Stash Buster Project: Hand Warmers

I came across a great tutorial the other day for simple and quick holiday gifts that help bust your stash, or give you a great reason to go buy a super cute charm pack! These simple little hand warmers go together FAST and have been a hit.

Click the picture below or this link for the full set of instructions to make these! All you'll need is fabric (2-3/4" to 3" squares), rice, your sewing machine, and your basic sewing kit!

Photo and Tutorial by Rae Ann Kelly

DIY Autumn Leaves Wreath

The weather has definitely felt like fall lately! I went to pull out our Fall decorations and realized that I gave most of them away when we moved. All I had left were two fall garlands.

http://www.marquettelareeblog.com/2011/09/autumn-necktie-garland.html

http://www.marquettelareeblog.com/2011/09/autumn-necktie-garland.html

So I decided to see what I could come up with from our local Walmart crafting aisle (the home improvement/hardware/crafting store wasn't open yet when I made my shopping run, so Walmart it was).  I found our crafting section is pretty pathetic compared to what I was used to, but it would work.

I ended up going home with a wire wreath form I got for $2.96 (much cheaper than the grapevine wreaths I discovered!), and 3 sets of autumn plants (two bunches of oak leaves and a floral arrangement) which I got for $3 each (ouch! I remember the leave bunches being $0.99 two years ago!). I dismantled the leaves, clipping them into singles leaves rather than pairs.

I pulled out the hot glue gun and just started gluing them on with no rhyme or reason.

And, I found a great use for the Bumbo (Darrow still loves this thing and it comes in handy when we have two toddlers in the house needing somewhere to sit during mealtime). It makes quite the handy little holder for the glue gun between leaves!

I got all the leaves on and decided I did want to put the items from the floral bunch on, so I clipped those off and glued them on as well. I love how it turned out! I probably could have only bought one bunch of oak leaves as I had a ton left over, but I didn't know that before.

I've had a pin on Pinterest saved for forever about using a command hook to hang wreaths (especially on cabinet doors, or if you just don't like the metal over the door hangers). I didn't have a wreath hanger (and didn't want to buy one), but I did remember that pin. So I used some twine out of the craft drawer and secured the wreath to the back of the screen door, only I did this redneck style. You know the little hydraulic thing on top of screen doors that keeps the door from flinging open or slamming shut? This door is missing that I discovered. I was going to use a command hook, but using that bracket meant that there wouldn't be the back of the command hook visible through the glass. So I tied the twine to that and hung the wreath. At least this way I know the command hook isn't going to give out.

It adds some cheer and color to the front of the house (which desperately needs some cheer and color). This picture made me realize just how badly the house is in need of a paint trim job. I'll put that on the list.

So with the supplies used (one wreath form, and 2 floral bundles-I'm saving the other bunch of leaves for another project down the road), I spent $9 on my fall wreath! Not bad!

Row by Row Experience

Anyone taking road trips this summer around the state? Out of state? We have the perfect experience for you! Rather than picking up a postcard at each stop, or getting a t-shirt, join in the Row by Row Experience!

Here's how this works:

Participating Quilt Shops have created a Row, all centered around the theme of water, that is unique to their store. When you visit the shop you can collect the free pattern to the Row they designed. Many will have kits available to buy as well if you want to be sure to get the exact fabrics for that row too. Collect as many or as few as you want, and then combine them to make quilts, wall hangings, table runners, etc. I like to think of it as collecting postcards that you can snuggle with!

So, here's the run down:

• Collect patterns/rows between June 21-September 8, 2015. 
• Patterns are FREE (but you do have to physically visit that shop to get it)
• Quilt shops in all 50 states and 9 of Canada's provinces (not Newfoundland) are participating, so wherever you go you can find a Row!

And now you are probably wondering what our Row looks like.

Our Gila River Row was designed by Sherelle Wilkerson and Karen Earlywine.


Now...just because I'm a nerd and I wanted to see what the route would look like to make one big loop around New Mexico to visit all 16 participating shops (get the addresses by clicking on the link). You could hop on at any point on this route and make the loop to visit every single NM shop, and it would bring you right back to where you started with minimal backtracking.

To follow this route would be 20 hours of driving. All in one go, that'd be long and hard, but break this up into a week and that's a nice fun road trip (that'd less than 3 hours of driving a day if you followed the exact route) with plenty of time to look around, meander, and check out the state!

