Introducing My Petite Point Flowers Spring Tablerunner Pattern

Spring is trying so hard to arrive here in New England, and I've just been itching to bring some of it into my house regardless of the amount of snow still on the ground. Perhaps you would like to bring a little spring into your house too, and here's the perfect way to do that...

It's my very own original design called Petite Point Flowers Spring Tablerunner and you could win this very item later this month in the Good Eggs Giveaway which will be announced in a few weeks.


But if you'd rather not wait ...


... to put a cheerful runner like this on your spring table ...


... with all its pretty petite points around the edge ...


... and that wonderful jumbo ric rac, and happy spring fabric, you can now purchase the pattern and make one for yourself!

I have used Celebrate Spring charms by Sandy Gervais for Moda on this runner, but you can use any cheerful fabric you like. This pattern is a great stash buster too! If you have made anything from any of my free tutorials or videos, you know that the instructions will be thorough with lots of pictures!

Just click the Buy Now button below and safely pay through Paypal. I'll send your pattern out by first class mail right away! US postage is already included in the price!

Petite Point Flowers Spring Tablerunner Pattern
$6.00 (includes US postage)
International orders will be billed an additional $2.00 through Paypal)

Be on the lookout around March 24th for the announcement of the Good Eggs Giveaway where you will be able to sign up to win the Spring Tablerunner in the pictures and lots of other great prizes from other wonderful sites.

Happy Stitching!

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Make Do Memories Vintage Quilt Blocks

Here's a look at the vintage hexagon quilt blocks that Lyn sent me for her Make Do Memories Miniature Quilt Challenge. They are very old and the edges are not in very good condition. Plus they needed a good cleaning, so here's what I did...



Here they are fresh out of the package.


Some of the edges are so frayed that I don't know if I'll be able to salvage them. We'll see.


First I gave them a gentle bath in a bowl on the kitchen counter. I let them soak for a few hours in Oxyclean and warm water. The water was pretty gross when dumped it, so I guess this was a good thing to do. I just hope it doesn't do any long term damage to the fabric. I don't think it will though because it is all cotton and seems to be pretty sturdy, except some of the edges.


I rinsed them over and over again in cold water and spread them out on a clean towel to dry. They looked much better after their bath!

I did a little more work on them this morning, but no pictures yet! I think I might finish up my little piece before showing any more, so you'll just have to wait!

Happy Stitching!

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Siggy Blocks are finished and ready to mail!

They're all ready to mail off to Rachel! My siggy blocks, that is! It seemed to take forever to make these and get them all signed and trimmed, mainly because I was working on a few other things as well. But here they are...


...along with all the little leftover triangles that were trimmed off. I just might save them and make little half-square triangle blocks to use in another project someday.

Do you save things like that for someday or just in case?

Can you guess what else I've been working on lately? I showed some of the fabric recently, but now the project is all finished and ready to deliver. I'll share the results with you soon!

Happy Stitching!

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Jane's Quilted and Appliqued Christmas Wallhanging

My friend Jane is quite a quilter. She makes quilts for her children and her friend's children, and for fundraisers, and gifts and other occasions as well. I've worked on a few quilts with Jane, and it's always an adventure. Jane and I were at a little fabric shop together last fall when I was looking for Halloween fabric to finish off my Halloween apron, and she found the cutest pattern for a quilted and appliqued Christmas wall hanging. She purchased some fabric to go along with it while we were there, then she made it. I love how it turned out, so cheerful and cute and Christmas-y.

It's Santa and a pair of mittens! I love mittens, as you might have guessed by our family's version of 'stockings' hung by the chimney with care! The red background fabric around the border is so pretty and rich looking and I love the swirl designs in the green border fabric too.


Jane had never done an applique project like this before, but you couldn't tell that by her blanket stitches. She did a great job.

This mitten looks cozy enough to keep any little hand warm on a cold winter day!

Nice job Jane! Thanks for letting me show it off.

I neglected to ask Jane the name of the pattern and the designer, but I know she will read this and perhaps she'll be kind enough to leave a comment with that information in case anyone is interested in making this festive little wall hanging too.

Happy Stitching!

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Siggy Blocks are FUN!

