Binding, a find, and a bird

I promised myself that my Christmas gift to myself this year will be to finish up some projects that have been waiting for attention.

So, I stole a few minutes and made my binding for two quilts that I REALLY want to finish (one has been waiting for months!)  I’m excited to get them on the quilts and finish them up.


When I was at the thrift store recently looking for ugly sweaters (what’s with EVERYONE needing an ugly sweater this year?), I found these great little miniature compote dishes for $4.  They stand about 1.5 inches tall and about 2 inches in diameter.  SOOOOO cute!  I can’t wait to find something to do with them!


And finally, my quilt is back from the quilter’s.  This one is a fun combination of three different ideas that sort of happened as I went along.  I’ve been in love with all things birds for a while now, but this is the first quilt I’ve made that includes a bird.


I’ll show more pictures of this quilt when it’s finished.  I’m really happy with it.

I’ll get to work on this ASAP, but first I have to finish (I mean, start!?!) my Christmas shopping.
I think this is the year of lowering our standards so I can impress everybody next year.  Oh well.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

Placemats turned Tablerunner DIY

I was at the dollar store with my friend when I ran across these placemats.


I liked their crisp blue and white color and the stripes.  But I really didn’t need placemats, and remember:  at my house things like that have to come in sets of ten!  Then I remembered my laundry room.  I’ve been looking for a super simple runner to put on top of one of my dryers……..  you know how those  moments go, when inspiration strikes.  I put four of them in my cart and brought them home!

I decided to rip open the seam on the short ends so that I could stitch the entire length of the runner closed at the end, and have it look like one long, tidy seam.


I left the long sides as they were and decided not to unstitch them.  I could handle a thick seam if I ironed well, I thought.  Since this cotton weave frays easily, I also didn’t want any raw edges underneath.  I placed right sides together and stitched the four placemats together lengthwise.  Notice I’m not sewing the sides with the open seams.


Next I pressed the seams open on the back and flipped the runner over to press it once more.


Finally I folded the long sides back under and stitched them up!  This is what the back side of the runner now looks like, with the thick seams connecting the placemats together pressed open, and the hem down the side folded over the seam and stitched up.


The top side of the runner looks like this.  I like how tidy the seam looks.


Ta-da!  Only about 30 minutes in all.


Excitedly I took it to my laundry room to see how it would look…..


Perfect!  I wanted something to protect the top of my dryer from being scratched by my vintage metal basket, and I wanted it to fit the style of the room.


Just what I pictured.  I really like how it’s so simple looking.  The placemats are 100% cotton, but not a quality weave.  Still, they work great and have the look of linen toweling.  The perfect fit for my space.


Simple, inexpensive, and done in 30 minutes.  I like it!
You could do this same thing with lots of materials instead of placemats.  You could use kitchen towels, linen napkins, vintage handkerchiefs, etc.  The sky is the limit (that’s the way creativity works!).

HH

Brinley’s Blossoms baby quilt

My brother and his wife had their first baby last week.  A little girl.  They named her Brinley.
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We visited them this week, and she is adorable!  She looks just like her mommy, and is smaller than any of my 8 babies were.  I loved holding her, even though it made me feel like my baby is huge.

We took Brinley her baby gift, a rag quilt that I designed and named “Brinley’s Blossoms” in honor of my niece.
I managed to get a little tag on it before we wrapped it up:
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I used the same fabrics in this quilt that I used in the one I made for my baby a few months ago.  I really loved this line!
(Forgive the poor pictures; we were in a hurry and it was night and I couldn’t take any decent ones.)
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It’s a simple strip quilt with some flowers appliqued on top and in a couple of block strips.
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It was a lot of fun to make, and gratefully it was a quick project (or I might never have finished it!)
I always love the way the backs of rag quilts look:
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There’s no plain side with quilts like these!

And, finally, here is a close up of a new idea I tried, and I must say I’m really excited about it both because it turned out so cute and because it’s truly my very own idea!  I’ve never seen anyone do anything like this before:
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A scalloped border!  I love the way it turned out, and I think that I’m going to try another quilt using this idea.
I’ve got something in mind….

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