Little Mini Scrappy Quilt

So here's my latest project.  I have found two things...one, I need a walking foot or open toe foot or both.  Two, I need more fabric, and lots of it!  Therefore, this mini quilt is unfinished until I get one, because I keep tangling my thread and I'm afraid my needle will break unless I get one.  So I can do the quilt top, backing and make my quilt sandwich, but that's as far as I can get because at that point its just too thick to run it through with my regular feet.

I'm really enjoying quilting!  It's fun, relaxing, and I can be really creative.  So far the projects I've made haven't been from any patterns.  I just used my scrap material and my imagination.  I can't wait to make a BIG quilt, but of course I need alot of fabric for that, so it'll just have to wait I guess.  I'm definitely improving.  Still not perfect, but I'm okay with that.  Right now I'm mostly making small projects that I can just practice with.

So here's my latest....unfinished....

 

Okay the whole quilt top measures about 12 x 12 inches.  There are 16 blocks, 8 different fabrics.  Each block is 2 inches square.  Then there is a 1/2 inch border around that, which I screwed up on a little bit, and around that is a 2 inch border.  The binding will be the same blue fabric that makes up the inner border.  

 

Which is the same fabric I'm using for the backing....only because I didn't have enough of any of the other fabrics for the backing lol.  I have discovered modabakeshop.com and I'm really anxious to order some fabric from there so I can make a big quilt!  I have a couple of projects I want to do.  I want to make something for my BFF but I have to wait a little bit on that because of the fabric issue.  :/  And my husband wants me to make a quilt for him lol.  And I want to make a couple of table runners, some placemats, etc. because I'm getting a new kitchen table soon!!  Oh and I want to make a wall hanging to go above my mantle but I need to measure the space first.  Also want to make my girls a small quilt each, a dog bed for my Sophie....lol....I have alot of projects in mind.  Just need some fabric!!  Oh and that quilting/walking foot!

A Cute Hotpad & New Toys

So tonight I decided to take pictures of my new toys!  This is just a small sampling of the stuff I got at Joann's (spent way too much but it was worth it!).

 

What you see here is my thread variety pack with various colors, a pincushion wrist band which is sooooo handy, I adore it!  In front of that is my marking tool.  Under there you have my clear ruler (awesome) and then my cutting mat which also serves as an ironing pad!  The white side (which you see here) is for pressing/ironing and if you flip it over there is the green cutting mat which is awesome and I love it!!  I also got some fabric, batting, fusible web, can't remember what else lol.

 

So this is my newest project.  It's a quilted hotpad (potholder).  The front has two solid blocks and two print blocks put together in a 4 square pattern, and the heart is actually appliqued on!!  It was actually pretty easy to do.  I wish I had chosen a different decorative stitch to go around it, but we live and learn.  :)  The binding, I made myself and just basically "winged it" so it doesn't look that great, but considering I didn't really know what I was doing....I'd say not bad lol.  I'm happy with it and I think it's super cute!

 

This is the backside....no applique, otherwise its the same as the front.

 

My hotpad in action!!  :P  I didn't use thermal batting so I can't technically use it as a hotpad.  Well I could, but it probably wouldn't do its job lol, so its just for decoration.  I might actually hang it on the wall as a mini quilt because I think it's cute.  I love the possibilities with applique and I cannot wait to get some more fabric and play around with it!!  I have alot of ideas!  The next one I made, I'll do a tutorial.  

Coasters For a Friend

A good friend of mine asked me to make her some quilted coasters, so I decided to let that be my first quilting project!  It took a long time and I learned from alot of mistakes lol, but I finished them and they look pretty cute and serve their purpose, even if they aren't perfect.  :)  I know my friend, Dianna (http://afloweredpurse.blogspot.com) will love them, cuz she loves me!!  LOL.

Here they are....

