Weekend sewing fun

I sure love weekends!  Especially when I get to spend them sewing.  I learned to sew in high school, starting with "Introduction to Sewing" in 7th or 8th grade, continuing on through "Advanced Tailoring" in 12th grade.  I wonder...do kids today still have that same opportunity?  I sure hope so!

Back then, I wasn't preparing for college, because it just wasn't something I thought could happen.  Luckily though, I did end up going to college and getting my four year accounting degree.  That degree allowed me to have a very rewarding career that I'm looking forward to retiring from next summer.  While my college degree made my life easier financially, my sewing skills are what's really brought me joy in life.  I'm so thankful to those teachers who taught me so well.

I haven't taken a sewing class since then (40 years ago...yikes!) but this coming week, I'm going to my first quilting class with my boss.  She promises it will be fun, and I'm looking forward to it.  When thinking about preparing for class, it occurred to me that I didn't really have a tote bag to carry quilting class supplies in.  So this weekend I made myself one using a pattern that I had pinned a while back on Pinterest. You can see it here.  I altered the pattern to make the finished bag 12" x 14" because the 8" by 10" size just wasn't going to suit my needs.  I liked the style though and the project was easy....start to finish in one afternoon.  Here's the finished result - hope the quilt i make in quilting class turns out as pretty as the bag :)

I also spent some time this weekend creating a baby girl gift set.  Anyone who has been following my blog over the past six months knows that I've made a whole lot of boy gifts, and it sure felt good to get back to "girly" things today.  There's just something irresistible about baby girl things!  Here's the newest inventory item for my future Etsy shop.  It's a burp cloth made of 100% cotton in a darling chevron print, backed with absorbent 100% cotton terry cloth, with a sweet, sleepy owl centered on a matching patch.  I've also included a 3-6 month 100% combed cotton onesie made in the USA by American Apparel  with a matching applique; and what gift set would be complete without a matching pacifier clip!  I love it!  Hope you do too!

"Beaches in Mind"

It happens to all of us.  We've all had at least one classic craft fail.  Here's the story of mine.  Not to worry though, it has a happy ending.  It started with something I saw on Pinterest (of course).  Here's the photo from the original pin.  I'll fully admit, that I didn't follow the directions, so I'm in no way saying that it couldn't work the way described.  However, I have this thing against Mod Podge.  I've never had good luck with it (am I doing something wrong? I don't think so, but admit it may be possible!)  So, being anti-Mod Podge, I decided that I would use double-sided scrapbook adhesive to attach the pictures I had chosen to the canvas.  It was looking good! I was feeling pretty proud...but then, the final step, putting the copper-looking foil between the pictures.  This is when things went terribly wrong! I saw them going bad but kept going, hoping for everything to fall together in the end.  Well, it didn't.  The pictures were not attached to the canvas firmly enough, they were not laying flat, the copper tape was not laying flat.  To be honest, it was now looking horrible!  Not one to give up, I kept hoping maybe I was being over critical.  I gave it a day to sit while I pondered where I had gone wrong and what I could do to correct the problems with it.  I came to the conclusion that there was nothing that could be done to fix it.  The only way to get the end result I was hoping for was to start over.  So, I ripped all the photos and the foil tape off the canvas and headed back to Michaels.

I decided that to get the look I was going for, the canvas was the first problem.  It was too flexible, and there was no way that the photos would adhere to it without using Mod Podge or something like it.  Still being very anti-Mod Podge, I had to look for an alternative.  I ended up choosing a 24 x 36 inch white poster frame.  The original project was 24 x 30, but since my pictures were 6 inch square, another 6 inches really didn't matter.  It just added a row of pictures, and I decided it looked better sideways than lengthwise. The backing in the frame was good and solid (much more conducive to attaching photos using double sided adhesive).  I used Scotch Double-Sided Removable Scrapbooking Tape.  It took two 8.33 yard rolls, and wasn't the cheapest product I've ever used, but it worked beautifully.  I stuck rows of the tape all across the frame back in about two inch row intervals.  Then, as I placed a row of photos, I peeled off the tape backing a row at a time.  The photos were easy to place, could be re-positioned if necessary, and stayed perfectly flat once attached.

Thankfully, I had plenty of photos from three years worth of the "page-a-day Islands gallery calendars" which I've been holding onto because they were just too beautiful to throw away.

Now, the final step was to get the decorative tape between the rows.  Since this is when the last attempt had started to fail, I was a little concerned.  However, never having been one to give up, I crossed my fingers and kept going.  I hadn't really liked the copper foil look with these pictures, so this time I opted for white, to match the white frame and hopefully look a bit like window panes.  I used a product  called Recollections Mounting Tape.  It was double sided and acid free.  I placed it between the picture rows, and just didn't remove the white covering of the double sided tape.  If Michaels web site had a more comprehensive list of the products they sell, I would link to it, but I couldn't locate it online.  I found it easily in the store however.  It comes in 15 ft. x 1/4 inch packages.  I used two packages.  Now, the final step, putting it in the frame.  So far so good.  I was starting to feel confident now!

So, here's the final product.  Granted, it really doesn't look like the original Pinterest pin, but I love it!  It really looks exactly how I was hoping it would.  Other than the original fail, this project went really quick.  I had the whole second try done in one evening.  I've named it "Beaches in Mind" after the title of a Beach Boys song on their new album "That's Why God Made the Radio".  It's a beautiful song that matches this project perfectly!.