo it properly.

Too much on my mind lately, I think. I was better off in the greenhouse. But now that the tomato rush is over, maybe I’ll get back to sewing. Especially if it’s going to rain on every weekend.

Until next time,

Awwwwww

Nothing but pure fluff in this post. Baby bunnies at Desert Hills Ranch in Ashcroft yesterday. Happy Easter!

Spring fabrics

Working on some cute little clutches using bright, spring-like fabrics – by Kate Spain, I think. I bought them as remnants, so I don’t quite recall. I was looking through my fabrics last night to pick out some more selections and every time my hand went to some intricate or dark colour and pattern, I had to remind myself to keep it light and happy!

I learned two new things in making this clutch – I made piping for the first time, using an inch and a half strip of fabric to cover some butcher’s twine. I’ve since bought myself a piping foot, but this was made using just my regular straight stitch foot. I love the way it accents the little clutch. A little bulky by the zipper – the next one I make, I may clip the butchers cord back so that I don’t have to sew over it with the zipper – but it still worked.

The second thing was these cute little “brad” flowers. I bought them at Michaels in a package of 50. They’re metal with a double prong on the back – like a magnetic clasp. So you pierce the fabric, open the clasp – I used an extra little piece of firm stabilizer to hold it in place – and that’s about it. I don’t think they’d go through the washing machine very well, so I wouldn’t want to use them on anything that’s going to be tossed in with the laundry. But… I like the way they look here.

And inside… Still working on getting those welt pockets looking better. Not happening yet. It’ll come. Like the zippers. I bought myself a new zipper foot (along with the piping foot, and also a beading foot) which I used to install this zipper. I like it much better. The new foot is the longer one. The shorter foot came with the machine, and I’ve been using it for the past three years or so, but I’ve never been happy with it. I’ve only used the long foot once, but it seems to hold everything down better and helps me sew more evenly. It’s possible that I’m just making excuses for all of the bad zipper sewing that I’ve done in the past, but I really think the new foot has made a difference.

I mentioned in the post before the last one that Mr. ZQ had gone to visit his folks after his dad broke his hip. Well, all of the medical tests and procedures uncovered a nasty and virulent form of lung cancer, and his dad passed away on Thursday. I guess the positive spin on that is Mr. ZQ had time to spend with his parents before his dad passed away, and his dad didn’t linger for months or years in agony as some cancer patients do. It’s sad that another good man has left the Earth, but he’s left behind him a large and loving family. Rest in peace, Ron.

To market, to market

Well, I hammered my needle plate back together and I ordered a new one. It hasn’t arrived yet, but the old one is working satisfactorily for now. Even did some FMQing with it. That’s a thing about living in a small town – the resources, like repair shops, aren’t there so you learn how to do things yourself!

So I finished the Farmers Market Tote. One down, three to go. I’m hoping to make some to sell at our Farmers Market in May – did I tell you that already? I really like this pattern. It’s simple but stylish. And it’s big – it uses a lot of fabric! So use something inexpensive. The feature fabric – Moda’s “Odds and Ends” - was on sale for $3 per meter, the straps and outside pocket are canvas which was about $5 per metre, and so was the muslin which I used for the inside of the bag. The green fabric on the bottom came from the thrift store, so it was real cheap!

I used some of the sewing machine’s fancy stitches on the handle. Doesn’t cost anything, but it makes it look a little bit “special”! I wanted to silk screen the market logo on the pocket, but I don’t have everything I need for it. So I used a t-shirt transfer sheet that I printed on my inkjet. It worked well, though I don’t care for that shiny bit that makes up an iron-on transfer. Still, it doesn’t look bad, but I am working at getting the stuff  or silk screening together. I have soooo much “stuff” for all sorts of crafts, but there’s always just one more thing that you need.

Until next time,