Vacation/Blog Break

Taking a short blog break for about a week as I hit the road and head back to New York for a visit with my family.  I’ve hitched a ride with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter as they head to a family function for his family.  Fingers crossed we have nice weather and a prayer for a safe journey.

I will see you when I get back!

Make Your Own Spools

You can make your own spools for storage and crafts.  They are so pretty as either.  Here are two I saw on Pinterest recently.

Source

Source

It hit me as I was looking at an email from Alpha Stamps on Sunday morning and saw one of their products was a spool. It looked just like two discs and a toilet paper tube.  So that’s what I used to make mine!  I grabbed three discarded toilet paper cardboard tubes and looked around for something that would work for the size of the end caps.  I wound up using the top off of some old candle jars that I repurposed in my craft room.

The lid turned out to be the perfect size.  So pulling out some cardboard I had in my supplies, I just traced the lid on it and cut them out.  Two for each tube.

I used Aleene’s Craft Glue and glued a tube down on one disc.  Let that dry and then did the other end.  Once that dries, you are all set to use it however you choose. 

While the glue was drying, I took that time to wrap some of my crinkled seam binding around some clothes pins to neaten that up a bit, too.

I decided to use these three spools to wrap lace and trim around.

In retrospect, if I did want to add some pretty papers to the discs, I think the best time to do that would be prior to gluing on the toilet paper roll tube. 

Now I need to make some more to corral some of my other trims and laces!

 

Organizing A Fabric Addict

Hi, my name is Kathy and I’m a fabric addict. 

There I said it!  There is no more fooling around with “I need to use the fabric that I have before I buy more.”; “ I am not buying anymore fabric until I use what I’ve got!” and, my all time favorite, “I don’t need anymore fabric!”  Who am I kidding?  I am totally tempted by a remnant bin.  Give me a coupon for fabric and I’m putty.  I melt over fabric samples that are big enough to make some cute little thing. It’s time I took ownership of my weakness.

So now that I admit my fabric fanaticism, I need to figure out a better way to store all this fabric I keep bringing into my small craft/sewing room.  Everything has a place in here and extra fabric that finds it way in upsets the balance of motion.  In other words, I can’t move around this tiny space with all this stuff not in its rightful place!

I did pretty well keeping what I fit into my two bins neat and organized, but then ~ well ~ I bought more fabric.  That’s when I heard of these

comic book boards.  Yes, they are used to store comic books, but apparently, work well to store fabric and make mini-bolts.  I found these on Amazon and 100 - 6 3/4 x 10 1/2 inch boards were $7.99.  A small price to pay for being able to store more fabric.  They are not very thick cardboard.  You could also use the large warehouse buy cereal boxes, or anything else that has a very sturdy cardboard, to wrap the fabric around.

So I took out all my fabric and proceeded to wrap them around these boards.  I got the idea here.  This woman has more fabric than I do!

Once wrapped, I just used a couple of straight pins to hold the fabric in place. 

I cleared out the bottom shelf of one of my little bookcases and put them there.  I was able to fit all the fabric {with some room to spare} on the one shelf.  Ultimately, I’d like to sell off those pillows taking up the room on the top shelf and move the fabric up.  {Watch for a sale in my Etsy!}

Now I’ve got some extra room on the wall shelves, since I removed the bins that were holding the fabric.  It will be nice to move some things around.  I won’t show you that part yet because 1) I want to have something new to show at the Where Blogger’s Create party at My Desert Cottage on July 11th and 2) I have no idea what I’m doing yet!  But, at least the fabric is organized!

 

Cheater’s Quilt Baby Gift

Quilts are pretty, but they can take a lot of time.   Baby quilts are small and quick {and cute}, especially when you do a cheater’s quilt.  A cheater’s quilt is a quilt made using fabric that already has a patchwork pattern.  Here is fabric I got for a quilt for a baby boy.

The patchwork will be the front of the quilt and the striped fabric will be for the back.  They are both flannel ~ soft and cozy for a baby!  No tutorial here, but you can find lots of tutorials and ideas for cheater’s quilts on Pinterest.  Just type in “cheater’s quilt”.

Ready for the binding.

After washing both fabrics {I am using the full yard of each}, I sandwiched batting in between the two fabrics and pinned through the three layers {fabric, batting, fabric}.  I cut them all even and square. I then started sewing along the lines that were in the patchwork pattern fabric.  I did the horizontal lines first and then did the vertical.  This is what helps it look like you did actually quilt it.

Now it needs some binding and I followed a tutorial on Pinterest for attaching that.  Not too thrilled with how I did it, but it looks okay.

Once the binding has been sewn on you want to wash it and toss in the dryer.

All done and ready to be gift wrapped!

I broke this project up over a couple of days because I didn’t have the quilt binding on hand, but the cutting, pinning and sewing portion took about 2 – 2 1/2 hours. 

It will make for a nice gift for the mother-to-be {my daughter’s friend who is due in July}.

 

On a side note, {and in case anyone else was having the issue} I’m back up and running with Live Writer.  I downloaded the 2012 version and it seems to publish just like it used to, so hopefully, problem solved. 

Quick Burlap Shade Makeover

 

It’s been ~ I don’t know how long ~ awhile, anyway, since I put these lampshades on my master bedroom lamps as a temporary solution.  I added the crystals from extras I already had.

I was hoping I would find something prettier or that I really loved to change them over to, but I haven’t.  A trip to Hobby Lobby not too long ago got my creative gears turning, though.  I saw a couple of items down the lampshade aisle and something else in the fabric and trim section that, once I got home and thought about it, I realized would work great together!

I picked up two burlap bell shaped lampshades {$13.47 each} from Walmart.  I used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon for a trim I’d been looking at when I would be in the fabric area.  It’s so pretty with a burlap ruffle and some bling.

Here’s what you need for this project:

Lampshade;
Trim;
Hot glue.

That’s it!

 

I used my cloth tape measure to measure around the bottom of the lampshades to figure out how much trim I needed.  Once I had all my supplies, I plugged in the hot glue gun and got started! 

I added the trim all around the bottom with the hot glue, leaving the bottom portion of the trim overhanging over the bottom rim of the lampshade.

Done in under 30 minutes!  I think they look great and I have a look that I really like ~ ruffle, bling, a neutral color, and texture.  This project cost me about $17.00 per shade. 

Not bad, price-wise, and I think they will do just fine! 

 

As a side note, you might notice this post is looking a little different than normal.  That is because Microsoft Live Writer is having a glitch publishing posts to Blogger/Google.  I have used Live Writer for the past few years and it is so much easier and convenient for drafting posts and inserting pictures into the posts than Blogger directly.  Until now.  Apparently, Microsoft did not do the necessary updates on their end so that Live Writer users could continue to post to Blogger after Google made updates that took effect recently.  To Microsoft ~ Let's get with the program, people!