A Winner and Other Business

The random number generator choose #26.  Congratulations Ruth S.!  

Ruth, you are a no-reply blogger!  Email me your shipping info please.

Ruth did not reply, so #9  Shauna was chosen as a winner.

Remember that Wendy is giving a 10% discount through Friday on all of her quilt kits and patterns.  Enter the code CITY10 at checkout for the discount.

I normally don't blog about other's giveaways, but I really want another chance to win this EQ7 pattern.  AnneMarie reviewed it on her blog last week and I am sold.  So go on over and read about it, but don't leave a comment to be entered to win your own copy.  Understand?  Don't you go decreasing my chances to win!   Well, if you must....  ;)

Oh, and for this weeks Skill Builder Sampler block you will need to have your compass and some Heat and Bond fusible interfacing.  We will start our month of applique with a raw edge applique block.

Betty Pattern Giveaway! (open to all)

I discovered quilting blogs about 3 years ago and boy, was I hooked.  Then I started reading about these "bees" where people exchanged brilliant quilt blocks.  How fun is that?  About two years ago I joined my first bee where we exchanged improvisational blocks.  It was sooo much fun.  Wendy organized the bee and I have been stopping by her blog (Sewing in the Wendy City) off and on since then.  I was so jealous excited for her when she went to Market last month.  Not only did she go to market but she also wrote her first pattern.

I give you...Betty - a classy lady with a wonky style.  :)    

Wendy sent me a copy of her pattern.  The instructions are simple and thorough.  Plus, there is no waste of fabric.  I LOVE that.  I hate patterns where you buy a tons of fat quarters and then only use a bit of them, but I digress...  The finished quilt size is 50 x 65 (the perfect size in my opinion) and Wendy gives instructions and fabric requirements for a twin sized quilt also. 

Not sure if it is your style?  Take a close up look at the same pattern in solids.  I love it!  The colors remind me of my brother's botched quilt.  I need to fix that...someday...

Wendy has offered to give one luck reader a free copy of her new pattern.  If you would like a chance to win, simply leave a comment.  

But that is not all.  Everyone is a winner today!  Now through next Friday (Dec 2nd) you can receive a 10% discount at Wendy's etsy store.  She not only has patterns but kits for the Betty quilt as well as yardage.  Simply enter the code CITY10 when you check out for your 10% discount.

The giveaway will close Tuesday the 29th at 8 am Central Time.  Good luck and have a great weekend!

A Tutorial For Large Drawstring Bags

This tutorial is the first of a series of tutorials that will show how to make drawstring bags, pajama pants and simple blankets for Foster Care Kits.  Let's get going!

Supplies:

2/3 yard of fabric for the bag

52 inches of twill tape, soft rope or ribbon for the drawstring

1 large safety pin

scissors

pins

yard stick or measuring tape

sewing machine

Cutting:

Fabric comes off the blot folded in half.  The finished edges with the writing on them are called selveges.  If you bought more than 2/3 yard (24 inches) you will need to cut the fabric to size.  If you have a rotary cutter, mat and ruler, use those to cut the fabric.  If not, no worries.  Grab your yard stick or tape measure.  Make sure the cut edge of the fabric is fairly straight, then measure 24 inches from the edge of the fabric along the selvege.

Make a mark at this point with a pen, pencil - whatever you have on hand.  Move the yard stick up a few inches and make another mark.  Continue until you have made marks all the way up to the top of the fabric.

Then simply cut along the marks.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just decent.  The selvage will not unravel in the wash, but the unfinished sides might so we are going to zig zag along both sides to prevent fraying.

Sewing:

Before we get going, let's talk about setting the stitch length and width.

There will be something like this on your machine.  It controls how long the stitch is.  0 is no length and 4 is quite long.  I like to keep mine at about 2.

To set the width of the stitch, find a knob like this.  When the line is at 0 the stitches are 0 wide - that is they just go straight.  The higher you go, the wider the zig zag.  I like to set my stitch at 3.5 when I zig zag.

Once you have the stitches set, place the corner of the fabric under the presser foot.  Line up the cut edge of the fabric with the notch in the presser foot.

Start stitching!  The zig zags are should go just over the edge of fabric.

