Cozy Infinity Scarfs - 30 Minutes or Less

Oh the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

***

Tis' the season - the holidays are upon us. With the holidays comes a whirl wind of activities! Plays, projects, shopping, parties ... I could go on. With all that said I know I have slacked a bit and have not written a blog post for almost a month. How times flies.

 A lot has happened in December, a few projects got started and some even were completed !!!

Also there were some great visits with family and friends.

This may be a long post ... so grab a nice warm egg nog and settle in ☺

***

December started out with my BF heading off to the mountains for one of his annual sled trips. With him gone this was the perfect time to work on some projects, get the Christmas shopping done and  spend some quality time with my Mom.

We decided to make a weekend of it, mom packed her overnight bag and was ready to go. As usual we had to start with something girly - this included getting a manicure and pedicure ☺ my favorite.

Next we had some fabric shopping to do - I needed to pick out some material for infinity scarfs. I have wanted to make these for a while and thought they would make great Christmas presents.

Below is the fabric that we picked out for the scarfs. Three nice warm flannels.

 

I think I have read all the online tutorials imaginable for infinity scarfs. For the most part they were all basically the same, with small differences here and there. What it boiled down to was taking an infinity scarf I already had and loved and measuring it to get the measurements we used.

For these scarfs the fabric measurements were - 2m x 0.35m.

  

Once we had the fabric cut we then sewed the two longest sides together (right sides together)

You will end up with a 2m long tube

 

 Now this is the tricky part to explain !!!

You will need to place your hand in the tube you just sewed together and grab the other end.

Once you have that end in your hand you will pull it back through to the top of the tube.

Stop when the bottom end and the top end of the tub meet.

Your tube will now be 1m in length and all you will be ale to see will be your "wrong sides"

You will need to match up the ends and sew all the way around joining the top to the bottom.

Make sure to leave a small opening.

You will place your hand in that small opening, go all the way to the bottom and grab the fabric and turn it right side out.

Lastly you will need to stitch closed that small opening you left open to turn your fabric.

   

We had to try a couple times to get a thread that worked with all the different colours.

This nice brown is the thread that we choose. 



I am very happy with the final product and they took all of ~20 minutes give or take some time for the hand stitching. The fabric cost $50 and I was able to make 10 scarfs. So in total each scarf cost about $5 each. These are quick and easy for Christmas presents and don't break the bank.

Let us know if you make your own infinity scarfs and if you have any tips or tricks.



Love to hear from you!

- The Youngest

Merry Christmas Tree Skirt

This skirt was made at the Fall Retreat in October 2014 - it has taken almost a year and a half to finish. Of course the supervisor was there every step of the way.

The quilting took about 1 week. I could only manage one round at a time before I had to quit with my hand. Although my hands were flat all the time, my CRPS from my surgery in July was causing me great pain.

It took another two weeks to stitch the back down. I manage to do about 8  inches or so at a time before I had to put it down for the next day. Frustrating, and a tearful journey.   Chef kept on encouraging me and told me that this condition is not forever. What I worry the most about as a quilter is losing the loss of my hands and my eyesight. I can't even type for longer than 10 minutes at a time before the pain prevents me from moving my fingers anymore. I am still off work and I do very little. Chef is doing my hair -- but hey! He does a fantastic ponytail and I CAN pull my pants up by myself finally!

 Supervisor....

 Of course he had to take a wayyyyyyyyyy closer look to make sure I was doing it right! What will I do when he's gone? He's 15 now! Can you believe it!

 The end product under the tree. Finally replacing the old felt one that was used for 30+ years!

 The reverse side is fun too!

 It will be some time before I am back at the machine an into my 'normal' again! Thank you all for your emails and encouragement! I have love reading them all! I am hoping the neurologist will be able to find a solution to all this and stop the relentless pain. I am now stoned on morphine and sit gazing at the tree. If this is my last project -- let it be a joyous one!

Merry Christmas one and all! I wish you all the joys of the season and a fabulous New Year to you all!

Margo

Dull and Dingy to FABULOUS - Ironing Board Cover

 

I have finally settled into my NEW sewing room and I am loving it. I have everything just where I want and as a result I have been sewing a heck of a lot more. It's become a little oasis of creativity ☺

 

However the more I sew the more I notice how our Ironing Board really needs a makeover. This ironing board has been all the way from the East coast to the West coast and then some.

 

It really is showing its age. It is looking rather sad and stained. I like to have a few projects on the go at one time so I decided WHY NOT I'll make a cover for the dull dingy ironing board.

 

 

 

 

I went to pick out some fabric that would spice up that drab ole' ironing board. I nailed it down to the three choices below.

 

 

Choice # 1

 

 

 

Choice # 2

 

 

 

Choice # 3

 

Ding Ding Ding ... Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

 

After a quick tutorial from the master (Mom) I was ready to go. I'm sure you could have been more precise than I was but I didn't think anyone would really bend down to see the bottom of my ironing board so I didn't see the point.

Supplies

-   2 meters fabric (I used quilting cotton)

-   Batting - enough for 1-2 layers (I kept the old cover and batting on for extra padding)

-   3 meters of 1/4" elastic

-   Basic sewing supplies

How To

Step 1 - Iron your fabric.

Step 2 - Lay out your fabric and place your ironing board on top.

