Quilting Skills On My Front Porch!

 Some twenty years ago, I watched a Martha Stewart show where she painted her front porch. Oh, how I loved to her show back then when she was totally country.   I have a sort of Southern Style home with a large front porch and big pillars and I was so in love with her front porch that I just had to copy it.  This will be the third time that I had to get down on my hands and knees and paint this porch.  This time it was harder to get down and up, but it was in desperate need of being repainted and I still had to have my checkered pattern.

What you have to do is first paint the entire porch one color with a good enamel paint.  Then you need to wait until it is good and dry.  Purchase a couple of rolls of blue painters tape and I taped it off.  (The one picture I forgot to take)  But I used my 12-inch quilting square and laid out my squares making sure that everything was pretty even.  Then you paint the squares that you want to be painted.  I did every other square.  Then the next day carefully pull up your painter's tape, do not stand on your second color of paint yet and after you remove the tape let it dry again for several days.

There may be a few touch ups after that if the painter's tape pulled off any paint.  It is a pretty long process.  Unfortunately, it took me about 3 weeks to get this accomplished because we had so much rain.  I had to leave my tape on for several days and this really created a mess and lots of touch-ups, but I finally got it finished and it looks great.  

Here are a couple of pictures of it being painted.

How Madeira Embroidery Is Made in Portugal! Fascinating!

I ran across this link this morning on how Madeira embroidery is made in Portugal.  This is fascinating and the amount of time of both days and hours that are put into this.  You must watch!

phttps://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FofePskIzaSs&h=ATNZTg_mhJGjCgxn0nCGnzj7lesOE62hXofDCVpO_QoMZ8AXXizs93ZXyR9PkpzQzemewLepg2JCcUPWv0-1-ZfNWonJPdhrNYmtoznz1Q2sXjeYeQFp

The production of Bordal’s Madeira Hand Embroidery, filmed in our factory. All customers are invited to visit Bordal's Historic Tour in our factory at Rua Dr. Fernão de Ornelas, 77 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Sewing On Elastic, three techniques! by Fabrics.com

Here is a great little video for sewing on elastic bands from Fabrics.com.  Three different techniques.  I like to save these little videos in a folder.  If I am making something, then I can do a little review!  Click on the Fabrics.com link below!

Fabrics.com

Free Sue Box Designs

Have you ever seen Sue Box's designs?  If you like to machine embroider, she always has gorgeous designs.  She just sent an email this morning for a free flower design.  I don't have any connection, I just like her designs and she has a freebie for each collection!

You might want to take a look!  This is the free design I received this morning.  Here is her website.

http://suebox.com/

Sit And Stitch Pincushion

Last week we took a ride down to Charm, Ohio and, of course, I went into the quilt shops. For those of you not familiar with the area, this is Amish Country and I love it down there.   I purchased this pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates at Miller's Dry Goods.  I am always knitting or hand sewing something while we watch tv.  I think I have told you before, this keeps me from munching.  Sometimes!!

I thought this would be cute because my scissors, glasses, needles and such are always scattered on my end table.  

It wasn't hard to make, but they suggested that you fill the pincushion with crushed walnut shells.  Well, that  was  something   that I didn't have.  They   suggested you get this  at a pet store.   I wanted

to start to make this and didn't want to run around trying to find this.  I did have some dried buckeye shells in the basement, so I thought I would see if I could grind these up.  I had my mom and dad's old hand grinder and I tried to grind up a few and I could hardly turn the handle.  I took the buckeye shells and put them in a plastic freezer bag and hammered the heck out of them out in the garage.  I had to strain them to get the little pieces and do this about six times.  Then I ran the smaller pieces through the grinder again and this was much easier. I finally got enough ground up to fill the pincushion and I must say it filled it up and the pins slide in very easily.   What a job that was though.  My suggestion would be to go to the pet store!!!   After this was done, I had a sink full of dirty dishes!!  

Here is a picture of the one that I made.  It turned out really cute and matches my family room.

Hat, Scarf, Gloves! Pattern - Simplicity 0890 Sew Simple

I made one of these back in 2013, October if you want to look at that post.  My granddaughter has worn this to death.  Still looks good, but does not match with her new pink coat.  She asked me to make her another one.   We went to JoAnn fabrics and she picked out the color.  It is suppose to be two toned, but she wanted a solid color.  I thought I remembered how to make it and thought I didn't need to read the pattern.  WRONG!!  I sewed the ears in the wrong place and had to do some major ripping out.  I guess I thought I was just too big for my britches as my mother use to say when I was little.  Anyway, I thought, I would explain how to sew on the mittens and have a nice smooth, round  edge. 

Here is a picture of the paw which I zigzagged around some faux leather for this look.  Now here is where I  like to sew around the paw and come out with a perfectly round edge and have both paws looking the same.  This is my technique that I use.

First I make a copy of the pattern edge with my printer.

Here is the copy, but you can see this pattern does not even give you any seam allowances so this will not work, because all I have is the cutting line, not the sewing line.  I need the actual sewing line.

I take my copy and cut out around the edge and fold it in half to make sure that both sides are the same.  Don't just assume that they will be because this is not always the case.  I had to trim up a little on this copy to make sure both sides were even.  Then I use my handy 5/8 tool here which I have no idea what it is called.  You just lay the edge of the ruler on the edge of your pattern and draw in the lines as shown and this gives you the 5/8 inch seam allowance.

 

Next, I trimmed off the 5/8 seam allowance so I could copy exactly the sewing line and  this is how it should be sewn.

I then placed it on my material and copied the curve.  I used a black magic marker, but, I would recommend a water-soluble marker for this.  I used the marker so you could see what I was doing and I knew it would not show through on this material.  Now I have an exact line to follow when I sew for a perfect pocket edge.

I did a little decorating on it because with just one color, it looked a little plain.  I hope she likes it.  I have to pick her up from school today, so we shall see!  If you look close at the pattern, you will see that the two paws in the picture are not sewn the same.  This is why I use my technique.  I used Luxe fleece and I absolutely love it.  It is pure quality!!!  Nice and heavy for winter!!

Elastic 101 and How To Use It!

I just watched this Threads video about the different types of elastic and how to use each one.  This was a very informative video.   I thought I would share it with anyone who would like to watch it.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/2012/02/15/elastic-101?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=editpost