Once you are done zig zagging both sides, trim the threads and fold the fabric in half, the right sides of the fabric facing each other.  The selvages should line up with each other at the top.  Pin the fabric together along the zig zagged edges.

On one of the edges measure 2.5 inches from the top of the selvage and make a mark.  You will start sewing at that mark.

Before you start stitching, change the width of the stitch back to 0 and identify the 1/2 inch mark beside the presser foot.   Two marks out is the 1/2 inch mark.  When you are sewing you will keep the edge of the fabric lined up with this mark.  If you are sewing with children, you may want to place a piece of tape on the edge of the mark to make it more visible.

Place the presser foot on the edge of the selvage with the zig zagged edge at the 1/2 inch mark.  Sew forward a 4 or 5 stitches, back stitch and then continue forward to the end of the fabric.  When you reach the end, back stitch again.

 To back stitch, you will need to lift and hold up a lever like this.  Some machines have a button you hold down.

When you sew the side that you marked, start 2.5 inches down at your mark.

When you have stitched both sides trim off the bottom corner.

When both sides are sewn and trimmed, iron the seams open on both sides.

The notched side will look like this.

Next, fold over the selvage edge 1.25 inches so that the top of the selvage is even with the bottom of the notch.

Iron the selvage edge down all the way around the top of the bag.

Next, position the foot with it's left edge even with the selvage.  Take a few stitches, back stitch and continue stitching all the way around the bag.

It should look like this.  When you reach the beginning, back stitch again and remove the fabric from the machine.  Trim the thread and turn right side out.

Now all you have to do is put in the drawstring.  Find the biggest pin you have (bigger than this one!) and pin it to the end of your ribbon/rope/tape.  You will use the pin to help guide the ribbon through the channel made by sewing down the top edge of the bag.

Place the safety pin in the channel at the top of the bag.

Hold the end of the pin with your left hand.   Push fabric onto the pin with your right hand.

When you have covered the pin with as much fabric as it can hold, take a hold of the top of the pin with your right hand.

Pull the fabric off of the pin with your left hand.  Repeat until the safety pin exits the other side of the bag.

Knot the ends together and you are done!!!

Congratulations!  

You just made a drawstring bag!

Foster Care Kits

I was recently asked to help with a service project at church.   Our women's organization in north east Iowa was challenged to put together Foster Care Kits for children.  I think this is a brilliant service opportunity and wanted to share it with you.


When a child is in an abusive or neglected home situation in the US, Child Protective Services will take them into custody.  The children are placed with Foster Families until their home is safe to return to.  The children often show up on their Foster Parents doorsteps with just the clothes on their back and in a state of emotional turmoil. The Foster Care Kits are meant to help make this painful situation a bit better.

A Foster Care Kit Contains:

1. Basic Hygiene Items:  toothbrush, toothpaste and brush/comb.  It may also include rubber bands, barrettes, deodorant and lotion.  (Items may be travel sized)
2. Pajamas  It may also contain clothing, socks, underwear or diapers.
3. Blanket   (45x45 for 0-2 year old, 45x54 for3-6 year old, 54x66 for 7-11 year old, 54x72 for 12-18 year old)   Sizes are approximate, but the blanket needs to be big enough for the child.  The blankets may be fleece or pieced.  Foster Care Families will have blankets and beds for the children, but this blanket is something soft and special for the child that they can snuggle with and keep forever.
4. At Least One Comfort Item  Some ideas include:  stuffed animal, doll, coloring book/crayons, notebook, journal, pen, pencils or book.  No one is too old for a stuffed animal, especially when you are going through hard times.

All of these items are collected and placed in a bag.  It is best if the bag can be zipped, buttoned or velcroed so that the contents are not mixed up or lost.  A drawstring bag also works well.  The contents of the bag, age and gender of the child are written on a note card and pinned to the outside of the bag.  The bags are collected and brought to local agencies that place foster children.


All of the items may be purchased, but that adds up fast.  You can definitely save money by making some of the items yourself.  In the next week or two I am going to share tutorials on how to make a large drawstring bag, pajama pants and different ways to finish fleece blankets.  These posts will be geared towards people with minimal sewing skills.  Anyone should be able to complete these projects.  I hope these posts will be a resource for the women in my area making the Foster Care Kits and perhaps others will run with the idea and make Foster Care Kits for the children in their area too.


