Projects Archives - Page 181 of 199

Addition to the stash

March 8, 2010 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

Two new pieces of fabric arrived in the mail.

They’re from the Girl Friday line by Cosmo Cricket. It’s fun to see so many scrapbook papers licensed for quilting fabric and this was a line I wasn’t familiar with until my awesome sister gave me a heads-up. I think this fabric has been out for a while, but it’s new to me. I was able to find some at the Fat Quarter Shop .

I’m so excited to use these prints, especially the lined one. I’ve got embroidered love notes to my daughters dancing in my head… this will be the perfect thing!

I’m curious, what would you do with it?

2 comments creativity, fabric

Bird Nest Place Card Holder DIY (like Pottery Barn’s)

March 2, 2010 jennifer Decorating

A month or two ago I spied these cuties in the Pottery Barn catalog:

I really liked them, but at $24 (plus shipping) for a set of 4, that was awfully steep.

Then I spotted some little 4 inch birds nests at a craft store for 99 cents each, and decided to make my own.
Here’s what you need: nest, wire, wire cutters, pliers, spool or dowel about 1 inch in diameter.

I began by making 4 loops in my wire, each about 4 inches long.

I then pinched the other ends of the loops and wrapped the wire tightly around them.

Next I measured about 20 inches from where I’d just wrapped and cut my wire. This left me a nice long piece to work with in securing the nest to the base and for making the paper holder.

Now push the end of the wire up through the bottom of the nest.

Push the nest down to where the loops are, and then decide how far above the bottom of the nest you want your loops for securing a place card to sit. Then, using your spool or dowel, wrap the wire tightly around the dowel to form a good circle. I wrapped mine 3 times.

Remove the dowel and twist the wire at the base of the loops to secure them together.

Now push the end of the wire back down through the bottom of the nest (in a different spot for better stability) toward the loops. If the nest seems a bit floppy when you hold it upright, then loop the wire back up through the bottom of the nest and down again to secure it. Then tightly wrap the end of your wire around the base near where you wrapped previously. Use your pliers to tuck the ends of the wire in.

Now decide on the height of your place card holder and carefully bend the ends of your loops to form the base.

My nest had some long pieces sticking out in random places. I chose to clip them so I could have a more compact piece that won’t catch on things when I use them.

Fiddle with the base until your nest stands without tipping.

Now squeeze your loops on top together and make sure they will hold a piece of paper.

I like it! Each of these holders took me 5-7 minutes to make, and because I had the black wire on hand, the entire project cost me $4.00. SO much better than $24 plus shipping. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy them even more because I made them.

Now to use them! These would be fun at an Easter dinner, but you could also use them to hold little trinkets.

Hope you’ll try it!

Posted at DIY Day , Transformation Thursday and Blue Cricket Design .

14 comments Decorating, DIY, thrifty

Aqua Dots Strip Quilt

February 27, 2010 jennifer Color, Quilting and Sewing

I just finished a quilt that I made just to try machine binding. It’s a quilt-as-you-go strip quilt, which means it’s quick and simple.

I’m loving the aqua, red and white color scheme with tons of polka dots. Those three colors (and the dots) are among my favorite things right now. I’m calling it my Aqua Dots Strip quilt.

I found the binding tutorial on a great quilting blog, Red Pepper Quilts . The tutorial is here . Four years ago when I started quilting, I took a class on binding and I’ve been finishing my bindings by hand ever since. I usually cut my binding only 2 inches wide because I like a really tight, neat binding with no gaps inside it. I enjoy this process, but it takes many hours and thousands of stitches (think 8-10 stitches per inch around a 400 inch perimeter). I strained my elbow a little carrying my baby’s car seat, so stitching by hand has been irritating it some lately. I’ve also found that sitting down to do some hand sewing is much harder when you have 3 or 4 children dive into your lap every time you sit down (not to mention the fact that there’s so much cleaning to do that you don’t feel like you CAN sit down). So this tutorial got me excited, because I’m at a point right now when I’d LOVE to be able to fully finish a quilt on my machine.

Here’s a peek at one of the nicer spots on my binding after reading the tutorial.

Don’t worry, there were other spots (several of them) when I completely missed the binding and had to go back and fix it. All in all, I’m pleased. This is definitely harder than it seems, because you stitch from the top but the binding you’re stitching is on the bottom so you can’t see it at all. I pinned pretty well and had my machine on the slowest setting. This method will take some practice, but I think it’s worth getting good at.

The fabrics I used in this quilt actually came from a little quilt kit I purchased a long time ago when I thought that our last baby would be a boy. For some reason, for years I really felt like we’d end up even. Well, that didn’t happen, and these fun fabrics were still in their bag. The binding was a great excuse to whip it up, especially since it’s a pretty small quilt (baby size).

I taught myself a great lesson in this quilt, which is that haste does NOT produce quality. The strips weren’t cut perfectly when someone assembled the kit, and I didn’t bother to fix them. I also was so intent on finishing it quickly that I didn’t stop and rip out a couple of mistakes… which means that the stripes in the quilt aren’t completely straight and that there’s some curve to one end of the quilt. Oh well. I think the quilt is still cute, and it’s certainly going to be used, but I won’t be giving it away as a gift or anything like that. I really don’t feel like it’s a reflection of the work I’m capable of, or of the attention to detail that I usually have when I’m sewing. Good reminder, since I’ve got like 10 quilts I’m really anxious to start!

That said, the purpose of this quilt really was the binding. I’m definitely going to work at mastering this one! Here’s one last look at the quilt after it had been through a rinse cycle and then the dryer. I do like it! I love the happy colors and the dots.

What do you think?

3 comments Color, quilting

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