Finished Rug

I finish my woven rug. I think it turned out OK, at least my cat likes it. I realized I didn't do the edges correctly when I took it off the frame. I looked back at the instructions a found out I should have wrapped the pencil rod along with the last strip on the frame. However I still don't think it matters that much as the rug seems to be holding together well. It just has sort of a fringe thing going on at the sides. Next one will be better I'm sure.

These are costumes I made two years ago for my daughter and her room mate. Wilma Flintstones and Betty Rubble. Aren't they adorable.

Last year I made Audrey Hepburn's dress from Breakfast At Tiffany's . I can't find a picture right now. This year she is Sandy From Grease with the black tight pants and off the shoulder shirt. I only made the shirt. As soon as she sends me a picture I will post it. She wanted her friends to support her costume by being the pink ladies. They had their own ideas. LOL.

FatBottomBlog: Green for the holidays - a free FatBottomBag giveaway

FatBottomBlog: Green for the holidays - a free FatBottomBag giveaway I had the idea of using recycled plastic bags to make another woven rug, well Christi is a recyclers to the max. She recycles plastic bags from 20 families into these cute and clever bags. And she is having a give away on her blog for one of her bags. Check it out. She also has a tutorial for making a crocheted rug out of recycled t-shirts. I love the way she shows us how to make the t-shirt yarn in one continuous strip. I have a collection of t-shirt waiting to be turned into something.

Procrastination

This is why I rarely if ever have had my whole house clean at the same time. I get distracted so easily by my sewing and craft supplies. Well my house is beyond cyclone stage and I really need to put things away but I keep seeing all these projects I could start on or finish or at least work on as I am trying to put things away. And hey it is much more fun to work on a new project than to clean the same old house. So yesterday I decided to put together this rug weaving frame I got at the Sewing Expo a few weeks ago. I actually thought all I had to do was put a few screws in but is was a bit more involved than that. Still it didn't take that long to put together. The kit was just the supplies I needed to make the frame which is good because it saved me trying to find the right stuff at the hardware store. I think I will get some supplies to make a smaller frame for a place mat.

I started weaving my rug with stash fabric I already had. This is a great use of the fabric in your stash that you wonder why you ever bought it in the first place. As I am weaving this rug I am thinking of what I can use for the next one. This one is made with cotton fabrics about the weight you would use for quilts. I think this would be a good way to recycle tshirts. You could cut them into loops and link them together. I also thought of making one out of recycled plastic bags for an outside welcome mat maybe. Or I have some cotton knit fabrics in my stash that would make a durable rug. And if I could come up with enough felted wool I think that would be a nice rug too. I have some not so attractive drapery fabric someone gave me that might work well as a rug. It is sort of a denim color with small green sprigs on it and made up into a rug like this I think would look good. I have been trying to use up my stash this year and actually have made some progress. I knitted a couple of rugs in the past year from much of my ugly stash. The big one use about 40 yards of fabric. I even won a champion ribbon at the county fair this summer. I can't find the pictures I took of the knitted rugs maybe later. And don't worry all this stash busting has not prevented me from adding to my stash this year too. I must be prepared for anything.

Chocolate Table Runner

I finished up my chocolate table runner today. I started on it several months ago and all I had left to do was the machine quilting and the binding. I think this design is a good use of novelty fabrics. I am attracted to fabrics with candy on them especially chocolate. I usually make garments and these fabrics are not really useful in adult garments. So I thought I would do a bit of quilting. This was a kits and I had just a few pieces left over.

I decided to make some Scrappy Loyalty Card Wallets. I got the tutorial here http://spoonfullofsugargirls.blog/ . This is a great tutorial and a great way to use small scraps of fabric. I was able to make 3 with my scraps. They go together very quickly probably less than an hour start to finish. When I make little things like this I like to make more than one because it doesn't really take much longer to make three than to make one if you sew them assembly line fashion. Just do the steps for all three at sewing machine and iron and before you know it you have three wallets done. These would be a good way to give a gift card as a gift. Or you could use them to hold all your grocery store cards. By making three at once I have one to keep for myself and two to give as gifts. And I may have enough scraps left to make another outside cover for another wallet. I would have to use other scraps for the inside and the pockets. It makes me happy to use every scrap.

Sew Hip

I picked up Sew Hip at Barnes and Noble today. It is a sewing magazine from the UK. I have never seen it before. There are several items I would love to try inside, like the Rail Fence Runner, Spiderweb Quilt, and Haberdashery Hairband.

I also picked up the fall issue of Stitch and there are nine Japan inspired projects inside that look quick and easy. I may be able to try some of these right away. I got a new book too Sweet Nothings by Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader. I think it will be fun to make some undergarments and nighties.

