Finger Pincushion

This is a fun-with-a-gluegun project!

What you will need

Glue Gun

Thread

Needle

Bottle cap

3 inch length of elastic

Trim- ribbon, lace, ricrac, etc

Two scraps of fabric, about 4 inches across

Stuffing for pillows or teddy bears

This will take you about 5 minutes to make and is a bit of a fun distraction. In fact, I made about 20 the day I decided to try it out. I ran out of bottle caps and beer lids or I would have kept making them.

The following are the step-by-step direction, but you can also go here to see a photo How-To.

Step 1: Start by covering the outside of the Bottle Cap with one of the Fabrics, using a bit of Glue just inside the bottom of the Cap to secure it.

Step 2: Anchor one end of the Elastic inside the Bottle Cap, then the other end, after measuring your finger to make sure it is a snug enough fit.

Step 3: Thread your Needle and baste the edge of the second Fabric. I prefer a circle of fabric for this as it makes a nice shape for the Cushion.

Step 4: Place the Stuffing into the wrong side of the fabric and draw the thread to make a littel pouf. You may need to add more stuffing to get your Cushion full, but then just anchor your stitches to keep it all together.

Step 5: Glue the bottom of the Cushion into the base of the Bottle Cap .

Step 6: A bit of Trim glued to the area where Cushion and Cap meet really finishes it off.

And a cute gift for any crafty-sewist friends!

This is another project for Thrifty Gift Maker hour, a live online chat held at #QuiltChat I host. All quilty-crafty types are welcome to join in the fun! Gift Maker Chat is on Sundays @ 7 pm & Mondays @ 10 am EST, but there are usually folks in around the clock, as we have friends from around the globe.

Charity Quilt Update

So... I sewed and I sewed,
and I unsewed and I unsewed.
And I got to wondering Why do the simple things always have to be unsewed???
LOL
I did get the majority of the top finished- all the rows are pieced. Now it just needs borders! (And quilting and binding.)
So my finish date Goal is December 1.
Just in time for the Charity Auction. Nothing like cutting it close!
Thanks to my friends at the sew-in for their encouragements and ideas.

UPDATE:

The commitee doing all the work for the Charity Auction met this morning and they felt having this quilt available for a members-only auction was a wasted opportunity. As parents and grandparents all, they all agreed that they would personally love the opportunity to bid on something like this.

So they talked and brainstormed for about an hour, and now this quilt will be auctioned off in March, at the Awards luncheon for next year's Poster Contest winners!

We will have time to invite the teachers and parents and administrators to come and help us raise some good money for a charity. And maybe this will become an annual item.

So a bit of a reprieve...

But I still think I will try to keep to my timeline of December 1. Because then we can use pictures of the finished quilt to generate interest long beforehand. :)

Bucket Bag Tote

Sometimes you just need to make yourself a gift. So how about a tote?

Maudie from #QuiltChat shared this really great bag she made. She found it while blogsurfing, and low and behold, the blog is owned by Chatter-friend from years past!
Andrea's blog is full of wonderful things. She is one of those fantastic over-achiever types that seems to piece a new top every time I look her up. (She really has some fun projects, so I hope you take some time to dig around a bit.)

Here are the directions that Andrea has posted for us:

Bucket Bag Tutorial, Part 1

Bucket Bag Tutorial, Part 2

Bucket Bag Tutorial, Part 3

Breaking the How-To up into bite sized pieces is a nice touch. Thanks Andrea!

And Thank you to Maudie for showing us this could be done.


This is another project for Thrifty Gift Maker hour, a live online chat held at #QuiltChat- all are welcome to join in the fun! I host Gift Maker Chat on Sundays @ 7 pm & Mondays @ 10 am Eastern US Time, but there are usually folks in around the clock if you want to chat at other times.

