Canada Day Pennants from a Dollar Store Bandana

 I made this Canada Day pennant string yesterday.   The "fabric" I used was a $1.00 bandana from the Great Canadian Dollar Store.  When I saw the bandana in the store and thought it might be cotton, I figured I could give this a try and it worked.  It was very easy to do; it took less than an hour.  I clicked a few pictures as I went.

 Besides the bandana, I used some white cotton for backing and a long strip of red for the hanging string.

 This is what the bandana looked like open.  It measures about 21 inches square -- so basically a fat quarter!

 I folded it twice.  Then ironed.

 Then folded again.   Ironed.

 And again. 

 This was really my only "trick."  Once it was all folded, it just took one cut.  I placed the ruler as shown and sliced.  (You may also want to trim the very top to straighten things out.)

 Voila! 

 I sewed the wrong sides to the white.

 Turned.  I think at this point they look like icing tubes.

Pressed.  Sewed into the string.  I made my own from a red strip of fabric.

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I have ours hanging in the dining room window for now.  I would like to make another string or two before Canada Day (July 1).    As a side note, the dollar store had plastic pennant strings for sale for $3.00, but I am much happier with mine for $1.00, a few fabric scraps and a bit of my time! 

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I'm linking up with Thrifty Thursday and Sundae Scoop Link to Party. Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Four Birthday Quilt Coordinates

 So, it's the big birthday today!  We are up early and my now four-year-old daughter Tess is sitting on my lap watching me post these pictures of her new room deco.  It was fun for me to sneak into her room as she slept last night and change out the curtains and put her new quilt over her.

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I showed the pennants the other day, and I also made a valance.  And the quilt of course.  A pillowcase is still to come.  It's times like this that I am so glad I learned to sew.  I'm sure you quilters know what I mean.

Okay, time to start decorating for the party. 

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Tomorrow is the big Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day which I will be participating in. 

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Happy Quilting!
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Edited to add on May 24:  I thought I'd link this up to Fabric Tuesday since that's always a fun linky!

Fabulous Four Princess Fabric Birthday Pennants

I made this little pennant string for my daughter's upcoming fourth birthday.  I will likely hang it in her window.  It matches the Fabulous Four Birthday Quilt.

It was super easy to make.  I fussy cut the princesses, but that was the only thing that took a little more time.  The whole thing was maybe an hour total to make ... and that was even with my daughter helping.

Thanks for stopping by!

Secrets Revealed!

Pretty tantalising blog post title, eh? Definitely National Enquirer style. No, I haven't discovered a way to magically erase wrinkles, I'm just going to show the pillowcases I made as Christmas gifts. But if you're not too disappointed, since you're here, why not have a peek?
Some little musical mice and dancing elves. My son picked out this fabric.
This one was for my Dad. It is my favourite. My parents like birds.

A pair with guitars.

For a little guy in kindergarten.

My Mom's pillowcase. A couple of birds got beheaded in the cuff. Oh well.

I made three of this version, for my son and two nephews who like space. The main fabric is Supernova by RJR Fabrics and it is a 2010 fabric. The trim fabric is an out-of-print fabric called Rocket Scientist. I really like how these ones turned out.

For a little guy who plays soccer and likes green.

Just a little space fabric on this one.

For my husband. I also made him a quilt for Christmas which I will try to get photographed and show before the New Year. (Since it is my last official quilt of 2010) The quilt was my biggest sewing secret! And it really was a total surprise for him.

These old Santas jumped onto my daughter's Christmas quilt for a quick picture before it went on her bed on Christmas Eve.

And, just for fun, here's a pic of our Elf on the Shelf. He's a vintage elf from my collection of old Christmas decorations. We had a lot of fun watching him move around our house.

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Happy Sewing!

Christmas in Quispamsis

Just a little non-quilty post today, but I'd like to share the Christmas light display put on by our town each year. It fills the park right alongside our town hall. It is turned on each night for the whole month of December. It is 100% child-oriented and my kids were thrilled to go last night and run along the pathways looking at the lights.
A pirate ship. There are large teddy bears dressed as pirates riding the ship.

A big present and in the far distance you can see the castle that marks the entry to the park.

A little gingerbread house. There is a plexiglass door and a little display inside the house. Elsewhere there was also a train with plexiglass in the caboose and a little display.

A long shot. That is a T-Rex in the foreground. The arched cover is for concerts and movies in the summertime. In front of it you can see the town's outdoor skating rink which is lovely.

A pair of giraffes. There was also a fully lit set of reindeer with Rudolph and his red nose in the lead. The kids were so excited running around, I only got to photograph a few parts of the display.

A large tree near the entrance to the display and the skating rink and side of town hall in the distance.

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I'll be back again in a few days with my selvage snowman quilt top. It's very close to being done. I am actually working on a few *secret* finishes that I can't show here until after Christmas so I have been slow finishing my snowman, but if I do say so myself he is super cute and I can't wait to get him done!

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Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well!

