Glasses Case Tutorial!

I said a few posts back that if there was any interest in a tutorial for the strip-pieced glasses cases I made for our work Bushfire Fundraiser, I'd do a tutorial. Well ... here it is! I may have gone a bit overboard with the photos of steps, but thought it better to be safe than sorry, especially since English isn't the first language for many of you.

I'll start by prefacing this by saying I'm not a traditional quilter or patchworker - I've never attended any classes, just picked up bits and pieces as I've gone along and taught myself to do things to get a result I was after, so those who know the rules - don't stress when I break them! Tee! Hee! Hee! I also tend to develop (as I'm sure most of us do!) little shortcuts that I like to use. So, here we go!!

GLASSES CASE TUTORIAL

Step 1. Cut a rectangle of 100% cotton quilt wadding 15"x4 1/2" (38cmx12cm).


Step 2. Raid your small scraps stash to cut 10 strips measuring 4 1/2"x2" (12cmx5cm). You can cut your strips any width you wish, or that your scraps allow - it will just mean you need more or less strips to get the length needed for the case once they're joined. You could even do different widths if you don't mind whether they match at the side seams. Iron all strips.


This is my pile of 4 1/2" strips ready to be ironed.


Step 3. Lay your first strip on one short end of your wadding, face up & lining up with the edge.


Step 4. Lay your next strip face down on the first & pin in place.


Step 5. Using a 1/4" seam stitch through all three layers - two fabric strips & wadding. (had to show this photo for Stina ... lots of good things come from Sweden, including my sewing machine!! OH! And Stina, of course! Tee! Hee! Hee!)


Step 6. Fold the top strip back along the wadding & press flat. Repeat this with further strips until wadding is completely covered. (If you end up with a very small amount of wadding showing at the end, just trim it off in the next step.)

Step 7. Using a cutting mat, rotary cutter & quilter's ruler, trim your strip pieced rectangle back to approximately 14 1/2"x4 1/4" (37cmx11cm). Don't stress too much if yours is a little different, just make sure edges are straight & parallel to their opposite.


Step 8. Fold your pieced rectangle in half, short ends together & pin side seams, matching strips is possible. Stitch both side seams using a 1/4" seam, trim bottom corners being careful not to snip stitching & turn right side out so that it looks like ...


Be sure you push the bottom corners through fully.

Step 9. LINING: Cut a rectangle of lining fabric 14 1/4"x4" (36.5cmx10cm) & press flat.


Step 10. With right sides together, fold lining in half with short ends together. Pin side seams, leaving a 2" (5cm) gap to turn the case through later. If you're like me & sometimes forget, put a pin a different direction in the gap to make you stop stitching. (see above) Leave lining inside-out & trim bottom corners as for the case.


Step 11. STRAP (optional): If you just want to pop your glasses into the case on a desk or in your handbag, you may not need a strap, but it can be handy. I have a similar case hanging just inside the back door & when I come into the house, I slip my sunglasses into it so I don't waste a lot of time searching for them when I need to go out again! It also makes a handy mobile phone or MP3 player pouch if you want to go walking. Cut a length of ribbon (your choice of width) aprox. 50" (128cm) long. Pin one end of the ribbon to each side seam so the cut edge points up & the loop of ribbon hangs down, as in the photo above.


Step 12. Making sure the strap is pushed down out of the way, slip the glasses case inside the inside-out lining, matching side seams & pinning around the rim.

Step 13. Carefully machine stitch around the rim of the case using a 1/4" seam. I found this easiest to do by sewing from the inside & working slowly. This will also stitch the strap ends in place.


Step 14. Using the gap in the lining you left open earlier, turn the glasses case AND lining right-side-out so it looks like the photo above. Make sure the bottom corners of the lining come through properly. Slipstitch turning gap closed.


