Quiet Books

Quiet Books 101

Every Sunday our 3 grandkids and their mom share a bench with us at church.  Six bodies gets kind of crowded.  Caleb is pretty good about entertaining himself...the twincesses are another story.  They are 3. They don't sit still for longer than 5 seconds and get tired of the same things to keep them occupied every week.  They think Grandma rocks (mainly for killing spiders, but that is another story), so I decided to make them a quiet book  in hopes of being able to hear at least some of what the speakers have to say.  Piece of cake for a veteran seamstress such as myself, right?  Little did I know what I was in for.  

I looked at a lot of posts on Pinterest and picked out a few ideas that looked the easiest to start with.  I was a newby to Quietbooking after all.  Most of the instructions said that using pellon for the pages was better than felt because it kept its shape better.  Pellon is was.  I got myself to Joann's Fabrics and bought 5 yds. of pellon.  I figured that would make more than enough pages.  I cut the pages twice the length of a regular page so that I could fold them in half, which would save on the cutting and stitching. 

Here is where I confess that I made a big mistake.  I my haste, I ended up buying fusible pellon instead of the regular kind.  I didn't realize this fact until I started sewing on the pieces that needed to be more stable. After ironing on the felt pieces that didn't need to be sewed, my pages stuck together and I couldn't sew anything to the back side of the page. I finally worked out how to get all the pieces sewn down and glued on, but take my advice... read the label on the bolt of whatever you buy at the fabric store.  If I try this again, and it''s a big "IF", I might use all that fusible pellon I have left to fuse 2 pieces of felt or cotton fabric together for pages.  Wish I had thought of that sooner.

Anyway - 

Here are a few of the pages I made.  I think I will test drive these Sunday at church.  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to hear some of what is said from the pulpit.

If you click on the Pinterest link at the top of my home page and go to my Quiet Book Pinterest Board, you'll be able to see some very creative ideas, some of which I used for my pages. Most follow the same basic construction method and there are several ideas for quiet book covers as well.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time...

Rag Quilt

Rag Quilt

This is an easy quilt to make.  If you can sew a straight line you can do this.

I'm a big believer in using what I already have on hand for my craft projects.  If I can save some $$ I'm a happy camper.  This rag quilt began as flannel diapers that I made for my twincess grand-daughters. Grandma got carried away and made way too many.  Hmmm...what could I re-make them into?  Burp bibs? Nope, they're too old for bibs now.  Doll quilts?  Maybe.  How about a rag quilt?  Bingo! 

Just to be clear, these were un-worn diapers - not used ones. I'm frugal, but not that frugal.

I cut the diapers to a size that utilized the majority of the flannel.  

These pieces were cut 7 1/2 inches x 5 inches.  

Here are the blocks, wrong sides together

With rag quilts you are working with the wrong sides of the fabric together.  To add stability to the blocks,  I used left-over flannel scraps from other projects.  These pieces were cut 6 inches x 3 1/2 inches.  I used 2 of these smaller pieces centered and sandwiched between the larger pieces.  Since I had a variety of flannel pieces, I put some of the patterned pieces on the back of the quilt instead of using one solid color.  

If you are making a rag quilt exactly like this one, and will be purchasing flannel, you can buy one color for the back (2 3/4 yards) and have a variety of patterns for the front of the quilt (1/4 yard would make 5 pieces; 1/3 yard would make 10 pieces).  The total fabric you need for the front would be between 2 3/4 and 3 yards.  You can mix it up any way you want.  I like a little variety on the back of my quilts so this one is mostly plain pink on the back with a few patterned pieces thrown in for variety.
This is the side the baby will be wrapped in.     

Pin a block together, wrong sides together, and stitch 3/4 inch from the edge all the way around the block. Then stitch and "X" through the middle of the block.  This will stitch down the "filling" inside and give the block stability.

This quilt used 96 blocks and measures approximately 44"x50".  When you sew the blocks together, put the back sides of the quilt facing each other (wrong sides together, in sewing terms) because you want the "raggy"-ness on the front of the quilt.  I used two rows of three blocks each to make a unit. Make sure that seams are open when you sew, as you can see in the picture above.  Then sew 4 units together into a row.  

Make 4 rows.  Sew them together and you are almost finished.

Lastly, comes the snipping.  With a good pair of sharp scissors, clip all the seams every 1/4 inch almost to  the stitching line, but be careful not to clip too far, or you will have to return to your sewing machine to re-stitch.  

Once you have all the seams clipped, head for the washing machine.  Set the machine on the mild or gentle cycle and fill with cold water.  I was concerned about my fabrics bleeding during the washing (true confession, I don't prewash my fabrics), so I added 1 cup of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of table salt to the wash water.  This will prevent the colors in the fabric from bleeding.  Run the machine for a couple of minutes to dissolve the salt then add your quilt and run it through the wash cycle.  When the cycle is finished you will have an official rag quilt.  You will also have a lot of flannel residue in you machine.  I just ran my fingers up and down the tub to collect it.  Take the quilt outside and shake it HARD.  I wouldn't recommend wearing a sweater or anything that collects fuzz when you do this because you and your lawn will attract it like magnets.  The final step is to put the quilt in the dryer.  Check it every 10 minutes and clean out the lint trap.  This is one of those times when the lint trap lives up to its name.  Once the quilt is dry, admire your work, pat yourself on the back for a job well done and figure out who will be the recipient of your creation.  