Another start- this one on a deadline

This is a fun project I have been putting off for a while. It is actually the winning posters from the Third Grade Poster Contest (something my local Association of REALTORS does each year.) We transferred the winning posters to fabric, and now I am making a quilt that will be auctioned off at our annual Charity Auction- whoever wins the silent auction bid on the item chooses where the money will go!
But I have been putting it off for a while... well... because of life and stuff LOL
I think I will switch around the posters so the attached essays (the contest theme is What My Home Means To Me) is on the outside. Maybe. But I am definitely using up the nine-patches I got from a batiks nine-patch swap.
I think I will just add white sashing strips between everything so it all stands out, including the blocks. Or maybe just equal sized white squares.
The light purple nine-patches will surround all the posters, and wander throughout the other, brighter nine-patches, just acting as a unifying force.

What do you think?

I think it will be eye catching for even non-quilters who will be voting on it.
Oh yes, I have to have it fully completed by December 7th LOL

Stockings!

It is Stocking Swap time again!

Everywhere you look, you can't help but read about guilds and groups and bloggers across the world doing their annual Stocking Swaps.

Autbekky, a fellow #QuiltChatter, has created a tutorial to help you make a stocking that you will be proud to send for any swap.

Just click here to visit her blog, Quilts and Such for the tutorial.
Note: Auntbekky shows a stocking made of fat quarters- but you could also make a very lively one made of crazy pieced fabrics. Of sparkly fabrics, of course!

And I just want to say Thank You to Auntbekky- she has agreed to help me in making the tutorials and projects for Thrifty Gift Maker chat, so that we don't have weeks of no projects. It is a HUGE help to me, as I wasn't able to do it alone. Thank you!

This whole Stocking thing is such a lot of fun. It doesn't seem to matter about your religion or beliefs as the fun of gift giving is pretty transcendent. And there are lots of stockings you can go out and purchase that are just as cute as possible.
But where is the fun in that???
Make one!

Here are some stockings I received in Swaps. So much fun! And each one so different. Yes, that smaller one is made of Potato Fabric, sent from Idaho. :)

What have you made or received in a Stocking Swap?

I had great success making a non-stocking: a Diva Bag worked much better for one swappee, as she doesn't celebrate the Christmas tree & stocking thing.
I made a jester boot stocking with bells on- I crazy pieced the fabric.
One year I made a red velvety cowboy boot stocking with crystals.
Oh- I received a Santa Bag made of sparkly burlap- that is a great bag!

It would be great to see links to other tutorials or projects that you all have come across.
Thanks for sharing!

This is another project for Thrifty Gift Maker hour, a live online chat held at #QuiltChat- all are welcome to join in the fun! I host Gift Maker Chat on Sundays @ 7 pm & Mondays @ 10 am Eastern US Time, but there are usually folks in around the clock if you want to chat at other times.

Gift from my Grandmother

I was just visiting Anne Heidi's blog, Piece By Piece, where she shared pictures of a stunning sewing organizer that she was recently gifted. It was made by her Grandfather while learning his craft of Carpentry. It is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. (go look!)

Her post caused me to reflect back on a gift I was fortunate to receive: a quilt top from my grandmother. She hand-pieced this king sized Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt some time ago, in anticipation of sharing it with her grand-daughter. I was so touched when she gave it to me. And a little intimidated, I don't mind sharing. I feel I should really hand-quilt it, so I will wait until I am better at that particular skill.

I am very lucky to live so near to my Grandmother, and that I can ask her about the quilt. I will have to make sure to ask the story of our quilt. And I think I will take it to Guild for Showing-off-&-Tell!

This is a close-up of one of the blocks- Minnie Mouse!

What I should be finishing

I keep pulling out this project, then something else comes up LOL

I love these fabric. They just make the best Big Blocks and are gorgeous in the simplest settings.

I cut this out a while ago and as I was setting them into the wider sashings, I discovered I cut some of the larger blocks an inch wide. Yes, I feel smart. So of course, it went into a pile without being completed.

So I hope by posting the pics here, it will be a prod to help me get going on it! After I do some minor adjusting of course.

(I am making it for me.) (Mine, mine, mine, la, la, la.)

Random distraction

So... I have some minor distractions in my life...

Including a cute little doglet and playing with Photoshop to make doglet even cuter!

Not really quilt related... except she is my company while I sew.

Unless I am being REALLY boring and she decides to go chew on something.