The final stretch!!!

Back when I decided I was going to make My Youngest a quilt for her 4th birthday...I figured I would have it done in a week or two, easy.  Fast forward 3 months and I am still not done with it.  I thought I'd have it completely quilted during the Olympics due to all the TV I was watching... But, that didn't happen either.  All I wanted was for it to be done by the time it got cold...

Attention...it is now the middle of October and the quilt is still not done!!  Due to an unseasonably warm summer and early fall...it still isn't cold...but the cold is coming...like...tomorrow. 

p.s.  I'm close.  I am really close.  With the quilting finally complete...and dang did it take longer than I anticipated...here's where we're at as of now...

Chop of the excess fabric.  Cross fingers the quilt is even because as of now...even if it's not, it's how it's gonna be.

Cut an extraordinary amount of 2.5" stripes for the binding.  Sew them together....miscalculate exactly how many inches are needed...

Proceed with the wrestling match known as...sewing on the binding.  Use this tutorial...it's a 3 stepper.  Step 1  Step 2  Step 3

Have just enough binding to make it barely around the quilt.  Let's just say skin of our teeth, here.  It would have been extremely frustrating for me to have to cut another round of binding for a couple of inches.  Very happy it just squeaked by.

We're at the end...hand-sewing the binding onto the back of the quilt.  There is a method (and I've used it before) of machine sewing on the front and back of the binding.  Problem with it I've found is it leaves a visible line of stitching.  So, if you don't mind this visible line of stitching, that's okay.  Me...not a fan.  So I hand stitch around the entire perimeter.

See, you just inch along, folding the binding over and using an invisible applique stitch to hold it in place...3 more sides to go.  I love when a project is completed!  Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading

Heather

It's about dang time

...for my ironing board cover to rest in peace. 

But...it's like I always say, when I want to make something, I want to make it NOW!  So, problem with wanting to make an ironing board cover is...casing and rope...I can make a casing, I think...but I didn't have the rope needed and on top of that, the idea of threading a rope through an extremely large casing is enough to make my teeth hurt.  Zero.  Fun.  Sir.

Luckily, I found this tutorial on how to make an ironing board cover using the previous ironing board covers casing and rope.  YAY!

Now, I am not as precise as the lovely Lisa Lam, and I will never pretend to be, but I was lucky to benefit from her excellent tutorial and now have an ironing board cover to be proud of.

My previous cover had a nice insulating pad attached...and I wanted it. So I carefully cut it away from the outside. I only nicked the front once...badly. It almost ruined the whole project. Be careful when chopping.

Do not look too closely at the extremely well-used...almost burnt clear through, nastiness of my previous cover.  It was time to be retired, clearly.

Trace...very carefully around the original cover.  Very carefully, got that?  Now, I normally would be very distressed and think possibly my awesome...Sharpie..yes, Sharpie...marks would show, but I figured I had a pretty good chance that they would all be tucked safely away on the bottom.  Carry on.

Cut.

Now you need to cut out the casing.  Measure 1 inch in from the casing onto the original cover.  Cut.  Preferably better than how I cut.  But, it turned out okay.  My seam allowance though was terribly uneven.  Make yours neat, please.

If you notice above, I had pinned the casing front sides together onto my new cover.  But it falls short.  You need to gather up the excess as best you can.  Try and pin evenly.  It doesn't look pretty, but luckily you're not even gonna see it.  It's tucked underneath.

Sew all around...but don't sew your rope....that'll mess up your tightening ability later on when it's complete.  I sewed this using a 1/2" seam allowance.  Also, sew with the casing side up.  It'll help with the easing of the larger size of the bottom piece.

Toss on some extra padding because you have worn your original padding completely away.

Throw on the new ironing board cover.  Swoon because it is so much more lovely than before...ever before...I mean, even when it was brand new.  It might have something to do with the completely gorgeous Heather Bailey fabric I got on sale.  Thanks Hawthorne Threads. 

Wanna see how the bottom turned out...

Totally good.

Now, iron with pleasure.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Not-so-Spooky disembodied Hands...Homemade Halloween for Everyone

Are Halloween decorations like children where you can't have a favorite?  Because...this is the 3rd part of my series on simple and cheap decorations...and it may be my favorite...

Again, this uses pretty basic tools...Food Handlers gloves, cute candy, festive ribbons and tape.

Here's what you do.  Get a food-handlers glove.  This may be the only thing that you will have a hard time finding.  And do not make the same mistake I did where I bought latex gloves the first time around....at Costco...in the jumbo mega tub.  No good.  They must be food handlers gloves.  They are clear, for one.  Also they aren't going to stretch all over the place.  Did I mention that I bought a ginormous box of Costco latex gloves the first year I tried this...anyone need some latex gloves?  Anyone?

