HOME | DD

Description

Full Shop | Etsy | Facebook | Instagram

Oh boy... I didn't quite realize how emotional I was about this project until I was forcing myself to finish it. Let's take it one step at a time.

So back in 2015, when I first met JoAnn, my first project with her was a sewing machine cover:

The lesson here was, well, straight lines. It didn't start out as a sewing machine cover. I was just supposed to be patching the squares together. But I hate doing stuff "just for practice" and so we used the stuck together denim scraps to make into a cover for my first sewing machine. My sewing machine at that time was a $75 refurbished thing that I bought with no knowledge of sewing machines. All I knew was that Mom wouldn't let me touch her's, it needed to do straight lines, and zig-zags would be a great plus. The guy who sold it to me was really nice, he's moved away from town now, and even though it was just a refurbished thing that I knew nothing about it was mine. While I was making these denim squares was actually when my bestie at the time, GraniteFire , was visiting.

Proceed forward with my lessons with JoAnn, and she lets me use her machines. Really, really nice ones. Expensive things with computers built in and what not. And they were like butter. Mmmm. And every time I went back to using my little refurbished guy I could feel that difference. It made me envious. But I wasn't about to drop all that cash on a sewing machine when I didn't even know how often I would use the thing.

In 2017, my friend Carla Mattsma came out to visit! It was great. One of the things we purchased while out hunting Arizona needlework shops were these little patterns from Stoney Creek. Carla picked out one or two of them, for the life of me I don't remember which ones and I don't wanna bug her just so I can write this up. The one I grabbed was "Hope" but... the title of the pattern is actually "Brave World". Anyway I grabbed it because it featured roses and I love roses. The other ones were pretty but they didn't have roses on them. I picked it up knowing that I wasn't going to stitch the word "Hope" below this pretty rose quilt block but I hadn't decided what I was going to stitch in place. I had considered taking the top rose motif and flipping it upside down to finish in the frame.

In 2018 I was sitting at the receptionist desk at H&R Block and stitching this pattern. I was getting the usual compliments from customers (which is nice) but one really stood out to me. It was a lady asking me what I was going to do with it when I was done. My usual response, of course, maybe I'll frame it, or a pillow maybe, or I'll just stick it in my closet until I figure it out later. Maybe I'll sell it. No idea really. But she suggested, hey, since it has a quilt block motif as part of it, why not add it as part of a quilt? Ooh!

The only other quilting I'd done at this point was that first sewing machine cover and a pillow I did for JoAnn:

Well, I really hated my sewing machine cover. I don't even wear denim and it was my first scrappy project, not even made out of denim I picked, just random scrap denim for practicing. It didn't say "me" at all, it said "here's a random project we practiced with". Oh and "you can even replicate this on your own because making that hole for the handle was really really hard". And "the inside is gross because it's all the open seams and thread ends". So then and there I decided I was going to incorporate this little quilt block into a new sewing machine cover. And the word "Hope" at the bottom was going to be replaced by "Pinky" forever labeling whatever sewing machine goes under it as mine.

In 2016 I had made a bunch of aprons:

And early 2017 I had bought up a bunch of really, really pretty fabric swatches to turn into aprons for orders. The thing is, nobody bought any aprons. So I had all this cute fabric that wasn't getting used by anyone. I chose to take the apron fabric and turn it into the new machine cover. In 2018 I chopped up my apron fabric into little squares and sewed them all together. I tore my old machine cover apart so that I could see how many squares I would be needing, and then threw that thing away. I figured out how to piece my cross-stitching into the fabric in place of some squares. (That was hard.) I also learned that the ribbon I used for "Pinky" MELTS under the iron... or even when it's near the iron...

The Pinky ribbon here is the third time I stitched it in. One was lost from direct ironing and the second from just being close to the steam.

I asked JoAnn for help finishing it. I don't really know how to make the hole at the top for the handle by myself. I know it has to do with making a box and then cutting it and turning things around... I also know that I wanted to line it, because I hated seeing the inside with all the seams.

June 2018 we opened a tailoring/alterations shop together in town. I brought my unfinished projects with me. I thought JoAnn would help me finish them, or at least help me work on them when things were slower. It never happened. This project along with every other project I brought in to work with me never got finished and I didn't have the confidence to tackle anything by myself for fear of ruining it. If I make a mistake on cross-stitching I can pull out the stitches and fix it. If I make a mistake while beading I can break a bead and restring things. If I make a mistake while sewing it tears the fabric to undo things, it puts wrinkles and holes and everything in places it shouldn't be, if you overstitch something too many times or too tight it becomes more trouble to take it out than to leave it in. Cut the wrong thing at the wrong time? Ruined.

