This tablerunner was featured at the Janome Institute late this past summer and it is now featured on their blog, here (scroll to October 15, 2015) and here on their projects page.  And I’m sharing the pattern with you here as a Halloween Treat!

Spiderwebs table runner (c) Sarah Ann Smith 2015. Featured on the Janome America website/blog on October 15, and on Sarah’s blog. Photo (c) Janome-America; used with permission and thanks!

For many years now I’ve been fortunate to be associated with Janome America.   I have been sewing on their machines since late 2004, moving up the product line so I’ve had a chance to test machines at all levels.  And in about a week  I will review here my test-drive of the reasonably priced Skyline S7, a brand-spanking-new machine (and to spill the beans–I can’t believe how much you get for the price!).  Anyway, I occasionally do projects for Janome.  Although this tablerunner was made on a top of the line Janome 15000, all you need is a machine that does a straight stitch.  If you have the triple-straight-stitch also, that’s good because it gives you a “bold” line on the spiderweb, but it isn’t necessary.  Even the most basic sewing machines (as long as they are not straight-stitch only) have this stitch (look for three vertical lines next to each other).

Most of my work is very involved and advanced, and the projects Janome features tend to be easier, so I drove down to one of my favorite local shops, Alewives Fabrics (here).  I found the fabulous Halloween fabric, and I’m not usually a major fan of decorating for this holiday.  But I love the ghostly dresses and the “polka dots” on the black that are really little skulls!   I also adore spiders (anything that eats mosquitoes is a friend of mine) and spiderwebs.  The green cotton-linen blend was perfect!

Detail of the spiderweb block.

Spiderwebs for Halloween Table Runner  is the PDF for the pattern (also available on the Janome projects page, see link above).  Yep–this is a total freebie, including a full-size page of the spiderweb design which, of course, doesn’t need to be just like mine!   A friend had a great idea which I wish *I* had thought of:  to include a line of glow-in-the-dark thread with the stitching on the web!   If I were to make this again, I would feed the two threads together as if one (Thanks Lutra!)  through a large needle (size 16 or maybe even 18) to do the spiderweb stitching.

I always love the backs of things:

The quilting on the back of the tablerunner, so it is reversible if you want.

The fabric requirements on the pattern are SCANT–they are what I had, and I used every tiny little bit!   If you find you need to square things up a lot, buy a little more than I suggested.

Spiderwebs table runner (c) Sarah Ann Smith 2015. Featured on the Janome America website/blog on October 15, and on Sarah’s blog. Photo (c) Janome-America; used with permission and thanks!

An extra thanks to Taylor D. and Janome America for letting me use some of their photos (the nicely staged ones on the table)–I forgot to take nice photos before I sent it off to them for Institute!   And as always, thanks to Janome for having me in their Artist-Teacher program for so many years.  I truly appreciate it–and best of all, for making such great machines.  Yes, I’m affiliated, but I’d say the same things if I paid full MSRP!

And to those of you don’t celebrate Christmas, Merry Mistletoe!  We can all do with a hug and a smooch, including pug smooches.   Just checking in briefly to say hullo, thank you and whatnot.  Can’t believe it has been a week and a half since my last post.  Can you say BUSY?  First and foremost, though, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who read this blog.  I am still astounded that there are people who read my blog and  know who I am!   I’m just plain old me, I putter in my sewing room, and blather on here and there, so thank you from the bottom of my seriously-thread-linty heart!

Christmas Tableaux, made for my alma mater, San Domenico School in San Anselmo, California.  Right click to view larger.

Widgeon sends smooches to the universe.  Makes me realize that perhaps, if the world were as friendly as a pug, it would be a better place.

Smooches and adorable eyes from the pug to the universe.

I made a few ornaments again this year, once again using the beautiful ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons as my inspiration.  I bought the wool felt up at Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast, Maine, and stitched the mistletoe in either two or six strands of floss, then used perle cotton for the big-stitching on the edge.

This year’s ornament with ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons.

And to close, of course the Christmas tree.   Thumper decided to grace us with her presence.   I expect there is at least one other cat asleep under the tree.  So far, none IN the tree.

So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Our tree, 2014.

A brief interlude to show that I actually DO make stuff!   Ever  fall in love with those beautiful ribbons but don’t know what to do with them?  Well, I had purchased the ribbon for the ornaments (which have taken me eons to finally set aside time to make!) from that oh-so-tempting company Renaissance Ribbons.  THEN, wonder of wonders, owner (manager?) Edith Minne asked if I would like some leftover bits from their most recent (at the time) holiday trims.  Umm..YES!   I had a ball with the latter and made this narrow banner plus a similar one from the pink color way (that one says Joy, but not sure I have a photo!).

