Another olive bag and a tea cozy for charity

I had a little bit of the olive and cabbage fabric left so made one more shopping bag. I will offer it to Sarah, if she doesn't want it then I will use it for groceries.

I also made a tea cozy for a fund raiser at work. There will be a raffle of themed baskets for our United Way kickoff. Our department's theme is "tea time".

I offered to make a tea cozy to contribute. I had the tea pot and cups (TJ Maxx bargains) and so followed the colors and made a crazy quilted tea cozy.
Here are a few pictures of the process. I just love doing this kind of quilting, it starts with a gathering of likely fabrics,









and one random shape.









And then it flows from there, I decide as I go as to what fabric to use next. It's all done on a muslin backing, stitch, flip, and iron. It's very engaging and gets me to the total sewing meditation place that is so relaxing and restorative.









And in the end, it's a gift that will go to someone I don't even know. I like the mystery of that.

Wool Hat finished in plenty of time for snow

Snow, how can one even think of it when summer solstice is so close and the temperatures are close to 90 each day? The timing of my wool hat project obviously has no connection to the season. I did it to get experience with knitting on double pointed needles as prep for knitting socks. The hat turned out really nice, it's very stretchy and soft. Here it is near my hydrangea bush, we always called it the snowball bush. I transplanted this bush from my parents yard, they planted it many years ago in memory of my grandmother whose birthday was in June. My father always claimed that is bloomed on her birthday. Her name was Pearl Loraine, we share the same middle name. She died when I was only 1 year old so I don't know if she knitted or did hand work.

On another note, I drove by my local Hancock Fabrics and saw that it is indeed closed and empty. So sad. There is a Value World near by so I stopped in to see if they had any sewing supplies or fabric. I made a pretty good haul for $4.80. I don' t think I ever spent that little at Hancock. I can always find a use for zippers and the lace was just too wonderful to pass up.

Vacation sewing

Fun times ahead,
I am off tomorrow am for a week up north. There should be time to sew, so what to pack? I want to have enough to work on, if I have the time and inclination, but can't take the whole studio. Here's what I am taking:
1. Materials to finish the commissioned crazy quilt bag.
2. Assortment of pink/mauve fabrics to make a tea cozy for a woman I met at Margaret and Cathy's high tea.
3. Some cute fabric with tea pots and words like: Twist and Spout, Read my Leaves, Neferti-Tea, etc. This is to become a tea cozy for the cottage. And maybe a pot holder or two.
4. Simplicity 3786 and some nice white eyelet fabric. I would like to make the short sleeved top with the tucks on my vacation week.
5. McCall's 4384 and a poly print with beige, black and cream. I would like to just get this one cut out.
6. The hat that I am still knitting.
7. Two sewing machines, my Singer featherweight and my old standby Viking 400.
8. Thread, pins, interfacing, lace, batting, etc.

I think that should be enough, I do want to relax, kayak, garden, relax, visit people, relax, walk outdoors, etc.

Apron for Matt and Jennifer

I did end up making an apron to match the heart shaped pot holders for Matt and Jennifer's shower. Matt was at the shower helping to open gifts, so agreed to model the apron. I was able to use some gigantic rick rack for trim, this is something I had from my late mother's sewing supplies. I can only wonder what she may have had in mind for this large rick rack. She was a clown, so maybe it was to be used for a clown accessory. It is nice to pass a little bit of the Grandma Audrey connection on with this apron gift to Matt and Jennifer.

Heart shaped pot holders

I made a bunch of these heart shaped pot holders for Andrew and Sarah's wedding shower about a year and a half ago and gave them away as shower favors. Now my nephew Matthew is getting married on 7/7/07 and my sister suggested that a couple of heart shape pot holders would be nice for their shower. Their colors and blue and gray, I found these vintage prints, here they are.
It's hard to see by this photo but the two sides of the heart are separate, that's where you can slip in your finger tips for picking up the edges of something hot.
I think an apron would be nice to go along with them, I will have to ask my sister if Matthew or Jennifer are the apron wearing type.

Matching aprons for high tea

My friends Margaret and Cathy hosted a high tea and thought it would be nice to have matching aprons. They bought a very sweet blue flower print and asked me to help out. I used out of print Simplicity pattern 8698. I added some eyelet lace around the pocket, blue rick rack along the bottom and topped the aprons off with white vintage buttons at the top.

While I was at it I thought a matching tea cozy would really add nicely to the mix. I copied a tea cozy that I have that is from England, a Liberty of London pansy print.









Well anyway, here they are in their aprons. I think they look just lovely. There is also a photo of the splendid table that they prepared. It was a delicious and very enjoyable tea. We feasted on Margaret's famous scones, cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cream puffs, strawberries, and poppy seed bread. All very yummy. Thank you Margaret and Cathy, high tea hostesses extroidinairre.

Knitting accessory bag for Sarah

I made a small accessory bag for my daughter in law to store her circular knitting needles. The rick rack that I used for the top I made recently matched these fabrics very well, it's so nice to be able to continue to use materials from my stash.
The bag she has on her shoulder is Thelma's Knitting Bag from Favorite Things Patterns. I made it awhile ago, it is an interesting pattern as it has an expandable feature, a zipper inside that when up zipped allows the bag to expand to the larger size in the photo.

Inspired by Sarah, I have been working on expanding my knitting skills. It's nice to have a hobby in common with my wonderful daughter in law. : )