Quilted Kitchen Mat

I found this idea while searching for a quilt pattern to make a new quilt for my bed. It wasn't much work and I really like how it turned out.

The hardest part was lining up the stripes. I figured out that a quilters foot for your sewing machine will pull through the top and the bottom materials at the same time. Whereas a regular foot only pulls the material from the bottom. Just a thought but it made my stripes line up really well.

Now, just to find that quilt pattern I was looking for. . .

Flower & Hair Bow Ribbon Holder

I could not figure out what to call this. All I know is it works and I love it. I got out one of Annie's bows on Sunday and it had been smashed flat from being stuffed in the drawer with all of the other flowers and bows and I wasn't able to get it to fluff back up. As silly as it sounds I was disappointed. I spent $7.50 on a bow and now it doesn't look as pretty. So I knew I had seen these before but I had ribbon so I thought I would give it a shot. I did this from what I think I remember seeing so its not perfect but its pretty cute. I hand sewed everything because I like the control more than trying to machine sew it.

I tied 2 separate bows and placed them on top of each other and sewed them together. . .

I layered my ribbon like this. . .

Then sewed the 3 ribbons together and sewed them to the bow. . .

 About every 6 inches down I sewed a little bit so the ribbon would all stay together. . .

Clip the bows through all three layers. . .

Super simple and now all of my bows wont go flat!

Annie's Baby Quilt

Because I just posted Maycie's quilt I figured it was only fitting that you get to see what Annie's looks like. 

 

Once upon a time I found out I was pregnant. I also found out it was a girl, but I was too nervous that the ultrasound lady was wrong and she might come out a boy. So when I decided to make this baby a quilt I did it very generic. Now she has a cute quilt but its not girly at all.

 

Maycie's Baby Quilt

Maycie is 6 months old. Approx. 5 months before she was born I started working on her quilt. So it has taken me about a year to finish this quilt, but I am really happy with it.

Lots of squares and rectangles later I tried to figure out the pattern. . .

I got it quilted at American Quilting. They always do something cute. This time they put a flower in the middle of each of the stars. . .

This is the finished product. . .

Its pretty cute, if I do say so myself. On to the next project!

Recipe Box, Recipe Stand

First the recipe box. . .

I bought a plain recipe box from Roberts and 1 - 12x12 sheet of paper and decoupaged it on with mod podge.

I cut out Recipes! with the cricut and decoupaged that over the main paper and did a coat of mod podge over the whole thing to make it uniform and glossy, also easier to dust. I painted the rim so it matched better than the natural wood.

I attempted to make recipe dividers and they turned out alright

and they fit perfectly.

Now the recipe stand. . . This is how it looked to begin with, I got it at my wedding shower. So if you gave it to me and you read this, I really like the stand I am just going to make it a little brighter.

I took the word off and sanded the stand. . .

I painted it white and added the word recipe I cut out of paper because I tried to paint the original ones and it did not go so well.

I cut flowers out of the same paper I did the recipe box in and decoupaged them on.

And this is the finished product

A Simple Apron

I have these hobbies, cooking and baking. The biggest problem is that I am ruining a lot of clothes with splatters of food, so to solve my problem I decided to make an apron. It sounded simple. Go to the fabric store, find a pattern and sew. Turns out there are a lot of apron patterns at the store. So I waited until they went on sale, if you wait you can get all patterns for $1.99 instead of the 40% off they always are. I chose the most basic pattern, and some really busy material so if it gets stained I wont be able to see it as well . I figured it was just going to get dirty so it didn't matter if it was cute or not right? I got it home and changed my mind. So I went online and found a picture of an apron that I liked and made some small changes to the pattern I had purchased so I would like it better. So basically I am going to walk you through some of the steps so if you want to make one hopefully it will make it easier. 

First, with the material folded in half, cut out the main pattern.

Second, I placed the pattern on a piece of plain material to back my apron with so it would be thicker.

Then I laid them on top of each other and cut the lining about a quarter of an inch in.

Next I cut out the ties for the back and around the neck. The length just depends on how long you want them. I made my back ones really long so that I could tie them in the front. I made the ties for the back thicker than the neck ones. The thickness of the back ties is 5 1/4" and the neck was 4". Fold them in half, right sides together and sew along the edge about a 1/4 of an inch in.

Then cut the ends on a 45 degree angle and sew them also.

Turn them right side out and iron.

Then start working on the apron itself. Fold the edges a 1/4" in and iron.

Then fold them again and iron.

Place your ties where you want them for the back. Place them under the material so the raw edge is hidden.

Fold your material back over the top.

Then fold the ties over the edge of your material and pin.

Do the same with the neck ties.

Then you sew all of your edges.  I also added a pocket on the front of mine. So I just used the pattern for the pocket that it came with but I made it smaller because it was huge, and even with me altering it it is still way too big. Sew the top of your pocket the same way you did the edges of your apron before you sew it onto your apron so that it has a finished edge. Then fold and iron the edges of the pocket and place it on your apron and sew.

