Cloth Napkins Made With Christmas Fabrics

   I finished a set of 8 cloth napkins made with Christmas fabrics.  I will share these with my daughter and we will each get a set of four, all different.  These are easy and fun to make.

My Bright Chevron Quilt Top Is Finished

    Here is the colorful flimsy done.   I'm starting my Union Blues pinwheel quilt top in a couple of days and I'll show you progress when I have some.

This Christmas Stocking Was So Much Fun To Make

   Like I said yesterday, I found this tutorial (link here) for a cute Christmas stocking and I made mine from my stash fabrics.  I cut 36 - 3" squares to make the front of this stocking.   This was super simple to sew and I love it.  Now I wish I weren't giving it away.

Fun Project: Scrappy Christmas Stocking

      I found a tutorial on how to make a Christmas stocking and I decided I want to make one as a gift for a Secret Santa partner.  The tutorial is here and the page includes a link to a printable pattern for the stocking. The pattern is a nice shape and the perfect size.  I made up a scrappy fabric for the front of my stocking with 36 - 3" squares of fabric from my stash.  There is some flannel included and a couple of pieces of Christmas fabric.  I thought a scrappy stocking would be more fun that the usual Christmas fabric.

 

Six Rows Done

   I finished my six rows of the chevron quilt this afternoon.  I only have to sew them together to have my top done.  This will remain just a quilt top until I finish my pinwheel quilt top that is next on my list.

Bright Color Chevron Quilt Progress

    Here is the beginning of my bright colored chevron quilt top.  I have all my half square triangles made.  I'm starting to put my rows together.  I'm making each row with 14 blocks and I'm going to make as many rows as I can.

     I'm really happy with the bright colors in this quilt.

Bargain Book Shopping

   I love used bargain books.  I shop on the internet on Alibris.com and find great bargain books to add to my collection and to give as gifts.

   Today I found four books, two cost $.99, one was $1.39 and the fourth one was the most expensive at $8.40.  Shipping is $3.99 for each book.

   Here are the four books I ordered today.

    "It's Quilting Cats and Dogs" by Lynette Anderson, will be a gift for my secret santa in a swap on the Quilting Board.  I already have this book and I just love to look at the lovely pictures of the cute projects you can make featuring sweet puppies and kitties.

Colorful Cloth Napkins Made From Fat Quarters

   I think fat quarters are the perfect size to make cloth napkins and these were a lot of fun to make.  I'm giving this set of napkins to DD for her new home.

   I finished another secret sewing project today and now all the secret projects are finished.  I can get moving on my chevron and pinwheel quilt tops.

The Start Of The Pretty Chevron Quilt

I started sewing my half square triangles today.  I love the bright colors with the white.  This will be fun to make.

Preparing To Make Two More Quilt Tops

     Today I took some time to cut fabric from two more quilt tops.  I don't have a chevron quilt or pinwheel quilt and I love to make quilts with half square triangles.

    I'm making my chevron quilt with 5" squares cut from these bright colored fat quarters I had in my stash.  These are from the Free Spirit Collection I bought from Craftsy earlier this year.  I love the bright colors and I think they will make an awesome chevron quilt.

   I bought two sets of 100 - 5" white charms from an etsy seller.   I usually cut up my own yardage for projects but I didn't feel like it this time and took the easy way out.

   The other quilt will be a pinwheel quilt.  I've made three pinwheel quilts and they were all made with lots of fabrics so they looked old fashioned.  I gave all three of those away to family members so it's time for me to have one of my own.  Here is a picture of my very first quilt made with half square triangles.

    My pinwheel quilt will be made with two charm packs of Union Blues by Barbara Brackman for Moda and one of the pack of 100 - 5" white charms I bought already cut.  I love the Civil War reproduction fabrics and these will be fun to work with.

   With my fabric cut all I have to do is start sewing.

No Sanding, No Staining, Just Chalk Paint

   I have this old end table that I moved into my bedroom next to the recliner.  I love the table, I bought it new in 1991, it's heavy and it has a huge drawer, but it needed to be refinished and I wasn't looking forward to doing all that sanding and staining.

   I found some tutorials on how to use chalk paint and I was sold.  I didn't have to break out the sand paper, I just needed some time, a cool color of paint, a wax, a couple of brushes and a couple of cotton rags.  I also updated the brass drawer pulls with silver rub which was a nice plus because I had never seen silver rub before and I love it.

   I did some research and I found out you can spend a lot on chalk paint.  I did not want to buy a lot of this paint because I don't have any other paint projects other than this one table.  I ended up getting an 8 oz. bottle of Folk Art chalk paint at JoAnn's for $7.99 in the color of Spanish Moss.  There was plenty of paint in that small bottle to do two coats on this end table and I still have some left.  One thing I would say is that I used a sponge brush to apply this and I think I would have done better with a bristle brush.

    The wax I bought for this project was liquid because that was all the store had, but I originally saw a paste wax in the tutorial and I think I would have liked to use the paste better.  The wax I bought was made by Folk Art and it was labeled clear wax.  The wax went on with a brush, you let it dry and then you buff it up.   I bought 8 oz. of liquid wax  for $7.99 and I have lots of wax left over.  I bought the silver rub on Amazon and a small tube (.5 oz) was $6.21 with free shipping.

      This was a super fun project and for less than $25.00 I have a pretty table in my bedroom.

I Made Myself Some Cloth Napkins

  I've been spending the last couple of days cutting, ironing, pining, and sewing up some cloth napkins for myself.  I usually buy paper napkins, but I decided to go with cloth now, since I have a lovely supply of 100% cotton.  Fat quarters make a lovely size of napkin, all I had to was cut off the selvedge of the fat quarter, hem it up with the iron and sew the hem down.  I used the tutorial at this blog.  The blogger does a really good job making her napkins and she adds a pretty edging.  I didn't do that.  I just sewed up the hems.  I love the neat mitered corners.  I prepared and sewed up 13 different napkins for myself, some are made from fat quarters, a couple are larger and some are smaller.  They were fun to make and will be very handy in the kitchen.

   Next time I make some of these I'll use real linen and I may even monogram them using my embroidery machine.  Fun stuff.


    I found these cute pre-printed squares in my stash last week and sewed them up.  I had two of the goose and two of the pig and I put the two matching squares together so they are the same on the back and the front.  These will go back in my stash for safekeeping.

   I finished two secret projects for a special birthday which will be revealed when they are gifted.  I've dreamed up one more project that I have plenty of time to finish.

Rag Quilts Are So Much Fun To Make.

  I finished my rag quilt this morning after snipping all the seams to help them fray.  It was awesome!  I washed the quilt this evening (cleaning out the dryer vent every 12 minutes).

 Snipped but not washed.

Washed and officially ragged.

I also made these two blocks into wall hangings.  They came in a panel of 4.  They measure 17 3/4" x 17 3/4" before binding.  I've had them stashed for a few months.  I wanted something feline for the wall in the hall by the cat's room, one will go there, the other hang on the inside of the front door.  These were fun to quilt and bind in one afternoon.