Recycled Vintage Pillowcase and Sheet Bags

Wow, it's September already.  Where did the summer go?  I don't miss the heat, but I miss it staying light later.  So I've been working on a few things.  I am enjoying making market totes using vintage pillowcases and sheets.

Group Shot!

Trials and Tribulations

Well, I'm trying to make some little zippered pouches.  I've tried 4 now, and still haven't gotten it right.  Getting closer...
First a picture of my latest 3.

 

They don't look so bad just laying there on the table in the beautiful sunshine.  But upon closer inspection, well UGH!

I haven't been able to get the tab ends quite right.   The zipper head in #2 broke off because I wasn't following the instructions closely and forgot to have the zipper in the open position before sewing the whole thing together and fiddled with it trying to open it, thus breaking off the zipper head, so now a not so attractive safety pin is attached in it's place.  :-(

Number 3 was the best- even though I once again forgot to open the zipper before sewing, it cooperated with little resistance and opened nicely.  The tab ends were not so bad.  The problem came when I realized I forgot to top stitch around the zipper, and the lining got stuck in the zipper when trying to open and close it.  I didn't know at first that's what had happened and tried to rub a little candle wax on the zipper to coax it.  Duh!  Bath and Body works candles are highly scented and more than just a little oily.  Oily wax +  recycled old metal zipper = black mess.  Yuck!

Vintage Sheets or Persistance Pays Off

Vintage Sheets

About once a week I visit the local thrift shops in town.  I have 4 that I frequent often, and 1 that I only go to about once a month. The Church thrift shop is closed for the summer, and I will be checking back in September.  This was the week I decided to go to all 5. I hit the jackpot at the shop I rarely visit.  I found the top 5 sheets in the photo there for a buck each!  I felt like I has won the lottery.  The bottom sheet was from another shop and cost $3. So for under $10, I got 6 vintage sheets.  I am trying to decide their fate, lol.  I think I may cut up a couple and make a Vintage Sheet Quilt.  I certainly have enough yardage.  First I am going to wash them, and see where it goes from there.

Grumpy Old Man

Mostly I post pictures of Kosmo.  This time it's one of Spanky.  He's old, about 25 we think, as he came to us as when his mate died and he wasn't happy by himself. Kosmo was still young and they became good friends for a while, so it must have been 1999 or 2000. Nowadays he usually likes to stay in his cage by himself, but he decided to come out for a walk around the living room today.  In this photo he is looking out the patio door, dreaming of flying away (I'm guessing).

Lily

A dear friend gave me a gift certificate for the local Nursery for Christmas.  She wanted me to have some beautiful flowers in the summer.  Here is the result of the Gift Certificate.  Beautiful Lilies!

I wish I had a scent option on my blog.  It smells so sweet.

A Little Pouch

I often hit the Thrift Shops when they are having sales. Lately I've come across some pretty cool vintage sheets and pillowcases for cheap.  I am going to be up-cycling/recycling  them to make quilts or duvet covers when the weather gets cool enough to set up my sewing machines for a big project .  Recently the Shop closest to me was having a 75% off sale.  I remembered seeing  some cute little zippered pouches on Pinterest and thought about them when I saw the Zippers!  75% off meant 4 zippers for a quarter.  Now who could pass that by? Not me!

 Zippers Before

 Zippers after trimming to the correct size

My first little "Pouchie"

 This is the tutorial I followed to make Pouchie.  It has pretty good directions especially when it comes to putting the zipper in.  I kind of fudged the size, but for a first attempt, I was very happy.  It is soft and bendy.  Next time I am going to put in some interfacing for a bit of a stiffer pouch.  I used this on the weekend when I was out walking with friends.  It held my ID, debit card and a bit of cash perfectly, and I tucked it right into my pocket.

The Green Pillow Cover

I finished up the green pillow cover tonight.  Here it is in natural light.  I kinda like it.  More than kinda. ♥

It was to be part of a housewarming gift for a friend, but I think I may just keep it.  It goes so well with my couch. Maybe she'll get one of the blue pillow covers. 

Pillows, pillows, pillows

I'm now on a pillow binge.  Not really, but I've been making quite a few pillow covers.  I've gone through my scrap pile and using this tutorial . I've got a blue and a green cover done.  Not the backing, yet, but I'm hopingg to prepare several backings and sew the pillow covers together at once.  At least, that's my plan for now.

Blues

Greens (taken in direct sunlight so the colour is off a bit)

My plan is to do envelope style pillow covers using the directions on this blog. I've been scouring my favourite thrift stores for backing for these pillows and have found several good pieces. 

Bathing Beauty

Wow, two posts in one day.  I just had to post these somewhere, and where better than my blog! My boy Kosmo thinks he can fit himself into a cereal bowl to have a bath. I put the bowl of warm water on top of his cage because he was trying to bathe in his water dish. As soon as I put the bowl up, he climbed right in.

And now he just has to show off his impressive wing span (actually he thinks he's getting himself all wet)

Silly bird.  You can see he's missing a few feathers.  He's been molting for the past week and I've caught quite a few feathers that he's dropped.  I'm saving them for a quilt, lol.  Not really, but it would be interesting to have a cockatiel down quilt.

And now for....the Bran Muffins!