Step 3 - Cut your fabric out, cutting  3" - 4" away from your ironing board.

Step 4 - Cut your batting using the ironing board as a template.

           - Cut the batting so that when pulled down it covers the edges of the ironing board.

As you can see below I was not all to precise (it really isn't too big of a deal)

 

 

Step 4 - Fold your raw edge over and sew approx. 1/4" the entire way around your cover.

           - Mine was a bit more than 1/4", that's okay.

           - Sew around the curves the best you can, you will need to slightly pleat your fabric as you go.

           - You will know what I mean when you get to the curved parts.

 

Step 5 - Fold your nicely sewn section over ~1" this will form a pocketed area .

           - This is where your elastic will go.

 

Step 6 - Sew 1/4"  around, try to keep your casing wider then the size of your elastic.

           - Leave about 1" opening at the end so you can feed your elastic in and around.

 

 

Step 7 - Feed your elastic in through your opening

           - Make sure you do not let your elastic tail go in as well or you will have to start over again

 

 

Step 8 - Place your cut batting on the ironing board ensuring the edges are covered as well.

           - I kept the old cover and batting on for extra padding as well.

           - While holding onto the two ends of your elastic, stretch your cover over your ironing board

           - Now with your cover over the board, pull the elastics as tight as you can, making sure that

              the new cover in completely covering the board and all the edges.

           -  It should look something like the picture below.

 

Step 9 - When you can no longer pull the elastic any more tie the elastic ends together with 3 - 5

              tight knots. This will ensure the elastic will stay together and tight.

 

 

 

Step 10 - Step back and admire your new ironing board cover ☺

 

I am very happy with how my new cover turned out and it was so simple and easy. It honestly took me no time at all. The longest part was trying to choose a fabric I liked.

 

Now my tutorial isn't the most precise however here is a link to a really good tutorial for this project. They used bias tape to form the pocket instead of my folding technique, etiher way works.

 

How to make an Iron Board cover - Tutorial

 

Hope you enjoyed my litte project!

Don't forget to comment - we love hearing from you

 

The - Youngest

 

Dog Gone CUTE

I was browsing through some quilt blogs when I came across a Blog Hop by Sew Fresh Quilts. I was instantly enamoured with the Dog Gone Cute quilt. Without a second thought I knew I had to try my hand at this quilt.

Now a blog hop is a big commitment and I did not want to be tied down to any time lines. So instead of signing up for the HOP I purchased the pattern from Sew Fresh and decided to work at my own pace.

I found some fat quarters from an online Canadian fabric store Fridays Off specifically for this quilt. The customer service of Fridays Off was excellent and there are some really great fabric options on there, for a reasonable price.I find it hard to find online fabric shops that will ship to Canada without it costing me an arm and a leg.

Fridays Off offers $5.95 shipping anywhere in canada and orders over $125 ship free !!! That sold me right there. Oh and to top it off when I got my package in the mail there was a darling hard written note. Way to make a customer Happy! Way to go Fridays Off !!! Happy Customer right here ☺

Before I started the Dog Gone Cute quilt I had one more baby quilt I needed to finish as there was a dead line ... the baby was about to arrive! You can see that quilt in the "Winner of a Quilt" blog post which was posted earlier this month.

Check out my fabric choices below - can't wait for it to all come together.

 _________________________________________________________________________________

 
Like any other sew day I called my Mom up last minute and invited myself over. The deal was that if we are doing a sew day I needed to do her hair first. She got new rollers and wanted to test them out. I begrudgingly agreed ... I say begrudgingly only because if you have tried to put rollers in your hair with those darn pins it is a big pain in the B . U . T . T!

Alright lesson learned my Moms rollers are high tech and WAY better than the older style ones. They heat up fast, easy to put in and make amazing curls.

PS. FAMILY - I would like to add these rollers to my Christmas List ☺☺

With the hair done we now started on cutting all the fabric for the Dog Gone Cute Quilt. We worked out a system where Mom read the instructions and I cut the fabric.

The hardest thing I find when cutting fabric from a pattern is I always end up going back and forth from the pattern to the fabric. The whole "Measure Twice, Cut Once" idea. Well I second guess myself and end up measuring for about 5 minutes per cut. Having a reader and a cutter makes the whole cutting process go by a heck of a lot faster.

In one afternoon we managed to get all the background, ears and nose fabric cut + one patterned fabric for one dog. In the below picture you can see the first dog we selected to do.

We used the highlight as you go method. As we cut we highlight so we do not end up duplicating cuts that have already been made. This seems to work well for me.

In the initial layout of the pup (below) he looks more like a gremlin instead of a Cute Dog ha-ha.

This quilt is a work in progress. I am taking my time, trying to match up those points the best I can. As usual my seam ripper has become one of my best friends. My BF knows I have made a mistake when he hears the machine abruptly stop followed by several grumbling sounds.

Pup One- When I saw the final block I was like a kid hearing an ice cream truck in summer

Pup Two - One of my favorite fabrics from my Fridays Off purchase

Pup Three - This is the BFs colour choice ☺

 Pup Four - For some reason I found this one the trickiest so far (I may have been tired at this point)

This one is so cute I am going to keep it for myself.

Stay tuned for the completed quilt!

If you would like to see other projects from some fellow bloggers check them out HERE .

And don't forget to leave us a comment !!! We love hearing from you ☺