I was planning to go to the Renaissance Faire today. My daughter was home on a break from college and we wanted to go to the Faire but it was raining pretty hard when we got there so we decided to do a bit of shopping instead. I wore my new Renaissance Costume and I didn't think to take something along to change into so I wore it shopping. My daughter was a bit embarrassed but isn't that part of my job to embarrass my kids. We would have been very cold and wet if we had gone to the Faire.

http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/2009/02/harvest-pumpkins.html I think I am going to have to try these cute pumpkins to decorated my mantle for the fall. I think I have some fabric in the rust and orange color range that would be perfect for these.

My goodies from the Sewing Expo.

I had a really good time at the Sewing Expo. I haven't been in a few years and I was glad to see some new things as well as old favorites. So many things to see and so much shopping to do, what fun. This is what I came home with. First my fabric purchases. I got a grey wool herringbone to make a jacket. The red and grey silk will be the lining. A brown heather I think it is a wool blend the label only said assorted fabric content. The white is a light weight silk and I'm not sure what I will do with it. It was a good buy at $6 a yard. The pink with circles is rayon maybe that will be a dress. The black and aqua is a cotton Lycra knit and I know that will be a t-shirt. The white with yellow and blue dots is very light weight cotton. I just thought that was fun and I am not sure what that will become. The cream red and aqua is a vintage feed sack. I love that color combination but again not sure what that will be. All the fabrics came from http://www.voguefabricsstore.com/ except for the feed sack. The feed sack came from http://www.oldmadequilts.com/ Where I also got a loom to weave rugs out of fabric strips. I am excited to try this and this will be a great use of some of my ugly stash. And I love the look of rag rugs.

I picked up some apron printed fabric from http://www.hancockfabrics.com/ I forgot to get this in the picture but it is adorable. The other item I got at Hancock's was a book 101 Fabulous Fat-Quarter Bags with M'Liss Rae Hawley. She was there representing her fabric line and books so I got tho chat with her a bit and she signed my book. She seems like a really fun person to be around. There are several bags I want to try like the Ribbon Purse, the Cube Purse, and the Mix and Match Tote.

I picked up some patterns and a few kits. For some reason I love kits I can start on a project right away with everything I need right there. And I don't have to go searching for some little part that I have no idea where to find. And then the second project I make from that pattern can be something that I picked out. The 3 little white patterns I got from www.quiltplususa.com/shop I could have bought many more things in there because everything was adorable and she had all kinds of purse hardware. What I got was a little coin pouch kit and a zippered Kitty Pouch kit and a pattern for a crazy quilted eyeglass case that has a spring clutch closer at the top. So I could make more I got 3 of the spring clutch and a couple of tiny purse frames. I think these would make great gifts.

From http://www.barboriginals.com/ I picked up the Flower Jacket Pattern and Three Bags Full a pattern and kit with the hardware for making the bag. The bag pattern is for 3 zippered bags that hook onto a shoulder strap but they are all separate bags and can be used individually as well as all hooked together. I think these would be great to use when traveling. I think they have potential for embellishment as well.

This booth http://www.lesfabriquesinc.com/ had the most wonderful fabrics and the nicest people. They had beautiful wools and silks and just lovely things. They were part of the fashion show on stage and showed off some of their fabrics made with Kwik Sew patterns. I got a vest pattern 3717. It is really just a oval of fabric with two arm holes cut out. But I liked how it draped and you can wear it 2 ways. Either with the arms holes closer to the top or turned around so it makes more of a shawl collar. I thought it was simple and clever.

The other patterns I got from Vogue. They had several boxes of patterns and if you bought 7 of them they were $3 each. I couldn't pass up a good bargain pattern. Most of them were quilt patterns and I had to spend some time looking through each box to find some that I liked. But I love the hunt and feel like I found some good ones. I think my favorite from there is Petal Pouches Valori Wells Designs. There are three sizes of pouches and a felt flower pin cushion.

Although I didn't buy anything here http://www.niftytriftydrygoods.com/ I loved this store. They had all kinds of vintage buttons and trims. And the store was set up so cute with everything grouped by color and all the trims were wrapped around wooden spools. They had these beautiful pendants with antique lace inside a glass frame. I almost bought one but I really want to learn how to make these. My next hobby, like I need another one.

If the http://www.sewingexpo/ comes to a town near you you should definitely go because it is so much fun to be around that many people who love to sew.

Sewing Expo

I'm so excited to be going to the Original Sewing & Quilt EXPO. http://www.sewingexpo.com/ I am prepared to do some shopping to add to my stash. I will share what I get when I get back.