Spring Quilted Coasters

Who's ready for spring?

I know I am ready 

and 

to help that happen I'm stitching in spring colors!

Today I have a free pattern and tutorial over at

Therm O Web

to make super fun Spring Coasters.

Thermoweb has the best fabric adhesive products

and the coasters use both

HeatNBond® Fusible Fleece

and

 HEATNBond® Lite iron-on adhesive.

The coasters make a great gift or can just bring a little spring color to your decor.I hope you will check my post out over at Thermoweb (click here)
 and download the free pattern!

Stitch a Patchwork Jack Wreath with HeatNBond Interfacing

While the 
My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop is continuing,
I want to squeeze in a post to share my tutorial for Thermoweb today.

Scroll down for today's post for the hop to enter the giveaway today.

I just love making Halloween decor projects.  It's the one time of year that you can just go wild with decorations. 

 Here is one of my favorites. 

 I've made this wreath without the eyes for fall, but it's just a hoot to add the eyes with HeatNBond Lite to make a patchwork pumpkin Jack-O-Lantern.

Today I am over on the 

Thermoweb Blog

with a free tutorial to make a

Patchwork Jack Wreath.

It only takes a few supplies including

HeatNBond® Medium weight Non-Woven Interfacing

and

HEATNBond® Lite iron-on adhesive.

Wouldn't it be fun to make pumpkin seeds coming out of his mouth?

I should have done that.

It's time to start bringing out the Halloween Decor

or

making something new.

This is just the project to get you started.

Be sure to go to the 

Thermoweb Blog

and 

grab this free pattern.

July - An Island Batik Month

I had so much fun this month as an

Island Batik Ambassador.

I wanted to do a recap of the month

because the projects are some of my favorite to date.

The beginning of July brought the

Island Batik was super generous and provided the fabrics

from the new

Freedom fabrics collection designed by Kathy Engle

for my

Carpenter Star quilt.

I've always wanted to participate in the 

Quilts of Valor Foundation

and this was the month I finally did it.

That post can be found by clicking HERE.

One of the biggest challenges for July was a video challenge for Island Batik.

We receive 2 boxes a year and this was box number two.

Mid-July I was super excited to join other

talented Thermoweb designers

 for the

Summer Fun Sew Along.

I combined my Thermoweb designer gig with my Island Batik Ambassador gig

and

had so much fun 

 designing a quilt block inspired by so many childhood memories.

Later I made the Summer Fun Kitchen Towels with the sew along quilt blocks.

The post with all the pattern information is HERE and the towel post is HERE.

I saved my favorite July project for last:

The July Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was

Artsy Fartsy.

I went out to our pond and spent time just looking around and taking pictures.

That was my inspiration for

Patience - The Art

The real challenge was to make him look half in and out of the water of the pond.

Check out the fun pictures of my frog process HERE.

He was so fun to create and I didn't want him to get lost in the shuffle of vacations

 and 

crazy busy summer fun.

Bring on August!!

Summer Fun Kitchen Towels

I had a great time joining other

members of the Thermoweb Fabric Design Team

to make a series of 

Summer Fun Quilt Blocks.

All 4 free quilt block patterns are available over at Thermoweb.

Click HERE for the patterns.

Catching Fireflies

is my design.

It's a 6" finished quilt block.

 I used HeatNBond EZ Print Lite to print the patterns right on the fusible adhesive to create all of the quilt blocks. 

 Just print, fuse, cut, bond, and stitch.  It's that easy.

My fabrics are all Island Batik 
and 
the thread I used to stitch around the appliques is
Aurifil Thread:  50wt #2620.

Today I am over at Thermoweb

to share a tutorial

for

Summer Fun Kitchen Towels.

The smaller quilt blocks make it a cinch for this quick summer project that is perfect for gifts or your own home decor.  

Who can't use a new, super cute kitchen towel?

Click HERE to find my free pattern in a special blog post over at Thermoweb.

Craft a little summer today!!

Fall Leaves Mini Quilt

I'm thrilled to be over at the

Thermoweb Blog

today with a free tutorial.

I'm happy to share this free pattern that allows you to print the leaves design right onto

 HeatNBond® EZ Print Lite sheets with your printer.  

That means no tracing.

I also show basting the quilt with SpraynBond® basting adhesive

and

matchstick quilting with Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread (#2021).

This design is so fun, quick, and made to bring the warm colors of fall to your decor.

You'll can find all the details and the free pattern by clicking over to Thermoweb HERE.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Happy Kansas Day! Home Pillow Cover Tutorial

Kansas became the34th state in the Union on January 29, 1861

and today is the 157th anniversary.

Happy birthday, Kansas!

Today is a great day to learn more about the state of Kansas

and

make a sweet pillow to show the love for my home.

