Quilted Playmats And Pillowcases

Lately, one of my favorite things to do is arrange fabric into little groups and look at them through the camera lens. Sometimes match but mostly transition. Flow from one color or pattern to the next. Combine fabrics you wouldn’t dream of wearing.

But for quilting… it works. I can do just about anything I want.

Here are the fabrics I started off with. The novelty squares were pulled from the scraps I bought on eBay.

I made a playmat using primarily animal prints and yellow. With a few bright colors added for the “pop” effect. I REALLY LOVE this design. It’s the same one I used for my brick red table mat with the utensil holder. This one can also be used as a placemat or table topper.

After finishing the mat, the plan was to make one matching pillowcase. But after sewing the fabric strips together and quilting it, it was love at first sight. Ended up making three pillowcases. And I probably would still be making them if I hadn’t run out of the leopard print.

I had fun taking photos. Lots of photos. On a table. On the floor. Just snapping them. Even staging them.

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What am I working on now? A pillowcase to go with this.

I should be finished with the pillowcase today or tomorrow. So many things to sew and quilt. Not enough hands.

And The Winners Are…… (Yep, 2)

5-31-11 Update: Prizes have been mailed.

Deb is the winner of my giveaway.

The Random Generator picked her comment, #134.

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On May 24, 2011 at 7:40 am Deb said:

Great giveaway…what awesome tools! I’ve never heard of a mini iron, so that would be so fun to try. But, my favorite is the quilting gloves. I’ve wanted a pair forever, but have so far made due without them. Thanks for the chance! Oh, and my favorite color is green.

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She wins these Sewing/Quilting Supplies.

Congratulations, Deb!!

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I was extremely pleased with the number of entries. 340 comments. So I decided to randomly pick another comment.

The 2nd winner is Abbie2001. Comment #248. I will put together a nice little package for you. (No mini iron though.)

Here’s what Abbie said.

On May 25, 2011 at 2:52 am:

I love purple and I love all the items you are giving away. I enjoy reading each of your emails. Thank you.

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Deb and Abbie: Please send me your name and address so I can get your goodies in the mail.

And to everyone else….. You are all winners in my book. For a few days I got to read comments from new faces. Hope you will sign up to receive my blog via e-mail. And I hope to see you back here commenting on my other posts. It sure was fun watching the comments come through and reading all of them.

Thanks, everyone, for entering my giveaway contest.

You Guys Are Fantastic!!

My giveaway is doing great!! Better than I expected.

Being listed at Sew, Mama, Sew under “T” put me near the bottom of my category but you guys found me anyway!!

Yippee!!

If the comments reach 400 by contest end, I will put together another prize package and randomly select a 2nd winner. Won’t have a mini iron in it but the winner will still be pleased.

Keep the comments coming. 321 thus far. And I have enjoyed reading them all.

• Jelina: Good luck with your exams.

• Gaby: Thanks for touring my tutorial section.

• Carol DeLater: Hope you have been able to get to your blog. Bummer.

• Rowan: Congrats on the new house. Have fun in your new sewing room.

• Bailey: Very clever setting up a tent in the living room during the rainy weather.

• Lauren: Yes… enter as often as you want.

• Skooks: Ditto. Yes, you can.

• Sarah: Yep, another ditto. Enter as often as you wish.

• Katie: Thank you for making This Year’s Dozen your favorite blog site!!

• H2Ogirl: Did you figure out how to “follow me”? (Go to my sidebar to sign up for my e-mail posts.)

• Wendy: I put off learning to quilt for YEARS. I am loving it. Hope you will try it.

• Christie S: Ahhh, driving to the Upper Peninsula in the fall. Gorgeous view of the changing leaves.

• Stephanie Granite: Congrats on making your 1st quilt!!

• JohnKarinkw: Yep, I am an enabler. Too funny!!

• Jacqueline: Congrats on the coming baby!!

