Cutter Case Tutorial

  Well. Hello from the lovelycity of Hurst TX. I have been working part of the day on my Aunts chairs, I stopped for a break and well you know how that goes. We fixed lunch and I took a nap because I was awake a lot last night. My hubby brought me up here on Sat. and he left for home this morning at 4 AM. I was in charge of waking him up in time to leave. Not sure you know how that goes, but for me that means I wake up every hour or half hour until time to get up. Then after he left it just felt like the bed was too empty and I couldn't go back to sleep. I finally got up and got the long bolster that was on the other side of the room and put it where hubby had been and finally feel back to sleep. Silly I know.
  I promised my cousin I would put this on the blog months ago and then just forgot. This is not my pattern by any means. I learned this from Bernina, in a class to learn my new machine. I have made dozens of them since.

So lets start with a Fat quarter or scraps that are at least 15 inches long and 5 inches wide.
Cut two ouside pieces 5 in.X 15in. and cut two inside pieces 5in. X 15in. and two pieces of batting 5 in.X 15 in. You will need a zipper that is at least 20 inches long. two pieces of ribbon 15 in. long and a short piece about 3 or 4 inches to put into the zipper as a pull.

Layer one inside, one batting, and one outside and quilt as you would like to. I have done free motion, straigth lines a measured lenght apart and any number of other ways. This is a fun place to practice something new like I did on this one to the left. Then do the same with the other inside, outside and batting pieces.
  Once you have quilted it lay the zipper upside down on the edge you want to be the top edge of your bag and sew it down .( I leave it zipped when I do this as you can see in the photo below.)

Unzip it now and sew the other side to the zipper making sure your zipper will close correctly and the quilted pieces are even.
  Add a piece of ribbon to each side either right up next to the zipper or a measured distance away. I like to make sure the fabric under neath is caught to prevent fraying.

  Turn these two pieces right side together and sew along the long (15in) edge.


                                                                                    

See what I mean.
I use a 1/4 inch seam allowance most of the time, but on occasion it is a little larger as it may appear in this photo.








  Line up the zipper with the seam you just created. Pin if you need to and sew this together

 Before you go one to the other end we will need to make some cuts and sew some more so measure the corner 1 inch square and mark it in some way.

Cut the 1 inch corner out. Repeat for the other corner and when you have sewn the other end ( with zipper open) repeat for both of the corners on that end as well.

Make the same measurement and cut on the other side of this end of the cutter case.









                                                                                

  Make sure your zipper is open when you sew the second end closed. You can trim off any excess zipper once you have sewn the ends together.

Sorry about the fuzzy photos. They looked better on the camera. LOL





This is the tricky part , your cut corners will make an angle seam if you try to put it together flat. Sew this with the best quarter inch seam you can make.

Once you have sewn all four of these angle seams  making sure the side seam allowances go the same direction, you can turn your case inside out and zip it close to see how it looks.
This is where I thread the short ribbon into the zipper putll and tie it into a little know and it makes the zipper easier to use.

I did not make the two bag in this tutorial the measurements I have given you. I was trying out a new size and I will be giving these to my granddaughters with nail clippers and other pedicure tools.




I made two the same size, however I did different quilting on both of them.
So until I have a chance to write again, have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Freaky Friday

  Just a short one today I have to photos loaded on the laptop and will try to get them on here for next week. Time just got too short for me to get this tutorial up today. Instead here is the other Paint quilt I think I would like to make. I really am enjoying the paint, I still have a long way to go to learn it though.
Have a very quilty weekend and I will talk to you next week.

Tennye

What I did Today

  Hello, friends, I have been busy today. I had a lovely morning out in the back yard. Before the heat gets started it is pretty nice out in our back yard. It is full shade until after 11AM so cooler than in the sun. I water the grass and flower bed once a week pretty deep, so we don't lose it. Last summer we got a bug or fungus and lost most of the grass in the front and back yards. So it is not as nice as it has been, but still has spots.
   Well, then, hubby called and asked if we could have chicken salad for lunch. Of course the chicken was frozen. When I came in the house I put it on to boil and went off to the sewing room. Hubby's wallet has been falling apart for years and I purchased the fabric to make him one, also years ago. Yesterday I started working on one, when he came in I asked for his current wallet. He gave me the wrong measurements so what I did all morning was a waste of my time. Well, it did turn out to be something I could use, but at first I didn't think it would be. New measurements taken and I started over again. I am not terribly excited with the results, but I think it turned out usable and , hey now I know how to make it. I can always make another one. I didn't have any solid fabric to line it with, but had a nice dark blue with stars . Hubby is not offended so it will work.

Then just as he left for work after lunch he asked if maybe I could make him a new cell phone case too. I have been putting that off as well, and guess what it was not as hard as I thought it would be. So here are the pictures of them.

 This shows the back, with a belt loop for him to hold it on with. I used hook and loop tape for the closing , but I think next time I will try to use a magnet.

