Book Shelf: Organization Inspiration

We had a great Father's Day yesterday, despite the fact that my 20 month old decided that he didn't need to nap, or go to bed early for that matter.  He ran at 100 mph all day long.  By 6:00 pm I was totally tuckered out and just let him do his thing.  His mess makings have inspired this post.  He decided that he should pull all of the books off the book shelf and stack them on the bathroom floor, what exactly he was doing I am not sure, but I really like the end result.

Green-Yellow

Orange-Red

Blue-Violet

After a while of allowing him to do his thing I called him back into the room to ask him to help me clean up the books.  He really was quite helpful at putting the books away.  Since I was having to reorganize almost the entire book shelf I decided that I should mix things up a bit.  Normally I organize the books by Author, or by genre, but this time I decided to organize them by color. These are mostly my husbands books-thankfully he is a good sport about it.  My husband and I are both book lovers, but having a background in art and illustration, I appreciate the covers more often than the actual book.  Anyhow I organized 3 of the shelves by color .  Green-yellow, orange-red, and blue-violet.  I am quite pleased with the way our little shelves turned out.  Some of the books would have dark spines and colored text, and some had colored covers and neutral spines, so I had to decide which part of the book to color code.  I often used the end of the row to display some of my favorite book covers (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Wise Blood (I actually read and enjoyed that one), Catch 22, and Frankenstein.

Magazine Dividers

This is the top shelf of our book case.  Last weekend when I went thrifting I found these great little magazine dividers.  I spray painted them gray and yellow and now they found their home on the top shelf (I had to box up some less frequently read books and put them in storage, but I am liking the way these sit on our shelf).


Aarggh...I keep attempting to upload some additional photos for displaying books (click here to see the rest of this post), but for some reason blogger isn't allowing me at this moment.  I'll try to upload them a bit later.  My husband saw them and turned green with envy...one day when I have a Craft room and not a craft area, he will have a library and not just a book shelf.  One day our book shelves won't be purchased at Wal-Mart, and our books will all be hardbacks, but for now we'll be grateful for our color coded paperbacks on our Wal-Mart bookshelf.

Magnetic Numbers

So my husband and I have been trying...I wouldn't say diligently, but trying nonetheless to work with our 20 month old on learning numbers, colors, and shapes. I figure that if he is smart enough to recognize animals and make their noises that he could probably learn to recognize his numbers.

About a month ago I decided that I was going to put the magnets and felt that I had sitting around to good use. I am quite pleased with the way these little numbers turned out. Clark loves to move them around on the fridge. He still can't identify all of them (most of them are "Wee" or Eight- "Wee being how he says three), but at least he can become familiar with them.

One of my favorite things about these magnetic numbers is that the magnets are enclosed. The thing that I dislike about the little plastic magnetic numbers and letters is that the magnets always seem to be falling off. In my opinion it is just too dangerous for little guys. Let me know what you think. I bought some felt with the intention of posting some in my Etsy store (which is the only reason that I haven't done a tutorial yet), but am still searching for the time to get it going.

Embroidery Hoop Frames for Fabric: How To

I hope that I don't kill this one.  I know that I featured fabric in embroidery hoops yesterday in my 5 pretty ways post, and I've mentioned it before, but I thought that a little HOW TO post might be helpful to any of you that are wanting to try this out.  I had personally never used an embroidery hoop for it's intended purpose and I was a little unsure of how I should approach displaying my fabric in the hoop-given that I was not intending on removing it promptly.  This is the way that I worked my embroidery hoop magic.

Step 1-Place the inner cirle your embroidery hoop on your fabric to determine the how much fabric to cut.  I left at least 1" fabric outside the hoop. Cut your fabric (I just cut mine into a square).

Step 2-Flip both the fabric and the hoop over so that the inner hoop is on the bottom and your fabric is right side up on top of the hoop.  Now slide the outer hoop over your fabric.  Try to keep the fabric pulled taut.  You will need to adjust the hoop by loosening the knob to slide the outer hoop over your fabric, and then tightening it to keep the fabric secure.

