Some unexpected fun projects...

I mentioned in my last post (about sewing with a friend) that I had a second friend who recently asked me to help her with a sewing project. Well... time flies, and since I was last in here my friend Marti has been to my place a couple of times to work on a project together.

With Marti's permission, I will share the backstory...  

When Marti was in highschool, she made a baby blanket as a sewing project for Home Ec class.  When she had her first baby a few years later, she was able to wrap her sweet little baby girl in that blanket she'd made with her teenage hands.  I think it was when Marti was pregnant with her second child (and she learned it was a girl), she bought and cut out fabric to make a similar baby blanket for Baby #2.  But, as we've all experienced, life got busy, and her plan didn't quite pan out. The second blanket was not finished. 

Now...  leaping forward 37 years, my friend's second child is pregnant with her first baby.  Recently, when Marti was at my house, I showed her some things I'd made recently, and with a glint in her eyes she told me her story of the unmade baby blanket.  Telling me she had kept the fabric and cut-out squares all these years, she asked if she could pay me to sew it up into a baby quilt.

A reflexive "No" came out of my mouth - mostly because I have made it something of a policy that I don't make things on commission.  There was also the fact that I'd never sewn a quilt before, and I knew I'd feel stressed if I took it on with the expectation of being paid.  Knowing her daughter, though (since she was a young girl), I was excited by the story, and knew I'd love to have a hand in doing something so special. I readily offered to give it a try, and if I thought it was something I could do, I'd be happy to make a blanket for Marti's newest grandchild - as a gift to Marti and her daughter.  And then...  another thought popped into my mind, and I suggested, "I have two sewing machines!  What would you think of us work together on the blankets!?!"  The baby blanket would get finished, and we'd get to spend time together!

I'm happy to say, she said yes, and soon after, we began.

Now, for a little more back story (again, I share with Marti's permission)...  The reason my friend even asked me if I'd be willing to take the fabric squares she had cut out many years ago and sew them into a quilt is because sewing them together herself had become nearly, if not completely, impossible. My friend has been losing her eyesight for years, and recently was diagnosed as being legally blind.  If I understand correctly, it is perhaps a hereditary, maybe even congenital, condition that is causing her loss of eyesight.  

While Marti has been present each time, and has been a big help in the making of this baby blanket, it became apparent at our first working on it that actually sewing wasn't something she could easily do. 

Marti had already done the hard part - once upon a time cutting out all the squares for this blanket. While we worked together, she also picked out some seams that hadn't come together well in the first attempt, and just a couple of days ago, we pinned the layers together and tied every single corner with a sweet piece of white yarn.  

Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll go together to pick out a fabric that will work well for a binding.  I can't wait to see it finished.  And I can't believe I now want to start my own quilt of some sort!

But there is another project I want to finish first. Some time back, when I was first working on Manx squares, I was telling a couple of friends about them.  One of them, a retired Home Ec teacher, showed so much interest, I thought right then, "I think I'll make her a couple of Manx hot pads!"  Recently learning she had had her kitchen painted - in yellow and green - I asked her if she could send me a picture.  She also has a piece of colorful artwork on the wall in one picture, and having been to her house before, I knew she liked color. 

So, I dug through my stash, and bought a few more colors, along with some insulating "batting" to finally make her a couple of Manx square hot pads.  Except for the binding, I've finished the first one.  

I wish I fully understood why these squares skew so badly as I'm making them.  Here's a picture to show you the skew:

Anticipating this, I chose a non-directional fabric for the back, and I can "fix" the skew by trimming it down square.  But I wish I knew why mine do this when none I've seen online seem to turn out this way.

Or maybe other sewists just don't show them untrimmed.  🤷

Hopefully, next week, I'll have at least one of these projects finished.  

In the bag...

Recently my friend, Cindy, mentioned that she had purchased a used sewing machine, but she wasn't an experienced sewist so learning how to use it was a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure where my confidence came from, but I offered, "I'd be happy to look at it and see if I can show you how to use it!"  She immediately took me up on the offer, and as of last Thursday we've now spent three afternoons over the last few weeks sewing together.  After looking the machine over, learning how to thread it, and practicing different stitches, we decided making a project together would be a fun way for her to learn to sew.  She said she'd like to make a bag. I suggested I find an easy looking video tutorial and we follow it together.

There are quite a few tutorials available on YouTube for sewing a tote bag, and I eventually settled on this one:

What I like about the above tutorial is that it includes a lining, and uses fusible facing to give a little more structure to the bag.  And the presenter really does a good job going step-by-step, from cutting fabric to sewing a finished bag.

An experienced sewist could follow the instructions and probably finish a bag (including cutting the fabric) in a couple of hours.  Because we were taking it slow, and I thought some extra explanations might be helpful, it took us two afternoons to finish our bags.  

