A Wreath from Hands!

Has anyone ever made a Holiday Wreath out of a child's hands?

This was a lot of fun!

I traced my nephew's hands onto fusible web backed fabric (8 times) and ironed them into a circle.  Then I added some red berries and a bow.  Instant quilt wreath!  

:)

I honestly can't remember where I got the idea.  I do know I didn't work off of a pattern. 

Instead of a traditional zig zag or a blanket stitch I used a crazy free motion stitch to fill in the wreath around the hands.

It was all sort of improvised but I was happy with the results!!!

Happy Quilting!

Oh, you probably can't tell but I'm posting this at 12:30 am.  I shouldn't have had that soda with dinner.  Whoops!  Too much caffeine late in the evening!!  :)

Heather

Renovated Quilting Room!

Since I knew I was close to leaving my job, I started a renovation of my quilting room a couple of weeks ago.

 

I knew I wanted more storage that also looked nice.  I was VERY tired of not being able to find anything and the uncomfortable clutter associated with keeping so much on the floor.

 

Yuck!  This was no way to work and expect productivity. 

 

 

So…I knew what I wanted.  I just needed to make it happen.

 

I went to Lowe’s and got the necessary shelving materials. 

 

Here’s the start of my shelving.  I did the work myself!

 

 

Here’s what the shelves looked like once I moved everything back into the room.

Whew!  It was a bit of work!  This was the first time I have put up shelving.  I am SO HAPPY with the results!

 

Here’s what my “Wall of Rulers” looks like.  Oh my gosh, I can now find a ruler when I need it!

 

And here’s what the room looks like all put back together!  It is such a TREAT to use this room!

 

 

 

I think I have finally found the best way to utilize the space in this small room.  I just realized, I don’t have any pictures of the “fabric closet” or the design wall. I’ll have to include those later.

 

Woo-Hoo!  I’m LOVING this room!

It’s Time for Easter Dog Collars!

I know it’s not Easter yet but I’m so excited because I am WAY ahead of the game!  Most of the time I’m scrambling a week before the holiday hits.  I stay up late at night with a general feeling of crankiness at the amount of work I still have to get done.

That’s no good- this is supposed to be FUN!

 

If you remember from my last post, here are the fabrics I chose for Easter.

 

The part of the collar that takes the most work is turning the fabric into the long “strap” or “band”.  Adding the hardware is actually the shortest step.  Here are some of the smaller sizes of collars made into bands, already Scotch guarded and ready for the hardware.

My dogs tend to get dirty so the Scotch guard is a must!

 

 

 

I love these fabrics….so cute. 

 

 

 

Next step…assembling the finished product!

Making Dog Leashes

As I continue to make dog collars, I’ve had requests for matching leashes.  I finally got a custom order request and decided it was time to figure this out.

I don’t have a pattern for a leash, I’m just figuring this out as I go.

This was my test fabric.  I didn’t want to mess up the custom order fabrics!! 

Here are the special snap hooks I had to order.  Turns out that 1 1/2” snap hooks are not a very common size. This is the largest size of collar I make and it happens to be the size that the special order customer requested.

I finally found a vendor in Hong Kong.  It took a few weeks to get the hooks but here they are! 

So here it is.  It was actually easier than I expected. 

In the picture below, you can see the matching collar as well.

Now, I’m onto finishing the custom requests now that I’m pretty happy with the finished product!

Guess how many yards of fabric… Win Fat Quarters!

With the new year and thoughts of organizing running through my head I decided to “re-organize” my stash fabric.

It really was overdue…this is a bit of a sampling of the shelves- just a bit mind you!

I finally got to the place where I have folded and MEASURED all of my fabric that is at least a 1/2 yard or larger.  Everything smaller is currently in a “scrap” bin for additional sorting.

This is the first time I have actually measured my fabric stash.  I was pretty shocked by the final count.

Sad to think that this doesn’t include: fat quarters, kit fabric, WIP and a huge box of scraps!

So, here it is.  How many yards of fabric do you think this is?

**Only estimate what is on the Three shelves, ignore any miscellaneous fabric on the side or below.

Just respond with your best guess (in the form of a comment) and you could be the lucky recipient of…

5 Valentines’ Day Fat Quarters!

The person with the number closest to the actual amount of stash will be the winner!!
           ***(PLEASE guess in yards-it’s the only way I function)!!!


**Note, in the event that a number is chosen more than once by multiple folks, I will assign each individual a number in the order they responded and let the random number generator choose!
**Lastly, please remember to double check that the option to receive email in your blog profile is active OR just include your email address in your comment, otherwise, I can’t contact your for a mailing address and your fat quarters must go home with someone else!

I’ll close the poll Sunday, January 23rd @ 5pm PST.  Good luck!!!

Thanks everyone for playing.  Hope you’re having a terrific week!

Heather

Oh my gosh…please get this thing off me!

We have a very thin dog.  She is an adorable, loving, sweet Jack Russell Terrier cross. 

