You can see the original bit of iron-on interfacing just under the image itself.

My original plan was to take the coordinating fabric and make a square frame around the center image, but I didn’t really put enough forethought into the process to do that. Instead, I sewed it to cover the partial images on two sides (sides on one coaster and top and bottom on the other), with pieces large enough that the raw edges were close to the center back, and folded another piece to match the uncovered image in front.

I think I may have swapped the two backings when I put them on, but that’s okay. They were attached with more Wonder Under. Then I found a coordinating color of bias tape (extra wide double fold, my standard kind) to cover the raw edge.

After sewing the hidden seam, I refolded the tape once, wrapped the ends around the edges of the coaster, folded the exposed corners so no raw tape edges would show, and stitched (somewhat sloppily) in the ditch with thread in two colors from the main images.

Then I mailed them to my boyfriend, who was appreciative.

Of course, although I begin all four of them, I ran into troubles with accurate colors for one cat (Tabitha was basically done in watercolor; hard to match the subtle variegation with thread) and ran out of steam on two others. The one I completed is my sister’s dearly departed O.D., originally our eldest brother‘s until he married a woman who is allergic to cats, then living in the family home, and finally sent to my sister in college in the Cat Diaspora when our father became allergic.

Framing stitched pieces is kind of a trick. A double mat might keep the glass from flattening the stitches, but I went with a shadowbox frame – a half-inch spacer between the glass and the image. I think this is actually the first time I’ve ever framed a piece of stitching in a proper frame.

It has been a while (and, incidentally, I just realized I forgot May’s First Friday post). The mercury has been like Tigger on meth, and although this week has turned chilly and gray, the other day it was very warm and sunny. I walked around outside a fair bit that day and wished my hat were done! As a first step, I dug out the box with my materials.

The idea of this hat came from a long-lost Etsy find, beautiful reversible breezy hats with a wide brim that folds up in the front and drapes over your neck in the back. I have an enormous noggin, and none of the hats for sale would have fit me in the least. I also like a challenge, and millinery, so I decided to design my own.

The bottom of the sheet in the picture above is a bunch of head measurements. Getting the proper proportions is a matter of trial and error, however, and I’m two attempts deep on that. The muslin is ready for a third.

Take 1 was way too peaked and the brim didn’t flare enough. Take 2 was better but still a little too peaked, and had too long a brim.

Will take 3 be the final cut? (I slay me.) Stand by to find out!

It occurred to me the only reason I don’t wear it more is that the sleeves are way too long, and they don’t stay pushed up. Therefore, even if I just wash my hands quickly they are likely to get wet and annoying.

That’s an easy fix, though – I checked, and two inches would do the trick. The embroidery on one sleeve would still be completely above the new line of stitching, so it wouldn’t complicate things. I even happened to have a perfect spool of thread!

While I was at it, I thought I’d fix some damaged parts of the bottom hem in the back, as well. I took my sewing machine repairman’s advice and lowered the tension as well as shortening the stitch. Shortening the stitch was not the best plan, but I did note many fewer dropped stitches than last time I did this, so lowering the tension was a good move.

Oh well. I think the rippled texture will come out in the wash, and it’s the bottom back, so hopefully no one will be looking too hard.

The sleeves worked like magic, though. I moved the stitch length back to my usual setting, folded them up and pressed, and stitched without trimming the extra.

Trimming afterward meant I didn’t have to worry about failing to catch the raw edge while sewing. Nice and smooth and no dropped stitches!

Best of all, when I put my hands out the jacket hits at my wrist instead of my thumb.

While I was in the mood to finish things, I fixed this problem:

Oh noes! Underwire! It didn’t want to scootch back into the casing completely, so I pushed it as far as I could and covered it over with a double layer of ribbon.

This bra is nearing the end of its lifespan anyway, so I expect this fix will last as long as the rest of it does.

She (perhaps with assistance) made a whole bunch of four-patch quilt square kits, as shown above. The fabric varies from kit to kit. The ones I chose are a reproduction of a period calico, and a homespun-style fabric. The finished quilt will have squares divided by strips of plain fabric, plus a border, 4 squares by 7 squares for a finished size of 48″ by 84″ – they needed to be long to tuck under the foot of the cot. She cut enough kits for two full quilts.

Even with pressing and photographing it took me less than 10 minutes to sew the square. If you are interested in participating, quilt square kits are available at the front desk of the library and due back by May 29. We’ll have a little bee at the Sew-Op on June second to assemble the quilt faces, which will then go back to the librarian to be batted and backed. Later in the summer there will be a community event to tie the quilts, and then they may be displayed, raffled, or donated.

This bag is very similar to the half-hour reversible drawstring bag, though it has more detail and so will take a bit longer. Start with two pieces of fabric each 12.5″ by 16.5″, and fold them long edge to long edge, right sides together. Sew with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving an opening 3″ to 3.75″ away from one end. Below you can see my technique of doubling my pins on each side of the opening; it’s my special self-signal for “something different happens here.”

