Have a great Saturday and remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
New Ironing Pad
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I am not like some other lucky women who have a whole separate sewing/craft room ... I envy those women sooo much!
My sewing table is my kitchen table, my fabric is stored on the top shelves of my pantry, my sewing machine has a special place on the floor and my cutting mat is kept neatly slid behind the china cabinet ..... and I have NO room for an ironing board.
Our kitchen counter is a large island. The microwave, telephone and my latte machine (a Christmas gift from my son and it is the love of my life) are the only items that have a permanent residence on the kitchen counter. Everything else is banned! Having a cluttered kitchen counter is one of my pet peeves and since it is also my ironing, cutting and measuring surface when I sew, I insist it stays cleared.
In the past I have laid down a kitchen towel if I ever needed to iron. That method worked well until the other day when I was cleaning up my fabric stash and I decided it was time for a change. I found a large piece of very heavy fabric that I had NO clue what I would ever use it for and decided to make my own ironing pad to protect my beloved countertop.
This fabric almost looks vintage .... I vaguely recall picking up a large box of miscellaneous fabric at a yard sale last summer that was marked 'free' and this piece was part of the contents. It is heavy like denim. There was approximately a yard and a half of the stuff and figured it would be perfect for the ironing pad I had envisioned.
I measured and cut so the pad would be four layers thick. I decided on a double french seam so it will lay flat while I iron.
The finished pad is 22 inches by 28 inches and it is perfect for my needs and it is protecting my countertop. I am enjoying the task of ironing once again!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
My sewing table is my kitchen table, my fabric is stored on the top shelves of my pantry, my sewing machine has a special place on the floor and my cutting mat is kept neatly slid behind the china cabinet ..... and I have NO room for an ironing board.
Our kitchen counter is a large island. The microwave, telephone and my latte machine (a Christmas gift from my son and it is the love of my life) are the only items that have a permanent residence on the kitchen counter. Everything else is banned! Having a cluttered kitchen counter is one of my pet peeves and since it is also my ironing, cutting and measuring surface when I sew, I insist it stays cleared.
In the past I have laid down a kitchen towel if I ever needed to iron. That method worked well until the other day when I was cleaning up my fabric stash and I decided it was time for a change. I found a large piece of very heavy fabric that I had NO clue what I would ever use it for and decided to make my own ironing pad to protect my beloved countertop.
This fabric almost looks vintage .... I vaguely recall picking up a large box of miscellaneous fabric at a yard sale last summer that was marked 'free' and this piece was part of the contents. It is heavy like denim. There was approximately a yard and a half of the stuff and figured it would be perfect for the ironing pad I had envisioned.
I measured and cut so the pad would be four layers thick. I decided on a double french seam so it will lay flat while I iron.
The finished pad is 22 inches by 28 inches and it is perfect for my needs and it is protecting my countertop. I am enjoying the task of ironing once again!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thrifty Thursday
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My found treasures at the thrift store this week .... something to keep me extremely busy. Two LARGE transfer pattern books!
These books are THICK!
This book is full of country items and children pictures, along with a few different alphabet transfers.
This one is full of Christmas patterns! I LOVE Christmas!
With my favorite .... snowmen!
So, as you can tell I will be doing alot more of this ....
The possibilities are endless ..... and the cost of each book ... $3.99.
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
These books are THICK!
This book is full of country items and children pictures, along with a few different alphabet transfers.
This one is full of Christmas patterns! I LOVE Christmas!
With my favorite .... snowmen!
So, as you can tell I will be doing alot more of this ....
The possibilities are endless ..... and the cost of each book ... $3.99.
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Getting Creative with Old Windows
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Well since our property use to be an old junkyard and was farmed way back in the day, we acquired quite a lot of junk when we took the property over thirteen years ago. There was ALOT of junk!
It seems every time I am digging through either the barn, the shed, the well house, the old farmhouse .... I always find something new.
The other day I found some of these.
Old window frames. Some had the glass broken out of them and some still had the original single pane windows. I grabbed a window that the glass had been long gone and decided to make something with it. What? I wasn't sure yet. LOL
I lightly sanded the frame, removed some broken glass that was still stuck in the grooves where it originally sat and looked it over carefully.
I had seen pictures on pinterest and other blogs where people had either hung pictures behind so it looked like you were looking out a real window or used them as headboards but I wanted something fresh for my kitchen seeing it is spring and all.
Then I remembered I had these in the stash that I had picked up from the remnant bin. I was going to make some mug rugs with them but after measuring the window space, I knew they had to go there.
I searched around some more in the piles of 'stuff' and found a little bit of chicken wire. Just the right amount! I quickly stapled that to the back of the window frame and added some picture hangers. I decided to nail the hangers both on the top and side ... this way I could hang the 'window' either way in case I changed my mind and wanted a different look come autumn or winter.
Everything was coming along nicely. My dear hubby would just walk by and shake his head .... he knows well enough to leave me alone when I am on a roll with something. LOL
After heading back to the house, digging out the panels, iron and stapler, I cut the panels and gave them each a quick iron. Then turning the frame over, I carefully stapled the panels to the back and making sure each panel was centered as close as I could get it.
