I was excited to see CreateForLess carries the Nile quilt pattern by Eleanor Burns – shown here in cream and brown batiks.
Eleanor Burns Nile Quilt
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Category Archives: Quilting
DIY Baby Gifts
This month baby showers are on my mind big time. I have a new niece on the way and many friends with babies due in early spring. I’ve been a little disappointed in the baby shower gift registries because the items on those lists always seem so boring and impersonal. So, I got to thinking, what if I made some of my own baby gifts to add to those ordinary practical baby must haves – diapers, bottles, onesies, etc. Here are some really cute ideas I found to inspire my baby shower presents.
For those of you who are handy and skilled with pallets, this DIY Pallet Moon Cradle is a real treasure. I would love to build my own nursery around a cradle like this one.
DIY Pallet Moon Baby Cradle – 99 Pallets
For quilters and would be quilters out there, here is a fun Baby Shower Quilt pattern your loved ones will adore.
Modern Yardage: Fabric for the 21st Century
By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and is always looking to improve her crafting skills. Join Mable on Facebook to socialize and share with other crafters!
Brand new fabric company Modern Yardage is changing the way fabric is bought, sold and printed. If you’ve never heard of it and love trendy, bright fabric you need to head over to their website and browse the beautiful prints they have to offer.
Their fabric is printed as it is ordered with environmentally friendly inks and their is never any waste. It’s designed and printed right in the USA, so there is very little wait time for new prints to be available, letting designers create fabric that is right on trend. They use a high quality pre-shrunk cotton that is stronger and softer than most cotton fabric. Because the fabric is printed on demand, the colors won’t be faded and will arrive vibrant and crisp.
Modern Yardage has a team of talented designers and artists to create on trend unique fabric on the spot. They are constantly posting brand new prints from this talented group of individuals. The designers are given a freedom that is unheard of in the fabric industry. Many designs are offered in multiple scales and colors, so you can get the exact print you’re looking for.
A great bonus that comes with all Modern Yardage fabric is the margin on the right hand side of the order. It’s full of lots of fun extras: designer information, fabric care instructions, even patterns and project ideas like the messenger bag in the photo below.
Head over to Modern Yardage now for more information about this amazing new company! While you’re over there, be sure to check out their featured collection Earth to Sky by Katie Schrader of Wild Notions. It has a unique watercolor design that can’t be replicated with normal fabric weaving. Because it’s digitally printed, each design can include thousands of colors which gives it an authentic watercolor appearance.
Be sure to check back on Friday for your chance to win 2 yards of the Modern Yardage fabric of your choice to try it out!
Craft a Summery Tote with Therm-O-Web
By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and is always looking to improve her crafting skills. Join Mable on Facebook to socialize and share with other crafters!
Therm-O-Web’s popular Heat n’ Bond products are perfect for people who love to sew but don’t have time to fuss with pins, basting, or shifting when attaching interfacing and fleece. The fusible webbing means no pinning or basting, and perfect professional products every time! The summer tote above uses Heat n’ Bond products to give the bag extra stiffness and makes it more durable to carry everything you need!
Gather up some of our favorite Therm-O-Web products:
Heat N Bond Fusible Fleece
Spray N Bond Fusible Adhesive
Heat N Bond Craft Extra Firm
And learn the techniques used to make this fun tote over at the Therm-O-Web Blog!
Do you love Therm-O-Web as much as we do? Check back on Friday, and you could win your very own Therm-O-Web prize pack at Free Stuff Friday!
The International Quilt Market in Portland!
Last weekend, here in Portland, quilters and manufacturers from all over the country had the opportunity to meet up and share what they love. Here are some of the highlights:
Right when we walked in to the quilt market, there were so many beautiful quilts hanging up around the booths. I absolutely loved the watercolor appearance of this quilt, with the intricate floral stitching. It’s absolutely gorgeous!
We very quickly started to notice a theme with all of the lovely quilts hanging up, lots and lots of color! There were bright neons and rainbow quilts everywhere!
This quilt quickly caught my eye. It is so colorful and I love the pointillism effect used with the background. I also love the fact that quilts don’t necessarily have to be about piecing together blocks of fabric anymore. You can create a scene and really tell a story with them.
Once we got into the booths, we had a lot of fun trying out the Sizzix Big Shot and AccuQuilt Go Die they make cutting your fabric so easy and precise!
A lot of the booths had more fun notions and products than imaginable. It was so fun to look through all of the ribbons and trims that Cheep Trims has to offer.
The award for booth creativity definitely goes to Fairfield Batting. All of the decorations are made entirely from quilt batting!
They dyed, felted, crimped, and ironed everything together to create this beautiful forest scene. It was really inspiring to see a creative way to use batting outside of quilting. Fairfield carries natural cotton batting, which they said was the easiest to dye. It’s so hard to believe those flowers are made from felted and dyed batting.
After many hours spent looking at new products, playing with new tools, and chatting with quilters, I think this photo best sums up how we felt when we left:
This decal was too cute!
Pattern Markers
By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Stephanie, from the Blog Geek with Glasses.
These are more than just a book mark. They are magnetic so the stay in place and mark the line of the pattern or recipe that you are on. This is a life saver when the book has to be closed and you don’t want to write on the page to remember or if you are working on a knitting pattern with lots of row work this helps keep you on track. Simple to make with thin magnet material and ribbon, these make great gifts.
Supplies:
- Thin magnet material – I used business card sized magnets and cut them to fit.
- Ribbon
- Scissors
First measure the width of the ribbon and cut a length of magnet to fit.
Peel the paper to reveal the adhesive on the magnet and stick it to the back side of the ribbon.
Cut another length of magnet, leave about half an inch of empty space of ribbon, this is for the fold, then apply the second strip of magnet. Trim the ribbon at the end.
I used the business card magnets because they were very thin but still had strong magnet hold. This makes for a thinner bookmark and will not crinkle the pages if used as a book mark.
There are magnet sheets available as well as thin magnet tape, for different lengths, but I just used strips cut and placed right up against each other to create the longer bookmark.
Plan on making these as stocking stuffers for all the knitters, crocheters, bakers and readers in your life.
Quilted Pot Holders
By Betsy Sue Sews, a member of the CreateForLess Craft Crew, who spends her time sewing, reading about sewing, or blogging about sewing!
My kitchen has white cupboards, walls and stove top. I wanted to add some color and accessorize my oven with some fun color and prints. To start I made pot holders. You don’t need much fabric for this project, fat quarters work great to make these. You can even use fleece, an old pot holder, or a small piece of batting to line this cute and practical kitchen accessory!
Start with 4 pieces of fabric that are 6″ by 8″, and 2-4 pieces of an inside insulator material. I used 2 pieces of fleece. With RIGHT sides together sew around 3 sides leaving a small side open for turning.
After sewing around the edges, turn you pouch so your pattern is facing out. Lay down and straighten your insulator material inside.
Next press the open seems inside your pouch so there are no raw edges. You can either sew this seem shut now, or after you’ve quilted your this side of the pot holder. I just did straight lines, be creative, quilt how’d you like.
Now for the top 2 flaps of the pot holder, repeat above stops with fabric pieces 4″ by 6″ and line, quilt and finish the edges. Make a loop to hang your pot holder by cutting a piece of fabric 1″ by 3″ and sew so right sides are out and there is a pretty seam.
I’d suggest sewing the loop to the large quilted piece first, before sewing on the small flaps. Sew the loop to a corner on a diagonal. After the loop is attached all that’s left if sewing on the top flaps so the pot holder stays on. Just match edges so the small flaps cover the bottom and top half.
