Be my Valentine

During the January AuSable Quilt Guild meeting we had Nancy from OOO la la quilt shop demonstrate how to make fabric Valentine postcards that can actually be mailed through the postoffice.  The theme Valentine was selected since this is the upcoming popular card giving holiday.  Participants decided to randomly pick a members name and mail them one of our postcard Valentines.

I've always loved Valentine's Day for the fun and cheesy greetings.  In elementary school I would read my Valentines over and over and sometimes hoping that the boy I had a crush on sent me a special message.

Going through the Trash to Treasure tote I found a few printed fabrics that inspired me to pen a little Valentine saying on my creations.  Again, in my opinion, the cheesier the better.

I made eight postcards, four will be mailed.  The others I added a ribbon to tie the postcard to a candy treat bag.  Here is my Valentines'

The backs include a little saying and  Happy Valentine's Day.  Just like postcards you purchase from the store they are 4" by 6" and have a divide line between the address and the message.

I will be mailing the mailed postcards at the end of this week hoping that it will be plenty of time to reach their destination before the holiday. They have to be hand processed at the postoffice and cost quite a bit more to mail.  

This was a quick and fun little project and I look forward to future opportunities to send a special custom greeting for birthdays, Easter, Halloween, etc. to family or friends.

I'm currently finishing up my second Idea Challenge "Baskets" project.  My goal is to have it ready for Shoe and Tell at the next guild meeting in February.

Perfect weather for baking

One of the Christmas gifts I made this year was denim oven mitts.  I made two pair, but that evidently wasn't enough.  I now have requests for two more pair.

The first pair will be made with the blue denim as previously made.  The second pair will be made of black denim.  The black denim will go great with my sisters farmhouse decor of reds, blacks and grey.

Although it is a simple pattern with only two pieces, the charm comes in the details that can be used from old jeans.  No two mitts come out exactly the same.   Just like no two brand of jeans are the same.  I love using the top pockets and the actual waistband in the construction.   When I say simple,  the simplicity is in the amount of pattern pieces used to assemble.  The hardest part is taking the jean apart to reuse.   

This was to be a quick sew and I'd be back on track to my current sewing project.  Making two pair of mitts took me all day.  Unrealistically, I was thinking they'd take a couple hours.  Hahaha. But it certainly feels good using up some of my stash of used jeans.  It's like spring cleaning.  

Our weather has been blistering cold.  Perfect weather for baking.  I need to get these oven mitts off to their new owners.  With our temperature low of -16 and daytime high 2, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing than sewing. Well maybe baking, but I've been doing that in-between.

Remembering my word "focus",  I'm back on track to my current project.

Cotton Blossoms

One of the classes our quilt guild offered was appliqué.  Although I've done a couple appliquéd pieces in the past I was interested in learning some pointers and possibly a new technique.  Unfortunately, the day the teacher offered the class I was unable to attend.

The appliqué technique I've used in the past was a blanket stitch or a satin zig zag stitch on my sewing machine.  Determined to try a new technique, a book by Kim Diehl called "Simple Whatnots II" caught my interest.

Of all the patterns offered in this book wouldn't you know the Log Cabin background appealed to me, called Cotton Blossoms.  I'm in a Log Cabin rut lately.  This is a wallhanging measuring 24 1/2" by 24 1/2".  

I added this wallhanging to my current UFO list, #6.  In November UFO # 6 was picked.  It was time to get serious about Kim Diehl's spin on appliqué.  Being a wallhanging my thought was this would be a simple and quick project.  A good start on my UFO list, especially since we're coming into the holidays. 

I quickly gathered fabrics from my stash.  The Log Cabin background went together rather quickly.  Now the appliquéd section certainly slowed me down with all these tiny pieces.  I followed the directions, which I must say were easy and thorough.  

I wasn't too sure about her technique of appliquéing with invisible thread.  But it was a snap, you can't see the thread and I'm sold.   Now that I have her technique somewhat conquered, I'm excited to tackle another one of her patterns from this book.

I still need to finish by making a hanger on the back so it can be proudly displayed on my wall.

This was a win, win, win project.  I learned a new appliqué technique, I completed UFO #6 and it was all made from my stash fabrics.  I'm off to a great start this year.

There's more waiting on my list to conquer.  Be back soon!

Bees bags

In the past I've made beeswax wraps in an effort to use less plastic.  They've worked great wrapping up some foods and covering glass bowls.  Mostly I've used them for sandwich wraps.  And then I had this great idea!  

With all the totes I've been making to replace plastic grocery bags, why not make beeswax sandwich bags?  I know I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but I thought of this while I was wrapping my sandwich with one of my flat wraps.  How much more convenient to just drop your food in a bag.  Thus, I got busy making bees bags!

To make I measured and copied the size of a plastic sandwich bag adding seam allowances.  My finished size sandwich bag is 8" by 9 1/2".  The little smaller snack bag is 5 1/2" by 8".

For the sandwich size I cut an 8 1/2" by 19" piece of cotton fabric.  The snack size bag was cut to 6" by 16".  Then the process is very similar to the flat wraps.  Using a melted mixture of natural beeswax, jojoba oil and natural pine resin, I infused the desired size of fabric.  After the fabric cooled I folded it in half, sewed up the sides and boxed the bottom.  I used pinking shears to trim all raw edges to help keep the fabric from fraying.  With the boxed bottoms they can even stand up and it also helps keep the contents from getting squished.

My past wraps were made in 2019  and they still work.  To clean, I simply rinse or wipe them down, but always careful not to put them into too hot of water that would melt the wax off.

I'm already thinking that I should make larger bags for refrigerator storage such as cheese.

I'm busy as a bee finishing up a couple more projects.  I'll be back soon.

Reflecting back on 2024

 I woke up this morning excited to start this new year.  Lots of ideas on where to start are buzzing through my head, but I remember my word for 2025 is "focus".

I looked back at my UFOs and felt I slagged behind, so out of curiosity I started reflecting back on my accomplishments in 2024.  I spent some time this morning reviewing my blogs to remind myself just what did I accomplish.  And boy did it fill my heart with joy!  I actually accomplished so much more than I remembered - 128 items that were posted.  I couldn't believe I was that successful.  And that was only what I posted.  I guess you can say I was a sewing wonder.  

Most of my projects were gifted or donated to others.  I guess that's why I still have these UFOs to contend with, they are my personal projects.  With these personal projects fresh in my mind I decided that's where to begin.

I'm here to make a difference!   So it's time to let this journey begin.

Hello 2025