Life - Lot Of This And That

I finished the Sew Easy Scrap Quilt. Once I got used to all of that fabric running through my sewing machine it wasn't so bad. I do think that for the time being I will stick to table toppers, wall quilts and hot plate pads until I get the hang of this quilting thing. Today at Quilters Jodi taught me how to hand stitch quilt. I in turn, re-introduced her to knitting. (Yea! Score one for the knitters.) Thank you so much Jodi. I just couldn't figure out the "rocking stitch" I just had to see it in person to have it click in my brain.

Thanks to the lovely quilting bloggers that answered my plea for quilting help. Do check out the comment section there are some really good tips.

Take a look at what arrived in the mail from England. My blog buddy Cathy from One Pink Goose/The Faraway Hills sent these to me. Cathy is a very talented, self taught artist. These beautiful and very colorful greeting cards are some examples of her artwork. Do stop by her gallery and take a peek at her lovely and colorful work. I think the reindeer in front of the trees is my favorite. Actually I'm very fond of all of them. Thank you Cathy.

I finished making the hot plate pad that I made from leftover scraps from the tote bag that I was making last week. I thought this is a good way to get in some quilting practice. I certainly turned out a lot better than the first hot plate pad. Probably because I now have a walking foot for my machine.

Next I decided that I'm going to take this organization thing seriously. I sewed a sewing machine organizer to catch scraps and threads and contain my scissors and pins. I've been sewing the last couple of days and I already don't know how I managed before the sewing organizer. I was always losing my scissors and thread ravelings were showing up all over the floor. I'd like to make a dust cover for the machine in matching fabric next.

Jan's Musing had this clever tip for using fabric bolts for a pressing board. So I decided it was time for some recycling DIY. I've been wanting a tabletop ironing board for ironing my quilt piecing. Most of the ones that I found online start out at $20.00. I decided that I would rather have that $20 to spend on spinning fiber or fabric or pattern books. Right? I started with the empty cardboard bolts that fabric is wrapped around at the fabric shops. They throw away the empty ones. Just ask and they are more than willing to give them to you. The do look at you a little strange. Like what are you planning to do with these things.

I used a total of four. Two for the base and two for the top. Lay the two side by side for the base and duct tape the ends and also down the center to make the join good and sturdy. Do the same thing with the top two except don't run the duct tape down the center join. You'll be ironing in that area and I'm not sure if duct tape is heat resistant. Lay the tops onto the base and wrap duct tape all the way around on both ends. Next cover with some heat resistant batting. The kind that you use in hot plate pads. I don't have a staple gun so I wrapped the batting around the bolts and duct taped the bottom. Next I made a large pillow case for my cover.

The bottom.

The top.

All done. This was actually fun to make and you get a sense of accomplishment when you recycle into something very handy. The total cost was around $6.00. Quite a savings from $20 + . I used it today while working on my piecing and it works really well.

Enjoy life.