This would be a great service project for a church group, Boy/Girl Scouts or quilt guild.  Before starting, however, contact your local foster care agency, tell them about the project and ask if they have any specific needs.

Haircuts

It all started with Brian...  He had been needing a hair cut and beard trim and Colleen had been asking for a hair cut "like Aleah's" for awhile, so we cut hair this morning.

 Colleen lost at least 6 inches of length.  

I love how her hair is so straight and smooth.

 Brian had been mentioning off and on that Kate really needed a hair cut, but I love those curls so I have been putting it off.   I even pretended to cut her hair this morning so she would be content with thinking she had got a hair cut too.  But the bottoms were starting to get some damage, and it was getting hard to brush (when you suck your thumb and twirl your hair right after eating all sorts of crusty things end up in your hair) and it was getting long enough so that it wasn't as curly as it use to be, so...I cut it for real.  !!?#!&??!!

 It wasn't looking so good so I added some layers.  

Yes, the unevenness is on purpose.  I think I will like it.  

I think it might even keep some of it's waviness.

 Here is the hair all together.  Lovely, eh?

Emily with a Colleen Mustache.

The whole haircut gang together.

Big Half Way Mark Giveaway for the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler

I can't believe there have been 6 months of the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler!

We started out by making sure we had the basics covered with cutting, 1/4 inch seams and pressing while making these blocks.  (oh, how I miss the days when my backyard was green...)

 We moved on to half square triangle and corner to corner sewing.  Finishing up with some quilt math.

 With all the different skills I tried to show many different methods for getting the same result.  We learned the traditional, corner to corner and magic method of making flying geese.

Then we learned how to make 1/4 square triangles and played around with improvisation.  

(I just realized I never wrote up the 1/4 square triangle math post...oops...coming soon...)

We tried out paper and fabric foundation piecing and started paper piecing.

And more paper piecing...oh how I love these paper pieced blocks!  Why did I wait so long to learn how to do this?  This is what the Skill Builder Sampler is all about! - just biting the bullet and doing things that we are scared of.

It was hard to get a picture of them all!

If you haven't been quilting along with the Skill Builder Sampler, now is a perfect time to join in.  We are going to start hitting skills that even long time quilters might not have tried their hand at.  Here is the schedule for the rest of the Sampler:

December - Applique (many different methods will be shown)
January - Curved Blocks
February - Wonky Blocks
March - Odd Shapes (tumblers, apple cores, hexagons)
April - Inset Seams
May - There is No Way I Can Make That Block! Blocks  :)

For all of you who have been following along - THANK YOU! - it would have been totally lame and depressing to write all these tutorials for only one or two people.  As a thank you and reward for participating in the Skill Builder Sampler we are having a Big Half Way Mark Giveaway.  And because I want to motivate anyone who has fallen behind to catch up I have three different prize options.   Everyone likes different fabrics  and I wanted the prize to appeal to everyone.

 For those who love reproduction fabric:  

A jelly roll of 1862 Battle Hymn and one yard of Kona Snow.

 For those who are drawn to brights:  

10 fat quarters of Treasures and Tidbits and 1.5 yards of Kona White.

For sweet dot lovers:  

8 fat quarters of assorted dots, a half yard of the pink floral from Snippets, 

and 1.5 yards of Kona Unbleached (my favorite "white"). 

Any of these prize packages would be enough fabric to make a large lap sized quilt.

To be entered in the giveaway:

• You must have completed blocks 1-18 in the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler.  A list of all blocks and links to the tutorials can be found at the link at the top of the page.  
• You must post a picture of all of your blocks on the Skill Builder Sampler flickr site or email me a picture of the completed blocks.
• Then leave a comment in this post.  Let me know what fabric package you would like if you are the randomly selected winner.

The giveaway closes on Friday, December 2nd at 7:00 am Central Time, at which time a randomly selected person will win the fabric package of their choice.  That gives you two weeks to catch up.   Totally do-able.  :)

You Can Do It!