The map above is a hybrid of two Google Maps (Google wouldn't allow me to put all 16 stops in one map, so I split it in two). But, here are the links for the two Google Maps for anyone interested:

Map #1 (Silver City through the southeast portion of the state and up to Las Vegas, NM)
Map #2 (Las Vegas, NM through Taos and down through the central/western run of the state)

Have fun with this! If you participate (and we hope you do!), send us photos of your finished Row by Row Project!

Lending Library

While Pinterest really is wonderful, there just really isn't anything like flipping through a book for inspiration and help. Did you know we have a lending library of quilt patterns, tips, and ideas? We do! Come in and browse through the books, we're sure you'll find something fun and inspirational for your next project! 

 (Just a few of the books in our library)

Dresden Plate

I finished a project this past week that has been on my bucket list for a while. I've wanted to learn how to make dresden plates for a few years now, but they looked hard so I chickened out. I participate in a bi weekly crafting challenge called Iron Craft. When the theme "D is for..." came up for our Iron Craft challenge I knew it was finally time to face my fears and do it!

I went through and found a pin I had saved on Pinterest that had a tutorial that looked fairly straight-forward and simple. That was the one to try. To kill multiple birds with one stone I also decided that I'd make this project work with the Monthly Pinstrosity Challenge of "Use it Up" where all the supplies for the project had to be things I already owned.  My stash is quickly becoming flooded with fabrics I've found at Aunt Judy's Attic. Sometimes I just can't resist buying some of the fabrics I see, even though I don't have a project in mind right away. They just wrap their fibrous fingers around my heart and beg to go home with me. How can I say now to that?! I found that I still have some of the beautiful dragonfly fabric from a few years ago, and then found 3 other fabrics (all from the store!) that went along perfectly. 

The whole process was so much less of a headache than I imagined it would be. Dresden plates are surprisingly not hard at all, at least with this pattern! My fears had been unfounded. It was fun to put this together and I love how it turned out! Now I want to make a quilt all of Dresden plates! 

Terrific Tuesday Preview!

It's not often that we show you some of our Terrific Tuesday secrets before Tuesday...but we're just so excited about these that we can't help ourselves. Tomorrow we get to show off these fun fabric books (and sell the panels to make them)! 

So soft, colorful, and fun! With the whole book being fabric there's no worry now about ripped pages, bent spines, or spilled milk warping the pages (not that that's happened to any of my son's books...). I can't wait to get my hands on these!

Magnetic "Paper" Dolls

One year for Christmas my sister and I received magnetic paper dolls from our Grandmother for Christmas. We spent hours and hours playing with those dolls. Those two dolls had marvelous adventures in our imaginations. School, vacations, romance, raising babies, saving the world, making cookies, you name it. I still have my doll tucked safely away in my personal history box. It's one of my treasures! 

With those memories from my childhood I was especially excited to see the adorable fabric line from the February Terrific Tuesday featuring the "paper" dolls. This past month Judy decided to take the panel and turn the fabric into magnetic dolls, and it turned out adorable! 

Aren't those cute with the cookie sheet as the board?! I love these little dolls and this genius idea. The little girl comes out in me again and I secretly want a set for myself. So fun, and so cute!

Basket of Food Fabric + Project Ideas

One of our favorite things about summer (especially late summer and early fall) is all the fresh garden produce and the farmer's markets. The smells! The flavors! The crisp colors! Oh we live in a beautiful world! We know it's barely just spring, but now is the perfect time to be thinking ahead to the projects you want to have finished by summer. In the store you can find out vibrant and fun basket of food fat quarters. 

Love these fabrics but can't see them in a quilt? Here are some fun ideas that would be darling with these "flavorful" fabrics:

 Hot pads! I especially love the pie hot pad. So clever! Find the book and patterns here.

Prairie Point Dish Towels! You could do all the points in one food print, or mix it up for a colorful towel as in the photo above. Find more photos of this project, as well as a link to the tutorial used, at Miss Abigail's Hope Chest.

Another fun idea for embellishing flour sack dish towels with cute fabric comes from Miss Abigail's Hope Chest. Check out the blog for the full tutorial.

 Shoo-fly covers for drinks! Perfect for summer picnics, or for evenings sitting on the porch!

Can you tell I like pretty dish towels? I do! These would be simple to put together, but they add such a beautiful splash to the kitchen! Read about how these are put together over at Fig Tree Quilts.

More shoo-fly covers, only these are larger to fit bowls. Perfect for those 4th of July picnics, backyard parties, and summer events. Find the tutorial at The Sewing Dork.

And to finish this off, more dish towels! I love these cute but simple dishtowels from the Sweetwater blog. The little ruffles really dress this up!