Step 3- Flip your stretched fabric over.  It is now time to trim.  I simply clipped as close to the hoop as possible.  Some of you may have a better way, but I chose to trim the fabric while it was stretched in the hoop.  It was much easier to ensure that I had sufficient fabric to have it pulled tight.  I was also able to remove any excess.

Step 4-This one is optional.  If you have a fabric that tends to fray you can apply fray block to the raw edges. I don't worry too much about the fabric fraying, the hoops do a good job of securing the fabric.

*Hint-Much like hanging artwork, you will want to find a place on your wall that is not in direct sunlight  so that your fabrics won't be faded by the sun.

Five Pretty Ways to....Decorate with Fabric

I recently blogged about my mission to organize my craft room.  Well Saturday I headed off to some thrift stores and found some great little goodies that will hopefully help me to make better use of my small space, I will post pictures later.  While out, I found some great treasures which in conjunction with some great Amy Butler fabric  have inspired this post.  


These are not all my ideas, but I am totally inspired by them.  Hopefully they inspire you also.  I will try to give credit where credit is due.

1-Embroidery Hoops I was so inspired by this idea when doing some research for my organization post.  I think that it is such an easy and inexpensive way to display your favorite fabric.  You can easily remove the fabric if you were to decide to use it for a different project, and you can add and subtract the number of hoops that you have on display.  There are a number of different sizes of hoops out there, and we all know that repetition of shape with variation of size is a great way to make things cohesive and yet interesting.  I purchased 4 hoops at 50 cents a piece at the thrift store...I think that I need at least 3 more.  I kind of like odd numbers.

2-Put it under Glass  I am not fancy enough to have a special cutting table like the one pictured above, but I absolutely love the pattern under the glass.  I still am not sure if it is even fabric, but doesn't it look great?  I think that if you were to use this idea in a work station it would be wise to use a fairly monochromatic fabric that is rather light in value-just so that it doesn't interfere with the work you are doing.  I took this idea and applied it to my new filing cabinet.  I cut a piece of my new fabric and pinked the edges (so I wouldn't have to bust out a machine).  Unfortunately I don't have any glass in the right dimensions-I'll work on getting that later.  I did manage to scrounge up a scrap piece of vinyl from my recent projects that will serve as glass until I can update it.

3-Paste it up I have yet to try this idea, but oh how I wish I'd known about it during my apartment days.  It is a simple starch paste that you can mix up to make a removable adhesive for your fabric.  Thanks Jessica Jones for the great idea-check her out at How About Orange.

4-Don't forget to Stretch  There are so many great images out there for stretched fabric.  I love the fact that fabric can be displayed as art-I mean it is someone's artwork right?  Jessica Jones at How about Orange gives a great step by step tutorial on how to use stretcher bars to display your favorite fabric (check out her amazing fabrics while you are visiting).  Design Dazzle also provides examples for inspiration.

5-Write on it This is a brilliant idea.  I need to buy more fabric so that I can make one of these for my craft room-I tried it with a piece of paper, but it is too high contrast.  Once again I think that having a lighter value scale is important to this project.  Check out the tutorial for this genius idea at paper n stitch-you should stay awhile because it is pretty inspiring.


Well those are my top 5, no sew, inexpensive, quickies to decorate with fabric.  

Wipeable Changing Pad for Baby

You might recognize the materials from this project-they are the remnants from my reversible bib project.  We had enough fabric and vinyl left over that we decided to make these very useful little changing pads.  I would love it if my 20 month old was potty trained, but he's not yet.  I'd been using the same changing pad since he was born.  I made the first changing pad as well, but it wasn't wipeable or vinyl, consequently it has mustard yellow stains all over the soft terry cloth and flannel.  While I've loved the old changing pad this is a welcome edition to the diaper bag.

