I ran across Virginia Lindsay’s book “Sewing to Sell” at the library and instantly fell in love with her style and fabric combinations. (You can find her website at Gingercake.org) I love all the fabulous projects she shares because they are the kinds of ideas I love to sew and they are at a similar skill level as I am. She also shows how to get the most out of your fabric. (I have a thing about using fabric efficiently and am always resizing my patterns to have the least amount of scraps!) She has drawings of how…
As the school year is finishing up for my kids and I’m helping them make their lunches, I think about all plastic sandwich bags we’ve used and wonder how could I make reusable lunch bags. Before you think about the potential of ickiness with kids / food / reusing bags, think of cleaning them as you do the kids’ lunch bags. Either turning them inside out and rinsing with soapy water and drying, or run them through the wash. The pattern I created uses French seams to help avoid food from getting caught in fabric folds. I also don’t…
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms! While celebrating with my mom this year, I remembered a gift I had given to her a couple years ago – a small quilted wall hanging that hangs in her bedroom. It celebrates her gift of love to me, and my appreciation for all that she has taught me. The design sprang from using triangle scraps from another project. I couldn’t let myself throw out these beautiful batik and cream triangles all neatly stacked up, so I sewed them together and saved them as strips. I began with the two…
Over the past five years I have been involved with our church craft group and have sewn many fun and beautiful projects to sell at our church holiday bazaar. It has been a wonderful experience to get to know other crafty ladies from the church, and a great way to support non-profit groups in our community with profits from the bazaar. These little wall hangings that feature our church cross, the church façade, or even a favorite Bible verse are successful sellers. They can also be made as any kind of personalized gift for family, friends, and teachers…