 Top side: pinwheel design using two different fabrics

 

Bottom side: single block of a coordinating fabric

Tooth Fairy Pillow

My 7 year old lost another tooth at school today.  They gave her a cute little red treasure box for it.  But I decided to make her a cute little Tooth Fairy Pillow!!  I made some mistakes, but overall it turned out great.  I just need to get a hand sewing kit to "tie up some loose ends" sew to speak.  ;)

This only took about 30 minutes or so, and I actually ended up making two because the first one wasn't working out - so I just didn't add the pocket to it and gave it to my 9 year old daughter as a pillow for her dolls.  It looks the same as this one, just different fabric and no "pocket".

This one has Disney Princess flannel fabric and the pocket is appliqued all the way around and then sewn onto the front of the pillow.  I have been looking at pictures of appliqued quilts all day and I think they are just beautiful so I wanted to try my hand at it lol.  I am dying to make a quilt but I need to get some fabric first.  Maybe I can make just a small quilt block or something with scrap fabric to get a feel for it.

The Tools of a Noob

Here's some of the items I use.  I currently do not have a large selection of threads, fabrics, or other notions to work with.  I'm planning to remedy that problem soon, but for now this is what I have to work with.

This is my sewing machine.  It's a few years old but it works just fine and is very easy for a noob to use.  It's a Brother CS-8060 model.  Some of the notable features it has are the automatic threading mechanism, a variety of stitches (49 I believe), ability to control stitch width and length if desired, speed control, ability to raise or lower the feed dogs, and it also has a free arm which makes it alot easier when sewing things like pants legs or shirt sleeves.  I believe this machine was around $100, maybe a bit more and it was purchased at Walmart in 2004.

 

These are some of the accessories that came with it.  It has several additional presser feet, which I'm not sure what they all do yet.  It has a buttonhole foot, a couple of tools, a seam ripper, some extra needles, a twin needle, and a couple of other things which I have yet to figure out what they are or what they do.  

 

Of all things, I do not have a pin cushion yet.  I know you can buy them cheap at Walmart but I just haven't been lately.  So I created this contraption - using some scrap flannel fabric, a piece of cardboard (which was once an empty toilet paper roll), and a pin on the bottom to hold it together lol.  Yes, it's sad.  But it works, doesn't it?  :)  Improvisation is my friend.

 

These are my two friends....Mr. Rotary cutter and his baby.  Unfortunately they are homeless because I do not have a rotary mat yet.  For those that don't know what these are or what they do, well they essentially cut things for you nice and easy.  When you have a mat, you lay something on it like fabric or a pattern piece and then with the help of a ruler, you use your rotary cutter to make nice clean, even, straight cuts.  I definitely need a mat and it's at the top of a long list of stuff I need.  :)  For now, Mr. Rotary cutter and his baby are just hanging out in my sewing room waiting to be used.

 

That's about it!  Other than some fabric, a few spools of thread, a couple of measuring tapes, that's pretty much the extent of my collection.  Tax time is coming up though, and I plan to put that money to good use!!  :)

Photo Tutorial: How to Fix Frayed Pants

Photo Tutorial:  How to Fix Frayed Pants

Okay...so my husband brings me these pants...his work pants...and says "Honey they're frayed - fix 'em!".  So....I fixed 'em!  Well, sort of.  I looked at them, made some educated guesses as to how I could best go about repairing them, based on what I've learned in the week or so that I've been sewing, and got to work!

IMPORTANT:  During the course of this tutorial, I made many mistakes.  It's okay because I learned from them.  However, if you are going to attempt this yourself, please read through the entire tutorial before proceeding and remember that if it goes horribly wrong, well....you have been warned lol.  Also, please feel free to comment - I would appreciate your feedback, whether its good or bad.  But please be nice to this noob!!  ;)

Supples Needed:  Sewing machine & a pair of pants (not shown), iron, thread, bobbin, scissors, ruler of some sort, marking tool (pencil), and some pins.

Here you have some busted up khaki pants.  They were just a tad too long on him, so they started to fray on the ends from scraping against the floor and such.

 

So the first thing I did was to make a cut about 1/4" away from the current hem line.

