Merry Christmas Eve...

I did solve one problem today.  We didn't like the old fashioned Santa that was starting to fall apart.

I didn't want to dig through three boxes of ornaments and other junk to see if I could find the star that I got a few years ago... It didn't work then , so it probably still wouldn't work.

I grabbed the leftover bows from the packages and started building.  I put four of them in a circle and then stuffed another one on top.  Between the sticky backing and some scotch tape, I formed them into an inverted cup shape.

Hey! Whatever works.  I like this much better than the faded Santa.

We decided that just letting Amare have this one to begin with would be easier than trying to wrap it... Problem solved without doing anything at all!

I guess that I am going to have to go with the "Aliens living in the workroom" excuse. 

I will just let people visit in there if they want to.

I will tell them that the aliens made the mess.

It works for me.

Back to the drawing board.  See you tomorrow.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Pillow Fight!!!

 I think that I did this on another post a long time ago... It bears repeating...

I am in the middle of doing the pillows for the couch this morning.

About 30 years ago, I took a couple of classes from Judy Williamson.  This is one of the things that I took away from those classes and have used ever since. 

There is no easier or faster way to do a lot of mini pillows when you need a lot of them!  It is a strip of the fabric, plus a quarter inch on either long side.  You press it down the middle wrong side out.  Then you turn a quarter inch back on either long side.

In the first photo you can see that I cut a strip of fabric twice as wide plus a half inch, as  I want the height of the pillows for the back of the couch. The first photo will make semi square throw pillows.  No measuring.

The second one will make three pillows.  Two will be three inches long and one will be a little shorter. The width of the couch is six inches.

I then do a quarter inch seam on the right end of the strip/  I back stitch both top and bottom, so that they won't let any of the stuffing out.  I move to the other end of the pillow.  In this case, three inches.  I do a row of stitching to finish that pillow and a half inch away, I start the next pillow.  Measure that, if necessary and repeat.  You can do a bunch of pillows really fast with this method.  They can be marked before you sew if you need to.

In this case I simply followed the lines in the pattern.

I probably won't get them all finished this morning.  That's why I am telling you this part now. 

Walter and I are going to see "The Martian" this morning and will probably leave before I have the last part done.

Next I clip the corners and then turn them right side out.

The bag of sand is what I use to stuff them.  Some people use salt.  Some use beads.  Salt solidifies in some climates.  Beads make for tiny lumps in the pillow.  So sand is my weapon of choice now. I get this at Walmart in the floral section.

After the pillow is about 1/2 to 2/3 full of sand, I blind stitch the opening shut.  It is sometimes also referred to as a ladder stitch.  One stitch on one side and then one on the opposite all along the opening. You will find that you can shape them any way that you want to on the bed or couch. 

I will have them finished by tomorrow and maybe even more on the tree bookshelves.

See you then.

Too Lazy to Sew....

I spent the morning in the back yard raking, hula hoeing and pulling weeds....Not a lot of fun.

When i got back inside, I thought about what I could do whilst sitting down.  Yup...Lazy.

I decided on finishing the wicker wing chair.  I have told you how to do this a number of times on the blog, but I decided to run a quick refresher course on lazy pillow making.

I got started by cutting two identical pieces of card stock for each pillow.  Then I glued those down to a strip of light weight quilter's batting.  Not the fluffy kind.

I trimmed the pieces to the same size as the card stock squares.  Then I cut a piece of fabric about 1/2" larger all around.

I glued two opposite sides to the back.  Then I put glue on the other sides, one at a tome and turned the corners under as you see above.  It's kind of like wrapping a package.

I wanted some cording of the same material, so I laid a thick line of glue along one edge of the fabric and put  length of #5 Perle cotton  in the center.  Then I used my thumbnail to make sure that the cord was fully enclosed.  I pushed the fabric up against the Perle cotton as close as I could get it.  I let it dry and then cut the excess fabric very close to the crease. Then I glued it in the seam between the two halves of the pillow.

I have used this technique on all kinds of furniture and draperies for many years.  It works like a charm as long as you get enough glue on it and don't cut it so close that you uncover part of the cord inside.

Once the glue is dry, you can scrunch these pillows by bending the whole thing.  It will stay bent and look kind of squashed.

Anyway, now I have a place to sit and do things in the cottage....If  I can shrink down and get there before Tessie does....The odds don't look to good...Gotta go.

See you tomorrow.