Nook Jacket & Cell Phone Case

My Nook tablet said that summer was over and cool weather is on the way so he wanted a new winter jacket.  The sleeve I made a while back is ok, but not as convenient as I would like.  Luckily, I had stitched up The Sampler Girl's "Austen/Alcott Sampler" for just this purpose.  I love that sampler and bought the pattern as soon as it was released. I did it over-one on 25 ct. Jobelan so it would fit on the cover nicely, leaving me room for a flap closure if I managed to position it correctly.   I searched through a ton of tutorials to pick one that resembled a book cover and wasn't too tricky to sew up.

The tutorial I picked is a simplified version of this Kindle Cover Tute.  I left out the pockets inside that she added for inserting boards to firm up the cover.  Some deep purple corduroy in my stash left from the old days of sewing clothes worked well for the outside body.  I pieced it with the stitching and changed the direction of the nap on each piece to add a little interest in shading.  The lining was from a Gatsby collection of modern quilting fabric.  Didn't come out perfect of course, but very usable and I'm quite happy with it.

 

After I made the cell phone case I posted previously, I wondered if WOCS might be interested in adding those to the type of gifts they make for people in need.  Turns out, they do make gifts for families in a domestic violence center, usually for the kids.  The center accepts donations of used cell phones to give to the women for emergency 911 dialing and they said they would love to get some cases.   I whipped up this one by adapting a design by Diane Duda of DudaDaze and stitching it with simple embroidery stitches.  The original painting is called "I Love You, Little Dog".  Diane does the most fabulous whimsical paintings and sells originals, prints and accessories like notecards featuring her work.   I love how some of her originals are done on cereal box cardboard!    

The wedding I attended over Labor Day was just marvelous.  I hadn't been to a wedding in many years and it was so much fun to go to one.  I really danced the night away too.  I thought I'd show you the cute gift wrap idea I used from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  It was really quick an easy, plus it looks a little different from the standard.  This is the "Pyramid Box" that you can find here with some additional cute ways to wrap a gift.

Nook Tablet Cover - Little Women

I finally broke down and bought a Nook tablet. I had been so indecisive, poring over reviews and specs on all these little devices. The deciding factor was the gift card I had at Barnes and Noble left over from my last birthday. The tablet is a completely fun little thing. I love having access to the internet without having to fire up the laptop. It's a great accompaniment to my TV watching and stitching from an arm chair. I haven't actually read a book on it yet, but that will come.

The tablet gave me a perfect stitcher-tunity to make a little cover for it. Recently while browsing for the new Little Women tribute cross stitch design by the Primitive Hare, I came upon a captivating drawing by the illustration artist Richard Hogg. His drawing of Little Women is unrelated to the Louisa May Alcott version. His drawing is a set of fashion illustrations done in a stick figure style. It's amazing to me how he gets the point across and so many types of women in so few strokes of the pen.

 I couldn't resist turning this into a little stitchery piece to use on the Nook cover. There are so many blue and brown themed designs around lately, blueberry chocolate as it seems to be called, that I picked that color scheme too. I loved stitching this. I noticed all the details I missed by just looking at the original admiringly.

 I saw this tutorial on Pinterest and a finish for the Kindle on the Sampler Girl's Blog and it looked pretty basic so I used that one. It came out a bit snug -- the batting really contributed to the bulk. If I make another I'll increase the size. But for now, it works to protect my new baby.

E-reader Cover

My brother's birthday is coming and I was running out of ideas for cross-stitched gifts to give him. Then he told me he bought an e-Reader, one of the lesser known brands that he got for a really good price. So a perfect opportunity for creating a pouch to protect it. I found the dimensions online and it's very close to one of the Kindles. So I whipped up this version based pretty much on the tutorial at Junie Moon. I left off the pocket since I don't think my brother will use this to listen to music. I had planned to make a cross-stitched card with a cute Margaret Sherry design, but in the end I decided to sew the design onto the pouch instead. I just turned the edges under and used Stitch Witchery to fuse it to the pouch. Then I edge-stitched on the machine to be sure it staid put. I think the pouch is a bit big, but better too big than too small. Since I didn't have the reader in hand to check out the fit, it was really my only choice. It's nicely padded with a velcro closure so I hope it will be good for something if not the e-Reader. Next time, I would taper the flap on the sides since it kind of sticks out a little funny. I keep telling myself that's the charm of hand-made items!





Big thanks to Nia for helping me find this cute as a button design. My brother loves crossword puzzles. I just changed the words in the puzzle to be more appropriate than the original 'Nice Cross Stitch'.



On another note, I had a wonderful surprise at our local Farm Women's Market last week. I met a lovely woman who owns a 'farmette' in Mt. Airy, Maryland, where she raises 'fiber animals' including alpacas, llamas and angora goats. For January/February she has rented a stand in the market where she is selling her hand-spun and hand-dyed fibers. These products are in the most glorious colors that you can imagine. For any yarn I pointed to, she could tell me the name of the animal that produced the wool. It made it so personal.

Take a peek at her website, Avalon Springs Farm, if you get a chance. She also has an Etsy shop where you can buy some of the pretties online:
Avalon Springs Farm on Etsy.