Jodi's Sew Scraps Along.

Jodi over here is having a Sew Scraps Along.  Her first tutorial is a quilt I have actually made.  I blogged about my quilt here.

 The colors did not photograph very well, but you get the idea.  Right now it's on the back of my couch and I like to cover up with it while I'm watching TV. 

This was a very fun and easy quilt to make, and I will definitely make one again someday!

Grandma 'Nina to the rescue!

We are having one more Christmas celebration this weekend.  I was glad to have a little extra time to get one more gift done.  It was only a pillowcase, and I had already made one, so I knew it wouldn't take very long. 

Well, Baby Lock had other ideas.  Their slogan of "for the love of sewing" for me has become "O for the love of Pete..."!  Melody needs to go in to be checked over.... her safety device seems to be permamently activated. 

I literally had 3 minutes or less of sewing left to complete the pillowcase.  I was ready to take it over to my friend Julie (find her blog in my "blogs I follow" on the right.  She is Joe Tulips) and have her finish it, when I decided to take old Bernina out and see if she was up to the job.

Here is Grandma 'Nina.  She was purchased by my mom as a new bride in 1955.  She has had her ups and downs over the years.  My mom never sewed a lot - she basically used it for mending, and would occasionally whip up some new kitchen curtains.  Back in the 70's, when my sister and I were in Home Ec, she was put through the mill.  I took her with me when I went to college, as my mom bought a new JC Penney model.  Bernina was always much more of a work horse than any newer model.  She hasn't seen much sewing time at all in past years.  I doubted her abilities.  I actually thought of getting rid of her (gasp!)
Now I am really glad I still have her, and she won't be going anywhere.  Well, maybe she'll go in for a good cleaning and oiling, and a new light bulb.  That's my only complaint - I need to use a flashlight to get her threaded.
She's definitely a keeper!

Last quilt of 2011

For my last project of 2011, I finished quilting one of the pink and purple log cabin quilts I made.  I got the tops pieced back in November.

A Couple More Christmas Gifts

Christmas Gifts 2011, a set on Flickr.

I made another overnight bag for a Christmas Gift.... Here it is. I used a couple of charm packs of a Moda Fabric - Curio by Basic Grey. This is Simplicity 2274 (again). I pieced the body of the bag with the charm squares, and used yardage for the pockets, handle trim, and ends of the bag. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.  If you click on each of the photos, you can get a much better view!

I also made a couple of ruffled dish towels. I started with some dish towels I got at Ikea....... I think I paid 79 cents each. Something really inexpensive anyhow. I added 3 rows of ruffles....I cut strips of fabric 2 inches wide, hemmed the bottom and both sides, and then ran a gathering stitch along the top. I sewed them to the towel, and topped it off with rick rack..... They turned out really cute, and I wish I made more! I'll have to start a little earlier next year!

Not the kind of day I was planning on...

I have one Christmas gift that I was hoping I could get sewn today, and a few small things that I would like to finish up before Tuesday.  Hmmm....... it looks like that might not happen.  My sewing machine started acting funny this morning when I was quilting with the walking foot.  I turned it off and back on again, and things were going along fine.  This afternoon, I was using a zig zag stitch around the edges, and I had some trouble again.  I thought maybe the needle was bent, and decided to change it.  The needle I was using fell down into the sewing machine.  I can't get it out, and I don't know if the problem is entirely because of the needle that fell inside, or if there was a problem from before. 

So, I will have Mr. Small Town look at it tonight.  But really, I doubt it's anything he/we can fix.  I think I need to take it in to the shop.  So, I might be borrowing a machine to finish up the Christmas things.......... dang!  I hate it when that happens!

A little something to go with the overnight bag

I decided to make a couple of bags to coordinate with the overnight bag.  I made the drawstring bag on the right using Jeni's tutorial found here. 

I made the bag on the left with a tutorial I found here.

The drawstring bag is super easy to make, and goes together really quickly.  The cosmetic pouch on the left was pretty easy too, just took a little more time.

Overnight Bag finished

I finished the overnight bag I was making for my daughter-in-law's birthday.  I think I am safe posting it here, as I am pretty sure she doesn't read my blog..... :)  (in fact, she might not even know that I have a blog...)  It's made from Simplicity 2274.  I made one back in October and if you look back through some of my older posts, you can read about it and see the photos.

This one is made in Kate Spain's Fandango.  I made one change to the pattern.  I used contrasting fabric for both the pockets and the handles.  The original pattern has you using the same fabric for both the bag itself and the pockets.  I see now that I probably should have centered the flowers on the handle... oh well, maybe next time!

I also found if you use a loftier polyester batting, the bag will stand up better. 

Since I still have quite a bit of this fabric, I might make a coordinating make-up bag to go with it.