Making Another Quilt Ladder

I bought the materials I need to make another quilt ladder.  I bought two 1 x 2 x 6 pine boards and three 3/4 inch 48 inch long dowel rods.

I have a 3/4 inch wood boring drill bit to make the holes for the dowels.  All I need to do is file a curve in the end of each board, drill the holes for the dowels, cut the dowels to about 20 inches long, glue them in and stain it.

Here is the cost of the wood I bought.

(2) 1 x 2 x 6 pine boards $3.94 each
(3) 3/4 inch by 48 inch dowel rods at $3.18 each.

I have the rasp, drill, drill bit, glue and stain.

The instructions I used to make my first quilt ladder said to make the ends of the boards curved so the ladder sits nice against the wall.  I can't find the instructions I used on the internet anymore so I can't link them here.  Here is the end of the boards with the curve filed.  It took about 30 minutes to file the four ends.   I don't have a fancy saw to cut the curve into the wood so I just use a rasp and elbow grease.

After making the curves, I drilled 5 - 3/4" holes in each board.  I sanded the curved ends and the holes in each board.  Then I cut  5 - 20" pieces from the 3 dowel rods.  I filed the ends of the rods and sanded them, then I glued them into each of the boards.

The ladder took me about 3 hours to put together.  It's an economical and easy project to do.

Here is the ladder put together before I stain it.

Another Christmas Craft

I've been watching Christmas DIYs on YouTube and I saw a couple of ladies cover Styrofoam cones with fabric or scarves to make Christmas trees and I decided to try it.

I bought my Styrofoam cone at Hobby Lobby last Saturday using my 40% coupon and I saved a three dollars on it.  I found the cute fabric in my Christmas fabric stash, I bought the silver star at Michael's on Sunday and saved a couple of dollars on that with my frequent buyer membership, I had the piece of round board (I bought it for a decoupage project, but it was perfect for this tree), and I bought some sliver metallic paint to paint the board.  I had a chance to use my glue gun and I used up two regular stick of glue putting this together.  Fun. 

I'm loving this tree.

Paint, Modge Podge, Fabric and A Christmas Card

    I got this odd size free piece of wood a couple of years ago from Lowes or Home Depot when I was shopping one day.  I've been trying to figure out what to do with it since I got it.  I found this card a couple of weeks ago and I started getting the idea of using it on this piece of wood.  I painted the board, decoupaged a piece of pretty light blue polka fabric on the front and then I decoupaged the card on top of that.  It was fun to make, but I don't enjoy painting because it takes so long to dry.

Quilt Ladder

    I made a quilt ladder several years ago and I used some instructions I found on a blog.  I looked for that blog today but I could not locate that specific blog.  I did find lots of other instructions for making all kinds of quilt/accessories ladders that use screws, nail, glue, and rope. 

     I made my ladder with pine boards and pieces of dowel.  I found all my materials at Lowes.   The boards measure 1.5" x 3/4" and the dowel sticks are 3/4".  I bought a spade drill bit to make the holes in the boards to insert the dowel sticks.  The ladder was easy to make and very cheap.  I want to say that even with the purchase of the drill bit it cost well under $20.00.  I stained the finished ladder and I also covered the stain with a polyurethane so the stain would not rub off onto my quilts.  I love this little piece and I want to make a couple more in the future.  This was such an easy project my daughter made one for herself.  She loves hers as well. 

      I took several picture of the quilt ladder because I wanted to show it well.

      This is the quilt ladder with four quilts on it.

     I took the top quilt off so you could get a sense of the width of the ladder.

     This is a picture of the ladder where it stays in a corner of the bedroom.

Scrappy String Block Process Photos And Foundation Research

    So I spent the morning making scrappy string blocks and I took some pictures of my process because these are so easy and fun to sew.

    I place my center white strip right side up on the paper towel diagonally, I don't use glue or pins.  I lay my first scrap strip right side down on top of the white with the edges lined up.  I sew along the right edge using the presser foot to measure my seam, approximately a 1/4".  I press the fabric open, and place another scrap piece right side down on top of the last strip sewn and I sew up the right edge, press open, repeat, until the entire paper towel is covered.  I usually work on one side until it's covered then I flip the paper towel and sew strips on the other side.

    After I sew up a few blocks, I trim off the edges and square each block to 10".

    I now have 29 blocks sewn up, I have to make 20 more.  Forty-nine blocks will give me a top that is 7 blocks x 7 rows and measure 66.5" square.  The perfect size for quilting this on my domestic sewing machine.

     I did a bunch of research on what to use as my foundation and I'm using a full size paper towel because I want 10" blocks and these full size paper towels measure 10.4" x 11".  The price is right as well, I got two rolls with 96 sheets each for about $3.50 at Walmart, that's 192 blocks which are enough blocks for 3.91 quilt tops with 49 blocks each.  I got the idea to use paper towels from my former mother-in-law who made string block quilts for her grandchildren and used paper towels as foundation.  Thank you, Mama.

    I also looked at children's doodle pads a/k/a newsprint paper (the sheets were too small, 9" x 12", a pad of 100 sheets about $2.00) or a roll of newsprint 18" x 300' (too much paper waste for 10" square blocks and the cost for the roll is $16.15 on Amazon).  I also thought about using muslin but I would have to spend almost $20.00 for the fabric and still have to cut it to 10" blocks.  I don't have to cut the paper towel before I sew on it.  It's already a great size to trim down.

