Saturday, May 16, 2015

Scrappy Cushion, Part One

I bought a cheap rolling office chair for my sewing desk a few weeks ago. Because of the up and down nature of ironing, cutting and sewing fabric, using a regular chair is hard on the chair and the floors.


After sitting on this rolling chair for a few weeks I noticed how hard the cushion felt after a few minutes. I decided to make a cushion from my scraps to use on this chair.

I have been saving all my tiny crumbs (pieces of fabric less than one inch square), sliver trimmings from squaring up my blocks, thread ends from taking out bastings and that small piece of embroidery thread that you can't use for anything.

My neighbor gave me a large plastic bin that she had saved from her last get together, where the cheese balls had come. See picture below. I also had a small container full of these little bits. I put the tape measure in the picture so you can get an idea of how tall the bin is.



Now what was I going to use for the cover? I didn't want to use good fabric because this was only going to be the inner casing to put the tiny scraps into.  I want to be able to take the "nicely" decorated outer cover off for laundering. Kind of like a pillow case but fitting more snugly.

I decided to use an old pillow case. As you can see by the character on it, it is very old but still in useable shape.




I draped the pillowcase over the seat of the chair and cut it down to a size that leaves enough room for the stuffing and the hem to close it.




After stuffing and sewing the pillow case closed, I had to deicde what quilt block will I use for the outer "decorated" casing?

Since I have several small "orphan" blocks, you know, those "test" blocks, blocks that came out wrong for the design or blocks that didn't quite meet my expectations; I decided to use those with some sashing around each orphan.

I will take pictures as I put the cover together and post those on another day.

Meanwhile, keep on quilting!

Aveli



Friday, May 15, 2015

Hexagon Box Pattern

I am reposting this for those of you that are working on hexagon quilts.  The Hexagon Box Pattern is still available.  If you are not familiar with this pattern that I designed, here is some information on it from a previous post . . .

http://avelisquilts.blogspot.dk/2013/07/hexagon-box-repost.html

If you would like to see what a customer did with her pattern, go to this page . . .

http://avelisquilts.blogspot.com/2013/08/customers-picture-of-hexie-box.html

The offer in the above posting still stands. If you make this pattern box and send us a picture by email and we post it on my website or on this blog, we will send you a packet of freezer paper hexagons as a thank you. 

You can always buy containers, but I like to recycle as much as I can. So, I use cereal boxes. They are a perfect thickness and easy to use. Plus it keeps trash out of the landfill.

It's a short posting today!

Meanwhile . . . keep on quilting!

Aveli

Monday, May 11, 2015

Simple Needle case


After years and years of putting my needles on my spool of thread while working on my projects (see photo) I decided to make a simple needle case (book style).


I didn't want it to be too large so I cut the "cover" fabric about 4"x 6". Of course you can make it whatever size you want. Just remember to allow at least half an inch on all four sides to turn under for the finished hem.


The "pages" where needles and pins will be placed are sized 2 3/4" x 2 1/2". One side is bigger to allow for the "binding" edge where it will be sewn all together. I used three "pages" of leftover batting in black and white. I used black in the middle so it would be easier for my aging eyes to separate the individual pages.


Position the batting inside of the cover fabric to make sure there is enough room for the hems. Also make the back cover extend beyond the pages leaving enough to hem and to bring forward to close the book. 


Fold the hem of the front cover to where it will cover the pages. 


Bring the back cover forward to make sure it overlaps the front


Sew the front hem and sew all the hems around all sides. I used straight stitch but a decorative stitch will dress this up quite a bit.



Position your pages in the middle and sew through all the layers on the left side. Notice that the back cover extends beyond the front cover and the pages.



This is almost finished! I just need to decide what fastener I want to put on the cover to keep it closed.



This is the open view with the pages sewn in.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. I plan on making one of these to keep with each individual project. They are super easy to make because they are not fancy.  Although if you want to decorate it with embroidery or quilting you can. If you make one of these, send me a photo and I will post it on my website and here in the blog. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. . . keep on quilting!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Hexagon quilt update

Here is the latest on my 1" Hexie "Insanity" quilt.


It has grown a little since this last picture. I will post it as soon as I can.

Today I am taking it easy for Mother's Day!
Till next time . . . keep quilting!