Cleaning Your Sewing Machine

Well along with spring cleaning the house (ya right...and how many of you are going to do this....I might think about it. LOL!) we need to spring clean our sewing machine. Now....if you are like me this is something I continually think about, but do not get to it very often. With that said, I had this posted on my FB page the other day from TheSewingLoftBlog and thought that I would share it with you. Mine can get pretty bad with all the lint and this tutorial showed me that I am not the only one! HA!HA! How bad does yours get? So get those machines torn down and get to cleaning them. :)

Have a great day!

Colleen :)

Halloween Crafts

Time to get busy finishing up those Halloween crafts. I saw this posting the other day on my FB feed and thought I would share it with you. There are lots of different things to make for Halloween. There are several different links so you can pick what interests you. :)


Here is the link to the posting....The Country Chic Cottage. I follow her and she has some wonderful craft ideas and recipes! :)

Get busy with those crafts and happy crafting!

Colleen :)

Removing Those Darn Stitch Marks

I was doing my normal first thing in the morning reading on Facebook and came across this posting. It is about removing those pesty stitch marks that you get when you have to take stitches out of your fabric. I run into this mostly when I do my embroidery stitching, but have had this problem doing my quilting also. Yes...I do have to take out stitches quite often! :)

I thought I would share this blog posting from Seamsandscissors. 

Nice to see I am doing this right....I use my fingernail and it works just fine. :)

Happy Stitching. :)

Let's Get Those Kids To Embroider

I know a lot of you out there are sewers, crafters, quilters and embroidery people. Now for those of you that embroider do you have children that you would like to get started with embroidery? How about having them start with this Burlap Embroidery for Kids from AllFreeSewing that I found the other day. They will use colorful shoelaces to make these designs and it looks like a great way to get them started. Wish I still had my grandkids around to do this project. :)

Happy embroidering and have a great day!!

Sharpening Your Rotary Blade

I just found this tutorial on Pinterst and thought wow....I need to share this with all of you. Now if you are a sewer and use a rotary cutter you know how frustrating it can be when your blade is dull. I love a new blade, but if you are like me you don't want to keep spending a fortune on new blades so you want to be able to sharpen them. 

I even invested in one of those electric sharpeners that didn't work that well and then I went with a hand one that works pretty darn good, but if this method works how handy would this be. 

So follow Kari over to ucreatecrafts and see how to do this. Let us know if it works for you. I am going to try it also and see how it goes. :)

Happy Sewing! :)

Mini Charm Mix Shortcut Quilt

As you know I love to quilt and I subscribe to the newsletter from the Fat Quarter Shop. In a recent newsletter they had an interesting short video on making a quilt from a mini charm pack. I haven't used charm packs a lot, but the few times I have used them I really like sewing with them. So much less cutting and I am all about saving time! :)

I thought you might like to see the video also, so here it is.....





Now.....we just need to find time to make one of these. Ya, right.....just put in on your to-do list right. LOL! :)

Happy sewing and have a great day!  

YARDAGE INFORMATION

I found this information the other day and thought how interesting it was to see it put into charts. I think it is good information so I thought I would share it with you. I found it on Minnesota Charms. They had lots of information on fabric yardages and cutting...:)

Interesting to see it put out in a chart like this. 

I use fat quarters a lot so this chart was really interesting to me. 

And then those of you who use jelly rolls, here are some cutting instruction for you. I haven't used jelly rolls yet, but I saw a show on PBS the other day and thought I really need to try that some time. :)

Happy sewing and have a great day! :)

HOW TO ADD A PIN IT "HOVER BUTTON" TO YOUR IMAGE

I follow this wonderful blog Sew Many Ways and Karen over there is such a wonderful wealth of knowledge. She always has such great tutorials, repurposing and crafting ideas. I love to follow her blog. Anyway......she posted this tutorial on her blog and I thought it was so great that I thought you might like it also. I am certainly not very "techy", but this was actually very easy!! Since she is so great with screen shots I thought I would just use hers. Here is how you do it. :)

First go to your Pinterest dashboard page. Then click on the drop down button in the left hand side and go to Business on the bottom of the screen.








Next, click on the Tools button.





Then on the left hand side click on the Widget builder.







Then click on the Pin It Button.





Now click on the button type.....I chose Image Hover.








