Author Archives: Janice

Quilted Bed Foot Warmer and Free Design

No one likes cold feet–not at a wedding nor in bed.

There are many ways to keep your toes warm, like this. Who wouldn’t love that? But you need a lot of puppies.

Or you could do this:

There are risks with this method. Mildred “Mimi” Turner almost burned down our hotel (and her feet) when we were teaching in Australia’s cold Blue Mountains.

This quilted foot warmer is risk free, readily available, pretty, and fun to make. It is also my latest project for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial, for which I am a paid sewing specialist (this is a required disclosure). The blog post includes a FREE download link for the quilting design used for the spaghetti bias Celtic knot in the center of each square. But more about the special use of that later.

The design measures 7.76 x 7.87″.

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Lenten Church Paraments

These Lenten paraments were made at the request of our pastor for our River City Church of DeBary.  The purple fabric reflects the liturgical color for this season.

The embroidery is another beauty from Windstar Embroidery Designs which has an enormous selection of spectacular liturgical designs. This one is offered in two sizes, the smaller for the side-hanging bookmarks and the larger for the pulpit scarf.

Additionally, the cross drape, seen on the far right, was included in the set. It is a 4 yards by 45″. The set was hung the day before Ash Wednesday.

I’ve been sewing for many, many years and created a variety of items from clothing to quilts to home dec. But none of this experience seemed helpful as I ventured into the world of stitching church paraments.  There are so many things that go into making what looks like a simple project. Continue reading

Valentine Towel for Coach

This is Joy, my bubbly, enthusiastic, encouraging exercise coach at the Herbalife Nutrition Club in downtown DeLand. When asked about her plans for upcoming Valentine’s Day, which fell on a day of our regular exercise class, Joy said that her guy, (a nurse) was working a double shift that day. So the only celebration would be with her children.

This little tea towel certainly is no substitute for wine, roses, chocolate, and the man in her life, but it was a small reminder that others love and appreciate her.

heart balloons from Zundt designs towel from All About Blanks

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Free Design for Minnie’s Birthday Playsuit

The floral borders below each of the Minnie designs are offered as FREE downloads at the blog web site. The Minnie designs are for sale at iBroidery.com.

This cute and cool little play outfit was made for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial. Minnie turned 60 years old in January so the blog post was a part of the birthday celebration.  As a “paid consultant” (inclusion of this info is required), I designed this and wrote the step-by-step tutorial, posted here.

As much as I love lengthy, complicated projects like an heirloom Easter dress or intricate quilt, there is a lot of satisfaction from making a quick and easy outfit for our little ones. This play suit certainly fits the bill. Continue reading

Valentine Free Fil Tire’ Heart

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I am again offering this free fil tire’ heart design. There are many new readers who might enjoy this and some older readers who might have missed it. The design is so suitable for this holiday celebrating love. And what says love better than a heart?

I so appreciate the support and encouragement you dear readers have given me through the years. For the some time now I have been extraordinarily busy and posts have been few and far between. And yet you still stop by to read my infrequent chats. I thank you for that.

For this day celebrating love, I am offering this free machine embroidered fil tire’ heart, along with wishes for love each day. Just leave your request for the design as a comment at the bottom of this post.
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Sewing Ho-Hum and Holy Holy

Life at our house goes on at a breakneck pace, causing me to neglect posting as regularly as I would like. But my sewing room is a beehive of unreported activity, not all of it very interesting.

Wouldn’t you love to sew only creative, fun items? Does anyone get to do that?  Check out an earlier ho-hum post for an interesting view of what constitutes fun sewing elsewhere, like”baju kurung, kebaya, punjabi suit.” Just how much fun would it be to sew a punjabi suit? More fun than I had with these projects.

