I made this pillow for my mother in law. They love Christmas at their house and I thought a nice pillow would fit in well.

I found the pattern free on line and I believe it was a Crabapple Hill pattern but I can’t find my source. The ornament was embroidered first and then appliqued to the background. And then the background was embroidered. The pattern called for the rickrack and it makes the pillow, don’t you think?!

I was really in the mood to embroider after both of my surgeries this fall so this was the perfect project. I also embroidered  a pillow for my sister, but I forgot to take a picture and will try and get her to take one.

For Vivienne this Christmas, I decided to make the Dumpling Bag. This was a free pattern from Knitting Daily. I like Knitting Daily but they have evolved from mostly informational daily emails to just trying to sell you stuff. Occasionally they offer a good tutorial and a free pattern or two. This was one of them.

This is a felted bag and I used Cascade wool. I bought the yarn up at Close Knit on Alberta and they were very helpful. They had made the bag as a store sample and found that if you embroidered it before felting it like the pattern called for, the embroidery didn’t show up very well. They recommended waiting until afterwards so you could really see the embroidery. I went with their suggestion and was happy with the results. It’s a funny little bag and I know with felting you have to take what you get, but I wish the opening had been a bit bigger. I think it will be good for holding a yarn project or maybe going out somewhere special. Loved the variegated brown yarn.

More to come……………….

My plan for the retreat was to get as many of my planned homemade Christmas presents done as possible. The day after the retreat I had to go in for more surgery so I figured I better get as much done beforehand as I could. Here are a few pictures of some of the projects people were working on.

Melia made this Raggaty Ann doll for her granddaughter.

Instead of using bagged stuffing, Melia just cut up leftover pieces of batting. She had way too much fun chopping it up into little pieces, better than therapy if you need to get some angst out!

Joyce didn’t bring her machine this year and spent the whole time doing handwork. This is only one of the wonderful wool pieces she was working on. I wish I had a picture of the stuffed turkey she made because it was charming.

This is the railing in our cabin where we hung the tops we had finished. In the evenings we all hung out in the living room of the cabin knitting and doing handwork and laughing alot. It was very relaxing and rejuvenating. The weather was very rainy but there was enough of a break each day to get in a good hours walk. It was the perfect way to spend the last few days before going in the hospital. No stress, just fun and companionship. I’m going to have to remember this for the next time.

Deborah made these blocks. They are for a lovely star quilt for her father and his wife. Lucky them!

Vivienne made these two bowls as Christmas gifts. I just love them and must get back to making some. All the ones I’ve made before, I’ve given away. Next time, I’m making one to keep.

I will most likely be away from the blog until after Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday and enjoy yourself.

There is no date or name on the tablecloth so I have no idea who made it or when. I bought it in some antique mall when we lived in California and the woman who worked there had no idea where she got it. But no matter, it is loved and used now and I am ever grateful to the woman who made it.

Here are some close ups of a few of the blocks:

Here’s the promised tutorial on those Pyramid bags I posted a while back. (Actually, that was way back in the spring and I meant to do this post then. I took all the pictures and wrote the draft of the post. And then I forgot to post it. Oops! I can be a total space cadet sometimes.) I’ve tried to break the tutorial down into easy steps with good pictures, but if you’re confused, just leave me a note in the comments.

Step One: start with a piece of quilted fabric measuring 7 1/2″ by 12 1/2″ (I quilted a big hunk of fabric on my longarm and then cut it into the appropriate size) and  7″ zipper.

Step Two: Lay the zipper, right side down onto the right side of the fabric at one of the short ends of the rectangle.  I open the zipper first so it’s easier to sew.

Step Three: Close the zipper.

Step Four:  Place the other end of the rectangle, right side down, on top of the unsewn side of the zipper and pin it in place. Turn it over and stitch with the zipper showing.

Now you have a tube that looks like this:

Step Five: When you sew the ends of the tube closed, each end will be different. That’s what makes it a pyramid. First you sew the bottom end. You place right sides together and center the end of the zipper in the middle of one of the sides. If you want, you can insert a bead on a small piece of cording into the seam right under the zipper.

