Crafty Steals June's Third Thrusday Sketch Challenge

I saw that Crafty Steals had a sketch challenge and I knew that I wanted to enter a layout.  In April 2013, I entered the challenge for that month and won.   I received in the mail some of the Teresa Collins Everyday Moments collection.  It is one of my favorites.  So in my layout, I used several sheets of the 6x6 inch paper and also the pretty brads.

 

  

Crafty Steals Third Thursday Challenge-The color Edition

I saw on Facebook this challenge for the Crafty Steals Third Thursday Challenge and wanted to give it a try.  I especially liked the sample layout that Andreana did on their blog.  She used yellows in her monochromatic design.  So, the following is the layout I created using browns with a touch of blue:

Making a rag throw

The man of the house said that we need more color in our home.  So I decided to make a throw to add some color to a brown couch that is in the living room.  I had a broom skirt that I have never worn which had vivid colors so I used it with some bright solid colored fabric.
The following fabrics I cut into strips:

 

I bought a German flannel blanket from Overstock.com which was a better value than buying the flannel at a fabric store.  I layered the skirt fabric, the flannel and a solid fabric to make 3 layers and then sewed a stitch down each strip.  Then I lined up the strips in a pleasing to the eye order and sewed each strip together.  Then I clipped all the seams.  Earlier I made a rag bedspread and had trouble clipping with regular scissors.  I bought new scissors at walmart that made this process so much easier. 

 

 

The following is a picture of the scissors I used to clip the seams.

 

 

Then, a trip to the laundry in town to wash and that caused the seams to fray.  Then home to my dryer because I think that the commercial dryers are way too hot.  The following pictures show the final products.  As you can see, I had enough fabric for 2 throws.

 

 

 

KiwiLane DT Doodles #6

I was not able to meet the deadline for this sketch but wanted to post it anyway because if everything goes okay, I want to do all the sketches for 2014.  There will be 24 sketches to complete and now I have finished 6.  I used Basic Grey Origin paper.  It is so much easier for me to use paper from the same collections.  Everything is already coordinated.  You just have to choose which patterns are best for the background and for the templates.  I had some small clear green flowers that I used for embellishing.  This is Trey when we were in OKC at the museum a couple of years ago. 

 

Home Sweet Home

Returned home Friday after spending 2 1/2 weeks with Wes and Les.  They brought a beautiful baby home to Liam and me on March 12.  His name is Ryder James.  I love being in their home because they always make me feel so welcomed.  The following 2 pictures are of our lovely youngest daughter, Leslie, our baby Ryder, our sweet son-in-law, Wes, and our big brother Liam:

Just had to show off this lovely family!  So on to some scrapbooking.
I made time today to enter my 2-page layout in the KiwiLane Basic Sketch #4.  The following is the sketch:

I had some My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose paper that I chose for this layout.  I didn't use any of my KiwiLane templates for this layout and I found that it took me longer to put it all together.  I had the time today, though.  Here is my layout:

Destressing and painting furniture

We have some furniture that we have decided to paint and distress.  The following pictures show the dresser that Mike painted red.  I love it!

KiwiLane DT Doodles #5

I have a grand-baby due on March 7th.  I have my bags packed and I am ready to see my new grandson, Ryder.  In the meantime, I had a sketch from KiwiLane that will be due next Sunday, so I wanted to finish before I received that exciting phone call that I am expecting any day now.  The following is the sketch:

I found a Basic Grey patterned paper that I had with dogs and thought that it would be an excellent choice for this page that included pictures of 2 of our grandsons helping me bathe our Travis.  The other papers used were ones I had in my stash. 

Although I try to be careful with the templates, I misplaced the tiny bracket templates and spent plenty of time trying to locate them.  I needed my husband to help me because often 'I look but don't see'.  Thankfully we found them. 

I had been wanting to use these pictures because it was a good, productive time with these grandsons.  I want them to learn to take care of others.

 

 

KiwiLane Basic Sketch-Challenge #2

We have thunder and sleet today, so I decided to make a 2-page layout using the KiwiLane basic sketch for this week.   For todays project, I just used some paper that I have had for a while although it was difficult for me to choose several different patterned and colored paper that would coordinate for this layout.   I find it so much easier for me when I have a kit that already has coordinating papers.   Enjoyed being creative today. 

