October is Adopt-a-Shelter Dog Month

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, have shopped in my SewAmazin ArtFire studio or visited my SewAmazin blog online recently, you've probably seen this coupon image in either a post, tweet or on the sidebar:

To celebrate Adopt-a-Shelter Dog month, every day during October members of the Crafting for Animals Guild on ArtFire have been writing articles on the guild's blog, sharing helpful information about animal adoption as well as their personal rescue stories. (My article, titled Lucky Penny was published on the blog on October 11.)

The month-long promotion peaks this coming week - October 23rd-29th - when participating shops will help raise funds for a single rescue organization - Close to Home Animal Rescue.

How does this work? First, click on the coupon image above - it will take you to a page on the guild's blog where you will see a list of participating shops. When you purchase an item from any of these artisans, use the coupon code 10CTH-CFA during checkout and 10% of your purchase will be donated to Close to Home Animal Rescue.

Ever since I opened my ArtFire studio earlier this year, I've donated a portion of the sales of some of my products to WestieMed; since April, I've been able to donate $100 to WestieMed to help care for ill or injured rescued Westies. In September, I added Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc. (RBARI), a local no-kill animal shelter, to my charitable donations. Generally, anything with a Westie embroidered or printed on it and all of the Dog Collar Slipcovers benefit WestieMed; sales of Insulated Water Bottle Carriers and Dog Scrunchie Neck Ruffles benefit RBARI.

During the Crafting for Animals Guild promotion next week, you can use the coupon code for any items in my shop, and I'll donate 10% of the sales price to Close to Home Animal Rescue. As a thank-you, I have a special free gift item that I'll include with each package, too.

I've been sewing like mad all month, adding Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas collar slipcovers and scrunchies in time for next week. Here's a small sample - visit my ArtFire shop to see the entire collection:

Boo Bats Reversible Bandana Collar Cover

Trick or Treat Reversible Bandana Collar Cover

Howl-a-ween Stripes Scrunchie Neck Ruffle

Howl-a-ween Checks Scrunchie Neck Ruffle

Tiny Autumn Leaves Bandana Collar Cover

Autumn Maple Leaves Bandana Collar Cover

Christmas Stripes & Dots Scrunchie Neck Ruffles

Classic Christmas Plaid Scrunchie Neck Ruffle

Classic Christmas Plaid Bandana Collar Cover

Poinsettias & Roses Bandana Collar Cover

All American Santa Gift Holder/Zipper Case

My Christmas Shop for people is open, too. :-)

Shoe Diva Insulated Bottle Carrier

This insulated bottle carrier ranks among the top five of my all-time favorites (so far)! The recipient requested a customized design that featured high heeled shoes and the color pink. Oh, and I almost forgot - it had to have some sort of shiny 'bling'.

The embroidered design is actually a composite of two different designs from Embroidery Library. The background 'feathers' were part of one design (Fashionista Footwear), and the high heeled shoe is from a second design (Mola Diva Shoe).

My customer liked different elements of each design. Using embroidery software, I deleted the original shoe and text from the first design, saving just the background. Then I mirror imaged the Mola Diva Shoe and resized it to fit in the space. It didn't quite fill the void, so I needed to add some stitches to the background. It took me a couple of practice stitch-outs to get all the stitches just right.

When it came time to stitch the design, I changed all the colors to shades of pink ranging from soft bubblegum to intense azalea. And for the background, I selected a Sulky metallic thread to add the shiny glitz. Originally I had planned to add some hot-fix crystals, but they didn't stick to my sample. I don't really think the rhinestones are missed, lol!

The straps are hot pink polypro belting and I even found a cord lock in a coordinating pink color. I made sure one of the pinks in the embroidery matched the strap color.

Next time I'm making up a batch of bottle carriers, I'll add a variation of this one for my ArtFire & Etsy shops.

UPDATE:  I recently was asked if my insulated water bottle carriers would fit an Aquafina 1-liter water bottle. Since I have been focused on encouraging the use of reusable water bottles, and I wasn't entirely sure how my carriers would fit specific plastic bottles.

