Odds 'n Ends

 

Have you noticed lately how cute some of the selvages are?  I save them and use them periodically in projects, and I have some really fun ones from fabrics I've purchased in the last year.  This was the selvage from the 2 new Moda fabrics I bought in Minneapolis last week to use for pillowcases. Hello World - such a cute name for the fabric line, and just look at those cute little Africa shapes lined up in the selvage.  Love them!

 

Before starting these pillowcases I decided I needed to clean under and around the bobbin case in my machine.  I try to do this at least once a month.  A little brush came with my machine, but I've been using the miniature "toilet brush" that I made in my Sew Vintage group.  This was a fun project one month - using simple drinking straws and pipe cleaners. We had the narrow straws like you might get with an adult beverage, and bright colored pipe cleaners.  Simply cut the straw in half, and tuck the ends of pipe cleaner into one end. We had short lengths of pipe cleaners too, maybe 4".  These work like a charm to pull out the dust bunnies from those tight spaces.  I have 6 of them in my drawer.