I like how it turned out! Very rustic and fits in perfectly to my 'rooster corner' of the kitchen!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
It seems every time I am digging through either the barn, the shed, the well house, the old farmhouse .... I always find something new.
The other day I found some of these.
Old window frames. Some had the glass broken out of them and some still had the original single pane windows. I grabbed a window that the glass had been long gone and decided to make something with it. What? I wasn't sure yet. LOL
I lightly sanded the frame, removed some broken glass that was still stuck in the grooves where it originally sat and looked it over carefully.
I had seen pictures on pinterest and other blogs where people had either hung pictures behind so it looked like you were looking out a real window or used them as headboards but I wanted something fresh for my kitchen seeing it is spring and all.
Then I remembered I had these in the stash that I had picked up from the remnant bin. I was going to make some mug rugs with them but after measuring the window space, I knew they had to go there.
I searched around some more in the piles of 'stuff' and found a little bit of chicken wire. Just the right amount! I quickly stapled that to the back of the window frame and added some picture hangers. I decided to nail the hangers both on the top and side ... this way I could hang the 'window' either way in case I changed my mind and wanted a different look come autumn or winter.
Everything was coming along nicely. My dear hubby would just walk by and shake his head .... he knows well enough to leave me alone when I am on a roll with something. LOL
After heading back to the house, digging out the panels, iron and stapler, I cut the panels and gave them each a quick iron. Then turning the frame over, I carefully stapled the panels to the back and making sure each panel was centered as close as I could get it.
I like how it turned out! Very rustic and fits in perfectly to my 'rooster corner' of the kitchen!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Tuesday's Tip
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Yesterday I mentioned that I had found something in my fabric stashes that I just couldn't part with. Here is a picture of it. It doesn't look like much .... actually it is half of an old kitchen curtain.
But there is a familiarity about this fabric ..... it reminds me of something .... I don't know what it is but it is a good feeling. Maybe when I was growing up or my Grandma or my Auntie had a tablecloth or a dishcloth with a similar pattern or maybe even my Mom had curtains like this.
Whatever it is, I just couldn't part with the fabric ... but what to do with it? The material itself was in good shape. No holes, no tears however there wasn't a lot of it. Maybe half a yard?
I looked the curtain over and over and then the light bulb went off. An apron!!!! I love aprons and what could be better than making an apron with fabric that gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling? Then I started thinking outside the box.
On the back of the curtain was the 'slots' where a curtain rod is to be pushed through. So I dug through my stash of fabric and found a coordinating deep brown. I cut two 3 inch strips approximately 60 inches long. I then placed the strips right sides together, stitched along the sides and bottom, turned the 'tube' inside out, used a knitting needle to push out the corners and closed up the top.
Clipping a safety pin on one end of the strip, I fed the strip ... now 'tie' .... through the slot at the back of the curtain. Viola, an apron! Getting a little fancy, I added a pocket with the same deep brown fabric.
Easy, peasy and now I am recalling all the single 'curtains' that I always see at Goodwill! Wow, I could have an apron collection rather quickly by making them this way!
So if you have an old kitchen curtain just laying around in a drawer somewhere, sew a tie, feed it through the slot at the back and you too will have an instant apron to wear while baking those yummy treats for the family!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
But there is a familiarity about this fabric ..... it reminds me of something .... I don't know what it is but it is a good feeling. Maybe when I was growing up or my Grandma or my Auntie had a tablecloth or a dishcloth with a similar pattern or maybe even my Mom had curtains like this.
Whatever it is, I just couldn't part with the fabric ... but what to do with it? The material itself was in good shape. No holes, no tears however there wasn't a lot of it. Maybe half a yard?
I looked the curtain over and over and then the light bulb went off. An apron!!!! I love aprons and what could be better than making an apron with fabric that gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling? Then I started thinking outside the box.
On the back of the curtain was the 'slots' where a curtain rod is to be pushed through. So I dug through my stash of fabric and found a coordinating deep brown. I cut two 3 inch strips approximately 60 inches long. I then placed the strips right sides together, stitched along the sides and bottom, turned the 'tube' inside out, used a knitting needle to push out the corners and closed up the top.
Clipping a safety pin on one end of the strip, I fed the strip ... now 'tie' .... through the slot at the back of the curtain. Viola, an apron! Getting a little fancy, I added a pocket with the same deep brown fabric.
Easy, peasy and now I am recalling all the single 'curtains' that I always see at Goodwill! Wow, I could have an apron collection rather quickly by making them this way!
So if you have an old kitchen curtain just laying around in a drawer somewhere, sew a tie, feed it through the slot at the back and you too will have an instant apron to wear while baking those yummy treats for the family!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Fabric Explosion
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I have deemed the year 2012, the year of organization. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to become organized with everything that caused me stress on a day to day basis.