So we went shopping - and I'm pleased to share that the Aquafina bottle does fit inside most of the bottle carriers in my shops, though it is a bit snug. Some of the carriers are a little short, so the drawstring doesn't quite pull in at the neck of the bottle, but both the Peace Love Paws and Recycle Symbol carriers fit quite well (see photo at right). This is just the right height so that the drawstring pulls in at the base of the bottle's neck *and* the top edge of the carrier doesn't get in the way while drinking.

I'll be adjusting my basic pattern for the future to ensure that the carriers will be able to carry the Aquafina bottle.

• You can see more photos of all the bottle carriers I have made in my Insulated Water Bottle Carrier set on Flickr.
• Find them in the Insulated Water Bottle Carrier section of my SewAmazin ArtFire studio
• Selected carriers are also available in my SewAmazin Etsy shop

Quilted Cell Phone Pocket/Wristlet

Back in late August, while I was working on the insulated lunch bags, Abbey asked me to make her a cell phone pocket to match her bag. I wasn't able to start it in time to deliver it with her lunch bag, but it was one of the first projects I finished in September. This is what I came up with:

Abbey's initials were stitched using the same Harrington font from 8 Claws and a Paw, in the 1 inch size. I omitted the flourishes used on her lunch bag.

Instead of piping, I used narrow, folded strips of black fabric as accents above and below the monogram section. The front and back of the pocket are quilted exactly like her lunch bag. The top edges are covered with a bias-cut binding in matching fabric.

I tried a few methods of joining the front and back pieces with wrong sides together and binding around the edges (to imitate a 'designer' tech pocket), but was not satisfied with the results. Finally I decided to sew them with right sides together, then used the serger to overlock the raw edges for a clean finish on the inside. 

The sizing was a guess on my part - I wasn't sure what type of cell phone Abbey had, so I used my Blackberry and digital camera for guidance and tried to get a nice snug fit. The narrow strap is detachable, so that the pocket can be carried like a wristlet or hooked onto another bag with a clip.

I really like the way this turned out! And, I'd really like to make more of these as Christmas gifts - but I'll need to find a way to add a zippered section for carrying ID and maybe some cash.

Finished: Autumn UFOs

September was National Sewing Month and I spent most of my sewing time catching up on customer orders! As a reward for finishing my long work list, I decided to revisit a few unfinished projects of my own and spent a couple of very productive days completing them.

Last October, I started work on this Trick or Treat Backdoor Quilt pattern from Cottage Creek Quilts' "Backdoor Quilt" series - remember my tea dyeing experiment? I pieced all the borders, tea-dyed the background, fused and stitched the appliques, and even digitized and stitched the text - and then packed it away to be finished later.

I decided to echo quilt around the design; I didn't really plan ahead, so it turned out a bit like meandering in some spots.  The lines on the pumpkin are stitched through all layers in dark orange rayon thread.

The cat's whiskers and nose are hand stitched through all layers in cream pearl cotton #12. I think the crow should have a black bead for an eye, but I haven't found just the right one yet.

Before quilting, I added the zigzag decorative stitch above and below the Trick or Treat text. Want to know how I matched up the two rows of zigzags so well?

I used a twin needle! Since I couldn't choose between two similar thread colors, I used both. That's a trick I'll have to use again, especially with decorative stitches.

One of the projects in my 'un-started' list is a Bahama Breeze Quilt that uses paper piecing for assembling the quilt top. I was not familiar with that technique so in June 2009, I took a class at The Cozy Quilt Shoppe. The class was designed around a pattern from Norway Quilt Designs called Maple Madness. The pattern includes instructions for a wall hanging, lap quilt, placemat and table runner. In class, we made one leaf block in each size. I chose to combine them to make a pair of placemats:

Last year I pieced together the leaf blocks and borders and prepared the batting and backing. I couldn't decide how these should be quilted, so packed them away to be finished later. Sound familiar?

This year I stared at these for a long time before finally deciding to just keep it simple and stitch wavy lines across the placemat. I chose one of the curvy decorative stitches built into my machine, made it as long and as wide as it allowed, then randomly stitched parallel lines, guiding the placemat back and forth slightly as I stitched. The result almost looks like free-motion quilting. The thread is a 30 weight Sulky Blendable in variegated greens.

I'm so happy to finally have both of these projects finished! Hopefully I will find the time and inspiration to work on a few more from the UFO list soon.