International Quilting Day

I hope that you all were able to enjoy International Quilting Day. I was supposed to be working, but I decided it would be worth losing sleep to spend the day sewing.

I have been redoing my sewing corner and decided to put the big ironing board away. It took too much of my small space. So I found a small ironing board at Goodwill for $2. It was a mess, but I had lots of fun with fabric and a staple gun recovering it.

With my new ironing board made on Friday, I was all set to work on my first quilt on Saturday. So I started by planning out where I wanted each square to create the bee body.

Then I spent the whole rest of the day piecing it together. This part was fun and frustrating. I thought I was so careful cutting and so careful with my seams, but some of the pieces still do not line up as I wanted. I put some of them together more than three times. Then I decided to go with a quote I recently saw and felt that it would be better finished than perfect.

So it is not perfect, but it isn't horrible either. It is only a small fraction of the whole quilt and it took me so long. (Is this horribly slow for one days work??) So this will take a while, especially if I only get a weekend here and there.... but it was so much fun.

I worked a little on another project on Sunday to help the remake of my sewing corner. I am excited to share that with you soon. Just a little more to do...

fabric for Wall Art

Now that I have this lovely buffet in my dining room/sewing room/craft room/school room, I need to decorate it. I don't really like lots of knick knacks and such. But the walls are looking kind of bare like a staged house.... not like one that is lived in and loved.

I don't have a whole lot of cash to go into wall art and need to make my own. I kind of liked the look of the stretched fabric, but thought how sad I might be that all my lovely fabric is on the wall and not being sewn. I would probably tear it down just to get back to the fabric and make something with it.

   

jandofabrics.com

So then I was thinking that maybe I should try sewing some blocks, like blocks you would sew for a quilt and frame them to use as wall art. I would use different colors and blocks, but here is an example of someone that did use blocks on the wall.

 

favecrafts.com  

I haven't finished a quilt yet, but have been working on it. So this might be a fun project to get back into sewing with.

So then my next thought was that I should just make a mini quilt to hang over the wall. This would be even better practice for a bigger quilt.

And on the wall over by my sewing machine, I would like to decorate with a rainbow of thread. Wouldn't that look lovely? I wonder if the hubby would mind the dining room being taken over by all the sewing/quilting stuff? I guess he better just get ready for it. :)

 

kaboodle.com

I guess I could do something not fabric related at all.... but I really don't have any ideas and it is a large wall.

What do you all do for wall art in rooms with multiple purposes?

Repurposing Old Sheets

For the next six weeks, my sewing machine is packed up in storage. So for now, I just have to dream up new projects. Plus, being down a full time job or two, I am going to have to be creative on how I get my fabric. Besides entering every fabric giveaway known to man, and asking every person I know (Hey - did I ask you yet? Do you have fabric you don't want anymore? Just kidding... but really though - check your closets!! Haha), I have had to come up with some other ideas for ways to get fabric and be able to still create beautiful items for really really cheap.

We won't even mention how fast my kids are growing. My 9 year old seems to be catching up to my height just a little too fast, and she is going to need some clothes. And we won't even get started on the boys!

So to keep up with my hobby and my every growing beautiful babes, I read this great article on re-purposing old sheets into clothes, pillows, aprons, art or other items. You can find old sheets at garage sales and even thrift stores, sometimes people are just giving them away. I have been on sites like freecycle for years where you can get notified of people giving stuff away for free. Or you can even watch the free section on Craigslist. I always have my hubby do the picking up for craigslist stuff though.... And if the bottom sheets gross you out a little, the top sheets will do just fine and are usually less used (people aren't laying on them! Heck, my kids are always pulling them off their beds.). And you can find all sorts of cool patterns  or characters to really make your items unique. I love the vintage look I have seen in some of the recreations!

Here are some brilliant people and their ideas for those old sheets you can find (or table clothes or whatever else comes your way.)

• This is my favorite link: Sew Country Chick had a guest post where someone shared the cutest dresses from would have otherwise just been old ugly sheets. Now they are beautiful dresses. Check it our here.
• Scraphacker has some sweet ideas for pillow cases. You've gotta check them out.
• Make It & Love It has a great and simple method for creating dresses from sheets here.
• Modern Kiddo has 10 awesome ideas for old sheets.  The baby blocks would make such a nice gift.
• Saved by Love has 20 different ideas for your old sheets here. I love the laundry bag idea. It is so cute.
•  Daisy Janie explains how to make a quick quilt from fitted sheets.
• A Small Snipet shows how to make a really cute maxi skirt from sheets.
• Sew Like My Mom shows a really easy version of a pillowcase dress for little babes as well.
• Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom takes the pillowcase dress up a notch. This is cool.
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• Just in case you haven't seen enough ideas to get you excited yet, here are a few more from Crooked Brains.

