Santa Squirrel visits T-town

It's final exam week for my daughters at college.  I am looking forward to them being home for Christmas for a couple of weeks!

But not before Santa Squirrel makes a visit to T-town!   Final exam week is stressful, I can hear it in their voices when I talk to them.  So to give them and a few of their friends a little encouragement Santa Squirrel pays a visit.

This year he is delivering acorns.  Cute adorable acorns, if I must say so myself, hee hee!

(No, I still haven't decorated my tree yet!)

This fall when I saw this post about making acorn coasters,  I knew Santa Squirrel would deliver acorn coasters in Alpha Gam colors, of course.  I hope they like them, they should arrive soon and hopefully not lost in the mail!

Handmade napkins with a vintage twist

Thread, my favorite fabric store, occasionally has Tutorial Tuesdays.  This is where they pick a night and provide instructions and a discount on fabrics.  I already know how to sew and can certainly find plenty of tutorials online, but it's so inspiring to see some of these projects and fabric possibilities come together in person!

The first one I went to was a tutorial about making napkins.  I don't often use cloth napkins at home, maybe on special occasions, but with the wonderful selection of fabrics, I may start using them every day!  They also work well as basket liners for breads or muffins.  Or as a liner in any container on the countertop or shelf.

The most exciting thing about this Tutorial Tuesday is that she showed us how to select several fabrics to coordinate.  If you want the matchy matchy look, where all the napkins are made from one design, go for it.  But if you want an eclectic, or shabby chic, or just a different front and back they showed us how to select the fabrics.  So this was one of my first attempts at choosing coordinating fabric.

At the end of the day, if you like what you've chosen, then that's all that matters.

Since I had a certain purpose in mind for these, the colors I wanted for this set are red, yellow, and green.

I had some vintage looking fabric and matched it up with a more contemporary design.

I would like to have had more red, but the red fabrics were really bright reds and just weren't coming together with the shades of green and yellowish gold.

Instead of making them all different, I decided two matching napkins of each combination might make a nice table setting for 2, 4 or 6 people.

Tie them together to make a gift set.

I enjoyed making these so much, now I can't wait to start on the blue and brown set.   And maybe some Christmas designs would be nice too.

I might be using a cloth napkin with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch!

Sharing at:

 


Chic On A Shoestring

Fabric and Crochet Infinity Scarf

Earlier this year when I was learning how to crochet, I started with a scarf.  I love 'em plus I thought it was a smaller and less threatening project!  Something I could see the results sooner than later.

Except it didn't go quite like that.  Learning the abbreviations and deciphering the patterns was sometimes frustrating and confusing.  Looking at the demos on Youtube helped me so much.  As I learned to "Turn", my stitches got off count (was I supposed to be counting? ha ha!)  so row 1-5 has 10 double crochets and rows 6 until the end of the scarf has 9.  

So my first project is not even and after finishing the skein of yarn it's not long enough to wrap around my neck.    It looks like a crocheted "thing".  

Have you seen the fabric and crochet scarf combinations?  I like those too, so I took my crochet "thing" to the fabric store to find a matching lightweight fabric.

I cut the fabric about half an inch wider than my scarf on each side.  Stitch up one long side.

Then I placed the crochet "thing" inside the fabric.

Then folded the fabric over the crochet thing making a sandwich.

Pin and stitch across all three layers.  Do this on both ends.

Now tuck the crochet thing inside the fabric and stitch the other long side leaving about 3" open.  Turn it inside out.  Stitch the 3" opening together to close it.

The ends of the crochet thing are attached to the end of the fabric making one long infinity scarf.

Wrap it around your neck and leave it long...

Or wrap it around again...

It's slightly bulkier than I would like but it will keep the wind off my neck when I run to the store this winter.

Sharing at:



Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style


At the Picket Fence

Sling glide chairs

It's fall and it's still nice out here for the most part, so come on over and have a seat...

Ok, well you might not want to choose THESE chairs to sit in.  Ugh!

Let the makeover begin!  Remove the nasty green canvas and sand the wood a bit.

We used this product on the boathouse so I know it will be good for the wood on the chairs.

Brush it on and let it dry.

The stain sealer makes the wood much nicer, almost looks new!

I just measured the nasty green canvas and cut the same measurement out of Sunbrella fabric.  It's indoor/outdoor fabric, but it is lighter weight than the original heavy duty canvas.  So I sewed two pieces together back to back to make it heavier.  Using the handy staple gun (that I love), I attached the fabric to the wood frame.

Now, won't you have a seat?

Sharing here:

Flaunt It Friday

My 80's Afghan and Crochet

My grandmother made this afghan for me back in the early 80's.   I had it on my couch last fall.  It kept my tootsies so warm!   It's been put away during the summer so the cats wouldn't destroy it (they love it too!) but it's time to get it out again.  

I chose the colors back then and 30 years later, this chevron pattern and these colors are back in style.  

My Mom taught me a basic chain crochet stitch, but it didn't turn into anything, not even a potholder!   She said her third grade teacher pulled a few of the girls aside during PE class and taught them to crochet.  She taught them to make granny squares.

This afghan inspired me to want to try it myself.  I also began meeting with some wonderful ladies at a prayer shawl ministry.  These ladies had been stitching for a while and have made beautiful afghans.  The first couple of times I attended, I had yet to make one stitch!  Ugh, why was starting so hard!

I thought starting out small was best.  Maybe a scarf, since I love scarves.  I had already pinned several to my board that I might try. 

I googled EASY and BEGINNER crochet patterns only to find that those terms are often misleading!  Any pattern where each row is a different stitch is not my definition of EASY and BEGINNER!  Some of these patterns look like software source code!  Ha ha!  I really wanted to do one stitch over and over again to make something useful.  Was I asking too much?  

Finally, I found it!   And figured out the "source code" too.  Here's the first one I made, in my favorite color, of course.  It's a wrap that just goes around your shoulders or across your lap.

While shopping in Michaels one day, I ran across some "baby yarn" on sale.  It was so soft and a fun delicious sherbet color. 

Yet it was another misleading thing...it was one of those "fun" "boucle" yarns they call them.  Not so fun for a beginner to learn with!



I finally did manage the boucle and now it's ready to bless a sweet baby!

Kerry

Blossoms and Bloomers

Thought I'd share my latest sewing project that I FINALLY finished.  After all, it is the middle of the summer and I did want the sweetie to get some wear out of it before the summer was gone or before she outgrew it!

My favorite fabric store is Thread.  It's a love/hate thing.  I love to go in there, but I hate having to decide which fabric to get!  These are the two I decided on.

This little dress pattern was so simple.

And it was made for several sizes.

Oh no, time to make the buttonhole here!  I hadn't made one yet with this sewing machine.  After some practice runs, it wasn't that bad.

The elastic casing for the bloomers required the most patience.

The bloomers are HUGE!  I know I chose the 6-12 month size, but I believe these would fit a 2 or 3 year old.

Finally, time to try it on.

I'm done, time to go play.

The end.