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.