The Traveling Quilter Goes to North Carolina

I'm in North Carolina this week for spring break. The real purpose of the trip was for Taylor to do some research for one of her classes. She is studying Frederick Law Olmsted. The father of Landscape Architecture. So here we are at the Biltmore mansion looking at his work. I did find some time to do a little bit of shopping though. Originally, we were going to travel to Mary Jo's outside of Charlotte. The Detroit airport decided they didn't like that plan. After a major scramble trying to keep our plans on time, the airline routed us to Knoxville instead. We did manage to find a quilt store that wasn't too terribly far from our hotel.

The Asheville Cotton Company sells Bernina and Baby Lock machines in addition to lots of fabric. I found out about the shop via a brochure on the Fiber Fabric Bead Trail. The tag line for the shop is "keeping the mountains in stitches." The ad for the shop states that it has over 8000 bolts of fabric. Now, the shop is large but I don't know about the 8000 bolt bit. The shop gals were very friendly. The store sold a lot of the big designer names like Riley Blake and Amy Butler.

 
While you drive around the countyside, you may stumble upon one of the barns that has a quilt on the side. I saw three or four but only was able to get one picture. If you are traveling down south, I know that you will find info on the web on where to find them. And they're not limited to North Carolina!

Finally, this morning we spent time at the North Carolina Arboretum. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot blooming. As we were walking the grounds, we came upon the quilt garden. Each year is dedicated to a different quilt block. How wonderful it would have been to visit during summer to see this. There are two educational buildings on the premises. We were told that one of the buildings usually has quilts on display but  during our visit, there were dolls there. The Asheville Quilt Guild invited Eleanor Peace Bailey to the quild to give a class on doll making and the guild members dolls were on display here. The dolls lined three corridors.

Meet Molly

This is Molly. You may have remembered her from this post. I finished her last week at when I was at my friend Pat's house. I came home and looked at her and decided she looked like a Molly. I also decided that she definitely needed to have an outfit of some sort.

There always seems to be some dumb story or a major mistake with my projects. No different with Molly. You see, my sock monkey had to be a girl. When you make a sock monkey, there is an opening in the, um, crotch area for you to stuff your monkey with fiberfil. As I was constructing Molly, the knit in the sock ran like a nylon stocking. Yep, there was a run running right up her front . I had to stitch the run closed and that resulted in Molly having girly parts.

I have given the link to several people on how to make a little girl's tutu. Funny, I had yet to make one myself. Well, now was my time. You can find the instructions at Plum Tickled. The tutu went together quick which is always a good thing.

Nautical Chic

 
What are some favorite things from your childhood? Do you still have them? I can't think of anything that I still have in my possession. Two of the things I would give maybe an arm for would be my Barbie's, especially my Midge doll. I tried everything to get the flip in her hair to straighten out but it never did. The other item is my sailor dress. I've thought of that dress often. About a year ago, my mom gave me a couple of shoe boxes with items from my childhood. In one of the boxes, she put this picture in it. I don't know why I was the chosen one to receive it but I can't tell you how elated I was to have a picture of my dress. Also, I love this picture of my siblings and I.

This picture was taken in 1967. We are missing my youngest sister Jodi. She came along a few years later. I will have to ask my sister's if they remember anything about the dresses that they are wearing. I'm thinking that those might have come from Grandma Kennedy also.

Why does this dress mean so much to me? Well for starters, it was one of the few pieces of clothing that I had. I wore this to church every Sunday, really. I went to Catholic school and we wore uniforms so we didn't have a need for a large wardrobe. Also, most kids didn't have the clothing that kids have now. The second reason is that this was sent to me from my Grandma Kennedy. She was the nice Grandma. My other Grandma didn't like children. At all. We saw her once every two years and she wanted nothing to do with us. I can't understand why some mothers and Grandmothers are absent of maternal genes. So you can see why this dress was special.

Long before my mom gave me the family picture, I was collecting sailor dresses. I loved my sailor dress. I love the simplicity of sailor outfits and the sweetness that they portray. The copyright dates in my collection range from 1887 on up to 1995. Unfortunately, some of my patterns are not in very good shape. Hopefully, I'll be able to find nicer replacements in the future but for right now, I'm thrilled with what I have. Here are a few patterns from my collection.

 

 Advance 6807 circa 1950's

 Simplicity 2402 Copyright 1957

 Butterick 2760 Copyright 1963

 McCalls 4384 Copyright 1957

 Butterick 4703 Copyright 1923

Simplicity 3183 Copyright 1950
Alright, I've shared with you a special dress from my childhood. Now, what about you? Is there an outfit from your childhood that you have wonderful memories about?

A Present for Julia

A dear, sweet co-worker of mine gave her notice and today was her last day at work. Instead of giving her a going away present, I made something for her baby. Julia is turning one. The outfits are RTW from Wal-Mart. I went with a size 24months so hopefully, they'll fit the baby by summer.

The poodle design is from Lynnie Pinnie and the Ooh La La font is the Frenchie font 8CAP. The poodle was made with a fur fabric. I think the fabric is called Santa's beard. I could be wrong about that but I purchased it at Joann's. The little tutu design is from Planet Applique and the font for that is Back To Basics, also from 8CAP. Sarah made her first tutu for the baby so I thought the tutu design would be fun.

