Summertime! and I am a slacker

Is summertime one word? See? I'm too lazy to look it up! Ahhhh, summer.

I got an email from Quilts for Kids reminding me that I need to send in my quilt. I feel bad that I even needed a reminder! 

You can see the front of the quilt below. 

Hubby is holding it. "Will you be able to see my orange shorts?" 

"Why, what's wrong with orange shorts?" 

"Well, they won't match the quilt." 

"Actually, they do match very well."

And below is the back of the quilt. They send the fabrics, the quilter puts the quilt together. This particular grouping of fabrics was very cute! 

They include a special label on which you are supposed to write your first name and a name for the quilt. Well, I don't name quilts. Not that I am against it or anything, I just never have. 

So, I'm looking at the quilt front and see turtles and birds and mice. Hmmm. Well, they all live in the woods, so I called it "Woodland Creatures." Unfortunately I wrote that on the label before including the back of the quilt in my inspiration. So, the back of the quilt has elephants, and monkeys. A lion. Yeah.

I think I'll stick to not naming quilts. I don't seem to be very good at it.

Hey, do you collect selvages? Because, I don't. If you would like these, be the first to ask me in a comment and I will mail them to you. I just couldn't throw them away.

Bookmark

Wow, summer has arrived (well maybe not officially on the calendar) and blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside. Projects, too. 

The weekend is here and I do need to plant some flowers that are very tired of sitting in their tiny seedling pots. Maybe I can carve out a little time for indoor fun this weekend, though. Like sewing. Imagine that!

Lately I've been making bread from frozen bread dough. Quick -- and a homemade touch without the work! Yay!

Recently, I sent a card to one of my nearest and dearest. 

I felt like it needed a little something more than a card, so I made this bookmark. 

I first sewed the center strip to the two side (striped) strips. Then I cut horizontally across the upper portion and stitched in the horizontal part of the cross. Layered it with flannel in the middle for "batting" and a cotton piece for the back. The backing was pieced but I didn't get a photo of it. 

Then I did some quilting through all the layers, topstitched along each edge about 1/4-1/2 inch from the edge, and then pinked the edges. 

That was it. It slipped nicely inside the card and I sent it off in the mail.

Something to do with your scraps!

Super cute project -- from four fat eighths!

It's a table mat. It's a basket liner. It's a fun and quick project! 

You will need four fat eighths plus coordinating rickrack trim. 

Sew the fabric pieces together in pairs along the longest side, with rickrack in between. 

No pics of the rickrack insertion but here's how I did it: 1) Place rickrack on right side of fabric, along the longest side. Stitch right down the middle of the rickrack. 2) Sandwich rickrack between the two pieces of fabric, right sides together. Stitch through all layers carefully using the seam you already stitched as a guide. Press from right side, pressing all seams to one side. Topstitch through all layers of fabric. (See photo below.)

Place sewn together pairs of fabric right sides together. Line up and trim edges to match neatly. I waited until now to trim the selvage.

Sew a 3/8 inch seam on all 4 sides, leaving about 4-5 inches open for turning. Clip corners and turn to right side. Press.

Top stitch 1/8 inch along all sides. Press again.

Enjoy your bowl liner...basket liner...table mat...whatever!

Be sure to visit  Sew & Tell Fridays. Lots of eye candy this week!