Independence Day Weekend

As I mentioned in my previous post, I managed to get a four day weekend for the Fourth of July, or Independence Day to the non-Americans. I am sure you are expecting a huge amount of stitching progress, but I'll have to disappoint all of you. I spent a great deal of the weekend on gardening, but did manage to sneak upstairs to my sewing room for some much needed quiet time with needle and thread.

I made some progress on the hem trim for the June Baby dress, mentioned in my last post. I am not including a link as it is on the right hand side of the blog page, and is pretty easy to find. Same idea with photos, it is just not instructive to show more of the same violet scallops that I had in the last post.

So to make this post mildly interesting, I will show another little project that I just had to make. Some months ago I came across this pattern for an Arm Chair Sewing Caddy by Maureen Greeson. I finally made it in some cat fabric that I collected several years ago, but without all the lovely crazy quilting that makes Maureen's pattern so enticing.

 
Now, mind you, my version is pretty dull, but it does fit the bill for having sewing supplies close at hand. It has pockets on both sides, a pincushion on top and drapes easily over an armchair. This photo is over the back of my sewing chair. Not I won't be tempted to put the pins in the armchair any more!


Then, just last week I came across this pattern for a bookmark/reading glass combo at Sew Many Ways which the author, Karen, calls an Eyemark. Strange name, but really useful idea.

 
It is an eyeglass case with a bookmark ribbon attached, so we old types can have our mark our places in the current book with our reading glasses close at hand.

Much better photo, without the book. I happened to have a button shaped like a tape measure to hold the bottom of the ribbon down. Same cat fabric. I still have a lot of that fabric left, what to do with it now? I've already made several little quilts for them to sit on, which they studiously ignore. Unless I seed it with catnip.