We actually had her DNA checked (couldn’t resist- hey, I don’t have kids OK?).  They said she was a mix of Chihuahua and Italian greyhound.  The greyhound I see, the Chihuahua???  Not so much.

 

She’s actually pretty sick with liver failure and she’s only 4 years old.  She was born with a liver shunt.  She’s the best dog ever so it doesn’t seem fair…but we love every day we have with her.

 

Because she’s so thin and it’s so cold here, she has to wear something when she goes outside.  I made her a fleece coat but she and one of our other dogs destroyed it. 

 

So, I tried again.  I bought her some homemade “jammies” from Tails Me All About It. 

 

I’ve never tried to fit a dog into “feeties” before.  Turns out, she’s not too big on them.  It’s comical to see her try to walk in them! 

 

 

I actually bought them a little too short for her body so I added a fleece stripe down the center.

 

 

 

The workmanship is great, high quality.  I just wish she liked them better!

 

 

Love you Pearl!

The Denim Rag Pattern marches on!

The continuing saga of the Recycled Jeans/Denim Rag Quilt Pattern!

My pattern continues to develop. I’m almost done with the rough draft. I’ve been making corrections as I go so I think it’s a bit better than a true rough draft.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, it’s definitely a challenge to put actions into words. I know what I mean but am I getting that across?

Here’s a sample of something I’ve written. What do you think? Is it clear? Too wordy?

“Place the first denim circle WRONG side up on your work surface. Using a ruler, measure 1 ¼” from the outer most edge of the circle and mark this line along the edge of the ruler. Any pen will work; you will never see the line.

Place the marked circle and a second, unmarked circle from your row, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER. Pin and sew along this line.”

---

Here’s where we left off last time. The table runner was completely assembled but not yet “raggy”. At this point, I got out the spring loaded scissors.

Okay, there’s a separate blog post coming about spring loaded scissors.
I’ve learned a lot about them and which ones are more reliable.

Here’s what the runner looked like after clipping the edges with the rag scissors.


I trimmed every edge except the outer edges. There’s no point in trimming them because they will be cut away prior to binding.

After trimming, I went to work on the clipped edges with a stiff brush. Similar in feel to a toilet brush, I always go over my trimmed edges with this brush. I find that it really speeds up the fraying process.


As you know, a rag quilt gains it’s frayed, ragged edges after multiple washings and dryings. This is, of course, an important part of the process.
However, I give my quilts a good “once-over” with the brush before the first washing to speed the process of fraying.



It can make a bit of a mess on your work surface but think about what you’re getting out ahead of time that won’t get stuck in your dryer’s lint trap!




You can see how the brush lifts up the edges and begins to create that frayed look we are going for.


And, here’s what it looks like after washing and drying.

All that’s left is to cut away the edges and add the binding.

Heather

Finishing Up the T-Shirt Quilt!

So, I’ve been gone from Blogdom for a while. The holidays just took over and that was my only focus for a while!

But…I’m back!

I did get the t-shirt quilt finished in time for Christmas. I finished sewing on the label at 8:30pm Christmas Eve!! Oh well, it was fun and he REALLY liked it! That was the point!

Here’s where I left off with my last blog post.  The top was completed and ready to go to the quilters (AKA “Mom”).


Got it back from my Mom a few days later and got busy on the binding.






I knew in the back of my head that I was not going to let this quilt get out the door without a label!! It’s happened too many times where I took until the last minute to finish the quilt and never got the chance to add one.
So…I made sure I built enough time into the finishing and I was happy with the finished result. Normally, I print the label on prepackaged paper backed fabric. However, I just read an article about a woman who prints her message on the computer (in whatever font she likes), puts a piece of fabric over the paper and traces the message in her own hand.
What a great idea!!
I decided to give it a try and I was really happy with the results. Here’s what it looked like!

It’s personalized but neat.
In my next post I’ll talk about putting the finishing touches on the rag  quilt/table runner. The fun continues!

Take Care!
Heather

The T-Shirt Quilt Continues…

The “Christmas present” continues to develop.  Only nine more days until this quilt needs to be wrapped and under the tree.


It’s ready for the sashing strips.

The owner of Windy Moon Quilts here in Reno taught me how to fold a fabric square (see below) to make cutting strips easy and on the bias at the same time!

I don’t know about you but I find cutting bias strips a pain.  This is a great and fast method.


Windy Moon also carries a really nice line of flannel.  It’s super soft and comes in a great variety of plaids.


 
As far as the colors of the sashing strips go, there were so many different colors of t-shirts in this quilt that there really wasn’t any way to choose  one color for a perfect match.



I’ve used a similar plaid flannel before and I think it harmonized nicely with the variety of colors.  It’s not “matchy-matchy” but I think in this case it works just fine!



I was happy with the first row.  Looking good…


Finally, all four rows done. 



I think he’s REALLY gonna like this quilt!
On to the corner stones and getting these rows put together.
Almost there!


Heather