How to Wrap Unwieldly Gifts

 The fabric and ribbons were from my stash.  My gifts for Mom are usually from the silent auction at our church's fall festival, and they are inevitably weird shapes and big.  I finally wised up and made these cloth gift bags last year.  Much easier, more environmentally friendly, and less fragile than wrapping paper.  Mom gave them back after she opened them, so I can use them again this year. 😊 

Sweater Blanket in Honor of Grandma Rose

You know when you have an idea for a project, and you look online and see that pretty much no one else has done it, and then you think: Maybe there's a reason no one else is doing it this way?

Well, I'm happy to say that I did my project anyway and got away with it!

This is kind of a quilt in that it has three layers: old sweaters, an old wool blanket, and old sweaters.  The reason that you're probably not supposed to do this is because the sweaters were made out of different kinds of weaving -- close weave, loose weave, everything in between -- and they are likely to pull, warp, and generally not hold their shape.  I decided to reduce the risk by doing WAY more ties than normal.  The usual rule of thumb, according to the collective wisdom of the internet anyway, is to space them so that whenever you put your hand down, you cover at least one tie.  I did a lot more than that, and I increased the frequency of ties around the edges.

 The resulting quilt/blanket is HEAVY.  It was a gift for my husband and he really loves it!

 

Above is the worn-out wool blanket with holes that I used for the batting.

I ended up just cutting off a section because it had too many holes.

 

Unwanted sweaters and a scarf from my husband.

I did lots of pinning.  I was worried about the stretchiness of the knits leading to lots of warping.

I just serged the edges.  Not at all the correct way to bind a quilt!

 

 

It's the Little Things

 BEFORE:

 

AFTER

 

 

This little box was fun to make, and it's making me inordinately happy!

#CoronaCreative

 A sample of some of my creative endeavors....

 

The above headband is designed to match all of my jeans, regardless of the varying degrees to which they have faded. :)

The tops I just added ruffles to, but it's nice because it transforms a tank-top with spaghetti straps into something I can wear in public.  They are SO comfy -- I'm not a huge fan of bras so I love them -- and now they are modest enough to go anywhere.

I hope you've been having some creative fun this summer, too!

Fun with Easter Eggs!

It was so nice to do something tactile and creative for a change!  (And it was fun to do an arty project with my husband.)

I used a Q-tip for better control of where the dye was going.

This one is my husband's.  Isn't it lovely?

I used all of the colors in this one.  It is my favorite.

I think this one is a dinosaur egg...

I used chapstick as a 'resist' on this one instead of the wax crayon that I couldn't really see.  

I think it came out rather well.

Thanks to Mom, I have a cookie from Auntie M. to eat.  I've been keeping in the fridge to await this glorious day!

Weekly Round Up

Lately we....

... enjoyed my sisters Rachel's performance in her parish's annual melodrama.

... started planning the garden

.... started planning the garden shed.  We used an old role-playing map that can be written on and then erased with ordinary dry-erase markers, and then we made shapes in the sizes of the stuff we wanted to put in it.

.... decorated my office.

BEFORE

AFTER

Almost done...

Don't Throw Away.... Used Christmas Cards

Give them to me instead!

I'm still collecting used Christmas cards to make stuff with:

Christmas Quilt

I snapped this photo at the county fair months ago.  While the fair is long over, this beautiful quilt will be giving people joy for years to come.

~ by Jeanie Buhrman ~

Lately....

My camera has had ISSUES.  Very sad.  I managed to fix it by pushing random buttons.  (Yes, truly.  Don't try this at home.)  So I haven't been taking a lot of photos lately.

Here is one of my niece over Thanksgiving, before I got the camera squared away:

"Tree croquet is not really working out....."

Here's one of my current projects:

Yesterday my Beloved and I harvested 17 pounds of potatoes from eight plants:

We still have some carrots in the ground, but once those come out, we can total up the garden produce and see if we met our goal of 150 lbs from the garden.

We also FINALLY put the rain barrels away.  The daytime temps were high enough that even though night was below freezing, the barrels didn't get enough ice in them to crack.  But we still cut it way closer than I would have liked.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!  I'm going to go make gift bags for next year's craft fair while I wait for my friend Stacy to come over.

Cutting a Rug

Done! 

This was a custom rug for Mom and Dad, for a particular spot in front of a fireplace between two rocking chairs.

I’m not planning on making another one of these because it was so tedious.  If you find it soothing or pleasant to put music on and do something mundane, the project is very simple.  It’s easy.  It’s cheap.  It’s incredibly forgiving.

You need a pile of T-shirts.  (10 or 15????  I didn't count.  Maybe less.)

You need an old towel.

That's it.

1. Cut T-shirts into long strips.

2. Cut the long strips into short ones.

3. Cut an old towel to size and serge/finish the cut edge.  (If the towel is the size you want the rug, you obviously can skip this step.)  Note that the fringe hangs over the edge so sizing is kind of approximate.)

4. Sew the short strips to the towel in long rows.  

If you sew the rows about a quarter inch apart, you get this:

If you sew them a half inch apart, you get this: