A Sandwich Wrapper

I've seen these sandwich wrappers being used by some of the students at the school where I work.  One of the students let me trace the shape onto a napkin awhile ago and today I finally got around to trying one out.  

I had a pretty good idea of how to make it but I found this site through Pinterest that had a tutorial which I used for clarification.   Elizabeth at To be Charmed also has a pattern you can print out. 

Supplies:

•  2 - 14" square pieces of fabric
• 1 - 14" square piece of plastic
• 1 - 2" piece of Velcro (both parts!)

Directions:

1.  Cut your fabric and plastic using the pattern.

2.  Take the rough side of the velcro and sew it to the outside fabric, centered in the middle of the fabric and 1 1/2" up from the bottom, adding the 1/4" seam allowance.

3.  Place right side of fabric, plastic, then wrong side of fabric, making a sandwich and sew all around leaving top open.  Be careful not to use pins except for around where you are going to stitch!

4.  Turn right side out.

5.  Fold in open end and add soft piece of Velcro.  Sew opening closed.

So easy!  I just might have to make one for my husband to take to work since I don't have any kids at home anymore! :)  Hmm, what fabric should I use??? :)

Blessings,

Kathleen

I Remember...

Land of the Free

Because of the Brave

"My country tis of thee

Sweet Land of Liberty"

A nation that does not honor it's heros, will not long endure.  ~President Abraham Lincoln

Today I am grateful to God that I am an American.  

I am grateful to the men and women who give their lives to protect mine. 

 I hope you take a moment today to remember...

 Blessings,

Today is my favorite day!

I just can not stop looking at this mug rug I received in the Scrappy Mug Rug 4 swap on flickr.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It is unbelievable.  There should be an award for this kind of work.  

Karen, also known as Sewgentle, got me as her partner. Since this was my very first swap I wasn't sure what I was supposed to write on my flickr profile that would help someone know what I would like.  I actually read through a bunch of other swappers profiles to get an idea of what to write!  Well, Karen did a little snooping and found out I am a big Survivor fan. This is what she made for me.  It is obviously too beautiful to actually use but I will treasure it for sure.

I noticed a hand drawn campfire on the outside of the box but I did not have a clue until I read the letter Karen wrote. When I opened the box the first thing I saw was a package wrapped in a bandana/buff!  It was tied with strings with lots of knots just like the challenges!  The letter (my Tree Mail!) had burnt edges and was rolled up and tied on top of the bandana with a stick that Karen said I could use as a toothbrush if I wanted!  

When I saw the mug rug I just could NOT believe it and there was still more in the box!  There was a burlap bag, tied with more string! :)  Inside that bag was tea, RICE - seriously you need rice.  (Get back Philip!) There was another package that was Sea Salt wrapped in a piece of beautiful fabric. THEN, there was one more package....  a Hidden Immunity Idol!!!

I wish Karen could of seen me.  I called my husband (Survivor is our 'date' night!) before I had even opened everything because I was SO excited!   All I can say is WOW.  Today really is my favorite day!

Blessings!

"I set my Rainbow in the cloud..

"and it shall be a token or sign of a covenant or solemn pledge between Me and the earth. Genesis 9:13.  

I always think of rainbows as God's promise to us to never send another flood.  But it also reminds me that God is faithful and He keeps ALL His promises. The fact that I even wanted to make this mug rug for my neighbor is a testament to God's work in my life. Since the day we moved into our house 11 years ago she made our lives very difficult.  I really struggled with hating her (just being real here..)   My husband would continually tell me I needed to forgive her.  I knew that, but it was hard....  I slowly began praying for her.  It wasn't until our dog died 4 years ago that something began to change.  We are now friends. That is a miracle.    

Well, my neighbor had to put her dog down a few weeks ago. I know how painful that is. I really wanted to do something to bless her and to remember her dog Omar.  So I came up with this Rainbow Bridge Mug Rug.  

I used this tutorial to print the Rainbow Bridge poem onto the backing fabric.   It took a couple of tries to finally get it but I think it turned out great.  I also want to say thanks to my fellow mug rug friend Stephanie at Spontaneousthreads, who really helped me with those curves!

Blessings,

Swap Fun

Since the beginning of the year I've joined three swaps.  The first was for potholders.  I feel bad because I don't think my partner liked what I made very much but I guess it didn't bother me too much because I wound up signing up for a second round.  This time it was for potholders (they had to be anything but square) and/or a grocery bag.  I did both.  Pictures here.  Here is what I received from my partner, Liz of Living my Sweet life! 

A cute bag, two potholders made with adorable kitchen fabric, a keychain, little notebook, and a bookmark!

That brings me to my next swap!!!  Mug Rugs

When I say that I've never made a mug rug,  or even seen one in person I am not kidding.  But I signed up anyway! :)   I haven't mailed my package out to my partner yet but here is the mug rug I made for her.

Here is the front.  She gave me a few different color choices to pick from.  One was orange, white, and aqua.  I am praying that my aqua and her aqua are the same!!  She also said she likes owls.  

                               

This is the back.  It seems that a lot of the ladies on the mug rug flickr group do something on the back rather than leaving it plain so this is what I came up with.  Since the quilting wouldn't work for both sides I did each side separately using fusible fleece then lined up the border and hand stitched them together before putting the binding on.  I sure hope she likes it!

Blessings!

It's That Time Again...

Vanilla making time that is!

+

Vanilla Beans and Vodka = Really awesome Vanilla!

If you've never tried it, you should!  They make great Christmas gifts.  Go here for directions.

Blessings, 

A Good Read..

This is what I've been reading lately.  I have to apologize to my friends in Harford County if you haven't been able to find any quilting books at the library!  I am almost done with them so you can get a turn! :)

1. Sugar sack quilts, 2. Simple Contemporary Quilts, 3. Pretty Little Patchwork, 4. Patchwork Style,  5. Innovative Piecing, 6. 250 Continuous Line Quilting Designs, 7. Dare to be Square, 8. Liberaed Quiltmaking II, 9. Material Obession 2, 10. Home Comings, 11. freemotion quilting, 12. Make it Simpler

I'll give you my two cents, for what it's worth.   I found all these on Amazon but check out your local library.   And remember I am fairly new to this!

1.  This book actually showed a piecing technique I hadn't seen where you layer your two squares on top of each other, draw a line down diagonally, sew on each side of your line and then cut along the line and press open.  Duh.  I cut each triangle out and sew them together....

2.  Nice book but a bit too modern for me.

3.  This book had some cute projects in it.

4.  Loved this one.  Adorable little purses and cute tote bags. 5. I really loved this one.  I didn't even get far into it before I went on Amazon and        bought myself one! Straight forward and very detailed for a beginner like me.

6. Crazy designs done with free motion.  Since I've barely mastered the simplest of designs this was fun to look at and get ideas of the possibilities.

7.  Awesome book.  All the quilts were made just using squares or rectangles and the owl on the cover is adorable!

8.  There were lots of beautiful bright and cheerful quilts in this book.

9.  This big book was filled with awesome quilts and had alot of quilting basics to help in the back.

10. The projects in this book were mostly for Fall, Halloween and Christmas. 

11. This one was way too advanced for me.  Crazy free motion quilting.  The workmanship  is amazing.  

12. This book about paper piecing says 'Easy as 1, 2, 3' but I think not.  I think I need to spend more time reading this book and not just flipping through the pages if I am going to figure it out.

Have you read any good quilting books?  Any recommendations for me?

Blessings,