We were making progress. It felt good. We tried to accomplish a little something everyday, otherwise I’d get a nervous twitch thinking of all the details that needed to be done!

So while my aunt was here I asked her if she would show us how to tie a quilt. You see, my grandmother who has been gone for 17 years, loved to quilt. She made patterned quilts and tied quilts. I have at least 9 quilts right now that she gave just to me and my children (they each have one made by her) and of course, she had many other grandchildren as well as her own children, who all received from her.

With my grandma’s tied quilts there is no sewing of squares. Instead you purchase one big piece of material, cut it down the middle, sew it together and you have your top.

I’ll show you the steps we took.

The first thing we had to do was get our supplies.

For a queen size quilt you need:

5 yards material

Quilt batting – queen size

Queen size sheet (for backing)

Yarn

Curved safety pins

Yarn darner needles

For the backing, I used an old queen size sheet. Do you have the problem of your fitted sheets ripping but your top sheet is still good? I do, so I used a top sheet that I had that’s of good quality.

I laid the material out like this (folded in half lengthwise and then folded in half again – see picture for a visual).

Where the fold is at the short edge, you will cut it.

If your fabric is directional you will want to be sure you lay out your material correctly before you sew it.

We didn’t and had to rip out our sewing and try again.

For your bottom sheet remove all the hemming by ripping or cutting it off.

Since I don’t have quilt frames, I used our kitchen floor to layer and pin my quilt. I would be hesitant to do this on anything but tile.

We taped the bottom sheet to the floor using strips of masking tape and making sure the sheet was taut.

Unfold your batting and place on top of the sheet and then place your fabric on top of that being sure to leave about 2″ of backing on all sides. The backing (flat sheet) will also be your binding.

After we laid the fabric out, we could see that since the fabric was directional we needed to resew our pieces and be sure the print was lined up correctly. So this picture is before we ripped out and resewed our two pieces.

The next step is to take your curved safety pins and pin all 3 layers together. It’s not as hard as it sounds. With the bottom sheet stretched taut, it makes it very easy to do.

Now you can see the directional fabric has been sewed correctly.

The next step is to tie the quilt and we’re getting really close to being done with the entire thing!  Once your quilt is tied all your layers will be connected together.

Cut off about 3-4 feet of yarn and thread the yarn through one of the darning needles.

My aunt made this needle threader out of a piece of paper. So simple but it really worked well!

You want the little triangle tip since that is the part that will be inserted into the needle head.

Take the end of your yarn and lay it on the paper. Fold the paper over and insert the pointed triangle into the needle head. Then pull the yarn all the way through.

Try it! It works great!

Instead of having to mark where you want to tie your yarn, choose something on your quilt top that you can use to help you be consistent and accurate with where you tie your strings.

In the picture below you can see where I chose to bring the yarn through and I did it the same over the entire quilt top.

Once you pull the yarn through, cut the yarn and then double knot it.

The yarn ends might be longer than you like but after you’ve tied the whole quilt, you can go back and cut the tails shorter.

The yarn is tied but tails still need to be cut.

Cutting tails…

Last step of the quilt is to finish the binding!

I hope I can explain this step well enough. When you bring your backing material up, fold it tell it just meets the raw edges of the quilt top and batting…

and then fold it over the top of the quilt… (no raw edges will be showing at this point)

…and pin; stitch in place.

It took about 4 – 4 1/2 hours to complete this quilt.

I love it and I think my aunt for showing us this timeless way of making a quilt top.

Although I love making quilts that have a design and are made of squares, I hardly ever complete them. And if you think about the kinds of quilts that you can purchase for a bed, they tend to be too thin or made of a synthetic. I love that this is cotton. It feels so nice and comfy. Since I had owned a bottom sheet already, the cost of the quilt was about $45.

Here it is on my bed. Ahhh, I like it so so much!

(It’s not my bedspread just a quilt for keeping warm.)

Have you ever tied a quilt before?

“A rock”, you say?

