Sewing room redo

I spent all day yesterday in my sewing room, but I didn't sew a thing. I was cleaning and reorganizing everything.

The closet, all my tubs and storage bins, even the bookshelf. I still have a little work to do before the transformation is complete and right now there are several piles of laundry on the floor that need to be finished before I can take photos.

But I will share one very cute part that I added to create a place to display some of the antique notions and pin cushions I've collected. I found this shelf at Goodwill for $9. It wasn't in the best of shape, but a little dusting and elbow grease had it looking good as new.

Paper piecing is great for beginner quilters

I taught my first quilt class last Saturday on paper piecing.

I love this quilting method because it allows you to get really sharp points without templates or insanely accurate quarter-inch seams. It's kind of like sewing by numbers and its really easy once you get the hang of it.

I was teaching the class because I'm in charge of designing a tree for the Festival of Trees. It's going to be filled with ornaments made from fabric. The hope is that if more people know how to make paper pieced Christmas ornaments, hopefully I won't have to make them all myself this November.

Here's the blocks my students came up with. They did a great job for beginners.

 

 

How to use saved searches on ebay

I love ebay. It's a great place to find just about anything you're looking for including antique quilts and sewing notions.

But what I don't love is browsing through pages of listings for items that may, or may not meet my criteria. Enter the saved search, which sends new listings directly to your e-mail in a daily digest so you'll never miss out on an awesome purchase.

Here's how to set one up: Search for the item you're dying to have. Make it as specific or general as you want. Then hit the "Save search" link, which is circled in red on the image below.

A new window will pop up that will allow you to name the search and have new listings sent to your e-mail once a day.

If you ever need to edit your saved search preferences, just go to the saved searches portion in "My ebay." That's all there is to it.

Quilted placemat tutorial - Part 2

This video was originally produced for the Home Rookies blog, which Stephanie writes for her day job at a daily newspaper.


For fabric requirements and part 1, click here.

Quilted placemat tutorial - Part 1

This video was originally produced for the Home Rookies blog, which Stephanie writes for her day job at a daily newspaper.

Fabric requirements

1 fabric panel with square images measuring at least 6 1/2 inches wide for the placemat center*

1 1/4 yards of white fireworks fabric*

3/4 of a yard of dark blue and red star fabric*

1 3/4 yards of flag stripe fabric*

3-by-4-foot piece of batting*

* Makes four placemats

For each placemat, cut:

1 - 6 1/2-inch square from the panel

2 - 3-by-6 1/2-inch rectangles of white fireworks fabric

2 - 3-by-11 1/2-inch rectangles of white fireworks fabric

2 - 1 1/2-by-10-inch strips of blue and red star fabric

2 - 3 1/2-by-10 inch strips from flag stripe fabric

1 - 2 1/2-inch strip by the width of the blue and red star fabric

2 - 1 1/2-by-14-inch strips of blue and red star fabric

1 - 18-by-24-inch piece of batting

1 - 18-by-24-inch piece of flag stripe fabric

2 - 2 1/2-inch strips by the width of the white fireworks fabric