Finally Found A Use For Something I Wasn't Using By Painting It

 Last December I bought this very small two tiered tray from Amazon.  I thought I could decorate it for various holidays, but when I got it and it was so small (about 12" high all together) I couldn't decide what to do with it and I put it away.  Last week I was baking and painting some pine cones to use in my Christmas decorating and I thought the pine cones would look nice in a red bowl but I don't have a red bowl, so I went looking around the house for something to put the pine cones in or on and found the tied tray.

I thought I might paint it red for the holidays but painting it navy blue to go with my kitchen curtains would be better and I could still decorate it for all the holidays.  I sanded and painted the trays navy blue and put a blue gingham bow on it.  It's a great place for small holiday decorations.

One More Valentine Decoration

   I like to hang garlands from two set of spotlights in my ceiling for holidays and seasons.  It's a great way to keep decorations from prying kitty noses and paws.  I found some ultra cute red gingham hearts at Hobby Lobby yesterday and I had to have them to make a garland for Valentine's Day (even though they were not on sale).

   These hearts needed loops and I know the easy way would be to get some red ribbon and glue that to the hearts, but I don't have any pretty red ribbon, so today at 5:00 a.m. I was rooting around in my fabric stash looking for some red fabric to make loops.  I wasn't sure I would find any because I don't have a lot of red fabric because of the dye running issues it has, so I usually stay away from red. 

   I was lucky I found a piece of red with tiny white polka dots on it in and that became the fabric for my loops.  I cut the fabric into 2" x 4" pieces and folded it up, ironed them, and sewed the folded edge closed..  I plugged in the glue gun and glued the ends together to make the loops and glued the loops onto the back of the hearts.  This project took about an hour and a half from fabric finding to finish.  So easy, fun and adorable.  I'll be stringing these up with some jute twine.

Jute Twine Crocheted Stars

   So I made seven of the white cotton stars (that's all I could get from one 120 yard skein of Peaches and Crème Cotton) and I took them to dear daughter's home and we ended up making a garland to put on her china cabinet in her dining room.  She added some battery operated fairy lights to it and  loves it.

   I am now making seven more stars in jute twine to make another garland to layer with the white star garland.

    This is what they look like in jute twine.

I Made A Quilted Christmas Table Runner

   I have been planning this table runner all year.  I made this one for my dear daughter.  I am going to make a second one for me. 

    Trying to find the best block to use in this table runner took me almost all year.  I knew I wanted to use solid pieces of the pretty Makower fabric alternating it with a pieced star block, I just couldn't find one a block I was in love with.  I finally found a block in one of my Civil War quilting books.  I found the New England block in "Civil War Sampler" by Barbara Brackman.

     Here is a picture of the runner out.  It's 84 inches long and 12" wide.

    I think the New England block looks like a Christmas gift wrapped up and it still has star points.  I love it.  The book only includes cutting instructions, so I was careful with my piecing.

    Here are the individual blocks up close.

 

Merry Merry Christmas

I spent Christmas Eve with my daughter.  We had a wonderful lunch.  I made a lasagna, and my daughter made salad, bought wine, and chocolate for our meal.  I also supplied the last of the gingerbread men to have with coffee in the afternoon.

We watched two Christmas Carol movies, the version with Albert Finney (musical) and the version with Patrick Stewart (make it so, Bob Cratchit), we took her little Cairn terrier for a walk through the neighborhood and then we watched Frosty the Snowman.  I got a my last chance to wear my long red and white stocking cap in public.  I've been wearing it on my weekend shopping trips all month long.  I love it.

Today, I'm spending Christmas at home alone doing some organizing and sewing.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate.  I celebrate Christmas, so Merry, Merry Christmas.

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.

Christmas Kitties In The Kitchen

   I found this cute, cute, cute dishtowel at Hobby Lobby last weekend and had to have it.  I think it was 40 or 50% off.  Score!  I love the cat on this one.

I was going to cut it up into two hanging dishtowels then I got an idea.  I decided to keep it as one towel and make a hanging dishtowel that is doubled.  I folded it in the center and pleated it so the cat would show up real well on both sides.  Then I added a cap of the fabric below with two ties.