Five Minute Halloween Curtains and a Sneak Peek

I obviously like to sew and quilt, or I wouldn't have this blog ;-) , but I am also a big fan of things you can do super quick with little or no sewing. Exhibit number one: my Halloween "curtains". The photos show my dining room. The curtain in the corner is a Halloween panel I bought thinking I would just use it as fabric and chop it all up (you can get some really cool fussy cuts that way) but I had lots of other neat fabric so I didn't use it. Instead I hemmed the sides and sewed the hangers on the top to make it into a curtain. I didn't even hem the bottom as the selvage is there and it says "Witching Hour." After Halloween it will go back in my fabric drawer and probably get cut up next year.

The other two curtains are actually more like five-second curtains. The last time I was at my favourite place to buy fabric, they had this cool Halloween kind of sheer stuff for $1.99 a yard. I think it is meant to be sewn into fancy Halloween costumes -- like as the skirt of a pretty witch or a pumpkin princess dress. Anyway, to me it screamed curtains. I bought 5 yards and cut it in two sections of 2.5 yards each. I clipped the corners of the fabric up on the very edges of my curtain rod, over top of my usual white curtains. Rather than trimming the fabric down to a better size, I let the extra drape to look fancier (or could it be I was too lazy to cut it again?) Plus, with the extra draping you really don't notice the unhemmed cut edge. So, anyway, I'm pretty happy with it, both when the curtains underneath are open or closed. And once Halloween is over I can pack it away too and do whatever with it next year.

The orange pumpkins have a little shine which isn't translating in the photos.

And finally a little sneak peek. Above is my quilt that I will be posting tomorrow for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. It is my fourth and final Halloween Quilt of 2010. It has Halloween scraps and lots and lots of selvages.

Giveaway Reminder, Another Sign, and I'm an Official KVQG Member

First off, I am honestly cracking up at so many of the comments on my Fall Into Fall Giveaway post. I asked for a memory to do with halloween costumes and WOW you guys did not disappoint. If you haven't entered my giveaway yet (for some Flea Market Fancy fabric) just click here to go directly to the post where you can comment. The comments close tomorrow at 7:00 AST. As my own contribution on the topic of Halloween costumes, the photo above shows my son and husband back in 2007. My son was two. I made him that letter A costume. I didn't sew then, so I used a glue gun. It has foam inside (like for chair pads) and is covered in felt. I didn't have a pattern, I just kind of freestyled it, but I was really happy with how it turned out. He looked sooooo cute. There are nice big arm holes in the sides, although you can't tell in the photo. He was nice and cosy and warm in there too.

I also made another sign to decorate our yard. I got some great feedback on my Ghoul Bus sign so I wanted to try a second one. I believe I have mentioned before that we feed the crows at our house. I just throw them the toast crusts that the kids don't eat. Anyway, the power lines are right above where I placed this sign, and that is where the crows sit and wait for their breakfast. My neighbours know I feed the crows, so hopefully they appreciate this sign :-)
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Finally, last night a friend and I joined our local quilt guild -- so I guess I'm legit now. They have some interesting charity projects and other initiatives spread out over the course of the year so I am hoping to be able to participate in something. I think it will be nice to occasionally hang out with some quilty sorts.

Halloween Quilt Finish #2

This is my second Halloween quilt of the season (one more to go). It is for my three-year-old daughter Tess. I love this little quilt, but I must say that I'm disappointed with how the colours are showing on my computer screen -- the crazy vibrancy that the quilt has "in person" just isn't translating well.
It is a very simple design, straight ahead patchwork squares. They are 4 inch squares finished.
(Click to enlarge any photo if you want)
I used both Halloween fabrics and some other non-seasonal ones I had that just seemed to mix in well.
One material that turned out to be perfect is that bright green and purple giraffe print. I had bought a fat quarter of it when we were out of town one day in a nice little quilt shop and I wanted to buy at least something. I had NO IDEA what I would use it for at the time, but I was pretty amused when I realised it could go in this quilt.
The binding is Woodgrain by Joel Dewberry. I have this print in two other colours as well. I really like it for a binding.

This is the back. So it's kind of reversible. The lines with letters on them are witches' cauldrons spelling out 'Halloween.' It is a toddler-bed-sized quilt and is now waiting on my daughter's bed for tonight.

I admit readily that I LOVE Halloween, and a lot of that lovin' comes from the joy of being able to decorate. I also love the challenge and unique fun of making something that you can't buy in a store (I know all you fellow creative quilters completely understand that). So anyway, I made this sign for our lawn. I sometimes paint, so I just whipped out my acrylic paints. The elementary school bus stop for our neighbourhood is at the corner in front of our house. My son started kindergarten this year. I sneaked down in the dark the other night and hammered it in the lawn. (My neighbours were probably wondering what on earth I was doing, as the banging sound seemed to echo down the whole river valley.)

It was so great to see the kids noticing it the next morning. All the kids including my son were pointing at the little ghosts and saying who was who. When the real school bus arrived I heard a little guy say "Here comes the ghoul bus!" It was totally worth making the sign just for that. ;-)

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So I'm signing off for our extra-long Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. There is no school in our district tomorrow or Friday so the children have five days off!

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On the note of Thanksgiving, I really want to say thanks so much to everyone who stops by the blog. I see I have gathered up some new Followers lately which I really appreciate, and reading everyone's comments definitely makes my day.

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See you next week!