Pincushion gift

My dear friend asked me way, way back in June if I would make her mother, who just happens to be a fabulous seamstress, a pincushion with a thread catcher. Being a good friend, I said, "Sure! What color/design?" She said, "Green, my Mom loves green!" Fast forward to two weeks ago and I remembered I think I'm suppose to be making something for someone. Then BOOM! it hits me, a pincushion for my friend's Mother for Christmas. Great, I have an upcoming appointment that is very near her house, I can just swing by and drop it off to her. After shopping my stash, which is wonderful, I can't begin to tell you how exciting it is not to have to run to the fabric store for small projects. I browsed Pinterest, my favorite time suck, for a tutorial and Wah-La! I found one here.

I modified the sizing a bit, just because my pieces were an inch or so off in a spot or two. Along with that, I used that rubbery, bottom of footed pjs material (I'm sure this is the very technical name) to help keep the pincushion in place. I also filled my pincushion with crushed black walnuts. Here is the completed pincushion with thread catcher. I really like it, I thought about keeping it for myself, but I decided to hand it over to my friend. ;)

 See how good it looks hanging on my treadle sewing machine?

Back of pincushion with the rubbery non-slip material

 

Have you ever made something as a gift and then thought about keeping it for yourself?



Thanks for reading!
Just a Mom who Sews

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States! I have been so blessed to get to know so many wonderful people all over the world this year through blogs. May everyone remember their Blessings big and small today and everyday.

Productive Saturday

First off, let me say, I have a wonderful husband because he said "Yes" when I asked if I could go sew on Saturday at my stitcher's club meeting place and that he would watch the kids. I packed up my sewing machine, threw several projects into the car and off I went to sew. I took four projects with me, hoping that all would get done, praying that half would get done, thinking that one had better get done!

Project #1: I've had my puffy quilt pinned together, just needing the back sewn to the top. Check! That was project number one. I still needed to puff the outer ring of puffs before birthing the project, I like that terminology better then turning right side out. I usually forget to leave myself enough room and it's a struggle to get that much puffed fabric through a too small opening. Doh!

Here is the puffy quilt completely finished

Project #2: A panel fabric book that I had bought back in August. Yes, I start Christmas shopping early. Please don't throw snowballs. I'm almost done and half of them are wrapped. Now you can throw snowballs. ;) That still needs a little bit of hand sewing, which I hope to finish tonight.

Project #3: My youngest crazything has not learned to pull the covers up in the middle of the night when she gets cold because she has kicked them off earlier in the night. I decided the solution to the problem was to make a huge sleep sack. She has outgrown all of the ones I bought. All my crazythings wore sleep sacks every night to help keep them warm without using blankets to prevent any suffocation. To put this sleep sack in perspective, the zipper is 22 inches long and does not go all the way to the bottom. she had plenty of room to grow longer with this one.

Project #4: My stitcher's club makes prayer cloths for the local hospital. I've made two before and have had these two running around in my sewing bag for several months now. I finished both of these on Saturday, so they are ready to hand in, in the new year when we meet again.

These finishes felt so good! Plus it only took me about four hours to finish up all these projects. That just put me in such a good mood for the rest of the weekend, which was crazy with three birthday parties!
I hope you all are just as productive in the upcoming weekends with all the Holiday craziness!

Thanks for reading!
Just a Mom who Sews

Christmas Sewing

Around this time of the year, projects seem to double or triple overnight, all with that wonderful December 25th deadline. I started and finished my sewy Christmas projects for my family, this past week. First, I wanted to give my husband a surprise Christmas present. He is so hard to buy for and then usually only wants dress clothes, he wears them for work, so they wear out pretty quickly. When I bravely took my two crazythings to a local One Stop Shop Hop in October, we found a John Deere print, we all liked. I only bought a half yard, because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, yet. After "shopping" my stash, I found a corn print I had bought in Shipshewana and left over solid yellow from the Tetris quilt. Bingo! Pillowcase it is! I even "shopped", sewed, photographed all during naptime. Go me!

Next, I sewed up this cute panel fabric book for my youngest crazything. I'm hoping that my oldest will read it to my youngest during church, so that they both with be good. HA!

I found it while browsing the clearance section at Red Rock Threads, mid-summer. I start my Christmas shopping early. ;) It's such a good feeling to be almost done with that big task. The only thing I have left to do is to sew a quilt up for my nephew by December 14th. Yikes! Did I mention I haven't bought the fabric yet?

Thanks for reading!
Just a Mom who Sews

Birthday Pillowcase/Kid Sewing

My youngest niece's birthday is coming up and of course, I haven't a clue as what to get her. Her Mom, my sister, was no help, she said no toys. Great, now what?? I finally decided to give the fail save give of a character pillowcase. (Her sister got a frozen themed one on her birthday earlier this year) I love "shopping" my stash! Leftover Tinkerbell cotton fabric from my crazything's quilt and extra purple satin blanket binding from a long ago project.

My oldest crazything decided she wanted to help me sew the present. Okay, it's a pillowcase, it shouldn't be too hard. The hardest part was keeping her attention while getting everything together to sew. She entertained herself by picking out only the "pretty" pins to use when I needed to pin the sides together. I sewed on the binding first, then I helped her sew the sides together. This was challenging, since she had to sit on my lap to be able to guide the fabric through the machine. I still controlled the foot pedal. She kept asking me when she could do the foot pedal and when could she go to my sewing club meeting, now that she can sew. Oh good Lord, what have I created??? I told her let's work on hand control before we add the foot pedal too and she had to be a few years older to go to sewing club. I see an emergency room trip in my future for a needle through a finger; her's or mine, I'm not sure which.
Any advice for me to help her with learning to sew on a machine? I learned to sew by myself after college.

Thanks for reading!
Just a Mom who Sews