I love this old fashioned toile Santa/Christmas fabric.  It's so turn of the century, 19th/20th century.  Here is my finished hanging dishtowel.  I made this one with ties so I could tie it onto the refrigerator and I love that it's doubled so my hands will dry quicker.  I may make all my hanging dishtowels doubled from now on.  This took me about 30 minutes to make from first cut to last stitch.

I hung the kitty from the freezer handle so I could get to it better and see it all the time. 

I've Been Making More Hanging Dishtowels For Holidays

   I made some hanging dishtowels to keep and share for the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is a picture of four the the six that I made.  The other two are gifts and are going to get mailed later next week.

  The towels with the white background have doggies on them and they look like this:

    I'm share these towels with dear daughter and she will get hers tomorrow.

Halloween Hanging Dishtowels

I made these dishtowels for dear daughter to help her decorate for Halloween.  I love the black and cream homespun fabric on these.  The other black fabric has the deathly hallows symbol on it from the Harry Potter story.

I know I said I would stop knitting dishcloths, but I can't.  I knit dishcloths all the time now.  It's the perfect waiting room knitting.and I'm really enjoying using the dishcloths in my own kitchen.  I found that I like them a lot better than the crocheted dishcloths I have been making.

New Tote Bag Finished, A Simple Christmas Decoration

I finally ironed and cut up the fabric for a tote bag from the souvenir fabric from Hawaii.  I love this beautiful purple and pink flower print.  I bought the coordinating solid canvas after I came home knowing I wanted to use it as the bottom of the tote.  I have more of the print fabric left and there will be another bag or two made with this.

I bought some Christmas cards last year to put in frames for decorations this year.  I pulled this card out and found this 5" x 7" frame at Target this morning.  Now I have another Christmas decoration.  I have some others cards that I will be framing.

Summer Holidays Are Upon Us

  We have three lovely summer holidays coming up.  Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day.  They all deserve some patriotic decorations.  I made my whole family some patriotic hanging dish towels and I have gifted them now, so I can show them off here.

   I made ten of these, each family got a set of two including me.  These are so much fun to make and everyone loves them. 

      I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby about two months ago and I found the pretty blue dish towels at Walmart along with the lovely buttons.  Each actual dish towel cost $2.96, and you cut the towel in half to get two hanging towels from it.  The buttons cost $1.27 for a pair and the fabric cost about $3.50 for two tops.  So a pair of hanging dish towels cost about $7.73 in materials to make and it takes me about 70 minutes to make two from the cutting out the top to sewing on the button.

Easy Christmas Tree Decorations

    I found these cute Christmas tree ornaments on Facebook and made three to give to my dear daughter.  Here is the link to a similar tutorial made with scrap ribbon.  Link to fabric Christmas trees. 

     I made mine a little different.  I used a dowel that I cut up into three different sizes.  I filed the ends of each piece to round off the edges caused by the cutting.  I painted the dowel stick, then I cut up 1.5" wide strips of fabric into 8" long pieces and I also used some green ribbon I had.  I tied the fabric to the dowel and trimmed it into a triangle.  I found the wooden stars at Michaels and painted them with some silver glitter paint I had.  I glued the star to the top and added a piece of twine for hanging. 

    These were easy and fun to make.

Pleated Christmas Tree - Framed

   I'm loving the Christmas sales the last few weeks.  I'm finding a lot of items for my crafting on sale.  I found this sweet 8 x 10 frame at Joann's Fabrics yesterday and it was 50% off, so I paid $4.99.   It's got an easel in the back so I don't have to hang it up I just put it up on my kitchen counter to decorate.  I'm going to experiment making these trees a little bigger.  This would make a great pillow cover.  I'm having fun with my Christmas crafting.

Christmas Hanging Dish Towels Are Finally Done

   I finally sewed the buttons on the Christmas hanging dish towels that I have been making for a couple of months.  I ended up with six of them and I'm giving away five.  Dear daughter gets three of them, she will keep one and give two away.  I'm keeping one and giving two of mine away.  I'm so glad I started early making these because they took way longer than I expected them to.