This is the year I am redecorating a little and this pillow is perfect for the farmhouse decor.

It's so simple to make pillows like these.

Just print your state onto a StitchNSew EZ Print Quilt Block Sheet.

Pin the sheet to fabric and stitch right on the sheet.

I made a quilt sandwich with my background fabric, batting, and muslin

 before I started stitching.

This one was stitched with a triple stitch on my sewing machine.

Then, just tear away the quilt sheet.

You can print any words you want without having to reverse them.

Just stitch them the same way.

I cut and added a heart with HeatnBond lite right where Dodge City (my home) is on the map

then stitched around it with black Aurifil 50 wt thread.

This pillow cover has a 16" insert. 

The background started at 19" square and I sewed it to the envelope back with 1/2" french seams.

Just sharing my love for home...

Want more love?

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt is hosting a blog hop next week.

I'll be posting a quilt for the hop on February 6th.

You don't have to wait until next week for more love,

tomorrow I have some love letters to share.

See you soon.

CREATE A QUICK FALL PILLOW WITH THERM O WEB SPRAY ADHESIVES AND DECO FOIL™

I'm so thrilled to be over at the Therm-o-web blog today

showing how to create this pillow.

Fall is near and it is time to start thinking about fall décor.  Deco Foil™ in beautiful fall colors teams perfectly with the natural color of burlap to capture the warmth of fall decorating.

It's a quick and easy project for a crisp fall afternoon.

No one will know that you made it yourself.

All the details can be found by clicking HERE.

Have a great day!

Burlap Wreath for the "BRRR" Season

It's is actually getting cold here.  It's been so warm it's hardly seemed like Christmas time.  Maybe we'll see some snow tomorrow, well the weather man says we have a 40 percent chance which means there is a 60 percent chance it probably won't.

Today I worked on a copycat challenge.  I call it that, but the directions for the wreath were in the magazine.  I made it mine though....

Burlap Wreath with Felt Roses

The directions for the wreath are on page 67 of the magazine "Mary Janes Farm" Dec-Jan 2013 edition.  The magazine's version of the wreath is on the cover.  A friend brought this magazine to me last week and I was instantly in love.  A subscription for this mag is on my wish list for Christmas.

Living in a cabin where everything is brown, I opted to use red burlap and instead of ribbon roses, I made mine out of felt. 

All you do is wire one end of a 4" burlap strip to the back of the wire wreath in the middle and wrap the burlap around to the front and back through the middle.  Keep adding strips and wrapping the middle and outside of the wreath until it's nice and full.

When the burlap is all wrapped, add ribbon and fabric roses.  Done.  Fast and perfect for the porch.  It goes very well with my burlap wrapped tree.

It's starting to feel a little like Christmas,


 












Linking up with:

2012 holiday knock-off decor party at Debbie Doos Cherishedbliss - A Crafty Christmas Link Party
  

     

Front Porch and Checkerboard Table

It's a beautiful day out here in the sticks.  NO WIND!  Hip Hip Hurray.  That means it's a great day to get out on the front porch and finish my latest project.

Front porch at the Cabin

I love sitting out on the screened in front porch and watching the deer eat out in the alfalfa field or just rocking the day away out there.  We used garage sale money to purchase the chairs at Cracker Barrel last year.  We found them 1/2 price and couldn't resist filling up the porch. They are heavy enough to withstand the western Kansas wind and are very comfy. 

Patio Table from Lowe's

Once the chairs were in place, we needed tables.  I purchased  an outdoor table at Lowe's for about 40 bucks last year and decided that would do until I came up with a better plan.  I really wish I would have saved my money and looked at the local flea market first, but live and learn..

I found these table, which are about 24x 24, at the flea market.  They weren't together and one was priced 15 dollars and the other 20 dollars.  My husband was able to talk them into giving us both for 30 dollars.

I lightly sanded them and had to primer them.  I learned in this process to buy the better primer.  Those stains on the oak table kept bleeding through the 2 coats of primer.  Once we went and visited with the lady at the paint store we were able to purchase a water based primer that actually worked.  Lesson learned on that one.

I painted both of the tables white to match the rocking chairs, but I wanted to put a checkerboard on one of them so I taped out the checkerboard on the "problem table" very easily with my quilting ruler and got to painting. 

 I didn't go with traditional red and black. Mine is brown and barn red.  After I painted the checkerboard I covered the top with a couple coats of clear acrylic to protect it and shine it up a bit.

Checkerboard Table

To finish the project today, I'll need to cut some checkers out of some old sticks and paint them.  I purchased an old military map carrier from an antique store to hold the checkers.  I'll post the end of this project when it's complete.  lol 

For now, I have two great tables for the price of one.  Lesson Learned!!!

Happy Spring,

Linked up with: