Small Quilting Project: A Quilted Laptop Cover

 Hello there...happy Thursday!

The past of couple of years I've been on the go a lot and many of my friends refer to me as the traveling grammie!

Sometimes I struggle with having the right bag for my tech items when I travel. Depending on where I'm going and how long my stay is I could travel with a laptop, Kindle and IPad.

Over the next few posts I will show my pretty tech covers that eventually lay in the TSA plastic bins at airports! 😊

Favorites and Improv Patchwork

A member of the sewing group I belong to gave us a lesson on improv patchwork. She had us focus on favorites - something you can easily associate to a picture in your mind

It was a great class and I took what I learned that day and applied it to making a quilted cover for my laptop.

After determining the measurements I needed and using the Improv technique Kathy taught I made the following panels.

Favorite Quilt Block - Quilted Pocket Panel

My favorite quilt block is the log cabin, in all honesty I'm obsessed with them. The log cabin is such a diverse block with endless possibilities.  Most of the scraps used for the laptop pocket panel are scraps from my lucky charms table runners you can see here.

Favorite Fabrics - Quilted Front Panel

Low volume prints are one of my favorite types of fabric. When possible they are my first choice when selecting fabric to use as a background.

Favorite Place - Quilted Back Panel

One of my favorite places is the backyard of my home. We live in Florida, have a swimming pool, a lanai, shade trees, and a wooden privacy fence. When I sit out there I truly know peace.

Finishing

Once I sewed the three panels together and made the inside lining the laptop sleeve was finished.

Until next time ....craft a life you love❣

Clothesepin Craft Ideas

Hello there...happy Tuesday!

Did you know that crafting with clothespin was a thing?

I remember using those wooden pins to help my grandmother hang laundry when I was younger. 

50 years later I'm having fun with those same wooden pins making really cute crafts.

I found a list of several clothespin craft ideas over at Feltmagnet.com and homedit.com

Jack - O - Lantern Door Hanger

This was fun to make with my grand daughter. I bought two packages of 100 clothespins from Walmart. I think we used 85 closepins for this wreath.  The base is a pizza pan from Dollar Tree, we simply clipped the clothespins to the pizza pan.  I did the spray painting, and my granddaughter cut out the jack-o-lantern face. We used black vinyl also from the Dollar Tree, she traced the face details from one of her coloring books to the back of the vinyl. I added burlap ribbon to the back of the pizza pan to aid in hanging the wreath. 

Clothespin Mini Planters

When I saw this planter on homedit, I knew I had to make a couple for my home! I really didn't like the look of theirs, so I made a couple of changes. I used a small paper mache box for my base, and the big difference was removing the metal clip from each clothespin then gluing the wood pins to the box.

After gluing the wood pieces, I stained the flower pots using Miniwax Early American stain, added some rocks and a faux succulent that I added acrylic paint to.

Clothespin Basket Organizer

This last project was my favorite, I started with a broken wooden embroidery hoop, cardboard, and fabric. 

• I cut the cardboard into 3 circles, using the embroidery hoop as my template. 
• I then covered the cardboard circles with fabric. 
• Glued all three cardboard circles together, with the fabric showing on the top and bottom 

• To finish off the base I glued the embroidery hoop around the fabric covered cardboard circles. 

After removing the metal piece from each clothespin, I glued the wood pieces to the base I just created. Again I used the Early American stain to give color to the clothespins, added some twine and lace to dress it up and glued wooden beads on the bottom to serve as feet.

 I am really impressed at how sturdy this basket is, I had no idea if this would work, but ultimately I'm quite pleased, I've placed several of my old perfume bottles in the basket.

Until next time happy crafting!!!

Christmas Cricut Decor

 Hi there - happy Thursday!

You can never be too early to start working on Christmas projects!  One of my 2023 goals is learning how to use my Cricut cutting machine other than decorating tee shirts.

The decor, gifts and holiday trinkets that can be created with a cutting machine is endless.

