Some "Little Somethings"

 

These cute little flower pincushions are made from one of the Crafter's Edge flower dies. When Julia at Inflorescence Designs made donuts with her flowers, I knew it was time to get after mine.

I got these flower dies with the express purpose of making wool pincushions--I like hand appliqueing with wool. It makes a nice project when watching tv or traveling. 

Julia just motivated me to get them done a little sooner than I had planned. Hee, hee!

They are stuffed with polyester fiber fill since that is much easier to deal with than crushed walnut shells, and the fiber fill won't leak through my stitches either, as I was afraid the walnut shells would.

I have cut out several more to work on. The leaves I cut out freehand.

Next, I want to show you my April blocks for Hagatha's House, the BOM quilt that Carol at Just Let Me Quilt and Joan at Moosestach Quilting designed. Their facebook page Cackling Stitches is home for these highjinks.

This is the first block of the quilt: a center medallion. 

I hope to keep up with these blocks and have a Halloween quilt when I am done. I have lots of wall hangings but no quilt-size quilt.

Thanks, Carol and Joan, for such a cool quilt!

Crafter's Edge Design Team April project

May I present... my April project for the Crafter's Edge Design Team, using dies the Crossover II cutting machine! I made this zipper bag using one of the tumbler dies and the LOVE die. The tumbler die includes 5 sizes--2", 3", 4", 5", and 6". I used the 3" size for this bag and cut tumblers from 4 fabrics.

Here is the die on the machine after I had made 1 cut from this fabric. You can see other cut-outs on my cutting board.

The dies are only this thick/thin and are not sharp. You would have to be very talented to receive a cut from one of these dies! (I don't think it's possible.)

Here is how I pinned and sewed the tumblers together.

Then I sewed 4 rows for each side.

Next, I squared off the edges.

And put borders around all 4 sides (1 1/2" strips).

I forgot to take any in between photos, but here is the bag, stitched all together. The zipper is installed, the fronts are quilted with wavy lines (serpentine stitch?) using my walking foot. I used iron-on fleece, and the applique is part of the quilting. I cut out squares from the corners so I could box the bottom.

It's finished and my 40 year old Raggedy Ann and Andy like this bag.

Here's the back.

I had some leftover tumblers so I decided to make a small snap bag--that's the kind that uses a metal measuring tape for the closure. Here's the outside and the lining, which also makes a trim for the bag.

Both projects--I added a yellow ribbon to the zipper pull of my LOVE bag.

I think I love them both! 

Here's a peek at the inside of the snap bag--it's small but would hold several spools of thread.

Thanks, Crafter's Edge, for letting me be a part of the 2021 Design Team!

I predict a lot of fun and creativity from the 10 of us who are on it!

Check out Julia at Inflorescence Designs https://inflorescencedesigns.com/in-the-kitchen-blog-hop/ post on the clever things she made with her Crossover II and dies.

Daisy Toegel has a cool project too. https://flowersew.com/table-runner-placemats

So does Anorina at Samelia's Mum http://www.sameliasmum.com/2021/04/blossoms-on-blue-quilted-bag.html

Daryl at Patchouli Moon Studio posted her project first! 

https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2021/04/round-little-fabric-basket-or-bowl.html

(I hope I haven't neglected any other team member.)

Stay tuned for more!

Crossover II and Dies

 My Crossover II die machine from Crafter's Edge came today!

I'm sew very excited to get it and start on a project as part of our Design Team's assignments!

Here is the opened cardboard box for a peek.

The Crossover II is out of its box with the equipment that came with it:

white base plate

metal adaptor plate

clear top plate

user manual

gingerbread house die

After looking at the manual enough to see how to sandwich fabric and plates, I grabbed the LOVE die I had received on Saturday and ran it through the machine with some dk blue batik backed with fusible web.

The dies are very thin with no sharp edges to worry about. The pressure setting of the rollers on the Crossover II determines how it will cut (pressure depends on the kind of material going through and the thickness).

Here's how it turned out. I'll be using this on my April project which is churning in my mind. It won't be a wall hanging, as I originally thought. You'll have to wait and see what I do. Hee, hee.

These are the rest of the dies I received Saturday. I'm really looking forward to using every one of them in the next 3 months. What an exciting adventure!!

Thanks to Carol Swift of Just Let Me Quilt for alerting me to the Design Team application, and thanks to Mikala and Kayla at Crafter's Edge for allowing me to be on this super Design Team!