Ready for Glamping!

At least in the luggage category.

After I made my new Weekender, I decided I needed a matching toiletry bag. I just made up my own pattern to resemble the Sophia bag. And voila!

Then I recently purchased the cutest glamping fabric from Moda a couple of weekends ago and was trying to decided what to make out of it.   I made up a backpack pattern and went to town:

And today I am going to attempt a bike basket liner for my beach cruiser.

Too much time on my hands?? LOL maybe.

It’s spring break this week, so today my baby girl wanted to hang out with me in the sewing room. So I got out my old starter machine for her and she  is sewing her first quilt.

I let her go through my scraps and she picked some interesting color combo’s.

We’ll see if she sticks with it. I already made her seam rip a couple of blocks that were no where near 1/4 inch LOL! Poor girl.

Enjoy your weekend!

Melissa

Parade Day Part 4

Hi there friends!

We’re almost done with our Parade Day quilt!!

Today we are going to cut our setting triangles, corner triangles, and applique our buntings.

Cutting for setting triangles.

Cut 2 squares at 11 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

For each setting triangle finger press in half ,

then center the bunting in the middle, pin and applique with your favorite method (machine stitch, blanket stitch, or hand applique.)

I actually love to hand applique and encourage you to try it if you haven’t done it.   I always think of it just like hand sewing the back of your binding on. It’s that simple.

My friend Jane, who taught me how to hand applique gave me these tips when I started: use YLI silk thread because it just melts right in like butter, and use straw needles (11, or 10.)

Once you have all the buntings sewn on to your setting triangles you will then make the center portion of the bunting.

1. Use this template: Parade Day Template and trace it on to the dull side of freezer paper.  (Or if you are machine stitching you can use a fusible, like steam-a-seam)

2. Press with shiny side down onto the BACK of your fabric, cut out leaving a  1/4 inch seam, and baste.

3. Finger press in half

4. Center on your bunting, pin, and applique.

***Edit: I forgot to add that you need to pull out the freezer paper and basting stitches!

Now we can lay our quilt out into rows paying special attention to the direction your flags are facing.

Sew into rows with a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward flag blocks. Here I am pinning my first seam, see where the over hang of the triangle block is:

Here are the rows all sewn up:

Now sew the rows together:

Once the rows are all sewn, it’s time to add the corner triangles,

Cutting the corner triangles:

Cut 2 squares 7 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

Finger press each corner triangle and center on the corner blocks. Pin and sew.

It looks a little wonky when you have it all sewn on, but we are going to trim the corners to square it.

Using your rotary cutting and a large square ruler ( I used a 12 1/2 inch square) Square your corners.

You should now have a 25 inch square quilt center! Whoop whoop!

From here you can add any sized inner and outer borders you want, but we will discuss the sizes I choose next week!

Here is my finished quilt a long quilt:

See ya next week for borders!

Later Gators,

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along- Part 3

YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!! It’s actually sunny today! My spirit is soaring. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for a light deprived Michigander. =)

With the sunshine it is easy to put me in a summery 4th of July mood.

So lets get started making our little parade buntings  made out of dresedens.

Cutting:

If using fat quarters :cut 3 strips of blue 1- 3/4  x  22

                                                 3 strips of red 1- 3/4  x  22

If using yardage: cut 2 strips of blue 1 -3/4 x wof

                                        2 strips of red 1- 3/4 x wof

Sewing

Sew the red strips to the blue strips  using a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward the blue  (we will be pressing half toward the red in later steps.) Your strips should measure 3 inches.

Now using your dresden ruler, line it up on the 3 inch mark.  The 1- 1/2 inch mark on the ruler should be right across the middle where the red and blue meet. Using your rotary cutter,  trim the side off and make your first cut.

Flip your ruler upside down and make your second cut.

Continue cutting your strips until you have a pile of 20 red on the top blue on the bottom , and 20 blue on the top red on the bottom.

Using a quarter inch seam allowance fold your blades in half at the “fat” end and feed them through your machine.

  You can chain stitch these.

Now cut the threads that bind your blades together. For each blade you will trim the corner off with scissors (being careful not to cut into the stitching), finger press the seam open, turn the blade tip inside out, and using a bodkin or something sharp push the tip out.

Now take 10 matching blades to your ironing board and press the point of the blade.

Leave 5 of the blades pressed toward the blue fabric, and press 5 of the blades toward the red fabric.  This will aid in butting up your seams when we sew them together.

Here are my first 10 blades ready to become a bunting!

Take two blades and butt up the seams, you can pin if you like. Sew using a 1/4 inch seam back stitching at the beginning and end. Sew together 5 pairs.

