More is more?

OMG!  The t-shirt quilt I made for my daughter is like Joey Tribiani's entertainment center!  

As she outgrew her t-shirts, I started cutting out the logos.  I thought these would make a great quilt for her take to college.  Since the knit is so stretchy, I bordered the cut-outs with cotton fabric and stored the blocks.  This summer, I started assembling the blocks into panels.  

                    

I used most of the blocks in the quilt top, but I had so many that I also placed some blocks in the backing.  

 

   

I knew it was big, when I measured it for the batting and backing.   But, now that it's sewn and quilted, it still hangs over the sides of my California King mattress.  

When it's on her TwinXL-sized dorm bed, will it overhang like that entertainment center covered Joey's and Chandler's doors?  

I need to know when to stop.  Less is more.  At least, it's completed.  

upcycling for my garden

In the spirit of Finish-it-Friday,  I completed a project for my garden.  I wanted to make a few shiny accents to place along my garden path, to add some interest and distract from my transitioning plants and plants thinning at the end of their season.  I saw a bunch of upcycling projects on pinterest.  I like the mosaic gazing balls, the glass totems and the colorful hanging pendants and chandeliers.  You can see my inspirations here 

http://www.pinterest.com/craftingincali/gardening-accents-gazing-balls/

http://www.pinterest.com/craftingincali/gardening-accents-recycled-glass/

http://www.pinterest.com/craftingincali/gardening-accents-mosaics/

I decided to use an old ceramic vase, some spray paint, heavy duty glue and pennies.  Simple materials, simple project.  Hahaha!  You may have seen the below photo in Sunday Snippets post, months ago.  I used E6000 glue to adhere the pennies to my painted vase.  That went so slowly that I only completed a few rows and stopped working on the project.

I had used the liquid glue, thinking that it would be able to stand up to all the moisture in the garden.  I switched to using my glue gun, to speed the process along and finish.  Let's hope it holds!

I'm glad that this one is completed.  I have a couple of other ceramic vases that need to be recycled and a bunch of leftover pennies, so I hope to make more of these.  

I guess the lesson for today is do what it takes to get the project done.  What projects have you recently completed?  Please share your ideas with me.

Happy crafting and have a wonderful weekend.

Sunday Snippets

Grandmother's china

Yesterday, I did a couple of activities, in celebration of Earth Day.  One of them was upcycling some of  my grandmother's china.

When I transported my grandmother's china to my home, a few of the teacups chipped, cracked and broke.  I'm lucky that my grandmother had purchased 30 cups and saucers to go with her service for 20.  Even though I still have a complete set, I couldn't bear to toss the damaged cups.  I searched for upcycling ideas and saw an article on making teacups into candles.  Here's the link http://www.marthastewart.com/273016/teacup-lights  I did a couple of steps differently, so I would only use what I already had.

I used votive candles in the middles of the poured candle wax. Using new wicks and only poured wax would have created prettier and seamless candles.   When the votives have been melted, I plan to replace the centers with other votives or tealights (again, using what I already have).

To melt the wax, using a double-boiler or two pans would be the easiest tool.  I couldn't find the one I use for crafts, so I tried couple of alternative techniques.

I first tried using beakers and boiling water.  It worked but it went REALLY slowly.

I then put my craft bowl in a pot with boiling water.  This worked much better and quicker.  

I used the beakers to scoop the hot wax and pour around the votives.

Finished products

Did Earth Day inspire any of your projects?  Happy crafting!

A Little Behind ...

 

On Thanksgiving Day,  I start to think about the Holiday Season.  I dreamt about how we will decorate the house, which tree we will choose and what I will make for gifts. 

 

This year, I printed our holiday photo cards and mailed them as soon as the kids were back at school.  Since I hadn't sent cards in a few years and I realized that we have 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought I was ahead of schedule.  So, I decided to do something for myself. 

 

While I was putting away the Fall decorations, I found that we still had moving rope from when we moved 14 years ago.  We had rolled the pieces up and tagged them, in case we moved again.  I looked at the items on the tags and saw that we no longer had most of them.  So, it isn't likely that we will need those same lengths of rope.  And, we aren't planning to move anytime soon.  I also found some tin baskets that I had used for my daughter's birthday party 8 years ago.  I had the makings for a project.  I took off the basket handles and hot-glued the rope around the baskets.  I think they (I covered 6) turned out to be cute. 

I was planning to have them hold some small plants, to be placed on my desk and on end tables.



 

But, I was in the mood for some new desk accessories.  I crocheted some little baskets, using a pattern from The Purl Bee.  The pattern is actually called Jewelry Dishes.  You can find it at http://www.purlbee.com/the-purl-bee/2012/5/24/whits-knits-crocheted-jewelry-dishes.html

I wish I could say that I followed the patterns, but I really used them for inspiration (and I crochet while watching tv, so I'm not paying attention).  The pattern calls for starching the trays; I used as smaller hook and tightened my stitch instead.  



I haven't gotten any plants for the roped containers and decided to use two of them on my desk.  They nicely contain my pens/pencils and flash drives.  I like to use what I have for these little crochet projects and was lucky that my leftover yarn matches the rope.  The  crocheted baskets hold my erasers and my jewelry (I don't like to wear my rings while I craft).

My daughter walked by my desk and decided that she liked what I made.  She liked them so much that she asked me to make some for her too, but with color.  I agreed to her request, but the same rule applied - I would only use what I have.

I haven't decided if I'm going to wrap the tins. Their colors already match the crocheted baskets.  I would like to try the square crochet pattern and maybe another round basket (with stripes?). Those will have to wait...my fingers and wrists need a break.

 

I would say that I have lost that "extra" week.  Back to thinking about the holiday season.  I have gift boxes to make (for the feather earrings), wine bags to sew (at least the pieces have already been cut), some presents to make, and a house to decorate.  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I still have 25 days left. 

 

Are you on schedule?

Sunday Snippets

W-I-P Wednesday

There have been a lot of starts and stops, in my blogging journey.  After a four-month hiatus, I committed to the Blogtoberfest Challenge.  The challenge was to post daily during the month of October.  I did pretty well for the first half of the month.  Then, over-scheduling and illness took over and posts have been spotty ever since.  A new strategy is needed.

Since my life seems to be a Work-In-Progress (and whose isn't?), I am going to try to share an unfinished project and post the progress. 

In preparation for holiday gifts, I have taken apart some of the jeans my kids have outgrown, to recycle the legs into gift bags for bottles of wine.  After cutting off the leg portion, I googled jeans upcycling ideas, to use the pockets, zippers and extra denim.  I came across a great tutorial for a pouch to house some of our smaller electronics (phone, iPod, portable gaming devices, ear buds, etc).  Check it out at http://www.instructables.com/id/Protect-the-Tech/?ALLSTEPS 

I made a couple of pouches using the jeans leftovers, the zipper from the jeans and the zipper from a fleece jacket, an unused shoelace and an elastic scrap dyed using t-shirt tie-dye (the elastic is on the open-top pocket, instead of sewing on velcro).  I think they're kind of cute.



I thought that my daughter would want the top one, with the cute embroidery.  But, she found the zipper to be too small.  She took the larger one and packed most of the items from her purse.

Below is another pouch I'm working on.  I liked the rhinestones on the pockets and the buttoned flap.  I'm going to try to also use the coin pocket and another zippered pocket from a fleece jacket.



Maybe the finished pouch can be mine.  :)  I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend.

I'm very intrigued by the idea of upcycling.  There are so many of these projects featured on Pinterest and tutorials on Google.  Let me know which ones you have tried and liked.