Tie Dye T-shirts and Cross Stitch Project Bags

 I had a blast tie dying t-shirts with dear daughter last week.  We both had the week off from work and spent one afternoon doing crafts at her house.  We made air dry clay ornaments for her Christmas tree and we tie dyed t-shirts.  Here are the three shirts I did.  There are loads of tutorials on youtube which are fun.  We used a Tulip dye kit that dear daughter bought.  It was a lot of fun.

Another project I worked on was to use up most of the yard of vinyl I bought months ago to make cross stitch project bags.  I finally took fabric out of my stash and made five additional big bags as well as little notions zipper pouches to match each big bag.  Most of the vinyl is now gone.  I will be kitting up my cross stitch projects and putting them in the bags as soon as I get a couple of hours.

Here is a picture of all the bags I made.  Not my best work, but they will be very useful for keeping my cross stitch projects organized.

Next up is to make sure I have zipper pulls for all 12 zippers.  I bought three Kliban cat key chains to use as zipper pulls on three of the bags.  I love the Kliban cat.  I also bought some zipper pulls from etsy this morning.  I'll probably end up using some grosgrain ribbon on some of the zippers just to get them done..

My Patriotic Finishes and Making Vinyl Project Bags for Cross Stitch Kits

 I finished the two patriotic wall hangings I made for dear daughter and my self.  They are identical.  I put hanging triangles on the back and included a dowel stick with dear daughter's because she likes to hang everything.  

   I pulled fabric from my stash to make vinyl project bags for my cross stitch projects that I want to start.  I figured if I kitted the cross stitch charts with fabric and threads it would be easier to start stitching them. 

    I used the tutorial here by Erica Arndt.  She does a pretty good job walking you through the steps.  I liked this tutorial because the lining and back are quilted.  Lots of tutorials don't quilt that part. 

   I made my bag about 15" square.  I just increased the size of the individual pieces of fabric by the appropriate amount and used a longer zipper.  I did find the process of putting the binding on very fussy.  I can fix that.  I will make the next one with a back that is about 1.25" inches larger all around and then I can self bind with the excess fabric.  So easy. 

     This is the first project bag I made. 

 I didn't have any black thread so I used a bright green.  Not as pretty as I wanted it to be.  I love the shamrock fabric.  I had trouble with the vinyl sticking to my machine extension table, but I can fix that too by taking that off and putting the regular machine extension on.  

  She also had a tutorial for a mini vinyl bag (great for scissors and extra needles and threads) that you can make in coordinating fabric (which I did) that tutorial is here.    Once again, I found the binding to be the biggest obstacle, but I can avoid that problem with a larger piece of fabric on the back and doing a self binding on it.  

Patriotic Projects And An Early Mother's Day Gift

   I bought 2 large American flags ($.50 each) and bought a 3-pack of 11 x 14 artists panels ($4.97) to make a patriotic decoration for me and my daughter.  I painted around the border of the panel that would show with a light blue acrylic paint ($.50 for the small bottle of paint) and then decoupaged the flag onto the panel.  These were a simple way to make a fun patriotic decoration for the summer months.  I like to display patriotic decorations from Memorial Day through Labor Day.  My door has patriotic on it from the end of May until the beginning of September.  

   I'm making is a patriotic wallhanging for me and DD with these fun friendship star blocks.  Each wallhanging is about 11 inches wide and 30 inches long.  Not too big and not too small.

    I showed these kitchen islands that I found at Amazon (link to the item on Amazon is here) to my daughter last month and asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to get two of them to use in my living room as cutting tables to replace the 6 foot long ugly folding table on bed risers that I was currently using.

   My daughter said they looked great and offered to get them for me for Mother's Day.  I immediately agreed.

    The islands are taller than my old folding table but as I was using the island  this weekend for cutting fabric I found it very comfortable and I was happy with the height.  They are working well in my living room and they each have a drawer which I can fill with sharp objects to keep them away from kitty feet.