Sometimes I have a bad habit of watching endless videos or reading posts on "how to do" something to the point of information overload, which leaves me feeling lost or unsure of what to do first or next.

Today I want to share a few Christmas items I've made over the past few weeks. I keep a Cricut Joy and mini heat press at my daughter's home when I travel to Texas so I can craft while babysitting.

Most of the projects are dupes from items I saw online shopping.

Santa Believe - Reverse Canvas Wood Sign

The inspiration for this project came from Melissa Mortenson of Pink Polka Dot Chair. She offers a complete tutorial for a wood sign. I liked her wood sign but chose a different technique to make my 10 x 20 inch personalized sign. I used a combination of permanent and heat transfer vinyl for the lettering and Santa face design.

Paint Stick Christmas Tree

I saw this wood Christmas tree decor piece in several places last year while shopping. It wasn't expensive but I knew I could re-create it.

I purchased a package of one gallon paint sticks from Loews. There is 9 inches of wood before the handle on each paint stick. 

Keeping the 9 inch measurement in mind I sketched out a design. With my trusty miter box and saw I cut three paint sticks into the following dimensions

• 2 & 7 inches
• 3 & 6 inches
• 4 & 5 inches

I cut the handle off one of the remaining paint sticks to use as the tree spine. Using wood glue I added the cut pieces onto the tree spine in size order. My son-in-law had some scrap wood in the garage and I used that for the base. I then painted the branches and base with acrylic paints my daughter had on hand. I keep a Ziploc bag of scrap vinyl in the closet which was perfect for this project -- I needed one inch in width pieces for the words. I hot glued greenery and berries for embellishments.

All in all this was a $2 project, granted it is a smaller than the one sold in stores. Using 5 gallon paint sticks would have made a larger tree.  The smaller size is perfect for my desk.

Rustic Christmas Tree

This type of wooden Christmas tree decor has been popular the past couple of years. They are beautiful, but too large for my home and out of my price range.

I purchased a bundle of reclaimed wood planks on Amazon to make a set of rustic trees for our home.  The common thread of all the listings on Etsy was "hand painted". Freehand drawing is not my thing so I used the Cricut Design Space software and created stencils so I could achieve the hand painted look.

I am so thrilled with the results! Several of the videos I'd watched recommended using  Mod Podge before adding the stencil paint to prevent bleeding...it worked for me!

Personalized Wood Ornament 

One can cut craft wood shapes using a Cricut machine. I have a Cricut Maker and cut out the letter G to make a personalized ornament. I've heard that the Cricut Maker 3 cuts faster and neater. 

Jennifer Maker is one of my favorite Cricut instructors, she's very thorough and crafty!

After watching Jennifer's wood cutting video I made this:

I stained the wood first, taped off the area for the black paint, the green plaid is vinyl. I used the vinyl instead of scrapbook paper or fabric as an applique medium.

Nativity Wood Block and Cutting Board

Wood decor pieces showcasing the Nativity Scene are popular items available for sale.

I painted one of the reclaimed wood planks with black chalk paint and added the white nativity scene as a stencil.

I painted the mini cutting board with the same black chalk paint but added the mini nativity scene using heat transferred vinyl (htv).

Metal Stocking Ornament Decor

This last project was all about me testing Dollar Tree vinyl. The cost was $1.25 per roll which is unbelievably fantastic the quality was the issue for me.

I found the vinyl to be thin. I covered the metal stocking with the Dollar Tree vinyl and wasn't very impressed. I decided to use my scrap vinyl for the lettering and the heart. At this point I still haven't tried the Dollar Tree vinyl in my Cricut and not sure that I will, I think using it for applique projects will be good enough for me.

Each project shown today didn't take much time and the material cost was minimal. Once I return home I'll make them a second time to see if they make the cut for my fall festival booth.

Until next time....happy crafting!

Little Green Apples Blog Hop

Hi there....happy Wednesday!

Today is my day on the Little Green Apple Bog Hop, sponsored by the very talented Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.

The March Sew It - Show It challenge was to sew something with green or something with apples..or both!