I may be MIA for a lot of the time over the next few weeks. I was supposed to be in Dallas this week, but things change and I didn't go. Hubby and I will be leaving on Sat. for my Aunt and Uncles and then when Mon. comes and hubby leaves for home I will stay for the week. I am not sure how I will get home, but either my Aunt will bring me or they may send me by train. My Aunt has said she needs to come to Austin to visit my mom and my other Aunt, so she can bring me home. Then hubby and I leave for TN to visit our youngest daughter and her new family, on the 30th. We will be there for 10 days, and get to see friends from the other side of the state while we are there. I have one tutorial I have promised my cousin I will post here for her, that I will try to get written tomorrow. Please don't hold me to that though. I will get it made tomorrow and get the pictures made, so I can get it written.
  Oh, by the way , I follow Wayne on his design blog, I have mentioned him before and did a blog for him when he asked for one a few months back. Any way I asked him what software he used for his designing. He told me he uses Paint and I was surprised to find I have it on my computer. I have been playing with it, and the curve may be large, but in the mean time here is one of the designs I did, that I would like to make into a quilt.

 It is kind of fun I think, but I never buy yellow so I may not ever be able to make it. Hahaha I know I can buy some, I just don't know how to take this and translate it into a quilt.
Okay, I will close for tonight and hope all of you have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Time Flying is trending today

  I have checked in with several of the blogs I follow and it seems we are all feeling the fact that the older you get the faster time passes. Well at least that is the way it seems anyway. That is what the adults in my  life told me when I was a kid and I thought they were just being dramatic. I was so wrong, it is like the toilet paper and how it goes around faster the more you have used already. Today I am going to just post a few old pictures that I remember doing, and it seems like it was just yesterday, but it has been years. So Enjoy.

 The heart quilt is laying on the plaid fabric, it was made for a baby quilt, and has fabric from the child's parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, as well as aunts, and uncles.
 The cute little cowboys and cowgirls made such a wonderful baby quilt and the string I used made a almost rope like decoration on it.

These matching quilts were made for teaching quilting to anyone in general.

Hand quilted for my hubby.

 This one is still not finished, I think it will be my next carry along project.

This is the family reunion quilt everyone made a block, and I pieced it and quilted it by hand, with my mom's help.

I made this one for my daughter it was supposed to be a sofa quilt, and turned out to be a queen. She loves it and uses it year round. LOL

 The next three photos, are blocks I made to teach quilting. The class never made and I think it may be time to put them into a quilt and not leave them as blocks. Maybe I will post that class on here some time in the future.

The last one, I made this one, for my boss, she told me I could have it after we let it hang in the store for a while. Last time I was there it seemed to be hanging in the classroom, I guess it is still being used. I wanted to give it to my Aunt , she loves strawberries.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed my walk down memory lane. I wish I could show you some of the older ones, but I didn't have a digital camera before and I don't have access to a working scanner.
Have a quilty week and I will see you soon.
Tennye

Always Under The Gun

  Why am I always under the gun? I work and work on the stuff I need to do, then up pops something I have to do now. I am always behind, and I really hate that. I guess I need to find a way to be more organized and just never take a day off. I have been working on a Graduation gift this week and my middle daughter is wanting one for herself. I am not sure that will happen with this one. Maybe if I used pre-quilted fabric, I would make her one.
  I did something this week that I have always dreaded doing, I even have wondered how anyone could do it. I sewed my finger while I was doing some free motion quilting. The needle went in and out and now it is a little swollen. I cleaned it and let it bleed all the things, I know you are supposed to do, so it won't hurt so bad. Need less to say I have not wanted to sew but today I got back to it.
 We got a text this morning with a photo of my niece's new baby boy. I have been so busy I forgot she was expecting. That may sound bad, but they live in another state. We don't hear from each other very often, they didn't even let us know she got married. If it was not for her older brother, we would not know she was expecting at all. I still feel like I should do something for her, it is after all her first baby and maybe her last, she is 35.

Okay on to the bag I have been making, I am so excited about it. I hope you like it. I have not done a full tutorial, however I tried to make enough pictures that you could see what I did and how I did it.

The bag opens out to hang on the wall, or just give you the opportunity to take out one bag at a time if you want to.

" The bag " is actually four bags that can be taken off the roll and used individually when you want to . There is a metal ring to hang it with too. I am not excited about the metal ring I have on this one and I will try to do something better before I give this one away. 

So to give you an idea of how I did this bag. I got the pattern/idea from one my daughter got when she signed up to sell one of the home party makeup lines. She loves it and thought mom could make one for the cousin. hahaha( Kids, I am glad she thinks I can do anything.) I took measurements from her bag and looked through my fabrics. I did not have enough of one fabric, so I chose a left over piece of fabric that I could use for the backing. Then I picked out four fat quarters to make the bags from. I cut out the backing and found I didn't have enough for inside and out, so I did the measurements of the little bags and cut them out. Then took some of the left overs to make stripes in the middle of the inside of the main bag/holder.

