Look What I Made Monday! (On Tuesday)

My best friend was visiting this past week and we made a TON of yummy stuff including Super Brownies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Banana Banana Bread.  (A yummy post about the food is coming later on this week.)  Before she left I also made her a pillowcase.  She went through my fabric and picked a fabric for the body of the pillow that has all kinds of baking and cooking terms since we always bake and cook when we are together.  

I even had the coordinating fabric and I used that for the sashing.  

In between the two, she picked a bright yellow color that I wasn't quite sure about - but it worked out lovely! 

I really do love making pillowcases.  They are quick, easy and fun.  They also reflect their owner and not just to go with their bedding.  Here is one I made for myself a few months ago:

I kind of like elephants...  :P

Here is one I made for my mom this past year for Christmas:

Click here to learn how to make a pillowcase!

Making the pillowcase for my BBF kind of made me want to get back into sewing and quilting.  Hopefully this will happen soon!  :)  Thanks for dropping by and have a good week everyone!

Projects I'm working on...

1.  Block Swap Adventure Block:

Here's a preview for the block I made Jody S. in FL.  She didn't state a block preference and only a few color preferences so I hope she likes this block!  It was really fun to make.  :)

It's pretty scrappy - and I hope she doesn't mind that it came out kind of girly.  It is bright though!  This might not go out until this weekend seeing as how I don't get off work before the post office closes, but it will go out this week!  I will post the full block once I know that Jody received the block.

2. UFO's:

Two and a half inch strips that are eventually going to be two and a half inch squares.  Why?  Not sure yet...

Still not done with this quilt...

Fabric waiting to be washed.  :)

I also have three pillowcases pinned and ready to sew together.  :)  I didn't used to be the type who had UFO's laying around, but I can't seem to ignore the inspiration when it hits these days!

Look What I Made Monday!

When we moved in January, we moved into an awesome condo that has great windows.  I love all the light the windows offer, however, one set of windows in our stairwell looks right out to a kind of busy road.  I knew in January that I wanted to cover these windows but didn't want to block the light coming through them during the day.  While putting together my sewing room, I found this fabric that my mom sent me.

She found this fabric for $1 a yard at a discount store in Solvang, CA and bought yards and YARDS of it.  She made curtains from this fabric for her walls of windows in my parents' master bedroom and the result was bright and airy.

So since this fabric worked so nicely in my parents' room, I thought it would be perfect to use for our windows.  I think the result is beautiful!

  I kind of cheated and didn't sew any seams in the panels.  I just cut two 91" lengths, clipped them with these cool curtain clips and strung them on tension rods since the window casings are wood - and we are renting.  I also kept the selvage edges since the selvages are kind of neat looking.  My husband got into the action and opened and clipped on those those neat clips for me.  They are so hard to open even though they are some kind of fake metal!  The hold on to the fabric really well though.

I might take them down and seam the bottom, but to be honest, I'd rather leave them raw in case I decide to switch them out and use the dot fabric for something else.  I don't see me needing to do that any time soon though since I still have a couple of yards of that dot fabric left!!  :P

I can't believe it took me so long to do this project.  It only took about 20 minutes when I finally got to it and it was fun!  Tell me what you think!  :)

Look What I Made Monday!

For Christmas this year, I made pillows or pillow related things.  I made 8 pillowcases for various people and they all loved them.  :)  They are so easy to make so I decided to put an easy tutorial here so everyone can make their own pillowcases!  This is my first tutorial, so be kind.  Just to be clear, this is not my idea.  :)

This pillowcase is called the "Magic Pillowcase" which just means that when you are done, all the seam allowances - or raw edges - are hidden.

What you will need:

27" fabric for the body of the fabric (WOF - width of fabric)
11" fabric for the sashing (WOF)
4" for the border (WOF)
Pins
Iron
Scissors
Sewing machine
Thread

For this tutorial, I decided to use the same fabric for the body and the sashing, since the pattern is so busy, and a coordinating fabric for the border.  You can use three different fabrics, or even piece fabric together to form the sashing if you like.  First, iron the border fabric in half lengthwise.  Then, take the sashing fabric and lay it out RIGHT side up on your sewing table or cutting table.  If you are using a directional fabric, make sure when you lay out this sashing fabric that the pattern is UPSIDE DOWN:

Lay your border fabric on top of your sashing fabric with raw edges along the top of the sashing fabric:

Place the body fabric on the top of the sashing and border fabric WRONG side up, matching the salvage edge to the salvage edge of the sashing fabric.  This is an important step since if your fabric is directional, it will insure that the sashing and the body fabric is going in the same direction:

Now here's where we get fancy and stuff!  Pick up the body fabric and roll it to about half way up the sashing fabric:

Fold up the sashing fabric and pin all layers into place.  If you are using a flannel like this one, pin the HECK out of it or it will stretch on you.

Take this pinned and rolled up pillowcase to the sewing machine and sew all of it together with a 1/4" seam allowance creating a pocket of fabric with the body fabric INSIDE the sashing fabric:

Once sewn, turn the tub right side out by gently pulling the body fabric out of the sashing fabric.  Iron the seam of the sashing on the back:

And the front:

Now, at this time I noticed that my border fabric was not as long as my body and sashing fabric so I trimmed it up as best I could:

Before you go any farther, you'll notice that the border fabric is only sewn on one side and loose on the folded side.  At this time I would recommend sewing down the border fabric or you will have to iron it down after washing:

Next, I cut the salvage edges off the pillowcase, only because the salvages were SO wide and I was afraid that they would show after I sewed the pillowcase together.  This is an optional step:

Now we are going to sew the pillowcase together with a French seam!  :)  First, fold your pillowcase in half lengthwise, matching up salvage edges - or where the salvage edges would have been.  At this time, we are folding the WRONG sides together - trust me, it will work out - and sew up the side and bottom with either a 1/4" or 1/2" seam allowances:

Trim up the seam allowances to about 1/8" or less to make the seams less bulky.

If you're lucky, you'll get a helper!

Turn pillowcase inside out and iron the seams making sure to press out the seams out as much as possible:

Sew down the seams with a 1/2" seam allowance making sure to encase the previous seam allowance.  (I don't have a picture of this as I got too carried away!)  All your raw edges will be hidden and it your seams will look like this:

Turn your pillowcase right-side-out.  Put on your pillow and take a well deserved nap!

These two I made for Mom:

 This one I made for my MIL:

Here are the ones I made for my coworkers:

I decided to wrap these pillowcases up with their salvages since their salvages were so cute.  :)

I made one for my dad too, but right when I was going to snap a picture, my camera died and I had to get all the family presents boxed up to mail bright and early the next morning so I didn't have time to charge the battery.  Anyway, pillowcases are fun and easy to make and I hope you take them on too!  They don't take that long to make either.  Have fun!  :)

Look What I Made Monday!

This will have to be a "retro" Look What I Made Monday post since pretty much everything I am making right now is Christmas related and might be for people who might just read my blog.  Anyway, here is a pumpkin cake I made for my mom a couple Mother's Days ago:

Cute huh?!  It took forever to get the orange right.
I finally had to buy gel food coloring.

The cake is two bundt cakes with pumpkin seeds added down the middle after baking.  Then extra cake that was cut off to  shape it to look more like a pumpkin was put on top before frosting.

I used two types of cake - vanilla AND pumpkin.  It was DELICIOUS!