Boy, it makes me wish I still had my She-Ra sheets. Oh how I loved them!!!

Uses for Leftover Lemon Peels

It is about 80 degrees here in southern Georgia. This is my first time out of the north for the winter. I desperately miss the snow, but this warm weather is kind of fun. The kids woke up, felt the beautiful air and requested lemonade. So the two youngest got a quick lesson in how to make a delicious homemade lemonade and they got to practice using measuring cups to measure things out. I will purposely use a smaller measuring cup than needed so that the kids have to mathematically reason about how to get the amount they need. It is a great secret math lesson in disguise!

 Now, I looked at the pile of lemons left over and wondered what the heck to do with it all... Sure seems like a waste to throw these out. So, we began our mission to find ways of reusing everything we have left.

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Here are some of our finds:

A natural air freshener
You can add the peels to water, cloves and cinnamon. Then simmer on the stove to hide any *burnt* smells or anything else nasty going on in your kitchen... not that I ever multitask too much and burn dinner, night after night after night...
You could also just throw the peels in your fireplace if you have one to get a nice aroma as well.

Make your own lemon zest
I hope I am using the right name for this here. But basically, you grate the lemons. Then let it dry. Place it in a jar and have it to use later for flavoring different dishes.

Lemon Vinegar All-Purpose Cleaner
Fill up a big jar with the leftovers, cover it with vinegar and seal it up tight. After a few weeks (2 or 3), you can take out the peels and add water. Some say a 50/50 mix is the way to go.

Lemon Pepper Seasoning
You could make a tasty seasoning. Find out more at one of my favorite places to read recipes: Simply Scratch. (She has an amazing blueberry muffin recipe as well.)


Bug Deterrent
Ants, roaches, fleas, oh my! You can place peels in different areas of your home to keep them away. Try placing them near doors, window sills, or even the hidden corners. This should keep them from wanting to come any closer. (This might work outside for stray cats too!)

Coffee Pots and Cups
I want to try this one for my hubby's coffee pot. Supposedly you can place lemon peels, ice and salt in a container with coffee stains, swish it around, dump it out and the stains will wipe away.

Natural Shiner
Do you have any stainless steel, chrome or copper? Using a lemon peel and some sea salt, you should be able to scrub off anything that is keeping it looking dull.

Help with Motion Sickness
I get motion sickness really bad, but I am not sure I could do this. Some say if you suck on a lemon slice you will stop being nauseous.

Natural Dish Detergent
I love this idea. I make my own detergent for the dish washer and one of the ingredients is citric acid. So it only makes sense that lemons could help do the job. You can add lemon rinds to the dish water to help get rid of grease and help the dishes to sparkle.

Make Your Own Vitamin C Powder
Oh. my. gosh. I love this idea. Check it out here. (While you are there, check out the other great ideas, like getting rid of soap scum, whitening teeth, seed starters or even candied lemon peels... so many great ideas!)

Be sure to check out some of the links in this post, because there are even more ideas from all of these fabulous people on more ways to use those lemony leftovers.

Keeping Mosquitoes Away!

It is officially mosquito thirty here in southern Georgia. I tried to get some fresh air last night and do some work outside, but instead I became dinner! Since I am not from Georgia and am not used to having to fight off mosquitoes for much longer parts of the year, I started doing some hunting to see what I could try.

Here are the actionable steps you can take to have a few less mosquitoes nibbling on you:

           * The first thing I did was walked around the property to find any standing water and see if I could get rid of it so that mosquitoes won't have a breeding ground.
          * Had the hubby clear out the gutters.... we used to do this every year in New York as well and it always helped with the bugs!
          * I have heard that spraying listerine on or near you can help. (I used Listerine to get rid of lice once when my daughter brought it home. There aren't the greatest ingredients in there, but it is better than other choices). However, I am wondering if it is the minty smell. I am going to try a minty essential oil and see if I can get the same results.
          * Keep your vitamin C levels up. There are some people reporting that by keeping high level of vitamin C in their system they were able to keep mosquitoes away. There are so many other reasons to take Vitamin C, that it wouldn't hurt. Just make sure to take the real stuff... there are a lot of fake vitamin Cs out there. But that is a topic for another day.
          * Eating more garlic is also said to keep them away. I eat a ton of garlic though... and they still chomp on me. So I am not sure if that works or maybe I am just not getting enough!
          * You could make your own repellent using witch hazel, oils and other essential oils. Here is another great recipe from Katie at Wellness Mama.
          * You could even make your own citronella candles.


If you do happen to get bit, or your little ones, I highly recommend placing vinegar on the bite. We pour just a little bit on a cloth or napkin and hold in on the skin where the mosquito dinner feast occurred. It helps take itch out!

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