Monday, September 16, 2013

My Favorite Sewing Tool

Invariably, from time to time, bloggers ask you to share your favorite notion or sewing tool.  I have a few -- but in the spirit of not repeating the most popular ones (my rotary cutter, its holder,  self-healing mat, thread snips, the miraculous sewing machine itself...) I usually share one that most people overlook or in-my-humble-opinion, under value. This time, in honor of National Sewing Month and under the tutelage of Sew, Mama, Sew! here is my favorite sewing tool.  Duh-dun-uhn-Dah!




Sure - there are so many pretty pin cushions out there to love.  I have collected, received, and even made a few.  I actually use them.



But nothing compares to my one-true-pincushion-love, the magnetic variety.

I'll admit, I was biased from the beginning because mom had one when I was little.  Hers is blue and round (like the Grabbit) and still working hard at her house next to the Pfaff she sewed my little girl clothes on.  It's got some heft and so it can double as a pattern weight.  When I started machine sewing almost two years years ago, I knew I wanted one like mom's.  Here's another pic of mine.

It's a Pin-Pal...and it's magic!

If you aren't among the devoted already, I'll tell you why it's a superior sewing helper.  It grabs your pins.  It holds your pins.  It finds your pins.

Let me explain its usefulness.

When you are sewing along your pinned seam, you can keep your full attention on what you are stitching because the magnetic pincushion will snatch/catch/grip/grab a pin tossed near its direction.  It even tells you it's made the connection with a little "chh" sound as it wrestles each errant pin home while you drive along.  I'm right handed, so I keep mine on the front right side of my machine.  It travels with me to the cutting table for pinning and back to the machine for unpinning while I sew.  That's the holding part.

When you do drop a small, sharp object (or your sewing machine needle breaks in spectacular fashion.)  And especially if you're like me and you most often sew in your bare feet...your magnetic pincushion is there to help you out of a dangerous situation.  Simply wave it around over the floor in the suspected vicinity of impact and it'll tell you with its happy little "chh" when it finds it.

Piece of mind, people.  That's priceless.


For travel, I bought a second one.  The Clover brand has a snap lid so my pins won't get into any trouble while packed away.  It also has a nice indentation for your fingers to help you pick up every last pin easily.  This actually comes in really handy for needles because they lay so flat and usually find their way to the bottom of the stack.


All magnets are not equal, however.  I really like the concept of The Needle Nest but it's power of attraction doesn't measure up.  I loved it while I was finishing each set of loose threads as I started and stopped machine quilting but when it got knocked off the table open -- by a bad kitty -- my needles didn't stay put.

If plastic is simply not your thing, you can make a more aesthetically pleasing variety out of a saucer, footed ceramic bowl, or wide shallow teacup.  I saw this idea on Amy Smart's blog, Diary of a Quilter, and there are plenty of neat-oh examples in a Pinterest search.  You glue a neodymium (powerful button) magnet to the bottom and viola! Of course, this one wouldn't make the "chh", it might be more of a "dnk" but you get the idea.

That's it. It's my fave and now you all know it.


Happy pinning.

              Kristin



P.S.  If you are Googling "Pin-Pal" with absolutely no luck, so was I.  I think my beloved model isn't made anymore even though I bought it less than two years ago.  The bottom says, "PinPal ©1986 BFP, Inc. Pat. Pend. Made in the USA." 
Besides the Grabbit and the Clover I mentioned above, another comparable item is the Dritz Magnetic Pin Caddy.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Sit & Stay

Two new pillows at my house y'all!  (I mean, seriously...the white pillow party has to stop sometime but come on.  Aren't they cute?)

Simply click on any of the photos in this post to see them enlarged.
















Meet Sit:





And Stay:



Wait.  Somebody photo-bombed that last shot but you get the idea...

It's tricky to photograph but I stitched the words "sit" and "stay" on the backs of the pillows.  Because I used white thread on white polka dots, it sort of blends in but it's a nice surprise when you snuggle in close with your little pillow pals.



