The Work of Human Hands

My daughter-in-law, Lindsay, sent me a link to five insightful essays on sewing and knitting which were a special feature on NPR's "This I Believe" project, published the week of Feb.1, 2010. The 'This I Believe' project encourages people to

write and share essays that describe the core values that guide their daily lives.

Five women shared essays on the rich personal experience that sewing and knitting provides in their lives. Many of their words truly resonated with me--they expressed some of my own feelings about the importance of creation and of keeping faith with tradition in our own way, and the continuity I feel with generations of women who used the resources they had, in their lives and times, to improve life and to create something beautiful.

I want to share one of the essays, found at this link. The others can be found at the "This I Believe" link above, under 'special features'. They enriched my life!

The Chair--Before and After

Please let me say right up front that I'm almost too embarrassed to even post this do-over, considering the condition of the 'before' chair and the fact that's it's been in that state in my bedroom for a year and a half or more! I brought it home from my mom's house when she died, and it's been on my 'I'll do that any time now' list ever since. As you can see, it was last upholstered circa 1969--by my grandma.

Unlike me, Grandma actually knew what she was doing, but as the chair has a nice solid maple frame and appealing shape, I thought it might be rescued one more time. I don't really know how old it is, but this is at least the third go-round on upholstery.

I bought the fabric (greener than it looks) some time last year, and it's been in the project pile ever since. This is the most complicated upholstered piece I have attempted, and I eliminated some of the fussier details in order to give the chair an update--and simplify.

It went well and I certainly learned a lot, thanks to my library books--now maybe I'll tackle one of the other 'befores' around here!

Dollar Store Design Wall

Here's my idea for a quick, simple, inexpensive, and adaptable design wall that's surprisingly sturdy and lightweight. It's made from foam core sheets, poster boards, and flannel--no more laying out quilts on the guest room bed for me!

Standard foam core sheets are 20" x 30". For my wall shown above, I arranged five sheets of foam core to make a design wall that's 50" x 60" and fits my available space--it's simple to make yours fit your own space and needs. Care and I made a smaller version (30" x 40") to fit above her cutting area.



For the smaller version, you will need:

--two sheets of foam core board (available at the dollar store)
--two poster boards (2/$1.00 at the dollar store)
--1 yard white flannel ($2.50 with a coupon)
--aerosol adhesive spray (on hand)
--duct tape (on hand)


l. Connect foam core: spread out plenty of newspaper and arrange the sheets of foam core side by side, long edges together. (Trust me--this a project best done outside! My laundry room
rug is now lightly adhered to the floor.)

On another area of the newspaper, spray one side of a poster board rather generously with spray adhesive. Working quickly, place the sticky side over the foam core where it joins. Carefully press and smooth it down, and turn the pieces over.


Repeat with second poster board, covering the join on the other side--it should be quite sturdy. Now, we can go back indoors!

2. Flannel cover: press out any folds in your flannel, and spread it out wrong side up.


Center the foam core piece on the flannel. (Another 'trust me'--be sure any labels or
stickers are on the BACK of the foam core!) Pull one edge of the flannel over the back and tape it securely with duct tape. (My duct tape is blue, because that's what was on hand.)


Pull the edge of flannel on the opposite side to the back, stretching it a little, and duct tape it down.


Tape the remaining sides to the back one at a time, pulling the fabric taut. You may want to trim out the fabric just a bit at the corners to reduce bulk--fold them as if making a bed.

Done! This small version cost a total of $5.50.

I'm embarrassed to say I have put my design wall up with a couple of nails--I plan to do something involving molly bolts and washers in the future, though. Being so lightweight, it's easily hung up. Care leans hers up against the wall above her cutting area, or it could even be stored behind a door when not in use. The foam-core-and-poster-board arrangement also works well for a bulletin board.

Care also made another smaller board with a single sheet of foam core and a scrap of flannel she had on hand-- it's easily portable for moving around fabric projects with lots of small parts, and it's a fun place for the kids to play with their felt shapes!

Question: Raid-the-Pantry Meals

My brain seems to be in re-boot mode--I've been puttering around the house organizing and re-arranging, which generally for me seems to be a sign that the creative process is in gear at the back of the mind, under the surface. So, no sewing is happening right now. But I do have a question:

What are your strategies for feeding the family when dinnertime is upon you and you aren't prepared?

