Creating One of Kind Gifts for Friends and Family

An inexpensive frame - around $5, leftover pieces of fabric and a little sewing. Viola, you have a one of kind gift for someone you treasure. The instructions and inspiration are located in the Sewing Savvy eNewsletter I write for Clotilde.com every three weeks. This particular post will be active on November 16th....check it out and perhaps sign up for future newsletters. It's absolutely FREE! ......

American Patchwork and Quilting Radio

"Lorine Mason, featured guest on American Patchwork and Quilting Radio with Pat Sloan."
Tune in this afternoon November 14th at 4:00 pm est. I willl be talking with Pat and it is always a pleasure as this lady has a sense of humor along with all that talent. I am looking forward to discussing my love of fat quarters of fabric, Boutique Slippers, all those doll clothes books, creating fun projects for publishing and who knows what else. Here is the link to tune in... http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/radio/index.html

Sew Much Comfort - Veteran's Day Sewing Workshop

It was sew simple to convince three members from my local American Sewing Guild to accompany me to a Veteran's Day Sewing Workshop held in nearby Fairfax, Virginia. Seen here are Barb H., Ruth L., and Barbara D. That's me wearing a yellow ribbon.

Our wonderful, Sew Much Comfort instructor and coordinator Lynne T. She was very patient with us as she explained in great detail every step of the process to adapt simple boxer shorts to fit over the bulky medical equipment necessary for the proper healing of broken or missing limbs.

We were all very intent in doing it right so concentration was a must. I think Lynne thought we were good students. Quality is a must and adhering to the proper way - The Sew Much Comfort Way - if you will, was very important.

Here is the entire group of ladies, with me in the middle once again. Oops not the entire group- we are missing one lady - she acted at our quality control person and took the photo. She inspected each pair before they received a label and were ready for delivery to Walter Reed Hospital.

Velcro was generous to donate three boxes of their wonderful product, which is used in each clothing item. As you can imagine we used a lot of Velcro throughout the day. Thanks Velcro - it really made a difference.

We were also helped by Westcott, who donated three pairs of scissors for the event. Having a sharp pair of scissors handy is a must whenever you are sewing and Westcott makes great scissors. Thanks Westcott.

Quick Stitched Ornaments

M is for Mason or Mom or Mary, the choice is really yours to make. This is a quick ornament to make with only felt, stuffing, a hanger and your sewing machine. If you would like the crystal look add some glitter to the finished design. How did I create these adorable ornaments.......

Well let's see, first of all I chose my favorite stitching patterns on my sewing machine and stitched rows spaced app. 1/2 inch apart onto a piece of white wool blend felt. I used a variegated thread for added interest. I then fused Steam a Seam 2 to the back of the stitched piece of felt.

Next I chose a shape for my ornament; a letter created from a font on my computer that I expanded to a suitable size, a cookie cutter, or perhaps something hand drawn.

I traced the 'shape' onto the felt and cut around the image. I removed the paper backing and fused the shape onto a second color of felt which had also been backed with fusible web. I used a scalloped blade scissors to cut around the shape leaving a 1/8 inch border.

I then fused the scalloped edge felt to a final color of felt and trimmed around the edge leaving a 1/8 inch border. I cut a second piece of felt for the backing.

Stitch the two layers together using your machine or a needle and thread and a blanket stitch, being sure to leave a 1 inch opening to stuff the ornament.

Stuff the ornament and sew the opening closed.

Attach a hanger using felt tabs or by sewing it directly to the top of the ornmant. Add a felt rose and leaves to the top of the hanging loop and sprinkle with glitter, if desired.

Enjoy!

Urban Doodles on the Road

Recently I was asked to teach a 1/2 hour class to the ladies at our Northern Virginia American Sewing Guild's annual meeting. I decided my foray into doodling might make a good class and hopefully the ladies would enjoy something different although still sewing related yet very different from traditional sewing based classes. We had a total of 81 ladies sign up for the event. The photo above is the project.

Why you might ask did I call it Urban Doodles...well I probably should have called in Suburban Doodles but that just sounded a little strange at the time. My good friend, Cyndi Hansen designed the logo for me and I love it.... Here I am just getting started.

I showed the project photo and the ladies could be heard collectively saying, I can't draw or doodle what am I supposed to do with this. I reassured them - and moved on with the basics. My wonderful helpers from my local Sew n' Sews group handed out cardboard templates of sewing machines and dress forms and we got started. The ladies traced their choice of outlines and I showed them how to outline the image and then divide it into sections using a ribbon like line.