First and Last T-shirt Quilt

When my youngest daughter was about twenty, she gave me some of her t-shirts and asked me if I would make her a quilt.  I put the shirts in a box and put them in one of my closets.  So, ten years later I took the box out of storage and decided it was time to make a quilt.  I previously made a rag quilt during January and I said that it was going to be my first and last rag quilt.  Same goes with the t-shirt quilt.  I am not much of a seamstress although I was trained in college to teach sewing.  My skills tend to be on larger sewing projects like making curtains and I have even made some slipcovers.  When it comes to more intricate work, I am not very precise.  This t-shirt quilt is definitely not perfect.  I had a hard time matching the strips and squares when I sewed them together.  And also, the binding was giving me trouble.  When I made the rag quilt, I had no trouble with the binding on it, so I don't know why I had so much trouble with this present project.  Showed the man of the house the finished quilt, and he said, "That is really a great idea and it turned out very nice".
He also has his projects and is now painting some of our furniture with chalk paint.  He is making the furniture look brand new and I love every piece.  So, we are always complementing each other's projects.
The following are pictures of the quilt.  I used lime green fabric for the backing that I bought at www.warehousefabricsinc.com for under $3.00 a yard.  I love their fabrics.  I am a good customer.
The t-shirts used were some high school, but mostly college t-shirts.  There were also several Hard Rock Café shirts that Leslie collected on her travels.  I had to back the shirts with iron on interfacing and I'm not sure that worked that great.  After adhering the interfacing I remembered that I hadn't prewashed the brighter and darker shirts, so I washed those squares several times so they wouldn't fade when the quilt was washed.  I noticed that the interfacing did not adhere to these after being washed.  Hopefully since the interfacing was sewn to the edges of each square, it will be okay.  Well, here is the quilt.  Notice how Katie the cat has to check out the quilt.

Kiwi Lane DT Doodles 2014 #4

Another sketch from Kiwi Lane.  I loved the result of using the templates on this 2 page layout.  I used wonderful paper from a company Sassafras which I don't think is in business anymore.  With the Kiwi Lane templates, I can gather all of the supplies, paper and templates and complete a page without having to leave my table.  This saves me time, also.  The following layout has pictures of  2 of our grandsons and our daughters who came to visit for their Poppa's 64th birthday.

KiwiLane DT Doodles-2014 #3

Another sketch from KiwiLane.  I was able to use paper that I received in a warehouse box sale from "My Little Shoebox".  The collection is "Destination".  I don't think that this company is selling paper anymore but it sure is cute.  I received the warehouse box about a year ago and now I am determined to use it.  Here is the sketch:

This sketch was fun and of course every layout that I create, I learn something new.  I learned that when I use printed paper with the templates, that I might have patterns that will be upside down unless I am careful when cutting.  (I hope I remember this next time!)  I don't do perfection so I am still happy with this finished layout.

 

 



Kiwilane DT Doodles-2014 # 2

The following is the sketch for Kiwilane DT Doodles-2014 #2

 

The templates that I used are the following:

 

Cascade Trails 3A and 3B

Chevrons 2A

Floral 1

Floral 1T

Wildflower 2

Wildflower 5T

Shapes 3T

 

My daughter gave me a Basic Grey "Infuse" paper collection pack for Christmas.  Beautiful roses and greens.  I used Stickles to add some sparkle. 

 

 

DT Doodles-2014 # 1

The following is the sketch for the DT Doodles-2014 #1:

 

I used the following templates:

 

large brackets 1 and 3

Aspen Court mini 2A and 2B

Floral 2T

Tags 1

Rings 3 and 4

Chevrons 1A and 1B

 

 

I am cutting it close to the deadline but here it is:

 

 



 

My king-size bedspread

I decided that I wanted to make an easy king-size bedspread so I looked on line and found the directions to make a rag quilt.  Sounded so easy so I gave it a try.  I used three different coordinating fabrics and cut them into 10 inch squares.  I sewed 3 of the squares together and then stitched an X from corner to corner.

 

The next step was to sew the squares together.  With this quilt you sew the squares where the seams will be on the front of the quilt.

 

 

The next step was clipping all the seams.  Since this was such a large quilt, I spent hours clipping the seams.  It was so hard on my hands and they ached every night.  I did wear a pair of my winter gloves to keep from getting blisters on my hands.  Besides the sore hands, I had bits of string all over the house.  This really was a messy project.

 

 

 

The next step was adding the binding.  I searched on the internet and found a tutorial on how to bind a quilt.  I first sewed one edge of the binding to the quilt and then I had to hand sew the other edge.  Hand sewing is just something that I have never been able to do very well.  And the hand sewing on this quilt took me two days!

When I finally finished the binding, I took the quilt to our local laundry place and washed it in an extra large washing machine and then dried the quilt in a dryer.  The quilt was just too large for my home machines.  The following pictures show how the quilt looks after the seams fray from washing and drying.

 

 

 

I wanted a rustic quilt that had some bright colors.  The man of the house said that it looked like an old quilt and that is just what I wanted.

 

 

In summary, I am just so happy that this quilt is finished!