This was really simple to make the dimensions of the cut fabric are 19x12 inches.

 Materials we used were:

• 2 pieces of coordinating fabric cut to size
• 2 pieces of medium weight vinyl cut to size 
• 1 piece of thin batting (such as warm and natural) cut to size
•  1 package of extra wide double fold bias tape
•  1 square  piece of velcro, ours was 7/8".  (Wouldn't it be fun to try the magnetic closure on this as well?)

After cutting out our fabric, lining, and vinyl we rounded the corners of the rectangle using a bowl as a guide. You will want to position the materials in the following order: vinyl, 1 fabric, lining, fabric, and on top the remaining piece of vinyl.  I then stitched around the perimeter of the changing pad, 1/4" away from the edge (you will want to stitch close enough to the edge that the bias tape covers the stitch).   Next I folded the diaper pad in thirds and marked the fold marks.  I then stitched along the fold marks to anchor the materials in the middle.  After anchoring the materials it is time to sew on your bias tape.  Simply keep your bias tape pulled rather taut and maintain the edge of the pad in the crease of the tape.  I like to fold in the raw edges of the bias tape when finishing my ends.  After attaching you bias tape fold your changing mat into thirds and determine the positioning of your velcro or closure (see the last picture).  I used the softer of the velcros for the outer flap (the velcro will be attached to the inside of the mat which is the changing surface).  I stitch around the perimeter of the velcro piece and then sew corner to corner forming an X through the center of the piece of velcro.  Attach your second piece of velcro on the outer layer of the inside flap, your velcro will be positioned near the fold.

That's it and that's all.  A really simple and quick project that will be a great edition to the diaper bag, this is also a great thing to give to a new mother and a great project for new sewers.

How to Make Quiet Book Page Forms

Above, The oh so problematic, first attempt, at Quiet Book Pages.  Notice the sad fraying edges.

The end result of the new process, much more satisfactory!

Alright so this probably won't be the most exciting post that I write, but it might be helpful to those of you out there trying to figure out how to make your Quiet Book Pages. I spent a lot of time debating over how I should make the pages for my sons quiet book. With Clark's I guess I was more anxious to get the project done so I decided that I would applique all of the parts and pieces to the page that was cut to the finished dimensions. I then sandwiched a thin piece of batting between the two pieces of fabric, and using a decorative stitch, finished the edges. I had thought that I would be saving myself a lot of time and work. Well I really didn't save myself time or work. I had a lot of trouble with my machine skipping stitches, and I wasn't able to encase the edges like I'd hoped (sadly, I don't own a serger). When I agreed to make a quiet book for a friend I knew that I had to find a better solution. I knew that I didn't want to use felt for the pages, and I also didn't want to have to use bias tape for all of the edges (I have seen it done, just seems cumbersome and expensive to me). The solution that I came up with is this...

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

1. Cut out one 8x16 inch piece of thin batting for each page (front and back). For example, the last quiet book that I made had four separate pages with two pages on each side and two sides to each page (clear as mud). Anyway, there end up being 16 pages total.  I cut out 8 pieces of batting cut to 16x8 inches (each individual page will be 8x8, but with two to a page it is 8x16).
2. Cut out one 10x18 inch  piece of fabric for each piece of batting (8 total in my book).  I chose to have 4 different colors of pages in my book so I cut out two pieces of fabric in each color.
3. Lay one piece of cut batting on top of the wrong side of one piece of cut fabric (center the bat).
4. Fold over the extra material at the corner of the batting and press. Repeat on all 4 corners of the page. (see image 1)
5. Pull the material tight on the short ends of the page and press.  Pin in place. (See image 2)
6. Pull the material tight on the long ends of the page and press.  Pin in place. Try to make sure that the diagonal edges of the long and short ends meet up as close as possible forming a sharp point at the corner of the page.(See imagea 3&4)
7. With fabric pinned and pressed topstitch the material in place 1/4" away from the edge of the fabric, right side up, around the perimeter of the page.

