More Sewing Inspiration

Still no sewing space here at the house of Miss Sews-it-all, but we're getting closer. Now that we've been steadily unpacking and settling in, there is a pretty good chunk of space opening up in the unfinished basement to call my own. But first, my lovely husband has decided to do some minor repairs on the area before I can get started with setting up shop.

So, while I wait for him to fit all the repairs into his schedule, I continue to dream about sewing. Without further ado, here is what I have been dreaming about stitching up this week:

Malory from Snips & Spice shared a tutorial for a super-cute Reversible Messenger Bag. Not like I need another bag, but holy cow is this CUTE! Love her fabric choices, too!

Sew Much 2 Luv shares this Totally Cute Apron Tute! And yes, it is indeed totally cute!

Free Spirit Fabric shares a pattern and tute for this absolutely adorable fabric frog! I think they would make great bean bags! This is one project I really do want to make - you know, for my little girl (okay, for myself!).

Seriously. This could NOT be any freakin' cuter! Too clever, and a good excuse for me to get rid of some of my zipper stash (if I ever get unpacked!). Check out the Zip-Itself Coin Purse tutorial over at Craft Passion.

And that's it for me, have a stitchin' weekend!

Thrifting Luck: Vintage Bernina

I just brought this home from the thrift store and snapped this picture before I even got it out of the car! I have a sneaking suspicion that it might need work, but even if I can't fix her, she'll look mighty fine sitting up on a shelf in my sewing room! Yes, today is my lucky day!

Good things also come in BIG packages!

Say, what's in that big BERNINA box?

It's a brand new BERNINA 350 Patchwork Edition! My first impression is that this machine is even better looking in person than the photos from the website. I've always been a fan of the Swiss "form follows function" designs of BERNINA machines, but this really is a PRETTY sewing machine. I like!

The LED screen is just as cool as it looks in this picture, black with silver indicator lights - like I said, VERY PRETTY. (Click right here to learn more about the BERNINA 3 Series!)

Although I am still sewing on the kitchen table for about another month until my sewing space is in order in the new house, I have the whole rest of the weekend to get aquainted with my new sewing best friend. And I just happen to have a projec to sew up, some curtains to hide an ugly set of shelves in the basement. So I'm off to sew!

Lego Bernina

I read Carrie's post a few months ago about how she created a little Lego Bernina (it looks a lot like the Activa line) and got inspired to make one myself! If you haven't yet found Carrie's creative blog, Suchity Such, go over RIGHT NOW and check it out! Carrie blogs about things she's sewing, crafting, making with Lego's, and other things that inspire her. 

 

First, I visited my local Lego store over at Woodfield Mall, where the super friendly staff helped me pick out pieces that looked like they would help build a Lego Bernina. (Did you know you can buy individual lego pieces by the container in stores? So cool!) There were some specialty pieces that weren't available as single pieced in the store, but the staff pointed me to the "Pick a piece" option of buying individual pieces through Lego.com.

Well, my Lego.com order finally arrived this week! So I set to work building my own Lego Bernina. My machine looks a little different than Carrie's, but believe it or not it was difficult to build this just from looking at a few pictures.

I added the "handle" on top of the machine for a spot of color, along with a little bobbin winder. It's just so cute, a Bernina that fits in the palm of your hand!

This project made me remember loving the Legos when I was a kid - and got me wondering where my Legos ended up after the move. Now I need to track them down and add my brand new stash to my collection. Or maybe I need to leave them out so I can keep on playing!

The Finished Vintage Fabric Quilt!

I finally finished the vintage fabric quilt! It's a little wonky, I know, but this is my first try at piecing a quilt -  I'm happy with the results. I learned so much from putting this quilt together, it was a very "Oh, NOW I get it!" kind of project.

Here is the back, I used up the scraps and added this little bit to one end of the quilt.

And you can look here for a picture from the Sunday Chicago Modern Quilt Guild show and tell, thanks Rachel for the great photo!

The binding seemed very intimidating but I've read a lot online from quilters who dislike this part of quilting. I used a few online tutes for helping me to figure it out, not to mention keeping my eyes peeled at the last several meetings of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild for some binding tips. I learned a lot from Julie's Perfect Binding Tutorial at Jaybird Quilts, and I also found it easy to understand and follow Heather Bailey's Continuous Quilt-Binding Directions.

