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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Jelly Roll Quilt

I finally completed my first 'jelly roll' quilt!!  Yea ME!!  This is what a 'jelly roll' of fabric looks like.  It is a bunch of 2.5 inch strips of fabric in a roll.  The colors go well together and end up making a quilt topper.   

This was a bigger project than I expected!  Started off with a full size jelly roll and made the "front" (in my mind it is the front!) side of the quilt.  I saw this on YouTube and  got inspired to make my own.  I've seen the jelly rolls at Tuesday Morning and always wanted to make something out of it, but never had an idea of what to do with it, but now I've made my own EASY quilt!!  ...again YEA ME!!!

This is my daughter playing "Vanna" and displaying the front of the quilt.  The green border around the quilted strips is a $5.00, 200 thread count, twin size sheet from WalMart. I just sewed the quilt on top of the sheet.  Much easier than sewing a border around the sheet.  Phew, after I did that I felt like I saved a couple hours of measuring and pinning and sewing.    
You can see the green border much better in this view.



Alina is now chill-axing on the backside of the quilt!  She was exhausted after showing off the front of the quilt.  This part was a bunch of scraps sewed together to make a quilt for the back also.  It isn't exactly the picture I had in my head, but turned out pretty good.  The final touch that I wanted was a soft border around the entire quilt.  I wanted the same feeling I had when I was a kid, a smooth, satiny, soft trim around the blanky! 
I found some bright pink and brown satin at JoAnn Fabric. 
Both sides of the quilt were sewn around an old blanket that once belonged to my daughter.  It was a win-win situation for me, covered a blanket that would have otherwise been thrown out, and made a cozy "new" quilt for me to use on a cold winter day! 

Quote of the Day

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. 

 -- Thomas A. Edison

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Addition to Shower Curtain Rings....

 An addition to a previous post about a bathroom update!!!  After updating the shower curtain rings I thought I should improve on the shower curtain.  Click here to see curtain ring update.  The white one we had was about 15 years old.   It wasn't very exciting and just needed a slight kick in the pants!!!  LOL.  So I found a bunch of fabric scraps that I had around the house and "quilted" together a new curtain. 


You can see the flowered rings and my new curtain.  I'm glad you can't get too close to it to see all the tiny mistakes that I made!! 
 The white scrap in the middle of the picture below is the old curtain.  Thought it wouldn't be bad to reuse a piece of the old one. 
 The white fabric at the top (that the rings are hanging from) is my old curtain.  I used that so I didn't have to add all the button holes!  Made it a lot easier. 
Also, I use an extra curtain rod to hang towels from.  I like it better than having the towels over the actual curtain rod, I feel like the bath towel doesn't get totally dry if it is touching the wet shower liner.  
I know what you are thinking - she is really weird!!!  Guess so! 

Thanks for looking, 
Have a great day, 
Cathy

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Kitchen Hand Towels

While looking around on PINTEREST I saw these super cute dish towels. My first thought was "I can do that...." No problem! Except I don't have the patience or the expertise to make these. Nor to do I seem to have the time!!
I love the look of these and this would make it so much easier to keep the dish towels off the floor! Check out the details here.

And then I saw another idea for keeping towels off the floor! Check it out here.
These are awesome ideas!!! However I am NOT that motivated to alter each towel!!! I needed an idea that was a little simpler, a little less work for me!

My first thought was to sew buttons and button holes on each towel. I love the look but again too much work!  Button holes AND sew on buttons - not enough time! 

There were a couple other ideas involved between this idea and the final creation, but I'm not brave enough to show them to the 10 people who may look at this! Not sure if this is a combination of a couple ideas or if I saw it somewhere while checking out blogs, but this is the best one for me. I thought of this as a way to create the strap on the oven door and not have to make alterations on each towel. The final result helps to keep the kitchen towels OFF the floor.  Anyone else have that problem??  Drives me crazy!


This is the towel holder with all the pieces taken apart. Makes it very easy to change towels out and since the straps are made from fabric scraps they can be washed and it is SO easy to make.


Not sure if this is enough details to show my ideas, but this shows the basics.  I hope!  :)

Thanks for looking, 
Cathy

Quote for the Day

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.

~~ Groucho Marx