Printing on Avery Fabric Sheets

      I finally used up my package of Avery Printable Fabric Sheets.  The package comes with 5 sheets and I used a sheet a couple of years ago on a project so I had four sheets left.  I have to get another package of these.  They are fun to use.

      I had this copy of a picture that I wanted to put on fabric to use in a couple of bags.  I copied this picture from a tote bag that I bought last year.  I had to give the tote bag away but before I did, I copied the picture from it.

      I love the Avery Printable Fabric Sheets.  They print really nicely and the picture comes out clear.  The only thing I have to check before using the sheets is how to load them into the paper cassette so I print on the right side of the fabric sheet.  I'm keeping two of these printed sheets and dear daughter will get the other two.

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.

More Quilt Fabric For A Cause

A few weeks ago my daughter, my former sister-in-law, and I took a day trip over to Panama City, Florida.  We live about 2 hours away.  We took the scenic route on Highway 98 and saw a lot of the destruction from Hurricane Michael that passed through this area last October.  It was very sad, but we wanted to show our support for the community so we went over to spend some money on lunch and souvenirs.

We always stop at Quilting By The Bay, a beautiful local quilt shop, and this trip was no exception.  I did not expect to find anything I needed because I really have more than enough fabric and projects to keep me busy for a while.  My daughter bought some supplies to make a jelly roll rug and I, of course, found these two lovely layer cake rolls.  One is batik jewel fabrics and the other is Twilight By One Canoe Two for Moda.

After shopping, we stopped at Sharky's Beachfront Restaurant on Front Beach Road for lunch.  The fried grouper sandwich was really good.  After lunch we took a walk on the City Pier just down the street from the restaurant.  It's a long pier and it was a beautiful sunny cool day for strolling over the water while watching the swimmer, surfers, and folks fishing from the pier.  Then we took the same scenic route along the coast back home.

The point of this story is that I have to add these layer cake rolls to my project to do list and make notes about what I want to do with them.  I'm going to alternate the batik squares with neutral batik squares and make a nice top with them.  I haven't decided what to do with the other layer cake but I do have to add it to the list.

Introducing Coco, The Pincushion Cow Creamer

   She is finished. From her pink tongue to her brown felted wool pincushion.  She hangs out with Blue Bell cow creamer in my office.

   I love her.

Two Quilty Items

Here are two quilty projects I have shared before.

This dresden plate wall hanging was made to fill up the alcove.where my TV sits.  It was originally supposed to be a fireplace, but I wouldn't use a fireplace so I elected not to add it to my mobile home and they gave me a nice alcove instead.  It's the perfect size for a long dresser and my TV and small stereo live there.  I made the dresden plate using four turquoise fat quarters, the dark blue was from stash and the backing fabric was a piece of batik from stash.  I didn't quilt this piece, I just hand sewed the plate to the brown batik and hemmed the backing fabric making a casing at the top for a curtain rod.

  

   I made this block into a small quilted piece to decorate my front door in between holidays.   I can't remember where I got the block from.   This one is quilted and bound.   Edited to correct my previous statement.  This is a Missouri Star Block and I got the tutorial from the Amanda Rolfe at Three and Three Quarters Blog.  Here is a link:  Missouri Star Quilt Block Tutorial

More Quilted Potholders

I made another gift set for another friend who needs a smile.  Another friend who loves handmade gifts and is always in awe over what I make.  Potholders and knitted dishcloths.  So easy to make and a great way to use up fat quarters.

Another Hobby

    Now that I have all my crafting supplies organized it was inevitable that I found another new hobby.  I just bought a small simple rigid heddle loom.  I purchased an Ashford Samplelt loom in the 10 inch size.  Here it is, all put together.including a fringe twister.

     I have been admiring weaving projects on Ravelry for years and I love how you can put different yarns together and get a beautiful fabric.  I intend to use my loom for weaving scarves which is why I bought a smaller loom.

    There are new terms to learn and weaving is completely different from anything I have done with yarn before, so I imagine it will take several projects before I'm happy with my results.

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.

Fun Cow Creamers Transformed Into Pin Cushions

   I have a blue delft pottery cow creamer that I bought from eBay several years ago that I made into a pin cushion.  I felted a flat disk of wool yarn and inserted that into the body of the creamer.  It works well.  I even named her Blue Bell. 

    I was checking out eBay last week and found a souvenir Hershey cow creamer that I had to have.  She is smaller than Blue Bell but she is awesome.  She has a red ribbon around her neck  with a faux bell on it.  I plan to add a pink tongue to her mouth, like Blue Bell and also insert a disk of brown felted wool yarn in her body to finish the pin cushion.  Her name will be Coco.

   I wish I could have a whole herd of these.  There were some beautiful Polish pottery cow creamers available as well.  Maybe in a few years I'll add another one.

  Pictures.

A Quilted St. Patrick's Day Decoration

   I'm calling these St. Patrick's Day Stars.  I made these small wall hangings in green, orange and white for me and DD.  We love to decorate a little bit for the holidays and I like to make her little things to put around her house with the holiday color.

    I used a free paper piecing star pattern from the Carol Doak website.  The link is here.  It's the star pattern that is called Introduction to Paper Piecing and it's about half way down the page.  I've used this free pattern before I love it.  With the borders and binding they measure appoximately 13" x 13" square.  I gathered my fabrics for this project right after Christmas.

    These were fun to make and DD loves it.