On My Worktable

Thursday June 5th 2014

It's been a busy few days.  We were in the mountains for a few days over the weekend and had a great time but I didn't get much sewing done!  I was able to finish the three rabbit pincushions I had on my worktable from last week.  School has been out for a couple of weeks now for my daughter so we are finding our new routine, it always takes a little while. This week I have sewn three fox pincushions, cut out felt for some more hanging owls after finding some great buttons on clearance and some brand new designs that were a reasonable price, and made a set of napkins.  

You can see more of the pincushions here... https://www.etsy.com/listing/184090310/wool-felt-fox-pincushion-in-vibrant?ref=shop_home_active_3

 Today I am going into San Jose to a quilt shop that stocks the patterned and textured wool fabrics I use for my owls. They sell it in small color bundles which is cool.  I need to stock up!  It is not so easy to sew as the regular felt I use because it does have a tendency to unravel slightly but the textures and patterns more than make up for that.  After that we plan to seek out a little shop that sells all kinds of odd bits and pieces, vintage photos, jewelry made from found objects, antiques and eclectic "stuff".  My daughter is on the hunt for old watch pieces for her jewelry projects.  It sounds like a good day to me.  

You can see that I like to use the walking foot on my sewing machine for almost everything. I held off buying one for a long time because it was expensive but it one of my best ever purchases.  I use it for piecing and quilting too.  A walking foot moves the fabric from below as well as above so that when sewing two layers of fabric you don't get that slight creeping of the layers.  With a walking foot both layers stay even.  When I make napkins, I like to do two rows of stitching.  I think it gives a tailored look and it finishes the corner folds nicely.  I don't do anything fancy with the corners.  I just press a double fold.  I try and be mindful to press rather than iron the folds so that the fabric doesn't stretch out of shape.  We used the napkins at dinner last night.