Growing up on a farm I learned the color green was the sign of new beginnings, so when I saw this challenge I was super excited to participate, because it motivated me to work of my "spring green" projects for the shop. I knew I'd be out of town welcoming a new grandson during March so I got everything made in advance.

A few weeks ago I made this table runner using a curvy log cabin quilt block. It was a fast and easy project and I loved the result, so I decided to remake the design for the blog hop.  The curvy log cabin quilt blocks are smaller and I added a scrappy pieced border to each runner.

I used the Creative Grids 6 inch curvy log cabin trim tool to assist with the block making. I LOVE all of my Creative Grids trim tools, yes they can be pricey, but worth every penny, especially with group charity sewing projects - a story for another day :)

I made two quilted table runners using left over 10 x 10 squares from my stash, they both measure 16 x 40 inches. I named the runners Lucky Charms.

Lucky Charms 1 made with the Violette collection by Amy Butler.

Luck Charms 2 made with Kaffe Fassett Spring Collection

My free motion skills are poor at best but I did manage to do a simple loopy meandering stitch on both runners.

My second project for the challenge is a scrappy spring green pillow for the couch in our office. The fabric is Adel in Spring by Sandy Gervais.  The quilt block is my version of a rising star. I used my Cricut and HTV to create the Irish Blessing verse in the center of the pillow.

Last but not least the apple portion of the challenge! I found an apple gingham print in my stash and knew it would be perfect for the March challenge.

You know I love machine embroidery - I found a cute embroidery design, made a few changes and machine embroidered/appliqued to black fabric large enough to create the pocket potholders shown below. 

Blog Hops are fun and I enjoy seeing what everyone has made. Make sure you stop by to see the projects others have made for inspiration. The list of participants can be found below.

Again, I'd like to say thank you to Carol for organizing this fun event.

Until next time....happy crafting!

 MARCH 21

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Quilted Delights

Karrin’s Crazy World

For The Love Of Geese

Vroomans Quilts

Quilted Snail

Homespun Hannah's Blog

The Joyful Quilter

 

MARCH 22

Inflorescence

Ms P Designs USA

Words & Stitches

The Crafty Grammie

Beaquilter

Texas Quilt Gal

Pinker n' Punkin Quilting & Stitching

 

MARCH 23

Moosestash Quilting

Patchwork Breeze

Crazy'boutquilts

Selina Quilts

Samelia's Mum

Just Because Quilts

Scrapdash

That Fabric Feeling

Rope Basket with Fabric Decoupage

 Rope Basket with fabric decoupage

Hello there and Happy Thursday!

I've been wanting to have a decorative basket to store my lap quilts in. I've seen lots of beautiful ones online and in stores. After doing a little research and some planning I decided make this a DIY project and make a small basket.

I wanted my basket to have a fabric lining and thought what a great opportunity to use more of my scraps!

Grab a drink, sit back, and I hope you enjoy my rope/fabric decoupage basket diy journey!

Materials I used

• Old Dollar Tree plastic basket
• Dollar Tree nautical rope
• Dollar Tree nautical rope in cotton
• Mod Podge
• Hot glue gun and sticks
• Fabric Scraps  - various strips from Tim Holtz's Electic Elements collection
• 
  
  

Fabric Decoupage

1. Pressed fabric and made sure one edge was straight

2. Using a brush I applied Mod Podge to the wrong side of the fabric.

 3. Gently laid fabric strip inside and outside basket.

 4. Continued adding fabric strips until entire basket was covered.

 

Basket Bottom

To give the basket bottoms a finished look, I cut out cardboard circles from a cereal box using the basket bottom as a template.

Once the circles were cut I did quick test to ensure they fit.

I covered the cardboard circles with scrap batting and more fabric.

I secured the fabric covered cardboard circles to the bottom of the basket, inside and out with hot glue. I also added some of the decorative rope around the bottom of the inside fabric covered circle.

At this point I was loving the basket inside!