Cindy sewing the lining for her bag

Actually, only Cindy finished her bag last week.  I had not bought quite enough webbing (for the handles) to finish a second bag, so I ended up making a trip to Hobby Lobby for more and only today had the time to finish mine.  

I like this fabric more than I thought I would.  To be honest...  on the bolt this looked a little bit corny (to me, anyway), but finished up into a tote bag, it's pretty cute.  Since my friend also crochets, she loved the granny square print.  Now, I like it so much I'm thinking of heading back to the store and seeing if they still have any of this fabric left.

The video tutorial adds a sectioned pocket along the bottom of the lining (that gets sewn into the seam), but I wasn't paying close attention to my own bag and I sewed the lining together - completely forgetting to add the pocket along the bottom edge.  Realizing my mistake soon enough, I was able to sew a smaller pocket higher up onto the lining before sewing the outer bag and lining together. 

I lined my bag with this bright green fabric, while Cindy's has a red lining. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out:

This next week, another friend is planning on coming over to sew a totally different project.  This was all very spontaneous, and while I wasn't looking to do anything like this, I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Both sewing, and hanging out with friends while doing so!

Back to my Manx...

I decided yesterday, it's time to finish a project I have started in recent months.  I'd like nothing more than to share a finished project with you today, but I'm still not quite there yet.

One of the things that has stalled me from finishing my second (or is it my third?) Manx project was that when I sewed the squares together (a few weeks ago now), I realized (afterwards) that I should have trimmed them all down first.  They finished differently sized, and while I got the fronts of the squares sewed together, they didn't match up all that well, and the extra fabric on the backs was just too much to deal with.

So, I took them apart, and went back to the cutting board.

With squares that now approximated each other in size, I set myself again to the task of sewing the fronts together.  My pictures don't do justice to how complicated it was to put these together properly.  I honestly don't know how people made these before modern sewing equipment, and things we take for granted like fine straight pins and electric irons.

I was thankful I had recently purchased some heat resistant straight pins, so I could pin and press to my heart's content, in order to manage the many layers.

If you find the multiple layers confusing, believe me...  you are not alone.  Once I committed to sewing each seam, I just hoped I didn't catch any extraneous fabric in the stitches.  

With the fronts of the squares all sewn together, the backs were a bit of a mess.

After much contemplation (i.e. turning this thing in multiple directions, folding, refolding, head scratching and finally pressing and pinning again), I figured out how to finish off the back. 

The back had to be hand-stitched, but I had to decide which long seam should be stitched first.  Once I committed to a plan, pins held all the back pieces together as I wrangled it all, trying not to be pierced by these very sharp thin pins.

Finally...  that part was done.  It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied.   I will note that when trimming these down, I should have left the backs slightly larger than the fronts - like even an extra 1/4 inch - just to provide more fabric to fold over for seam sewing.  As is, this will suffice as a decorative piece, but I don't think my hand-sewn seams on the back are substantial enough to hold up to the kind of use a full-sized quilt would see.

I cannot believe I contemplated for even a few minutes that I might like to make a full-sized quilt of these squares.  My hat is off to anyone who has done so.  I marvel at the finger dexterity and fortitude that would take.  And really... it is beyond my comprehension that people in the 1800's would have made these elaborate-looking squares from scraps of fabric, all completely sewn by hand, likely without the aid of a decent iron for pressing in the folds.  Even if a person had an iron, I doubt they employed one in making this.  It was a bit tedious for me to press each strip before and after sewing - I can't picture someone doing that with an iron that needed retrieving from the fire or stove.  I'm pretty sure they simply finger-pressed as they went.  Which makes this construction even more impressive.

This is the last time I intend to share this project before it's finished.  Here's a tease of the front: 

Pickling...

Well, hello again.  

It's me.

Yes, I am alive and kicking.

In fact, I've had a conversation recently with Hub, where I've told him, if I kick the bucket before he does, he must come on here and inform my beloved readers.  I tell you that, just so you know... when I disappear, and you don't hear anything, I'm probably still breathing.

Truth is, I don't know that I have any good reason why I sometimes disappear for weeks at a time, but it happens and I'm always so grateful to find I have generous visitors who haven't yet given up on me.  I hope that's still true.

Life has been good. 

The weather has markedly improved since I last complained about it.  August went out like it was the beginning of an October Indian Summer.  And the week ahead looks like another cool down.  Summer weather like this is a gift.  I don't imagine we'd appreciate it nearly as much as we do if we didn't have to suffer through a fair amount of hot and humid misery. 

As the summer winds down, my days are a mix of things.  One of these days I plan to write a summary of all the good things this summer, but at the moment I'm a bit preoccupied with pickle making and canning beans.  It's a lot of work, but it is so satisfying to see shiny jars of food filled with things I've grown and preserved.

It's been three years since I've canned pickles and made sweet relish.  I couldn't find the recipes I used in 2022, so I ended up experimenting again with tested recipes.