I then started to cut away!

I probably should have shown this first but...anyway lol...I used this handy guage to measure the 1/4" but you can use whatever floats your boat.

So here you can see the end result of my cutting.

Next, I started on the other pant leg, and I'm just showing you that I used a pencil to mark the 1/4" spot so I'd know where to cut.  Just do the same thing as before and cut all the way around the pant leg.

 

Let's review... Here we have two pant legs, with the bottom frayed parts cut away, about 1/4" away from the seam that was already there.

 See the line my pencil is pointing at?  Well that's where I'm about to fold in the next picture.  Consequently, it's also the seam mentioned above lol.

 Alrightly so what you want to do is turn the pants inside out and then fold at that seam.  It should be the "natural place" where it folds easily.

 Now you need to pin it in place all the way around the pant leg.

 Once it's pinned, go ahead and press with your iron in between then pins.  You do NOT want to iron over the pins if they have a plastic end like mine.  If yours have a glass end, it's fine.

OOPS!!  At this point, I realized that I have all that fray there which will just start to come unraveled unless I do something about it.  So I decided I needed to do what's called "overcasting".  It basically is a method of "sealing" that frayed edge so that it wont come unraveled.  That was my plan anyway....I'm afraid it didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped, but hopefully it will last for a while until I can get some more experience lol.

 So to continue....these are some stitches that my machine can do.  Number 14 is the one I started out using but it wasn't working out, so I jumped to number 8 which worked a bit better, but still not perfect.

 OOPS!!  Just as I was about to begin sewing, I realized that I had black thread in my machine, which wouldn't exactly look good on his khaki pants.  So I glanced at my measley 6 or 7 threads I have - definite sign of a noob.  And I grabbed a kind of moss green color.  I would later regret it.  But the color was closer than anything else I had, so I went with it.

 In case you don't know, this is a bobbin winder.  What's a bobbin, you ask?  I did too.  LOL.  Okay a sewing machine actually uses TWO threads, one is the thread and the other is the bobbin.  They can be the same color, and usually are, or different if you want them to be.  The regular thread is called the "upper" and the other one is called the "lower" because that's usually where they can be found in the machine.  The upper thread is the big spool.  The lower thread is the tiny spool called a bobbin which you can see here (the clear part in the picture above).

 In order to "wind the bobbin", in my machine I just load it up the way the arrows point me to do so, and then I push a button and voila....it starts winding big spool of thread around the little spool until it gets full and then it stops.  When it does, you take the bobbin out and put it in its proper place in the machine.  *If you are having problems with threading your machine, winding the bobbin, or putting the bobbin in its place, refer to your machine's user manual.  Mine was super helpful and spoke to me like the noob that I am.

 This is my automatic threading mechanism.  My machine is pretty easy.  I just pop in my thread, follow the little arrows and numbers to wind the thread around the little casing...

 

 pop it into my machine...and it will automatically thread the needle....most of the time.  Now here I should mention that the thread I chose, although the right color, caused me alot of misery.  First of all, who knows how old it is.  The spool is made of wood....which concerns me.  Most are made of plastic (aren't they?).  Also, I had several problems with the thread breaking and not wanting to cooperate with my handy dandy automatic needle threader, which really ticked me off.  So FYI, use a nice strong thread if you can...or be prepared to spend alot of time cursing at your machine.

 

 FINALLY ready to start sewing the edges to help cut down on fraying.  There is actually a machine that does only this....called a serger.  I want one.  Now.

Here's how it looks at this point....I cut off those pieces that were sticking out that were already frayed.  Hopefully this will at least lessen the fraying.

Now it's time to sew again.  This time I am sewing just to the right of the frayed/overcasted edge.  I just used a straight stitch here.  Be sure to remove the pins - don't sew over them or you might break your needle, send it flying into your eyeball....not pretty.  And be careful because those stupid pins will poke you in a heartbeat!! Oh and yes, I am aware that my lines are hideously crooked lol.  But for now I'm just happy if the lines actually make it onto the fabric instead of sewing into thin air.  :-/

 

Okay so the pants are still inside out, and the sewing is complete...this is how they look right now.

