Placemats for Play

The knitting triangle often uses Google Reader as a way to share craft ideas, recipes and fashion tips. A while back Kristen shared a link from Ohdeedoh with a note that her kids would love to have these placemats (made by me of course). So I promptly got to work.

I traced a plate, cup, fork and spoon on HeatNBond to make stencils. I ironed on the stencils to some bright kid friendly fabrics and cut out my shapes. I ironed them on to a piece of solid fabric. I don't remember the dimensions but let's say was 10" x 15". I used the blanket decorative stitch to go around each place setting (with the help of my amazingly crafty co-worker and her super sewing machine). But since HeatNBond keeps the fabrics from fraying you could leave this out if desired. I then placed the finished piece right side to right side with another piece of fabric of the same dimensions. Behind that a piece of batting of the same dimensions so the placemats were 3 layers total. I stitched around the edges leaving an opening for turning.

Turn the placemats right sides out and edgestitch around to close the opening. They ended up being the cutest things. Here they are in use at E and O's fabulous play kitchen.


**I found my original pattern and I did cut the pieces 10" x15" so the finished mats were 9 1/2" x 14 1/2" since I stitched with 1/4" seams.

Potholders

Every year I decide to make way too many of my Christmas gifts and this year was no different. After failing at a few sewing projects, I came across this awesome tutorial for potholders. These are the quickest cutest gifts that whip up super fast. It's a great stash buster craft too... But since I spend tons of time wandering the aisles of Joann Fabrics on my lunch break, I took advantage of the chance to buy all the great prints I've been coveting.

I followed this tutorial pretty faithfully. The batting is called Insul Brite and I found it at my local Joanns. I cut my squares 9" x 9" and used 1/2" seam allowance and then cut off the excess/squared them up with my rotary cutter. I also only quilted 4 or 5 rows as I found my fabric was shifting during topstitching and I was nervous about the fabric bunching up if I topstitched all the way. (Time to invest in a walking foot!). These sew up so quick... I think I made 3 pairs in an hour.

Adventures of Apartment Decorating

Now that I'm unpacked (mostly) in my new apartment it's time to start decorating. There's much to do... hang pictures, make curtains, buy chairs for my kitchen table...

While packing I came across my wall calendar from 2008. Each month was a new vintage wine poster and I bought it with the intention of someday framing and displaying them somewhere. And that day was today.

I went to Michaels during my lunch break today and found packages of (2) 11 x 14 frames for $7. A steal. I purchased what I needed and picked out my favorite prints from the calendar.

The prints were 10 x 14 so I just cut strips from some scrapbooking paper and used my trusty glue stick to remedy the problem. I think they look pretty cool. It's a great cheap way to recycle and decorate.