Pride and Joy - Denim Quilts

beginner's denim quilt, backed with fleece

Denim Blankets - I love them!  

I saw at a craft fair that a lady was selling these for $200.  I liked her design, but not the fabric she chose.  (Don't we all have different styles?)  I like this design as it reminded me of a chess board, and I like chess.  But she tied hers with yarn.  Yarn on blankets - yuck!  I loved the happy colors of this - and the musical motif.  It made me so happy just looking at it.  Before I was finished with this, I began another for my son and daughter-in-law's upcoming wedding.  This time I focused more on including cute pockets.  Each blanket became better than the last.

batik checkerboard denim quilt

     I asked a friend to pick out a fabric that neither had an obvious top or bottom to it.

She picked out this batik from Joann's Fabric.  I was thrilled with her selection!  Though I had never worked with batik, I was quickly sold on it.  You can see on the left side that I didn't worry too much about one fabric going over it's boundary.  That's a cut-up pair of little girl's shorts.  So cute!  And once again, I used the checkerboard design... Each square again is 6 x 8"  which is a perfect ratio.
     By now I was hooked.  I was buying little kids' jeans from garage sales as well as online Facebook yard sale pages.  I feel a little guilty cutting up perfectly good denim, but I just can't help myself. This is my newest obsession.

80's denim

     After way too much thought, even for a creative person, I decided to mix things up a bit.  I went with an 80's lighter denim, changed the checkerboard to add a few more colors in the range of baby blue and beige, and the BEST change of all - I made it bigger! All three of my 6'2" boys said my previous blankets were not a good size.

Backing:

And because of the bigger size, my backing of FLEECE made this whole blanket a perfect fit - in more ways than one.  So there it was, the perfect width to use the most amount of fleece.  As far as the quilting went, I sewed "stitch-in-the-ditch" style like stair steps throughout.  Each blanket became better than the last, but when this one was done, I realized I forgot to add enough cute pockets.  Since I don't strive for perfection, I didn't lose sleep and was thrilled with the results.

Vibrant denim quilt, great childrens' pockets

You can see I've found pockets with bling.

It really adds an element of fun - and it's quite a thrill to find these pants/pockets in thrift stores and imagine what they're about to become.  If you look closely at the full-length picture, you'll see this one is still being secured by safety pins.  It isn't finished and with Christmas around the corner, it'll just have to wait.  For this quilt, I focused more on the pockets and stayed with one print to finish the checkerboard effect.  It's such a happy quilt and it makes me so happy!  I discovered doing this that if a pocket didn't measure the way I needed it to, I'd simply sew it on to another denim square.  That way I could stop stressing over pockets fitting exactly as I needed them to.  I attached the small pockets onto a denim piece using clever stitching.

    While I didn't pick this fabric, I love it's bold, masculine colors.  There's all kinds of browns, a honey beige, teal green, and some yellow.  I found this safari-motif in Joann's Fabrics and am thrilled with it!  I went through my growing stash of 6" x 8" denim squares for the darkest of squares.  I considered using a second and third fabric to mix in with the safari print, but was worried about the busy-ness of it all.  I'm still deciding on the border, so more on that later on.
     So these are my fun quilts.  Between working on these, I make newborn baby blankets for friends and relatives and their little ones.  You can easily see - I just plain like to make blankets!

My common pattern

So here's my formula:  6" x 8" denim squares, cut from childrens' pants or skirts.  Add another fabric to make a checkerboard - or add 2-4 more to change it up.  Add a 4" border all around, and back with fleece.  Stabilize the front to the back using safety pins, then sew a staircase pattern by 'stitching in the ditch' to secure the blanket.  (I never use yarn!)  If you use 10 squares across and 10 down, then you'll have a good sized blanket 56" x 81" of yummy, comfortable warmth.

If you'd like to make suggestions for my next blanket, please leave me a note.  I'd love to hear from you.