Maybe you haven't been grocery shopping, you're late getting home, or you didn't thaw anything out, and everyone's hungry. What do you fall back on? We're talking quick meals, minimal mess, and ingredients you're likely to have in the pantry: in other words, your raid-the-pantry meals.

A personal favorite of mine was always the old breakfast-for-dinner ploy--eggs, French toast, pancakes, and the kids' great favorite, German Pancakes (also known around here as Monsters), which they could whip up at a moment's notice. We could always depend on my oldest son for his specialty, Biscuits and Gravy.


There's always the old standby, Grilled Cheese and Soup. My Dad (who was an excellent cook) would feed us a Fried Egg Sandwich, which at our house always involved a fresh bun with cheese and pickle relish, but at a friend's house was pretty much one egg and two slices of bread.


We loved to have Dad make us his Potato Soup, or his special Tomato Soup, made from a quart of home-canned tomatoes, but our great favorite was his Corn Chowder. (This was before the days of Ramen, which today are easily spiffed up with vegetables and a quick egg drop.)

Just the other day my brother reminded me how our mom would occasionally declare a 'fix your own supper' and turn us loose on leftovers and pantry. Brave woman--with seven of us kids, it seems the mess-making possibilities would be exponential! The only rule was that we each tidy up for ourselves.

So, what are your strategies? What did your parents do? I'd love to know!

Classic Card Table Tent--with Variations

I am so excited to be a part of Care's Tent Week at Obsessively Stitching!

One of our favorite playthings when we were small was a fabric tent that fit over the card table--I think it originally came from a church bazaar. The tent was appliqued with circus animals and had a pointed roof, held up by a (glass) soda bottle.

My kids had a card table tent of their own, and it was part of a lot of creative play. I've been working on making a tent for each of their families, so I've accumulated an assortment of materials and trims in my 'card table tent' box.

Here's a tutorial for a basic tent so you can make one for the kids you know! Be sure to check my notes at the end for thoughts and variations.


You will need:

--a standard card table, 34 by 34 inches and 27-1/2 inches high--if yours
is different, you will need to adjust my measurements.
--a 2- or 3-liter soda bottle to hold up the roof--a full one is more stable!
--for the ROOF: 2-3/4 yard of 45" or 60" fabric, OR equivalent if you plan to use a sheet, curtain, or other recycled material. You may be able to
use less fabric if you don't mind piecing as below.
--for the ROOF TRIM: 20 inches of 45" fabric, or 15 inches of 60" fabric or its equivalent makes a flat roof trim. For a ruffled trim you would need more.
--for the WALLS: 2 yards of 6o" fabric or 4 yards or 45" fabric,
OR the equivalent if you plan to use recycled fabric.
--additional trim, appliques, or bindings as desired
--sewing machine and thread

1. Tent Roof: we'll draft a quick pattern--don't worry, Pythagoras has already done the calculations for you. You will need:

-a piece of newsprint or tissue paper
-a pencil or sharp marker
-a yardstick, or another straight-edge and a measuring tape


Place the paper with the short edge toward you. (Mine is a small sample, yours will be big.) Mark a point on the long edge, 22-3/4 inches up from the lower right corner, and mark this edge 'foldline'. Now, mark a point on the short edge, 18 inches from the lower right corner, and mark this edge 'bottom'. Connect the two points you have marked to make a triangle, and mark this seam 'roof seam'. Mark the top point 'top'. Label the pattern piece as shown, 'Card Table Tent Roof, Cut four on fold', and cut it out. You did it! This piece includes 1/2 inch seam allowances. Let's mark that on the pattern, as well!

a. Using your pattern, cut out four pieces on the fold of fabric. (They will be twice as big as your paper pattern.) As you can see, it would take half as much fabric if you don't mind piecing a seam in the sections you cut off along the selvedge.


b. With right sides together and a 1/2" seam allowance, stitch two of the roof pieces together along one roof seam, and repeat for the other two. Pin the two resulting pieces along their roof lines, matching seams at the point, and stitch. (If you want to bind the seams on the outside as I did, sew them wrong sides together and bind the seam with double fold bias tape--see my hints here for working with bias tape.)