 I cut the small bag patterns and added batting then did some machine quilting. Next I measure where the hook and loop needed to be and put it on the out side of the quilted fabric. Put in the zipper. I used one that was much longer than I needed and cut it off to fit after I added the ends of the bag.

This is looking in after one end is already sewn in. I have to say that triangle was a little harder to put in than I thought if would be I put it in, by centering the point with the zipper and sewing the long flat part of the triangle  first. Then sewing each side from the bottom up to the zipper.

I didn't realize the light color fabric was going to be so hard to see. I had already sewn through my finger at this point and picture taking was not the main thing on my mind. LOL

Just a shot showing the under side of the removable bag and how it attaches to the main body of the hanger. I tried to make a picture of it hanging it just didn't turn out well enough to post.  Here is another one of the roll as it looks from the end.

I love how it turned out and I think maybe saying I won't make it again was a little hasty. I have some things I will need to tweak if I do though.

I hope this was helpful or you just enjoyed it, and have a very quilty week until we talk again.
Tennye

Frustrated

  I started a post and the blogger is giving me trouble so I have saved it and will come back to it later. I have made a new bag I can't wait to show off.
   In the mean time I will just say some stuff that I should have told you already. Like do you make a photo of every quilt you make, and give away? Have you made one that you missed, and really wish you had that picture? I have several I have given away, to friends and for what ever reason have lost touch with them. I hate that I lost touch with them, but I also hate that I made some quilts that I have no record of except in my mind. I made a really nice baby gift for a cute little boy who is now in middle school, oh wait make that two. They are both in middle school and I have no picture and don't hear from them. anymore.  I did a t-shirt quilt for a very good friend as a gift from her parents to give her for graduation. We still see her and talk to her often ( as often as you do those who live in another state) but she lives in NC and we live in TX. I have asked her to send me a photo, but she is busy and has not done that for me. I do have several that I have given away that the only picture I have is the one I posted here on the blog.
  Now I am trying to figure out what kind of quilt I can make quickly, and looking through a book and remember those quilts I gave a way, without taking the time to make a picture. I know it may not seem like a big thing, but I always thought I would make a scrap book of the quilts I have made. Then I started this blog and it has become my scrapbook of quilts.
  Well, until blogger is acting correctly have a quilty day.
Tennye

The Finished Product

  Hello, friends I am home, I know I told you I would be coming home on Tue. and as it turned out I got involved in a project for my Aunt. It needed a couple of more hours and that was too much to cram into one day, so we stayed over. I got so much done on that next day I will be able to complete the project very quickly when I get there in a couple of weeks. I may have told you my Aunt got a new sewing machine and I told her I would come and help her learn to use it by helping her to do some upholstering for her master bedroom. Well, my mom decided she wanted to visit her sister and she and daddy just don't need to be driving a couple of hours alone. So I drove them to Dallas to visit and her sister. My Aunt had a man scheduled to come and look at her dinning room chairs to reupholster them for her. We do not know why, but the man never showed up. He did not call, and he did not make any attempt to contact her. I looked at the chairs and thought I could do the top, but the bottom looks kind of hard, not sure I could do that. However, I kept my mouth closed and just thought about it. I am not sure how it came up that I had done some upholstering in the past, maybe my Mom, but it did. So she (my aunt) asked me if I thought I could do the job. I told her what I thought. Then, my Uncle, unscrewed the chair bottom and took it off to let me look at it. I was so surprised when I looked at it and realized I could do that easier than the top that I knew I could do. So I told her I would do it for her, if she wanted me to. I said" I will do the first one and then if you hate what I did you can call the guy or someone else.If you like my work, I can do the other three when I come back later in June." We agreed to that and I started the process. I told her it would be best if she replaced the foam rather than just the fabric. I showed her how the foam in the chair was beginning to crumble. She agreed with me and we went out looking for the better grade of foam. I am very happy with the job I did and my aunt was too, so when I go back in a couple of weeks I will finish the other three chairs, and help with the day bed that I was going to help her with any way.
  I have spent today doing stuff I needed to do, like getting my drivers license renewed, and making reservations for a hotel to stay in when we go to Tennessee at the end of the month. Hubby and I are going to see our daughter, and her family. Plus my hubby's best friend from the Navy lives there too, and we are either going to have them come see us, or meet them. We have to do some work on my Van before we make a trip that long though.  Now I realize that is a five or ten min. job, however the hubby gave me a limit on what he wants to pay, I spent over two hours researching hotels and costs. Then there is the little call to the pharmacy to get hubby's blood pressure meds renewed. The trip to the DMV was over two hours total, so we went ahead and had lunch out while we were out.
  Tomorrow I will be making a graduation gift for my cousin's daughters graduation gift. I am pretty excited about it to be honest and I will be taking lots of pictures, if I can remember what I did with my camera. I took it with me to Dallas and I do not remember seeing it while I was unpacking. Sure hope I did not leave it in my Aunts spare bedroom.
Well, until I am able to get back to you please have a very quilty week.
Tennye