Micro Fiber Laptop Case from a Women's Suit

I needed a laptop case, and decided to use a micro fiber women's suit I picked up for $1 at the thrift store. It's a nice soft yellow, though it photographed a little paler than it is in real life.

Actually, I started out making a messenger bag like I did here, but you know, sometimes projects have a life of their own.

Micro fiber looks and feels like suede, but it's polyester, so it's machine washable. It also doesn't fray. It sometimes is labeled Ultrasuede. The skirt has a lot of usable fabric.


And the jacket had these nice pin tucks that I cut across for some interesting textured strips.



It's the simplest sewing: you make a big rectangular envelope. Since the skirt was lined, I didn't need to add lining, though I did add a big pocket cut from the suit fabric. I used the strips like bias binding to hold all the layers together. The cool buttons are dollar store finds.

I could have used this laptop case on some of my summer trips. In May I was at the Getty Museum in Malibu, which has spectacular grounds

I fell in love with the windows in the parking garage.

And earlier this month I was in Albuquerque. Here are some shots of the National Hispanic Cultural Center.


They know how to do skies in New Mexico.


Now that I'm back home, I can take my laptop case into the redwood forest.

Starts and Finishes

I finished piecing the Bee Quilt top. This has been a slow quilting year for me. I've been looking at this top in progress all year it seems. I settled on borders, sewed the whole thing together, and was glad to get it off my design wall.


I'm not thrilled with the border, but done is done and I used up almost all of these fabrics.

So now on to something new. While dawdling about finishing Bee, I've been combing through my fabric stash and cutting up everything smaller than a FQ into strips (3", 2.5" and 1.5") and squares (5"), some of which are fussy cuts of charm fabrics. I'm freeing up a lot of storage space, and I've got lots of nice piles of scraps to play with.

It was very freeing to come up with this:


...and then this:

I'm sewing together the individual blocks. There will be sashing. Maybe black...with skeletons.

Empty Nest

I knew it was coming, but I didn't imagine that I would have an empty nest in one fell swoop. Both my kids moved out together into an apartment. They have fairly grown up lives with two jobs each and school, and living at home with mom gets old after 20 or 22 years.

They found a cute apartment together, and except for my daily calls and inquiries into what they're eating, they're doing great. It's hard for me sometimes not to imagine them as these two little ones perched on the love seat. This is one of my favorite photos of them, as it shows how close and how protective of each other they've always been. When Alex barely had begun to talk he wanted to hit a kid on the playground who had thrown sand at his sister. And Allie has always been the cool big sister, even when, a kindergartner, she used toilet paper to make "casts" and "bandages" for Alex, her cooperative patient.

When Allie and I were making the sweep of the local thrift stores looking for a sofa, we found a love seat identical to the one in this picture, and in great shape despite the years. We snapped it up, and when Alex saw it later, he was amazed that we had found this replica of their childhood love seat.


I still had some of the old pillows to that set of furniture, so I recovered them with swatches of upholstery fabric that I had stashed. They create continuity between the old life and the new.

I covered some other old pillows with a piece of chenille that I had put away, lord knows why, but it does make nice pillow covers.


For good measure, I made some pot holders. What else is a mother to do?

Busy Bee

I've been a Busy Bee. Even though I was really tired after the end of the school year, I've since taken two trips and had my old friend Bernadette and her husband Adrian as house guests over Memorial Day weekend.


Bernie and I have been friends since college, when we lived in the same residence hall. After graduation, we shared a house for about a year when she was in law school. She is a very loyal friend, someone who makes the effort to keep in touch across distances and time. It was fun to show her the sights around town. We had a break in the wet weather just for her visit.

It's been interesting for me to realize how the core of people stays the same across the course of their lives. That old familiar essence--and the connection we have with old friends-- is always there unchanged.

In my sewing room I've been looking at this quilt in the making for months. I embroidered these blocks a couple of years ago. The patterns are vintage outline embroidery patterns from the Flickr site Hoop Love Vintage Transfers. You have to join to access the patterns, but once you do, you can enjoy an amazing array of old patterns. It will leave you wanting to embroider dishcloths.



For some reason these busy bees struck my fancy.



The collection of patterns could be titled Advice for Life, or Mother's Wisdom.


I embroidered them in black cotton floss on white cotton, not really knowing what I'd do with the blocks.


