inspiration strikes

Last night I had a thought. That thought turned into action and in no time I had the little card table out and about again after a long hiatus. Hello there, iron! Long time. 

It went like this: as I was icing various bits and pieces with a frozen Gatorade bottle, I sat and wondered how I would be able to more easily ice my neck. That thought led me to remembering the wonderful little wraps the ladies at the nail salon put around everyone's necks while they work. They are lovely tubes of fabric all warm and cozy. Light bulb -- I've heard of those being used cold, too. Bingo. 

I had some time left to wait for some things to dry in the dryer, so I decided to putter around with the sewing machine and make one. I started out looking at my stash of cottons, but got to wondering if flannel would be a nice alternative. After sifting through my scrap bucket I came up with this lovely piece left over from Dave's laptop case. It was about 18" square, which seemed long enough to use. I cut the piece down to 18" x 9" and ironed it before folding it lengthwise. 

Starting on a short side at the fold I sewed along a full short side, the long side, and about an inch of the second short side using a straight stitch. After that, I followed it up with a zig zag stitch in the seam allowance to stabilize it a bit more given that there will be bits of rice pushing their way along the seams. I used a 1/2" seam on the long side and the edge of the presser foot, maybe 3/8", as the guide on the short sides just to try to make it as long as possible. 

Once my tube was turned inside out and pressed again I wandered into the kitchen to find some rice. We have one of those big 20 lb bags hanging around so it was easy to just grab a funnel and start pouring. 

And pouring. And pouring. I actually filled it up a bit too much at first so ended up dumping some back out. You want enough rice in there to wrap around your neck without all the rice ending up at the ends and none in the middle, but not so much that the tube isn't flexible and wrapping becomes difficult. I used about 1.5 lb of rice when all was said and done. 

All nice and filled, I took the tube back to the sewing machine and stitched the end closed with the same two lines of stitching as the other sides only this time I did the zig zag centered on the straight stitching because after folding in, it seemed like I had very little fabric to work with. Just doing whatever works. 

When I took the fabric and threw it in the microwave, Dave sat up and wondered "what ARE you doing, wife?" So I grinned and threw the wrap around his neck when it came out and told him "well this one's for you!" He proceeded to walk around sporting his new neck wrap and a happy grin, understanding that this contraption gave free, warm neck hugs. 

Of course this meant I had to make one more. I found some gray polka dot flannel and did the same thing over, except this time my fabric was about 21" long. (This would be a great use for a set of fat quarters.) So after a short bout of sewing, I've got a happy little pair!

To warm them, I just put them in the microwave for 1 minute on "express cook" which I imagine is "high". I haven't tried it cold yet, but I think you can just stick them in the freezer for a bit to cool them down. I'll be trying that in the next few days. 

I'll close with today's chuckle, an outtake that every cat owner will nod at and understand: 

sachet solution

After riding in the California sunshine, helmets can get rather.... icky. Think about it, a big piece of foam wrapped in velvet around your head while you exert yourself beyond the craziest pilates tape you've ever seen on top of an animal you can stand next to in a snow storm to keep warm. Sweating bullets is an actual thing. I know. 

Anyway, a friend of mine at the barn mentioned to me that at her old barn they bought lavender sachets to pop in their helmets after they'd dried out. Knowing my non-horsey hobbies, she suggested that I could probably make them. Indeed! Birthdays for both this friend and my riding instructor are coming up in the next week, so I decided to whip up a couple to go with the knitted cowls I've been working on. 

The barn colors of the group I'm a part of are dark blue and silver/gray, so I pulled out my blue and neutral scrap jars. After all, they don't need to be big to fit in a helmet, and it's always satisfying to use up little bits and pieces for small projects like this. 

