ADVENT CALENDAR 1st & 2nd.

I promised myself I would join in with Hawthorn and Julie for the Advent Calendar idea, and as per usual, I am running late.  I have been collecting numbers and craft ideas, so my first few will be double up days with 1 & 2 today and hopefully 3 & 4 tomorrow, then one each day (sigh).  Not sure though, if I'll have a craft for each day.  I may try one of Hawthorns and post that, but I'll give it a good go.

DAY 2.

Taken whilst walking around Fountains Abbey.  (UK trip 2016).

A small craft project that is both easy, practical and achievable.

Small bookmarks.

I used those 3 colour paint chip cards, glued some scrapbook paper to the back and left them to dry.
Next I cut the writing off, punched a hole through the top, threaded in some fine ribbon & decorated with stickers, stamping or if clever enough your own artwork and voila, an easy present.  Very post friendly too.  I've seen something similar on the i'net, but this is how I did it.

DAY 1.

I actually had another number 1 picked out, but looking through my photo archive for something else, happened on this from our trip in 2014 and realised I had the perfect 1.  Photo taken at the Car museum in the Lakes District.

I'm cheating on this craft bit, as I've shown it before, but not having been at home for the last week, nothing has been prepared.

A PAPER SNOWFLAKE.

I posted how to make the snowflake last December.  Hopefully you find it easy with my tutorial.  DD showed me how it was done & then I took photos of each step.  Enjoy!

My start to the festive season has begun.  Hope you come along with me and also Hawthorn, Julie, Jak, Lovely Lady and any others who are joining in.  Thank you lovely bloggers.
Have a great weekend all.  Take care,
Susan.

SNOWFLAKE MAKING.

It's not Tuesday, but now Wednesday and I've only just finished making the snowflake and taking photos as I went.  We spent yesterday trying to track down a small, light craft cutter for me, as I find a Stanley knife too awkward.

Here goes!!!

I used a small craft cutter, paper scissors, a small craft mat and some double sided tape.  I also used a stapler to do the final part.

First I cut a 6" square from some coloured A4 photocopy paper.  You can use any paper with a little body to it, including Xmas wrapping paper.

6" square,

Fold in half diagonally.

Fold again.

Next I drew the lines so you could see them.  They are 3/4" apart and run parallel to the cut edge.
I started at the double fold edge and cut to within 3/8" of the two folds at the other side.  You could do this with scissors after drawing the lines.  I also found it easy with the craft cutter.

Next we start folding and sticking from the centre out.

Fold the small centre square and stick as shown.  I used small pieces of double sided tape, but you can use a small dot of glue.

Turn over and do the next one.

Turn again and stick the next one.

Turn once more and stick the last points together. 

We now have one piece done and need to make five more.

Join all  together as shown below.

Take 3 sections, and have all facing the same way.  I made sure the middle ones all faced to the right.
Staple together at one end.

3 sections joined at bottom.

 Next we staple the red to the white one at the widest point, then the white to the green.

Hope this shows how I did it.

Join the other 3 the same way, then place the two ends together, staple and also the mid sections.

AND TA DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished snowflake being held up by hubby.

I DID NOT DESIGN THIS.

I have seen this snowflake in a book, magazines and on Pinterest.  DD and I followed some instructions she had and I found it easier than the ones I had in the book.  The book only showed the square after cutting and being a bit "dim-witted", I couldn't fathom if there was an easy way of making the cuts.  Now I know and hopefully my pictures make it a little easier.
If anybody is muddled, please let me know.
Happy crafting.  Take care.
Susan.

QUILT BORDERS ----- TUTORIAL

Silly me!   Gave someone a small kit with all the pieces cut, a picture of the quilt, but no instructions, so this is for her to do the border, but it may help others too.
I am going to try and explain how I put a simple plain border with cornerstones onto a quilt.  It is not necessarily the right or wrong way, but my way.

I have made a quilt that needs these borders, so will show with it.

First I measure through the middle of the quilt both vertically and horizontally.

I note down these measurements, then measure the top and bottom, note them, then measure the other two sides and also note these.  Being a square quilt, I was lucky that all the measurements were very close to 50 1/2".

I then cut 5 strips (3 1/2" wide for this particular quilt), across the width of my chosen fabric and joined these and cut it into strips measuring 50 1/2' each.  I also cut 4 squares 3 1/2" each to use for cornerstones.

Once this is all done, I take my first border piece and fold it in half and place a pin, then fold each end into this pin and place another 2 pins on the fold,so have 4 quarters marked.

Next I mark the top and bottom of the quilt in the same way and pin two of the border pieces, lining up all the pins, make sure it fits snuggly then sew together.

As the side borders need the cornerstones, these are sewn to each end of the other 2 border pieces, as shown below.

Then proceed to mark the quarters as above and sew to the sides.

Now you should have a pieced top with hopefully nice flat borders.  I do use a walking foot to sew these, but if you are careful and don't pull the top fabric, they should still lay flat, with the foot you usually use.  BTW, all my seam allowances are 1/4".
Finished top shown below.

Some of the photos are not the best, but the light is quite woeful in my sewing room for photography.
This quilt is on my new design wall.  I had to pin the top as it wouldn't stay up as it was too heavy and as I'm short I found it quite difficult to get it up there, so looks all wonky.
Hope this all makes sense, not too long winded and in laymen's terms.

Have a great weekend all and take care.
Susan.

BABY QUILT -- PART 3

OK,  this is a bit later than I thought, but I forgot to take photos of one the steps and had to cut and make another block.  Now the sewing machine is packed away again as we have people coming through for rental after we leave.  PAINFUL!!!!!!!

STEP ONE

You need to cut 3 strips across the width of the fabric (pale green), 3 7/8" wide, then cut these into 24 squares.
Next cut 2 strips across WOF (pinky/red), 7 1/2" wide and cut into 6 square.
This is enough for 12 6 1/2" flying geese blocks.

Draw a pencil line diagonally across the pale green squares.

 Pin 2 of the pale green squares to the larger pink square in opposite corners as shown above.

Next sew a 1/4" seam either side of the line drawn on the 2 small squares, as shown below.

We'll then cut straight down the  line as shown below, then carefully press triangles open.

Pin another small square to the corner and sew each side of the line again as shown below.  Do this to both halves.

Again cut along the drawn line and press the triangles open.

 Now we can trim the ears off and we have our finished flying geese unit.

 This one large square and 4 smaller ones will make four flying geese units and I've sewn two together to make a 6 1/2" square block.

Now we will sew a 4  6 1/2" plain squares to 3  flying  geese units to make a row as shown below.

I have made four of these rows.

  Nest installment will be next weekend.

The last week has been busy with viewings of the house for rental purposes and taking "Brute", our Morris Minor over to our daughters for a couple of weeks.  Brute doesn't like the hot weather, so it was best to get her over there before all these hot days arrived.  Today has been forecast as 40 deg, and the next 3 days all around the same, minus or plus a degree or two.  Next thing is to start packing again, although we've only unpacked the most necessary "stuff", along with a few books, DVD"s and CD's.  My sewing is all put away again already.  The machine on the end of the dining table probably wouldn't have gone down well for the viewings.
This post has been  a work in progress for the last week due to interruptions etc, so will publish it now, but must be back with another one on Thursday.  (a surprise!!!).

Take care all.
Susan.