Oh yes, and cute they are!

~~~~~

These owls and ladybugs were even named!

“May I introduce you to Jethro, Francis, Kyle and Oliver?”

Does that inspire you to make your own? But, wait! Before you run off to paint yours, I have a few more I would like to share.

This lovely butterfly is from the hand of an artist in Brazil. I wonder what type butterfly it is?

The following rocks were collected while on special outings.

One carried all the way from the bottom of the Grand Canyon…

…and this one while on a walk with a good friend.

What a beautiful way to be reminded that we are in His care.

Aren’t these all “love”ly?

This young lady painted a heart and there is a probability that she may have lost hers to a fine young man and thus these things are on her mind.

Audrey was thinking of happy things when she painted this rainbow and leaf.

Maybe this girl was envisioning a happy day in her childhood?

What a bright addition to a bedroom – customized with their choice of colors.

I’m glad to see Serenity has a love of nature and an appreciation for the fowls of the air.

But if I could only get her to arise to hear their happy chirping early in the morning!

Now, I’m done and I have complete faith that you can make a beautiful one, too. Why don’t you go ahead and give it a try?

And a few suggestions to get you started in the right direction…

source: thrive 360 living

They were to wrap a book or some other item (it did not have to be a real gift) and make their own wrapping paper as well as a bow topper.  The girls 13 and up had to do 4 different packages and 12 and under only had to do one.

Here’s a sampling of their work.

Audrey (age 9) took a potato and dipped it in red paint to make her watermelon print. It’s an idea she saw on Pinterest.

The use of a simple doily, a leaf printed onto paper. Such cute ideas.

Bow toppers from material and heavy brown paper. Packages with polka dots painted on and packages with fabric wrapped around it.

Packages wrapped with wrapping paper and packages stamped with a rubber stamp.

Serenity (age 17) really enjoyed this challenge. These are the ones she made

Old music sheets were used as wrapping paper.

Here she took a button, dipped in paint to stamp her paper.

And for this one, she found a branch from the outdoors to use as her topper and used the Silhouette Cameo to cut out the bird and birthday greeting.

This month’s challenge is painted rocks! I’m looking forward to seeing what the girls do with that.

Butler’s Pantry

In yesteryears, the Butler’s Pantry was a place to store silverware and other kitchen items that were not edible.

Although I loved so many of the suggestions that it was actually hard to choose one, I ended up picking Butler’s Pantry because I found it easiest to say when I was directing someone to go and get an item from there. It just seemed to slip out so easily.

I finally got around to painting the name on the door the other day. I wish now I had did it different. I would have purchased a decal with the name Butler’s Pantry from Etsy.

I made a stencil using my Silhouette Cameo. That worked great but maybe I should have used a cardstock adhesive because when I placed it on the door, I couldn’t get it to totally lay flat so overspray would get under the letters and caused my letters not to be crisp.

In between the words “Butler’s Pantry” I painted a covered serving dish.

Sometimes your results aren’t what you were really wanting and this is one of those times. But all these projects are learning experiences for me which is very valuable in its own way.

One of the benefits is now none of my kitchen helpers will lose their way and stand and wonder in front of the several doors we have, “Just where is that Butler’s Pantry” when I send them downstairs.

First I found my piece of wood in our pile of wood to be burned and I was so happy because it was some wood from a chair my son Seth had made when he was in high school  learning woodworking. He completed some basic projects and this chair was one of them. You may remember that I shared another project I made from this chair back in April – a coat hook.

This is a picture of Seth and my mom the day of his high school graduation sitting on “the chair”.

And here is Seth now 7 years later. But that isn’t my mom. That’s my daughter and Seth’s sister, Serenity.

But I digress.

The piece of wood that I found for my sign was the actual seat of the chair. We cut that part off and now there’s not much left of the chair but I’m happy because I now have another piece of wood that is useful and has sentimental value to me.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the words, “O come let us adore Him”. I had to do it in parts since the paper was too small to accommodate the size of letters I wanted. There may be a different way to approach this but since I didn’t know that better way, I had to do it like I did. Then I put the stencil on the wood and painted.

And here it is.

I love it – even with its smudges of paint. Of course, I probably would have loved it more without them.

And I just love it on my Winter mantle.

But a vision for what I’m wanting is clear in my mind (at least for 1/2 of the room).

Remember that headboard I rescued from our burn pile? (You can read about my finds here.) I decided to see if it would work for my bedroom.

