New Stuff For Sale...

I've been working on making some more desk organizers to put up for sale on my Etsy shop... Hopefully I'll get those finished and on there this week! Check out what I do have for sale!!

(images are linked)

Jean Quilts - New and Improved!

I have been saving old jeans for over 10 years now in hopes to make a jean quilt, well I finally did it! But not for myself, I made 3 full size quilts for Christmas gifts last year and 1 small lap quilt for my 3 year old son.

Something about old, used jeans made into quilts makes me think... Cabin. Antique. Old Fashioned. Most of all, Outdated. So I wanted to give it a fresh spin. I know I'm not the first person to make jean quilts into rag quilts, but I haven't yet found anyone who has done them using a quilt block pattern like I did. Have a look...

This one is a Log Cabin block with contrasting top and bottom borders. Two of them have a soft fleece backing.  I really like the look of the frayed jeans on the outside edges! What do you think?

The other two are camoflauge sweatshirt fleece which is super soft on the inside,(which happens to be in the middle of the quilt so you can't feel it), and kinda canvas like texture on the shown side. Oh well. It looks good right?

This one is just a diagonal pattern, not a quilt block experiment... :-) With Fleece also.

I did try something different, though I'm not sure it worked out very well. I put squares with handles on them from men's jeans. You know the loop on the side of Men's carpenter jeans, I was hoping they would make carrying handles for folding the blanket and carrying it places.

The handles work great for folding it, but these suckers are HEAVY, so not great for carrying this bad boy! Oh well, gave it a shot...


And here is my first completed Jean Quilt I made for Ethan. It is very small. I was getting the hang of sewing the jeans and experimented with using seams and lining them up to make lines and visual interest.  You could say this mini quilt was my "test block" for the other quilts.  Oh, and my first time using bias seam binding...so ignore those imperfections!! :-)

Using the Seams on blocks was a big mistake! Way too difficult to sew through, especially in a rag quilt!

But Ethan's handles work perfectly on his tiny quilt and he loves carrying it around! Ahhh, what a nice compliment it is when my children enjoy using something I made for them.


Here's a few close ups of my homemade binding... Jeans. I actually didn't bind it the traditional way since it is a rag quilt.  I just cut strips of jeans, sewed them together, and sewed them along the back edge of the blanket. No folding over or anything! Easy! And looks great too!

Lastly, I didn't know ANYTHING about quilting when I started these projects, so I used my VERY SOPHISTICATED quilt drawing program "Paint"...lol. Here's how I planned out my patterns for the Log Cabin and I think the other one is a variation of the Log Cabin called Courthouse Steps.

I'm trying some more linky parties!

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

I LOVE Cardboard Crafts

Ethan got this road set for Easter. It was kind of a test run making it out of cardboard because my original idea was to make it on plastic canvas and have all kinds of accessories. I figured I should make sure my kid was gonna even play with something like that before spending HOURS stitching it up!



I originally made 16 tiles out of lightweight cardboard, but one got severely warped during the sealing (mod-podge) stage so we ended up with a set of 15.

They are all reversible so there are a TON of ways to combine them into new road maps!



I made this little parking lot for a future store to go next to. On the reverse of the parking lot pieces are straight and corner pieces so you don't have to use them if you don't want.



Yes, I realize that there are not all 15 in these pictures...did you notice? Well we have lost a few, since it was Easter he got these, and one didn't look too nice in pictures...all bent up cuz the kids step on them *cringe*. Oh well, they are just kids. And what's the point of making toys if you can't stand to watch them get loved -(ruined)! Lol!

And the credits: A huge Thanks to my dad for making the road patterns on AutoCad, because I am definitely not smart enough to figure out how to make each road line up on every side with perfectly rounded corners and even space in between!! :-)

P.S. A few that we designed wouldn't work for this small scale, so there were more kinds of tiles in the original plans.

365 Cards Day 52 & 54

Day 52- Tuesday's Trio

The Challenge was to use a Brad, Blossom, and Circle. I made a circle chipboard album with a paper folded blossom. I made the album using up cereal boxes. I really did double duty with the circle part of the challenge because not only is my album and pages circular, the blossom is also made by cutting out and folding 9 smaller circles. I'll show you how at the end of this post.






Next up is Day 54- Recycled Elements

I hope it doesn't matter that my project wasn't about making a card, for this challenge or Tuesday's Trio, but I love playing with paper so this is what I came up with.



I have been holding onto these little boxes that EmmaLee's medical supplies come in FOREVER!! Well, finally I have a reason to use them. I've wanted to re-cover them for a while but I guess I just needed a good push, like playing along with 365 Cards Blog!! I love it!
...And I made it coordinating to hold the little circle album.



Once I finish the album with pictures and stuff, I will add a title to the front of the box. I was thinking something simple like "friends" or "my friends", then I can use up all my random pictures of friends on the inside with some journaling about them or something.
(Wow, my ribbon is really wrinkled!! Ignore it, I'll fix that later.)

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Short Tutorial- Paper Folded Blossom



Start by cutting out 9 circles, you will use 8 for the blossom, the 9th is just a base for gluing the others onto.
1. Fold all 9 circles into quarters. ( In half one way, then in half the other way) Then on 8 of them make score lines from the left and right horizontal line down to the bottom vertical line. (see picture)



2. Turn paper over and fold up on score lines.
3. Turn paper over again and fold the flat edges you just made by folding, into the center lining it up with the vertical line. Do on both sides and press down firmly.



Then just arrange and glue them to your last circle by fitting two "blooms" into each quadrant that you folded, matching the tips with the center.

Notebooks

I taught my Activity Day Girls how to make these notebooks for our activity this week. I bought the ruled notepads at Wal-Mart. I love back-to- school season... everything is on sale! I paid $2.17 for a 5 pack of these 8x5 notebooks.

I made the covers out of that extra lightweight cardboard we have instead of throwing it out. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. I'm all about it now.