When I saw this stretched churn dash block, I knew I'd found the setting.


Since I alternated the colors in each block, it makes a nice secondary pattern in the corners.


I'm making this quilt in a very controlled (for me) selection of fabrics. I've got the border designed, but I'm still making the pieces. Then this one will be done. It makes me smile every time I see it. It's a lap or large baby quilt size. I haven't quite decided what I'll do with it.

Enjoy your weekend. My plan is to have a blissful, quiet and slow couple of days.

Mystical Rose

I finished my AAQ entry and mailed it off. Mystical Rose is one of the names of the Madonna, and the rose symbolizes Mary's mystery, her virginal role in the incarnation of Jesus. In addition, "the invitation ... 'Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds' (Wisdom 2:8) is addressed to all. We are called to be sons and daughters of God." (http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/rosamystica.html)

This piece is a tribute to women’s spiritual lives and especially to their ownership of their spiritual practices. It also highlight’s Mary’s role as an icon of the feminine divine.

The central block is a vintage handkerchief, emphasizing the personal, and the everyday as valued parts of spiritual life. I recently connected my handkerchief obsession with the story of St. Veronica, who wipes Jesus's face on his way to the crucifixion, and whose handkerchief is left imprinted with his image. This story will be the subject of my next small quilt.

The name of the original owner of this handkerchief, Olive Welch, (or maybe Welsh, it's hard to tell) is stamped on its top white border. I bought this handkerchief at a garage sale in the 70s, so I never knew Olive personally, but I feel like keeping her handkerchiefs over the years has helped to preserve a relic of her life.



Here are some close ups.


The photo is a vintage holy card image transferred on to the handkerchief. All the lace in this piece is vintage.


I pieced the hanging sleeve and used a vintage doily for the label.


Another close up.
I'm glad I used these old treasured pieces of fabric and lace to make this piece. They really needed to come out of the drawers and to see the light of day. I find it ironic sometimes that so many of my art quilts are made with such a nostalgic and sentimental tone, but I find myself drawn to the innocence of my childhood, and especially to the core place religion had in my early life.

Garter Stitch

Sometimes a little garter stitch is good for the soul.

And a lot of garter stitch has miraculous healing qualities.

It heals the stress of end of the school year piles of work:
the student papers, the exams, the last committee meetings squeezed in during finals week.



It soothes the soul as you repeat to the 20th person: no you can’t contact me/ call me for a meeting/ send me drafts/ leave me in charge of this project over the summer. Garter stitch, done enough, gives you the fortitude to repeat the words over and over: “I’ll be unavailable.”

I’ve discovered that I can knit garter stitch even after I tripped on a hole in the sidewalk and scraped up and bruised my left hand and right knee. It even helped me to slowly get full mobility back in my hand, and gave me something to do over the days I sat with one leg elevated.


Knitting garter stitch is repetitive and mindless, and replicates that zen state of mind. Done enough, it allows your imagination to expand and concoct summer plans: trips, writing projects, and yes, more knitting of garter stitch.


These past few weeks my dream state has been induced by the bib pattern Baby Bib o’ Love in Mason Dixon Knitting. I’m currently knitting washcloths from a container of odd balls of different sizes and colors of crochet cotton, in the classic diagonal pattern. One more, I keep repeating to myself as I knit myself into a calm state of mind.

I could be at this all summer. I’ve even pulled some yarn for a Modern Log Cabin Blanket, also from Mason Dixon knitting. Just in case I need the enlightenment.

Knitted Rag Rug Tutorial

I know you remember where good intentions lead. Nonetheless, I did intend to continue my regular posts when the end of the semester workload and all my gardening intervened. School is out in a couple of weeks, and I intend (there's that word again) to resume my regular schedule of posting.

In the meantime, I did prepare an Earth Day project. Of course I didn't get it posted in time, but we'll take the attitude that everyday should be Earth Day, and act as if it's not late at all.

I've been streamlining my stash lately, and confronted a big pile of cotton yardage that had been my living room curtains. They were badly faded in spots, but otherwise in good shape. I had 8 panels of 100% cotton and I finally decided, after seeing some similar projects on Ravelry, to cut them into strips and knit a rug.


