Fat Quarter Time

    I did some fabric shopping on Etsy.  I finally found a fat quarter bundle that I couldn't live without.  I bought two fat quarter sets of Bake Sale by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet for Riley Blake.  Those colors and prints are perfect.  I'm planning lovely napkins and hanging dish towel toppers with these fun kitchen prints.

 

Sewing Project to Say Thank You So Much

   I wanted to let dear daughter know how much I appreciated her help a couple of weeks ago, so I ordered four yards of pretty fabric from Thousand of Bolts (their fabrics are cheap and they have a nice selection) to make 16 fabric napkins for her home.  She loves them.

   I made the napkins but cutting the yard of fabric into four pieces, cut off the selvedges, and I followed this tutorial to hem and sew them.  Such an easy project.

Birthday Gifts

    I finally get to share the birthday gifts I gave my daughter.  She turned 39 years old yesterday and we got to spend some time together yesterday so she could open her gifts.  I bought her a shop vacuum in July that was part of her birthday gift, but I wanted to make her a few things for her new house.  So here are the homemade birthday gifts I gave her yesterday.

    I made her a rag quilt with a sale priced flannel that I found at Hancock Fabrics.  I posted about it  here.  This project took me about 4 days to finish.  She loves the cats on the fabric and the gray matches her new couch.  I bought 9 yards of this flannel fabric.  I cut it up into 108 - 10" squares.  I layered 3 squares together and sewed an X in each 3 layer block.    I sewed 6 blocks in a row and made 6 rows sewing them together so the seam is exposed on one side.   And this crazy fabric was directional so I had to be careful to get the cats all going in the same direction.  Fun.  After I sewed the entire quilt together, I snipped all the exposed seam allowances about 1/2" apart being careful not to snip the actual seams, then I threw the quilt in the washer and dryer to get the seams to ravel and become "raggy".

    The next project I made for her was an embroidery done on the embroidery machine she bought for my birthday last year.  I spent 3 hours getting this sewing machine embroidered because it had so many thread color changes.  It was very time consuming but it turned out pretty good.  I embroidered the picture on a piece of white muslin and framed it with a wooden frame that I painted.  It was really easy to do and the whole thing cost me about $12.00 including the cost of the embroidery design.  She loved this one as well.  Something she can hang on the wall of her craft room.

   

   And the last homemade gift I made were some linen napkins.  When I was shopping for fabric, I couldn't decided which color I liked more so I bought 1 yard of each and made four napkins from each yard.  I cut the fabric into fat quarters, hemmed them and then embroidered them with her last name initial on them.  The white is a linen blend and it was easier to work with than the blue or the brown fabric which were 100% linen.  If I were to make more linen napkins, I would definitely use a linen blend.  She loves her new napkins for her new house.  The fabric for these napkins was about $35.00.

      I didn't make the next gift.  I wanted her to have a wind chime for her yard so I found a reasonably priced wind chime on etsy and it's super cute made with recycled kitchen items.  We took the time to hang this in the tree in her front yard yesterday.

    I also gave her a home made sour cream pound cake and then we spent the afternoon at the North Florida Fair looking at the farm animals, eating junk food and enjoying the warm November weather.

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.

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.

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.