Kindle Cover Tutorial

Supplies:
4 pieces of peltex 8" x 5" (you can also use cardboard)
2 pieces of leather 8" x 11.5"
1 strip of leather 2" x 16.5"
velcro
masking tape

To begin, we are going to mark the center of the inside leather. We will be straight stitching here at the very end.

Take the piece of leather that you will using for the outside cover, place the 2 inch strip of leather at the center of your cover. I'm using masking tape instead of pins to keep my pieces somewhat in place.

We also don't want to put out leather tabs over to far. Notice that I'm using a "blade" foot. It's also called an edging foot. I use this foot a lot for garment sewing, rarely for quilting.I'm placing the end of the leather strip about 1/2 inch past the edge of the cover edge. This eventually will be placed inside a seam.

I set my tension to the "leather" setting. The stitch length is a 3 and I moved the needle to the left of center so I'm stitching about 1/8 inch from the edge. My edging foot help to keep my stitching straight.

Next up, I need to cut the pieces for the inside of my cover. I cut 2 squares 2 1/8 X 2 1/8". These squares are then cut on the diagonal. I originally was going to make the left pocket beige, then changed it to red.


 Use your masking tape to position your pieces on your inside cover.

Now stitch your pieces in place. Remember, we need to slip the Kindle into the holding tabs and we want to use the left sleeve to hold notes. We do not stitch all the way around these pieces.

Take your outside cover and determine where you are going to place your velcro. Stitch in place.

Now we are ready to stitch up three sides of our cover. With wrong sides together, match up all four edges of your outside cover and inside lining. Stitch both sides and the top using your edging foot. For the time being, we are leaving the bottom of the cover unstitched.

Now, time to switch presser feet. I'm placing my teflon foot on the machine. This is what you should use when you are working with leather. Remember when we marked our center of the inside lining. Now we are going to stitch down that marking and about a 1/4 inch or so on both sides of your first row of stitching.

I forgot to take a picture of the next step. Take two pieces of your peltex and slide it into one side of your cover. Take the other two pieces and slide it into the other side. Now stitch up the bottom of your cover.

We're almost finished. Shape the end of you long, narrow strip of leather. You can leave it rectangular or an oval edge like I used. Add your other piece of velcro to the inside of your strip.

Viola! We're done. The measurements that I've given are fairly accurate. I did have to trim the peltex down somewhat to fit inside the cover. I think you'll find that your cover will do a decent job of protecting your e-reader.

My Kindle Cover

A couple of weeks ago, Taylor and I decided to run to Best Buy and buy a Kindle. I noticed that you can purchase leather covers for your e-readers. There are a couple of tutorials and patterns out there for those wanting to make a cover out of fabric. A co-worker of mine gave me a trash bag full of leather maybe 6-8 months ago. I had a couple of plans for the leather but didn't dive into making anything. Well, now was the time to dive in. I pulled out the smallest pieces of leather that would work. I wouldn't maybe have chose this color but the leather is a gift and I wasn't about to waste it. Wouldn't you know that Cindy shot me an email early one morning, like two days after I cut my leather, asking if I wanted another bag of leather. I still don't want to waste this wonderful score but I know that I'll have enough for projects for the next few years.

I decided to deviate from the posted tutorials. Many of the patterns use elastic to hold your e-reader in. I felt the leather corners would be safer and add more protection to the corners. I took pictures all along the way so I could post a tutorial but I'm not going to post those. I decided to redo the tutorial when I make Taylor's. Mine is the prototype and I know that I can make it better so I'll post the tutorial once I get her cover going.

Remember when I said I didn't want to waste the leather? Because of that, I decided to line the cover with home dec fabric. You can tell by my pictures that that wasn't maybe the best idea. The fabric can stretch and the leather doesn't. I had the lining pressed and lined up almost perfectly but it didn't stitch out that way. The cover is actually kind of a messy job but for now, it will do the trick.

The total cost of my cover was $0.00. The leather was free. The lining fabric was free. I grabbed it off the free table at quilt camp. The peltex was free. I spent a huge amount of money down at Long Creek Mills last year on thread and stabilizers. The store is located in Gastonia, North Carolina. So I plunked down a lot of cash since it's not everyday I can shop at the store. I left there with stabilizer samples, free buttons, a large roll of peltex. I can't even remember what else I got free. You can see pictures of the store here.

Fun Stuff at the Bunkhouse

I have two treasures that I've been meaning to show you. The first one, a vintage pajama pattern, I scored off of Ebay a couple of months ago. If this isn't the cutest little thing. Sure the clowns are cute but I bought this solely for the cowboy view. This will be great for either boy or girl pajamas. The copyright date is 1950. I can't wait to sew this up some day. Which reminds me, I need to purchase more Swedish tracing paper. When working with vintage patterns, it's best to trace them and use your copies instead of the original. I also need to quit stalling and order the sleeves to protect my patterns.


The second item that I want to show you is this sweet cowboy and cowgirl flannel. I don't have a clue what I'm going to make with it yet. My friend Barb B. gifted this to me. I had dropped her off at her house after quilt camp. Neither one of us noticed that her coat was still in the back of my truck. I told her that I could swing it by on my day off. I drove over to her house and knocked on the door. Her husband answered and said to wait a minute. He brought this fabric over to me. I was taken aback. What I did was an easy favor for Barb and here she gave this to me for the favor. I told her husband that the gift wasn't necessary, but boy did I clutch that fabric tightly as I walked back to my car.