2. Roof Trim--for a flat (not ruffled) trim, cut and seam together 5-inch strips of fabric to make a piece 5 inches by 14o inches, and finish one long edge. Your trim could be straight, scalloped, pointed or ruffled.


On the tent shown, I cut scallops by making a pattern and moving it along the strip as I cut. I bound the edges with bias tape--you could avoid binding points or scallops by cutting them to shape, and then treating the cut edges with Fray Check from your fabric store's notions aisle. (I LOVE Fray Check!) Or, you could leave the edge straight and stitch on fringe or ball fringe or just hem it. You might cut separate shapes and stitch them on in a row, or make pennants--whatever suits your design.

Stitch the roof trim to the roof: decide which panel of the completed roof is the front, fold to find the center of its raw edge, and mark the center with a pin. Fold the long trim strip along the raw edge to find its center, and mark with a pin. Match up these two pin marks, right sides together, and pin. Matching the raw edges, pin the trim strip around the roof, overlapping any extra at the back. Stitch with the trim strip on top, using 1/2 -inch seam allowance. Important tip: as you go around a corner, clip into the seam allowance of the trim strip as shown--this allows for a smooth seam!



3. Walls: cut and seam together 30" wide sections to make a piece 30" by 140".
Finish one long edge with a 2-inch hem, then finish the two short edges with a 2-inch hem. These will be the door opening--add trim along the door opening as desired.
Pin the raw edge of the tent piece to the raw edges of the roof and roof trim, right sides together, matching the raw edges. Begin and end strip at the center front to make the doorway. Stitch, using a 1/2" seam, and finish the seam if you like. Turn and drape over the card table and soda bottle. Done!

That's the basic tent, with unlimited scope for themes and variations! Some thoughts:

FABRIC: I recommend a sturdy fabric--sheets, curtains, and other recycled materials would work well if in good condition. Broadcloth or quilting fabric is probably not heavy enough. I like duck or twill.

ROOF: --if you don't mind making seams in two of the roof panels, you could use half
as much fabric. (See the picture under #.1-a above.) Consider whether the pattern of your fabric would be interrupted.
--to leave a hole for a flag or pennant as in the pink pavilion tent below, begin and end all the roof line seams just short of the point of the roof.

ROOF TRIM: --If you plan to make gathered tent walls, like the pink pavilion tent below, be sure to add a straight roof trim panel over or under the ruffled wall. Voice of Experience: it's needed to add structure!
--To cut waves or scallops into the trim, make a pattern and move it along the strip
as you mark, as in the photo below #2 above.
--You could make the roof trim strip a little
longer than needed, and simply overlap the extra at the back--easier.

WALLS: --You can make walls for two tents from 4 yards of 60" wide fabric by cutting the fabric along the fold--as you can see, Steve's house (from Blue's Clues!) and the circus tent's walls are the same.

--For the Steve's house tent, it was easier to leave the wall piece slightly longer
and overlap it at the back--this also makes a nice back door for easy exit in case
of emergency!


--The walls of the pink tent are made from a very long drapery swag that a friend
gave me, and the roof from scraps of a wedding sewing project. All the ribbon is
from my stash. Free project! I do think the pink tent will need more embellishment--it's not yet fabulous enough. Maybe swags along the roof, or more dangling ribbons. Festoons of silk flowers?


--the white satin pennant is glued to a ribbon-covered 1/4" dowel, and stuck through a hole left in the point of the roof, into a soda bottle partly filled with beans for weight.


--The circus tent is made from scraps of the Steve's house tent, plus the harlequin print left from my nephew's nursery. The bias tape and trim was all on hand, except for the piece of blue, which I was forced to buy. (Sigh--but I used a coupon and spent only $2.50!) The elephants and balloons are polar fleece appliques, and were added using Care's great technique here--big fun! I zig-zagged black yarn around the edges to outline.

EMBELLISHMENT: --With the exception of the Steve's house tent, I have been adding
decorations and trim on the walls after construction--its seems easier to place and
center them accurately. (Voice of Experience again!)

--Doors: For an added door like Steve's, after hemming the strip of wall fabric, place doors or windows on the center of the strip,then stitch to the roof. Be sure to allow for the area the roof trim will cover.