A Penny for your Thoughts

     I have several spots in my yard that need improvement, so this was not only necessary, it was a driving compulsion until it was finished.  These chairs from Lowe's sit beneath lilac bushes - bushes that hadn't been trimmed in 8+ years!  I trimmed them at least three times across three years before I could see the concrete beneath them.  I should mention - I simply love to prune. After clearing out debris, a job I didn't enjoy, then came the fun part.  I'd had the white stool for sometime... but wanted more there.  Several Pinterest posts showed others who had made a bowling ball into a yard decoration.  After finding the ball at a yard sale, I knew what my next project would be.  A penny ball!  I think my new in-laws thought I was nuts.
      Who knew there were so many different types of GLUE??
      Good thing Lowe's is less than a mile away!  After several trips trying different glues: rubber cement, a hot glue gun, Super Glue, and Gorilla Glue of two types, I happened upon Liquid Nails, Clear Seal.  5.5 ounces.  It says it's an "all purpose sealant."  
      I spread out some newspaper on my table, turned on the tv, and began.  I had decided I wouldn't shine up the pennies in advance, and that was a personal choice.  I used less than $5.00 worth of pennies and less than 1/4 of the tube.  I'd place 5-10 on the bowling ball at a time.  The pennies wouldn't immediately adhere, so I'd have to hold them in place a couple of minutes until they were ready.  It wasn't a fast process but I didn't mind.  Once a row was secure, you could use that as an anchor for your next row.  Forget about making perfect rows line up - they didn't.  If you're OCD, this is NOT the project for you!
     As a stand, I used a small clay pot.  It was an experiment - we get some pretty good wind storms, and it's held up nicely.  Perhaps the weight of the ball helps keep it secured.  
     So here it has been sitting - for 12 months.  It'll be one of those rare things that gets better with age.  As for me, I have two more balls ready to finish.  Perhaps I'll try a little twist on it next time by adding one band of nickels through a center row.
     If you're ever able to get a hold of a bowling ball, I highly recommend you try this project.  Let me know how it goes!  I'd love to hear about it.

A Mid-Summer Wedding, part two

     Welcome back!  I hope to pass on some of my ideas in the hopes that it makes your next event even more spectacular.  Clearance sales, fb page sales, Pinterest, and things I already owned all made their way into this grand party.  I'm sure I'm like many of you - ideas come from everywhere!
     I happen to like a mixture of old and new, re-purposed and renewed, all of it flanked with GLASS of some sort.  Burlap, glass, pearls, and a color - those were the starts of all my inspiration.
     I found this ladder on one of those local facebook pages where people sell random things.  I find all sorts of treasures that way, and it's become a replacement for garage-sale-ing.  I used to decorate my house in Early Garage Sale style, but now I often get a kick out of trolling through fb sale pages for random decorating finds.  The ladder was draped with a sheer organza that had a lovely pattern on it.  It flowed nicely in the wind.  At the base was a simple cardboard box that was covered in burlap, housing five mason jars which held pink and coral flowers that I already had.  Mason jars rock!

This 8 foot ladder is the real deal.  Vintage and all.  Just know when you go to move it, you're going to get a few determined splinters.  I found this useful because I was planning not only an indoor reception/party, but an outdoor one as well.  Being able to hang things inside and out was a top priority.  Around here, you just can't count on the weather being predictable!  And our family's track record for good weather on a wedding day is 0 for 4.  We've learned our lesson!  Outdoor receptions/parties are highly over-rated, in my book.

    Also hanging from the ladder was this large poster.  I had envisioned it being a place to get pictures, you know, like you see in so many wedding photos.  Nice idea, but it turned into a fairly useless accessory.  And for the time required, not that good of an investment.  I'm not disappointed, however; I've always wanted to try to make something like this.

    Though you couldn't tell from the picture, some of these fans were made from two scrapbook pages and others were made from three.  I think I prefer the ones made from two, which were the bottom left and the bottom right.  The only difference you could see, upon extremely close examination, was the number of folds.  NBD.  

     Running down the center was a gathered piece of burlap and the seam was covered with a length of pearls. Rather than buying burlap pre-cut ribbon, I highly recommend just buying a yard of burlap and cutting it to the size you need.  It's an economical way to go and the fabric store can show you how to make an even, straight cut.

     After this weekend, this poster design will have been used three times this summer.  I'd call that a success!  Speaking of success, my trip to Hobby Lobby was an extraordinary experience.  Their wedding section saved my bacon!

I needed to be able to make a majority of my wedding preparations far in advance and by myself.  This pre-made bouquet only needed a few touches - a little color and a few pearls.  I love that I can keep this to treasure for years.  Fresh flowers have their place, but I sure appreciate and love good silk flowers.

     Oftentimes at parties, weddings, or receptions, kids are expected to act like adults and are rarely considered.  Since I'm a Grandma, I consider them always!  

I found this wall hanging chalkboard, quickly marked out the board with Washi tape, used some flat glass marbles I already had, and it was ready-set-play!  These boards were a hit.  A little different color of tape, and they'll fit any gathering in the future.  They just looked so pretty to me, I hope you'll try them as well.

