Blanket to Scaldinos and Pillows

 

Two scaldinos, using both sides of the blanket

     A friend owns rental place out west.  She wanted a couple of things for the beds.  She bought a blanket and asked me to make a couple of scaldinos and pillows.  A scaldino is a mini comforter for the foot of the bed, a foot warmer.  You will often find them in hotel rooms to protect the main comforter from suitcases being placed on the bed.

New serged edge with Wooly Nylon

     I cut the two ends off of the blanket at eighteen inches wide.  Then I removed the stitching that was currently on the edges as I would not be able to match it.  I rounded the corners (as the original blanket had) and using Wooly Nylon thread in my upper and lower loopers of my serger, I did an edge finish all around. 

Pillows

     Next up were the pillows.  She had bought four lumbar pillows forms.  She wanted them just simple, no cording.  I cut the first two pieces and then realized I would have enough 'fabric' to do so nice matching.  I did uses both sides of the blanket as the 'right' side of the 'fabric' so she would have different but matching pillows.

Knit backing

Serging the edges

     Because the blanket was a bit open/loosely woven, I opted to apply a fusible knit backing to add some sturdiness to the fabric.  I then serged around the edges to prevent fraying.

Side seam

Top seam

     I sewed them together, carefully matching the motifs on the top and sides.  After placing the insert inside the cover, I hand stitched it closed with a ladder stitch.  You couldn't tell which part I hand stitched, the weave of the fabric hid it so well.  This was really a fun project.  You don't always need to start with fabric from a bolt for your home decor project.

Dining Room Wall Hangings

 

Delft Blue designs wall hangings

     In my dining room I have a wall of blue and white plates, some are antiques and some are new.  When I saw these embroidery designs at Embroidery Library I knew I wanted to stitch them out for my dining room.  I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do with them and after much thought I decided to replace some framed prints that I had hanging on the wall above the thermostat.

All stitched out

     I bought the XL size designs and stitched them out on white felt using Isacord thread, 3951 for the Dusty Blue, 3641 for the Country Kitchen Blue and 3654 for the Blue Ink.  Using the dimensions of the framed prints that I was replacing I came up with my cutting plan.

Canal scene

Country cottage

Floral Medallion I

Floral medallion II

Tall ship

Windmill

     I cut the felt 8 1/4" square and framed it with 1 " strips of the dark blue fabric.  The white shimmer fabric for the background was cut 3" wide.  I pressed all the seams to the frame pieces to prevent shadowing behind the white fabric.  I bought all the fabrics at Patched Works at the same time as I bought the fabrics for the table runner from last week's blog.

Pressed to the dark

     I used fabric from my stash for the backing and some fusible fleece.  I stitched in the ditch around both sides of the blue frame fabric.

Ready to get quilted

     To give the piece just a bit more pizzazz I added a silver flange before putting on the binding.  I cut this 1.5" wide and pressed it in half.  Then I used the same dark blue fabric to bind the wall hanging. 

Back 

     I sewed some plastic rings to the top and then just nailed a few small nails into the wall to hang the pieces.  I really happy with how these turned out.

Christmas Dining Room Table Runner

 

In place on the china hutch

     This week I have another Christmas project for you.  This is a table runner I made using designs from Embroidery Library.  I stitched out the 7.8 x 7.8 size on white felt and then cut the square to 9.5 x 9.5 for a finished square size of 9 x 9.  The three colors I used were Isacord 3951(dusty blue), 3842(country kitchen blue) and 3743(blue ink).

Christmas carriage

Christmas church

Christmas snowman

      I took the stitched out blocks with me to Patched Works and bought fabric that matched.  I framed each piece with the silver color cut 1.5" for a finished width of 1".  For the background, I was having a hard time deciding which way to run the 'stripes'.  I posted a photo of each way on Instagram and asked for opinions.

Which way should the stars/stripes go?

     The answers very pretty evenly tied but I went with the vertical stripes as someone commented that it looked like falling snow.  I liked that explanation.  That also allowed me to cut the top and bottom from the length of the fabric so there were no seams.

Back

     I cut the star fabric 4.5" wide for a finished width of 4 inches.  Overall it finished to be 19" x 49".  I used the same star fabric for the back and used a dark blue batik for the binding.  I quilted it by stitching in the ditch around both sides of the silver frame.

Finished

    

      Next week I will share with you two everyday wall hangings I made for the dining room that use some of the same fabrics.   These projects were a lot of fun. They took some planning and math but the sewing was fairly straight forward

Christmas Poinsettia Quilt

 

Finished quilt

     I thought I would share a couple of Christmas projects so maybe get you thinking about your upcoming Christmas projects.  Today is a quilt I did.  I saw this fabric at Patched Works in March of 2019.  I bought a yard and a half of each not knowing what I would do with them.

Block

     I decided to use the Double Attic Windows Quilt from Even More Quilts for Baby by Ursula Reikes.  I cut a total of 24 8.5" squares from the red poinsettia fabric.  I used the ruby for the sashing and first border, that was cut at 1.5" to finish at only 1 inch wide.  From the onyx and silver fabrics I cut 2.5" strips.  I also used 2 inch Thangles for the corner of the blocks.  

Corner

     I cut 6.5" strips of the silver poinsettias for the outer borders and 6.5" squares of the red poinsettias for the corner stones of the border.  The binding was the ruby fabric and I bought red marbled flannel for the backing from JoAnn Fabrics.

Quilting detail

     My friend Joni did a poinsettia pattern quilting with silver/gray thread that just pulled it all together.  I added a couple of labels and now I have a pretty Christmas quilt for the basement.  It is so sparkly with the shimmery fabrics that I bought.

Label 1

Label 2

  

   For the second label I used an outline design of a poinsettia that I had used on a previous project to quilt a wall hanging I made for the wall next to my dining room.

Birthday T-shirts 2021

 

For Cltn

Monster Truck applique

     Every year for the grandkids birthdays I make them a t-shirt.  I also contribute to their college fund but this way they at least have something to open from me.

For Miss M

Unicorn applique

     Some years I find fun prints to make their t-shirts but this year I chose to do a solid color and an applique. Most of the fabric I had in my stash, I collect way too much ;-)

For MTB

Dinosaur truck

     For the oldest grandson, I chose a monster truck as he is into cars and trucks.  For my granddaughter I chose a unicorn, she is really into unicorns and mermaids right now.  For the next grandson, it was a dinosaur truck, as he is dinosaur crazy.  For the youngest, I chose a giraffe in an airplane to go with the giraffe quilt I made him a few years ago.

For the youngest grandson

Giraffe in airplane

     All of the designs are from Designs by JuJu.  I really like her applique designs.  They are very well digitized and I can use lots of fabrics from my scrap bins.  I like doing applique designs on t-shirts because they are not as dense as if it was all stitches.  It is so much easier to do the applique on a flat piece of fabric and then make the t-shirt rather than trying to hoop a ready made shirt.  

     Time to start thinking about next year's t-shirts.