Here are a couple of examples of pattern fills that a couple of the ladies chose for their design. I started getting a little worried as the room was so darn quiet I thought I had bored them to death. No, I was okay they were all concentrating on their work. I was awed by what I saw. These ladies apparently can draw.

Now this one is fun. The fabric piece underneath the drawn design is an example of doodling with fabric. Whether hand stitched, sewn by machine or simply fused to a backing fabric this is real fun!

Playing with Dolls

It is so funny how things come about. I was with good friend Eileen Hull last week and she mentioned the upcoming 'suitcase' project for the Fresh Vintage bloghop. I had participated the previous week and was not planning on going another round of hopping but since my new book, Love to Dress Up 18" Dolls, was just released and would be the perfect fit for the suitcase, I thought it was a wonderful fit. I decided to dress my doll in the Outdoor Explorer outfit which went perfectly with some Monarch butterfly fabric I already owned in my stash.

Here is how I created my suitcase so full of butterflies, that some seem to be escaping.

Fuse Steam a Seam 2 to the back of your chosen fabric.

Remove paper backing from the fusible web and cover a piece of matboard with the fabric.

Create the magic sandwich: cutting board-die-fabric covered matboard-cutting board. Slide the entire sandwich through the Sizzix machine.

I colored the edges and inside of my suitcase using my Mepxy markers.

I added brads to the corners and a 'lock' shaped brad to the front of the suitcase.

Using the project photo as a guide, create your suitcase.

Use leftovers to create a mini luggage tag, adding some embroidery thread as the hanging loop.

Cut out two Butterflies, once again a great die provided to us by Eileen and Sizzix.

Create wire coils and attach them to the back of the butterflies, attaching the opposite end inside the suitcase using foam tape.

What fun!

Be sure to click on the Hop Forward button on the Fresh Vintage logo at the side of my blog page. Thanks for stopping by.

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop

Visions of Bali by Lorine Mason

Welcome Hoppers! When Eileen Hull asked me to participate in her current blog hop I was honored as I am not a consistent blogger but a good friend. I want to be, a consistent blogger I mean, as I think I qualify as a good friend despite my lack of blogging skills, but it seems I let life get in my way at times!

My contribution to the blog hop involved the use of the leaf die that Eileen designed within the Fresh Vintage collection as well as some wonderful wire and Katydids from the folks over at Beadalon and a wonderful designer named Katie Hacker. What was I to do with all this great stuff?

The Design Process Step by Step

1. My first love is fabric and I love to fuse things so that is where I started, I simply fused fun batik fabric leftovers to bamboo felt and then slid them through the Sizzix machine cutting out leaves of perfectly predetermined sizes.

1a. Yes, I could have changed the entire design listing process to add a step I forgot but that is just not me so we have 1a. I had to sew something so I 'clothesline' sewed down the center of the leaves using a fun variegated thread on my sewing machine. I then cut apart my leaves and moved to step 2.
Clothesline Sewing: means to sew in a continuous row without breaking your thread, just keep feeding in the next leaf until you are finished.

2. My second love these days is t shirt fabric strips, I rummaged through my design trunk and found a matching strip and used it for the base of the necklace.

3. I love just a touch of sparkle and since I come from all things fabric I filled my Katydid with hot fix metallic rhinestones from iLoveToCreate using glue as frankly it was just a little too delicate to hot fix anything into the channels of the finding.

4. Just so I did not stray too far from my roots I wrapped the wire around a fabric turner tube to create fun coils and then created some spirals to add to the magnificence of my creation.

5. I think I am ready to put it all together. Does this count as a step?

6. Break time: I must get a cup of coffee before I finish.

7. Back to work, I find the center of the t shirt strip and use it to tie five of the leaf stems together with a beautiful knot.

8. I moved up either side of the necklace and continued to tie additional groupings of leaves. Live dangerously and don't measure.

9. I then spiraled the coils around the t shirt strip between the leaf groupings.

10. I added a touch of glue to the back of the Katydid and the spirals made earlier and glued them to the top of the center grouping of leaves.

11. One last look to decide if it looks finished or not! I think it is.....

12. Take a sip of coffee and call the master of all things Fresh Vintage!

13. Be sure to continue hopping - just click on the hop forward button on the Fresh Vintage icon along the side.

14. Thanks for stopping by......

15. Almost forgot -please stop by the Oh My Crafts blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the Leaves die used in this project. Wow! if I did not already have the die I sure would......