Br. B's Ties Revisited- Placemats

I had many ties left so this was the next t4ie idea.  Very simple placemats.  I opened the ties up and sewed them together! Simple and sweet.



Favorite Christmas Card

Every year I pick out a Christmas card or cards that really stand out to me.  Below are my favorites for this year.  I love the MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT because of the boldness and the mellow red color.  The Volkswagen is classic 60's to me and dog driving seemed to add to it in a really way.   The girl in the red dress is sweet. I love, love her holding her the ornament.  In the background are the Beatles hanging out with the rest of the gang.  I bought that picture in New York for $2.00.   Below that is my friend Maria's family photo.  Lots of positive moving energy!

Happy New Year Project - Sweater Blanket

 A few days before New Years I always start to get anxious because I know there is a really good chance I will be stuck in the house for a few days and that equates to project. I had be saving sweaters that I had felted from a few years ago.  Four of them all matched in the same tone but different colors.  I cut the sweaters into squares and realized you really don't get as much as you think out of the sweater. I found a few more sweaters at some thrift stores and felted them also.  I had an extra sweater  left so I cut them into circles and hand sewed them onto the squares using different colors of yarn.  I thought it would visually add to the blanket. I had holes in my thumb that took a week to heal from pulling the yarn through both layers of sweater Ouch.  The squares were sewn together with a top stitch using a zig zag to catch both sides.  My stitches were  too big next time I make another  blanket i will tighten that up.  After the backing was put on I hand sewed the front to the back and the edges. I've always wanted to make one of these and now I have  and I am happy with the results.

The beginning.

Sewn on circle. Trying to be creative with designs.

Squares placed on the floor trying to come up with a design.

I sewed the sweaters together in strips.

Trying to get squares organized.

Sewing together on the machine.

Sewing it together in strips.

Chaos!!

Sewing it together with regular clamps used for papers.

Strip by strip.

Closer

More

I used Anna Maria Horner's flannel fabric for the backing.  It worked perfect except there was so much.

I ironed it over a few times and made a band that I folded under the blanket to reinforce the outer edges.

The band.



One of my favorite circles.

The year it was made.



Voila!

Front and back happy together.

















Chalkboards

I made these chalkboards and gave them to friends as gifts for their children and grand children.  All I did was use chalk board fabric, made it into a square and added a border around it to give it some life. Voila!

Mr. B Revisited

I have been really slow getting to my projects and completing them.  I finally pulled out the rest of the ties to make a table runner.  I did not realize until I sewed a few together that I needed to iron fusible interfacing to the back.  Once I did that it made things much easier to sew and to stay in place. I am happy with the result. 

 What color ties belong together?

 They seem to take over the area when working on these.

 Iron, iron and more iron.

 Now to cool a bit.

  Sewing them together.

 They must be trimmed straight now.

 Snip snip

 Sewn together! Looking good for the holidays.

 I like it!

Every other tie was sewn down with a little star.

Christmas Table Clothe

It seems like every Christmas I want to change things.  The Joann's by me was consolidating with another Joann's so they were trying to sell what they could so they would not have to move the merchandise. I fell in love with this green fabric and found the red pom pom to accent it.  It was not hard fast and it was really fun to sit at with my white china. 

Pearl Love

My dear friend CoCo sent me this darn cute blue jean jacket to have a peace sign embroidered on her granddaughters jacket for Halloween. I thought, okay, I can do this. Once we figured out what each others language meant,  I was able to start this darn cute jacket.  The problem with me is I like to keep adding on to a project and embellish more not this darn cute jacket until I get tired of it or I feel like it is done to my taste.   Most people go for it but some do not.  Due to technology and my friend finally taking the plunge of buying an I Phone it was so easy to communicate through pictures. Amen to that!  Enjoy Pearl Love.

 It starts with chalk and a circle.

 Then,  I place the hoop around it to hold the jacket in place.  The order was for an aqua peace sign with it outlined in orange.

                                             I started the circle and just keep going around and around.

                                                  The aqua blue was next to be thickened up.

I just kept going around and around until it was thicker.  I think the next time I will not stop until I am done with one circle. I seemed to make it a little lop sided. If you ever need to do this you will see there are many variations of peace signs.

 A little closer now. The chalk helps to have a line to follow while sewing this darn cute jacket.

 This is the back of the cutest darn jacket.  The order was for a peace sign on the back.

The mother of Pearl graduated from Indiana University so I  added a little I.U.  love. I think she will love it!

 I added some stars around the sleeve that matched the I.U.  color.  I thought it would "happy up" the coat and add some cuteness to it.

 I made X's around the collar to make it pop and add some color to the front of the jacket and a little to the back.

 A close up of the peace sign.

 On the front of the jacket I added P.A.C the initials of Pearl Ann Cradic the soon to be owner of this darn cute jacket.

 A close-up of Pearl's initials.  

 A close up of the collar.