Pencil boxes and more little animals

I finished the 3rd pencil box, the one on the left. The green one is made from my favorite fabric but I put in one part of the snap wrong. The one on the far right has a wonky zipper.

I am happy with how the 3rd one turned out. The lining fabric has state shapes. Mississippi is there in the corner. I included some Mississippi pencils, a pair of scissors, and washable markers and mailed them to Liam in NYC. He starts kindergarten Tuesday. Hope he makes lots of new friends.

While I was fussing with the pencil boxes the messed up snap came off box #1. Now I can replace the snap and my favorite pencil box will be ready for another kindergartner.

I have found a quick sewing project to do while watching TV.

I trace the pattern on white fabric using a washable marker.

Then I stitch over the design.

The designs came from this book I bought last summer in Savannah.

When the sewing is complete, I get the marker out by washing the fabric in diluted Dawn dish liquid.

I haven't decided how to use these cute little critters. 

Glad to have Amanda Jean back for link ups today!

Little Projects

Tried out some hand sewing with this little blue bird. 

I used white cotton fabric leftover from a quilting project.

Traced the pattern with washable blue marker.

Used perl cotton thread and a sharp tapestry needle. I know that was wrong needle and maybe the wrong thread but I wanted to get started with what I had on hand.

It took several washes and some Dawn dish detergent to get the blue marker to wash out.

Other little projects include flannel receiving blankets made with fabric from a new store in Memphis.

The great thing is the new store is down the road from a fabric shop I visit whenever I go to see grandbaby Ava.

Not much sewing time lately with air conditioning out all last week end. I was too hot to concentrate on anything. After teaching I usually relax by reading and watching TV.

The little bird was such a quick finish I may try some more hand embroidery.

What are you working on?

Saturday Sewing

As soon as I saw the Zola Pen Case I had to make one (some). But I didn't have all the necessary supplies. A week ago Stitch N Frame had their Christmas in July sale and I found a snap setter for a great price. Then I ordered 18" zippers from my favorite zipper supplier, Zipit. The zippers were delivered yesterday. I was ready to get sewing.

Above is my first attempt. 

I did some other sewing, too. I am continuing to make soup bowl cozies. At the sale I bought some sweet flannel and today I made a receiving blanket to add to my stash of baby gifts.

A few more pictures of the pencil case.

The outside is some of my favorite fabric. There's only a little of it left.

The ends of the case are so cute.

All of today's sewing.

In other news, I organized my scraps and smaller lengths of fabric. I love being organized.

There may be time left in the weekend to make another pencil case.

What do you think?

Opps! posted on wrong blog

Hi Ya'll. I just posted about my sewing on my other blog.
Hop over there to see my recent sewing progress.
Here it is. sorry about that.

Wool Felt Applique

This summer I haven't done much sewing or quilting even though I have lots of unfinished projects and a list of ideas I want to try.

But I have had time to do some hand sewing a few times when I joined a group at the local library who get together to sew every other week for a couple of hours.

I finished the leaves on this wool felt piece I started in June, 2016. I may get this finished this year if I continue working on it in spare moments.

Last week we drove to Orlando - 12 hours in the car!

Last year my students and I read about the manatees in Florida. I really wanted to see some. We went to Homasassa Springs State Park where they care for injured manatees. The water is very clear so we were able to see this one. It is huge!

We crossed this bridge on our way to St. Pete.

A view of the water at the state park. So calm and peaceful.

(It was very hot-humid, too.)

That's all I've got this Friday. 

How was your week?

Transferring lessons from hand applique class

A few weeks ago I took a hand applique class because, you know, I hate applique. It's gonna take a lot of practice to be an adequate hand appliquer. But I am using some of the lessons I learned with my row-by-row applique leftover from 2015.

Above is one section machine appliqued.

What I used from hand applique is tacking down the pieces with a long machine basting stitch instead of using any fused material or glue.

One out of four done and I really like the look and feel.

For my finish- 

my old standby giant 9 patch.

The center is Meet the Royals and the other sections are from the same fabric manufacturer.

I used a favorite multicolored floral on the back. The quilting is simple diagonals. I didn't mark any lines, just sewed in semi-straight lines.

Two weeks ago we had this bunch and a few more over for good-bye supper for Liam and David.

Loved having them. Hope to have them over again when the boys visit next summer.

So many ideas and so little time.

Elastic finishes

Okay, okay. I've posted about these baby clothes a lot.

But I finally got the measurements for the waist and legs.

The knit leggings were super easy and I will make this pattern again.

I used a bit of the selvedge to indicate the back of the pants.

The little ruffled bloomers looked so cute finished.

Unfortunately, the bloomers were too big for little girl. I have more of the blue flowers so I may make another top when she grows into the bottoms.

That's all for this pattern. I plan to work on some row by row strips.

Thanks to Amanda Jean for leaving her link open longer.