You have now completed the first side of your page.  Hooray!  Now go ahead and complete this process for the other side of your page, and for any remaining pages that you will be completing. Once you have finished adorning and appliqueing your pages you can stitch the front and back of your pages together, doing so will allow you to encase the ends of your strings.

Following this process ensures that all of your raw edges are encased, and I love the look and feel of the pages with the double layer of batting.  It also provides more stability to the page when appliqueing. 

This probably isn't the most exciting post, but hopefully it proves helpful to anyone out there who wants to attempt a quiet book.

If anyone has questions leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Just because I FELT like it

Yesterday as my son was napping I was feeling pretty exhausted and uninspired. Normally I try to craft during nap time, but sometimes I don't even have the energy to get going. I had just received a large order full of felt for some projects that are on my to-do list, but I just couldn't get started (I am supposed to be making another quiet book, and am working on a felt alphabet, and play tent) so I decided that I needed a quick little project that wouldn't take much time or energy. I didn't do a lot of planning or revising so this project is what it is, but I am kind of pleased with it. I have been really inspired by some of the adorable felt headbands out there. I love Blueeyed freckle's headbands, and also all of the ultra feminine flower headbands out in blogland. Anyhow I decided to try my hand at it. I definitely need practice and to invest more time in planning, but for a "craft quickie" I am quite pleased. I went out with some friends last night and sported my latest creation.

I think that the little flower needs a button in the center as well, but I don't have one on hand that suits it.

A Tisket a Tasket-My Little Knitting Basket

Last year in an effort to recapture the sanity that I felt like I once had, and also to carry out my plan to become a true lady, I decided that it was time to learn how to knit. I am not sure why, but at some point in my life I decided that true ladies, or fancy ladies, know how to knit. So my dear sweet husband bought me a beginners knitting kit, complete with a pair of knitting needles, some denim blue yarn, and a booklet of instructions to teach me how to knit and purl. I soon set off on my new knitting adventure which resulted in a less than perfect scarf. Knitting has helped me regain some of my sanity, but I have yet to become the fancy lady that I long to be. I love that I can knit in the car on a long ride, or while we sit together at home watching a movie. My son is of course up in my knitting business, but it is a nice escape. It is a project that I can pick up and put down at anytime without too much frustration (I hate being interrupted while working on a project).

I haven't done much knitting since the weather warmed up. I think that knitting will be a cold weather activity for me, but I am learning to love it. I am learning to read patterns, and I am in the process of knitting a baby blanket. Luckily I have quite a bit of time to finish it-seeing that I am not expecting.

Enough rambling though-I started knitting in December-around the same time that family members start asking "What do you want for Christmas". That is generally a pretty difficult question for me to answer. I finally told my Mother in Law that if she could teach me to knit or get me some additional knitting supplies. She is a wonderful and thoughtful lady. She ended up buying me this adorable basket along with some skeins of yarn and some additional knitting needles. I love the basket-it was originally a picnic basket, but it works so well as a knitting basket that I thought that I'd share. Here are some of the reasons that I love it:

• It is collapsable
• It is polka dotted
• It has this lovely pocket in the front for storing patterns or needles that can easily get lost while not in use.
• It has these lovely handles to transport it wherever I might be going
• It is waterproof (maybe not a big selling point for knitting baskets, but I think that it is cool)
• The drawstring top makes it expandable for growing projects.
• You can use it as the intended picnic basket during the off season.    

Anyway, I am a beginner knitter, but I sure do love my basket.  It's just one more way to keep my craft life organized. The basket was made by a company called Picnic Time and I believe that she bought it at TJMaxx. By the way, I received an email from fabric.com saying that they are having a 50% off sale on yarn.  I am trying not to give in (because it is my off season), but if you are still knitting away you might want to check it out.