First Light Designs

I’ll bet you think I’m making resolutions for 2015. Nope, not at all. I made a resolution just yesterday, and I have until the ball drops at midnight in Time Square tonight to fulfill it. That only gives me till 9:00 pm, as I live on the west coast some 3,000 miles from New York City.

So what about that resolution? Well, in February of this year I finished a quilt top that had been lingering in my stack of unfinished objects (UFOs) for five years. This is the one:

The pattern is Checkerboard Square by Alex Anderson, and the fabrics are from her line called Never Enough Romance for P&B Textiles.

My plan back in February was to make a pieced backing from the leftover fabrics and finish the quilt right away. Instead, I got caught up in other projects and, well, you know how that goes . . . no longer a UFO, now a WIP (work in progress). And a WIP it remained until yesterday, when I was reviewing my 2014 blog posts to see what I had accomplished during the year. I saw my post of Feb. 2 with the picture of this quilt — and I resolved then and there to piece a backing before the year ended.

Because of the amount of fabric I had left over, I decided to incorporate a very large Goose in the Pond block into the backing. It’s one of my very favorite traditional blocks, despite the fact that I’ve never made one before. (On my quilt bucket list is a red and white quilt, and the odds are good that I will choose this block when I’m ready to make it.)

Here is my jumbo Goose in the Pond block with two rows of sashing around it:

My Goose block finished at 37½” square. With the two rows of sashing, it now measures 50″ square. What I have here could easily be a quilt in its own right but I am committed to finishing it as a backing . . . this evening.

By the time the ball drops in Time Square tonight, I plan to be sitting in the TV room with a glass of champagne in one hand, my little cat Theodora in my lap, and my Dear Husband sitting next to me.

Thank you for stopping by my website/blog in 2014. I hope to see you next year!

As promised in my last post, here is a quick and easy method of making a little carrying case out of a man’s necktie. My inspiration is an eyeglasses case I bought years ago at a holiday sale. I wish I knew the name of the crafter, as I would certainly credit her if I could.

A case made from a necktie can hold an item about 4″ to 6″ in length. But how wide an item? Ah, that totally depends on the width of the tie. The wider the tie, the wider the item it can hold. The case you see below, made to hold my friend Vickie’s special seam ripper/stiletto tool, came from a tie that measured about 2½” at the widest point:

It would also hold a pair of 5″ sewing scissors, with some batting tucked into the bottom to protect it from the tips of the scissors:

For this tutorial I worked with a vintage tie that measured about 4″ at the widest point — wide enough to serve as a carrying case for my cell phone:

Here’s what you need to make a case:

— a man’s necktie
— sewing scissors
— a seam ripper
— a hand sewing needle
— thread to match the main tie fabric
— a snap fastener
— a decorative button

1. Trim the tie so that it measures about 15″ from the cut end to the tip:

2. On the inside of the tie, use a seam ripper to remove the stitching that holds the edges together:

Two reasons for that: first, to remove the stitching where the tie is tacked to the lining, and second, to see if there is interfacing or other fabric inside the lining that would keep an item from sliding easily in and out of the finished case.

With this particular tie I needed to remove the narrow strip of interfacing that went down the middle:

3. Hand stitch the edges back together to within a couple inches from the top, using a single thread and taking large stitches, since they won’t show when the case is finished.

4. Fold over a generous 1½” at the bottom of the tie as shown:

5. Bring the folded bottom edge of the tie up near the top and adjust it to fit the item you are planning to put in the case:

I tested mine by slipping my cell phone inside the case, making sure there was room to close it by pulling the flap down:

6. Place a straight pin on each side to hold the layers in place:

Using a single thread and starting at the fold on the lower right side (see the point of the stiletto in the photo below), hand stitch up that side, across the top (skip the spot along the top middle where the folded edge has no tie fabric underneath it — just slip the needle through the fold so the thread doesn’t show), and down the left side to the fold:

7. Sew the two pieces of a snap on as shown . . .

. . . and finish the case by sewing a decorative button on the outside flap:

As the Barefoot Contessa would say, “How easy is that?”

Many years ago, at a holiday craft fair in Portland, I bought an eyeglasses case made from a vintage tie. I’ve been using it ever since to hold my 5″ scissors, having stuffed some batting at the bottom of the case to protect it from the tips of the scissors.

Fast forward to September. I was at the Northwest Quilting Expo (“Portland’s original quilting and sewing festival”) browsing the vendor mall when I spotted some beautiful and unique seam ripper/stiletto tools made by Rick Luoma of Auburn, Washington. (Rick and his wife Julie own offthewallquilt.com, selling products online and at quilt shows.)

Rick makes the handles out of acrylic or wood, and each is one of a kind. I bought one with a purple handle for my friend Vickie S., whose birthday was coming in November. I decided to make a special case for it from a necktie, using my modified scissors case as my guide. Of course the necktie had to be purple, too, because it’s Vickie’s favorite color:

A quick sweep of my button collection yielded the perfect little button for the outside flap. It has a little rhinestone in the center — just the right amount of bling. The case actually closes with a snap, sewn on the inside:

The tool itself is quite wonderful: it has nice heft and is very comfortable to hold. The seam ripper at one end and stiletto at the other have stainless steel handles that tuck into the ends of the holder:

As for the necktie notions case, it couldn’t have been easier to make — it’s all sewn by hand. Would you like to know how to make one? In my next post, I’ll show you!