 

If you turn them rightside out, as you can see it looks alot better!  No more frayed edge.

 

Hit it with the iron again to lock in those seams.

 

And we're all done!  Is it perfect?  No.  Are my lines straight?  No.  Will it come unravelled?  Probably.  LOL.  But the important thing is that I got the job done, and my husband will be happy, and I learned some things and will do a better job the next time I have to hem something.  :)  Thanks for reading!!

The Adventure Begins

Let me start by introducing myself!  My name is Jenna and I'm a wife and mother to two beautiful girls ages 7 and 9.  Their nicknames around the house are Pickle and Banana so that's what I'll refer to them as in this blog for privacy reasons.  My husband is from Australia, so I'll refer to him as Aussie.  And me....I don't get a cute nickname lol....just Jenna.  :)

I'm a SAHM and I'm brand spanking new to sewing - sort of.  I did sew some in home economics class but it's been a long time ago - I'm almost 32 now - so I really don't remember any of it!  A few years ago I decided I wanted to learn to sew, bought a sewing machine, some fabric, a few tools that I didn't know what to do with but they looked useful lol......and a couple of useless helpful books on How to Sew.  This was before the days of YouTube - MySpace was still new on the scene...anyone remember MySpace???  Yeah back in the dinosaur days of 2004 or so lol.  Anywho....I made a sad attempt at sewing and I'm ashamed to say......I gave up because it was just too overwhelming at the time to try and teach myself.  Now I'm older, hopefully wiser, more patient, and I feel like I'm up to the challenge.  PLUS there's lots of video and picture tutorials online which are soooo helpful because I'm that type of learner.  If you show me what to do, I can do it.  If I just read it in a book.....well I hate to read so what's that tell ya?

Anyway I dug my crusty old sewing machine out of my mom's garage (haha j/k it's not crusty lol...it's actually nice - a Brother CS 8060 which is a computerized machine).  I cleaned it up, gathered up my little sewing baskets with all my unused stuff in them, and started sorting through it and figuring out what I had and still needed to get.  I started watching some videos on youtube and it all started coming back to me.....from HomeEc.....from dinosaur 2004.....and I jumped in there and started playing around.

Tonight I got my sewing room set up - it sure is bare!  I just have a table with my sewing machine on it, and a towel for ironing stuff (I do own an iron but no ironing board lol), and I stole my kids old toy bin that they never use anyway to put my sewing supplies in.  After several hours of familiarizing myself with my machine (hello old friend lol)....I felt confident enough to try a few things and surprised myself at how much I remembered and had learned just from watching youtube videos!

So first and foremost, let me thank Vanessa over at www.craftygemini.com for her awesome video tutorials because she rocks!!

So my plan for this blog.............

Since I'm a noob, if you are here looking for advice from a pro or perfect patterns you can duplicate with ease, you might be sadly disappointed lol.  I am learning and having fun.  I'm not expecting perfection out of myself whatsoever....I will be learning as I go!  But I will be documenting the process here and maybe doing some noob tutorials so that fellow noobs can learn from my mistakes and then go out and make their own!  So you can be on the lookout for tutorials which will basically document each step of whatever project I'm working on with pictures and text.  Maybe one day I'll jump into videos but not anytime soon.  My ultimate goal is to learn how to quilt like a pro as well as make clothes for my kids, gifts for friends and family, home decor for my house (curtains, tablerunners, etc.).  So be on the lookout for the first tutorials coming up in the next week or two.  I have two things in mind that I want to do a tut on....making your own hair scrunchie, and also making a simple curtain.  It just so happens I need curtains for my sewing room so I'll be killing two birds with one stone!

I'm looking forward to sharing what I learn here on this blog, and also with networking with other bloggers and sites that I find interesting or useful!  Thanks for reading!