Noel by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2014.

It’s made of trim, hand-dyed wool (from Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast, Maine), wool felt and perle cotton–all the impact (of floss) with 1/3 of the work.   There is no backing, just the wool.  The letters are machine appliques, as is the ribbon.  Then the white stitching is perle cotton no. 5.  Eventually I’ll make a proper hanger instead of a fat skewer and binder clip!

Then today I was in Rockland, Maine (to the south of me, instead of the north), where I popped in to the new fabric store, Clementine, to pick up some floss bobbins (after 40 years I’m getting organized…some of my floss was purchased the wrapper tells me for 12 cents a hank….ummm…think it is OLD?   Think I am OLDER?).  The owner used to work at Fiddlehead, and the store shares the modern vibe with a range of fabrics including silk blends, linens, ticking and more.  And perle cotton.  Yep, love the stuff.  So I was sharing about my ornaments, and thought SHEESH, I should share on my blog!   Feel free to adapt these ideas–yes, go buy that glorious ribbon!

Kathy Daniels, Deborah Boschert and Kate Cutko, if you see this you may read about the owl, but then STOP SCROLLING.  Spoiler alert at the bottom.  Ahem.

This is last year’s ornament, the owl:

The owl–with a nod to my friend Jacquie Scuitto, who LOVES owls. I wrote a story in first grade about Rowl the Owl and his girlfriend, Jane. This is Rowl. And another nod to my friend Janice Berkebile who sent me her “retired” metalworking hammer and some tools with which I made the hammered copper hanger.

Kathy, Kate and Deborah:  STOP HERE!

Made with ribbon, wool felt, perle cotton and embroidery floss, and the copper metal wire.

And the back with the date, since I always forget WHEN I made something!

If I had realized how long it was going to take me to make the 2014 ornaments, I might have opted for machine stitching!  But instead I watched Endeavour, a Masterpiece Mystery series about Inspector Morse when he had just joined the force, and OH MY what excellent scriptwriting, acting and editing…if they don’t film a third series soon I may have to return to England just to throttle someone–with a cliffhanger like THAT?  Anyway…back to 2014….

SWOON….is that mistletoe ribbon not some of the most gorgeous ribbon you’ve ever seen?????

Again, wool felt, ribbon, floss, perle cotton.  The white will make the ornament pop out from the depths of the tree.  I like “soft” ornaments like this near the bottom of the tree–that way if the cats swat them off, they won’t break!  The fancy glass goes up at the top of the tree!

And I did succumb to machine adding this little bit of ribbon to the back. And I had the wit to include my initials this year, too. What a concept. 

My stitching (stab) is clearly imperfect through the layers of wool felt, but oh well!   I’m kinda wonky and wobbly, too.   And I haven’t even had any wine.  Though I do have some leftover mint that is whispering mojito, mojito, mojito….yes, that’s a Christmas drink, mojito.  And I have Kate Cutko to thank for introducing me to them!   What a fun weekend that was my friends–here’s to this year’s giftie:  friendly hug under the mistletoe!  Yes, if you nab your favorite spouse (I’m assuming you only have one–sheesh…what’s with me tonight?) hold it overhead and it will be more friendly with him.

So you have my permission to head right over to Renaissance ribbons, spend money and start plotting how to use the ribbon.  I used their beauties in my Easy Peasy Inside Out Bag which is in this year’s Quilting Arts Holiday gifts issue (available here) and demonstrated on Quilting Arts TV series 1400, episode 1402 (I’m also in episodes 1405 and 1412).  It looks as though Interweave is out of the hard copy of the Holiday Gifts issue, but it is available as a download.  If you prefer a hard copy, eQuilter still has copies (as of Dec. 4) here.

Minerva Sulis, from the Roman Baths in Bath, England–simply exquisite.  I SO need to get out my pencils and watercolors and sketch this head.

Wednesday, August 13 was such a packed day that I’ve had to split it into TWO posts.  When I planned the trip, I wanted to give Eli as good a feeling for various parts of England and times in its history as I could manage in two weeks.  We went from over 2000 years ago to early Roman Britain to medieval to Georgian to Oxford/universities to modern in various places.   Stonehenge is really hard to reach (impossible) by train, and I didn’t want to drive, so that meant a coach tour.  Very early on in the planning, I discovered a special tour that ran from an 11 a.m. pick up in London to Bath, Lacock and Stonehenge, home about 10 p.m.   This post will be the first two stops.