Lest you think all my fun projects were a hit, I do have to mention one.  The tissue paper flowers that I thought I could incorporate, turned into a bust.  They'll work fine for some other event, I suspect, just not for this one.  I ended up using a rose that I already had, which was in a soft blush color, as the center for this tissue flower.  The picture doesn't show a big difference in color simply because there wasn't a big difference.  They colors flowed together nicely.  Mint, tan, brown, and white.  It was so fresh and so fun!

So that's my style - making it myself, making it simple, and making it somewhat elegant, but not stuffy.  I hope these pictures give you some inspiration.  I know I was in crafty-heaven as I planned this event.  I was too busy greeting guests and didn't get actual photos during the event - epic fail, but that's life.  It doesn't always go as planned.

I hope you enjoyed this post - I know I was dying to put in print all the things that made me smile these past few months.    Drop me a line if you have any questions on materials or on sources for buying some of these things.  Remember, burlap, glass, pearls, and a color - that's the beginning of a beautiful event!

Displaying your Family Tree

      How do you display your family tree?  The wall hanging quilt was my first attempt at quilting.  I didn't know squat about designing one, I just knew that back in about 1992, when you could put pictures onto fabric, that that's what I wanted to do.  I made a trip to my Grandmother's to see what pictures I could get a hold of and I hit the jackpot.  So the quilt goes like this:  Start at the bottom. That's my daughter.  Follow counter-clockwise, the next one is her mother, then her mother, etc, all the way around the quilt.  At the time, I had information on 8 generations, and pictures of the women of 6 generations.  So my message to my daughter is this, "You come from strong women, women who have had hard trials.  You, too, can do hard things."

    Once I had all those pictures gathered, I knew I wanted to display them as well.  So in the picture frame are three sets of water colored hard cardboard frames (two in a set).  I took the photos that were in negatives to someone who could size them.  The goal was to make all the heads the same size, except the one which was a wedding picture.  The last picture on the right was the amazing one since it started out being the size of the end of my pinky.  I think it turned out pretty dang outstanding.  It's my pride and joy.  My Grandmother was the first owner of this until she passed on, then it traveled to my Mother, and now back to me.

In the first picture, you can see a 16 generation chart.  Some people like things all electronic - and they keep their info that way.  I like my family tree on paper, so I can easily refer to it.  When I help others with their genealogy, I hand them such a chart as a gift.  It's a great way to organize info.  I can't wait to share some of my genealogy systems.  I hope these pictures give you some ideas of ways you can share your family tree with others!

A Mid-Summer Family Wedding, part one

   Using the simplest of decorations, I was able to both have a lovely tablescape as well as have party favors for the little kids as they left.  The chalkboards on each table were accompanied with a home-made white eraser and two pieces of chalk.  This is the second time I've used these chalkboards at a party - a quick coat of paint and they are ready for another go-around!

    These rectangle glass vases were so wonderful to use - mostly because this is their second use! Love to be able to reuse from time to time.

The mint colored jars were fun to make but they did take more acrylic paint than I would have guessed.  I had been saving random glass jars from the kitchen.  They had once stored jelly, salsa, syrup, and other things.  After removing the labels by soaking them in soapy water, they were ready for the paint.  If soaking didn't do it (and the clear labels were the worst - I used Go-Gone) I poured paint into the inside, turned the jar, and waited until the whole inside was covered.  If it was possible to do, I also used a paint brush to cover the inside.  By putting the paint on the inside, the jars had a lovely shine.  Had I painted the outside, the shine would have been gone, but they still would have looked nice.

   The mason jar had candles in it.  They were wrapped with burlap which then had 3-5 fabric yo-yos attached to each one.  I hot glued on the burlap strip (2" wide) and was careful to not get the glue on the yo-yos.    I chose mint, white, robin-egg blues, and a paisley with tan colors - great color combo for just about anything.  All these fabrics were from Joann's Fabrics and they just make me so happy. Yo-yo's are a rare quilting pleasure for me - it's something I can do on the go, and we are often on the go!  When sitting in the passenger side of a semi-truck, I can sew away the hours happily without having to feel like I'm accomplishing nothing.  There's no fuss, no mess, and I can easily hold all my supplies on my lap.  It's a wonderful past time for me that I wouldn't necessarily do at home.
   After our party, I detached those decorations from the jar and could then re-use the yo-yos like this:

I'm not sure if I want a quilt from the yo-yo's or if I'm going to make a kitchen table runner... or maybe a pillow covering.  Hard to say.  More on this one later!

blogger tips

Reading up on Pinterest about blogging tips.  Signed up for Twitter and Instagram last night; wondering if they are going to be worthwhile.

My new adventure.  Hoping this will be a great new way to share photos and memories.  Here's to a new challenge!