Step 15. Push the lining inside the glasses case, making sure the strap is out where it needs to be. Work the rim between your fingers to get it to sit flat & straight. Pin & top stitch around the rim with thread to match your strips, being careful to keep the strap stretched out so it doesn't get tucked under & sewn in by accident.

Step 16. Gently press glasses case. The case is ready to use as it is, but if you want, you can sew a press clip on the inside of the case at the top to keep glasses from tipping out & decorate the front with a pretty button, as I've done with this version.


Ta da!! Your finished glasses case! Handy and pretty, this is a quick gift idea that will also help use up some of those little pieces of fabric that aren't big enough to be very useful, but are too pretty to throw away. If you wanted to get creative, you could incorporate lace, rick-rack, embroidery, beads ... whatever embellishments you have on hand ... to make your glasses case even more individual.

I hope you enjoy making your own versions of my strip pieced glasses case and if you do make one ... or some! ... I'd love you to send me a photo to admire! For now ... I'm off to do a bit of Secret Squirrel stitching - in between answering emails from OPAM participants who are sending their End Of Month reports to me. I always try to send little replies back to anyone who emails or leaves a comment on my blog. The only ones who won't hear back from me are the "No Reply" commenters - cos I can't find you!! If you've set your blogging comments as "No Reply" and really don't want to change it, but would like a reply, make sure you include your email address in your comment so I can get back to you. Or if you don't know HOW to change your "No Reply" status, pop over and see Chookyblue, as she has some handy blogging hints including how to deal with this issue. (I usually just yell for my beloved Geek Boy! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Hope you're having a great weekend and sneaking in some stitching - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

More No-Blog Photos!

I know ... don't fall over in shock because I'm posting two days in a row!! I promised you some more photos from some of our No-bloggers who are taking part in May Britt's and my One Project A Month (OPAM) Challenge and here I am to deliver! But first, I thought I'd skite a bit and show you what I've put together to send off to Karen at Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop for the bushfire quilts of comfort.


Pretty bright, huh!! Tee! Hee! Hee! I purposely went looking through my stash for bright, cheerful colours for blocks that could be a child's quilt. This one, as is, will make a great crawl rug or if Karen has some more bright blocks to add, maybe a cot quilt. I hope it cheers up a little one who doesn't understand what the fires have meant, except that they don't have their favourite dolly or bear, or blankie ... you know what I mean, those little things that comfort children but may not have been important to parents worrying only about getting their family out safely. Karen and her girls are doing a great job of collecting blocks and tops to make into quilts and have been given great support with donations. Pop over and catch up on her updates.

OK, onto the No-Blogger photos. Some of these have been waiting since last month to be shown off and some are February finishes - I'm kind of waiting to gather a few before posting them. It just seems a shame not to share some of the talent amongst our No-Bloggers just cos they don't have a blog. (though a few have started blogging through the Challenge - YAY!)


This is Mary's Bears in the Wood wall hanging - gotta love bears, right!!


Mary's been busy, cos this is another of her finishes - a quilt to be donated to a youth shelter - good on you Mary!


Isn't this AMAZING!! The amount of work and the GORGEOUS colours in this quilt, again made by Mary, make this a very special quilt! Whenever I see wedding ring quilts, I drool a little (OK, a lot!!) and would love to have a try at making one some day, but not sure my very basic patch working skills are up to it! Maybe one day!


Stacia's been at it again, here are three more purse organisers she's made.


This eye-catching rug was another of Stacia's finishes. She made this shaggy rug for her brother who is on active service with one of the armed services (sorry Stacia, can't remember which one you told me!). What a lovely reminder of home for him!


And Stacia also added this button cushion to her lounge room, which now boasts several soft furnishing items in the yummy apricot colour.


Tudy has come up with a clever way to recycle an unworn cardie - make a creative cushion from it! Cool!


Uuni has also been busy - this is a very cool coffee-themed bag she has made, simple but really striking! You can almost feel the caffeine jolt! Tee! Hee! Hee!