Now, take festive candies and fill up the gloves.  Make sure to get the fingers good and full. 

Don't go all the way to the top with the candy because you need to tie a knot to prevent spillage.  This is a bit of a trick because I want mine to be quite full...and so I twist the empty portion good and tight and from there I tie my knot.

Take your ribbon, tie a double knot below the knot in the gloves.

Tape to the top of your door.

The End

Thanks for reading!

Other Homemade Halloween for everyone posts:
Spidery Floral Arrangement
Halloween Candy jars

Other fun Halloween Posts:
Ghastly Pillow Covers
Easy to Make House Haunts
Ghastly Wall Hanging

Some tasty treats for Halloween Supper:
Easy Chili and Cheddar Jalapeno Bisciuts
White chocolate Cranberry Bliss Bars...just like Starbuck's

Heather

Halloween Candy Jars...Homemade Halloween for Everyone

Hi everyone.  Today is the 2nd part of our Homemade Halloween for Everyone series.

My idea behind this series is to give people options on how to make fun yet nicely inexpensive decor.  You do not need to buy Halloween decorations in my estimation. I am all about throwing something together.  It gives you such a sense of pride!

Today we are going to discuss Halloween Candy Jars!!  So simple.  You need Candy.  Probably Halloween style.  Can I just put a disclaimer here...I think candy corns are from the devil.  I think they are about the nastiest creation ever invented.  Even though the very thought of their cloying flavor makes me want to gag...right then...I think they're cute.

Put candy in a mason jar.  I have chosen quart size, the better to display the goodies.  Like the eyeballs?

Tie a bow around the top of the jar....again, choose something suitably Halloweenish.  Black with white polka dots....totally Halloweenish.

The End.

So, just remember, it doesn't take a lot of money to make something that will really dazzle your family and friends.

Here is how I display yesterdays and todays Homemade Halloween decorations.  I have placed them along my hutch and I think they really hit the spot for cute spook!

Thanks for reading!

Homemade Halloween for Everyone posts:
Spidery Floral Arrangement
Not-So-Spooky Disembodied Hands

Shared here:
CSI Project

Heather

Spooky Vases...Homemade Halloween for Everyone!

I am going to have a series this week on making your own Halloween decorations that are cute and inexpensive and look pretty darn good (if I do say so myself).

First off.  SPOOKY FLORAL DISPLAY!!

Whoooaa!  I know, right.  a spooky floral display.  What's next spooky bunny rabbits?  For me, it's not just about being outright scary, it's also about a fun ambiance.  I think these little flower pots are so sweetly spooky.

How do you make 'em, you ask.  Get some little Halloween buckets...or you could use vases or anything that will contain some flowers.  I chose white roses because I felt the spiders would really stand out.  Have your sister give you some little plastic spiders...or you could buy some I suppose.  

Cut flowers to fit.  Maybe put some foliage in.  Place spiders willy nilly on flowers.

The End.

As far as easy goes...this is at the tops.  I would like to say that all the posts in this Halloween series are easy.  So stay tuned for more!!

Thanks for reading!

Homemade Halloween for Everyone Posts:
Halloween Candy Jars
Not-So-Spooky Disembodied Hands

Heather

It's gonna be a Ghastly Halloween

Because of this...my favorite Halloween fabric, ever.  And my favorite go-to project when I want to make something quick, spur of the moment and experimental....pillows.

I figured my Ghastly Wallhanging needed some companion pillows.  Of course my camera was d-e-d dead when I was putting them together, so...there's basically no construction shots.  Except of the back.  It's all good.  I pretty much did a Log Cabin around the square with the complementary fabrics.  I think it's cute.  I will admit to having a slight bit of trouble trying to figure out what colors go with Old Lady Mauve and Grandpa Gray....and find it slightly odd that I am decorating an entire month out of the year with these colors...but hey, when it's love, it's love.

I have chronicled pillow making many times...here, here, and also here...sorta.  So here's a quick update.  Ghastly style. 

Cut lace to fit.  But only buy enough to do the horizontal and not vertical sides of the pillow.  Hey, it is what it is.  If I don't have enough of something, but want to sew now, then I just make do.

Remember, for a pocket pillow case, you want to cut the back pieces so they overlap enough that when you shove a pillow in, it doesn't have an unsightly gap.  My front panel is 22 x 22 inches, so I cut my back pieces 22 x 14 inches.  Also remember to put front sides together.  This is my favorite thing to forget.  Luckily I remembered this time before I actually started sewing...this time.  Sew.

Make sure to hem the edges that will be visible.  Normally I would say get out the hem measurer thingy...but this time...I eyeballed it.  Approximately 1/4".  This turned out just fine.

