Tag: American Sewing Guild

Sewing Presents

It is getting close to Christmas, and I am way behind on my Christmas sewing. Yesterday I finally got cranking. I decided to make some microwave bowl cozies, and I got six of them done. It requires a special batting that is 100% cotton, no polyester at all. The 42 x 36” piece I had was cut into 12 squares, 10” each. Each cozie needs 2 pieces of batting and 2 pieces of fabric. See how the bowl fits? I made 3 of the green/orange fabrics and 3 of the coffee fabrics.

26B0B04B-0057-44FC-915A-041662E285D25E96E599-57A2-48C9-8E12-9A15DD0B5EFFF05B0321-12C3-4850-9813-F78EB162A12A

I also made some bibs for my grandson. These should have been made months ago, but I was having trouble finding the ribbing that goes around the neckline. I finally found some at a local quilt store of all places!

C2E99C1A-4EE7-4ACC-B5D9-9F118CAE3914

I am going to write my directions down here because I modify the ones I have found online. I use hand towels, not finger tip towels. I fold them of the way to make the center of the neckline. In this case, it was 10”. I then cut a circle out using the a CD for a pattern. I also cut 13” of ribbing. The ribbing is sewn into a circle using a 1/4” seam. I then quarter mark both the ribbing and the towel, applying the ribbing with a faux serger stitch on the Bernina. I used to use my serger, but the sewing machine is much easier for the small openings. I also top stitch the ribbing to make sure it stays turned over correctly.

I will take one of the bibs and one of the cozies for tonight’s American Sewing Guild meeting. We are having a holiday dinner instead of a regular meeting, but Sew and Tell always happens! Over the next few days I will make some more cozies, and that should do for Christmas sewing.

Antelope Island (again) plus the sewing show

I spent five hours at the Utah Quilting and Sewing Marketplace show yesterday.  Four of those I staffed the booth for American Sewing Guild, and one hour I had lunch and shopped. I didn’t get anything cool (just needles and bobbins for my quilting machine – 20% off!) so I didn’t take pictures. I then took a trip to Ikea to get some more storage containers for the trailer and headed home. Since nothing at Ikea is quick, it was a long day. I baked some nice salmon with a honey and mustard glaze that was tasty.

Kevin decided he wanted to try again to see the bison calves at Antelope Island so we took off about 6:30 for the 30 minute trip. What a good choice! We saw our first deer while still on the causeway; it was running along side us. I guess folks who say early dusk is the best time to see animals are right – we saw deer, pronghorn, coyotes, and lots and lots of bison. The nursery herd had finally gotten a bit closer to humans. Not too close as you can see from the picture (take with a zoom), but at least we could see them. Notice some low and some still high on the hills.

This picture was taken with my new camera. It is definitely better than my iPhone, and I have discovered how to transfer the pictures wirelessly. No more having to fire up the computer, pull out a memory card, transfer to computer, then transfer to the iPad! I love it.

The Wasatch Mountains still have their heads covered in snow. This is looking across Farmington Bay.

Again it was a zoom from the new camera. The next one was a lovely surprise. This is taken looking west from the Island. The best sunsets in the Salt Lake Valley are from Antelope Island.

Today we pack the trailer for the trip to California. Tomorrow we are having a natural gas line run into the kitchen and the new stove put in. Samsung, dual fuel (gas range, electric oven) with 5 burners all of varying BTU so you can simmer a sauce while boiling another big pot of water for pasta. I am pretty pumped! We have an old builder grade electric stove with a glass top that I just hate. I much prefer gas so I can judge the heat much easier.

Volunteer sewing with American Sewing Guild

Big sewing day today, and we got so much done! The local American Sewing Guild activity ended up making 70 completed medical dolls. We had between eight and ten sewing machines and sergers going from 10:00 – 4:00, plus between five to ten non-sewers turning and stuffing the doll bodies. There were another 19 doll bodies completed just waiting on clothes. I took a number of doll bodies home with me to finish to go with clothes I have already cut out. It should keep me busy for a while. Others took doll bodies and cut out clothes. I would imagine we will eventually donate another 30-40 completed dolls.

Here are the 70 completed dolls.

Notice how plain they are? The children are able to color the dolls to look like them. Here are a couple of examples. That is why we try to have lots of shades of doll bodies. We can’t make dark ones because the crayons don’t show up on them. The darker tan is the compromise.

The dolls go to Primary Children’s Hospital in SLC. A big thanks to Floyd and Lizzie’s Sewing Center for letting us use their space. They also contributed quite a bit of muslin for doll bodies.

Charity sewing and yummy food

Today I spent four hours with other members of the local American Sewing Guild at an “open sew” meeting. We meet once a month just to sew and talk. The projects are whatever you want to do, and I always use the time to do charity projects. I have been sewing medical dolls, complete with little hospital gowns. Today I concentrated on making dolls, and a lovely woman next to me decided she would cut out gowns from fabric I brought. She also marked the doll body pattern on a bunch of muslin I had. Tomorrow we are having five hours of sewing specifically to make medical dolls. It will be great to have so many items already cut out and ready to sew. I will post pictures of the group result tomorrow. The hospital needs hundreds of these a year, so it is a good group project. I also like to make these while camping. They are small and easy to sew in small pieces of time. That’s what I will do with the left over pieces I don’t get sewn this time. I also have a new quilt I am getting cut out. I can piece it while we travel.

We also made wonderful beans in the Instant Pot. I have never been a big fan of beans, but these were wonderful. The pinto beans were seasoned with bacon, onions, garlic, chipotle, and green chili. We had grilled hot dogs with them.

It was warm enough we ate on the front porch. While the temperature was only 50 degrees, the western sun made it quite toasty!