Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I forgot to post that I was in my 7th Etsy Treasury a week or so ago. Again, someone was taken with my green leaf coasters, which are still for sale in my Etsy store.

Here’s the screen shot I took at the time of this gorgeous green collection:

If you have a large quilt to quilt on your domestic sewing machine, it’s always recommended that you work on a large table, preferably one where your sewing machine can drop down so the sewing area at the same level with the table top. The other requirement is a smooth surface so the quilt can skim over the table top and not get too bunched up or drag.

You can go out and spend $1000 on such a specialised sewing table, but not all of us have a spare $1000 to spend, nor the space to put such a table even if we could afford it.

The other alternative is to think outside the square — instead of dropping the machine down to the table level, why not bring the level up to the machine? Sounds silly, huh? Not if you follow the instructions here: http://shedrum.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

With some large sheets of styrofoam, some tape, a knife and a large sheet of plastic, she ended up with a great quilting table — and all for about $18!

My friend Whitney suggested a while ago that journal/notepad covers might be something I could make. So a few weekends back I experimented by making Whitney one for her birthday! I wrote this post in July, but it won’t be published until sometime in August, after she’s received her present — I don’t want to spoil her surprise!

It took me about 4 hours to make it — without a pattern and just following my nose and an existing folio I already had. I made it so that it can take A4 and Letter notepads, a spiral bound notepad (slips in to the vertical pocket to the right of the spine), as well as a business card, other small items, loose leaf paper, and, after I’d taken the photos, I added an elastic bit to hold a pen in the spine. The closures are velcro.

So, what do you think? Should I make these? The 4+ hour time frame would mean they’d be expensive, plus there’s at least a yard/metre of fabric in one (at about AU$25 per metre) and about 1/2 metre of Stitch and Shape.

Click on an image to view it full size.

When you buy magnetic snaps, they don’t come with instructions! So you either have to figure out how they work (not easy), ask someone who’s used them before, or go to your friend Google and ask it!

I’ve now used magnetic snaps on a couple of tote bags I’ve made. The internet resources I found most useful in perfecting *my* technique (which uses a combination of the techniques from the sites below) were these:

• http://nicolemdesign.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-insert-best-magnetic-snaps-ever.html
• http://craftapple.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/sewing-tip-installing-a-magnetic-snap/
• http://www.helloknitty.com/pdfs/MagneticSnap.pdf (PDF)

If you’re using ordinary snaps (not the magnetic ones), here’s a tutorial on how to put them together: http://www.gold-fingers.co.cc/2011/05/tutorial-putting-snaps-on-sewing.html