Early 2019 I bought this pink sewing machine for myself. It was a little costly, to me, but darnit! IT'S PINK!! And it's MINE. And now I know a bit about sewing machines, so I felt knowledgeable about reading up on what sort of things it can do and what features it has. I went and bought pink bobbins too... it's great. It's so great. I told JoAnn it was really lucky we hadn't finished my new cover yet! Because now we can make it fit the new pink machine instead of my old refurbished one that I didn't have any attachment to. I did manage to get her to help me make the hole at the top. Which... ended up not centered. So the front of my cover was a lot longer than the back. I told myself that was okay.

June 2019 JoAnn forced me out of the business. I haven't talked to her since. I hope that I never do. I had no idea how to finish this project. I was pinching up the sides and mm... it was making a box. But I needed the corners to be... rounded. Tutorials for sewing machine covers have the sides put in as totally separate pieces. I hadn't been following a tutorial... I was just repeating what JoAnn had done for the first one in 2015. That was really frustrating. I didn't, and don't, and never want to ask her for help again. I feel so held back by her.

I took photos of the unfinished piece and posted them to a sewing group on Facebook. Within the hour two people told me to google "box corners" and so I did. I followed this helpful video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_o6I…

Normally I like to use photo tutorials but I found the box corner thing was really confusing without seeing it in motion.

It took me a couple tries but I did it. Wow. It's almost like someone should have taught me how to do that a year ago! Once I was satisfied with the box corners I sat around being emotional for a while. Then I was thinking about how to finish the bottom. Murrrr. I had to chop down the front so that it matched the back's length because of JoAnn's placement for the handle hole. I bought a serger but I didn't really want to go through the struggle of setting it up just yet, I just... really wanted to finish this cover. I wanted it to be done. I have a nice selection of pink ribbon so I pulled some out that I thought would be wide enough. Not too sheer, not too highlighter. Just a soft pink ribbon. I stitched it to the inside so that I could flip it over and finish it on the outside. Then it wouldn't flip. I got... more frustrated. Then remembered I had to trim down the seam. Again, something I could have serged, but didn't want to set up the serger. Trimmed it with my scissors. Flipped it. Ironed it with FEARRRRR because I didn't want my ribbon to melt AGAIN. Then stitched that down.

BOOM. DONE. My first machine sewn project without JoAnn. Happens to be the first machine project with JoAnn.

Cross Stitching

Color Total: 16
Size: 4.5 x 5.75 inches

Beads: 24 size 11 glass permanent finish silver-lined opalized pink, 2 Heart buttons

Time: 15.5 hours
14 Count beige Aida
This is a modified Stoney Creek Collection pattern.

Machine Cover

Untimed

Size: 14 wide x 5 deep x 11 tall (ish)

Description

Full Shop | Etsy | Facebook | Instagram

Oh boy... I didn't quite realize how emotional I was about this project until I was forcing myself to finish it. Let's take it one step at a time.

So back in 2015, when I first met JoAnn, my first project with her was a sewing machine cover:

The lesson here was, well, straight lines. It didn't start out as a sewing machine cover. I was just supposed to be patching the squares together. But I hate doing stuff "just for practice" and so we used the stuck together denim scraps to make into a cover for my first sewing machine. My sewing machine at that time was a $75 refurbished thing that I bought with no knowledge of sewing machines. All I knew was that Mom wouldn't let me touch her's, it needed to do straight lines, and zig-zags would be a great plus. The guy who sold it to me was really nice, he's moved away from town now, and even though it was just a refurbished thing that I knew nothing about it was mine. While I was making these denim squares was actually when my bestie at the time, GraniteFire , was visiting.

Proceed forward with my lessons with JoAnn, and she lets me use her machines. Really, really nice ones. Expensive things with computers built in and what not. And they were like butter. Mmmm. And every time I went back to using my little refurbished guy I could feel that difference. It made me envious. But I wasn't about to drop all that cash on a sewing machine when I didn't even know how often I would use the thing.

In 2017, my friend Carla Mattsma came out to visit! It was great. One of the things we purchased while out hunting Arizona needlework shops were these little patterns from Stoney Creek. Carla picked out one or two of them, for the life of me I don't remember which ones and I don't wanna bug her just so I can write this up. The one I grabbed was "Hope" but... the title of the pattern is actually "Brave World". Anyway I grabbed it because it featured roses and I love roses. The other ones were pretty but they didn't have roses on them. I picked it up knowing that I wasn't going to stitch the word "Hope" below this pretty rose quilt block but I hadn't decided what I was going to stitch in place. I had considered taking the top rose motif and flipping it upside down to finish in the frame.

In 2018 I was sitting at the receptionist desk at H&R Block and stitching this pattern. I was getting the usual compliments from customers (which is nice) but one really stood out to me. It was a lady asking me what I was going to do with it when I was done. My usual response, of course, maybe I'll frame it, or a pillow maybe, or I'll just stick it in my closet until I figure it out later. Maybe I'll sell it. No idea really. But she suggested, hey, since it has a quilt block motif as part of it, why not add it as part of a quilt? Ooh!

