Cleaning up Your Art Making Equipment...

This evening I was sewing away, making my sketchbook for the "Sketchbook Challenge"
(yeah, I finally made my mind up on which one to use - a new one!)  when I broke a needle.

Drat!

Put in a new one.

Change to a heavier thread (I'm trying to be breve with thread this year!) (I was trying an embroidery thread) when I broke another needle.

Darn!

Change the needle, try a different type this time.

Noticed that my stitch wasn't "right".

Re thread, try again.

It still didn't look quite right so I thought I'd take a look under my throat plate...

Now, my sweetie keeps my machine clean for me - he does a great job too

but I've been so busy the past few months making books that I've been a little slack in asking him to clean it for me.

I've been sewing paper, upholstery fabric, heavy coated fabric, leather...you get the picture.

So I looked under the plate and

EEEEWWWHHHAAA!

Dust, paper dust, fabric dust, dust bunnies and their extended families!

I called my handy man in to help me.

I told him that I had been sewing paper.

And heavy upholstery fabric.

And coated fabric.

I'm standing there watching him clean my dirty, dirty machine and I saw this whitish ...um, particle stuff around the bobbin case.

I asked "Eww. What is that?"

Sweetie "I don't know baby. It looks like plastic."

Silence for about 10 seconds.

Me "Well, I have been sewing plastic too."

Laughter...

The moral of this story is that if you sew all those things on your sewing machine
you really should clean it REGULARLY.

Frequently.

(Addendum - after the extensive cleaning she is sewing great!)

Quilted Tote Bag

I am going to be teaching a few classes at My Quilt Shoppe soon. I have posted pictures of the Victorian Applique Series I am doing in an earlier blog.

The other class is a Quilted Tote Bag from Jo-Lydia's Attic. It is really nice and roomy, measuring 15"high and 18"wide. It has 8 pockets, an attached change purse (which I use for sewing/painting notions) and a swivel hook for keys (or scissors). There are pockets inside on all four sides. There are also pockets outside on every side, one large enough to carry a cutting mat to class! It would make a great class tote, with all those pockets you can keep everything organized. I also placed a separating zipper on the top panel. You can unzip it completely so that the panel drops down inside the tote when you want easy access to your things. There is an eyeglass case pattern included with the pattern. Oh, and there is also a total of three tote sizes in the pattern.

It is called "The Quilted Carryalls".

I made one for myself out of pre-quilted batiks but needed to show one made from "quilt your own fabric"...so I picked something from the new fabric at MQS.

I choose three fabrics. One for the main side panels, a contrasting fabric for outside pockets and one for the inside of the bag (inside pockets). This is my progress so far.

This is all the things that I needed gathered together. If I were keeping the bag, I would have quilted batiks probably. But this fabric is nice as well.

I just quilted them with a simple grid pattern but it looked very nice after it was done. I just loved spending time with fabric, thread and my sewing machine!

And a close up of the quilted fabric. The pattern suggests that you cut the fabric and batting before quilting it as it goes much quicker than quilting the entire piece then cutting the pieces out. And it went very fast for me. I used a bone crease tool to mark my grid with. No markings to remove!

Hope you enjoyed this little blog about part of what I did yesterday.

This morning I took the last batch of Rust Fabric out of the bin! It looks beautiful! I also added quite a few different items to see how they would rust. Results later...

This afternoon I'm going to pick my niece, Kara, up and I'm going to teach her how to sew! I'm excited about this! I love teaching the next generation this craft. She has awesome taste in colors and design and I'm sure that she will choose beautiful fabric. We're going to make a tote bag. Not the one from above, I think that a true beginner needs one a little less involved. But I will show her how to mark it for the grid quilting...maybe I'll ignite the quilting fire in her! Here's to Kara!

Bird Crazy or Crazy Bird...

I had drawn a couple of birds the other night when Hot Flashes had me awake and looking for something to do. The very next day, I saw Birds on Praterposte (http://www.praterposte.blogspot.com/) and it made me remember a Bird Vest that I had made years and years ago. I rambled through my closet and found it! I never wear it but couldn't force myself to throw it out, it's Art, ya know.

I've posted some pictures of it. I saw the directions in a magazine but cannot remember the name of it...sorry! I did use my own modified vest pattern and, as usual, changed up the birds as well!

This is the front. I made it out of a soft muslin fabric. I fused the everything on and then did a little free hand embroidery on the edges. I attached and secured the fabric flowers with buttons. How cute was that?

And the back. I still love those long legged birds! I have a star on the back and a sun on the shoulder. I have a close up of the sun farther down.

Close up of one of the birds on the front. I love this button. I added seed beads for some of the eyes. What a crafty gal!

This is one of my favorite bird and flower combinations!

This is the left side of the front. The tallest bird was an All Star Basketball player in 1995...

And this is the Sun. It is located directly over the right shoulder.

Hope you enjoyed my little trip back to 1990's garment sewing!