HO-HUM SEWING

But duty calls and I have a running list of ho-hum sewing which is in addition to routine mending. These ho-hums become occasions for which my sewing machines can actually save some money. While there is no creative satisfaction, there is the satisfaction of contributing to the family, being a helpmate to my dear husband, and satisfaction in proving that my Brother Dream Machine is more than just an expensive toy.

Mending pool leaf filter baskets….yawn…

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Kiss the Cook Dishtowel for Basic Machines

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and many readers have already mentioned that they are working of projects for the day that honors love.

Many, of course, are stitching special outfits for their children or grands. One dear grandmother is making 35 gifts for her grandchildren’s classmates, some pencil toppers and the others toothbrush wraps. I’ve never heard of toothbrush wraps and think it’s something I need to find out about. Do you know anything about them?

Others are creating gifts for family and friends. Since not everyone has an embroidery machine, I’m going to be adding blog projects, like this dishtowel, which require only a basic machine. Continue reading

Bye Christmas ’17 and Frozen X 25

Not exactly a Griswold house, but it was enough to please us. And there is more in the back around the pool. Bob really wanted to please the children with all the lights. Lighted reindeer are perched on the garage roof, 4 snowflakes hang in front of the breakfast porch, candles are in the windows and my sewing room on the right is lighted up like an airport runway. Should have turned that off before Bob snapped this shot.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Good friends, good times, good food, and good worship makes this time of year so special. But Christmas ’17 is over.

The lights and tree are down, all decorations are packed away and our precious family have all returned to their far away homes. It was a wonderful, joyous time, but now it’s seems very quiet in this house. Several of us were sick at various times, but that didn’t keep us from having fun.

Gotcha gang ready for the next round. The dogs insisted on being in the middle of it all and were more help in the finding than the hiding. Laurel is wearing her new Theater Geek hoodie and Vivian Rose is in her beloved leopard print tutu dress. Sigh…

We went to church, ate turkey and pie, drank gallons of eggnog and played our family’s traditional holiday games. ” Gotcha” is a favorite of all four grandchildren.

Basically, it’s just Hide and Seek in the dark, with the use of on-off head lamps. When “It” finally finds someone in the dark, he yells “Gotcha” and we all race back to the center of the yard so as not to give up a good hiding place.

Once when we reassembled, we noted Harvey’s absence. Vivi announced that he was in the house. “See, Daddy’s in the kitchen!” And sure enough, there was Harvey clearly visible through the window, probably eating a cookie. Nothing gets by that girl. Continue reading

Christmas Cat Dress

CC Lucy embroidered with a darling cat Christmas tree from Apex Embroidery

It’s rush, rush, rush around here and, except for you amazingly organized ladies, I expect we are all scurrying around with Christmas preparations.

This season has been especially busy for me as I am working on an heirloom project for Brother’s Stitching Sewcial blog. Hurrah! But I only had time to make a simple CC Lucy Christmas dress for 4 yo Vivian Rose. And of course, a matching bow tie for big brother Alastair.

I was tickled pink to find the cat Christmas tree in the huge and wonderful Apex Embroidery catalogue.  Of course, cat-lover Vivian was delighted when the package arrived. Continue reading

Maggie B’s Kitty Cat Ode to Joy

Maggie B’s Ode to Joy dress

My 4 yo granddaughter and I really love this Ode to Joy pattern by Maggie B. It is offered to students in her on-line class with excellent directions and a multitude of step-by-step instructional pictures. Our little dynamo is always on the go, in a hurry to get wherever and impatient with fussy button closures. She’s a gal who has places to go, people to see, and things to do. So just get on with getting dressed!

One of the best features of this little frock is that it simply pulls over the head like a tee shirt. No buttons, no buttonholes.

As you can clearly see, the neck binding is loosey goosey. It IS important to use the correct size elastic and worth a trip to the store if you don’t have it on hand. Lesson learned.

With it’s pop-over style and comfy fit, Ode to Joy is a favorite of our Vivian Rose. The cat print is an added bonus, making it a very popular wardrobe choice. Continue reading