Tea cup pincushion

So after yesterdays post and of course now having my Accuquilt Go! Baby for one week, this morning I felt the need to complete a project.  I definitely don't want to have won this great fabric cutter in vain, and not put it to use. So I decided to make an itty bitty mini quilt for a pincushion (I got to start small. Plus I got 17 of these great vintage Anchor Hocking milk glass cups for $4.99, see here).

I'm utterly amazed how quilters make whole quilts using small squares.  It's definitely time consuming.  This project only took 25 2" squares and it seemed to take forever, but then again I was taking my time since I'm new to this thing called quilting.

I have to say I was quiet pleased on the outcome of the square, but a little disappointed that a lot of the work was covered up once I converted it to a pincushion.  I knew that most of the squares were gonna be tucked inside the cup, but I wanted to see more of the pattern, not only 9 out of the 25.  Humph...oh well.  

 

Note to self: Next time use a wide boarder for the edge of the quilt and only 9 squares in the center.  This will reduce the amount of work for the pincushion.

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Small zipper issues

Ugh!  I don't know what's wrong with me.  For the life of me I can't seem to sew the zippers correctly for a small coin purse.  AHHHH!!  I've made several and they all seem off. 

Since I dove in and cut into my first set of vintage sheets (late last week for the apron giveaway) I've been attempting to make some coin purses from the same set of sheets.  For the price I figure it's good practice fabric, and there is just so much of it. 

You can't see it here, but the green one has a gap where I failed to cover the zipper opening, and the top right one doesn't zip close all the way.  :-(

Ok back to my issue.  I think my issue is that the zippers are 4" zippers.  I've gone through about a dozen tutorials, which are all similar one way or another and the finished product looks clean and finished (in the tutorials), but my end results are ..... uh wonky? Plus the tutorials use zippers that are much longer then cut them down. Maybe that's my solution.... use much longer zippers.

See the top left one...the zipper is bowing.  The blue one you can see that the fabric is puckered at the corner.

I didn't have any issues with a 9" zipper.  Look at the cute little purse I made out of half a place mat.  The zipper was easy to install and the whole project was super quick.  So why can't the small coin purse be the same?

Place mat purse.  There is the whole place mat, the other half is cut up and ready to make another one, and my finished purse.

You can see the reverse side of the mat inside of the purse. 

This place mat purse was inspired by another purse I have that I love to use on the weekends.  Especially if we are going to festivals or open air markets.  Big enough for my phone, cash, keys, the occasional small purchase or water bottle.  When out with my kids I prefer a purse that I can wear that crosses over my chest.  This way I have both hands free, and not have to worry about putting my purse down and forgetting it somewhere. 

My inspiration purse.
(I had a hard time getting the camera to focus on all these pics...I'm just having issues all around.)

Wow! Talk about easily distracted...I'm wanting to complain about my 4" zipper issues and then get off track.  I'm not sure what is going on with these coin purses.  Maybe I need to revert to bias tape.  I made my sister a cute coin purse for Christmas that used bias tape around the edge.  It's just that I tend to fight with bias tape as well.  My bias tape maker has been used 3 times since I purchased it in January, and each and every time I've used it I fail to some extent.  What happens here is that the bias tape doesn't fold correctly at the seams where the strips are joined.

Maybe coin purses are not meant to be my thing.  We'll see...eventually.  Who will win?  Me or the coin purses?

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Vintage (sheet) apron Giveaway!

Good morning everyone!

Look what I have up for grabs.  An upcycled half apron made from vintage sheets.

I finally took a deep breath and took my scissors to some of my vintage sheets that I've obsessively gone searching for the last two weeks.  The apron is double sided using coordinating fabrics, and measures 23" wide by 15 1/2". The straps are each 24" long.

The giveaway is being held over at The Vintage Sheet Blog, where Jen is celebrating her one year blogaversary,  and everyday this month she is having a giveaway.  I love giveaways, and one everyday....that is awesome!!  I'm definitely glued to The Vintage Sheet Blog this month.   

So to enter the giveaway you need to comment (not here) on the post over at The Vintage Sheet Blog.  There is a list of ways to enter for multiple chances to win.  Now go on...go comment to win....Yay!!

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Vintage Sheets

OMG!  The last seven days I have been obsessing over vintage sheets.  I've gone to about a dozen places and I've scored at two places, several times.  Luckily these two places are the closest to my house so I don't have to venture out across town since I had no luck.  I may try the other places once every blue moon, but most of them didn't have much of a linen section so I at least know what places now have a good large selection.



I have hopes and dreams for these sheets.  There are soo many things I want to do with them; like aprons, purses, and fat quarters.  All items I eventually want to sell in an Etsy shop.  The sheets are all washed and ready to go.  I need to get started, but I think cutting such large pieces of fabric is intimidating me.  Deep breath...remember to breathe out.  I can do this.  What should I make first?

This top one is my favorite.

The middle very light blue one is pretty nice as well...if I do say so myself.

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