Simple channel quilt project brings midwinter comfort

 Like many, I’ve had a hankering for clearing out closets again. It somehow feels like a good time of year for de-cluttering, because we’re spending a lot more time indoors anyway.

 

Enter the fabric collection.

 My sewing closet is like the poster child of over-accumulation. (I worked my way through graduate school by measuring and cutting and ringing up fabrics for sewing enthusiasts. That included a generous employee discount and early access to the best deals. You can do the math from there.)

 During the pandemic-prompted season/s of mask-making (beginning in March 2020), I used up plenty of piles of fabrics. But I still had lots of remnants. I’d also cut and prepared miles of bias trim in tons of prints and colors. Plus, I had several leftover lengths of jelly-roll fabrics (pre-made bias trims in fun fabrics for quilting and other textile crafts).

 After stowing all the Christmas decorations and tree trims, I was itching to start a new project.

 Here’s how that turned out.

 

 This simple, but wildly colorful channel quilt now covers the bed in my home office/guest room. I really love it.

 Don’t look too closely at the top-stitching. I wrestled the bulky coverlet through my basic sewing machine. And it was a workout.

 But I think it’s worth it. This crazy collection of colorful fabrics makes a cozy covering for midwinter reading and for binging on TV streaming offerings when the weather runs too harsh for outdoor fun.

 

Related Items:

·        Christmas usually has me in stitches

·        Maskmaker, Maskmaker - 1,000+ masks made

·        Quilting makes me calm, except when it doesn’t.

 

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Tiny treasures rock my socks at Christmas

 

STOCKINGS – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

This pair of framed miniature needlepoint stockings has been in our family for five generations. The crafter who created them has been gone for more than 25 years, but these tiny treasures bring her to mind each December.

 That’s sort of the point.

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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Mrs. Santa’s been horsing around in her workshop again

 

GIFTS – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

Printed ponies prance all over the little Christmas tree in my home office. They can also be found in close to 20 already wrapped holiday gifts for various special people. (Ssh! Don’t tell!). I have three more to make before packing away my roughly drawn pattern, my Christmas fabrics, and my sewing notions.

 

 The gift list includes all of the young adults who feed horses, muck stalls, and do other chores at the stables where my horse lives. Additional recipients include our dog groomer, my hairstylist, and a couple of gym pals (who are also horse lovers), as well as my kids.

 Each pony is different because of the fabrics I used for their bodies and their manes & tails. 

  Hopefully, these little home-sewn horses will be enjoyed in all of the homes where they land for  many years to come.

 

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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Christmas usually has me in stitches

 

 HOMEMADE – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

The skill of sewing has been passed down for many generations in my family. My grandmother was an excellent seamstress. She created hand-smocked dresses each Christmas for me and my sister and all of our female cousins. Learning at her side, my mother went on to teach me to sew. Eventually, I landed a job in a fabric store, sewing my way through part of college and graduate school.

 Christmastime is one of my favorite times to stitch up new projects. From handmade ornaments to holiday quilts, from stick ponies to stuffed animals, and from table runners to tailored clothing, I’ve sewn through miles of Christmas fabric over the years. 

 

 My favorite Christmas tree skirt is pictured here. Initially, I created it for an in-shop display at the fabric store where I was employed. That meant I could take it home for keeps after that holiday season. That was more than 40 years ago.

 It’s held up to lots of laundering … and even some kitty love.

 Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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Quilting makes me calm, except when it doesn’t.

 CALM - - for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

Hobbies are soothing. At least, they are supposed to be.

 Generally, I love creating quilts. I tend to keep them simple, sticking to basic patterns and using lots of squares, rectangles, triangles, and strips. I assemble my quilts by stitching them up on my sewing machine, rather than by hand. And I frequently yarn-tie them, rather than quilting through the many layers.

 This Christmas season, I decided to whittle down my holiday fabric remnant collection by putting together a fun and festive quilt. I enjoyed creating the many squares and strips, using my rotary cutter and cutting board. I took my time sorting and setting out the color and design patterns before sewing the whole cover arrangement.

 

What fun!

 Then it was time to create the “quilt sandwich” and top-stitch through the layers (for loft and durability).

 

That’s where fun became not-so-much.

 I pinned the quilt (poking straight pins through all layers) edge and corner and at every intersection of every fabric piece. 

Then I wrestled it through my traditional sewing machine for hours and hours. These stretched into days and weeks, as my patience frayed more than an unfinished hemline.

 As my smartphone piped cheery holiday music into my basement workshop, I piped up at my sewing machine with less-than cheery vernacular.