And this lovely, warm wall hanging is another of Uuni's finishes.

So ... there you go ... a bit of an update on the photos I've been receiving. And there are HEAPS more WONDERFUL, INSPIRING, GORGEOUS projects appearing on people's blogs, so it's worth your while to make a cuppa and go for a little cyber visit through the list of participants in my sidebar. Just a reminder, too, to make sure you keep your sidebar list up-to-date with your finishes, cos that's where May Britt and I will be checking at the end of the month to put people in the prize draw. And if you're able to email a summary of your February finishes to me or May Britt to update the spreadsheet, that would be a great help.

Just a reminder ... ALL finishes count, whether it's a project you've had in the cupboard for years or if you only thought about making it yesterday. (of course you'd have to think about it then FINISH it to count, but you know what I mean!!!)

And now ... I'm off to work on the second half of the Secret Squirrel project I'll be teaching at Marian's "Girls Getaway Weekend" next month. Overcast weather here today makes for a perfect stitching-in-front-of-DVD's day! Have a great weekend whatever you're up to! Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

What I Did At Work ...

Some people dread going to work, but I really LOVE my job! For those of you who don't know, I work four mornings a week as an Admin Assistant at a retirement village at Highfields, about 20 minutes drive north of Toowoomba - which is one of the reasons I spend so much time at the Quilter's Angel visiting Marian and Steph ... it's just SOOOOOOOOOO handy on my way home! Tee! Hee! Hee! One of the reasons I love my job is that I feel like I've gained a very large extended family since starting work - OK, so I now have around 70 adopted grandparents!! Tee! Hee! Hee! And one of the things that has just blown me away since becoming a part of this large extended family is the generosity of the residents in our village!! That was reinforced yesterday when we had a "Bring & Buy" morning tea to raise money for the bushfire appeal.

The idea was that everyone who wanted to be involved brought something to put on a stall for sale - it could be something you'd made, something new you'd never used or even 'white elephant' items that may have been someone else's new treasure. I spent some time in my sewing room to make some patchwork glasses pouches.

They were a great, quick way to use some fabric scraps to make little giftie projects. None of them actually sold, but one of the residents pointed out that most of them don't take their glasses off except to sleep, so they don't really need a pretty case! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hadn't thought about that! Ah well, I'm going to keep one for my computer glasses (anti-glare!) and keep the rest in my birthday box cos they make great sunglasses cases to keep in a handbag! (Hmmm ... if there's any interest, I could post a tutorial?!?) However I digress ....!!

We had a lovely morning with about 40 people coming along to enjoy a shared morning tea and see what goodies there were to buy from our stall - most people said they went home with more than they brought! :0) Here are some photos of our morning ...

Here are some people checking out the goodies on the B&B stall.

People enjoyed a cup of tea together ...

And a chat!

You know how in every old western movie they show a bench outside the local saloon with a couple of old blokes sitting there watching the world go by and solving the world's problems? Well we had our own version! Tee! Hee! Hee! Oops! Except for Tony on the left there ... not so old!! He's our groundsman/handyman/general dogsbody!! He loves it when we have morning teas cos he gets home-made goodies!! :0)

Altogether, with donations and sale of items, we raised $380 for the morning, so together with other donations that have come in, our little village has raised around $3,500!! Not bad for somewhere where most of the residents are on a pension, hey!! And the best bit? Organising and being at the morning tea was part of my job! Did I mention I REALLY love my job! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Day off today, but it seems to have disappeared without getting too many jobs crossed off my "To Do" list. However, I reckon I've got an hour or so before I have to go pick my beloved Geek Boy up from work, so I think I'll head for the sewing room to work on those quilt blocks to send down to Karen at Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop! Hope you've all had a great week, whatever you've been up to. Will be back in the next day or so to share some more OPAM Challenge photos that have been emailed from some no-blogger's! Have a great weekend! Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Mail From Milan!