 

Here is a great video tutorial if you need visuals like I do.

Beverlys Fabrics & Crafts

Happy Quilting

Hey, Grandma...

Caleb-ism

"Hey, Grandma ... want to see a magic trick? " 

Me:  "OK".  

Caleb:  "Close your eyes."  

Hey, Grandma...

Caleb-ism

Caleb

Last Friday was our youngest daughter's birthday.  Our family tradition is to take the honoree to dinner at a restaurant of their choosing.  Caleb spends every Friday afternoon with PopPop (my husband) hanging out and doing guy type things.  When we took him by his house to drop him off before heading to the restaurant his parents weren't home, so we took him with us.  Always a delight and always insightful. 

The subject of my husband's old work vehicle, Big Red, came up.  Now, Big Red has not been a part of our family for about 4 years...back in the day when Caleb was 2 years old.  PopPop asked him how he remembered that truck when he was so young.  This is Caleb's response:  "I locked it up in my memory jail. When I want to remember something, I let it out.  When I'm done, I just put it back in."  My daughter asked him what he did when he didn't need the memory any more.  "I just put it in the gutter" was his reply.  Some memories you want to keep in your "memory jail" and be able to let them out when you need them.  The not so pleasant ones should be put in the gutter.  In other words, let it go.  Words of wisdom from a 6 year old.
Until next time...

Thrift Store Finds

Not long ago my friend, Nancy, was visiting from Montana.  She volunteers at a thrift store near her home, so we obviously had to check out our local thrifty establishments.  I had seen on Pinterest how to repurpose items, especially glass, so we decided to give it a go.  After scouring the shelves of various stores for a couple of hours, we were able to create these in about 15 minutes.  We used E6000 glue that you can purchase at Michael's or WalMart.  The cake plate was made from a glass plate glued to a dessert dish.  I especially like the candlesticks.  For those we turned the glass candlesticks upside down so the wider base provided a bigger surface to glue on glass coasters.  Great accessory to those romantic dinners or a cupcake stand for a guest of honor. The domed glass, called a cloche, is popular right now.  I found the dome and glued the lid from a jar candle to the top then found a glass plate that was the right size.  This would be cute with an herb plant under the dome or fill it with small Christmas balls during the holidays.  Look for vases that have unusual shapes or colors and give this a try.  You'll be surprised at the creations you can make.

There is more to this story.  As I was looking through all the plates and glassware, I spied this little butter pat plate on a lower shelf.  I love old Flow Blue china and this looked like it might be Flow Blue.  No question that it is old, and I couldn't pass up the 49 cent price tag. Antiques Roadshow, here I come.  

Day 2

Day 2 of my leap (like jumping off a cliff with my eyes shut) into the world of blogging. 

I've spent all morning trying to add "gadgets" to my blog.  Gadgets are blog-speak for anything you want to add to your blog to personalize it and make it your own.  Four hours later I finally got one gadget to load and stay where I wanted it to.  I hope it's still there tomorrow.   If so, I might try to add another one.  Baby steps here, people.

The gadget I added is the Pinterest button.  If you click on it you can check out my Pinterest boards.  You'll find all kinds of things I'm interested in  and hopefully some that you will like as well.  Once I get the hang of all this, I plan to post some of my own creations on Pinterest, too. 

If you have a question or comment, please do so with the button at the bottom of this page. Thanks for stopping by.

In The Beginning...

Hello and welcome to my new blog.

My name is Patricia Sanderson and I am the mother of 3 and grandmother of 3.  I live in Northern California and have been married to my sweatheart for 41 years.  Sounds like a long time, but believe me, it doesn't feel like that long ago.  My 2 daughters and  daughter-in-law suggested I start a blog to share some of my thoughts, ideas, and hobbies.  They are very encouraging.  Hope I make them proud. 

Why Hey Grandma?  Let me explain.  I have an almost 7 year old grandson named Caleb.  Caleb has a vivid imagination and loves to talk, hence, he needs lots of listeners.  Most often his conversations with me begin: "Hey, Grandma...".  Thus the blog was born.  Here is one example. 

A few days before Christmas Caleb was visiting (did I mention that he lives less than a mile from our house?  In other words, he visits a lot).  While we were eating dinner he says: "Hey, Grandma.  Do I look like a simple man?"  Wondering where this was going, I asked, "What do you mean by simple man?"  "Well, I like simple things like Pizza Rolls.  I'm a simple man like my dad."  Here's another... "Hey, Grandma.  I think I want to be a couch spirit. Then I can lay on the couch all day and be lazy."  And so it goes. 

I promise there will be other things here that will be of interest.  I am a sewer and quilter, paper crafter, family historian, sometimes amazing cook, and love digging through thrift shops for items to repurpose.

Hope you'll check in again soon.