The only other quilting I'd done at this point was that first sewing machine cover and a pillow I did for JoAnn:

Well, I really hated my sewing machine cover. I don't even wear denim and it was my first scrappy project, not even made out of denim I picked, just random scrap denim for practicing. It didn't say "me" at all, it said "here's a random project we practiced with". Oh and "you can even replicate this on your own because making that hole for the handle was really really hard". And "the inside is gross because it's all the open seams and thread ends". So then and there I decided I was going to incorporate this little quilt block into a new sewing machine cover. And the word "Hope" at the bottom was going to be replaced by "Pinky" forever labeling whatever sewing machine goes under it as mine.

In 2016 I had made a bunch of aprons:

And early 2017 I had bought up a bunch of really, really pretty fabric swatches to turn into aprons for orders. The thing is, nobody bought any aprons. So I had all this cute fabric that wasn't getting used by anyone. I chose to take the apron fabric and turn it into the new machine cover. In 2018 I chopped up my apron fabric into little squares and sewed them all together. I tore my old machine cover apart so that I could see how many squares I would be needing, and then threw that thing away. I figured out how to piece my cross-stitching into the fabric in place of some squares. (That was hard.) I also learned that the ribbon I used for "Pinky" MELTS under the iron... or even when it's near the iron...

The Pinky ribbon here is the third time I stitched it in. One was lost from direct ironing and the second from just being close to the steam.

I asked JoAnn for help finishing it. I don't really know how to make the hole at the top for the handle by myself. I know it has to do with making a box and then cutting it and turning things around... I also know that I wanted to line it, because I hated seeing the inside with all the seams.

June 2018 we opened a tailoring/alterations shop together in town. I brought my unfinished projects with me. I thought JoAnn would help me finish them, or at least help me work on them when things were slower. It never happened. This project along with every other project I brought in to work with me never got finished and I didn't have the confidence to tackle anything by myself for fear of ruining it. If I make a mistake on cross-stitching I can pull out the stitches and fix it. If I make a mistake while beading I can break a bead and restring things. If I make a mistake while sewing it tears the fabric to undo things, it puts wrinkles and holes and everything in places it shouldn't be, if you overstitch something too many times or too tight it becomes more trouble to take it out than to leave it in. Cut the wrong thing at the wrong time? Ruined.

Early 2019 I bought this pink sewing machine for myself. It was a little costly, to me, but darnit! IT'S PINK!! And it's MINE. And now I know a bit about sewing machines, so I felt knowledgeable about reading up on what sort of things it can do and what features it has. I went and bought pink bobbins too... it's great. It's so great. I told JoAnn it was really lucky we hadn't finished my new cover yet! Because now we can make it fit the new pink machine instead of my old refurbished one that I didn't have any attachment to. I did manage to get her to help me make the hole at the top. Which... ended up not centered. So the front of my cover was a lot longer than the back. I told myself that was okay.

June 2019 JoAnn forced me out of the business. I haven't talked to her since. I hope that I never do. I had no idea how to finish this project. I was pinching up the sides and mm... it was making a box. But I needed the corners to be... rounded. Tutorials for sewing machine covers have the sides put in as totally separate pieces. I hadn't been following a tutorial... I was just repeating what JoAnn had done for the first one in 2015. That was really frustrating. I didn't, and don't, and never want to ask her for help again. I feel so held back by her.

I took photos of the unfinished piece and posted them to a sewing group on Facebook. Within the hour two people told me to google "box corners" and so I did. I followed this helpful video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_o6I…

Normally I like to use photo tutorials but I found the box corner thing was really confusing without seeing it in motion.

It took me a couple tries but I did it. Wow. It's almost like someone should have taught me how to do that a year ago! Once I was satisfied with the box corners I sat around being emotional for a while. Then I was thinking about how to finish the bottom. Murrrr. I had to chop down the front so that it matched the back's length because of JoAnn's placement for the handle hole. I bought a serger but I didn't really want to go through the struggle of setting it up just yet, I just... really wanted to finish this cover. I wanted it to be done. I have a nice selection of pink ribbon so I pulled some out that I thought would be wide enough. Not too sheer, not too highlighter. Just a soft pink ribbon. I stitched it to the inside so that I could flip it over and finish it on the outside. Then it wouldn't flip. I got... more frustrated. Then remembered I had to trim down the seam. Again, something I could have serged, but didn't want to set up the serger. Trimmed it with my scissors. Flipped it. Ironed it with FEARRRRR because I didn't want my ribbon to melt AGAIN. Then stitched that down.

BOOM. DONE. My first machine sewn project without JoAnn. Happens to be the first machine project with JoAnn.

Cross Stitching

Color Total: 16
Size: 4.5 x 5.75 inches

Beads: 24 size 11 glass permanent finish silver-lined opalized pink, 2 Heart buttons

Time: 15.5 hours
14 Count beige Aida
This is a modified Stoney Creek Collection pattern.

Machine Cover

Untimed

Size: 14 wide x 5 deep x 11 tall (ish)