Press your seams open and stitch the seam allowance down. This is only necessary at the opening, but unless your thread blends well with your fabric it may need to happen all the way down the bag to avoid looking out of place. I used one of my fancy zigzags for this. Afterward, press the top down a half inch (you do not need to turn the raw edge under as in the original bag because the drawstring opening is so far from the edge).

You may choose to sew the bottom as for the original drawstring bag, but I made adjustments to eliminate flapping corners when the champagne bottle was inserted. Flatten the bottom so the seam is centered and stitch across at a half inch. The pictures below show this, and also my method of centering the seam by first folding the bag so the seam is at one end, pinching the opposite end, and then lining up the pinch with the seam.

Snip the seam allowance at the ends so you can press it open. Don’t worry about creasing the sides of the bag; this is helpful in the next step, where those creases can be lined up with the bottom seam as you pinch the bottom sides of the bag out into triangles. To eliminate the flappy corners at the bottom we’ll sew them off. Mark in 1″ from each corner and then sew perpendicularly to the bottom seam, as shown below. It won’t be square but it will be better.

To make reversing the bag easier, put the two halves foot to foot – matching the long seams! – and stitch them together just outside the previous seam line. You can see I trimmed the corners to about a half inch after the previous stitching.

Finally, pull one layer around the outside of the other and line up the top fold, with the long seams matched. Sew around the top (this is how far I got when I had to leave!), and then mark horizontal lines around the bag at each end of the gap – to leave room for my decorative stitch I marked my lines 1/8″ up and down from the opening, but for a straight stitch you could mark exactly at the ends of the opening. Make sure the two layers of the bag are lined up perfectly at the opening, and the rest of the way around nothing is bunching. Finally, thread a ribbon or piece of yarn through the casing your last two lines of stitching created, and tie it decoratively however you wish.

Of course since I was late, the champagne was gone, so I have a regular wine bottle as my model. It still works! I designed the location of the drawstring so it would hit just under the wider part of the top of the champagne bottle neck, and I can’t comment on whether that worked out, but it surely looks nice on the wine bottle.

I made one little pattern that I’ve started stitching and tweaking, so more on that later, but with one of the included alphabets I made the following:

Click the picture for the pattern in pdf. There is no overlap between the pieces of the pattern, which unfortunately is not indicated.

While you’re waiting for my full review, enjoy this little guy I whipped up last night:

That’s all a single length of yarn – no sewing or even joining.

Happy birthday to my eldest niece, who is sweet 16 today!

Anyway. Back in early February I made some stuffed vegetables. They have a high fanciness to difficulty ratio – although there is a lot of washing and chopping, not to mention dirty dishes, nothing requires precision or even measuring. This time around I bought the smallest green peppers I could find, sliced them in half stem to stern and de-ribbed them. After pre-cooking them for about ten minutes in the toaster oven, wrapped in foil and with water in them, I set them in a muffin tin and filled them with a mixture of brown rice, sauteed sweet onion, portobello, garlic, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire, and soy sauce.

I also bought Roma tomatoes, which I had never stuffed before. I sliced out the top middle with a knife and then used a spoon to scoop out the insides. I figured tomatoes didn’t need pre-cooking, so I just went ahead and stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese, frozen corn, chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, cilantro, and salt. I put water in the empty muffin compartments and cooked them at 350 for about 25 minutes – with stuffed veggies the insides should be essentially done before stuffing, so the cooking heats them through, melds the flavors a bit, and cooks the container vegetable.

My standard cornbread from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything rounded out dinner.

Last week I had guests, my sister and brother-in-law, so there was some cooking. I would like to share with you the recipe for Suzy-Q cake filling. To make a Suzy-Q cake, take a chocolate layer cake, frost between the layers with the filling below, and then frost the top and outside of the cake with chocolate frosting. You could also make a Twinkie cake with yellow cake and white frosting, or, I suppose, a Sno-Ball cake with white cake and frosting covered generously with coconut. I don’t know where the recipe originally came from, but this was our most commonly-requested birthday cake when I was growing up, so my mother made it many times; this was my first. We celebrated my sister’s birthday on their trip, so I bought a small chocolate cake from the store, sliced it in half with dental floss (my mother always used sewing thread but I was trying to be surreptitious and floss was closer at hand), and filled it with this. We discovered it is also very good on chocolate wafer cookies and gingersnaps.

Suzy-Q Cake Filling
Makes enough for a four-layer 8″ or 9″ round cake.
1. In a small heavy saucepan, cook 5 tbsp flour and 1 c milk over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Beat 1 c sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 c shortening, and 1/2 c margarine or butter (softened) until fluffy.
3. Add cooled flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat until fluffy.
4. Add 1 tsp vanilla to filling and beat until fluffy.

Enjoy!