First I lightly sanded it because it was starting to peel and blister from being left in the rain (before I rescued it). It’s not a high quality piece of wood. It’s just a veneer so I didn’t sand it too much.

Then with the help of my assistant, we brushed Kilz primer over the entire thing.

I liked the look of the headboard just with the primer.

But since I’m not sure how to achieve this, I went ahead and painted the whole thing a solid white.

But I really wanted to try a glazed look. I wanted my headboard to have hints of the blue/gray that is on the bedroom wall. Let’s just say I tried. I think the color I was mixing with the glaze was a little light so I decided to give up since it was almost night and not the best time to be painting anyway.

But then the next morning I could actually see the hints of blue. It’s quite faint but it’s there.  I didn’t do a very good job at spreading it evenly but I think it will be okay because I’ll have pillows against the headboard.

Look at that blank wall. A perfectly blank slate to work with. Ideas anyone?

And I now have a new lamp. i told you I was making progress! I purchased it at Beall’s Outlet. I could have bought 2 identical ones but I’m not wanting both nightstands to be identical nor to have identical lamps, so I only purchased the one.

Have you ever painted furniture before? Any tips you can share?

Lilnking up with It’s Overflowing.

If you’re looking for a simple activity that is sort of addicting, this could be it. I’m itching to get me a few pieces of glass to personalize.

Some supplies you will need are:

Etching Cream

Vinyl Reusable Stencils (these are so neat!)

Rubbing Alcohol

Cotton Balls

Popsicle sticks

Step 1. Clean the surface that you want to etch using the cotton balls and rubbing alcohol.

Step 2. Place stencil on surface.

Step 3. Using popsicle stick place etching cream on stencil. You just want to dab it on. It doesn’t have to be very thick.

Step 4. Let sit for 3-10 minutes. We left it on for 10 minutes just to be sure.

Step 5. Rinse etching cream off under running water. Remove stencils. Dry glass and you’re done. Of course, there’s a whole world of etching out there, so if it piques your interest, you could go on to master all the ways of etching including sand blasting. Now that looks interesting!

For one of Serenity’s project’s, she bought a 9×13 casserole dish and engraved “From Serenity’s Kitchen” on it. No losing this if she makes someone a meal. They’ll know just who to return it to.  I think these could make unique personalized gifts. We put a little etching cream on a Pyrex pan but it didn’t work. This pan is an Anchor Hocking brand.

Audrey personalized this drinking jar.

It is very difficult to get a good picture of items that have been etched! This owl was cut out on our Silhouette Cameo onto vinyl.

And on the opposite side of the owl, Serenity put a monogram with her initials.

This is a perfect craft for young girls and older because there’s so much potential here to be creative.

Have you ever tried etching glass? What did you think of it?

Twenty-two years ago, this little guy stole my heart.

All 7 lbs. 1 oz. of him.

And now, 22 years later, he’s made me a grandma and my heart is stolen all over again.

I’m planning a baby shower for little Shalom that will be held this Saturday and yesterday I did a super simple project that I want to share with you.

Hardly any time was involved, it’s easy and low-cost. All you will need is a pair of rubber boots that are ready to be thrown away.

Like these.

One of the boots has a 4″ crack where water can come in instead of keeping it out so it was perfect for this project.

The first thing I did was put masking tape around the heel but I don’t know if that’s so important. I’m thinking I should have just painted everything.

Then it was time to give it a new look and that was accomplished by taking a $4 can of spray paint and giving it a new coat.

And here they are now.

I’m planning on using them Saturday since my theme is “Showering with Love”.

It’s fun to think of ways of re-purposing items. The simplest things can be some of the most fun.

Like rain-boot projects…

and little babies.

You’ll need a stamping pad (any color). Take the edge of whatever you’re working with and dab it on the stamping pad. There is no right or wrong. If you only want the edges distressed, just lightly dab the edges. If you want some of the face marked, like in the picture below, you would just make sure the stamping pad hits more than the edge. Very simple and like I said, no right or wrong.

I also did the distressing technique using the stamping pad on our banner “Love is Sweet”.

I used the black stamping pad to dab the edges and a bit of the face of the letters. I love how it turned out.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out all the hearts, letters and flowers.

Do you have a favorite distressing technique that you can share with us?

And now I have some exciting news. Audrey (my 8-year-old) and I are flying to Illinois tomorrow to see my parents and meeting up with my sister who’s flying in from Pennsylvania and bringing her 7-year-old daughter. The last time we went was in October and my sister and I brought our boys who are close in age. That’s when we gave mom a surprise birthday tea party.  We’re looking forward to a good time together!