--Windows: cut out and hem or bind the edges of the windows. Steve's curtains are stitched flat onto the tent, and pulled back permanently with a stitched-on loop. Yet another Voice of Experience: this time a genuine safety caution--Steve's windows were open holes in the wall, until we discovered a small child trying to climb through the window. I stitched a sturdy piece of sheer organza in the opening for safety--I'm sure other fabrics would work, and it prevents the window from gaping as well.


I'm sure my ideas barely scratch the surface--have fun making an imaginative play space for the kids in your life, and let us know about your own creation!

Valentine Tissue Pouches

Valentine's Day is a cheerful spot in the dead of winter. Here's my batch of Valentine tissue pouches, ready to spread Valentine cheer!
Or maybe to soothe a cold or case of the flu. See my tutorial here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Quilt From My Grandmas

As I have mentioned, I'm fortunate to have my great-grandma Ella's quilt scrap box. The scraps inside are quite small, both prints and solids, and mostly cut in a sort of diamond shape for Ella's favorite quilt pattern, which she called 'Periwinkle' and loved to make and give for gifts. It's all contained in a great vintage cardboard box, and it looks like the fabrics cover the decades from the 1920's or so to the late 1940's, with some good sized pieces of lovely 1930's solid pastels.


As you can see, there are only a few right angle seams in the Periwinkle pattern, and no seams are pieced continuously--seam allowances must be left free at the ends of pieces. It's a tricky pattern to piece, but Ella enjoyed it and continued sewing in her older years when other work became too difficult. She left a pile of quilt tops when she died, to be completed by my grandma as wedding gifts for her own granddaughters--you can see mine here. There are a few pieces in the scrap box which my grandma added as she worked, and my mom as well.

In a way, it's a glimpse of their lives. The construction of many items of clothing must have provided the scraps for the many quilts, and the quilts and clothing both were made to provide warmth and comfort--with love, thrift, and the joy of creating something beautiful and useful.

Life has changed a lot since those days, but maybe the really important things haven't changed so much. I'm fortunate to have other scraps and patterns of their lives as well--values, skills, family, traditions, memories. It's a good thing to know where we came from.

I hope to add a few bits of my own, and pass the box along to the next generation.

Valentine Strawberries from Scraps

I love Valentine's Day! It was my favorite holiday a a child, and now a lot of the fun for me is making little treasures for friends and family. Since I seem to think in fabric, these little projects often involve sewing.

This year my red scraps of fabric inspired a luscious pile of strawberries, which I think I'll give in little boxes, with shiny strawberry hard candies to add bling. Each berry takes:

-a scrap of red fabric about 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches
-red thread
-a small amount of fiber stuffing
-a bit of green lace, ribbon, trim or button for the cap
-craft glue



1. For the pattern: measuring from the corner of a piece of paper along each side, mark points at 3 1/2 inches. Mark several more points between these two, measuring 3 1/2 inches from the corner. Connect the marks to form a curved line, and cut out the pattern. (To change the size of the berry, increase or decrease this measurement.)


2. Cut one piece from the scrap of red fabric.


3. With right sides together, match straight edges and sew, using a 1/4" seam. Trim off a small triangle of the seam allowance at the point, so the point will turn smoothly. Turn and carefully push the point out fully, using scissors or a pencil point, or pull last bit of point out with a pin.


4. Turning in a 1/4" seam allowance, gather around the top of the berry with a needle and thread. Stuff softly with fiber stuffing, pushing the stuffing down well into the point with a pencil or scissors. (I love 'Cluster Stuff' fiber stuffing! It has a little 'spring' to it, and stuffs softly and smoothly.) When the berry is full, pull on your thread to close the top tightly, and take several small stitches across the closure to secure.


5. Now the fun part! The caps of the berries are made of bits of green trim and notions from around the house--buttons, lace, ribbon, etc--glued to the top of the berries with craft glue.

The bright green appliques on the left were on a card in the craft aisle at the dollar store--they make perfect strawberry caps! I crocheted the leaves in the upper middle, and on the left are gathered scraps of green ribbon under a button. At the bottom are green rickrack scraps with buttons--it was fun to see what I could come up with.

They look good enough to eat!