Sunday “Crafternoon”

Well, the girls and I had a fun afternoon of giggles and crafts a couple of Sundays ago!

While Chip was off at a church meeting, we played!

Both of the girls had projects they had already started. I decided to work on some seasonal decor. Of course, my Pinterest boards are full of ideas!

Katie is working on her first quilt! She saw a pattern on Pinterest (like mother like daughter!) and loved it. I was able to track it down for Christmas last year.

She had a BLAST picking out all of the colorful fabric! She is well on her way to having all the little pieces cut out and ready to start stitching!

Megan had a pre-printed world map that she wanted to quilt. She loves anything having to do with world travel!

She ended up not liking the way she had stitched around the countries AND the latitude and longitude lines and ripped out some of them. It has been a fun project for her to work on while watching the World Cup!

I worked on some patriotic decor for our 4th of July church gathering at our house. I got the “wreath” idea here. I liked hers better. She used fancy scrapbook paper. I used what I had–construction paper. I liked how hers had a darker, more muted tone to it. Oh, well. I liked mine well enough! Plus, it was fun to make.

Nothing too fancy about toilet paper tubes wrapped in construction paper to look like little rocket!

I had not really done much crafting lately. I realized my NEED for a craft room! So, I spent a good amount of my craft time tracking down supplies! One day I will have a space to corral all my supplies!

My constant supply tracking was just one more thing to laugh about on our fun-filled “crafternoon” that bled into the evening.

 

 

Feelin’ Crafty

Well, I finally got around to putting out some fall decorations at our house. I use many of the same decorations year after year. See some from previous seasons here.

I guess I was suffering from too much Pinterest! Too many cute decorations out there that I had no money to buy! “But wait…,” I told myself, “I don’t need to buy ANYTHING! I have TONS of craft supplies to make my own cute things!” So, I dug around in my fabric stash–pulling out ALL of the fall-colored fabric. I didn’t have a pattern. I did see a picture of a cute little hoot owl wall hanging that served as my inspiration. Sorry about the picture quality.

I love the hooties! The homespun border is pretty great, too. I didn’t go crazy with my quilting. just some outlining. If the black stitching around the owls looks messy, it’s supposed to! I love how my little wall hanging looks hanging on the inside of our back door. I had fun working on it!

When I was ready to put my cute men’s shirts pillow cases on my porch pillows I couldn’t find them! We had drug all the fall decorations out of storage and the pillow cases were nowhere to be found, along with a few other things.

Well, I just happened to be at Goodwill Outlet store the other day. I ran across a great plaid shirt. I LOVE PLAID!!! (I may have mentioned that a time of two! Like here, here, here and I’m sure a few other places!) I thought I would grab it for crafting something. I also came across a ’90s fall sweater. Sorry, I forgot to take a “before” picture. I loved all those fancy sweaters back in the day! I was an elementary school teacher back then. I guess those sweaters just WENT with elementary teachers! Plus, I have always seen myself as having a bit of a Mrs. Frizzle personality!

 

I knew immediately what to do with that sweater!

The front of the sweater was perfect for a pillow case!

The back was cute with just a little pumpkin on it. However, I thought it was a little out of balance with the scarecrow pillow. I roughly stitched “Pumpkin Time” on the sweater. The back of the pillows is made from old blue jeans. I had to add the twine ties on one side of each pillow to make a pillow case and not a pillow.

I think they turned out cute. Don’t you like the new plaid shirt pillow case? Pillow cases are much easier to store than pillows!

By the way, I did find my other box of fall decor hidden under a table and behind a box of Christmas decorations.

One more crafty show and tell item…a sweater pumpkin!

This orange sweater also came from the Goodwill Outlet. The leaves were from a moth-eaten jacket that was headed to the dump.

Here is another picture for you to see the size of the pumpkin.

I simply cut a square form the sweater. I gathered the ends together at the top. Before closing the top with a rubber band, I stuffed the pumpkin. I wrapped a little twine around and around the pumpkin to give it the pumpkin sections. Then I tied the leaves on with the same twine. I thought about stitching some veins in my leaves. I still might do that one day. It was quick to make! The front of the sweater had a zipper. I’m not sure what I want to do with the rest of it yet.  For now, I’ll stuff it in one of my craft closets for another time when I need to have something new!

 

Plaid Quilt

I LOVE PLAID!

I don’t know what it is about plaid that I like. I just like it.

I especially like it at Christmas time. I have plaid table cloths (actually for every season), plaid Christmas plates, plaid ribbons, plaid shirts, plaid…well, you get the idea.

Ten or twelve years ago, I purchased a large piece of plaid flannel at a garage sale for a couple of bucks.

I knew immediately what to do with it!

There is a project in this book I had been wanting to do. The flannel was perfect!

The project was to make a quilt out of old flannel shirts. Flannel. Plaid. Recycle project. It just doesn’t get much better!

So, I started collecting. Garage sales, Goodwill, husbands closet.

We moved. Life got busy. The project stayed stuffed in a drawer until this summer–10 years later!

I spent a couple of my “Craft Days with Joanna” cutting my shirts into 9 1/2 inch squares.

Those squares sat in the drawer for a while before I actually started. Have I mentioned how life got busy?!

Anyway…

Take the time to press your squares before and after all the cutting.

I didn’t have a layout pattern. I just laid the pieces on the floor and moved them around until I was happy.

Chain-piecing the squares made the sewing go more quickly.

Disclaimer: This is not ACTUALLY a quilt. It is really more of a coverlet. A quilt has 3 layers-top, batting, back. My coverlet just has a top and back-for several reasons. First, I thought with an all-flannel front and an all-flannel back that it might be too warm. Second, I didn’t have enough batting at the time. I was ready to finally be finished with this project. I didn’t want a trip into the big city to slow me down. Third, I didn’t want to do a lot of quilting. My “quilt” is just tacked together with buttons from the shirts and other various projects.

I didn’t do a fancy binding or border either.

Here  is the back of the quilt. (Yes, I know, it just is easier than coverlet.) This is the large piece of plaid flannel that started it all!

And now for the front…

I’m so happy to have this little project finished! I even finished it in time for the county fair. Blue ribbon!

In hind-sight, I wish I had added the batting and the border. Oh, well! I’m happy enough with it.

I do love it’s plaid-ness!