Friday, February 24, 2012

How about a Quickie?




When my children were little, 
I always made sure they
had a little Easter Basket
 in their rooms beside their beds
on Easter morning...
 Sometimes when money was really tight,
I would have to come up with a quick,
affordable and cute idea...
This is one of them.

Keyword here...QUICK.

Sew, in that spirit...
Just go with it.
I promise it will be fun 
and you can do this within an hour.

Like I said, back in the day...
money was used for other things...
you know... 
FOOD....
so, I had to look around my house for
something to begin with....
and I had a set of these:


That's right...an ordinary quilted placemat.
It was already quilted.
TIME SAVER!!!!



Fold it in half, right sides together and sew down both sides.


At the bottom,
Cut 1 inch up and 1.5 inches from the side.
It should look like this.



 Take the corners and fold horizontally
and it forms a straight line.


 You are going to sew 1/4 in from the edge on both 
sides across that straight line.



Your placemat has a great little box shape.



It is time to turn it right side out.



 BAM!
I told you it was QUICK!


From here, you can take as much
 or as little time as you want.

You don't even have to add the lining! 
You can just fill it with the Easter grass
 you can buy at Wal-Mart for 25 cents a bag!!!


 If you do want to add a lining, then cut your fabric
the width and length of your placemat.

Go ahead and cut out your handle and fold it over 
a couple of times and then sew.





 Go back and make all the same cuts and
sew the sides like before.


 fold and sew your straight line.


 Attach your handle on both sides with a 
straight seam.


Slip your lining in.


 
 Fold down the top 1/4 inch and either sew
on your machine, or if you don't want a line
on the outside, just hand stitch it into place, 
covering your handles.



 I decided to decorate mine tonight...
so I simply drew out an egg
and after I added my heat bond,
I traced it on the bonding paper and cut it out.



 I did the same for my bunny.





 I stitched my bunny into place and hand stitched my eggs.




 I left enough of an edge on my bunny so I could cut 
the edges to give it a little depth.




 The tail was a little trick my mama taught me to 
make bows. I wrapped my thread around my 
fingers until I had what I thought would be
a fluffy enough tail and tied it in the center between 
the two sets of loops.


 Once it was tied, I simply cut the loops and 
fluffed out my little bunny tail.



 I attached it and tied it off.



I added the little eye, and I was done!

With all my extra steps it still only took me about
two hours!!!


 And there it was...




I hope you will give it a try...
and go ahead! USE THOSE OLD 
QUILTED PLACEMATS!

It will be your little secret!

Happy Sewing!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Buzzard's Roost...


 When Christa's request was for a 
Buzzard's Roost block...
I had to look it up!
This was a new one to me 
but it came together really easy. 
I can't wait to see her 
finished quilt!

She asked for bright colors 
with a kid friendly center block.
Believe it or not, I had run out of bright
kid-oriented material...
But I thought this was fun and
hopefully it will work.



If you would like to make one of these...
You can find it here:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ RECIPE FUN ~
I did find a fun little recipe to share today...
and of course with Easter coming,
you KNOW that our little family
will definitely be making this:

 

 This photo is from Deb C. on her
All Recipes Blog called
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FUNNY BUNNY...

Speaking of Bunnies...


I can't tell...
Is Cotton using her eyes 
to microwave her own food now?
(insert Twilight Zone music here...)
 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012


Tonight....
I was able to finish a 
LONG OVER DUE BLOCK...
for my Let's Bee Together partner Toni...

Thank you for waiting so long 
for this little lost block...
I finally just conquered my fear
and dove in...
It really wasn't bad at all! 
I am not sure what I was so 
apprehensive about!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And on to our weekend...
 It was full...
and went by way too fast!



And all these boxes slowly yielded some long
awaited fixtures for our ranch house kitchen...



My sweet man worked for THREE days...



 and we began to realize that this 
is really looking like a home...



 
 
 
 We did have some entertainment in the midst of 
all that work...
Little Cotton kept us rolling...

 
 

 Right up until the end of the day...
and the sun was setting...
and she began snoring!!!




It is a ranch of sorts after all, so the next day was 
spent not only working in the kitchen...
but feeding my moo moos...

This is one of the few times Fudge (the dark brown cow) 
actually ate out of my hand...Such a sweet little girl...


 And then of course, I can't be at the ranch 
for that long without my DD sending 
me a sweet picture of my little GB ...
She subtitled this one
"Rockin the Hoodie"

LOL!




On the last day...
all the hard work was beginning 
to take shape...

 

and even though we left for home a little later than usual 
at 8 p.m. with a five hour drive back to Houston ahead of us...
it was worth it.
Every time I looked over at my man...
He was smiling...

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend too!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Bunny Love...

At the ranch last weekend, we met up for dinner
with my sweet friend Patty...
We don't get to see each other often since she 
lives up in North Texas...so when we do...often
we are exchanging gifts or goodies - 
sometimes late, but none the less wonderful...





This time she brought me this beauty - she said it
reminded her of my Little Cotton...
It is just sooo perfect!!!


Little Cotton says....
"I luv you auntie Patty!!!!!"



 I had forgotten to show my block to my
Block Swap partner Michelle...
She asked for anything with red, white and blue...
I also sent along this little mug rug for her Marine...



And... Finally!!!!!!!
Here they are!!!!!
If you have been reading my blog for long, you know
that we have been building a ranch house in the 
Hill Country...It's been three long years and A LOT
and I mean A LOT of HARD work...but we are 
now to the finishing stages on the inside...
and these are our new cabinets!
 

Yes...of course...we will be assembling them 
this weekend!

Wish us luck...it's supposed to rain all the way there...
LOL! 
No complaints ever again about rain...

Good wishes for a great weekend!!!
 

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 A little over 3 years ago, our little quilt shop grew up. We moved to a larger space and hired more employees. So much has happened in thos...