I cut strips of random widths from 1-2" and sewed them together into blocks which I trimmed into 4" x 4.5"rectangles. For the backs I took a long strip of linen I found in my scraps and cut it into shorter strips which I pieced in the same way. (this is not necessary... if I had linen scraps large enough to cut out big enough rectangle pieces, I wouldn't have bothered with reorganizing the strip of fabric)

I sewed the fronts and backs to each other, pivoting at the corners and leaving a gap of about an inch and a half or so open on one side. The corner seams were snipped, and the pockets were turned inside out then pressed. I use a crochet hook on most of my projects to poke out the corners; I find it doesn't poke through the fabric the same way I always seem to end up doing with knitting needles. 

Using a funnel I filled the sachets with lavender, maybe about 1/2 cup each, ish. This is really just preference. I wanted the sachets to be full but not too firm or too floppy when I closed them. Goldilocks... just right.

This lavender is quite amazing -- I bought it at a street market in Aix-en-Provence a couple years ago and it still smells! Like super strong. It has been keeping my craft cabinet smelling lovely while I find uses for it. And it's such a nice memory. I highly recommend purchasing craft supplies on trips!

Since I want these to be able to hang on hooks when the helmet is in use, I added loops of ribbon into the seam before I closed them up. I had every intention of hand sewing the opening closed, but when I decided on the ribbon I also decided to just top stitch it to make life easier. I stitched two lines close to each other to make it more decorative, but of course it's also functional in that the ribbon is quite secure. 

I quite like how these turned out. All told, they took maybe 20 minutes to make, and most of that was fiddling with the lavender. I hope they are well received (and that they help out our helmets)!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday

Lone Star hexagon

This September I am one of two 'queen bees' in the Bee Sew Modern bunch. I've put together a tutorial for the block I am requesting everyone take a shot at. So first off, thank you guys! I hope you enjoy making this block; I certainly had fun with my test block. It looks like a lot of steps, but it isn't really. I just included a lot of pictures and explanation for clarity's sake.

I'm calling it a Lone Star Hexagon, and it is inspired by a photo I 'favorited' on Flickr this summer. The project shown at the link is scrappier than the ones we'll be making. I thought I'd make it easier on ourselves by taking advantage of strip piecing instead of cutting and sewing all the diamonds together individually. This technique, and the resulting ordered arrangement of prints, is often used in making traditional Lone Star blocks (which are usually 8 pointed stars, not 6) hence the borrowed name.

A note: I have never sewn with diamonds or equilateral triangles before sitting down to figure this block out, and I survived. The key is to be gentle. No pulling! (Hard for me, I tend to tug while lining up edges.) My points aren't 100% perfect in every way, nor did my hexagon turn out perfectly when I assembled the whole thing. These measurements leave plenty of room for trimming the background. 

All seams are 1/4", please press them open (I'm usually a to-the-side presser, but it makes things nicer here if they're open.)

Part 1: Fabric

Pick one fabric for the background (solid or simple print with no more than two colors, e.g. black and white). 

Pick out 5 prints for the star (a solid or two is ok, but please use at least 3 prints). You'll need 2" strips at least 18" long.

I would like the colors to fall into the general scheme below. There are lots of colors to choose from; any combination of them is ok with me. Please avoid red in any of your fabrics.

Part 2: Diamond Nine Patches

After you read this, if you would like more information check out this lone star tutorial for 45 degree diamond patches, which I used as a rough guide for piecing my 60 degree diamonds and writing this section. 

From the 5 prints, decide the order you would like them to be in the final star. For reference, #1 will be the center, #3 will have the most diamonds in the final block, and #5 will be the outer tips.

Cut 2" x 18" strips (can be longer, but I wouldn't go shorter than 18"):

     1 each from fabrics #1, #5

     2 each from fabrics #2, #4

     3 strips from fabric #3

Sew your strips together lengthwise in sets of 3 as follows: 

      set A - #1/#2/#3          set B - #2/#3/#4           set C - #3/#4/#5

Cut off one edge to make a 60 degree angle and use this edge to create 2" wide blocks of pieced diamonds. The extra length (an inch or so) allows you to trim slightly if you need to to maintain the 60 degree angle with each cut. Sometimes sewing the strips together can lead to distortion of the perfect lines. Accurate angles are important, so check each time before you cut. 

