Enter Sewing Machine

My Sewing Machine with Blanket

Over the years I have tried many different types of crafts (see older entries) but I never got into sewing. My mother did not have a sewing machine so the only sewing done was by hand and out of necessity ( ripped pants, missing buttons and such). This summer I spent a lot of time around an avid quilter and got to see her quilting room (yes an ENTIRE room dedicated to quilting, love it!) and was able to see some of her work and so my little brain got to ticking and I decided I needed a sewing machine.

Coonie in the box :-)

Christmas came and Santa listened(for once) and I opened my brand new 'Singer Talent'. Now this thing is still even more advanced than I need but I am so looking forward to discovering how to use its 32 stitches, button hole maker, and all the other snazzy things it offers me. For now we are just straight sewing.

Now the question is what do I make with this awesome thing? What kind of fabrics can I sew through? How do I thread this crazy white machine of awesomeness? Oh and, how do I sew? Irrelevant questions. I like to just dive in. We are making a blanket, end of story.

Beginning of Alphabet Letters

This all started with making a present for my niece. She is super smart and loves educational stuff so I wanted to create something with the alphabet on it(My friend Bean is the one who actually came up with the concept for this craft!) So I found some white fabric I had (I think it was actually a sheet that was once a toga...whatever!) and started embroidering on the alphabet in all different fun colors.

Once it was done it was super long, like over 6 feet, so now what? I thought it was going to be a nice wall hanging, but that just wasn't going to fly. BLANKET popped into my mind then brand new SEWING MACHINE. I set that baby up, figured out how to thread my bobbin(or something like that) and away I went. I went down to JoAnn's and got a fun retro flower print and sewed the alphabet onto it. Half way done. I needed a backing for this, so yet again, I went to JoAnn's found some pink and green striped fleece and sewed that on too.

Completed blanket :-)

Since I am not a quilter or even a good sewer I did not think about how the pieces of fabric would separate in the middle, like you could pull them apart and change the shape of the blanket? I don't really know how to describe it but I did not like it, so I put some tacking stitches using embroidery thread through both pieces at random intervals. Voila. I made a blanket.

Eat, Craft, and Be happy :-)