    I wanted to put green buttons on the top, but I couldn't find a button in a good green color for these, so I ended up using some of the red buttons I have.

    Here is a picture of four of them hanging on my oven door.

Scrappy String Block Door Decoration/Wall Hanging

   While making string blocks for quilt tops I decided to make a string block wall hanging and I added this to the inside of my front door.  I made eight string blocks, four for the front and four for the back.  I did put batting in the middle and I straight line quilted the sandwich.  I sewed a couple of sleeves on either side of the back of the quilt and put it on the magnetic curtain rod that I used to decorate the inside of my front door.

 

Weekend Sewing Fun

    I had some fun with my new hexie obsession the last couple of days.  I made some hexies to turn into a flower decoration for my purse.  I couldn't stop making hexies so I also made the same type of decoration for DD for her use.  I used yellow centers for my flower decoration and ladybug fabric for DD's decoration because her friends call her ladybug.  These are double sided and hand sewn except for the machine stitching on the strap.

   This morning I finally created the Christmas tree forest.  I decided that each tree needed a different fabric for the trunk and I only had 3 brown fabrics in my stash, so I placed a request on the Quilting Board for 4" squares of 9 different brown scrap fabrics so I could get the trunks done.  Several lovely people responded to my request.  I took the offer of the first person that had 9 fabrics.  I received them last Monday and got my tree trunks cut out.  My Christmas Tree applique wall hanging is now ready to sew.   I had to stand on a chair to get all the trees in the one shot.  I placed 11 of these trees in this wall hanging and I'm putting the last tree in a square all by itself.

    I did send my brown scrap fabric angel an appropriate thank you gift by return mail last Thursday and she should get it tomorrow.  I made her a lovely quilted wristlet in a black fabric with royal blue polka dots.  I hope she gets a lot of use from it.

Kitties For All Seasons

   I had these blocks from the A Cat For All Seasons panel for several months.  I bought them to make some quick decorations for my front door.  I backed them with some floral fabric and sewed them up.  No batting, no quilting, no muss, no fuss.

My Favorite Wonky Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

   This was one of the first raw edge applique projects I ever did.  I hand drew the Christmas tree pattern (love the wonky branches) and cut the trees out from three different fabrics.  Each tree has a bunch of little colored beads on it.  I wanted sequins but could not find any so I settled for beads.  I made this originally to hang on my front door for the Christmas season.  It has been replaced on the front door with a cardinal decoration and the trees now hang on the inside of the door.

Small Fabric Christmas Trees - Fun Sewing

     I love to watch Debbie Shore sewing tutorials on youtube and in one of her videos she makes these ultra cute stuffed Christmas or any holiday or season trees.   Here is a link to her video: fabric Christmas tree tutorial. 

   They are super simple to make.  I just drew a big triangle on a piece of card stock and used that as my template for my tree pieces.  I used fabrics I found in my stash and you can decorate them with thread, beads, bells, buttons or even some of those miniature ornaments you find at the craft store.  I just tied some ribbon to the top to get the pictures done.  I can also see these as a sweet decoration in rooms with color coordinating fabrics and this would so make a cool big pin cushion near the sewing machine in a pinch.

  I did take some time off from working on my quilted shower curtain to make these trees because I needed a little break, but the shower curtain is coming along.  I have the top done and I also added the backing.  I'm in the middle of doing the quilting.  Once I finish the quilting, I will add the buttonholes for hanging and it will be done.  I should have it done in a couple of days and I will share pictures then.  

Fall Sunflower Door Decoration

    I finally finished a sunflower door decoration for use during the fall season.  The flower is made from 100% felt.  I made a petal pattern in 3 sizes for the petals and the center was cut freehand from a 6 inch circle.  I sewed the flower to cotton backing material.  I made the center with points which is different from the normal plain circle.  I also added some dark purple seeds in the center for texture and color.  I was thinking of the Van Gogh sunflowers when I decided on the blue background.

    I enjoyed making this project.  The felt was really easy to sew.  I did a straight stitch around all the edges of the petals.  I used a few pins when I placed the petals and I was really surprised that I didn't have any problem with the felt shifting during sewing.