Patriotic Napkins

Whenever I see holiday themed fabric on sale, I usually buy it.  I love making holiday themed quilts.   However lately I have been making holiday themed cloth napkins.  Yesterday and today I made these patriotic cloth napkins.  There are 6 napkins in each 10" x 10" set, and two 5" x 10" napkins in each set. Thats a total of 16 napkins.  The reason why there are so few smaller napkins is because they are what was left over after cutting the 10" squares of fabric.  Here is my video on how to make these napkins.   In the video I make 5" x 10" napkins.  Slowly I am adding to the amount of cloth napkins in my home.  These small napkins are nice.  You can use them, then just toss them in the wash.  They don't take up any room in the washing machine, and they are very durable.

June Block of the Month: Churn Dash

This month we are going to start using half square triangles.  You will need 4 different fabrics for this block.  The center block can have a large print on it.  For these directions I will be referring to the colors that I used, but you can use any color combination that you want.  First cut 2 squares (purple) 4 7/8" each.

Then cut them in half to make 4 triangles.

Do the same for the yellow fabric.

Next cut 4 pieces of yellow fabric at  2.5" x 4.5."

Cut 4 pieces of green fabric at 2.5" x 4.5."

Cut your focus fabric 4.5" squared.

I like to arrange my cut pieces where they will be when sewn together.  This helps me not make any mistakes when sewing them together.

Next sew your yellow and green rectangles together, and sew your purple and yellow triangles together. Iron the light sides towards the dark sides.

Then sew a half square triangle to a green and yellow square, and do this twice.  Make sure that the pieces are facing the right direction when doing this.  Then sew a yellow and green square to your focus fabric.  Then sew the other half square triangle to the other side of the 1st set of yellow and green squares.  Then sew the other green and yellow square to the other side of the focus fabric.  Press the top and bottom rows' seams towards the outer blocks (half square triangles).  Press the middle block's seams towards the focus block.  Then pin and sew your rows together.  Press (iron) the seams towards the middle row.

Here is the finished block  The block pattern is called Churn Dash.  I still need to trim the sides so that they are straight.  

The colors were inspired by this picture.  I wanted to add some yellow to my purple and green color scheme.  Green, yellow, and purple are a split complimentary color scheme.  That means that two of the colors are next to each other on the color wheel (green and yellow), and two are opposite from each other on the color wheel (purple and yellow).  

Got Stickers? Make Magnets.

Remember that sticker that I got in the mail yesterday?  I put it on one of those freebie magnets that sometimes gets sent in the mail.  Then I cut it out, and have a much nicer magnet than I did before.

Local Children's Band: Ben Rudnick & Friends

Last week I entered a contest by Ben Rudnick & Friends to win their new cd, "A Frog Named Sam."  I found out 2 days ago that I won!  The cd, 2 stickers, and a postcard came in the mail today.  My youngest son immediately put one of the stickers on his hand, and we listened to the cd while picking up my other son from school.

We saw them preform a few weeks ago at the Teddy Bear Picnic.  Thats when I found out that they had a facebook page and a newsletter with some free downloads.  It was the combination of those 2 things that resulted in winning the cd.  They asked on their fb page what was one of the free downloads and what did we like about it.

Well after downloading the 2 songs, I played them for my son.  He went crazy over one of them and starting dancing all around the room.  Here he is with his teddy bear at the concert.  I'm hoping to take him to see them again soon.  They are preforming in MA, NH, and CO from now through July 3rd.  You can check their website for dates, times, and locations.

Happy Birthday (Bags)

My oldest son is turning 11 this week, and his party is on Saturday.  I finished sewing 10 goodie bags for the party.  I only needed to make 9 though.

 I made them just like I would a reusable shopping bag.  I then cut out a food box and used it as a label.  I numbered 7 of them 1 - 7.  I left a space to write the child's name, otherwise they can just remember which number is theirs.

The larger cat tag is for my youngest son's bag.  Both of my kids have their name on their tags / bags.  The goodie bags are packed and ready for the party.

Last month I fused a bunch of plastic bags.  Yesterday I turned 2 sheets of them into bags.  This one is slightly clear.

The orange bags were given to me by an employee at Jo Anns.  I thought that the Boston Globe pink was a nice touch for the top of the bag.  Its a tall, thin bag, perfect for a bottle of wine.

I actually used these two bags to wrap some of my son's presents in.

Up-cycled Earrings

Earlier this month while wearing my blue bar code earrings (top right), I told my husband that I would love another pair for my birthday.  I get several compliments on these earrings every time that I wear them.  They say "proof of" then "purchase."  So cute.  So for my birthday my husband got me the pair on the right hand side.  Aren't they cute?  The very back of them is solid green.  They are made from thick plastic containers.  Both earrings were made by Beach Chicken.  I just love her products.  I bought several notebooks from her and gave them to people for Christmas last year.  Her notebooks are made from old hardback books.  Here products are well made, and she mails them in a timely manner.  I'm so happy that my husband listened and picked out just the right pair for me.  I'm looking forward to showing them off.

Tuesday's Tot Craft Time: Plaster Fun Time

My older son's birthday is coming up, and I wanted my youngest to make something for his brother.  We had not been to Plaster Fun Time in a year, so we went today.  It is a place that sells different plaster items that you can paint.  Then they have 4 different types of spray coatings for you to choose from when you are finished.  Last year my youngest painted the 1st letter in his brother's name for his birthday.  This year he wanted to paint this poke ball for him.  I gave him red, white, and yellow paint.  In the end that peach / orange color was all the paint mixed together.  I tried to salvage it a bit by painting over the wet paint.  It's not perfect, but we had fun.

My little one liked this astronaut magnet that was there, so I painted it for him.  He wanted the glitter finish on his.  The other one got a gloss finish.  Would you know that 1 minute after this picture was taken, he dropped the magnet and it broke in half.  So now I need to glue it back together.

I usually like to go to the pottery place to paint presents, but we do not have a week to wait for it to be fired.  At the pottery place I like to give my toddler a tile to paint.  He can paint whatever he wants to and it doesn't matter.  I like to use the tiles as trivets.