Rope Decor

I removed the tape from all of the nautical rope bundles. Beginning with the natural colored rope I placed a little hot glue at the bottom of the basket to secure the first strand of rope.

I continued wrapping and gluing the rope around the perimeter of the basket stacking each row on top of the previous, making sure to keep the rope taut and flush so the fabric did not show through.

I finished out the last strand of rope at the very top of my basket. I didn't place any rope on the inside because I wanted the fabric to be seen in its entirety.

This was a super fun project - I love my up-cycled Dollar Tree rope basket.  I'm ready to make a larger one.

Tell me what you think -- I'd love to know if you tried this before or plan making one in the future.

Until next time....Happy Crafting!

More Quilted Spring Tulips

 Hello there...happy Thursday!

Quilting Class

I took a class last month titled " A Morning Mystery - Unique Quilted Spring Tulips"! It was a free class at one of the local quilt shops. We were asked to bring several 10 x 10 scraps in spring colors, cutting tools and mat, a small sewing machine if you have one or use one of the display machines in the quilt shop.

Six of us arrived at 8 am, after introductions and machine setup we got started. We all knew the final product would be something resembling a tulip - the mystery however was unknown! We quickly learned that the mystery was paper piecing!

I was excited...I love paper piecing! The teacher gave a quick and thorough instruction and demonstration on paper piecing techniques.

** The photos I show are my finished projects. We only made the quilt blocks during class time.**

Project #1

Our first project focused on simple squares and rectangles - a four inch curved log cabin quilt block. 

We made 4 of the curvy log cabin quilt blocks, arranging the top two blocks with the narrow strips coming together and the bottom two blocks with the wider strips coming together - hence the tulip!

Project #2

Our second project again focused on squares and rectangles, this time irregular or wonky shaped.  Another log cabin quilt block, this time playing close attention to color placement so that the flower design really pops.

Project #3

The final project focused on odd angles and sharp points. I actually had to do this one a couple of times before I got it right!

I had lots of fun - lots of laughter and joyful frustration was shared by everyone. We did manage to get all of our blocks pieced during class time.

As you can tell I turned all of my blocks into potholders/trivets!

Custom Order

My final tulip projects to share is a custom order for one of my customers.

I did not have a pattern but was inspired by the Tulip Market quilt pattern by Corey Yoder.

I used several 2.5 inch strips from my Alison Glass Sunprint stash for the tulips and yardage for the background fabric .  I took extra care to make sure the text fabric was going the same direction throughout.

The set of 4 placemats measure 13 x 17 inches

The matching quilted table runner measures 16 x 40 inches.

Until next time happy crafting!!

Spring Tulip Quilted Table Runner

 Hello there! Happy Tuesday!

A pieced tulip quilt block makes a perfect accent for any spring table setting!

Using the scraps from my flag placemats here, I paper pieced this simple and beautiful table runner. 

This runner measures 14.5 x 34 inches and I used the Holland Quilt Pattern by Sew Up Patterns to create the tulip blocks. I highly recommend this pattern if you enjoy paper piecing and like the "dutch tulip" look.

I mailed this runner yesterday and I'm hoping the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Until next time...happy crafting!

Quilted Flag Placemats

 Hello there...happy Thursday!

Quilted Patriotic Decor

Flag Placemats

I made a set of four quilted cotton placemats in a cute flag pattern for a customer. She requested that they be at least 14 inches tall and 18 inches wide and wanted the red to be floral prints.

I pulled from my Bonnie and Camille red and navy stash to make the placemats.

Curvy Log Cabin Table Runner

She also asked if I could make a small table runner in red, white, and blue. 

This table runner measures 12.5 x 24.5 inches and consists of 8 curvy log cabin quilt blocks, in red, white, and blue.  The white fabric has a small floral print, and I added a machine appliqued flower design in the center of the table runner resembling the white fabric.

February Challenge - Sewing Group

Our February challenge was to turn an orphan quilt block into something functional. 

I turned an 8-inch triangle log cabin quilt block into a small cross body purse! Sorry, I don't have a before picture.

Until next time - happy crafting!