Yardsticks & Rice Bags

I have had a 'thing' for collecting old yardsticks for years and years. Whenever I find one for a dollar or two at a thrift store or yard sale, it comes home with me. I store them in a barrel up in my studio and enjoy seeing them there tucked behind a table.

I recently cut up a few of them to make a couple fun projects. One was a tray that I can place on my lap when I'm doing hand sewing in the evenings while watching TV.

I has sides, so none of my supplies can roll off the edges - very handy!

I also made some small square boxes - about 3" x 3". They are far from perfect, but I thought they turned out kind of fun. I pieced small quilt blocks and made them into pincushions that fit snuggly inside the boxes.

I kept one of these for myself, and gifted the others to some quilting friends.

Just a few days after I finished making these, Janet posted about a couple ruler boxes she had purchased at a LQS that are just adorable. (See hers HERE)

And Julie started selling her version of the same type of items - with the name of her business printed on the yardsticks. I especially like the one with the little clothespin on the lid. (See hers HERE)

I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to pictures of wonderful items made (or embellished) with yardsticks that you might enjoy looking at. You can access my board on this LINK.

Earlier this week I stitched up a Christmas gift for my DIL. I made two rice bags that can be warmed in the microwave and used as a heating pad for cold feet, an aching back, or cramps. It can also be placed in the freezer and used as an ice pack.

Because of the separate compartments, the rice filling stays evenly distributed and easily conforms to body cuves.

There are dozens of online tutorials for making these in all shapes and sizes. I have some ribbon that is printed with my 'name' on it that I used for a label - I thought that added a nice touch! I hope she enjoys it!

Home Again

I'm home from attending my brother's wedding in California - it was SO nice to see all of my family and meet the bride's family - a very happy occasion! They seemed to like the quilted table runner I made for their gift, so that made me happy.

Now that our newest grandchild has arrived, I finally got around to making this new piece of wall art using Scrabble game tiles to spell out the names of everyone in my little family. It was a fun project and I did have a bit of help doing it, which makes it even more fun. If/when we have another grand baby I'll just have to start over, and that will be fine with me. Luckily, it fit perfectly into a thrift store frame I had on hand so I just had to paint it. I used Heat & Bond to adhere the fabric background to a sturdy piece of cardboard, the tiles themselves are attached with hot glue, and the book page scallops received a shot of spray adhesive to their backside after I inked the edges a bit. I twisted a strip of burlap to make the flower and added a vintage red button to the center.

Yesterday I attended my monthly meeting of the Salt Lake rug group - it's been two months since we saw each other so it was really nice to catch up on the visiting. Myra's beautiful floral rug is nearly finished - she used a pattern that was originally for an appliqued quilt but adapted beautifully to a hooked rug. I'm sure you would recognize each of the flowers if you could see them up close.      I love it!

Nancy is making this Susan Quicksall design for a new grandchild - just has to work on those borders.

I began a small round rug that I will fill with cat's paw circles - scrappy as usual.

Yvonne was hoping to get the wool applique on this quilt finished quickly, so she could layer it and begin quilting it on a road trip she'll soon be leaving on. It was her first try at using wool for the applique and she's not quite sure if she likes it as much as using cotton needle turn.

I bought myself one of the new Zirkel magnetic pincushions recently. I've used a magnetic one for years now, but this one is extra strong, and the pins hang over the edges in a circle so they're easy to grasp without any fumbling. I worry a little about it grabbing onto my thread snips on occasion, but it's supposed to be okay with the electronic sewing machines. I'll see how I like it after a week or two of use. Have any of you tried one?

This & That

I recently found a nice recipe box at the thrift store for $1. I don't know what used to be in the lid, but there was a large open area that I thought would be perfect for a punch needle insert. I traced the opening onto weavers cloth and drew on my design - thinking that I was making a crazy quilt. My friends quickly corrected me and told me it was stained glass instead - so that's what I'm going with!

The finished design turned out to be a bit bigger than it started, so I had to add some padding underneath it to take up the slack.  This happens to me often and it drives me crazy - anyone have suggestions on how to prevent this from happening? Maybe I should add some fusible interfacing to the back before I begin punching and that would stabilize it? Hmmm......

My Margaret Shaw crow hooked rug is finished - just need to steam it one more time to get those edges to lie nice & flat after being whipped with yarn.

Show & tell at my rug group on Tuesday was wonderful. Jeanette brought two little pincushions and they were adorable. The star was a free pattern we received at our recent hook-in - I love how she added colored pins to add to the design. It's stuffed with wool snippets leftover from her rug hooking projects. She found a quilty mug at a yard sale during the summer and made it into a pincushion that was embellished with some standing wool circles made into cute little flowers.

Jeanette also showed us her finished poppy rug - a Sharon Smith design. For some reason my favorite part is the single line border that changes color around the edge. Gorgeous rug!