Well, I finally got a new memory card for my camera, so I'm back in business.  I did make the bran muffins, albeit Monday, not Sunday.  I found a fairly easy recipe for bran muffins that called for buttermilk, which I of course, did not have.  I googled for substitutions and found that you can use 1cup of milk less one tablespoon plus one tablespoon of vinegar.  You let it set for 5 minutes, and ta-da buttermilk substitute. I added some of the delicious blueberries that dd and I picked and froze last summer. Yummy!

 Bran Muffins with Blueberries

 

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 melted coconut oil)
1 egg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I omitted)
1/2 cup raisins (I used frozen blueberries)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Mix together wheat bran and buttermilk; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture, until just blended. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
4. Carefully add 5-6 frozen blueberries into each batter- filled muffin cup, making sure to cover them with batter.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

 

The "Penguin" Quilt

When I asked my son what he would like in a quilt, he said he would like "Blues, greys and blacks.  In a random pattern".  So I came up with this quilt.  Since he secretly loves penguins, I snuck in a few blocks with penguins.  The backing was a yummy, soft flannel.  DD said it reminded her of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as it was white maple leafs on a navy background. Bad cell phone pic, but the only one I got before I gave it to him.

Planning to bake today.  Protein Bars and Bran Muffins.  Yikes that sounds too healthy!

Great towel find and upgrade

So it's not quilting or baking, but I also love to embroider, lol. 
I was at Ikea a while back and found a great buy on kitchen towels.  The TEKLA tea towels are only 59¢.  And they are just begging to be upgraded.  I bought a dozen and immediately started planning what I could embroider on them. The weave is a bit looser than I would have liked, but not too bad. The red stripe lends colour to the plain off white towel, and is a great starting point for bright colours.   Here is my first Tekla upgrade:

And a close up of the embroidery :

I'm working on the second towel and have so many ideas for the rest!  

The Pillow Shams!

I worked on the Pillow Shams yesterday.  I think they look great.  A perfect match for the duvet cover.

 

It is an envelope pillow cover.  I've made several of these over the year, but never one for a bed pillow.  I followed the instructions on here - Easy envelope pillow tutorial from Freshly Picked. Great instructions and so easy!  I love how you can change the look of any room with a simple pillow cover. 

It turned out to be a duvet cover.

What started out as a quilt, turned into a duvet cover.  I made the triangle squares, and made them into the quilt top.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I found a Mysa Ronn down quilt in the Ikea as-is for dirt cheap.  After a couple of hot water washes, it was like new.  I found a beautiful 400 thread count 100% cotton sateen sheet at my favourite thrift store for $1.50.  It became the back of the duvet cover.  I added 4 giant snaps across the bottom of the duvet cover for easy access.

This afternoon I am making pillow shams.  I love the colourful squares!  Good thing I have another sheet for the back of the shams.

We made laundry detergent!

DD and I are avid Pinteresters. Is that even a word? We both had how to make homemade laundry detergent pinned and wanted to try it. 

We were in Bellingham last month and we bought the Fels Naptha soap, borax and washing soda.

I grated the soap, and put it in a large pot...

Filled it with hot water, and heated it up to melt the soap shavings. 

We filled the 5 gallon bucket with hot water, and added the melted Fels Naptha, 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. We mixed it well and let it cool. 

When it was cooled, we poured it into these containers. 

 Here is the recipe we used for handmade laundry detergent:

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of washing soda
a big pot ( that holds more than 2 gallons)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon or stick for stirring. 

5 gallon bucket to mix the detergent in

Grate the soap (I used a cheese grater) and put it in the large pot.  Add about 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. (about 10 minutes)  Remove from heat.  Fill the bucket about 1/2 full with hot water.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Add the borax and washing soda.  Stir well.  Now fill the bucket with water and stir.  When cooled, pour into your containers using a large measuring cup and funnel.

The recipe I have says to use 1/2 cup of detergent, but others recipes I read say to use 1/4 cup.  I am going to try the 1/4 cup first, and if necessary will add more in future. 

Triangles Quilt

I'm working on my triangles quilt using this method- Half square triangle tutorial from In Color Order. Since I am making a queen size, there are a lot of triangles.  340 in fact.  I am really enjoying piecing together the quilt top, although I am now considering making this into a duvet cover.  I just bought an Ikea down comforter from the as-is for a steal, and this might just work. 
Now to see if I can upload a picture from my Iphone since the SD card for my camera disintegrated last week.  Yay for me! It worked.
And this isn't all of the squares.........

April 28, 2012

So I'm new at blogging, and quilting for that matter.  I am entering the world of quilters.  And bloggers.

Yay me!  

I was at a Thrift Shop in Maple Ridge, BC just before Christmas 2011 (can you guess where I got the name of my blog??) and happened upon a book called The Weekend Quilt by Leslie Linsley. 50 cents.  I thought hey- a new craft addiction.  Why not?  So I bought the book and that was all it took.  I am hooked.  On Quilting.  

Now I see fabric in a totally different way, and it's all good! 

So far I've completed 2 quilts. Now I have a third waiting to be quilted, and I'm busy stitching number 4; a lovely scrappy triangle quilt for me.  

As soon as i figure out how to upload photos I will add a few of my first quilts, and I hope you will follow me on my quilting journey.