Saturday, October 23, 2010


Halloween Child's quilt, polar fleece backing, listed in my Etsy Shop
 

Fall Spilt 9 patch, quilted for Janette.  Beautiful top. Terrible tension problems




Ebay Vintage top, finished with Baptist Fan quilting, in my Etsy shop.



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Handmade gift ideas..Corn Bags for hot or cold therapy and coasters

Judy at Patchwork Times is asking for ideas for handmade items. Here are a couple I have used more than once.
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2010/10/14/handmade-gift-ideas/#comment-48016

 Corn Bags for hot or cold therapy
I have made dozens of these. I made 50 a couple of years ago for my Mother to give as Christmas gifts to the staff  at the Nursing Home where she lived. I just helped organize a sewing and craft day for my work and we made them there. This site does a better job than I ever could about explaining the technique and supplies. Basically, 1 yard of muslin, 1 yard of  fabric (I like flannel) and a 50# bag of whole feed corn makes 8 bags with corn left over for 15 more. I think the cost to make is about $2 each. I used $1.99 muslin, $2.99 flannel, and paid $16 for the bag of corn. I print a slip with instructions and staple it to the corner. Neighbor gifts, hostess gift, teacher, work exchange, secret pals,....
http://www.netwrx1.com/~diamond/microwave_heating_bags.htm

Coasters
My second thought is not fabric related. I have made a lot of coasters, too. A box of 4 inch tiles from a home improvement store, some cork, (I used cork tiles cut into squares with my old rotary cutter) a couple rubber stamps and some permanent ink. $1 apiece to make.
http://paisleyscraps.blogspot.com/2007/09/tumbled-tile-coasters.html