What happened? Sometimes you find yourself asking this question when you take a project out of the hoop. There are a few tips in this week’s blog that might help you find an answer(s) to your question and minimize or avoid the problem in the future. Garment cut while trimming cutaway...
Totes are great for carrying a variety of things. Totes are easy to make, usually without much effort or time. They can carry groceries from the store, books to and from the library, and a current project to work on while waiting somewhere for an appointment. Add your own uses for a tote or...
Several months ago, I wrote a blog on making a cascading scarf using a soft fabric such as chiffon or silk. I like the way the elastic makes the scarf drape, but the scarf provides no warmth. With strong traces of the cold weather of Winter still hitting me in the face these mornings as...
I love large totes, but finding stuff, particularly small stuff, in a large tote can be a bit of a challenge. This humbug bag is a great solution for keeping small, similar or related items together. One or more humbug bags might be corralled in a large tote. The natural-but-strange...
When I talk about how I do the piping for my quilts and garments, I’m always surprised that so many people have never heard of the Groovin’ Piping Trimming Tool. This device makes the task of creating piping with a consistent seam allowance quick and accurate. Basically a thick ruler...
This popular block has been around for a long time. It is still a favorite to use up those wonderful scraps of fabric that quilters love to save. The block can be made with random color fabric scraps or only 3 strong colors, used in the same location in all the blocks. The block I...
I know I need to use lip balm more in the dry winter months. Finding my lip balm stick somewhere at the bottom of my purse is usually a challenge (no clever or disparaging comments need be added here). But, I can usually find my keys – so I decided to mechanically associate the keys...
I think it is time to do a project that requires embroidery design software. Many people use purchased embroidery designs, and can change the finished results by omitting or repeating certain stitch-out parts of the design as instructed in an earlier blog. But, there are limits to the...
This project is simple, but extremely useful. Well, the concept of a pillowcase is simple, but the construction of this one is complicated by the incorporation of French seams. French seams were popular before the availability of a serger became fairly common. The raw fabric edges are...
It seems to me that most of us want to get organized in one or more ways. Without going into details of what might be candidates for organizational efforts, which could run on for pages, this project is simple and might be useful for something as simple as being able to find a shopping list...
