Appleton Dance

This tote was inspired by the clever MUJI tote my friend Rosey got from her friend in New York. The original was made of one layer of ripstop nylon with flat-felled seams. This one is cotton with a lining. You can order shibui MUJI products online at the Museum of Modern Art . Directions for MUJI-homage tote Make your pattern out of medium weight interlining fabric 31.5-inches long by 15 inches wide. 1. With the pattern's long, straight edge on the fold of the fabric, cut four pattern pieces: two of exterior bag fabric and two of lining fabric. I used cotton for both exterior and lining. (If you wish, you may cut pattern pieces from four different fabrics, as I have in this demo.) You will need a 7/8-yard (31.5 inch by 30 inch) cut of fabric for each of the four pieces cut from your pattern. (If you wish to interline, cut two interlining pieces and baste to wrong sides of bag exterior pieces. You will need two 31.5 by 30-inch cuts of interlining for each bag.) NOTE: ...

This project was inspired by a coin purse fashioned from a cardboard juice box that my friend Robin brought back from Merida this spring (above). It will also hold business cards, credit cards and/or gift cards. Materials: One 12-1/4 by 7.5-inch piece of lightweight top fabric, such as a cotton print One 12-1/4 by 7.5-inch piece of lightweight inside fabric (or two pieces of the same fabric, if desired) One 12-1/4 by 7.5-inch piece of fusable web (such as Heat & Bond Lite iron-on adhesive) Cut a pattern as indicated in the diagram below. Directions: 1. With iron, fuse web to wrong side of top fabric. Peel off paper. Place inside fabric, wrong side down, on top fabric. Fuse. Place pattern on fused fabric. Outline pattern on fused fabric with pencil or chalk. Cut out along marked outline. 2. Top stitch, zig-zag, or decorative stitch, around entire perimeter of fabric. 3. Crease each side flap from top to bottom; press, and topstitch along crease. 4. Using a ruler and X-acto knife, cu...

Scott Tilley of Lawn Monster (810-923-6217) raised the mower deck up to 5.5-inches and gave the labyrinth a haircut. I had no idea this would be possible and he solved my problem of how to trim the labyrinth up without going down on my hands and knees with a hand clipper. The labyrinth looks very elegant, now. The lawn patch I used to repair the bare spots will come in soon, I hope. I have to water tonight since we haven't had any rain. Before haircut (above)

I made this shopping tote by simplifying a bag from Cindy Taylor Oates’ Slouchy Bags booklet number TMB-162. This is the "Taylor Made Bag" made quick! This bag is about 9x12x6-inches when packed. The drop on the handle is about 18-inches making it very easy to pack and unpack. The booklet has six or seven easy bags with many variations. You have to trace the full-sized patterns provided in the booklet. I thought the directions were pretty good; I’d say you need a little sewing savvy to follow the instructions, but not a lot. The thing that intrigued me about the bags in this booklet is they are all well-proportioned, useful shapes and the variations and embellishments are interesting. The book cost $15 and was published in 2006 by Oates' company, Taylor Made Designs, P. O. Box 31024, Phoenix, AZ 85046. I bought the booklet last year while on a shop-hop of southeast Michigan quilt stores at The Quilt Patch , 112 N. Evans’ St., Suite #5, Tecumseh, MI 49286. The shop is ver...

This is a very good scrap project courtesy of my sister-in-law, Susan! 1. Cut 4.5-inch square of solid color cotton. 2. Cut 4.5-inch square of thin cotton batt, or old tea-towels or other absorbent fabric. 3. Cut one 4.5-inch square of each of four different cotton prints. 4. Fold each print square in half – wrong sides together -- and press. Set aside. 5. Stitch solid square and batt together – stacked wrong sides together -- with stitching centered vertically and horizontally on the fabric. 6. Stack with batting on the bottom and layer the folded squares on top of the solid square that is already stitched to the batting, as shown below. 7. Layer first folded print with fold running vertically down the center of the solid square/batt and raw edges lined up along the right side of the square. Pin in place. 8. Layer second folded print with fold running horizontally across the center of the solid square/batt and raw edges lined up along the bottom of the square. ...