Tuesday, August 28, 2012

How to Cover a Sleeve Ironing Board Tutorial

Go to my Craftsy patterns for this Free tutorial. You can make any size ironing board cover with my free tutorial.

My worn out old ironing board cover.

New cover for my sleeve ironing board. 
 
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Monday, August 27, 2012

Flannel Pajamas for my Grandson

Flannel Pajama Bottoms
Flannel pajama bottoms I made for my grandson. His birthday is in November, so he will be getting these then.
Flannel Pajama Bottoms
These flannel pajama bottoms are made with a Christmas print fabric. I am currently working on making the top to match these bottoms. My grandson will probably be getting these during the holiday season. Depends on how cold it gets whether I will give them to him early or not. I'll post the top to these when I finish them

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Quilt Pattern Mistakes in Instructions

Quilts in the Barn wrote a long posting about mistakes printed in her quilt pattern. A magazine printed the wrong cutting measurements and the posting she wrote is a good lesson to everyone who makes quilts. Always cut only for one block to test the pattern for accuracy! It's also a good idea to make one block to see how you like the colors/fabric that you chose too before cutting out all the pieces for an entire quilt.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Pacific Northwest Meets the Southwest Quilt

My sister gave me 3 fabric prints a few years ago: the bear paw print, the totem pole print and the black bear print, which are native designs from the Pacific Northwest. Since I live in the Southwest, I decided to make 3 Navajo quilt blocks to represent the Southwest, while using the fabrics that she gave me to represent the Pacific Northwest. I added the tan, red and blue fabrics that I had as well. This quilt also reminds me of the many years that I lived in the Pacific Northwest too.

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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Santa Fe Indian Market

Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Indian of North America to be promoted to a Saint.
In my posting yesterday I told you that hubby and I went to Santa Fe for our anniversary and to the annual Indian Market there. Well we get there and the market didn't start until today! Am I getting senile? I could have sworn I read it was Friday-Sunday, but it turns out it is Saturday-Sunday. Oh well! We did go back today (luckily it's about a 45 minute drive and not several hours away). I took lots of photos of things in the plaza area, the cathedral, statues, shops, etc. If you are interested in having a look you can go here to see the photos I took.
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Friday, August 17, 2012

Knit & Felted Purse

Today is hubby and my 32nd wedding anniversary. We are spending the day in Santa Fe at the annual outdoor Indian Market. So many beautiful works of art to see there. It's a great place to get inspired for doing future art projects. Then we will eat out at a restaurant for lunch. I'll have to tell you which restaurant later, as there are 3 we are still deciding on. Meanwhile, here is my latest finished project for  you to see.   
This is the bag and i-cord handles I knit before I felted them.

Here is the purse after I felted it. I added a stacked button and a pony tail elastic for the closure.
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Friday, August 10, 2012

House Quilt

I started this one a couple of years ago. I was planning on adding large blue triangles around the house so it would be set on point. Then I wanted to add pieced log cabin triangles in the 4 corners of the blue triangles so it would be a square again. Well that just wasn't working for me as things weren't lining up right. So I set this aside for a long time and finally finished it the way you see it here. I used a flexible ruler to draw a free-form scalloped edge.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Washable Markers to Mark a Quilt?

Washable markers on fabric.
I read on a blog recently (sorry can't remember which one...should remember to write these things down), where the woman used washable markers (the kind children use) to mark her quilt. She said the marker washed out. Well that sounded like a great idea, however I was going to do a test first to make sure the markers would wash out. After all, on the package of markers that I purchased, there was a disclaimer that some markers may leave a stain. Well of course that will not do when marking a precious quilt! So I grabbed a scrap of white fabric from my scrap bag and wrote all the colors down. There weren't any names or numbers listed on the markers, so I named them. Then I took a scrap of batting and placed it on the back of the fabric and quilted it.

After one washing this is how it looked. Most of the markers you could still see the color on the fabric. Some were very faint, but you could see it.

Only the following colors came out completely:
Light Blue, turquoise, light orange, yellow, lime green and one of the greens. I used Cra-Z-Art markers. Other brands may or may not wash out better than these.
I am sure if I washed it again, more of the colors that remained would either be completely washed out or they might be lighter. However, I do not think I will use washable markers to mark my quilt unless I absolutely knew they would wash out completely. Why take a chance?

***Note: I read that some of you said Crayola brand washable markers do wash out. So I tested the 8-color pack of Crayola brand markers and yes they all washed out! So I will only use Crayola brand. So much cheaper to buy a package of 8 washable markers than even one marking pen that are made for quilts. You know they can't cost that much more to manufacture those quilt markers. I'm always looking for easier, better, and cheaper ways to do things. Plus those quilt markers never even last that long, are hard some brands are so hard to even see. Now I have a rainbow of colors to choose from for marking. Thanks for all of you comments. I learn a lot from the comments made too.
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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Painted Rick Rack

I couldn't find any jumbo turquoise colored rick rack, so I bought white rick rack and painted it. I used Setacolor Fabric Paint by Pebeo.

That's the kind of paint used for Heliographic fabric art or sun art.

