Tick Tock……

I can feel Christmas getting closer and closer and I seem to be getting farther and farther behind.  Does anyone else make a list of the things you MUST get done by a certain time and then find yourself constantly adding to that list?  If I could get my foot up far enough I would kick myself for adding to that list, but since I can’t I guess I better just keep sewing.
Remember me showing you this quilt top?  Well I finally got it basted and quilted and checked off the to do list.  What do yall think?
  

How fun is this?  I did not know I could tilt my photos!!  I think I found my new favorite thing!!

What do yall think about the green polka dotted back?  That’s a thrifted sheet!!!  Yep, yep it is and it worked perfectly I think for the color scheme of the quilt. I know my lines aren’t perfectly straight, but I think it turned out pretty good anyway.  I hope the next one will be better. 
I really need to perfect my basting method.  Any suggestions?  The fact that I have carpet all throughout my apartment and limited space does not help. 
Ok now onto the next thing I wanted to share.  Now that I’ve posted an up close and personal of the finished quilt, I have a question.  Do you see the sandy colored fabric in the above photos that creates the diamond shapes in the quilt?  Well I personally dyed all of that fabric with coffee and/or tea.  Do any of yall do that?
                                       
I save all of the coffee that is left in the coffee pot in the mornings and I use it to dye thrifted white sheets.   Yes you read that right, I do not buy white fabric from the fabric store and I also do not buy any type of tan fabric unless I have tried to achieve a certain color and have failed epically!  But I must say that doesn’t happen very often because I have learned that if I dye the fabric first with tea and it isn’t dark enough, I let it dry then stick it in a bowl like the above photo of very hot coffee and let it soak for about an hour that usually does the trick.  Oh and I must mention this method makes me feel like I’m doing something good for the environment because I’m only using coffee or tea to dye the fabric and I used something from a second hand store!

Speaking of thrifted sheets I wanted to show yall some of my stash.
                                
As you can see in the first photo, the second shelf isn’t as full as the top shelf.  The top shelf is 2 stacks deep and each stack is at least 7 sheets high.  The very front 2 stacks that are shorter than the others are pillow cases.  The second shelf is mostly solid colored sheets there are a few that you can’t see in this photo that are different shades of blue and purple (all thrifted).  Now the bottom shelf are our bath towels.  Is it a bad think when I have more vintage sheets that I do bath towels?  
I know I’ve probably babbled enough with this post, but I wanted to show you a sketch of the next quilt I am working on.  Keep an open mind because this is a very rough sketch and it gets worse because I had to take a picture of it because my scanner wasn’t cooperating.
                                     
And the last thing I wanted to share today is that my kindergartener had homework for the first time the other evening!!  He was so excited, but I don’t think that will last!
                                        

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I hope yall are having a great St. Patty's day!!!  I also hope you've avoided people in the pinching mood if you're not wearing green.  We had our tea party for my nieces this morning and it turned out so great and they had so much fun!!  I plan on sharing the details and photos with you probably tomorrow or the beginning of next week.  In the mean time I wanted to show you the other pillow case dresses I managed to get done.  These didn't get modeled like the first one did, but they did try them on and wear them for quite awhile!!

I actually sewed my first pocket and attached my first elastic to a pocket with this first one!!  I was so proud of myself, I didn't even follow any tutorials I just did some thinking before I started.  Actually after I cute the arm holes out in the pillow cases, I noticed that the material I had just cut off of the pill case was shaped like a pocket and that's what started the whole thing :)

The pocket is not perfect, but not bad for my first attempt I don't think.  What do you think, any suggestions?

Landon actually picked out the pocket for this one, he said it needed to be green, so green it is.  These 2 are shorter than the first one in the previous post.  I think the pocket turned out better in this one.

This is the only dress I've made so far for my older niece, I needed her to try it on first to make sure it would fit her before I could make more.  I love, LOVE, love this material!!!  Aren't they pretty?  And they are so pretty and easy to make.  4 down and a million more to go before I have reduced the amount of pillow cases I have!!!

Well I hope yall have a great rest of your day!!!!  So until next time........

Happy Crafting!!!

Vintage Sheet Rag Quilt (quilt #3)

Good morning everyone!!

Well so far this has started out to be a much better Monday than last week!!  Everyone seems to be pretty much back to normal.  My oldest has a little cough, but no fever and no vomiting, so I can handle that!!  .

We had a very uneventful weekend here other than the horrible wind that blew through (yes pun intended).  I did however get to go to a few garage sales and I found a few really great things, I will share those with you later this week when I get a chance to take some photos.  I will say this though, a few of the things I found I have been looking for FOREVER!!!

Now onto what I wanted to share today, I am so excited about this I was afraid to post it because it is actually going to be a gift for someone's birthday, but she won't see this until after she has recieved it so I think I'm safe.  There are a few other things that will be included in the package with the quilt, but I will post those when I show you what I found at the garage sale.

I am very disapointed with how the photos came out, my honey was holding the quilt while I was taking the photos and our 2 year old was behind him pushing on his legs.  I think he moved everytime I tried to take another photo.  So please bare with me.  I used 5 different sheets for the front and I used 1 sheet for the back.  I tried to match all of the colors that were on the back to the colors on the front.  This is a very light weight quilt so that it can be used in the spring and summer months.  I love the spring colors and all of the flowers this was alot of fun to make, the bright colors and happy prints helped get me out of my winter blues.

The photo on the right is a close up of the material that the quilt is backed with.  When everyone was sick this is what I was working on.  I started it about 2 weeks ago and finished the quilting part before everyone started showing symptoms of having a stomache bug.  I did most of my cutting on the edges last week.  So... what do yall think?  How was you're weekend?  Until next time.....................

Happy Crafting!!!

Vintage Sheet rag quilt

This is the first quilt I've ever made.  I have to say I am very proud of it considering it was a spur of the momment idea.  It's made completly out of thrift store vintage sheets and vintage aprons that belonged to my grandmother.  I finished the quilt around the 1st of December but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  I hope yall like it, I plan on making more quilts in the future maybe some more complicated ones considering this one was pretty easy.

Happy Crafting!!!!