I'd barely got home today from lunch with my dancing buddies Lynda and Deb (none of us actually get to belly dance classes anymore, but that's where we met, so, 'dancing buddies'!) when someone was dinging my doorbell. Oooooohhhh!! A parcel courier!! Well, I'd been expecting a parcel, so you can bet I was pretty excited, and sure enough ... it was the parcel that Cristina from Milan (no blog) had told me to expect!!

Most of you will know that when I took part in Helen's Stitchers' Angel Swap, my parter sent me a stitching giftie on time, but it's currently touring the world courtesy of Hungarian Post (hmmm ... not sure that's what they are really called, but you know what I mean!!) and after Helen posted a list of us who hadn't received a giftie, I had three lovely ladies offer to send me make-up gifties! Joy and Marie-Joze` have already spoilt me with lovely parcels and Cristina was the third generous stitcher to offer a make-up giftie. We've been cyber chatting via email for a while now, getting to know each other (and I've been treated to lovely photos of Cristina's family!!) and last week Cristina said she'd sent my parcel with the courier. She then teased me with an update that it had reached Singapore on the weekend .... ooooooooohhh!! The suspense was nearly killing me!! Tee! Hee! Hee! so now you know why I was so excited to see the courier today! (I did manage to refrain from hugging him, I'm not sure his nerves would have coped with a strange woman launching herself at him! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

I opened up my much-awaited parcel and found ...


WOW!! A wonderful, big stitching folder that has the cutest dolly and teddy bear on the front - and they obviously enjoy stitching too! And there was a sweet little bag for storing buttons, with some wonderful bear-shaped buttons to get me started, a handy little pin cushion and some burgundy rick-rack - all featuring teddy bears somewhere, in the stitcheries or in the buttons on them! How wonderful ... but wait, there's more! Look inside the folder ...


Some very handy pockets to store thread, patterns etc and the felt patches to store needles are also shaped like teddy bears!! Hmmm ... if I pop my needles and pins into these cute shapes, they will look like piercings and I'll have the only punk bears for miles around! Tee! Hee! But wait ... there's MORE!!!


A lovely cross-stitch magazine and a postcard featuring a historic Italian castle. And although I can't READ the magazine (unless I take a crash course in Italian!!) I CAN follow the patterns and there are some super cute patterns in here, too! Uh oh!! There goes my "To Do" list, growing like Pinnocio's nose! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much, Cristina!! I feel VERY spoilt - AGAIN!! And another thank you to Joy and Marie-Joze` for the wonderful surprise parcels they sent me, too. When these gals contacted me, I said we'd make it a little mini-swap, so guess who now needs to get stitching!! I think that's enough to keep me busy for a little while! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And of course, I'm still working on blocks to send off to Karen at Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop to be made into quilts of hope for the victims of the recent bushfire disaster. There are a number of different bloggers co-ordinating quilts of hope/quilts of comfort, so if you'd like to be involved, there's lots to choose from. In fact, some people were getting a little confused, so Helen has published a blog page listing many of the appeals/block collections etc, so pop over for a peek if you'd like to contribute, but don't quite know which direction to take. Peg's blogging buddy Lorraine (sorry I don't have the link, but pop in to Peg's blog as she does!) is organising a collection of stitching/craft supplies to make up Sanity Saver packs to go to people affected by the fires. So, I've been rummaging through my craft supplies to find some handy bits and bobs to send off. Man oh man! My mate Raymond at the Post office is going to LOOOOOOOVE me this week! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's weekend, whether you got all gooey and sentimental, or like my beloved Geek Boy and I, gave each other a smooch and bought chocolates on special when we did the groceries!! I had a very productive stitching weekend ... but can't show you ANY of it yet, cos they are all Secret Squirrel projects!! Aaaaaarrrghhh!! The Suspense!! :0) So I hope you don't explode before I can show you!! Til next time (provided you don't explode from unsatisfied curiosity! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS

The People You Meet!