Step Six: Before sewing the top end of the bag, first open the zipper. Then, keeping right sides together, pin the tube closed with the zipper on one side, not centered like the other end. Sew.

Now turn your bag right sides out and you’re done!

Everyone got enough supplies to make two skulls. Suki taught the class and she is so great. There are two big tables in the classroom and everyone sat around talking and laughing while they stitched. It was a lot of fun.

Mom was so excited with her skulls that she decided to make a pumpkin when we got home. It turned out really cute.

Mom suggested making lots of small ornaments and having a Halloween tree. Sounds like a great idea to me! Collage also has a store on SE Woodstock now and they also do $5 Fridays. You can check out their class schedule on the link above. This coming Friday is Scrabble Tile Pendants. Sounds too good to pass up. See you there!

The other Halloween thing I finished this year was actually made in the spring. This was a little experiment of mine and I can’t remember if I ever blogged about it. It just needed to have the edges finished and then be framed. I used Terry Grants method for finishing the edges and I love the results. You can find the tutorial here. The frame was one I had lying around the house. I cut a piece of thicker, white paper for the background and then discreetly tacked the piece onto the paper in each corner. Voila! Done.

It turned out I had everything I needed right here and could just whip up the front. I love it when that happens. Now I need to put the bag together, but it will have to wait a week or two until I can rotary cut again. I guess I could cut out the pieces with scissors. Hum, how to cut out an accurate rectangle without a rotary cutter and a ruler? Surely I can remember how!

I’ve finished the four smaller blocks that are on the sides:

And I’ve almost finished the big one in the center

I was hoping the get this done by Halloween this year but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m going to keep at it though so next year I won’t work myself silly the month before Halloween trying to finish it. My goal is to finish by the end of 2010. I think that’s reasonable!

Everyone one picked very different colors and I love them all.

In our previous tuffet class, one of the students had shared an article from Quilters Home that featured a square tuffet. I decided to make one to match the new loveseat in our TV room. I used some old upholstry fabrics that were leftover from this and that. The sewing and stapling of the cover were a bit more difficult than the round one, but I am satisfied with the result.

And it looks great with our new red loveseat.

I want to change the curtains and I think this room will be done. Although is a room ever really done? Not for me. There is always something that needs to be tweaked or pictures that need to be swapped. I like my house to change to keep it interesting. Anyhoooo, very fun project.

I mean, I’ve been sewing for a gazillion years and even though I don’t sew a lot of clothes these days, for some reason I felt pretty confident that I could figure this out. Well, it took several yards of muslin and a lot of tracing paper, but I now have a dress that looks just like that picture, only blue. I must say that I’m pretty pleased with myself!

How did I do it? Well, I bought the fabric at Josephine’s here in downtown Portland. It’s a beautiful cotton voile. The gals who own the store are so knowledgable about their fabrics and garment sewing. I showed them the picture and they recommended this New Look pattern as a starting point.

The New Look pattern got me the gathered bit in the center of the bodice. I still had to add gathered rectangles of fabric to get the section above the lace.  I wanted the dress to be high up on the neck in the back with a center zipper so I needed a different pattern to get that part.

I also had the challenge of the armhole. The dress in the original advertisement has sleeves. They are little cap sleeves but they are definitely set in as a separate sleeve. So I needed a pattern that would get me an armhole. The Prairie Girl pattern by Favorite Things got me the back and the armhole curve and it also has a similar sleeve to the dress in the advertisement.  I used tracing paper and just kind of melded the  patterns together. I would make a muslin, try it on, pin in any alterations, see how it fit, trace a new pattern with the changes, and so on, until I got it just right. It was quite the process.  When I got the pattern just right, I realized that I needed to line the dress because the voile is very sheer. OMG! I felt like I needed an engineering degree to sew the dress together.

It was a long process, but I enjoyed the challenge quite a bit. I’m going to wear the dress this weekend to a dinner party. Nobody there sews but it will make me smile to know I did it.

I’ve already bought another voile and am going to try and tackle this dress next. I’m a woman obsessed.

Many thanks to darling daughter for the great photographs and the awesome new header for this blog. She is so talented!