Press the pairs and then sew 2 pairs together, repeating until you have sewn 10 blades together.

Repeat until you have made 2 blue at the top and 2 red at the top buntings.

Aren’t they cute?? Love it!

We now have 4 flags, 1 star, and 4 buntings.

I’ll be back next week for part 4!

Later gators,

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along Part 2- Star Block

Welcome back to the Parade Day Sew Along!

Anybody sewing along????

Today I’m thinking about all things summer and Americana;  apple pie, baseball, red geraniums, picnics, watermelon, and homemade ice cream!

What goes better with our Dear Old Flag than stars?

Let’s make the star block.

You will need:

4 white squares at  2 1/4 x 2  1/4

1 white square at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 cut twice on the diagonal

4 blue squares at 2 5/8 x 2 5/8 cut once on the diagonal

1 red square at 4 x 4.

Sewing

Lay our your star block.

Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, make the flying geese blocks that make up the star points.

I have taken a picture of the steps  I sew my flying geese in. Press toward the darker fabric:

Trim off the dog ears on the flying geese and you should now have this:

Sew your pieces into rows, press toward the flying geese:

Sew your rows together and admire your cutie tootie star block!!! It should measure 7 1/2 inches square.

This is what we have now, 4 flags and a star:

Don’t sew the blocks together yet.

I hope you will link up so we can all share! =)

See you back here next week for the dresdens.

Melissa

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Take me camping!

I haven’t been able to stand it.  I had to put all my “stuff” out in my camper because we have been teased with some sunny, but still COOOOOOLD days.

This is what my poor little lonely Shasta looks like today.  She needs a sweater doesn’t she? LOL

We’ve been working on a new interior configuration for camping.  We get sick of taking up and putting down the table and making the bed when we are actually out camping in her. Lets face it sometimes after a long day camping and beer  around the campfire, you just want to crawl into bed!   The BG didn’t want anything permanent because he likes the larger dinette situation when we just play in her at home.

I think we have it figured out…I had to make a new set of shorter bench cushions (thankfully the fabric store still had some of my cushion fabric, ) store the longer back rest cushions in the basement , and place the long seat cushions the short way for a bed we can leave there while camping and a new table top will go between the new short cushions.

This works well for us because we can just put everything back and store the short cushions when we want it the old way

As I was cleaning up and dusting off the camp stuff, I took a look at my old Weekender Bag by Amy Butler.  I made this 6 or 7 years ago and it’s been well used. Showing signs of lots of travel between the girls and I using it. It used to have a nice crisp shape, but now looks all squished.

So this weekend I sat down to make a new one.  I shared this reproduction flour sack panel fabric a couple years ago and never got around to making anything with it for the camper.

  OHHHH wouldn’t it be cute to use for a new Weekender ?

Here’s how it turned out…

I’m in trouble now, because my girls want one!!!

Later gators!

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along Part 1-Flag Blocks

Hi Ladies!

Ready to sew along with me today?

Put some flip flops on, make an iced tea (or a long island iced tea depending on how much you want to party,)  and pretend that it is summer and you are getting ready for July 4th!! =)

Let’s make some flags.

For each flag you will need:

2 red or blue strips cut at 1 1/2 x 7 1/2

1 white strip cut at 1 1/2 x 7 1/2

2 red or blue strips cut at 1 1/2 x 10 1/2

2 white strips cut at 1 1/2 x 10 1/2

1 red or blue square cut a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2

Sewing

Using a 1/4 inch seam sew your strips together as shown in the picture. Press toward darker fabric.

Now sew the corner square to your top strips. Press toward darker fabric.

Now sew your block together, pressing toward darker fabric.

Stand back and look at how cute your little flag is! It should measure 7 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches.

Hum the National Anthem while you make 3 more flags.  Two Red and Two Blue.

Excuse me while I go finish mine up!…….

4 cutie tootie flags:

I’ve added (hopefully) a linky for us to share our blocks and progress. That way we can easily visit each other as we sew along.

I’ll see you back here on Wednesday for the Star block!

Melissa

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Parade Day Sew Along

Thank you for letting me know you would like to sew along with me!

We’ll start on Monday with the flag blocks.

So gather up your red, white , and blue fabric from your stash.  Sorry I don’t know the exact fabric requirements because I didn’t write any down when I made it the first time…oops.  But fat quarters or fat eights are all you will need for the flags.

Later in this project you will also need a dresden ruler.  So if you don’t have one and you are out and about this weekend you could pick one up.

I’m excited to sew with you ladies!!

Later gators,

Melissa