Now, last time I posted, I teased you a little by saying that I'd met up with another of my bloggy buddies, but didn't tell you WHO. What if I told you she lives on a farm in NSW, has two kids, is addicted to fabric (Oh, hang on, that includes MOST of my bloggy buddies! Tee! Hee! Hee!), loooooooooves Christmas, loves chooks and the colour BLUE ... bet those last two clues gave it away!

On Monday afternoon, my mobile rang and it was none other than Chookyblue. She said she was passing through Toowoomba on her way to Brisbane and wondered if I'd like to meet up with her at the Village Green. Well, gee, it would be a REAL hardship to meet for a cuppa and look at fabric!!!! So, we did indeed meet up and even though I'd never seen a photo, I recognised Chookyblue straight away - and she obviously recognised me too - or she'd been waving to every strange woman who wandered up, hoping that eventually someone would wave back!! :0) Just kidding!! I was introduced to Bookworm and the three of us sat down to enjoy a cold drink - it was Toowoomba's hottest day so far this summer, reaching around 38 degrees Celsius! I told Chookyblue she must have brought the hot weather with her! Tee! Hee! Hee! She admired the wonderful valley views down into the Lockyer Valley that you can enjoy from the back verandah of the Chocolate Cottage and said she now sees why I meet my friends there so often!

And no visit to the Village Green would be complete without a visit to Marian and Steph at Quilters Angel. So, it's Chookyblue's fault that some fabric followed me home!! (Funny, my beloved Geek Boy didn't believe that either!!!) Here's what I bought ...


I loooooooooove the "Oh Cherry Oh" fabrics!! The yummy red cherries will go with the layercake from the same range that I bought before Christmas and the green spot is one I use on a lot of projects ... including a Secret Squirrel one .... SHHHHHH!! I was so much fun to meet up with Chookyblue and Bookworm and we had a lovely time chatting - and shopping of course!! And I've decided chatting to Chookyblue in person is just like reading her blog. And now, whenever we're chatting via blogs or emails, we'll each have a mental picture of the other. Hmmm ... that may be scarier for Chookyblue than me! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thanks for coming to visit, Chooky!!!

I also found a little something in my sewing room this week that I'd kind of forgotten about (actually, there's probably a LOT of things in my sewing room I've forgotten exist cos it's been so long since I've seen them! Tee! Hee! Hee!)


This is a knitted blanket my mother-in-law made for me after I saw the pattern in a magazine. See ... I TOLD you I love anything featuring Noah's Ark!! I'll share some close-ups of the blocks.


These cute, cheeky monkeys are my favourite, I think!


Here's the lions ... and it occurs to me that each 'pair' of animals was supposed to be a 'Him' and a 'Her', but unless Mrs Lion has a facial hair problem, I think we've got two 'Him's' here! Oops!!! :0)


Here's one of the giraffes - the other is on another block.


One of the elephants - don't you love the plaited tail? The giraffes have them too.


Are the zebras white with black stripes, or black with white stripes?!? Right up there with 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' for deep contemplation questions!!


And the earliest form of instant messaging - the doves. It just depends of your definition of 'instant'!!


Of course, none of them would be going anywhere without a big boat - here's the Ark already to set sail. This little blanket isn't very big, so I've had it draped over a chair in the sewing room. But since this is the same chair that you saw in a recent photo where I'd laid my Noah's ark BOM blocks out on my ironing pile ... you can understand how I forgot this little knitted quilt was there - burried under a mountain of wrinkly clothes!! So, I've decided it needs to find a new spot in the house somewhere, but am as yet undecided ... who knows, it may take 40 days and 40 nights until it finds its final resting place! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Well, since it's rainy, overcast and cool here again today (yesterday was similar weather) I think I'm going to park myself on the couch and enjoy some DVD action .... hmmmmm ... Season One of "Supernatural" today, I think! Whatever you're up to, I hope you're having a great start to the weekend! Til next time - Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS