Patchwork Loves Embroidery

Last weekend I sprained my ankle and couldn't do any walking or fun things.  So I looked through my project books and decided to work on some embroidery while resting my foot.

I wanted to make a little bag that I can bring with me to work on small projects, so I chose this bag from the book, Patchwork Loves Embroidery. I've had the book for a while, but just haven't made anything out of it yet.  It's a sweet design by Gail Pan, and I had fun working on it.

The embroidery portion took me about 3 1/2 hours to finish.  I was watching the new season of Heartland on Netflix and stitched it while watching 4 episodes.  :)

I had purchased some fat quarters at a recent quilt show in Vermont called Winter Wonderland by Anni Downs for Henry Glass fabrics.  Although the images are wintery, I liked the colors and didn't think that it would matter.

I didn't use the snowman or the Santa fabric in this projects, but I did use the little penguins.  I love how the colors of the fabric work so well together.  I can't wait to make more projects with this fabric collection.

I picked through my assortment of DMC floss and pulled out the colors that I thought would match or coordinate with the fabrics.  Then I added some matching buttons to complete the look.

All in all, I think it came out pretty cute!

Now I need to make a needle and scissors holder to match the bag. :)

What about you, have you combined some embroidery with your patchwork lately?

Fixin' Up My Sewing Space

I made this little quilted "skirt" for my sewing machine from a McCall's pattern in the attempts to clean up my sewing space. (Ha ha!) It has three little pockets across the front to put small items in.  I especially like the quilted area at the top near the machine for a place to hold the pins.  It keeps them from rolling onto the floor!

I also made a cute little "scrap holder" to put the threads in while I am sewing.  It's made from a 10-inch quilted square and then sewn up in the corners.  The ends then fold over and are held in place with a button.  I loved making this!  I think made in different colors, this little holder would look great in any room (bathroom for holding hair clips, bedroom for holding small jewelry or coins, etc.).

I can carry this around the house with me and use it when I bring my machine up to the dining room to sew.  It holds all of the scraps that are ready to go into the garbage. 

The little sewing case is for my small pairs of scissors and ruler.  You can't really see by the photo, but it has a zippered top.  Then when I pack up my machine to take places, I don't have to worry about getting stabbed with the scissors! 

I'm not sure if is has totally cleaned up my sewing area, but I guess it's a good start!