Homemade Kitchen Gifts

   I finished making the potholders, hanging dishtowels, and knitted dishcloths for my niece who is getting married in June.  I sent a picture to her parents last night to let them know what is going on and to verify an address to mail and her Mom said she will love the colors.

   I made one change to the potholders binding.  I cut the binding 2.75" wide and it fit a lot better since it was binding two layers of fabric, two layers of batting, and one layer of Insul-Brite.

    This is eight knitted dishcloths, 4 quilted potholders, and 4 hanging dishtowels.  It turned out to be a nice set.

Flower Garland and Wedding Gift

     I'm going to use up all the spool pin doilies I haven't given away and make a garland to hang in my living room for spring.  I ordered a dark green cotton thread and I'm going to crochet a chain adding flowers as I go.  I have approximately 129 spool pin doilies made and I'm going to keep crocheting a chain until I run out of green thread.

   While I'm doing this, I'm knitting yellow dishcloths and making some pretty potholders for a special niece who is getting married in the summer.  I ordered two yards of this lovely fabric to make the potholders.  My DD and I had already purchased gifts from her registry, but I decided that she needed some homemade things in her kitchen.  She is not expecting this so this will be a nice surprise for her.

    Here's the fabric for the special potholders.

    I'm still working on my hexagon quilt top, or should I say, not working on it.  It seems I'm finding all manner of different projects to do that take me away from that monster.  I'll get back to it as soon as I finish my potholder dishcloth projects.

Gift Set

    I made a gift set for a friend this week.  I knitted her three dishcloths and made her two quilted potholders for her kitchen.  She loves handmade items and will enjoy having these in her kitchen.

    I had everything I needed for the potholders in my stash of fabric, Insul-brite and cotton batting.  I put a layer of Insul-brite in between two layers of cotton batting in the sandwich of my potholders.  It wasn't too thick to sew using my Accu-feed foot on my Janome machine.  The yellow cotton yarn was a new purchase bought specifically to make sunny dishcloths for my friends and family.

She Who Sews Quilt - Finished

   

    It's done.  I loved working with the yellow polka dot fabric.  I love the look of it with these panel squares and I even used it for the backing and binding.

Glowing Dining Room Curtains

   So I finished the dining room curtain panels yesterday.  I made all 6 in one day.  It was a triumph of spirit.  I ironed them this morning and hung them.  You can see from the picture I took about an hour ago that with the light coming through they fairly glow.   One day  I will find a paler yellow to make lots of curtains out of but until then these will have to do because I'm not going to waste the money I paid for this fabric.

  Speaking of paying a lot of money for something, yesterday I mailed my Secret Santa Swap package to Western Australia.  The person I sent this package to knows she will get a package but she doesn't know where it will come from or who will send it.  It's a fun game, or at least it was a fun game until I found out the price of postage yesterday.  To send a 12" x 12" x 10" box that weighs 6 lbs. 2.9 oz., from Florida to Western Australia cost me $72.30.  Ouch!  That's a lot money.  I sure hope that box arrives safely because I can not afford to replace it.  I did volunteer to send international this year but I didn't expect the shipping to cost over $50.00.  If I had known shipping was going to cost that much I would have sent a smaller package with the required four fat quarters and a few smaller items.

   I have my fabric cut to make my 4 tote bags and a couple of potholders.   I was invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with some friends and I thought a couple of homemade potholders would make a nice hostess gift.   So I'll be sewing up the tote bags and potholders over the rest of the week.

Curtain Project

    I'm making new curtains for my dining room, living room, and bedroom.  When I moved into this house I bought ready made curtains because I didn't have time to make them myself, but now I have the time and I purchased some fun fabric to make them.

    This floral will go into the bedroom.  I currently have some dark green drapes in there and it makes the room really dark.  This fabric will definitely lighten up my bedroom.

 

    This fabric will go into the dining room and living room.  I can't wait to see it when the sun shines into it.

      I took Martha, my Bernina 1530, in for a check up at the local Bernina store.  I haven't had her serviced since spring 2011.  I've asked them to check the electrical cord.  There is a short in her electrical cord and sometimes when the cord is moved or jostled the machine turns off, then I have to jostled the cord some more to get the right position for it to turn on and then reset my settings.  So I hope the tech can fix this problem.  I should be getting her back in a couple of weeks.  

Hanging Dishtowels

   I love, love, love hanging dishtowels in my kitchen to wipe my hands off after I've washed them or they are wet from cleaning up.  These towels are used for my hands only, I don't dry dishes with them or use them for anything else.  I made these real simple by cutting a huge cotton dishtowel in half (found them at JoAnn's, $8.99 for two towels that turn into four hanging dishtowels).  I gathered the cut end and sewed on some pretty fabric to brighten my kitchen.  This is the same fabric I made the crazy round potholders with.  I hemmed the sides of the fabric and just folded it over the gathered end of the dishtowel leaving it open for my ribbon to hang it.  So easy.  I finished three of them last night while I was watching T.V.