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I am by no means a quilter, but I definitely have gained an appreciation for the art of quilting by making this quilt. It all started last May when I came up with the brilliant idea of making a “Summer Quilt” for our bed. It gets stinkin’ hot here in Houston, and I thought,
“Gee, I’ll just make a fast and simple quilt to use just in time for summer.”… FOUR months later, I finally finished. The actual piecing of the quilt top only took me 4 hours. So far, so good, right? Then I basted the batting and backside together, bought myself a 14-inch quilting frame and started
hand quilting. What was I thinking? I already know that I’m not a patient woman, so what made me think I could finish quilting a queen-sized quilt at anything more than a snail’s pace? Long story made short, after 12 hours of hand quilting, I went to the store and bought a walking-foot. Two hours later, I was done quilting. I must admit, I love the vintage look of hand quilting much better than machine quilting, but for my “simple summer” quilt, I threw up my hands and said,
“screw it!” So all you quilters out there… I am in awe.
Christmas is around the corner and it's almost time to close my Etsy shop so I can work on my own family's gifts. I find it a bit tricky to come up with ideas for handmade gifts for men. Most men aren't into cutesy little coin purses, tissue holders, or scrabble tile pendants. Leather. Now that's manly. Looks manly. Feels manly. It even smells manly. Mix leather with paper and you can't go wrong. This is my first attempt at bookbinding using the Coptic stitch. Coptic binding is really nifty because it enables the book to lay flat when opened. I used some scrap olive green leather for the cover and strap and waxed linen thread for the binding. If you have a Tandy Leather store in your area, they usually will sell their leather scraps for about $7 per pound... nice big chunks good for baby shoes, small books and patchwork leather pants if that's what floats your boat.
This practice book is tiny... only 3 inches square. It has nine signatures (those little folded sections of paper). 5 pages in each signature. Front and back that's 180 pages in this particular book. I'm planning on making 2 to 3 more in a small journal size to give as gifts. If you're interested in learning the Coptic stitch, I encourage you to do a search on YouTube for a tutorial. I had a lot of fun putting this little book together and loved the actually stitching part of it... I found it very relaxing and therapeutic. Just what I needed during this merry, yet extremely stressful holiday season :)
I wanted to make something classy to display my Business Bibs on in the store, so I cut some square wooded dowels into 12 inch pieces, stained them, coated them with polyurethane and screwed little hooks into them. I was happy with how they turned out. Here's a cute idea... make them a little shorter and a little girl could use them to hang her dollie's wardrobe. 
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