She's now working on a dancing elephant rug for a granddaughter's Christmas gift. This design combines the girl's two favorite things - so clever - what a happy rug!

Victoria finished her Daniel rug that was designed by Tonia - she liked the original so much that she made it exactly the same. You can purchase the pattern on Tonia's website here.

And this is Tonia's newest design - a great floral. She has the knack of choosing colors that give a real old feel to her finished rugs.

I've been doing a little stitching on two projects with English paper piecing - hubby & I are taking a little trip next week while he attends a conference for work - so these will be perfect to take with me. I'll share a picture when I get home......

Home Sweet Home

Just got home from a week long visit to see my family in California - the weather was perfect. I had a great time with everyone and we did some fun things together -  lots of antiquing, shopping, eating, visiting and game playing. But it's always good to come home again.

One day while I was there, we had nothing planned for the afternoon. I had fallen in love with the micro mini 9-patch that Janet made recently, so I rummaged through my mom's small fabric stash and found stuff that would work to make my own version - on the right in the picture below. After my mom tried to steal it from me, I decided she needed one of her own, so I stitched up another using different colors. The 9-patches measure 7/8" - teeny tiny - and the finished size is 7" square. Neither of them got quilted before I left - we'll each have to do that on our own.

I cut the strips 5/8" wide and used the narrow edge of presser foot on my mom's old machine for a seam allowance - probably 1/8". Fun and challenging at the same time!

Looking around my mom's house I decided to snap pictures of the little quilts I've made for her through the years - I'd forgotten about some of them. This bear's paw quilt in her bedroom is probably 12" square. I also made the bear on the shelf and the little pieced heart he is holding.

This Double Wedding Ring is displayed in an 8" x 10" wood frame under glass.  It was made by appliquing bias strips onto a muslin backing - then fussy cutting the floral hearts in the center of each ring and fusing them into place.

This twister quilt is probably 5" square.

And this tumbler quilt is 10" x 15" or so - boring using only two fabrics.

This scrappy zig zag quilt is about 6" square - not sure why I gave it to her since red is NOT her color! Displayed on a small wood easel with a piece of cardboard behind it so it won't flop around.

Another project we worked on while I was there was this cute little rocking chair my sister bought at the thrift store for her grand daughter - only $4.99! I forgot to take a before picture, but it was just natural wood with a light stain. A can of red spray paint and a new cushion made with lady bugs made it look brand new. We had planned to add some details on the back spindles using black & pink paint, but ran out of time before I left.

Below is a small 21" quilt I made before I left home - it's a Kim Diehl pattern - a variation on a bear's paw block. I have a grundle of 1-1/2" HSTs all ready to use when the need arises, so it worked up pretty quickly for me. Quilted with a 1" grid over the entire surface.

I'm anxious to get back to some of the things I was working on - and maybe start something new too! Happy Halloween!

This & That

I'm just going to do a little catching up with this post. Last week I attended my monthly meeting with the Salt Lake Rug Group. My rug is making progress - it's about 20" square and I think I'll use it for a table centerpiece so I'm not sure if I'll hook that center flower motif because it'll probably be covered up by a candle or a pot of flowers. I might  just use background wool to finish the middle of it - guess it depends on whether I have enough of the light background wool from the skirt I've been using......

Here are some of the other rug projects that were being worked on at that meeting. Terri was able to join us for the first time in a long time and we enjoyed visiting with her - she took a class from Karen Kahle in Phoenix earlier this year and is hooking a floral basket design of hers.

Myra is making good progress on her little purse - those flowers really pop against navy background. Her proddy flowers are so nicely done!

We meet at Nancy's house and this cute wreath greeted us on her front door - it's made of felted wool sweaters that her daughter made from thrift store finds - so cute!

Nancy was pulling the last few loops of the third piece that will become a pillow - her version of Magdalena Briner's lollipop tree.

Yvonne has started a tradition log cabin quilt design.

Awhile ago I was thumbing through some of my really old Miniature Quilts magazines and saw this little quilt called Bricks done in Christmas colors. I thought it looked like a quick sew and I dove right in using fabrics from my 1" scrap basket. Finished size is about 7" x 9". I guess you could call it a charm quilt because each piece is a different fabric. I should have done a better job of spacing the light blocks, but I didn't notice that until it was too late.

At the thrift store last week I stumbled upon this small quilt top and bought it for $2.99. Whoever made it did a good job on the sewing, but it's too plain for me so I think I'll spiff it up with some kind of applique after I tea dye it a bit. I could add some blue stars and give it more of an Americana flavor - or I could add some green holly leaves or trees and make it have a Christmasy  theme - any other suggestions to help me figure out what to do? The blocks are about 9" square.

I have been working diligently on Pam Buda's new sew along - I have all my HSTs made and a couple of the blocks sewn together - will share a picture of it soon.