Beginning a Kitchen wall Hanging

The new dishes for the kitchen have arrived and they are very cheery.

I like the orange stripe a lot.  They of course require new wall hangings and placemats, right?

 - This is the base for some hand applique. The photo shows the wrong side of the applique block.

Can you see the outline of the applique?  I will keep you posted on the progress.

More Letter Organizer

I added my own twist to Ayumi Takahashi's You've Got Mail Wall Pocket by making a large pocket on the back.

My experience with these things is that I always put too much stuff in them and then they distort.  Once distorted they don't seem to come back to their original shape.  So I slid a piece of the super thick interfacing into the back pocket....

It adds a bit of thickness and even weight but I got the largest rare earth magnets from Lee Valley and stuck them in the back so I could make it stay on the fridge.

Voila,
Thank you Ayumi for a great pattern.

Ok, I probably didn't need one more photo on this post but what the hey?

Letter Organizer

So here I am using Ayumi's design again.  This is her You've Got Mail Wall Pocket from her Patchwork Please! Book.  You may already realize that I like her ideas as this is the third thing I have made from this book.

The paper pieced envelopes were really quick to do and with the paper very perfect. Who doesn't like perfect?

I followed her advice and left two of the bottom pockets available for larger pieces of paper...

I've been Knitting a Sweater

I usually buy the Knit Simple magazine when I have the urge for a new project.  Well, this spring I was instantly taken by the first pattern in the magazine.  The lace detail is a honeybee design that I liked instantly.  Here's how mine turned out.

And now for the back....extra cute....

I started it on May 16th and finished a few days ago.  Yeah!  Don't you love finishing things??

New Hat Love

We spend some of our time on the weekend driving in a cute little car with no roof. My hair of course suffers some.  Not just from the breeze but my head is sometimes cold... OK, it's fall here and the daytime highs haven't been above 10C for a week (or maybe more...)

Anyhooo, I undertook to make the Wanderer hat from Weekend Hats: 25 Knitted Caps, Berets, Cloches.  It is really pleasing how it turned out.

I thought it would be too small for my big head.  You see mine measures at 23inches in diameter.

So I undertook to make the hat a tiny bit larger by adding in six extra stitches (as the decrease on the crown was in six places)  My machinations worked and but the hat is more like a beret.  I love it tho.

The details are:
     Wanderer Cap
     1- 100 gm (192m ) ball Patons Classic Wool Worsted (4)
     colour: new denim

New Shopping Bag

So I have this problem with the shopping bags you buy for a $1 or so or maybe the ones that are given to me - they are just too big.  If I let the grocery store carry out people fill them they are often too heavy for me later.  Plus, I seem to have crushed stuff when I get home...so I looked at the grocery bag made of flimsy plastic

and thought they are designed this size and shape because they work....so....

I made a simple pattern by cutting the bag open....

After that I finished the edges, first with the serger and then by turning under a smidge and topstitching .

Voila, it's a wonderful thing.  In case you wonder the bottom was double stitched on the outside and then serged also on the outside as befits such a utilitarian item.

I made two like this and my DH promptly expropriated them for his lunch (all those round glass dishes) and his gym things.

Progress on my Wheel Around Blocks

I am really liking how this block is going together.  I am using the set of fat quarters I got from Sew Sisters a couple of months ago and they are wonderful.

Here's how it starts. ( I am using a scrapbooking case to store the blocks as they are 12 1/2 inches square )

And...

Then I sew the triangles on all four sides of of the corner squares...

After pressing the seams open I have the corners for two blocks...

And Voila!

I haven't decided if there will be sashing or not.  Then I saw on the cover of a Fons and Porter Magazine that Mary Fons had done this block on point...hmmm....

(If you scroll down the Magazine page to March/April 2013 you can see what I mean)