Saturday, September 29, 2012

Halloween craft swap 2012


I am participating in my very first craft swap. It was so much fun.

I was really nervous on what to send. I didn’t want to send too little and I didn’t want to send too much.

The blogger Pink Stitches provided a flicker account so we could share what we were sending but I didn’t want to be influenced either. So I just tried to send what I wanted to receive.

I sent one the skull aprons I made because I think it’s the cutest thing in the world.

I also made her a fall mug hugger like the one I have except I made hers reversible.  





And last but not least is the photo holder with a cute card attached. I will post a tutorial on this soon.


I can’t wait for her to receive it. I will update once I receive mine in the mail.

Happy Fall Ya’ll.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What's a Quilting Guild you ask?

About a month ago, I met a wonderful lady that was purchasing a cutting mat from me. While making our transaction, we chatted about fabric, the cutting board and of course quilting. She then, to my surprise, invited me to a quilting meeting that she is part of. I’m not going to lie; I was so excited I couldn’t think of anything else that day. This lady had made my day but unfortunately I had to wait almost an entire month to go.

So fast forward a month and here we are, the forth Tuesday of the month. Yay! I get there and I see the word “guild” on everyone’s name tag. I’m not sure I have heard of that before. It was the Electric City Quilters Guild to be exact.

Noun 1. An organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc., especially one formed for mutual aid or protection.

To say the least, I had so much fun at my first ever quilter’s guild meeting. My favorite part was the show and tell of course. It was so diverse. I guess I imagined just a bunch of the same techniques but all these ladies from the same group have such different techniques. I snapped a few pictures of some of the show and tell.

This Christmas quilt took my breath away. All I can say it that it was amazing.
 

 

This is the quilt of the person who invited me (June). This was made of blocks made by several different people in the group.  

 

This quilt was done on an embroidery machine.

 

After show and tell we had a quick presentation on Signature Quilts. I have never even heard of those before. It was extremely informative. Basically it is a quilt that has words/names written, printed or embroidered on it.  It was very popular over 100 years ago. This guild is thinking of doing one too. I hope they do because I plan to join this group. Could you even imagine 100 years from now people looking at your quilt with oohs and awes like we do today? Here are some examples of signature quilts. And you can find out more by going to www.quiltindex.org.

This is a wedding signature quilt. This person had all her guests at her wedding sign the blocks and then her mother quilted for her. So sweet.

 

This is an example of a modern day signature quilt. So beautiful.

 Can’t wait to see what’s in store for the meeting next month.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Quarter Ring by Austin


The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. My son made this ring for his senior project. It is made from a quarter. He worked really hard on it and I am very proud. Total cost of this ring is $0.25. I think he is going to make me one too.
 



 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Fall Kitchen Sign


Fall is in the air and I love it. This nice weather has really gotten me in the fall spirit. I thought I would kick off fall with the first fall craft of the season. I basically just found a bunch of different tutorials and came up with this.

Today I learned how to print on burlap and now I want to print on everything. It was so easy. Just follow this link to the tutorial that I used. She explained it so well. I found my burlap at Goodwill for $0.75 on Labor Day so I paid $0.35 for it.

I also learned how to make fabric flowers through thistutorial. I don’t think mine came out exactly right but they still look great. I used the left over scrap fabric from my fall quilt, so no cost there.

The brown back ground is also left over fabric glued on a metal board I purchased from Michael’s for $0.25. I also bought the leaves at Michael’s with a coupon for $1.00.

 I have a really cute sign for my kitchen for $1.55.

New Fire Pit


We have always had a fire pit but it has always been one that is portable. And of course after so long the bottom falls out and it gets trashed and then we spend another $100 on another one. Well, my husband has wanted to build on for years now and I finally said let just go for it. If any knows me I jump onto the Pinterest.com and start my search. We got some ideas but nothing really stood out to us. I wanted below ground so that we could sit around it and we also needed to tie it in with our porch. So this is what we came up with.

 

My dad had a lot of brink left over from building his house. We hit it first. To be honest, we did not have a plan. We just made it up as we went along. And that is how we do most of our projects. First decision was – how big? Answer was as big as the dinning room table. And yes it grew a little.


 


 

We made our circle on the grass and started digging.  Well, my husband did, my job was to snap pictures. After we got the hole dug, made it semi-level and lined it with gravel, we started stacking the bricks. We decided on three high was good enough for us.


 

It’s time to go to Lowes. We bought three 8’ brown metal edging, 16 bags of pebble rock, 21 pavers the size of the brick (any solid brick will do), some adhesive and black plastic.




 

We placed our metal edging down to where we liked it and hammered it into the ground. Everyone’s design will be different. Then removed the grass from the area between the edging and the pit and sprayed with grass killer.


 

We also, glued the bricks together and the pavers to the top with the adhesive and let dry for 24 hours.

 

The next day we laid the black plastic down on the bare ground and filled up the area between the edging and the pit with pebble rock. I picked out three flagstones and laid them in the pebble rock.


 

This was really simple and looks great and very affordable. Good luck with yours.