Cut 6 of these from each strip set. 

Each diamond nine patch will be made from 3 blocks, one from each set. Before sewing these together, I used a little trick to help me line everything up for accurate points. Take two sets (B and either A or C) and trim off a scant 1/4" triangle from one end. (Note: do not trim the diamonds made from fabrics #1 or #5, you'll want those points for alignment later)

Feel free to use your own method of obtaining accurate points while piecing diamonds. This was just something that helped me a lot. 

Make sure to line up the 60 degree line with one long edge of the diamond strip before cutting. In other words, you're cutting off a little equilateral triangle, not a right triangle. 

Now placing two diamond strips right sides together, you just have to line up this little blunt edge to match the angle of the first diamond on the strip, sew with an accurate 1/4" seam, and your points should be aligned correctly when you open everything up and press. 

The seams will look offset by about 1/4" at the edge you will sew. (These are just example strips I photographed, don't pay attention to the order of colors here.)

Do not line up the seams along the edge as shown below, your points will be misaligned. 

Make 6 nine patches this way. 

The hard part is done! Now comes the fun part --- decide which way you want your star to go. I originally started out intending to make my block with the script print in the center and the peach on the outer tips. 

Then just to check I flipped the diamond patches around and ended up with this arrangement, which I liked much better. The moral? You can always change your mind. No big deal. 

Part 3: Background triangles

Cut 12 equilateral triangles that are 6" tall (from point to middle of one side) from your background fabric. 

How I did it: 

Cut 6" wide strips from the background fabric. I chose 6" because it is close to the completed size of the diamond blocks and the width of my rotary cutting ruler. Cut a 60 degree angle at one end and use this edge as a guide to cut 6" wide diamonds the same way as the 2" strips of diamonds above. Cut the diamond in half along the short axis and you end up with 2 equilateral triangles.

Each diamond nine patch gets two of these triangles sewn to it along the outer edges (i.e. the edges that have fabrics #3, 4, and 5).

Cut a scant 1/4" piece off of one point of each triangle in the same manner as described above. Again using the same idea, line up the blunted point of the triangle with the diamond of fabric #3 and sew the seam starting from fabric #3 working your way to the outer edge of the block (this helps with stretching). 

Your resulting piece should be a bigger equilateral triangle. Don't worry if the outer edges of the background are a little wonky. We'll trim. 

Part 4: Assembling the hexagon

Sew three of your large triangle units together starting from the center and stitching towards the outside. This time DO match up the seams of the nine patches along the edges to ensure your points behave. 

Sew the other three units together the same way. You now have two halves of a hexagon. Match up the long seam, again ensuring your nine patch seams match up along the whole length, and stitch together. 

I found that making two passes starting from the center and stitching out in either direction gave me good alignment of everything along the whole seam. I recommend this rather than starting at one edge and going all the way across. 

Part 5: Trimming

Trim around the hexagon edges leaving a 1/2" allowance from the outer point of the star to the middle of the hexagon side. The best way to do this is to line up your ruler with the four points of the diamond at the tip of the star and find a half inch that way. In the picture below of an already-trimmed side, you can see the half inch from the tip to 18" mark on my ruler and the cross that is aligned with the black and white diamond. Alternatively, if you would rather leave this step for me, I'm happy to trim. 

If you trim, the hexagon will end up being 10.5" on each side. 

It looks intimidating, but because of the strip piecing and cutting I found that it's actually not as complicated as it looks. My favorite part of all of your blocks was learning new skills and new designs, I hope you pick up a thing or two with this one - I sure did. Have fun with it! If anything is unclear, please feel free to message me on Flickr, send me an email, etc.