The heat we had earlier turned a lot of my cucumbers awfully bitter, and unfortunately I had to throw out the first batches of relish and pickles I made a few weeks ago.  

With better temperatures, the cukes are now decent, and I finally accumulated enough, and got up the gumption to make some more relish.

By the time I got to the onions, I was lamenting that I don't own a food processor.  I had a food processor many years ago, and every time I used it I found I hated cleaning it.  So much so that I ended up getting rid of it.  And generally speaking, I haven't missed it. But chopping up all those veggies for sweet relish this time around - especially the onions, had me online pricing what a food processor costs these days.  My hands have lost some stamina, and my crying eyes were begging for relief.

But I persevered, and finally had everything chopped, salted, put under water and into the fridge for 24 hours.  Good thing the recipe called for this long of a salting time. I needed the break.

The next day, I was ready to try out a new-to-me recipe that uses lemon juice instead of vinegar.  I had chopped so many veggies, I was able to make three relish batches, tweaking each one with ingredients to determine what my favorite might be.  

Below is a video I followed (and tweaked) making a lemon juice based sweet relish:

Checking it against a Ball recipe, I am confident that the acidity of the recipe used in the video matches (or exceeds) the tested vinegar-based recipe.

I can't wait to have a taste test with someone(s) to help determine what combination of spices are preferred, and whether there is much difference between using lemon juice or vinegar.  I tasted as I went, but after a while I lost the ability to distinguish much difference between them. I hope to get enough cucumbers still to make at least one more batch of this relish, and try it with less sugar.  

A few jars at a time, I'm also making dill pickles. 

 

The last time I made dill pickles (in 2022), they lasted me two years.  I have no idea how many pints that was, but last night I finished canning my 17th jar.

I'm the only dill pickle eater here, but I can easily go through a pint jar of dill slices every two or three weeks.  Hopefully, what I've canned is good.  You never truly know until you pop a jar open...

Green beans are pressure canned in small batches too, as that is how they are coming on.  And one of these days, I want to try making a sweet onion relish.  I had some store bought vadalia onion relish a few weeks ago at a pitch-in, and ever since, I've been thinking about making some.

Truth is, I'm not a big sweet relish eater, but I find it fun to make, and when I'm successful with it, I love to give it to people who like it more than me.  It's also good to use in some recipes, so I tend to have a jar in the fridge for those occasions.

So, I'm curious who of my readers are pickle eaters?  Do you like sweet or sour?  Or something in between like bread and butter pickles?  I'm also curious if any of you have experience fermenting pickles?  I'm not sure I'm up for the days-long fermenting process, but my interest has been recently piqued.

A new embroidery project...

Wanting a break from my Manx squares, but still desiring to work with fabric and floss, I decided to give in to the desire to embroider something.  

Perusing library books lately, I've come across some fun embroidery ideas.  Embroider Your Life is more of an inspiration than it is a project book.  But it also provides some fun designs the reader can use.

Seeing a whimsical fox pillow in the above book, I decided that's what I'd do.  

I had to enlarge the small pattern in the book by about 250% before it was large enough for even a small pillow.

Taped to a window, I was able to trace the outline and some directional markings onto a natural colored homespun fabric.  

And, of course, before tracing with a heat-erasable pen, I didn't take into consideration that I'd want this whole thing to be stabilized in some way. The obvious choice (to me) would have been fusible (iron-on) interfacing or stabilizer, but I did not want a hot iron erasing all the tracing I'd just done!  

Sigh.  Okay...  what to do?

Looking through my stash of materials I found some nice felt I'd purchased for a different kind of embroidery. 

Hmmm...  well, why not? I'd bought it for embroidery backing.  I didn't imagine using it for such a large piece.  But it should work. 

Right? 

For something that will be sewn into a pillow?  You think?

I decided to go for it.

So, I machine-basted the homespun to the felt.  While the thickness of the felt causes it to be a little more effort to pull the needle and floss through, I'm thinking it's going to make a nice smooth finish to this piece when I sew it all together and stuff it into a pillow.

Finally, with that decision made, I was ready to start stitching!  

In the book, the whole fox image was filled with running stitches on a white fabric, but because I'm using beige fabric, I thought it would look better if I embroidered the fox's white chin, throat and belly with long and short filling stiches that would cover the space better than a simple running stitch does.  And it's kind of fun that it looks a bit like fur...

That said... in retrospect, it seems a bit silly that I thought creating a filled-in effect was important to do on the underside of the fox, while the rest of his fur is depicted with running stitches.  But I'm going to finish what I began - even if it takes two or three times as long to fill the fox's underside as it would have if I'd simply done the whole thing in running stitches.  Who knows... maybe I'll find the two different ways of filling open space in the design adds to the whimsical factor.

Hopefully, we'll find out soon that it does!