{Post 1,187} New Hand-Sewing Project

I am devoting my sewing time to finishing the string shirt borders on my Squares Surrounded quilt top.  Making great progress.  I have a pile of small shirt scraps.  Then.  it.  happened.  I sewed this:

Every dark scrap was the perfect size.  Really.  It was meant to be.

{Post 1,187} Mercury Glass Project (DIY from tutorial)

I usually ignore trendy things.  Intentionally.

My daughter's piano teacher has some mercury glass in her dining room.  I sit by it and stitch while Rachel has her lesson.  I got to where I like it!  After reading a couple tutorials, I decided to give it a try today on some items I was going to put in our garage sale Saturday.  I figured if they didn't turn out, to the GS they go.  

I practiced on a quilted pint-size canning jar.  No, I didn't quilt it.  There was a beveled glass pattern years ago that was called quilted.  I didn't see any stitches myself.

The only good picture I got was of my heart-shaped clear glass candy dish.  Here it is.  I am holding it upside down in the photo.

There are a multitude of tutorials out there.  Here is what I did, and it worked for me.  I used my spray bottle filled with water that I normally keep on my ironing board.  Set it as a fine mist.  Spray the outsides of the item if food or plants will ever be in it.  Since this is a candy dish, that's what I did.  Shake up your Looking Glass spray paint (I got mine at Wal-mart although no one else I read about apparently could find it there).  While the glass is wet, spray light coats of the paint.  Have some paper napkins or towels nearby to break the water bubbles under the coat of paint.  It dries really quickly.  Add more coats if it's not as reflective as you would like.

To make it easy to turn the item being sprayed w/o touching it, I put a 6" (cube-shaped) cardboard box on my craft table with an ice cream bucket lid on it.  I set the item on the lid and used the box to turn the project until it was sprayed all over.

PS:  This is being added later (6/20/13).  Every tutorial I saw except one said to spray the paint on and then the water.  I could not see how the bubbles would appear.  With this spray-the-water-first method, the paint coats the water bubbles.  When you break the bubbles with a paper towel or napkin, the "spots" appear.  Made sense to me, and that's what I did.  Your mileage may vary.  :)

{Post 1,186} Pumpkin Patch Top

This is a top I started today.  I am about to list it on eBay.  It measures 48-1/2" wide by 60-1/2" tall.  The original pattern has a 1" finished then a 4" finished border.  

{Post 1,185} Quick Project

I had seen these little bags on Pinterest.  They are on my sewing board if you are interested.  I thought my girls (especially Rachel, my self-named Hunny Bunny) would like them for traveling.  You know--to keep things (unders) together in the ole suitcase.  Rachel is going to two camps and a couple shorter trips this summer.  

I made these two tonight in about 15 minutes each.  The first one was slower because I was reading directions!

They measure about 12" wide and 10-1/2" tall.  My mom bought me the mesh at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  We don't have one anywhere near where I live, but there's one close to her.  It also comes in black.  A yard will make 6 bags.

If you make one of these, here's what I found out...the mesh is super easy to work with, easy to secure with pins, did not stretch much.  All those things are contrary to what the directions indicated.  Just don't pull on it (there's no reason).  I see more of these in my future!  When putting the binding on the sides, sew it to the back and pull it around to the front to topstitch.  Voila!

{Post 1,184} It Figures!

When I went to the Landrum, SC quilt show a couple days ago, I bought a few FQs for my Grandmother's Flower Garden.  One was a PERFECT green to accent my dark Thimbleberries greens.  So why was I still surprised to see this when I cut off the selvage?

Thimbleberries--I am drawn to them.  :)

{Post 1,183} New Camera!!!

My new camera came today.  It is smaller and thinner than my old one, which seemed small to me.  

Here is my first picture.  I have my computer at the kitchen table, so I just looked to the left and snapped.  It's the corner of my current kitchen quilt...a quilt whose name I can't remember by Little Quilts.  I think it's called Homecoming.

Here's the whole thing, also with the new camera.  I was lazy and didn't stand up.  I just leaned over the kitchen table.  The camera really captures the true color of my kitchen walls.

My dad recommended this camera.  Thanks, Dad.  You were right again!  OH, how I would love to hear MY children say that to me!!!

{Post 1,182} Swapping Blocks? Shirts Abound!

My e-friend, Ruth, mentioned she was going to make a Virginia Bound (and take the class with Bonnie Hunter).  It got me to thinking...would anyone want to swap a set of 4 blocks for this quilt with me?  By blocks, I mean 4 units sewn together like this.  In other words, 4 of these:

If you do, let me know!  We can set up a deadline in the future, maybe September 1 ??  I love doing swaps with people I "know", even if we've never met in person.

~Joan