tutorial: my scrappy quilt mat

Your scraps are your memories! Keep them and make them into something you can look at all day.

Make this and reminisce.

• Get all of your scraps. Ahhh all the memories...
• OK, get cutting to about 2.5" strips or what ever size you like. Any length goes.

•  Get a good pile happening, no order at all works best for me and all different lengths too.

• Take 2 pieces, short right sides together and sew together using about a 1/2" seam allowance, see below picture.
• DON'T lift the foot off, check out next step and picture, cause you want to keep going!!

•  So, you now keep going and going. Take 2 more pieces, short right sides together and feed behind your first piece and sew together using about a 1/2" seam allowance. See picture below. This save your cotton and also keeps things together.

•  Keep going..... Maybe 6-8 rows long otherwise it gets a bit confusing and hard to handle.

•  It should look a bit like this..

•  Take an end of your 2 pieces and 1 cut scrap right sides together and do the same to create a 3 piece row.. and so on and so on till about 5 pieces in your row.
• Lay it out as you can see below. It's ok that it is over lapping and not flat, that's just cause the lengths are all different.

•  Now, snip the thread in between rows, see below picture.

•  Straighten out and have one end (my photo is upside down?) in line so you know how many more scrap pieces you need to get the length you are after. I worked off about a 130cm width. Make it bigger or smaller if you want.
• It should look a little like the picture below.

•  I repeated all the above steps above to get about 20 rows hat gave me  out to be about 110cm in length (110cm length once it was sewn together. You obviously have to take into consideration that you are sewing these rows together and will loose about an inch per strip when finished.)
• Don't worry too much on your layout, cause it doesn't matter if some fabrics double up, but if you want to make sure they don't, figure all that out now and lay it out and swap around till you get the look you are after.. See below my upside down photo :), oh and one end will be in line and the other wont..

• We do need to iron all the seams flat, so turn that iron on and get cracking... It gives it a nicer flatter finish at the end.
• Now we take the top row and the 2nd row's long edges right sides together and sew together using a 1/2" seam allowance.
• Take the 3rd row and match right sides long edges together with your 2nd piece, see picture below.. and so on. Do about 5-7 rows and put back on the floor and start again with another 5-7 rows..

•  Once you have joined all your rows, heat that iron up and press seams over to one side, no need to open seam and press flat. You can see the top piece nice and flat on a few pictures below this one.
• Now we get the backing piece. I used a heavier material cause it will be going on the floor, grass or what ever. Lay it out on the floor or table and cut one piece about 2-3" wider and longer that your top piece. This will help when you sew all pieces together at the end.
• Using the floor boards straight lines made it really easy to cut/measure. Also the groove in between each floor board helped the scissors glide through a straight line too! I thought that was pretty cool.

• Do the same with the batting (middle piece) 

•   Assemble all three layers. Lay back piece right side facing down, then batting, then your top scrappy piece right side facing up.
• Start pinning!! Start from the middle and pin the three pieces together. Pin every few strips and ever few rows. See below picture..

•  The quilting begins... Again start from the middle and work your way out. Sew straight down the seam lines of the rows. See below. You will need to fold over half of the blanket to get the whole thing through. See below picture.

•  Once you have zing'd down all the rows, it is time to trim your edges so that the back and the batting/wadding piece are in line with your top piece.
• Now the binding (this neaten ups the edges and gives it the boarder and finished edge). You might even want to google this for more detailed instructions if you haven't done it before.
• With the same method of your scrap rows, make a row with width no smaller than 2.5" (i used the same as the strips for blanket) a few metres long to get around all the edges with about 40cm extra for the finishing off of binding..
• Fold binding pieces in half with wrong sides facing.
• Match up raw edges on the back of mat with the raw edges of your folded biding. Make sure you leave about 20cm before you start sewing as this will help joining end piece together at the end.
• Pin pin and start sewing about 1/4" in from edge, see below.

•  Sew along till about 1/8" to the end then turn fabric and a few stitches to the edge corner. See below picture.