You lay your fabric down outside and sponge on diluted Transparent Setacolor in whatever color patterns you like. Then lay feathers, lace, netting, leaves, precut cardboard, flowers, metal washers, keys or anything on the fabric and the sun reacts with the paint to leave the image on the fabric. It's fun to do. There is plenty of sun here in New Mexico to do this, however we also have plenty of wind here too. So it's hard to lay down objects onto the painted fabric without everything blowing clear to the next county! Best to save for a non-windy day. The fabric paints come in really beautiful colors.

The rick rack I will be adding to a quilt I am working on right now. Once I have the quilt finished I will post it, but it might take me a while to complete.
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Monday, August 6, 2012

The Angel Block Winner is...

...Bonny! Congratulations Bonny. I sent you an email and as soon I receive your address I will send her off to you.

Bonny said, " love your Angel... so very pretty! She would look beautiful with my Santa :)
I am a new follower of your blog."

Well Bonny she will be with you and your Santa soon.
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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Quilt Block Carrier

I recently saw a Moda Bake Shop Tip that someone used cookie sheets to stack their quilt block pieces on so they could carry it to their sewing machine. A friend of mine saw on a blog somewhere where a woman covered foam core boards with flannel (or batting) and glued a fabric binding all around the edges. She showed our applique group how to make these boards. So that got me thinking...

if I took both those ideas of the cookie sheet and the flannel board, I could lay a piece of flannel inside the cookie sheet. I serged the edges of the flannel and set it in the cookie sheet. If you have a stainless steel cookie sheet you could place magnets in the corners to hold down the flannel. If you have aluminum sheets, you could place a small weighted pincushion or other a few flat marbles to hold the flannel in place.

Then place your fabric pieces on the flannel, arranged how you would sew them. I like using the cookie sheet because it's easy to carry from sewing machine to ironing board. It's also something practically all of us have in our homes, so no need to purchase anything. The flannel isn't permanently attached (and it's non-toxic too) so you can still remove it and make a batch of cookies later.

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Christmas Blog Hop Thank You & No-Reply Bloggers

First, I want to thank all of you who stopped by and paid me a visit on the Christmas Blog Hop. I so appreciated all the lovely and sweet comments. I want to welcome all of the new followers to my blog and I hope you will  continue to enjoy what I share with you. I want to thank all of my loyal followers who have been following me for a while because you are all wonderful. Of course this hop wouldn't have happened without Madame Samm and Lesley the Cuddle Quilter. Thanks ladies. It felt like Christmas just meeting so many new people who stopped by and those who left comments. Wow it was almost like opening presents!

Now I also wanted to address an issue about No-Reply Bloggers. I have seen this so many times in blog land, but perhaps you are new to visiting blogs or blogging on your own blog? So let me mention it (you'll hear this all over blog land), if you are a no-reply blogger and you make a comment, especially hoping to win a giveaway, you will never win. Why? Because you are no-reply and that means there is no way to reply (email/respond) to you.  Since blogging is about sharing information, whether we are talking about quilting, knitting, crafting, computers, etc., I thought I would share with you about no-reply bloggers and what it means.
  • If you comment as anonymous you are ALWAYS a no-reply. So if you comment as anonymous when you are hoping to win a giveaway then you must include your email address in the comment section and a first name is nice too. Please, please double check that you wrote down your email address correctly. We all make typos when we email, comment, etc. but when it comes to your email address a typo just won't do! Otherwise it will bounce back and you still cannot be contacted.
  • Just because you signed up with blogger, that does not mean that you aren't a no-reply blogger. Not sure? Please check your profile and see if you have an email address listed. Blogger defaults to no-reply, so if you never entered an email address when setting up your blogger account, then you are a no-reply blogger. You must also check the box that says to show your email.
  • Go to the dashboard on blogger and then to edit profile. Add your email address there. Make sure you save your changes.  That's it.
  • If you made a comment on my Christmas Blog Hop & giveaway day (Wednesday, August 1) and did not receive a reply from me, then you are probably a no-reply blogger.
  • I reply to all comments that I receive, unless you are a no-reply and I have no email address for you.
  • If you did not receive a reply from me (it may take a day for me to respond, depending on when you made the comment and when I was online), then please email me if you really want a chance at winning the angel block, so that I will have your email in case you are chosen.
  • Go to your blogger profile and add your email address so you are no longer a no-reply blogger and check the box tat says to show your email. Even if you do not win my drawing, there will be other drawings you wish to enter (probably have already entered some on this blog hop) and you cannot win if you cannot be contacted.
  • Here are 2 great tutorials how to do this: from Pleasant Home and from Sullivan and Murphy
I hope this helps you. Email me if you need more help. Now enjoy the rest of the hop. I will choose the winner of the angel block by Monday morning. Good luck everyone.
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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Think Christmas Blog Hop & Giveaway


It's my day for sharing on the Think Christmas Blog Hop. I got out my zippered scrap bags of red and green put this little angel together. I thought I would do my very first giveaway too. I don't have a sponsor, so this is from me to you (the lucky winner). What am I giving away? This cute Angel Block:
I fused and did the blanket and chain stitching by hand.
I made this snowman block too. The blue sky I painted with watercolor pencils. I did machine embroidery stitches around the applique shapes. The photo below shows the finished little quilt I made.

 
Here is today's Blog Hop schedule:
Aurea (we will post)
To be eligible to win the Angel Block just leave me a comment. If you are currently a follower of my blog then please leave me another comment stating that you follow my blog to give you a second chance at winning. Enjoy the blog hop!

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