Pin Cushions

 I've been working hard on my 'pass-it-outs' for this Christmas since summer began. I'll share more later on those for this year.

But I realized there was something I needed. This is my pin cushion:

It's just the traditional little hand-sized tomato with a little strawberry attached for (supposedly) sharpening your pins.

Just look at how stuffed it is. It may be about to reach a saturation point. I'm not sure. 

Yep, it was that full all around. 

The tomatoes aren't terribly large. And, in recent years, I've realized that I really prefer longer pins (although, to be honest, I'm not sure I realized there were PURPOSEFULLY different lengths of pins).

Which also meant that, on occasion, I would grab it and get poked by the sharp end of a pin that stuck all the way through.

I hadn't really thought about it too much. Just figured that was the deal with pin cushions. Until I was watching one of the Youtube channels I follow and, as she was getting ready to cut out a pattern, she set on the table a pyramid shaped pin cushion.

And I thought to myself, "Eureka!" Okay, not really. But I did have some sort of  'a-ha' moment there because I realized that was what I needed.

Even better, it occurred to me that she had mentioned making them herself at some point in a previous video. So I looked it up.

It looked pretty perfect for scrap busting too. So I yanked out my scrap bin and got to work.

They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Even if my "invisible" stitching wasn't that great.

I'm no longer worried about grabbing it and poking myself now.

What's more, as I was transferring the pins over, I gave myself permission to throw away any that were bent or rusted. 

Kind of sad that I had to give myself permission but I guess we sometimes get in the habit of  keeping things just because it seems wrong to throw them away.

Now, I just have to figure out where I can put the other two boxes of pins I just found while reorganizing my sewing stuff. 

Hmm. I might have to make another one. Gee, what a shame. 😊

Table Runners

I liked my nutcracker table runner across my breakfast table so much that I decided to try my hand at making a few for other times.  

We usually keep the little spinning basket on that table so I worry that it may scratch it at some point if someone is a little careless with it. Having a table runner on there takes care of that concern.

And it can make a pretty cute seasonal decoration that is fairly easy to make room for. Win win.

In February, I gave piecing these heart blocks a try.

The concept is easy if you've ever drawn a picture using graph paper (or cross stitched anything). You start with a bunch of rectangles and squares of different sizes.

Which you then sew on strategically.

And which will magically become a heart.

Then, if you're really good, you will sew all of them together in such a way that they still look like hearts. 

I'm not so good.

And you'll add some really cute Valentine's fabric on the back that would allow you to use whichever side suits your fancy. 

(And then, of course, you just bind the edges for your new table runner. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the finished product before it made its way to the Valentine's bin in the attic.) I think this was a free project pattern from Dear Stella fabrics but can't seem to find the link. I'll update it if I find it again.

Also, you might purchase, at the same time, some really cute St. Patrick's day fabric to make a shamrock version and then not manage to get it made before St. Patrick's day is over.

Nevertheless, I carried on. I decided to make a spring version for April & May (although it occurs to me now that I could do a Star Wars theme for May 4th). 

So, I picked through my stash and found any fabric that was sort of bright with small flowers on it. Then I used a quilt-as-you-go tutorial I came across and made a basic quilted runner.

It wasn't as nice and neat as I hoped but I'm still getting the hang of it. My mom, who was visiting for Rugrat's spring piano recital, commented that it was pretty and seemed impressed that I had made it. So I'm gonna run with that. You can check out the tutorial for it here. I was pretty annoyed with my binding. I didn't take as much time as I should have and I feel like it shows. Other than that I'm happy enough with it.

Memorial day was coming up and Independence day will be here before we know it so I decided to go patriotic. Particularly after I came across this free tutorial. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

You start with the stars.

Then come the stripes.

Then you put them all together. This was the point at which I got concerned. I had just finished trying to make a prayer quilt for our congregation and I have such troubles getting the squares to meet up where they are supposed to. If you look too closely at this one, you can see that I had issues but it turned out better than the prayer quilt, so again, I'm gonna run with that.

Finally, I added a bright red binding (which I also had to fight with of course) and she's done.

I'm still pretty pleased with it and putting the basket on there kind of camouflages any flaws. I think anyway. If not, don't tell me.

Now, I have to figure out which one to do next. I guess the next season will be fall although I could probably do something summer like for kicks too. 

Feel free to comment any suggestions you have too.

Prelude

 I usually look forward to spending some of my free time in summer sewing various and sundry things. But it always seems like I have some things to get out of the way first. So here's what we've been up to as we finished up the school year and headed towards summer.

May's bunco landed on May the 4th otherwise known as Star Wars day. I was up for a dessert so you know what I had to do, right?

In case you ever wondered, it's a lot harder to write "May the force be with you" in chocolate than "love."

I gave making a prayer quilt a try.

Prayer quilts are small lap blankets with a cross on the center that are 'quilted' with ties. Only we don't tie them. We hang it in the dedicated prayer room in our congregation's building and place a card nearby. 