Click on Built It and then on Advanced








Highlight the code and right click and COPY it. Now....make sure you get the entire code and don't do like I did. I missed the first < and when I put it to my blog layout it wouldn't work. Of course it wouldn't work for me I thought!! Well after checking back and forth with what I did I realized what happened. Always happens to me. :) :) :)








 Now off to your blog layout. Pick Add a Gadget







 Then the HTML/Java Script





Now copy and paste the code you copied into the box. Now make sure after you preview it to Save Arrangement.  






And whalla........you have a Pin It button on your images!! And it works on the older photos too!! Now everyone can pin those great pictures you all have on your blogs.

So, that is how you can add a hover Pin It button to your blog. Thanks again to Karen at Sew Many Ways. Check out her blog....you won't be disappointed. Have a new recipe for you under Recipe Exchange. Just in time for the cantaloupe season!

Hope everyone has a great week!

 

:)

TUTORIAL: COFFEE COZY

So how is everyone's week going so far? I have been pretty busy this week. I am trying to get things finished up for the upcoming spring show we have in two weeks. I am about done with everything. I have a few more tote bags to finish and then I should be good to go. Then I can get back on the items I need to finish for the summer markets. :)

Last week I showed you the coffee cozies that I am making for the shows and I told you I would show you how to make them. So here we go on making these cute little things.

The first thing I did was get a coffee sleeve from Starbuck's to have a template. Well actually my son did as I don't drink coffee. Making these cozies was actually his idea, so if they don't sell I told him he was going to get them for Christmas! Between him and my daughter (who doesn't drink coffee either) I should be able to get rid of them. OK...back to the instructions :)

 

When you make the template be sure to measure an additional 1/4 inch to it for the seam line. After you make a template from the sleeve, you cut out the fabric for the front and back of the cozy using the template. I have embroidered Alaska on mine since I am using this for my summer customers that are mostly tourists, but you can use any fabric you like. These work great to clean out your "stash". :)

 



 

Next you need to put the padding in the inside. Now I use fusible fleece because I just like it better. You can use any kind of batting or interfacing you like.

 

After you finish the batting you need to sew the two parts together leaving an opening for turning the cozy inside out.

 

 

After you have sewn the two sides together and clipped the curves you turn the cozy inside out. Now I cut the fabric next to the seam line a little bit so it isn't so bulky. Once you have turned the cozy inside out you need to top stitch it.



 

You can close the cozy several different ways. Some sew it closed or use Velcro, but I use buttons. I have a stash of vintage buttons I use to add a little something to them.

You can use a large button attached to the cozy, which if you do be sure to add the elastic to the cozy before you sew the two sides together.

Or you can attach two buttons to the sides to close the cozy. I just sew the button to close it and do not put button holes in.

 

Whalla....................you have a coffee cozy, but the most important part still needs to be done. CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!!

 

 

 

So now you have a coffee cozy. Hope you liked my tutorial and hope I didn't bore you too bad. :)  They actually are really easy once you have done it. They are kind of fun to make. I think they will make really nice small gifts like for teachers, stocking stuffers...you know....those kind of gifts.

 

 

Well off to finish the tote bags! Check out the new recipe I have for you too. You can make it for your Easter dinner. I make something similar to this...we call it "company potatoes" because we only make it when we have company. :) Thanks for coming and enjoy your week! :)

 

TEA STAINING TODAY

It is snowing again today (of course) and I don't want to go outside so I thought I would do some tea staining.  I need to work on some of the flour sack tea towels that I embroider so I need to have some tea stain towels.

I start with white 100% cotton flour sack towels. I get them from my local Joann's (love that store!).

First I boil a pot of water. Then I put about 8 tea bags in the water and let them steep for awhile.

Next I add the towels. Usually I put two in at a time. Then I start with letting them sit in the hot water for about 10 minutes to start with.

 

 

 

 

I have found out that it depends on the towel and how it is made as to how it will take the stain. Sometimes it stains really dark right away and sometimes it takes more than 10 minutes to darken. I have had some towels that almost never get dark at all.

Next, I put them in the dryer to dry. Some people say don't dry them in the dryer, but I have  and do not seem to have any trouble.

Then I take the towel and draw on the towel. These are my own designs so I have the pattern already drawn so I just trace the design on the towel.

 

 

 

 

Then I stitch the design on the towel and whalla.......a finished towel!

 

 

I really like doing hand stitching. I ususally work on this in the evening while I am sitting in my comfortable chair and supposedly watching TV.

 

Thanks for visiting and hope everyone has a great day!