So far I have tackled all the photographs. I had them scattered everywhere .... in albums, in boxes, in baskets. So I spent the better part of January organizing all my photographs. Now they are safely in two photo boxes on a shelf, all together. Some day .... probably well into retirement .... I will begin to put all those photographs into scrapbooks but for now I am very pleased they are all together.
Next I began to tackle paperwork. That is an on-going process but I am pleased as punch to say that I have all paperwork organized and into binders up until the year 2009. The years 2010 and 2011 are all together, I just haven't punch holes in them and put them in their respective binders but that will be done before the end of March. Promise.
So this past weekend I decided to tackle my fabric stash. We have two storage buildings on the property which is a whole other story but I had fabric stored EVERYWHERE! I didn't even know what I had anymore. Instead of hunting through junk to try and find some fabric to start a project, I would just head out to the local fabric store and picked up something I liked. Well no more!
I went to all my storage spaces and dug through stuff, rearranged boxes, hunted in boxes, bags and trunks. I gathered ALL of it. Then I went through the process of tossing anything I didn't like, want or that had stains on it. That helped to get rid of ALOT of fabric I knew I would never use .... so liberating!
After all that, then I washed ...... 6 loads of washing and drying ....then the ironing. I ironed everything I wanted to keep, folding everything nicely and sorted it by color.
Everything is now put away and at a glance I know if I need replenish a color. This way I can watch for sales ... or the remnant bin. LOVE the remnant bin!
I did find something in all that mess that I just couldn't part with and didn't know what to do with it ... but that is for tomorrow's post.
Now off to do some sewing!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
So far I have tackled all the photographs. I had them scattered everywhere .... in albums, in boxes, in baskets. So I spent the better part of January organizing all my photographs. Now they are safely in two photo boxes on a shelf, all together. Some day .... probably well into retirement .... I will begin to put all those photographs into scrapbooks but for now I am very pleased they are all together.
Next I began to tackle paperwork. That is an on-going process but I am pleased as punch to say that I have all paperwork organized and into binders up until the year 2009. The years 2010 and 2011 are all together, I just haven't punch holes in them and put them in their respective binders but that will be done before the end of March. Promise.
So this past weekend I decided to tackle my fabric stash. We have two storage buildings on the property which is a whole other story but I had fabric stored EVERYWHERE! I didn't even know what I had anymore. Instead of hunting through junk to try and find some fabric to start a project, I would just head out to the local fabric store and picked up something I liked. Well no more!
I went to all my storage spaces and dug through stuff, rearranged boxes, hunted in boxes, bags and trunks. I gathered ALL of it. Then I went through the process of tossing anything I didn't like, want or that had stains on it. That helped to get rid of ALOT of fabric I knew I would never use .... so liberating!
After all that, then I washed ...... 6 loads of washing and drying ....then the ironing. I ironed everything I wanted to keep, folding everything nicely and sorted it by color.
Everything is now put away and at a glance I know if I need replenish a color. This way I can watch for sales ... or the remnant bin. LOVE the remnant bin!
I did find something in all that mess that I just couldn't part with and didn't know what to do with it ... but that is for tomorrow's post.
Now off to do some sewing!
Remember to give your loved ones a hug!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Rainy Sunday
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Well the rain has started. I knew that the beautiful, early spring weather couldn't last long without a little rain and it has definitely been doing that!
Perfect time to start a few projects that I would like to get done before the heat of the summer is upon us and the garden is in full swing. I enjoy making homemade items for a select few people on my Christmas list. People who appreciate the time and love that goes into my handiwork.
Can you guess what I am making?
Just a few pictures to tickle your curiosity. I am sure some of you out there can figure it out. LOL
It isn't for anyone special.
I have been just trying to use up some of my stash.....
and using all of this doesn't even come close to making a dent in said stash!
Where does all this fabric come from?! Well, at least I am enjoying the time playing around with it.
The rain has offered me some time to make plans with a good portion of my fabric. I would like to refresh the closet with new yardage soon and in order to do that, I have to make some things to have room for the new prints that are on the market.
If this rain keeps up, I am sure I will be showing you the finished project sooner than I had planned. We will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has planned.
I hope you are all enjoying this Sunday! Remember to give your loved ones a hug.
Perfect time to start a few projects that I would like to get done before the heat of the summer is upon us and the garden is in full swing. I enjoy making homemade items for a select few people on my Christmas list. People who appreciate the time and love that goes into my handiwork.
Can you guess what I am making?
Just a few pictures to tickle your curiosity. I am sure some of you out there can figure it out. LOL
It isn't for anyone special.
I have been just trying to use up some of my stash.....
and using all of this doesn't even come close to making a dent in said stash!
Where does all this fabric come from?! Well, at least I am enjoying the time playing around with it.
The rain has offered me some time to make plans with a good portion of my fabric. I would like to refresh the closet with new yardage soon and in order to do that, I have to make some things to have room for the new prints that are on the market.
If this rain keeps up, I am sure I will be showing you the finished project sooner than I had planned. We will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has planned.
I hope you are all enjoying this Sunday! Remember to give your loved ones a hug.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
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