Here's a very important trick...one that I also forget almost every time I make a pocket pillow.  You want the top flap to be on top of the overlap. So, this means you have to place the top flap down first front sides together.  How many times will I say that...probably a lot.

Now sew along both sides.

Flip it right-side out.  Poke out the corners and put a pillow in.  Enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

So close...and yet so far...

My Christmas quilt, Frolic is moving along...not completely at a snails pace...but not speedily either? 

I've been working on the largest panel, The Christmas Village, and it's taken a good amount of time.  It's a tricky piece because it's 50.5 inches long.  Which is a lot of fabric that you have to hold folded up in your hands.  And then to try and sew!  Uhhhggg!  Painful.  The other problem is that parts of the trees and tall buildings extend above this panel into the panel above.

But it's not that simple, no it isn't.  Because I can't sew that upper panel until I've completed this lower panel due to the large and unwieldy size...so let's just say, I had to get creative.

The instructions say to sew as much of the lower panel as possible before sewing on the top panel.  Okay.  So this is what I did to help make it more manageable.  After I got my pieces in place and ironed on (I am using fusible web), I folded up the side that I wasn't working on.  So instead of twisting and turning 50.5 inches, it was more like 10.  Much easier.  I then sewed it a bit at a time, folding and refolding the excess fabric, on both sides as I went.  Beware of piercing your flesh due to excess pins all over.

Notice how parts of this are hanging off the top.  That's what I'm talking about.  Tricky.

I simply sewed up to a point where I felt I could safely fold down the tops and not have them get caught in the sewing machine when I sewed the other panel on.  Worked great!  I cut it a little close a few times.  Phew!

The other difficulty I had was, it's seriously thick with the fusible web.  Not only am I sewing through 4 or 5 layers of fabric at times, but then you also are sewing through the adhesive...while holding onto 50.5 inches of unwieldy quilt panel!  I had to be creative.  The Mister wonders why I prick myself so much with the needle.  Because you're supposed to.  How else am I supposed to know if the needle is in the right position and ready to shift upwards?  Huh?  He is concerned for the health of my pricking finger.  It's pretty rough and calloused.

Buildings are mostly tacked down and looking cute.  Time for snow...another tricky situation...

There are snow banks that go up and down around the buildings and trees.  Some things are placed higher than others, so I didn't want to run into the situation where my snow didn't go high enough.  I cut out a large piece of my snow fabric and pinned it on, making sure that it was high enough everywhere!

With my pattern as a guide, I drew on where I wanted my snow to bank and proceeded to cut.

I think sewed it on using my sewing machine.  This is really a mutli-sewing-method project.  turn under applique, machine applique, and blanket stitch by hand.  It's okay, you don't hardly notice a difference.  It all looks cute.

Now sew the upper panel.  Do you see those blank green spots.  That's where the tops of trees and buildings go.

Pin down your tops and start praying...as you can see this is where I went a touch too close to the top. But it worked out.  Then pray that when you iron your seam allowance flat that you will also iron your tops in the correct spot.

Here is everything hanging on my project wall.  Sorry it's so dark, it's down in the basement.  But as you can see I now have the bottom panel all sewn together.  Now I just have to add the embellishments and faces on the snowman and I will be 1/3 done with the top.  I mean, come on!  That's amazing!

Quilting with excitement.  Christmas is coming!

Thanks for reading!

Heather

You better watch out, you better not cry...

That's right, gotta get working on the never-ending Christmas quilt.

Here's some shots of what I have done so far...by the way, I love making this with the bright, spring colors.  It's unusual for Christmas, but so darn cute!

I have been working on this...for two years now...It's called Frolic and while I really really like it, I had no anticipation of finishing it this year...or in the next decade due to my chosen applique method.  I was doing what is called freezer paper applique.   Too slow!  Too much work.  And...

I wasn't loving how it was turning out. I am not an accurate enough turn-under appliquer to keep going with this method.  As you can see from the above picture, that's a panel I get to remake...because...yeah, not awesome.

Luckily I took a class and it reminded me that Fusible Web Applique is a better option.  It's easy.  It looks exactly like you cut it out.  So, even though I was half-way done with the quilt, I was changing my sewing method.   Everything from this point onward, is fusible web applique...and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to leave it like that.  Half fusible web applique and half freezer paper applique...and I think I'm okay with it.  We'll see. 

I believe in sewing for fun.  I know that if I have to remake every panel I will have anger issues towards it, and it won't be fun. So, I have to resign myself to having it half and half and only fix the ones that I completely hate.  Like the one above...unless I decide I have to fix them all...to be determined.

So, that's some of what I've already made...get ready in a bit to see the new, and I hope, better ones!  SO EXCITED!  Oh, and by the way...60% sure this may be ready by this Christmas.  Cross fingers.

Thanks for reading!

Heather