• Paula Lee M: Thanks much for following my quilting progress. Hope you will try it.

• Brittany Gale: Enjoy your new sewing machine.

• Jackie W: Happy Birthday (early)!!

• Lorraine: Yep, your comment came through fine.

• Tina: Thanks for putting me on your favs list.

And thank you for the compliments on my new rug mugs, table mats and my other creations. Really appreciate it. I do hope you will return and become a regular reader and commenter. Looking forward to getting to know you better.

Awesome!!

Switching To Cats… A Quilted Pillow That Is Also A Tablemat

OK, moving right along. Another Idea Sandwich completed.  At the speed I am going, I’ll have to make up more sandwiches.

This is the BEFORE photo. How the fabric looked when I showed it to you earlier this month.

And now it is a Double Sided Pillow. Which can be used as a Double Sided Table Topper. One side one day. The other side the next.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I finished it four days ago. Have been staring at it.

Time to share it with you.

If I hadn’t of run out of the rust puzzle print fabric, this look never would have happened. I even went to JoAnn’s to see if I could find more. No, nope. Then spent about an hour searching the net. No luck. So as any creative crafter would do… I moved on to Plan B.

This black floral with the butterflies filled in. And mighty nicely, I’ll say.

After deciding on it, that is when I was flooded with ideas.

Why not do a two sided pillow? And quilt both sides. Two separate quilt tops. AND how about making it versatile. Make it so it could be used as a table topper. So… with all of these ideas, I got started.

There’s a lot of FIRST’s in this project.

• My 1st triangle blocks.

• My 1st quilted pillow. (And a recycled pillow, at that!!)

• My 1st quilted item with a zipper.

• My 1st quilted item with multiple quilting designs. (stippling, boxes, triangles)

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Anyhoo… let me tell you about it.

I worked on the front, then the back. I didn’t spend a lot of time taking measurements. I just sewed. Luckily when I finished, there was only an inch difference in the two quilt tops.

The front has a larger panel of cats in the center with log cabin type borders. Each border a different width.

I quilted the faces with a square box about an inch from the seam. And stippled the rust and black borders. The last border, with the cat fabric, I quilted triangles. If you look close, you can see them.

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Making The Back.

The triangle blocks were fast to make. Draw a line down the center diagonally, sew 1/4 inch on both sides of the line. Cut in the center. And you have two blocks from the one. Then I had to press and trim them. I didn’t know what I was doing… obviously… since the cat faces point up, down and all around. LOL!! And only a few of the end points lined up correctly. LOTS of room for improvement.

Quilting the back was easy. Squares for the cat faces. Stippling for the rest. To make the square lines, I used my square rulers and marker pencil. And sewed slowly. I think they came out great.

OK, both tops are quilted. Now what? I had to think about how to put them together.

Remembering what I did to make pillowcases, I made French seams. Adding the zipper was a bit of a challenge, since I did it a**backwards. (It’s been a LONG time since I sewed in a zipper.)

It took longer than necessary. And the zipper could have been about an inch longer. But as Tim Gunn from Project Runway would say, “Make It Work!!” And I did.

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Want to see the finished pillow?

OK, let’s go…. And you get to see it also as a table mat.

THE FRONT

THE BACK

REVERSIBLE TABLE MAT

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Well, there you have it.

Another original idea/creation from This Year’s Dozen.

You know the drill. What you can or can’t do.. But I would be honored if you wanted to try making this for yourself. Just link back to my post. Thanks for sticking around to the end of this long post.

May 23… Today Is Giveaway Day Across The Net

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CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. Winner to be announced Thursday, 5-26. Thanks for entering!!

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Hundreds of sites are participating.  Sponsored and coordinated by Sew, Mama, Sew.

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=17334

I am giving away Quilting/Sewing Supplies.

• mini iron
• 6 fat quarters
• purse patterns
• quilting grip gloves
• cutting ruler
• tape measure
• pin cushion

Here are close up photos.