On the way to meet the bus tour, I had to hug a pillar box (for mail) just in case they become a vanishing artifact, like the red phone booths (after all, how many pay phones are there in YOUR town now? Precious few!) .  Yes, happy to be back in England!

As with my earlier posts, I’ll put most of the info in the photo captions as there are so many photos.

The English countryside, headed west from London to Bath. Wales is in the distance.

In Bath, our guide had the bus stop at the top of the hill so we could walk down to the center of town. He said these trees were planted July 4, 1776. Not sure how they know that, but the ring of trees must date to about then. They are in a circle in the center of Georgian homes on a circular area/park-let.

Our guide wanted us to see the view down to bath but also to see a quintessential Georgian “crescent” of homes.  These would have been for the well-to-do as they are tall.  Transport yourself to something Jane Austen-ish!

This neighborhood in Bath has been well-to-do for a good 300 years.

We then walked down the hill through town to the Roman Baths. The building on the other side of the horde of tourists is the Roman baths.

Not sure of the date of this building, but obviously it isn’t Roman. But it was decorated incredibly beautifully with “classic” themed images.

One of the triangular panels beneath the dome–just love the artwork, the “fit the space” composition, the delicacy of the lines of the figure

Drum roll: the Roman Baths. A tad green, eh? But folks have gone to take the waters and regain health in Bath for nigh on to 1700 years. And The US of A is scarcely 300 years including most of our time as colonies…

Never one to miss a sewing opportunity or idea, I snapped this young woman’s backpack with button pocket while at the baths.

As always, I am fascinated with “how did they do that back then?” This is a hollowed out brick used in creating an arch, with deep scored patterns to help the mortar stick. My thought: what a great rubbing that would make!

And carvings. Now can anyone tell me that whoever created E.T. (remember the movie, “phone home” and the trail of Reese’s pieces?) had NOT seen this carving?  It is TOTALLY E.T.!

A thousand years ago when I was in England in college I visited the baths, but I had not realized or remembered that the waters are WARM. This interior waterfall that directs the steaming mineral-laden water to the bathing pools clearly shows *how* warm!

And when I entered the room with this Green Man it simply took my breath away. I KNOW the displays and museum weren’t this good in 1978!

Back outside of the baths is the Cathedral in Bath. I hadn’t realized that in England a city is a place that has a cathedral. The rest are towns. Makes it pretty straightforward, eh? And as always, incredible artistry in the carvings.

The next ones are for my dear friend Marie Z, who has a thing for angels:

On one of the towers of the Cathedral. Note most of the angels are going up, but this shot of a portion of the tower shows how one is falling, too.

We were to meet the bus near to the Cathedral, where there was a park down by the river, with this beautiful angel.

I loved the wings so much that I had to take this close-up. And I must say, traveling with a digital camera and being able to take a gazillion shots, delete the flubs and not worry about how long one’s supply of ten rolls of 36 negatives each would last, is really nice! And being to see that you FLUBBED all the shots before you leave so you can take them again!

Professor Slughorn’s home.  Our next stop was a tiny town, Lacock.  Wikipedia entry here; the town dates from the 1200s and is now largely a National Trust property, but folks live in the old homes.  This is a more modern house on the outskirts of town and was in the Harry Potter movie with Prof. Slughorn (we wanted to do favorite books on this trip).

An intersection in Lacock; these homes are still lived in, with wiring and plumbing added 500+ years after they were built!

I took a number of photos of “chimney pots,” often with birds. Love the feathers ruffled by the wind on this gray day.

In the Harry Potter films, this was Harry’s parent’s house when he was born. Cool, eh? (And look at those clouds!)

And one more typical street in Lacock.

We had a pub supper here, then went on to Stonehenge, which will be my next England post.   It was an experience of a lifetime…AND I actually have a 2 minute video for you all when we walked near the stones.  It is so wonderful to re-live this trip–now I need to find time to SKETCH!  We were so busy doing so much on the trip that I scarcely lifted a pen or pencil.

These are some of the bags you’ll see on my Inside-Out bag segment.  The orange bags are one of my two projects in Quilting Arts Gifts 2014 along with a companion card holder.  The one on the right (the lotus fabric) is made from plasticized cloth, so great for make-up or messy stuff.