Just about a week ago, I plead guilty to not making any New Year's resolutions, and also to jumping right into the new year by joining Rachel's Modern Siggy Swap. Now here it is, one week later, and I have just about completed all my siggy blocks for the swap. I must say, using Rachel's tutorial, putting these cute little blocks together is a snap. But putting 101 of them together does take a little time! They sure make a pretty pile though...


I have a few of them totally completed with the underside corners trimmed and my signature on them, so I've been playing with different arrangements for the finished blocks.


They look pretty with all the same fabric, but I think they will be really beautiful when all 100 blocks are different, and have different signatures.


The fabric I used is called Peek A Boo Wavy Plaid in Aqua by Amy Bradley for Moda. I got a whole yard of it from Ronna at Grace Full Creations not too long ago, with no particular project in mind. I just knew the perfect project would eventually present itself, and thanks to Rachel, it did!


My handwriting is not the greatest, and writing on fabric makes it even worse, but it will be nice to have a quilt made with 100 hand signed blocks from creative people all over the world.


I took these pictures at night in my basement, but the auto flash on my camera never came on. I'll let you in on my secret for good light in my next post, but here's a hint - it was a Christmas gift from my sweet husband!

And don't forget to sign up for my 500th post giveaway. #500 is coming up very soon!

Happy Stitching!

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Super Awesome Patchwork Tote Bag

Tote bags come in all shapes and sizes and serve so many useful purposes. The same could be said for patchwork quilts. If you've been following Hooked On Needles for a while, or even if you only pop in every now and then, you might have figured out that I have a thing for tote bags. I do believe it has been mentioned once or twice! I also love quilts or anything that brings together many fabrics and turns them into one beautiful and useful item.

In one of my recent shipments from my new favorite clearance rack place to shop, Connecting Threads, I received a tote bag kit for what was described as a large tote bag that could hold a 13 by 9 inch pan in the bottom of it. It was the first thing I made from that order! I had to see it for myself!

If you want to see it for yourself, keep reading...


This fabulous, super huge and very cheerful tote bag is made with two charm packs and some yardage of Connecting Threads' fabric line called Mama's Cottons 2. The kit is no longer available, but if you have even basic experience making bags, I am sure you could figure out how to make this just from looking at the pictures.


Don't you just love the colors and the prints?


Could you see this oversize tote bag being used for a day at the beach, or to tote your big afghan project with you to a friend's house?


The velcro closure across the top was my own addition to this pattern. I like to be able to close up the top of my project bags to keep things better contained.


To stiffen the bottom of the bag, I cut two pieces of mat board to fit and slid them into a simple sleeve made with some of the leftover fabric. I just tucked the open end inside between the two pieces of board so the sleeve could be removed for cleaning.

See the two large pockets on the inside? This bag would also make a great diaper bag for that first-time mom who feels the need to haul everything x2 every time she takes the baby outside the house!


I think the back is just as pretty as the front.

This kit was fun to work up, and I even have quite a few of the charms leftover to use for some other project. If you're looking for a great place to purchase nice fabric and great patterns put together into complete kits, keep an eye on the Web Specials page at Connecting Threads for some great bargains.

Happy Stitching!

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New Year's Resolutions? Ha!

A mere 7 days into the new year, and am I ever glad I did not make one of the many resolutions to which I had given a moment's thought on New Year's Eve. One of them was No More Swaps...can you believe that? After all the fun I had participating in almost a dozen swaps last year?

Not too long ago, I had seen some yummy pictures like this one on Rachel's P.S. I Quilt website...




I knew she was cooking up something fun with all those delicious fabrics and that fabulous tutorial on making siggy blocks, so I kept my eyes open for news. Today I discovered that sign-ups for this swap had already begun. Ooooh, it was so tempting, but did I really need to get into another swap so soon into the new year? I still have so many projects pending, but they are all just-for-fun projects, no commissioned work right now. Maybe I ought to think about it and check back tomorrow. Ah, what the heck! I jumped in and sent my info. I received a confirmation email and I was in the swap!

Not more than an hour and a half later, I go back to check out the tutorial and the fabric requirements, only to discover that all 100 slots for this swap are filled! Already! Whew! Good thing I didn't wait until tomorrow!

