Non-Christmas Hot Pad

Hey Everyone,

This has been my (non-fat-quarter-club) MAJOR CHRISTMAS PROJECT for several months, and I finished last week:

 So, when the red velvet arrived, I tossed around a bunch of Christmassy ideas, and ended up realizing I needed to look at something other than Christmas fabrics for a while. So I made a hot pad from some of my stash. The back side is all the red velvet. I'm thinking of making some more hot pads with some more of it. I might make its twin for my mom. She needs some new hot pads. BUT, not to get overwhelmed with new ideas halfway through December, I am sending her gift in the mail today with no hot pads. Then I can just relax, and if I never get around to it, it's okay. Her gift is done anyway.

Stockings...

...and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Toby's Christmas Coat. Ho Ho Ho!

As soon as I saw the fabric this idea came to mind. Believe it or not he doesn't mind wearing the coat.

Fall Raffia Wreath

It's a good thing we have until December before we are "allowed" to post photos of the next fabric. That means my post is not late. :) I finished this project a while ago but finally found time to put my photo up here. I cut the fabric into strips and wrapped it around a wreath form, and then wrapped it again with a string of raffia. It was fun to have up for Thanksgiving, but it's coming down shortly to make way for Christmas decorations. I hope everyone has a calm and peaceful Advent season!

Thanksgiving Update

FYI: I filled the "treat bags" with stickers for each of the four kids. They had fun with them for the next 24 hours before they went home. Funny thing? They left the fabric squares behind. I just might make a few potholders for next Thanksgiving.

Fabric #3

I gave my sister the new fabric quite awhile ago. I just sent three of them today since I was on a trip to the post office anyway. Two won't receive theirs until Thanksgiving, and Karen... I'm sorry, you won't get yours until it is hand delivered slighty after Thanksgiving.

So, to even the playing field, I'm going to encourage you all to take your time and not post anything until December. I'm assuming fabric #4 will arrive sometime after Christmas if we keep up with the month-and-half rate we seem to be going. I'm also going to TELL YOU what it looks like. If you don't want to know, I guess don't read this.

It's a red, red flannel.

Coasters and another potholder - you can never have too many!!

I can always use another potholder, so the latest fat quarter turned into a potholder and coasters. My husband's aunt gave me similar coasters several years ago and I always wanted to know how she made them...it took a little searching but I found the instructions here:
http://lynbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Folded-Coasters.pdf
They were fun to make - I will probably make more of them!
Looking forward to the next fabric!

Two-fer

Hi there!

It's been two weeks since I finished these, and I'm glad I did since the cold weather seems here to stay.  Pretty basic -- cut the quarters in half the long way, seam the middle and outside edges, then sew the new long edges with right sides together.  Turn and stuff and tie with a ribbon!  Serging makes it really, really quick. 

My oldest was confused when he saw them.  He wanted to wrap them around his neck like a scarf.  I guess that's kind of the idea...

--ajh

....

I am unable to get the comments to work, so here it goes, Valerie the book purse is a very clever idea.

 Thank you for the comments and the hot pad was easy and fun. 

Ruth~  a blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours.  Have a safe trip and I will talk to you soon.

Book purse

This is a book purse. My library was having a special promotion which included getting a book purse kit for free, so of course I grabbed one. The kit included the empty book cover (Shakespeare) and the instructions. It’s all glued… very little sewing for this one. I just had to
sew two pieces together instead of “cutting on the fold” to get the most out of my fat quarter (nothing left over), and then did a little hand sewing to make the side pieces tend to tuck in when closed instead of flail out. The handles are made from an old tie, the button was from a suit coat, the elastic was a stretched out dead headband. I had to buy Aileen’s tacky glue to get the job done, but it was about time. How did I go so long without buying Aileen’s?

This purse would be impractical for me, because I tend to carry around diapers and kids books. I think my wallet alone is bigger than this purse. Don’t fear – I was able to give it away to someone who admired it. The teacher said she was giving a presentation on ways to bring books home, or something like that. Plus she would actually use it. She loved it. I loved getting it out of my house. :)

Finally!!!

I have finally been inspired.  Well, I am not sure  if it is much of an inspiration, but life has been busy here and I told Kathy and Ruth I would have this done on Saturday, so here it is on Monday.  Only 2 days late!  I decided to make a hot pad for my mom, as a Thanksgiving treat.  It turned out pretty well and I like the fluffy-ness of it.  I may make one for me as well, if I get everything else done first!

No-Sew Thanksgiving Treat Bags

My brother's family is coming for Thanksgiving. They have four children. I'll put these treat bags at their place settings. I don't know what I'll put in them yet. They would fit a fun-size candy bar or tiny bag of candy.

I simply cut the fat quarter on the fold lines making four rectangles, used my pinking shears around the edges, and tied them up with ribbon. The ribbon came from an old bridesmaid's top that I hacked up this morning. I already used the skirt for part of my Princess Amidala costume at our recent Star Wars party.

My baby's baby dolls needed some clothing. I should've taken a picture of just the fat quarter doll, but I wanted to document the other doll too....

Since it was a winter fabric I thought I'd make a coat. And then I figured, why not make it reversible? I've never made any clothes before and that coat was the hardest thing I've ever made. I told myself, if you can do that, you can do anything. Then I made the dress. (The skirt is sewn to the top of a sock.) That was harder. Then I made the booties. I am never making booties out of fabric again. I'll have to crochet them - crochet is stretchy and forgiving.

There you have it.

Reversible dress and bonnet - the jacket is too, but I didn't get a picture.

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad booties.

Folded Star Pot Holder

I really enjoy making things that are pretty AND functional, so I decided to use the fat quarter to make a pot holder.
I also really enjoy browsing crafty blogs, so I had a good time looking for inspiration. I found it here - http://goingsewcrazy.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/retro-potholder-tutorial.html.
Putting together all of the pieces was a bit challenging. I chose to hand sew the circles onto the backing fabric. This wasn't difficult, it was just somewhat time consuming.
I used the machine to quilt the star and attach the binding. I've had difficulty attaching binding in the past, so I decided to make the binding a bit wider this time and it worked out really well.
Finally, I decided to add a fabric yo-yo and a button, because I think a little embellishment is a good thing!
Can't wait to get the next fat quarter!

Christmas Tree Garland

I love any excuse to display garland. Here is what I started first, before I made the bird.

 

I looked at many ideas online, and found the one I liked best at Sadie and Lance.

The garland was quite easy and did not use much fabric. I think I have half of the fat quarter left, so I will either incorporate it into the Christmas quilt I'm already making, or make some more birds.

 Thanks for the club idea, Ruth, and thanks for inviting me, Val!

Card "Ribbon"

First of all, thank you for the invitation to join this club. It is very fun to have an excuse and motivation to craft something.

This fabric was lovely. Dark red is my favorite color so I was very excited to try and figure out how to display it at our house. I was inspired by one of Valerie's blog posts a while ago and decided to use the fabric as the base for a card "ribbon". (I also needed a project I could complete without a sewing machine since I can't just run over to my mom's anymore from 2 states away. I'm sure I'll be purchasing one in not too long.)

I'm super pleased with how they turned out. They look so nice on my kitchen wall I might leave them up all year long...

I added a black satin ribbon down the center of each "ribbon" and attached it every few inches so the cards could attach to that instead of the fabric. I plan to look for some pretty/decorative paperclips to attach the cards in the future.

Christmas Purse

I first saw this purse when Valerie came to my house. I ooh'd and aah'd over it enough that she gave me the pattern. I have made 3 base purses and each purse has a reversible cover. I liked the Christmas fabric because it didn't scream Christmas.

I'm the next person to supply the fabric. To the fabric store I go, high ho, high ho!

Christmas Bird Ornament

First I started something else, which I will post after completion. It didn't use much of the fat quarter, so I then made this bird, which also did not use much of the fabric. It was fun to make and came together very quickly!

I was inspired by the beautiful birds and excellent instructions on And So It Begins.

The original pattern came from Spool Sewing. The pattern is on the sidebar.

I made it as a Christmas ornament, but I'm going to see if my almost 11-month-old wants to play with it. If so, he can have it. I can always make more!

Christmas Pillow!!

Here is the pillow,  it was fun to do, a bit challenging as I used only fabric I had in my pile, I bought nothing (except the pillow, but if I make other covers, it will be used a lot).  I know you cannot see it from the picture, but the white ball part of the hat is loose from the pillow, only stitched at the top and I put a jingle bell on the inside of it.  Reagan, my 9 month old, likes to play with this.  I was able to use ALL of the fat quarter and had just a few scraps.  I hope you like it.  Happy Crafting!! 

Great Idea!!

Ruth, this is such a fun idea.  I was so excited when I opened the enveloped and read about the fat quarter club.  I showed it to Paul and the kids.  We started to think of ideas, I said is it a fall fabric or Christmas, then Paul who is more of a detail kind of guy pointed out the holly and snowflakes.  Our brains went to work thinking of Christmas ideas.   I knew I wanted to do a pillow, but what would my pillow look like?  "What is red and Christmas??" was the question to be answered. A few ideas were thrown around, by the kids, Paul and myself.  Finally we settled on one thing and I was off.  24 hours after receiving the fabric I was finished, I was excited.

WELCOME!!

First, you might ask, "What is a fat quarter?"
      Answer:  It is a piece of fabric.  Take a yard of material and cut it into fourths, one cut from top to bottom an done cut side to side.  That gives you a piece 18"x21".  Compare that to the skinny version that is 9"x42", and you can see why this is called a fat quarter.

Next Question, "What is a Fat Quarter Club?"
     Answer: Friends who like to sew and craft with fabric give each other a challenge.  One member buys the fabric and cuts it into fat quarters.  The fabric is sent out to the other members.  The members work their magic on the fabric, make whatever they wish(adding any other fabric, etc. they wish) take a picture and submit it to the group.  There is a rotation of members buying and sending out the fabric.

Ooooh, "This sounds like a lot of pressure."
       Answer: nope!  You can do whatever you want with the piece.  If you are too busy, you can just email and say, "Pass!"  If you think there is nothing you can do with the fabric, you can use it as a dust rag.  i think it will take us about a month to get everyone's idea back.  That would mean you would only be up to send out fabric every 8 months or so.

But..., "What if I want to drop out?"
     Answer:  No problem.  We will find someone to take your place.  We would like to keep the group at 8, so two yards of fabric would suffice.

Ok, "So how do I submit my picture?"
     Answer:  Just email it to me.  I will try to figure out the best way for all to see them.  You could also upload it to the blog and post the story of your idea with the picture.

Hint:  Start hunting on clearance tables for good finds.  Sometimes you can score a hit for just $2 a yard. Free is always good, too.   I have been given lots of fabric

I hope you have fun with this!!