•  Fold binding up and back on it's self and pin like picture below.

• Fold back down as picture below shows 

•  Again, sew 1/8" in from edge starting at the top of this side. See picture below.

• Repeat with all corners.
• When you get closer to the end, leave about 20cm and overlap binding to measure and pin the exact length needed to finish binding flush on it's self. Picture below shows this. I have cut off excess ready to finish binding off. 

•  Turn your Scrappy Quilt Mat over and fold your binding over and sew 1/8" in from the inside edge. See below.

• Keep going.... 

•  Your done! Now put it out the back and set it up with some morning tea for the kids, or load it up with some of their favorite toys and just watch them, playing on your memories of making.

I would love to see your Scrappy Quilt Mat

email me sarahbowling@live.com.au

valentine heart pins

Thank god the heat wave it over! Way too hot for us. We got all the mattresses out of the rooms last night and bunkered down in the lounge room under the air conditioner! Due to the heatwave it gave us loads of indoor time over the weekend, so that meant crafty stuff and some time searching for some ideas to make and share.

A beautiful friend who lives in Yorkshire England, you know who you are, wanted some ideas for Valentines day. So I went a searching for something to share and try myself.

I found this link for Felt Valentine Heart Pins. I made a few myself for the girls to give out on Valentines day to their little friends. They have little safety pins sewn into the backs so you can pin them on. I think they are very cute :)

This tutorial and many more have been updated in my Tutorial page. So check it out and start making!! You don't need a sewing machine to make these.. Felt, needle, thread, stuffing & safety pin. That's it!

tea bag fun..

A bit of fun with the kids today. Way too hot to go outside!

Supplies (already in your cupboards)

• tea bags
• cardboard
• scissors
• sticky tape
• colouring in stuff, felt or material or what ever you can think of

How To Make

• take original cardboard tag off
• cut and create
• stick down the cord on the back of your creation (make sure you stick it so the little cardboard cut out is hanging out over the cup the right way)

Gift Ideas

• secretly make a love heart one for your partner for when they go to make a cuppa
• make little house ones if you are visiting a friend that might have just moved house and have a cuppa
• a miss you one, and post it to someone you miss
• a happy face one for someone who might need a little pick me up
• do a whole box of tea bags as a cool present
• valentines day
• and so on and so on...

We made a few  to give to the kids grandparents to thank them for looking after them tonight, while my husband and I go out on a hot date!

finally, my scrappy quilt mat..

Well, I'm not use to having to wait for days (3 days) to see my projects come to life!! But, finally I can move on to the next thing now that I have finished by Scrappy Quilt Mat. Mitch has been sitting on some of my other quilts I have made and the backs of them are just plain cotton and getting a bit dirty. So, due to my obsession on my scraps at the moment, why not use them up and make a play mat?? So, that's just what I did. Keeping to the "make the most with what you've got" I used up stacks of my scraps for the top of my mat, but I did have to go to the fabric shop to get some wadding and some heavier backing for the mat cause it will be going on the grass and dirty floors etc... And here it is. A bit girly, but oh well.. I love it! I know what each individual little piece of material is from.. It's like my own story and history of sewing in this mat.





If you want to see my tutorial on how I did this, please please please let me know and leave me a comment on my blog!! I have just about finished the tutorial, but wanted to get your feedback if it is something that would help?? I hope some of you are interested cause I'm loving doing them....

We'll be spending the rest of the night out the backyard as we have Heaths family coming over for a BBQ. Beautiful night for it. The kids are already out the back. Lacie is practicing hula-hooping with two hula-hoops, Mitch is sitting playing on his "new" mat I just finished, and Bon is digging in the garden looking for worms. And I might just sit and watch them do it....

a first day to remember!