My finished apron...

My back ties turned out to be way to long but I wasn't about to unpick it. So they'll do for now.

My Giant Picnic Quilt

I have been so excited about this project! It was so much fun, I think I have found a new passion! Brent kept telling me that I should make a picnic blanket and I had been thinking about it myself. So I searched the internet to find a pattern and found the perfect, perfect inspiration in my opinion. Red and white, the colors of picnics to me. Trying to figure out the measurements was another story. I thought a queen quilt was something like 102" x 115" turns out that's what a king is! I didn't want it the size of a king, I thought that would be way too big. In the end my giant quilt turned out to be 110" x 116". Whoops!

So I am going to try and walk you through how it all came together, I apologize for any confusion, but I will try.

My ruler is only 6 inches wide, so that was the easiest size to make my squares. 6" x 6". I chose 8 different materials because that is the number of triangles in the block I chose to do. That's 45 squares of each material or 360 total.

After I cut all of my squares I decided to build a tower out of them . . .

Anyway. . .

The next step is to cut the squares in half so we have a ton of triangles. 90 of each color to be exact, that's 720 triangles total. 

Again with the towers, I know. . .

The next step is to figure out the placement of each piece of material.

I came up with 9 completely different blocks and tried to arrange them so that none of the same material was touching when I put the blocks together.

Then I sewed my blocks into rows . . .

And sewed my rows into a quilt top. I then added a 4 inch red border around the edge and sewed it all together. I bought some material and padding for the back, had it quilted(at American Quilting) and sewed on my binding. I know that isn't very helpful but I didn't take pictures of how to do the binding so I will save how to do that for another day.

I usually hand bind my quilts but with this being so big and because it is just going to be outside in the dirt I decided to machine bind it. I wont be showing you any close ups on the binding because it looks horrendous. Sewing with a walking foot is much harder than I thought. But anyway, my finished product . . .

I am just afraid now I wont want anyone on it with their dirty shoes!

Nursing Cover

Before I had Annie I had great hopes of breastfeeding.  It didn't work. Before Maycie I decided I was going to try even harder to make it work, and once again it didnt work. But before all of that with my hopes high I made a hooter hider, knowing that it was something I would need. My sister-in-law gave me some instruction on how she made hers and I looked on a couple of websites, put it all together and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. So this hooter hider tutorial is a combination of all of the information I gathered. There are probably simpler ways to make one but I tend to make things harder thinking they will work out better. I was very pleased with the result in the end and that's all that matters.

Stuff you need:
Material: 1 1/4 yds (I used 2 different fabrics so it looked finished on both sides. If you choose to do that you will need double the material.)

Ribbon: 1 1/8 yds
Rope: 26"
Cut material to the following measurements:
Measurements of Hooter Hider: 38 1/2" x 27"
Measurements of bag: 21" x 8"

Fold edges on 3 sides(the 2 short sides and one of the long sides) 1/2 inch and press and fold over again, press and sew. You wont sew the other long side now as that is where you put the boning later.

I cut the corners on the long side after pressing so it wouldn't be so bulky and easier to fold and sew.

 

At this point you would measure the width of your boning and fold your material as you did your other 3 sides making sure you leave one of the ends open so the boning can slide in.  Once your boning is in, sew vertical lines on either sides of the boning to keep it in place.

The straps:

I used ribbon so I didn't have to fold and sew straps. I measured how long I wanted the ribbon and doubled it over so the two ends would be next to the boning. The measurement (before folded over) of the long end is 28" and the short end is 10 1/2".

I sewed the ribbon twice next to the boning so it would support the weight of the material. Then you will sew your snaps on. I purchased the kind you hand sew on. I don't know if there is any other kind. On the long strap my snap is at 2 1/4" down from the folded end.

With the short end I sewed one snap where I thought I wanted it to be and then added more above and below it just in case I was wrong. Then sewed it twice next to the boning as shown above, the same as the long end. The measurements of the snaps from the folded end are 1", 1 3/4", 2 1/2", 3 1/4". 

And that's it, hopefully it made a little sense.

Now the bag

Cut out your piece of material at 21" x 8". Fold in half and sew on the 2 longs sides starting at the top on one side and sew all the way down and on the other side start an inch from the top and sew all the way down. This is for the opening for the rope. I also did a zigzag stitch on the outside of my straight stitch to reinforce the sides.

You now fold the top about 1/4 of an inch and press and then fold 1/2 of an inch, press and sew all the way around.

You will have an opening for your rope. Feed the rope through and tie a knot on both ends so it doesn't fray. I also used some liquid stuff you get at the fabric store to put on the ends so it wouldn't fray.

Your finished bag...

Hopefully it all made sense, if not leave a comment and I will try and help as best I can.