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How do you win all of this great stuff?

Just enter a comment on this post.  Any comment. Tell me your favorite color. Tell me which of my craft items you like best. What’s your favorite food. Any comment is OK. Enter as often as you wish.

One comment will be randomly picked by the Random Generator.

Contest will be open until midnight EST Wednesday, May 25. Winner will be announced on Thursday, May 26. Prize will be shipped on 5-30.   And I will ship internationally.  So everyone is welcome.

Comment away!!!  Good luck.

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Go here for more details on the Giveaway and to see which sites are participating.

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/

Party Of One: Quilted Table Mat and Utensil Cone

Debra, a friend and regular commenter here at This Year’s Dozen, recently asked…

“Do you ever run out of ideas?”

So far, not yet. In fact, I have an idea book and add to it just about every day. My brain sometimes goes on overload. I wish my crafty fingers could keep up. Thanks, Debra, I’ll try to keep the ideas coming.

Here’s my latest creation.

Remember this? One of my Idea Sandwiches I blogged about on May 3rd.

The end result kind of looks like the idea I had in my head. Except for rounding the corners and adding a little something extra. That is what happens as you create. Probably happens to you too. One thing leads to another. One idea seqways to a new direction.

Speaking of seqways… first let me tell you about what I do on Wednesdays. Senior Day at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I only recently discovered the gems to be found there. For a song. And on Senior Day, on Wednesdays, they give us old folks a discount. 25% off all purchases. When I was there two weeks ago, they were giving Seniors 33% off!! I got this for $4.01. Originally $5.99.

No matter that I don’t know what it was used for. No clue. Spice rack? Hubby said tie rack. It has holes for hanging in the back.

I know what I am going to use it for.

This…….

How cool is this!! Well, hope you won’t mind seeing it weekly. I plan to use it as a prop for LOTS of my creations.

The fabrics I used were mostly Fat Quarters. The brick and cream with the wavy lines was bought years ago. I am thinking the first year I started blogging. Liked it but didn’t know what to do with it.

The Dresden Plate blades I decided to use flat. Not pointed and not rounded. As is, as I cut them.

Add some sashing and some Log Cabin type borders and you get this.

My stipling is getting better, don’t you think? First I created some boundaries with double lines. Then I free motion quilted within those lines. I added wavy stitches along the end border to go with the wavy fabric.

Here are the rounded corners I mentioned earlier. I cut bias binding. I love the “feel” of it as I work. So different from crosswise. And easy to work with. I may use it more.

And done!!

Making a caddy to hold the utensils came to me out of the blue. I used more Dresden Plate blades, quilted one side, sewed them together.

Party of One.

Come on down!!

Your table is ready.

Hope you have enjoyed my little story on how this was created.

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This is an original design by This Year’s Dozen.

Please respect Copyright Laws and do not distribute, copy, post on the Internet or share with anyone without written permission. Thanks!!

More Mug Rugs… Have a Cookie!!

All finished…… Don’t know if I would eat cookies off them. Wouldn’t these be cute for a little girl’s room. Playing with her dolls. Tea Time. Too cute!!

As you probably guessed, I am loving quilting. I like looking at all the designs in books and on the net. Then I take what I like and go off on my own and make up my own creations. And I am learning sooo much. Everyday is something new.

BUT… some parts of quilting gives me pause. Like sticking the bent quilter’s pins in the quilt sandwich.

Let me ask you quilters a question…….. How do you avoid the pin holes?

I carefully insert the pins but I feel like I am damaging the fabric. I see holes. BIG holes. Ugh!! Other than use my regular sewing pins, which would scratch up my hands and arms, I don’t know how to prevent the holes.

For this set, I quilted in one fourth inch columns. I didn’t use any aids. Just eyeballed it. Some of the lines are uneven but it looks ok to me. Looks GREAT to me. As a new quilter.