"Mummy, I can't sleep!" said a little voice this morning at 4.30am. So in she hopped for a cuddle on the morning of her first day of school. "Mummy, my tummy hurts!" "You'll be right Lace" I said. She tossed and turned and was just sooo nervous. Finally we got up and as requested, apple and carrot juice was to be made for breakfast. No tears and some excitement was in the air! All dressed, hair done and bag packed it was time for some traditional "first day of school" photos. We all walked Lace to school together and saw her classroom. Air conditioning thank god! A few tears by Lacie and we said good bye. I'll skip straight to when we picked her up.... and I'll summarise..

• She sat in her slushy (shaved ice drink) and had a nice BIG orange stain on her new school dress. She thought it was hilarious!!
• I snuck in some lollies for her as a surprise at lunch time but they melted and made all of her lunch sticky and "gross" she said. Oops sorry Lace.
• We got home and I noticed a TATTOO on her stomach!!! ??? No more getting your head flushed down the toilet, these days it's a rose tattoo stuck on your stomach by the girls in the year above! You know who you are! ha ha...
• And finally... tonsillitis! Doctor said no school tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, we will wait and see how she is in the morning.

Ahhhh, what a day for a 4 year old! Here are some pics from this morning.

my family x

last cuddles

I'm still working on my scrappy project. Thought I would have had it finished tonight, but we had such a big day and afternoon. I was able to whip up a anniversary card for Heath while Bon had some quiet time and Mitchie slept. It took all of about 20mins. I sewed the red felt heart straight on the cardboard and printed the words on calico feeding i straight through the printer. I cut it to A4 size and ironed it first. But it worked using just the calico. I also wrote some nice little somethings to my husband on the inside and sewed that in too. I would have liked the font to have been a little smaller and not in bold, but I just couldn't be bothered doing it all over again.

You don't even need a sewing machine to "sew" a card. Just a needle and thread and some imagination! Make and sew your next card and email me a photo of it and I will post it on my blog!! The next card I make, I think I will sew some actual colourful fabric on the front?? a button too??? a pocket even? Embroide something??? ahh the ideas are endless.... what is your idea.. and just do it! Then show me of course.

Can You Believe it??

I don't know how to break the news to you all..... well.... I have run out of supplies! Can you believe it?? My current project is on hold due to a top up needed of my craft cupboard. Yes I said it out load, something is on hold. I'm looking at it right now, just sitting there waiting for me! That doesn't really work for me, but it's happened. I was all geared up for a late one tonight as we are staying up to get updates on the scary cyclone that is due about midnight in Queensland. Very scary! Bon and I did a servo run (which means doing a dash to the local shop / petrol station (we call a petrol station a servo) for chocolates, sweets, and what ever we felt like) so we could be charged for a late one (late for Heath and I, not the kids). By my forecast, I believe I will have this current little scrappy project done and dusted by, hmmmmm,,,, tomorrow! Probably about 1 hour after I skip on over to my fav fabric shop Peg's for supplies. Accompanied by little Mitch and the Bon. Lacie, well please keep reading for where she will be tomorrow..

Houston, we have a problem... My big girl who has just about worn out her new school shoes over the past few weeks has only just decided that she no longer would like to go to school! No seriously, I mean, she really really doesn't want to go! She washed her hair in the shower tonight so it was all sparkling, Heath had a daddy moment and brushed it before she went to bed (like in the movies), once her head hit the pillow the waterworks started.... Can you believe it?? oh dear. 1st day of school tomorrow is going to be interesting!

our last milkshake together
before becoming a school girl

Ok, so other than the scrappy project that I have been working on for the past few days, I was wanting to try my hand at using art silk for embroidering something. I am still in love with the girls little drawings of people, so I thought I would copy them best I could and embroide it?? Not sure what I am going to do with this, but thought I'd show you anyway... Oh and I am just about finished a tutorial on using Art Silk and how to prepare it before you use it. I needed instructions from my dad cause I kept on getting the threads all tangled..

Lacie's design

I should have a few things to show off over the next few days.. so keep tuned. Maybe "follow" my blog so you don't miss out on a thing. "Follow me" link is on the left of this page.

To close off for the night, our thoughts are with all the people in Northern Queensland who are a few hours off being hit by a category 5 cyclone.

this hangs on my wall