I am planning another quilt made from these awesome vintage strips for myself (yes, I have many more left over)  and hope to also make my husband a quilt for the holidays this year. But first I think I need to go back and finish this project. I just dug it out of a moving box and am trying to pick back up from where I left off before our move. Hoping to make some progress in the next week and I will post an update soon.

Winners!

I just loved reading all of your button comments, who doesn't love winners? And, after posting the contest last week, I decided to give away not just one or two, but three bags o' buttons! And the winners are:

The first winner is Pam Hunter who commented:
"I love buttons because it reminds me of my childhood and my mom and great grandmother when they would sew together. It was over 40years ago when I would watch them sew for hours. They would let me find the perfect button out of my mom's tin button container. It was the most beautiful container. It was black with raised dots all over it. In the middle were paisley flowers with a gold scalloped outline around the edges. I just asked my mom last month if she knew where the container was but she couldn't remember it. So I am a little sad, but I still have the wonderful memories! Thank you for the opportunity to win! Take care."

And next is Sarah C who commented:
"I love buttons because they are like accessories for your garments. Buttons are the perfect way to finish off a garment and turn it into a show stopper. I made a fantastic black and white plaid boxy jacket. It called for one button closure and a decorative button on each sleeve. I choose a button that under any other circumstance I would have written off as tacky. It was black plastic and the top was faceted like a gemstone. They are each about 1.75" in diameter. They really do work perfectly for the jacket I created."

Last but not least is Mary who commented:
"I love buttons because they are the icing on the garment cake. I love digging through my stash to find the perfect buttons!"

Congratulations ladies and I will be popping your buttons in the mail this week! I hope you can find a great use for these buttons, and if you make something with them maybe you'll share a photo with us!

Happy stitching,
Erika

 

Button Stash Giveaway!

Did you think I forgot about giving away some of the massive stash of vintage and repurposed buttons I inherited weeks ago? No, I didn't forget! Here is your chance to win a bag of vintage and repurposed buttons! The bag has approximately 85 buttons of all diferent sizes, shapes and colors.

Just leave a comment about why YOU love buttons, and I'll pick one at random to win this little bag o' buttons! I will leave this post open to comments through Monday at midnight Chicago time, and will announce the winner here on Tuesday!

Please be fair by only entering once! Since shipping is on me, this contest is only open to residents of the United States.

EDITED:
Monday, 12:30 PM
I love everyone's button stories so much that I've decided to give away not one, and not two, but three bags of buttons so that THREE OF YOU can win! Keep those great button comments coming, and I'll announce the three winners tomorrow!
-Erika

Quilting the Vintage Fabric Quilt

I've spent the last several evenings stitching together the quilt made from vintage fabric that I "inherited." Can't wait to share the finished project! 

Sewing on the 4th of July

Nothing like a long holiday weekend for finding time for rest, relaxation and sewing, right? That's exactly what I told my husband when he asked why I packed a sewing machine for our out of town trip! I decided to make something new out of something old using a few of the vintage fabric strips that I recently inherited.

I discovered a few things about these pieced strips of vintage scraps; mainly that they were sewn together in a kind of naive-beginning-stitching kind of way, making some of the strips pretty crooked. I hesitated a bit about straightening the strips out but decided at the last minute to just GO FOR IT and picked five strips from the bag for this project.

I decided to separate the strips with rows of white and add a small strip of color (I picked a few colors that seem to repeat in many of the scraps) throughout the quilt. A simple design, but it pushed me to really think about quilt sizes, seam allowances, and the engineering that goes into cutting and piecing a quilt top. I managed to finish piecing the top on the 4th of July, and it's not too shabby despite this being my first try and the crooked strips!

It's about 47" wide and 70" long, and I finished the back today with the scraps left over from piecing the front. I just need to pick up some lightweight cotton batting, thread and needles to get started on quilting it all together. I have no idea about the binding - I could repeat some of the solid colors, or go with a different solid color like red or blue, but I think I need some help here! Do you have an idea what color binding would look best?