I'm really pleased with the effect.  These started out as some simple embroidery from free patterns online (because I was IN LOVE with this one I found at Hopscotch Lane...and I already had the polka dots.)  Since I long ago stitched my English-paper-pieced hexies into another pillow, I decided to finish these for the summer handwork challenge at my guild.  I just love wooden embroidery hoops, hangers, clothespins, you name it.  So in order to add my own spin, I added embroidery hoops with raw-edge appliqué.  I quilted one with a compass star pattern and the other with a sort of life bouy shape.  They are 16 inches square.



That's what I've been up to.




And did I mention I won another block lottery at the Minneapolis MQG meeting?  Did I mention only three of us made the Cathedral Window blocks?!


Anywho...what should I make with them?  They are each ten inches.  I'm thinking anything from a sewing machine cover, a window valance, a pet bed, or a bigger quilt.

I think I may have a vital source for some more 1930s prints...






       But that's enough for now.  It's the weekend!



See ya.

Kristin



Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Piece of Cake Shopping Bag - A Sewing Story

It's been a few days since I posted the photo mosaic on Flickr but now I've finally got some time to explain this project further.  It's the "Piece of Cake Shopping Bag" from Ayumi Takahashi's book, Patchwork, Please! (Or pretty close to it in any case!)


I fretted over fabric choices for quite awhile and finally settled on a strawberry theme as I had a fat quarter of Kokka Trefle strawberry print (thanks, Amber at Dapple & Grey!) and a yard of Heather Ross' Briar Rose strawberry in orange.  I made two, outside pockets in coordinating colors.  The main bag is Essex Linen and the lining is a decor weight polka dot from IKEA.











But before getting to any of that, I comissioned the hand-woven straps.  They are the real stars of this show.  My dad made them on his inkle loom.  He just started weaving this year and his work is really impressive.  He's actually about to start a beginner course at the Textile Center of Minnesota because he doesn't want any "bad habits"to sink in from the self-teaching phase.

I chose the pattern out of a library book and the colors from his growing collection of crochet thread; he wove them over a few days last week.  I did notice that because of the color order I chose, the baby pink and the natural white look identical but the straps are really beautiful and I'm extremely glad (and proud!) he made them for me.

Now to the unsavory part of the program.  Mistakes were made in this project and once they started, they never really stopped.  First, I misread the pattern and sewed my beloved straps to the longer, end panels rather than the side pieces.  Once I figured this out, I didn't want to risk damaging the straps or the linen by removing all the stitches holding them so I sort of stalled progress while I tried to decide whether to trim around the straps and cut new side panels (wasting more of my precious linen) or to plow ahead with a slightly off-dimensions bag and only a new base panel.  Economy won out in the end and I decided to plow ahead and cut my lining to match (adding a zipper pocket and a patch pocket to the lining panels and some strawberry appliqués to the outside which made me feel pretty good about things again at that point.)



Already behind schedule (because of the stalling) , I packed the pieces up and toted my project to my parents' lake cabin to finish.  Where I ignored it and generally had lake-filled, end-of-summer fun for a few days.  It wasn't until Sunday night, sewing machine set up on a card table in the front window, that I realized there were more problems.  Down to the wire, my drawstring panels were too short so I made some discreet tucks in the lining (problem solved! No one will know!) but of course, the outside bag was also too large so then I had to make more tucks -out there- for the world to see.  Even worse, I was rushing and so there are tons of tiny folds in the seam - some of them so bad I had to rip them out and repair but always rushing because the sun was going down right in front of me.  Finally, I had it complete and quickly added the drawstring and some bed pillows.  Then I ran out to the dock and took some pics in the dying light (which I heavily filtered to look much brighter) and arranged a ride into town so I could upload the pics to Flickr and link up with the host blog.  I celebrated with s'mores around the campfire.


There it is.  A finish and a failure - of sorts.  I've learned that procrastination and neglecting problems doesn't work quite so well in sewing the way it worked in writing essays for school.  I should have read the pattern more closely, I should have employed the seam ripper in the first place, I should go back and cut some new drawstring panels at the very least.  And maybe I still will.  The bag is beautiful after all. And I cherish those straps!  And I'd love to use this bag for toting finishes to guild meetings in the future because it means something to me; it means a lot of things to me.



There.  I feel a little better now.
Warts and all.

-Kristin