One Creative Family

I haven’t been sleeping well at night.  All these ideas just flying around. I guess when the body says enough is enough I will sleep. In the mean time I have been working on taking one of my Husband’s wood working intarsia patterns and put it into fabric.  It is turning out pretty well.  Hopefully before the day is out I will be able to add a border and get it ready to quilt.

Pattern for angel.  My version. Still have a way to go.  Guess I will have to get moving and start stitching again.  Trying to decide on the fabric for her wings.  Have a great day all.

 

For this week’s challenge we are going with Totes.  What kind do you like?  What do you make yours out of?  I have seen some wonderful ones from this blog spot.  Having worked in a Middle School I have made totes from average size (18×20), then when I would get that one full, I made the next one bigger.  I have a friend who is an artist and made totes 36×46 so she could carry her art supplies to retreats.

This is my latest.  Flip flop…”It is a way of life”.

 

Ok now let’s see what you have made.

 

I hope everyone has enjoyed seeing out idea of coasters this week.  Tomorrow we will be  posting out new week 3 challenge.  I like doing these, but I am falling behind on other projects.  I need to learn how to work in moderation.  Work for so long on project A, then project B and so on.

This morning I am trying to reorganize my sewing room some.  I have the Grandbaby this afternoon (my daughter works from 2pm to 10:30pm) so we split her work days with the other grandparents.  Day care for these hours are hard if not impossible to find in this area.  I don’t want to get to involved in anything I don’t want to put down.  So far I am looking out my window in my sewing room looking at my little garden, birds, and the squirrels playing in the yard. Mr. Hummingbird came to say good morning.  Have a great day.

Hello all, happy Saturday.  We are experiencing a wonderful day in the 80’s here in the Missouri, USA area. I am spending the morning blogging, cleaning sewing room, and getting ready to spend an active afternoon with baby granddaughter.  I love having her 2 days a week, get that baby fix and she goes home to mom at the end of the day.

As the week comes to a close I am posting a picture of some of the coasters we got made this week.  Then we will decide how we want to present next week’s challenge.  If any of you have any ideas, let me know.  We are always open to different ideas.

I am so excited with these coasters, because I have cleaned out quite a bit of my odds and ends of scrap fabric.  I still have quite a bit left.  My question for all is this.  When making projects (mostly garments) and have left over odd shape fabric.  How do you organize it to keep fairly easy to see and not have to dig thru all of it to find what you are looking for?  Small pieces do you cut into squares and strips and store together?  Wad it in a ball?  Wrap it around cardboard like fat quarters come in?

I am running a little late on the computer today.  My daughter and I took the youngest granddaughter to the Children’s Hospital Emergency Room last night and got home about 2:30am.  She is doing better, was dehydrated and had a viral infection.  An I.V. and watching to make sure the heart rate was ok and only 6 hours later all 3 of us made it home.  Destiny is only 20 months old and couldn’t let us know just how bad she felt.  But with meds in her I am looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.  We babysit her 2 days a week.

Then Alicia, my oldest daughter, came over so we could do some sewing together and throw ideas back and forth.

I am very lucky to have children (3 of them and a daughter in law) who can help with the creativeness when needed.  I count a lot on my Hubby for his input on what looks good together.  He does get a little more conservative on fabric choices.  I do enjoy the bright and crazy things alo and for these I go alone to the fabric store.

I have decided to take one of Gary’s(hubby) woodworking intarsia patterns and make into a wall hanging.  It is an angel sitting on a bench.   I will post photos of the progress, but today is the day to finish up a few items that are started.

I am rambling so I will sign off and enjoy some of your posts.  Good night all.

 

This is exactly what I have done the last 2 days.  My first attempt started off really well

Nice Right?

Until you turn it over…

And there are ALL my mistakes right there…but hey not bad for my first one.

One to my 2nd…

I sewed all these little things and turned them inside out (my fingers hurt)

Not to bad, but it came out smaller than the rest.  Its not my favorite.

This is the back

Finally I came up with these!  They are made out of old jeans and fabric.  I haven’t learned to applique yet so I sewed the flowers on and tried to do things a little different.  Not to bad though.

Tomorrow I’m going to go to mom’s house to learn to applique.  Hopefully I’ll get everything figured out and do more.   I will continue to try, try, and try again!!  – Alicia

Today brings another set of coasters.  These are 6 inch squares and am using scrap strips of fabric. 

I will be making more of these, but first I have a batch of chocolate chip cookies to make for the Granddaughters.  I have 5 of them.  The oldest goes off to college today, her first year.  2 that are Juniors in High School (11th grade), and one that is a sophmor (10th grade).  Then the 5th one is 20 months old.  I will be taking care of her while Mary takes Katelin to get settled in college.  Once all this is done I will be back to sewing.

On the round coasters from yesterday, I use an old CD to cut them round.  Makes life so much easier.  Assemble them just as you did the square ones. Pin, then turn over and draw a circle and stitch in a circle and turn.    Such fun.

As promised, here is the pattern.  Not sure where I got it, but here goes.  Started with 6   5inch squares of fabric, and 1 square of batting( you can use flannel, or denim)

This is the fabric I chose.

I decided to use an orange for the bottom of the coaster and the white is not going to be seen.  Place the Orange on the Top face down, batting on top, and then the orange on top.       The opposite of the picture below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fold the other 4 fabrics in half, and press.  Now place each folded fabric on top of the orange and laying it like you would a closed box top.

Make sure the raw edges are on the outside edge of the square.  Sew around the edges.  I sewed it in black so you can see the stitching..

Trim the corners and now you are ready to turn it right side out.  Reach into the center opening and turn…I use a skewer to poke into the corners to straighten it out.  You are ready to enjoy it now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been using a lot of scrap fabric and batting for these projects  Doesn’t take much time at all.  I hope this makes sense.  If not let me know.

I made a variation of the square coaster, making it round. 

Here is a sample of the coasters I am making.  Now I know wine doesn’t sweat, but these are so cute.  A set of 4 makes a wonderful gift.  You can use your scrap fabric.  That is how I am using up my scraps.  I will see about putting out a pattern for this.