If you've never made continuous fabric strips, here's a quick way to do it. Remove all the hems from your fabric, and fold it so that the raw edges are even and extend a bit beyond the rest of the fabric. Using a rotary cutter and ruler, cut strips without cutting through the raw edges. These strips were cut 1", but if I were to do this again, I'd go smaller, because the thicker the strip the more cumbersome the knitting.


Cut every other strip apart with a scissors, which will give you a continuous strip that you can roll into a ball like yarn. The location of the cuts will alternate in the top and bottom layer of fabric. I knit my rug on size 13 needles by casting on 42 stitches and alternating blocks of garter and stockinette stitch. This isn't very precise work, so make it up to suit yourself. The garter stitch makes for a nice thick rug, though it's harder on the hands to knit.


Voila, my new bathroom rug! I've freed up a big space on my fabric closet shelf, and got a rug out of it in the bargain.


The illusive Wee gives it the fireside seal of approval.


I used six panels of fabric for this rug, so it really eats up stash that is otherwise useless. I may crochet a basket or a cat bed with what's left. Or at least that's what I intend to do right now.

Project Updates

I've been working on a few projects in my typical erratic fashion. I'll spend a couple of hours hand sewing, a few hours knitting here and there on various projects, and every couple of weeks, I manage some machine sewing. I've done some more work on my AAQ project. In the closeup you can see that I've added tiny French knots and beads over some dots in the hankie fabric. I've also duplicate stitched some petals in green cotton.

The lace in this piece was a gift from Allie Aller. I'm glad to have found a very special use for it. After I embellish the lace, I think this piece will be done. I think I'm going to bind it with ribbon. I haven't done this before, so I'll have to play with it a bit.

I've made a big stack of pillowcases for Operation Pillowcase. These didn't all fit into one box, so I'll be sending another box in the near future. If you'd like to add even one or two pillowcases to the next package, let me know. Operation Pillowcase has now sent over 1100 pillowcases to service members in Afghanistan. It's amazing what dedicated sewers have accomplished.


I treated myself to a copy of Martha Stewart's new craft and sewing book. It's a great book with plenty of projects: baby items, linens, toys, and it has an extensive section of basic instructions of various techniques for new crafters.

Of course the photography is clean and beautiful, and the projects have a contemporary feel.


Aren't these cute potholders?

We're still getting plenty of rain here, but the sunny days in between have been delightful. I hope you are enjoying these Spring days.

Some Shawls and More Mail

I like to keep a shawl on the needles as one of my 3-4 knitting projects in progress. I like a plain shawl I can knit without paying too much attention. I can knit one of these while reading, or when in a dark movie theatre. I don't get to too many movies, but just in case I get the chance to go to one, I've got a shawl to knit.

The pattern for the top shawl is Eye of Partridge Shawl by aemmeleia and I knit it in some Kroy sock yarn in the Burnished Sierra Stripes colorway. The stitch pattern shows off the yarn nicely, though the shape is a deep V and not very wide. I guess it's more of a neckerchief than a shawl.

I buy sock yarn in colors I like, though I don't actually knit many socks. I think the last pair I knit took me two years to finish, but sock yarn makes very pretty shawls.

This shawlette is knit from the pattern 22.5 Degrees by Martina Behm. The pattern is here on her website. Though the site is in German, you can see the link to the pattern in English is marked at the bottom of the pattern post. This is a great pattern. I knit it with two strands of a Deborah Norville sock yarn in the Thyme colorway, and I knit the edging with an odd ball of wool and silk blend yarn. Martina has an indispensable link in the pattern to her YouTube video tutorial for making the edging.

I actually made another one of these for my mom in a teal worsted weight yarn, but I mailed it off before I thought to take a photo. Shawlettes are perfect for keeping your neck warm under your jacket, or while you're at home, and they only take one or two balls of yarn to make.

I got more great mail. I won a give-away on Floribunda's blog, and I got this nice batch of gifts. The book has some good ideas: one I liked was personalizing buttons for your projects by painting them with nail polish. Thanks Julie!

I also got a batch of pillowcases and some playing cards from Magpie Sue for Operation Pillowcase. These will be going into the mail as soon as I sew up the pile of pillowcases I'm making to send. Thanks Sue!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had a relaxing and creative day. I'm knitting my colorwork vest, and watching the Yankees vs. the Red Sox game on TV. The beginning of baseball season means lots of knitting opportunities in the months to come.