I managed to finish a UFO, test a pattern, and go to a class at my LQS (and finish my project!).
First up, the UFO. When it's just my husband and I, I like to have us use cloth napkins. I made some on a whim a while ago and using them has just sort-of stuck. A while ago (at least a year), I bought a long length of this fabric on a clearance pile. I used part of it for a tote bag and then cut up a bunch for cloth napkins... and then never sewed the napkins. Well, in a recent clean-up of the craft supplies, the cut fabric was un-earthed. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you should be able to see the pretty mitered corner on the napkin on the bottom. I love the mitering and think it makes them look so much more polished.
Over the weekend, I was able to test this pattern for Samantha. It is The Gentleman's Wallet. Although, you can see from my photos that I made mine into a feminine version. I must say that I am always delighted when I am able to test a pattern for Samantha. I know before I ever look at the pattern that it's going to be well written. I also know that I love her style of bag/pattern construction. This wallet sews up very quickly, too. I think all of the testers (and Samantha) agreed that cutting, fusing and sewing can pretty much be done in 3 hours. I would imagine that you could even get it down to a smaller amount of time once you've made a couple of them.
Just today, I took a class at my LQS to learn how to make these clothesline bowls. I am completely tickled with how my bowl turned out! I didn't quite finish it in class, but set up promptly when I got home and finished it right up. One of our supplies was this book, "It's a Wrap."
I was glad to have the live instruction on how to start and switch fabrics, and the ending, too. In the book, the author recommends using a fabric glue stick to secure the fabric when you are transitioning from one to the other. However, our teacher recommended Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue. It only takes a very small dot of glue to secure the fabric long enough to be able to stitch it together. I propped up my phone in the second photo to try to give you a little perspective. When I measured, the diameter of the base of my bowl was about 5 inches and the diameter at the top was about 8 inches.
Now, I just have to figure out what I want to use this bowl for :) I can see that these would be nice to make as Christmas gifts, or even to make gift baskets (if you made the bowl just a bit bigger).