What fun I had on the set of Quilting Arts TV filming my episodes, and what MORE fun to have two projects included in this year’s Gifts 2014 magazine as well as two holiday recipes–one for a sweet treat the other is satsuma-currant scones (satsumas are similar to clementines or mandarins, use whatever citrus you have!).  Makes me hungry just thinking about them!

This year’s issue of Quilting Arts Gifts. I’m thrilled to have two projects and two recipes included!

(Note:  to order, click here or use the Affiliate link in the sidebar on the left; the Affiliate link will get you a discount on some items!)

I thought I’d share some variations on the theme to give you ideas of how you can make your own bags–they are SO fast and easy and fun!  Use the article in Quilting Arts Holiday or the instructions in episode 1402  of Quilting Arts TV to make the bag with these variations.  Learn more about all of series 1400 here  including information about Episode 1402 which includes the bag project.

Here are two of my cardholders. These are so fast–they would make a great gift-card “wrapping” for Christmas, then the recipient can continue to use the holder. They are sized to fit business cards, but I use the green one for all those extra (annoying!) store cards for the grocery, discount stores, pharmacy, and so on. The green was the original; despite being beaded on the flap and used heavily for three years, it is still in great condition. The warm-tones bag is new. The project in the magazine uses a snap closure, but I really like this one which uses a heavy duty hair elastic and button.

The blue-green card holder has velcro closing. I painted white velcro with acrylic ink to match. The warm-tones uses that thick hair elastic. I like the way I used perle cotton to quilt the bag and stitch down the back end of the hair elastic.

I’ve also made variations on the basic flat-bottomed bag for my iPad and notebooks.

The iPad case is simply a larger version of the card holder. The trim comes from Renaissance Ribbons.

And the inside:

And the inside. Again, I used acrylic inks to color the white velcro to match.  I’m not sure that the ink is washfast, but so far I haven’t had to find out the hard way!  This bag has an outside pocket (with zipper) on the back to hold the charging stuff and stylus.

I made this bag to fit my new, slightly longer, portable watercolor palette and painting supplies.

Inside of my Painting stuff bag. It has pockets sized to fit a tube of gouache, a glue stick, eraser, and so on.

I’ve also made several notebook or sketchbook covers using this easy technique.

My notebook, zipped closed. Can you tell I really love that ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons?  I also couched some heavy perle cotton on the edge and used it as a zipper pull.

The notebook cover opened up. I make pencil pockets on the left and used a 22-24 inch zipper all the way around. When gauging the size for your cover, think about the thickness of the zipper tape. If your notebook is really thick, you may want to add some fabric extensions to the sides so it will close nicely OR just make the cover a bit larger than you think you’ll need so it will wrap and zip shut nicely.  And you can see in the center how I had fun quilting AND used a small bit of ribbon at the top ends of the zipper and at the bottom to make a nice, clean finish.

My notebook cover, opened up, shows the ribbon extends across the back, too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these additional options for the patterns I shared in my Quilting Arts TV segment and in QA Holidays 2014!  Remember to use the link on the left if you decide to go shopping at the online Interweave Store–it may get you some discounts!  Or click on this one right here to go directly to the Holiday issue!

Here’s the list of the bloghoppers with links.   If you haven’t had a chance to visit already, please do.  Some of these folks I know, but others are new to me so I’m really looking forward to seeing  (or have really enjoyed seeing)g their blogposts and blogs!

• Friday, September 12, Vivika Hansen DeNegre, http://quiltingdaily.com/
  Saturday, September 13, Lyric Kinard, http://lyrickinard.com/blog/
  Sunday, September 14, Claude Larson, http://randomactsofpiece.blogspot.com/
  Monday, September 15, Linda McLaughlin, http://notesfromstudiob.blogspot.com/ and Kathy Kerstetter, http://artndl.blogspot.com
  Tuesday, September 16, Lori Miller, http://lorimillerdesigns.wordpress.com/
  Wednesday, September 17, Melanie Testa, http://melanietesta.com/blog/, and Liz Kettle, http://www.textileevolution.com/index.php/our-journey
  Thursday, September 18, Susan Brubaker Knapp, http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/
  Friday, September 19, Lisa Chin, http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com/
  Saturday, September 20, Sarah Ann Smith, https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog
  Sunday, September 21, Catherine Redford, http://catherineredford.com/

Enjoy!