Adding the binding was kind of tricky. I pieced the fabrics together and when I pinned it, I had to make sure the seams weren’t near a corner. That is, after I made the mistake of doing so. Lesson learned!!

The daisy fabric was a Fat Quarter. One Fat Quarter. Can you believe I managed to get four mug rugs and the binding from that one 18″ by 22″ piece? Careful measuring and careful cutting.

Well… that does it for now. You will have to come back to see what else I am working on.

Auditioning Fabric For Bindings and Mug Rugs

Hi everyone, been a while. But I have been busy. VERY busy.

Making fun Mug Rugs. If you have never heard of them, they are the equivalent of a coaster and a placemat. Larger than the former and smaller than the latter.

Deciding on which fabric to use for the binding has taken days. Yes, I really do mean DAYS. Since you know hand sewing is my least favorite part of quilting, I wanted to make absolutely sure my choice would be perfect.

So…. I tried out several.

It was still hard deciding. I guess it is best to let the “squares” decide. And look at them through my camera lenses. I can eliminate a lot of yucks just with this one step.

BTW, I created these mug rugs by cutting 5″ by 5″ fabric charms into four 2 1/2″ squares. The ones with pinked edges gave me fits!! Why do companies pink the edges? Don’t they know about fabric waste. And trying to match up the sides is a total PITA!! I ended up cutting off most of them before sewing.

Anyhoo… back to what I was telling you. I have almost 20 mug rugs in the works. Some sewn, quilt sandwiches made, some quilted ready for binding and some bindings waiting to be hand sewn. I think the fun part is selecting the fabrics and sewing them together. I love that step!!

These photos show more mug rugs. Adding in a few novelty squares. I am going to use red polka dots for the back and probably bind them with black fabric with tiny white dots. I’ll keep making them until I run out of little squares.

What do you think of my POINTS?

Looking good, huh? I figured out the trick to getting them almost perfect. The trick is don’t skimp when making the fold in the corners. Let it extend out a bit. Like a hang over. That little extra allows the corners to point out and lay flat.

What else have I been working on……. I made a few things with the cat fabric I showed you a couple weeks ago. But more on that later. Need to finish them up and take photos.

Designing Doggie Placemats

I have been working on these pet placemats for about five days. The idea came to me when I was sorting through my fabric, matching up what I thought went together.

I knew what I wanted them to look like so I got started. Cutting, sewing and quilting.

My least favorite task was sewing the binding on the backside. By hand. It is a snooze inducer. I fell asleep several times. But finally finished the last one sometime today.

I saw quite a few pet placemats on Etsy and knew mine needed to stand out from the crowd. So… I added a few embellishments. A ring to go around a rolled up placemat. With fabric dogs and dangling charms.

Each placemat measures approximately 18″ by 14″. And is reversible.

The red doggy fabric is called Whiskers and Tails. By Lorilynn Simms for the Robert Kaufman Co. Paw print fabric was a Fat Quarter and the other two, not sure, but I bought them by the yard. All fabric came from JoAnn’s.

I really enjoyed making these placemats. I am going to make up more. Think Christmas presents!!

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This is an original design by This Year’s Dozen.

Please respect Copyright Laws and do not distribute, copy, post on the Internet or share with anyone without written permission. Thanks!!

Look What Tanya Made!!

One of my loyal readers made this macrame plant hanger from my Carousel Buttons pattern.

Isn’t this PRETTY!!

For a second I thought I was looking at the one I made. Tanya’s plant hanger is a dead ringer for mine. And what does that tell me? That my directions were clear and accurate.

Your turn. Try it. There are 90 color illustrations included with the pattern. Even if you have never tied your first knot, you will be able to make this plant hanger.

So….. what are you waiting for!! Learn something new and have fun too. Make one for yourself. Or give it as a gift. As Tanya did.

Thanks, Tanya, for sharing your beautiful creation with us!!

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You can see mine here.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thisyearsdozen