March 4, 2016 ~ A Child's Quilt and a Bicycle Covered in Knitting

"The control center of your life is your attitude."

~Annonymous

(Sometimes I need to remind myself of this...how about you?)

Several years ago the sweetest girl gave up her position at Washing and Lee University and opened a precious shop in downtown Lexington...The Stitchin' Post. She carries yarn, gifts, notions for quilters and knitters/crocheters, patterns, handmade items made by other people that are for sale, and she teaches both children and adults to do these things. The first picture is the quilt a very young child had made and she it was sitting on the floor to work with the placement of the material for the sides and the backing. Looking at what this little girl had made on her own blew my mind. It was so cute, an amazing accomplishment, and I was so tickled to have gone in with my iPhone on the day it was on the floor. The rest of the pictures are of a one-in-a-million bicycles totally covered in knitting. It, too, is an amazing accomplishment. I hope all of your who do hand work of any kind will enjoy this post.

This post is linked with Photo Friday and Fun Friday Favorites.

Christmas Presents Underway

Every year I come up with a new idea for my homemade Christmas presents. This year I am making napkins/hand towels...however you want to use them.  For some I am using long 2 1/2 strips of fabric, and on others 9 - 2 1/2 inch squares sewn together and attached alone the hem about 2 inches up. I ordered the napkins from Amazon, but unfortunately the 100% cotton ones really wrinkles. They may need to be ironed before using each time...UGH! The second back I ordered were cotton and polyester mixed, and they were thicker and after preaching they dried out without any wrinkles...WOO~HOO. I have 24 of each kind...a total of 48 in al...and I still have 22 more to complete. I used white thread so the underside would look better...all white. For the pictures, I folded the napkins in different way so I could get more together to photograph.

Here are some of the ones I have finished so far:

 Contrasting Solids

 Red Quilting Squares

 Blue Quilting Squares 

 Pastel Colored Quilting Squares 

This shows you the length of the towels. They are folded into thirds.

 There are irregularities in the sizing of the 100% cotton ones after prewashing and drying..

These are waiting to be made. The fabric strips are Mary Engelbreit fabrics ~ one set of four in red and white fabrics and the other set is green and white fabrics. They are so cute and festive.

With these I think I am going to use white thread on the spool and red on the bobbin.

Will do a trial run to be sure it looks ok. Gotta have the tension correct or it will be a mess.

Here is an example package of precut coordinated fabrics like the ones I used.

A BIG HUG and SUPER BIG THANKS go out to the very talented Amanda Jean. Her fabulous blog is Crazy Mom Quilts. It is filled with tutorials and lots of little things you can make plus quilts. On her post celebrating the 9th birthday of her blog earlier in November, she asked us all to leave her a comment telling her about the things we had made where we had gotten the idea from her blog. Well, this is only one of MANY  of her things I have made, and I plan to post more in the days to come. So sorry Amanda Jean that I did not make it it before the cut off time to post to your blog, but I am giving you credit now. I had just made so many of your things that I ran out of time putting the post all together. I have learned so much from you.

This post is linked to Amanda Jean and her wonderful blog, Crazy Mom Quilts.
Congratulations on your 9th Birthday 
and ALL the beautiful things you have made durning that time.
in that nice years.

My Insanity Quilt

Well, I am down to binding my Insanity Quilt. It is made from one Jelly Roll, one and a half mini Charm Packs, the borders are from a Layer Cake of all different polka dotted fabrics, and the back and the binding are pink and white polka dot fabric. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how the strips of the Jelly Roll are sewn together with the solids in between, so I think of the front as the insane part of life and the back as the sane part.I couldn’t call it my Crazy Quilt, so I opted for my Insanity Quilt. It is very colorful and soft, but I tend to lean toward the more traditional patterns for my pieces. I will repost when the binding is finished being hand sewn, and it is washed and fluffy.

This post is linked with WiP Wednesday over at Lee’s blog, Freshly Pieced.

More Homemade Presents

Wooden Tag Banner 

The wooden tags came from an old timey Ben Franklin store in Fayetteville, WV.  The backs had seals on them saying where they were made and a bunch of other stuff so I got hot water and removed them. Then I took Christmas cupcake papers from the dollar bins at Michaels and glued them to the backs. I used green wired twine and then green wired ribbon to tie them together. I covered clothespins with Christmas paper and used them to hold the twine to the ribbon. The final thing was to take a glue gun to be sure the ties were secure on the backs and glued little holly thingies on the holes. 

Cork Garland ~ 1

Twine, bells, colored plastic beads and some wooden ones from Michaels, old corks, eye screws that go into each end of the corks, a glue gun to affix the beads and the bells so they don’t move, and ribbon for the ties on the ends. Easy Peasy!

Hope you can see the little eye screws.

Cork Garland~ 2

I made this one for my son, Gene. I used larger wooden balls/beads for it.

Little appliquéd felt and cloth ornaments...

Quilted Table Runner 

I made this for my daughter and gave it to her at Thanksgiving. She created the fun centerpiece out of colored paper, a marker, and a pineapple.

Quilted Table Runner in Blues

Tied Christmas Wreath

I used Williamsburg replica cotton prints. All the edges are pinked. The form is from a roll of some kind of Large bendable wire from Lowe’s.

A Silly Cork Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree Coasters

These are made following Tree Trivet Tutorial over at Stitching and Bacon.

It was the Christmas in July Challenge ~ July 10, 2013 post

I modified the pattern leaving out the hangers, but otherwise I tried to follow it as closely as possible. It is a wonderful tutorial.

Fronts of Quilted Christmas Tree Coasters

I have the pattern and the link to the tutorial if anyone would want it.

Backs of the Quilted Christmas Tree Coasters

Here are some extras that I am finishing up now. They need batting in the centers and a backing fabric.

All of my presents are made and I stuck to my guns...I made them all. These are just some of my favorites I shared with you all.

Merry Christmas Everyone

I’d Rather Be in England

I am what you call a British Wanabe...a Displaced Anglophile.  All the years I took students to England, Ireland, Scotland, and Paris, I was collecting these dear woolen ornaments. When they married and left the roost, I gave my three children all of their annual ornaments we had collected through the years. Then I created my own new tree...my Memory United Kingdom Tree. I do have a Scotsman and a shamrock though you cannot see them...and there is one from the Eiffel Tower. These ornaments are my treasures! The big paper star hangs there in the corner all year round, but I was afraid to take it down...nervous I would never get it back up there. So, the tree has one BIG star on the top!!!

The Orb and the Crown are at the top in the place of honor.

 Left Side

Right Side

More Goodies

My Dining Room

These are the table runners I was making for my Christmas presents. I kept 2. 

Another Table Runner

A YoYo banner I made for the window.

Not only do I love The United Kingdom, I LOVE RED!

This post is linked with:

 Rednesday over at Brown Gingham Creations

Ruby Tuesday Too

Quilt Pieces All Lined up in a Row

This post is linked to “Things in a Row” which is sponsored by Pat over at “A View from the Edge.” The prompt for the week was “quilts” so I am sharing four lap quilts I made a few years back. Sadly, they are machine stitched instead of the little tiny quitting stitches I used for so many years, but they are definitely homemade. It is also linked with "Mosaic Monday."