Material Girl

Don’t mind me, but you will be seeing some Christmas in this post. 

One of my Christmas presents was a little organizer, typically intended for use in a shop or garage.

But my mom had a grand idea.  She thought it would be great for me to store some of my crafting ‘stuff’ in it.

And she’s right!

Check it out.

Space galore!

I liked it and all.  Great storage for buttons/brads/clips/etc.

But….. it still seened too shop/garagish for me.

So I jazzed it up using some of Jen’s fabulous fabrics.

I believe the fabric I selected is from the Lost & Found line.

Really, making over this organizer was easy!

I cut a strip of material so it would would fit around 3 sides of the organizer.

I then applied Mod Podge to the organizer. {1 side at a time until it was dry}

After I got the material attached to the 3 sides, I tried to trim any loose threads.

In the end, I decided to add more Mod Podge to the edges to make sure it won’t fray.

Had I thought ahead, I would have used some stitch-witch and folded the rough ends under.

Mental note for next time!

Just wait!

I have one more craft involving this material. 

How about a custom mouse pad?

Yup.  I made one of these for myself for the office, as well as one for my mom.

You can find the original idea for this HERE, via Pinterest….of course! 

What fun crafts or projects have you done where you use material in a way that isn’t typical?

Girl Quilt-Lost & Found Fabric

Playing with fabrics is possibly my newest addiction. Collecting pretty fabric is first…then sewing! I made this quilt for my daughter using most all the red + pink fabric from the Lost & Found collection. My favorite part of quilting is selecting fabric patterns and colors! I may not be a good quilter…but I’d say I’m a pro at colors, no fakin’ it here!

 If you’ve never sewn anything, or quilted, the first step would usually be to decide what you are making. In my opinion…I go off color first. Find your inspiration, what stands out and then think of what you could make with it.  I couldn’t have found a more perfect collection to start with! I’ve been looking for a couple years too. I knew I wanted pink, red, and brown to match my other daughter’s quilt. But I just couldn’t find anything until recently…thanks to Jen! Sometimes you just have to wait for something that perfect! Next decide on your pattern. I used Camille’s Shortcake pattern, super cute, and reminds me of a scrapbook page. The most time consuming part for me is arranging the fabrics. This is where I’m super picky and indecisive…because I’m a perfectionist that way, I can’t help it! Here’s where I couldn’t decide to use the red floral fabric or not. They sent me the wrong one…however it was very similiar to what I did want.

Okay…made up my mind!

 Start cutting and piecing fabric together. I had to be extra careful and make sure all the script in the polka.dot and the damask fabric were all the same direction. That may not matter to some…but to me it would drive me crazy! Depends on the quilter.

 This red and pink stripe fabric is my favorite!

 I layed it out on her bed to get the full effect…I can already see where I would have switched a few fabrics around…so hard for me to embrace imperfection!

And that’s it! You can either quilt it yourself, or send it off to a professional! I simply don’t have patience for that.  If you do, wow I’m impressed! Once I get it back, I just have to add the ric rack and then bind the quilt. I can’t wait to see it all done and quilted!  If you’ve never sewn something before…but would like to…I encourage you to just start. Most would say to start on something small…I say go big! It’s much easier to sew a quilt, even if it’s a baby quilt than say…a hot pad! {or maybe that’s just me still having nightmares from sewing stuff in Teen Living back in high school.} You can always take it apart…a seam ripper can be your best friend!

Secret Santa Fabric Bags

Tutorial: Personalized Fabric Trimmed Towels

Anyone on your gift list can use a new kitchen towel, I promise! Let’s face it, kitchen towels are extremely functional, but have constant turn over… so, why not make them fabulous too? Hi, Janell here for another  idea for a quick and thoughtful gift–make one for your own home while you are at it.

I am sewing with Jen Allyson’s fabulous Christmas fabric line: Holly Jolly from Riley Blake.

Materials:

• Fabric for decorating towels
• Towels to be embellished
  (helpful hint: when possible pre-wash and dry your fabric, especially when using dark colors to prevent them from bleeding color onto your towels)
• Additional trim such as ribbon, lace or rick rac
• Scissors, sewing machine, measuring tape, thread and straight pins
  

Steps:

• Measure the width of the towel. Cut the fabric strips the width of the towel, plus one inch.  I like to layout my towel with the fabric and trim so I can see what the over-all effect will be.
• Measure trim the width of the towel plus 1/2 inch and cut.

• Turn under 1/2” on each long edge and press with your iron. Turn under 1/2” on each short edge and press.
• Load your bobbin with thread that is the same color as your towel and the top thread the closest color to your trim and fabrics.  You may need to switch colors for the same towel, but keep the bobbin thread consistent.

• Pin your fabric and additional trims with straight pins onto your towel.  Now you are ready to sew!
• Start with the fabric and edge-stitch along front pressed edges of strip, through all thicknesses.
• Decorate with more fabric strips and embellish with coordinating ribbons, lace, or ric-rac.

Pair your finished towel with your favorite bottle of hand soap and you have a wonderful gift that you’ll be proud of giving and the receiver will be pleased to get!

The Holiday Planner – How will you use it? *Free Download

I will use my Holiday Planner to keep myself organized this Holiday season. I have big plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving dinner will be served at our house this year. So I will be including a shopping list and menu. I will also start collecting any recipes I think I might want to use. This way I can find it all in one place and have them available when I am shopping. How will you use your planner?

Here is a Free Downloadable Shopping List + Menu from Jen Allyson for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and general Holiday that you can put in your Holiday Planner.

Click on the images below to download the PDF files.

Before I can get too excited about the menu, here at the Lake house we are starting a new project…. We need a new wall oven. This means we get to pull out the old one, demo some sheet rock and cut a new hole. After 23 years, wall ovens have changed in size. Lucky for me, Jen posted the most wonderful Project Master List and Project Notes for free download.

And when that new oven is installed, here is a fall family favorite recipe my Grandma Norma always made for us kids.