A confession and a plea for help

I hate hand sewing. That is my confession. I mean I HATE hand sewing. If my hubby loses a button he 'jokes' that he will just kiss the shirt goodbye. Well it is SORT OF a joke. He at least has to get used to not wearing that shirt for a VERY LONG TIME. It takes me a long time to feel really guilty about not sewing on a button and returning the shirt to him. I finally do it. Oh and scouting...gimme a break. It is bad enough you have to cart your kids all over the place to meetings, go to meetings yourself, take hikes you don't want to take and carve and paint pinewood cars but then they expect you to sew the dern patches on their shirts!!! I think that should be the FIRST thing scouts learn - sewing on patches. By yourself. (I usually did them by machine anyway).

The few quilts that I have made have been the turn method (does that make sense?). So no binding but ya know the opening after you turn the quilt?? Well let's just say I haven't made a quilt like that since my mother passed away. She was always great with a needle and thread and would hand sew the opening closed for me. Go ahead, roll your eyes. I think one quilt was closed by my mother in law that was visiting. She is still alive but lives too far away and is almost blind. No help there anymore.

So I am moving on to quilts that require binding. This first one I am taking to the longarm quilter on Friday. They are also going to attach the binding. At this point I think I am going to have them handsew the binding on the backside. My thought was this; my daughter is supposed to take this quilt with her to college in September. If I don't have them do it now, will it be done by the time she leaves?? Unlikely. I think they really need to be done by hand, don't they? How frustrating to try to do it by machine to have the binding shift just a smidge and you miss catching it. Then what?

I took home economics from the 7th grade all the way through the 12th grade. I loved it. I am sure I must have had to hand sew in that time. Did I have mono and miss a month of class? I don't know where this aversion came from. I don't care for embroidery either. Counted cross stitch is okay. Stamped cross stitch is okay. They both show me exactly where to put the needle. I have even considered getting a Yo Yo maker since they show you exactly where to put the needle. The thought of doing them all on my own was mind boggling and never appealed to me.

I have looked online some for binding directions. I have looked in quilting magazines. The directions that they give are for sewing the binding on the front side, with that cool little trick at each corner. I have yet to try that since I was in no way prepared to do anything with it once it was turned to the back. The detailed directions stop there. Everything just goes on to say stitch the binding on the back side. Uhhhhhhhh, thanks so much!! THAT is exactly where I need help! With pictures would be even better! Why is it assumed that everyone knows how to do that next step? Tell me I am not the only person out there that does not know how to sew the binding to the back of the quilt. Lie if you have to.

Any chance my new machine has an attachment for attaching the binding with a blind stitch so that it will look handsewn??? I never could figure out the blind hem stitch on the machine I have now. They have the fabric folded about 4 different ways and then put it under this special foot and I am saying "HUH???"

Any suggestions? Any offers to handstitch my bindings? My hubby would love it if you would sew some buttons on too. :D

Better late than never???

Sometime in January my daughter and I went to a purse party where we both picked out fabric and trim for custom made purses. It was going to be 8 weeks until we got the purses. Coming up in February a friend of the family, a college age gal, was having a birthday. I said to my daughter "HEY! I can make her a purse!" We got online and looked at patterns and fabric. I ordered a couple patterns and I ordered an assortment of Amy Butler fabrics. The birthday came and went. My son kept asking me, "did you sew her purse yet?" and I answered, "NO! not yet". I get a little testy when someone questions my procrastination. I always felt that I had other stuff that HAD to be done. Lame excuse. I know. About a month ago I finally decided which pattern to use, from Cindy Taylor Oates' Slouchy Bags book, and cut the fabric out. There it sat. This past Wednesday I felt as though my other commitments were out of the way and I sat down to sew. It came together pretty quickly and easily. Clear directions were the ticket to success here. Then I saw the blog post for 6/25 at http://www.pamkittymorning.blogspot.com/ and knew that I needed to make a similar pin to dress up the purse. (note **My daughter is the model here :D)


The next morning I had my daughter stop in town and get some buttons to cover and as soon as I covered that one, a whole new world of covering buttons opened up to me. I thought it added SO much! But I wanted to make it with a ruffle around it - I have no ruffler attachment. Thinking, thinking....so the kids suggested using two layers, so that the button would not blend with the ruffle and the ruffle would not blend with the purse (they are smart that way and I like their input). But boy oh boy what a dunce I was. I had NO IDEA how to attach the ruffle TO the button! I dinked around with it for quite a bit, trying different things that didn't work. I finally settled on gluing it, putting a thin strip of Zip Dry glue around the back edge of the button that was covered with fabric. Then I pushed the ruffle on there and fussed with it until it was just how I wanted it. THEN I put something very heavy on top of it all and left it to dry for a bit. I am not sure how secure it is and how long it will last. I used a safety pin on the inside of the purse to attach the button and so it can be easily removed. We presented it to our friend on Thursday afternoon and she really likes it!!! Guess what I found out on Thursday night. No, really, guess. Go ahead.



I found out that I had PERFECT directions on how to make a ruffle and attach it to a self covered button right there on my sewing table! Yeah, I know. Better Homes & Garden 'Quilts and More' Summer 2008. Detailed instructions. No need for me to reinvent the wheel. You can roll your eyes now. I did. I will use their directions next time.