sewing

I’m a sucker for dogs and cats and small children.  Since Terry and I have agreed we will have no more of any of the above, I dote on all that I come across whenever possible.

Here’s Lexie when she was a puppy…

Lexie really liked Maggie’s favorite fluffly blanket so I told her that I would make her one.  And she said, “pink, please”.

When I knew I was going to Texas to visit Lexie, I decided I better get that blanket made.  Otherwise she would probably bite me.  With her little tiny teeth.  But I couldn’t find faux fur in pink. 

So I picked it up in white.

 and thought I had enough pink Minky at home to line it with and it might make Lexie happy.  With a bit of piecing, I had a nice cushy pink dog blanket.   

 

 

 And I probably should have kept it for my granddaughters.  Seriously, it was that nice.  And easy peasy.  I just cut the minky to fit and sewed everything wrong sides together with 1/4″ seams–leaving a small opening to turn it.  Turned right side out, then stitched the opening.

But it went to Lexie who jumped up and pulled it out of my hand when I walked in the door!  Really, she did!

Lexie even sent me this “thank you” picture this week.

And then there’s Mattie the Cattie who used to live in DC then moved to Wilmington, Delaware, and then to Manhattan and then to Brooklyn and back to DC.  Big City Kitty.  She’s a special cat and she loved to sleep on the cable box but during the last move, no cable box.  No warm nap time.  So I also promised her a new blanket.  Or a cover for a cushion.  

Pulled out the rest of the faux fur and minky from my stash.  And Mattie now has a blanket. I left one end open in case she might want to hide inside or her people might want to put a cushion in it.  

Mattie wasn’t quite as excited about her new blankey as Lexie was.  After all, it was 96 degrees in DC that day!

And regarding those small children that I dote on.  Gotta get to work on the “Elsa” dresses, I’ve got three adorable granddaughters that are big fans of “Frozen”. 

One last tea towel posting and then I’ll move onto another sewing project.  This time I made tea towels for my friend that lives on Lake Conroe so I went with a nautical theme.

And just want to say that there are NO sailboats on Lake Conroe.  But sail boats are a lot cuter than pontoon or fishing boats.

I pulled the fish from sweetclipart.com.  I couldn’t find a sailboat that I liked, so I just drew my own. Pretty easy with a ruler and a piece of paper.  If you want to use my rendering,  just click on the sailboat and print or save to your computer. 

I had purchased the Michael Miller nautical fabric to use in a boy baby quilt I am making. See those anchors in the upper left hand corner?

I did a quick calculation of how much I needed for the quilt and decided I could spare 5″ of it. I had some polka dot fabric in the same color that I had stashed away and used it for the back of the color band.

So here’s basically the same instructions that I used for the mermaid and flower tea towels from the last two weeks.  Only difference is the appliques and the size of the color band.

After washing and drying all the fabrics, I cut a 17″ x 20″ piece from Kaufman Essex Wide Linen then hemmed three sides (two long and one short) using the tutorial for clever corners from Sew4Home.com.  The towel is then 16″ x 19 1/2″ with one raw short edge.

The color band is made from two 5″ x 17″ coordinating fabrics.

The anchors are an obvious one way print, so make sure when you attach the color band to the tea towel, they are going in the right direction! Then I stitched the two fabrics together with a 1/4″ seam.

Center the tea towel fabric on the color band–there should be 1/2″ on each side. The right side of the anchor fabric goes against the right side of the tea towel.  Stitch together with a 1/2″ seam.

  Turn under and press the raw edge 1/2″.  Bring the right sides of the color band together and stitch 1/2″ seams on the sides.

Clip corners and turn right side out.  Stitch along the top, making sure you catch the top of the back piece.

Now make your appliques using Heat n’ Bond Lite.  Press onto the tea towel, stitch into place with a satin stitch.

Easy Peasy!

And here they are at the Lake House!

Next week, I promise, no tea towels!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had stopped by the new quilt shop in Spring Hill but didn’t know its name.  I know it now since I received an email from Cari Lester regarding classes for the month of June at Bayside Stitches Quilt Shop.  There wasn’t a reference to a website but she does have an email, baysidestitches@gmail.com and (352)584-3743 is the phone number.  So if you are interested in classes or fabrics, you now have a contact. 

You may recall that I picked up a couple of different Moda fabrics while I was there.  The top was from the Chance of Flowers line and the bottom was from Mirabelle. 

I still had a few charms left from the Chance of Flowers charm pack I had bought at  Tomorrow’s Treasures.  So I was ready to coordinate.

And this is what I made…

Okay, you are thinking that I’m totally obsessing over tea towels now!  But I wanted to bring a small hostess gift to my friends in Texas and these fit easily in my bag.  And they are totally adorable.

Here’s the instructions, pretty much just like I gave for last week’s tea towels (and next week’s too–yes more tea towels!  Tea Towel overload!)  The big difference is in the bands and the applique.

I found this pillow on Pinterest.

And followed to the website, Don’t Look Now.  The tutorial includes a PDF for the shapes.

I made the basic white tea towel exactly as I did last week.  And I’m going to give you the same suggestions:  I wash and dry all fabrics for tea towels prior to sewing.  I also press at every step.  Press, Press, Press.

I cut the tea towel fabric 17″ x 20″ then hemmed three sides (two long and one short) using the tutorial for clever corners from Sew4Home.com.  The towel is then 16″ x 19 1/2″ with one raw short edge.

For each tea towel, from the Moda fabrics I cut two 3″ x 17″ bands and one 5″ x 17″ band.

Sew the long side of the 3″ bands to both long sides of the 5″ band with a 1/4″ seam.

Center the unfinished edge of the towel on the band–wrong sides together.  The color strip should be 1/2″ wider that the towel on each side.

Stitch together using a 1/2″ seam.  Press under 1/2″ on the unfinished edge of the color band.

Fold the color band up to meet the towel seam, right sides together.  The pressed edge of the color band should be on the seam.

Stitch side edges of the color border with a 1/2″ seam allowance.  Clip the corners and turn right side out. I used a coordinating thread to stitch close to the edge around all four sides of the color band. 

Pretty on both sides!

Now for the appliques.  I cut out a bird and a bunch of flowers, centers, and leaves and used Heat n’ Bond Lite on the backs.

 Placed them on the tea towel and pressed.

Did a little zig-zag stitch around all the edges.

Done and ready to go to Texas!

 Other tea towels that I’ve made and you might like….