 One Final Note On The New Ironing Board Cover

       I almost forget to add some new padding to the ironing board when I put the new cover on it last week.  The old padding was flat.  The other day I added two layers of cotton batting and placed it on top of the old cover (I kept the old cover and the old padding under the new cover) using a crib size Warm and Natural cotton batt  ($8.00).  My ironing board has lots of cushion now and the cats enjoy using it as a napping spot when I'm not pressing my quilt blocks.

Ironing Board Cover Finished

   I made my ironing board cover this morning.  The project took me a couple of hours.   I cut the fabric out using the ironing board as a pattern, then I ironed and sewed up a casing for the elastic, finally feeding the elastic into the casing and securing it.  I used 2 yards of 44" wide cotton fabric and 2 1/4 yards of 1/2" elastic.  I left the old cover on underneath this cover to give myself some extra padding.

Sawtooth Stars Wall Hanging

   I finished the wall hanging and it's been on the wall for the last few days.   It was really easy to make and I love it on the wall.

   I have resumed making my scrappy 16 patch blocks and I finished making all 35 of them today.  I'm in the process of putting the sashing and the rows together and in a few days I should have a quilt top.

   Here are the first two rows of blocks sewn up.

    After I finish up this scrappy top I'll start working on my scrappy string blocks.  I have to make 49 of them and I have only one made so far.

    I won't be assembling the scrappy 16 patch blocks quilt top into a quilt sandwich for quilting until I finish the scrappy string block quilt top.

   The pre-printed vest project called "Needle Art From My Heart" was awful.  I hated the stiffness of the pre-printed fabric.  I couldn't make myself finish it.  I threw the whole thing in the trash.

   I have to make a new ironing board cover and I'll start that this weekend.  It won't take long to get a new cover made.  I'm using this:

 

Quilt Ladder Project

   I bought the supplies to make this quilt ladder a couple of weeks ago.  Using the instructions from this  A Beautiful Mess, I made it to store the quilts that I made.

My supplies:

  2 -  1" x 2" x 6' pine boards ($3.25 each)

  3 - 3/4" x 48" round dowels I'm making five rungs 20" long so I only needed 2 1/2 of these ($8.94)

  1 - 3/4" Forstner drill bit ($9.97)

  1 bottle of Elmer's Carpenter glue ($1.98)

Total  $27.39 (without state sales tax)

       I had a little trouble getting my drill to work.  I called in my dear daughter for help and we finished drilling the holes yesterday.  I sanded and set it up this morning for this picture.  I still have to stain it and I'm calling it done.  I have plans to make a couple of more for myself and dear daughter wants one or two.

Look! They Match!

       My big and little ironing board covers match now.  I covered the little ironing board last month and on Monday night I made the new cover for the big ironing board.  It took me a couple of hours to make it while I watched TV.  It's nice to have matching covers on my ironing boards.  I'm thinking about making matching machine covers for all the sewing machines, but that will have to wait for a little while.

  I've added a couple of quickie projects to my list.  I'm going to make myself a bathmat (pieced quilting cotton quilted to an old towel) and a dishmat, same idea as the bathmat but for the kitchen counter as a place to put wet just washed dishes when my dish drainer is overflowing.

   I also just ordered some yarn to make a big fluffy pink crocheted afghan for my bedroom.  I'm going to use a size N/P crochet hook and a double strand of Red Heart Super Saver making a large granny square.  These afghans work up really quick and are super warm.  I make these a lot when I want to get a big fluffy blanket done in a hurry.

      Here's a picture of the one I made with my scraps last year.

Here's a picture of the one I made for my daughter in a teal color.  This one has a crab stitch border on the edge.  

    I'll be playing with my embroidery machine this weekend.  I have plenty of tear away stabilizer, thread, and bobbins.

Not So Pretty Potholders and Pretty Ironing Board Cover

     I made some not so pretty potholders to match my blue and yellow kitchen curtains this weekend.  I used scraps of different fabrics for the first set because I thought it would be pretty, but they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted them to.  I made the round set after the square set because I thought they would turn out better.  Not.  All of these potholders are, however, very functional, since I used a layer of 100% cotton batting and a layer of Insulbrite in each one.  The binding is a tad messy on the scrappy potholders and the round ones just curled up after I applied the bias binding.  Crazy potholders.  I also had a chance to crochet a new dishcloth, using up some of the tons of white cotton yarn I accumulated for some project or another that I now be using for new dishcloths for my kitchen.

 

    I made a new cover for my new small ironing board this weekend.  This ironing board came with a very thin muslin cover and a super thin layer of batting under the cover.  The muslin started to stain after two uses.  I sometimes spray my fabric with water to get out the tough wrinkles and the water stained the light beige muslin and that's when I knew I had to re-cover it.  I made a quick cover for the ironing board and I beefed up the inside with one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Insulbrite.  I left the old cover on it and used the ironing board as my pattern (I love this trick, learned on the Internets).  I put my fabric on the floor and turned the ironing board upside down on it and cut around the board giving myself about 4 inches for side coverage and  my elastic casing.  I cut the batting and Insulbrite the exact size of the top of the ironing board with no overhang for a neater look.  I made a casing for my 1/2 inch elastic and threaded the elastic in it.  I put the new cover on the board over the old cover along with the new insulating layers and tightened the elastic, knotting it really well.  That cover is on there to stay, I can't get it off without cutting the elastic.  I love the blue and I love the thickness of it.  It's perfect.

  I  washed some of fabric for my new quilt project.  I'm ironing today.  These are the pinks and greens, the patterns are for the top and the solid pink is the backing fabric.  The white fabric that also goes on the top will be washed today.  I'll start cutting soon.