Now to choose some fresh modern fabrics from my fat quarter stash, or perhaps this calls for a trip to a quilt shop I recently heard about down in West Concord, Massachusetts, which is just about a 30 minute drive from my house. Oh, so many temptations!

Do you have any fun, new projects planned for the new year?

Happy Stitching!

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How to make a Tea Cozy for Christmas - or any other time of year!

Are you a tea drinker? I am, and I found out recently that my friend Kathy M. is as well. She is the one who asked me to remake the top of Bumpa's Christmas stocking so it could be used by her husband. While visiting Kathy's home to deliver the stocking, she mentioned her need for a new tea cozy since the one she had was quite old, and was just a little too cozy on some of her larger tea pots. So I made her a new one...




This tea cozy was made using the dimensions of Kathy's larger tea pot so that it could be put on and taken off easily and safely. The method I used to make this tea cozy is described very nicely by Beth over at The Rusty Bobbin, except that I did not use piping or machine embroidery on this one.


When I was finished sewing the cozy, I hand-stitched an M on the front using quilting thread and a simple running stitch. In this picture, you can still make out the purple ink that had not yet disappeared when I took the picture! I love my disappearing ink pen!

Kathy also wanted a tea cozy for her favorite Christmas tea pot, and I just happened to have my camera handy when I was making it. Here's a little tutorial on how I made a fancier tea cozy for Christmas time, still using the basic design from The Rusty Bobbin, but adding my own twist on it.

Using Beth's method for measuring the tea pot, I took those dimensions and figured the size of my pieces. I cut two pieces of Insul-Bright insulated batting according to my measurements and placed unbleached muslin and a strip of pretty Christmas fabric on top of one piece of batting so that when I stitched them together through all three layers and folded the Christmas fabric down over the batting, this is what it looked like...


This will be familiar to those of you who have worked with 'quilt-as-you-go' projects.


I made another piece exactly the same way for the other side of the tea cozy and laid them on my work table with the bottom edges lined up evenly against each other.


Using my straight edge and disappearing ink pen, I marked vertical lines one inch apart on each piece.


After threading my machine with gold metallic thread on top, I stitched through the fabric and the batting from the bottom edge of the Christmas fabric to the top of the batting, along the purple lines I had marked.


Here are both pieces after the gold lines were completed.


I brought the pieces back to my work table and trimmed the fabric to match the batting.


Using a strip of the Christmas fabric about 1 inch wide and 6 inches long, I made a small handle by just folding in the long edges, then folding the piece in half and edge stitching the length with gold thread.


I pinned one end of this handle to the right side of one of the quilted pieces with the longer end toward the middle of the piece...


...then I pinned red piping along the raw rounded edge of the piece and brought the other end of the handle over the piping to form a loop about 1 1/2 inches high. I machine basted the piping onto the quilted piece, also catching in the loop fabric.


After placing the two quilted pieces right sides together, I pinned around the edge and stitched through all layers just along the edge of the piping.


Here you can see the piping and the little loop handle in between the right sides of the two quilted pieces.


Using the quilted pieces as my template, I cut a double layer of unbleached muslin for the lining.


I stitched the rounded edge of the lining, leaving an opening of about 4 inches towards the top of the curve for turning.


Then I turned the lining right side out and tucked it inside the outer shell so that the right sides were together. I pinned along the raw edges and then stitched the seam.


After pulling the lining out of the shell...


...and pulling the shell through the opening in the lining...


...I stitched the opening closed.


Then I tucked the lining back into the shell and pressed the lower edge before pinning it all around.


Using gold thread for the outside and natural color thread for the inside, I stitched close to the bottom edge first, then stitched again about 1/2 inch higher to finish the bottom edge of the tea cozy.


Ta-da! Here's the finished product, still with some of the purple ink marks that had not yet disappeared. I can assure you that they all did disappear and this Christmas tea cozy will be the perfect addition to Kathy's Christmas tea service!

If you are a tea drinker, or if you know someone special who is, now you can whip up a tea cozy for every occasion. They can be plain and simple, like the homespun cozy I made, with or without a monogram or other design. They can also be quite fancy and special, like the Christmas one with gold trim and holly to match Kathy's very special Christmas tea pot. Be creative and see what you can come up with that would fit either the pot or the person...to a T!

Happy Stitching!

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