 At last, I came to the end of the last top-stitched line of quilting. I tried to stitch-in-the-ditch, but occasionally missed the mark a bit, wrangling the bulky project.

 

The next (and final) step is to wash and dry the completed quilt.

 This will puff it up (making it fluffy and concealing where my top-stitching might not be exactly straight), while also removing multiple bloodstains on the back side, where my pin-pricked fingers soiled the fabric.

 I’m just grateful that I finished – and that I didn’t opt to make this one a full bed-sized quilt! And I’m thankful that I have a pair of compression gloves to relieve my sore hands and wrists.

 After the dryer cycle completes, I’m likely to be calm again, curling up with a cozy Christmas quilt and a good novel. 

And maybe I'll nod off with visions of long-armed sewing machines, rather than sugarplums. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

 

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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Maskmaker, Maskmaker - 1,000+ masks made

How have you spent the “safer-at-home,” “shut-in,” “corona-quarantine,” or otherwise named stay-at-home season during the period of heightened global COVID-19 health concern?

I’ve been making mask after mask after mask. So far, my personal mask-sewing endeavor has produced 1,000+ masks. Recipients have included emergency responders, medical professionals, nursing home staffs and residents, high-risk populations (mostly locally), colleagues, book group members, family, friends, and various professionals (such as the postal carrier, hairstylist, FedEx drivers, and coworkers).

Where did I find the fabrics and supplies?  I went through hundreds of yards of personal fabric. OK, I may have been something of a hoarder over the years. I’m still an avid sewer, it started early in my life. My grandmother and mother both sewed, so I learned from the best. And I put myself through graduate school by working in a fabric store, where I handily applied my employee discount to plenty of yardages of pretty textiles.

Sewing my way through my fabric stash, I even cut up some cotton sheets, a few sets of cotton curtains, and some fancy leftover cotton decorator fabric from our past residence. Hey, it doesn’t match this house, so why not use it?

Fabric designs vary with my supplies.

Once my own fabric collection dwindled, turning into fabric masks, I was blessed by a few donations from friends. One pal, who recently retired from a nursing home career, even passed along several of her own scrubs, which I cut up and sewed into cloth masks for community needs.

What styles of masks have I made? I started with a mask pattern offered by Froedtert Hospital / The Medical College of Wisconsin. This tie-style mask is easily sterilized and holds up to countless washings. Eventually, I began making the Deaconness Hospital style of mask, which as ties affixed to each side. Both the Froedtert and Deaconness masks featured horizontal pleats (see below). By special request, I also made several cloth masks with elastic ear loops, although these do not usually last through hundreds of washings. But for basic non-professional everyday use, they fit the bill fine.

Two different mask styles with pleats & ties.

Where did my masks go? Many of the masks I made went directly to charitable organizations. I gave boxes and bags filled with freshly sewn masks to a local grassroots group that was collecting and distributing them locally. We even stood in a parking lot one rainy spring day to hand out fabric masks for adults and kids to families lined up in the cars for our city’s free school lunch program. (Because schools were closed for the last few months of the academic year, such practices have arisen all over town to meet many families’ nutritional needs.)

Eventually, I began placing a big basket of home-sewn fabric masks by my front door, so folks could stop by and pick out their favorites. A few people left something to help with material costs, keeping me sewing. Some left a yard or so of fabric. A couple left spools of thread.

Will people continue to wear masks out and about? Folks are debating the wearing of masks, but many businesses still require masks for entry to their premises. Even those who don’t feel they are fully on-board with the whole mask thing are finding the need to obtain masks for access to several spots in their communities (perhaps even their workplaces). As long as folks continue to request sewn masks, I will try to keep making them, and I have a small inventory ready to go now.  (Need a cloth mask, or even a small quantity of them? Email me for info. Masks are $10 shipped - Continental US only. Solely PayPal. Fabric designs vary, as these fly out quickly after I finish them.)

Overall, though, I have certainly scaled back in the past couple of weeks. During the heat of the closed-in crisis, I was sewing 50-60 masks daily, with two sewing machines loaded and at-the-ready. That’s a little tough to sustain, as my professional and personal responsibilities are returning to a normal level these days.

After all of this mask-making, I guess I’m qualified to drink from this fun mug from CafePress. (Full disclosure: OK, I created this imprint and wrote the poem. It also comes on tees, tops, caps, cups, magnets, and more. And I get a small commission from any orders.) Anyway, I just ordered it, and I hope it arrives soon.

Image/s:

Personal photos – all rights reserved

Product promo photo – fair use

Feel free to follow on Google Plus and Twitter. Like this blog?  Check out Practically at Home on Facebook. You are invited to visit my author page on Amazon.com.