After announcing who this particular one is for, people can come back, say a prayer for that person (who is usually ill with cancer or some other disease), 

sign the card, and tie a knot. When all the knots are tied, the quilt is taken down and presented to the person. 

Every time they lay it on themselves, they can know that each knot represents a prayer prayed specifically for them.

My problem is I stink at piecing quilts. 

My squares just don't work out like they are supposed to. They end up with squares that aren't touching or are too squished together.

I don't know that I'll be presenting this one to the sewing group yet. My mom told me it was pretty even if it had a few spots where things didn't come together right. I haven't decided yet though.

In olden' days, people would purposely place flaws or mistakes in their quilts because only God is perfect. Their mistakes would remind them of that. I promise I'm not looking for perfection but it isn't just something to throw on my feet while I'm watching tv. I want it to be right since it is representing our congregation. Perhaps I am being too prideful though. Like I said, I'm still thinking on it.

Of course, one spring activity in Oklahoma is already set for every one. You have to prepare your safe place. 

We're fortunate to have a shelter. The first couple of years we all piled into the little bathroom under the stairs. 

As terrifying as it sometimes is to have to use our 'hidey hole', I'm so grateful to have it. It's definitely more roomy than that little guest bathroom.

Always need to sweep it out, change out the old water bottles, and check batteries and throw blankets again. Every family in Oklahoma has this one ritual at the beginning of spring.

As school was winding down to a close, I found that we had more days than curriculum. Rugrat finished up her Algebra, History, and Science first. Next came Bible and finally English. I started supplementing some of the basics just to have something to do each day. By the last week, our mantra was "we're just counting days at this point." 

One of the last activities suggested in her History was to play Catan (formerly known as Settlers of Catan).

We also found an interesting experiment in making your own chocolate bars.

And then, finally, we reached the end of our count.

Somewhere in there, she also got her first direct tip from someone at work. This job thing is looking better all the time.

Also, I had a few projects for the sewing ministry.

Like this fidget mat. Our fearless leader brought us all dish mats to try using for these. It works pretty well and you don't have to worry about putting any kind of backing on it because the mat is heavy enough on its own.

We also tried out making hand carrots.

Hand carrots are mobility tools used by nursing homes and therapists. When people have stiffness or cramping in their hands due to arthritis or other issues, these can be used to get their hands back in working order. This project is here if you'd like to take a look. We all came to the conclusion that t-shirt material or fleece was the best to use.

For me,  I found this really cute little Ramen fat quarter at Wal-mart and had to make myself one more oversized hot pad. 

And, of course, our church's second baby boom is in full force so I've added a few gift bags as well.

This cow one was for someone who's nursery theme is cowgirl so I couldn't resist making a cow bag. Not exactly baby like but fitting the theme. And I thought it was so cute, I ended up making a paci clip as well. 

Believe it or not, this incredibly long post is at an end. I think I've pretty much covered our goings-on. Guess it was less of a prelude and more of a Chapter 1.

In going back over it, I realize why I've been feeling like I have no time. Cause we've been busy -- between school and a new job and projects, we've actually been doing a lot. So, I think I'll give myself a break on that.

A Canning Mat

 I've mentioned already that I really love the oversized hot pads that I've made. I didn't realize how handy they would be.

While looking through another canning site, I noticed that the site owner uses and sells canning mats. They are essentially a larger, more square version of the oversized hot pad. You use them to place your hot processed jars on so they can cool. The danger of just setting them on your counter is basically HOT jars on a COOL counter = thermal shock and jar breakage (sometimes violently).

So, I plan to make myself one pretty soon. However, I recently got some John Deere fabric from someone. And I had an idea.

My mom's husband is a jelly maker. And also a fan of John Deere.

 Seems like these two things might 'jam' together pretty well. (See what I did there.) (Don't groan.)

And so, I went to work. 

I cut everything to size and made my fabric "sandwich". I realized, while opening up the smaller fabric I intended to use to make the binding, I actually had three different prints rather than the two I thought. 

His canning mat is going to be reversible. Hey, hey!

I was a little put out when I realized that I just made a bigger rectangle though. I really wanted a nice square. But he won't care. In fact, it will probably work better with their counters. And I can just make mine more square later.

Instead of using the masking tape method from the original post this time though, I used an iron off pen and a ruler to make some diagonal lines. After using my walking foot to machine quilt directly on the lines I drew, it was easy peasy to run an iron over it and make those lines disappear. 

I really like the diagonal quilting on the print on this side. The other one looks good too but I especially like it with this print. I was pretty pleased with how the quilting turned out all around.

A little binding made from the third fabric (which is a random mish mash of John Deere hats) and all done. 

I think it turned out pretty well. It does lay flat but I had rolled it up to tuck into the goody box we place things to take to Arkansas when I realized I had not taken a picture of the final product.

I seriously recommend making one of these mats. It is so handy to have and super cute too. The link to my first post about them is here.

Happy sewing! And canning! And baking too!