Archive for September, 2014

September 29th, 2014

Crochet Edged Pillowcases

by Julie Hirt

I’ve been wanting to make some crochet trimmed pillowcases for a long time and I must say, it is totally satisfying.

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The vintage crochet trimmed pillowcases are nice but they tend to have the finer crochet thread and most are just too frilly for me.  What I consider to be modern spin offs (here, here and here are some great examples) are so bright and colorful; I had to make some.

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The fabric I chose is MY FAVORITE FABRIC IN ALL THE LAND.   Seriously.  The print was one of the first fat quarters of fabric I purchased back in 2010.  I was on a mission to find more and posted about it here.  Miracle of miracles, Leslie in Wisconsin (I love you, Leslie) had 2 yards of this glorious fabric and was willing to do a fabric and chocolate exchange for it.  Umm… yes!  I feel like I got the better end of this deal.   When the sweetness arrived I was very much:

myprecious

I’ve been sitting on the fabric for a few months trying to decide the *perfect* use for it. I didn’t want to use it as backing and I wanted to be able to see, touch and pet it at whim.   When I remembered the crochet pillowcases it was a ding! ding!  moment.   I have king size pillows so I squeezed the most out of the 2 yards and was able to make 2 pillowcases.  Not even a trim of fabric was left.

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There are several tutorials out there but I did use some white Kona to create my pillowcase flap.  It holds the pillow in place and just cleans up the look.  I love the look of the contrast fabric but didn’t want to take away from the exterior.

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The one thing I did change from the tutorials I’ve seen is the exterior blanket stitch.  I’ll try using it on some other pillowcases – yes, I’m definitely making more.

To get away from using the blanket stitch I marked every half  inch and used a basic back stitch within the seam:

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Well, there you have it.  I know this is a very lengthy post for some pillowcases but I can’t help it. I love this fabric.

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I’m lucky my husband could care less about our bedding.  I’m tempted to crochet trim the top sheet!  Or is that too much?

 

siggy

September 23rd, 2014

Swap Stuff

by Julie Hirt

I can share another Sew Together Bag now that the birthday girl has received it.

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I know she likes purple… I just hope she likes *this much* purple.

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Added a few flying geese to each side and quilted the exterior.

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Used a lighter fabric in the pockets, which may help Renee find things a little easier.

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I really do love this pattern and it will be a go-to for myself and gifts for a long time.

She also received a pincushion, that she almost didn’t receive it because it’s not perfect.

AMH pincushion (1)

The pattern is from the Seams to Me book by Anna Marie Horner.  This is my 3rd attempt at this pattern. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get the seams lined up to lay flat.  Since the pincushion is large and useful I’m willing to overlook those things and use it anyway.

I keep my Wonder Clips in the middle and then I have clips and pins handy.

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Here are my fussy cut blocks for last month’s swap with Amanda.

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The theme was ‘travel’ so I used the double decker bus from the Londing Calling line by Jack & Lulu for Dear Stella.

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I think it’s cute and it reminds me of the Weeble Wobble bus I had as a kid.

Hope you’re having a great week!

siggy

 

September 18th, 2014

Noodlehead Divided Basket

by Julie Hirt

For whatever reason I had never purchased two of my favorite patterns that are out there; Noodlehead’s Divided Basket and Super Tote.  When I spotted a 3 pack of Noodlehead patterns on Massdrop a few weeks ago it was a no brainer.

Here is my first attempt at the Divided Basket.

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An IKEA opened up nearby by a few weeks ago –  that alone is worth a blog post, I was super excited.  They have some fabrics available but I’m sad our location doesn’t carry Britten Nummer. I’ve been lusting after it for like a year.

Well, I wasn’t about to leave without SOME kind of fabric so I picked up enough Lillivi (exterior print) and Ditte (blue) to make the Divided Basket.

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The Lillivi is home decor weight so I didn’t use the fusible fleece, only the sturdy interfacing.

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I’m really happy with how it turned out and I will definitely be making more.  It’s a great size to store all kinds of crap.

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Easily holds several skeins of yarn so it would be perfect to store some knitting or crochet projects, the pocket is great to toss in some hooks and scissors.

Surprisingly, I didn’t buy much from my IKEA trip – I really just like looking at the little odds and ends.  I did buy this Kullar thermos which I LOVE more than I should and we decided to give the Dignitet Cable System a try.

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I’ve seen a few people online use it to take photos of quilts and figured if the cable can hold the weight of a full quilt, surely it would work for mini’s.  I absolutely hate putting holes in walls (what if you don’t like the picture and move it, then you have a big hole…) so this works perfect. I can change things out on a whim and no holes (except the ones used to set up the cables).

Well, that’s it for today.

 

siggy

 

 

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