Zipper Pouches

I have made a tubful of zipper pouches. This pouch was the project for October's Software Inspiration from Bernina.  I thought it had a great design and the Frond fabric makes it extra special.  The entire pouch is stitched in the hoop--even the zipper.  I love the zippers from byannie. The zippers come by the yard and you can order any color of zipper pulls.  When I was in Houston at quilt market, I purchased two groups of bright colored pulls. So I was able to match the zipper to the fabric.  She also has colored zippers but I had 4 yards of the black and of the white for this project. The pouches are stitched with batting between the outside fabric and the lining fabric. 

Eyeglass Quilts

Last week I purchased a book called Ready, Set, Serge by Georgie Melot. I had seen her on Sewing with Nancy when she was demonstrating how to make easy serger projects. Two projects caught me eye--an eyeglass case and a cosmetic bag. I just had to order the book because I could not get the directions to work out in my mind. Just too many turns and so had to have a little more help than the TV program.

This is the collection of eyeglass quilts (cases) that I have made. They are just so easy and the ones without piping take about 10 minutes. It does take a few minutes longer to put on the piping. They are just fun to make, can be made with two 8-inch squares of fabric and batting, and make great little gifts. I used my serger but they can easily be made with a sewing machine.

A quilting friend and I had our own quilty retreat last week on Friday and Saturday. We made some of the eyeglass quilts, some 4-sided placemats with piping, and a credit card holder. We had such fun, worked on several projects, and shared our quilts.

My Bernina's "check engine" light came on yesterday. I saw the wrench and screwdriver which means it needs to go to the technician for its checkup. So I had it tuned up and it is ready for another couple of years of dedicated service.

Machine Embroidery Lesson

Today Elaine and I went to Topeka to the Bernina dealer for T-N-T 2008 or embroidery tips and techniques. The class was taught by Kevin, a Bernina educator. He was quite knowledgeable about the machines and the techniques, but his delivery was hard for me to attend to for six hours. There were a lot of colorful, maybe off-color, statements between him and the more youthful members of the audience. We sat with three other ladies at the machines to complete the embroidery techniques. One of my tablemates and one at the next table were friends and spent a great deal of time talking very loudly to each other. My ears are not as good as they were when I was younger, so I have to listen carefully to hear someone at the front of the room. It was fun to meet some new embroidery friends, see Joan and Suzy--old friends, have a few times during the day to check out new fabrics and patterns, and get some new embroidery ideas.

I enjoyed knowing more about the Bernina 640 that was at our table, found out some new techniques, and learned about several new-to-me products--like 606 a permanent spray used in machine applique and aquamesh plus. One new idea was to embroidery the tops of tall boots. The secret is to find a boot that has a zipper the goes into the arch area so the top can be flattened for embroidery and the bottom of the boot must be held during embroidering. One of the patterns used on towels was a mola design. They looked great on the towels. One suggestion was to do test-stitchouts on felt because it is so cheap and if it distorts, the design needs some work. We did get a CD of the three embroidery projects. One project was started with fabric paints and then had embroidery added--it was only a discussion project because it takes 12 hours for the paint to dry. I would rather have had a hand-on project.

It is always fun to have new ideas to think about.

Sewing and Sewing

Last week at Bernina sewing group our project was a kitchen towel with prairie points. I brought the project home to make. It will make a nice small gift for someone.

I have been busy for a couple of days with making Christmas presents. So I am sorry to say you will get no clues and no pictures for a while because my grandkids may be reading my blog. Most of the things I have been doing are either embroidery or serging. I love both.

One of the tools I have been using is electric scissors from Black and Decker. It is my tool of choice to cut around pattern pieces. I am cutting up an old quilt and they make the task very easy. I bought them for $10 at Lowes last year. They usually go on sale after Christmas.