Monday, May 20, 2013

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the Music!


That song is stuck in my head as we see yet ANOTHER gorgeous day here in the northwest!  Time to join in the fun at the Old Farmhouse Gathering!  Come celebrate summer with us as we launch over 120 new handmade creations for you!  We have a lot of new artists showcasing their best primitive talents!  So turn on some music, kick up some new moves, and then come check out all of the summer fun!

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=sfcofg&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Summer's Delights...and a Sneak Peek!

With the beautiful summer-like weather we've been having, it's no surprise that spirits are up here at home.  It can be a bit fickle though.  Matt's love for fishing had him out prepping the boat for it's first seasonal launch last night, only to see the rain clouds commence before he could peel out of the driveway.  "Sweetness" melts in the rain ya know...

The garden is planted, and our solar fence is keeping the deer away for now.  Little plastic teepees carefully covet those precious tomatoes, as the nights can still get chilly here.  The flower beds are getting trimmed and weeded, one by one.  I'm even planning for an upcoming garage sale in just a few weeks.  And, oh yes...BBQ season is here! Yum!

The Old Farmhouse Gathering Team on Etsy is about to launch a new summer celebration.  Here's a sneak peek at one of my latest creations, which will be featured in the celebration that will start Monday, May 20th.  I have one project left to get finished up by tomorrow, so I'm off to stitch!  Have a great day!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Scrapping some more frayed edges!

Happy Monday!  It's certainly showing signs of summer here.  Temps are in the low 70's, and even the house doesn't feel so cold!  I thought I'd share my latest completed frayed edge project...a scrap busting pillow cover.  If you need to use up some flannel scraps and have a LOT of time, this is a fun project!  I used up nearly all of the scraps left over from my rectangle quilt to make just one pillow cover!

The finished cover fits a 16" pillow form.  For this project, I cut 2 1/2" squares of the patterned and solid flannel fabrics, a total of 484 squares to cut!  Each doubled up square was stitched into rows of 11 squares across, and then 11 rows in height were stiched to make up the front.  This means you will use up 242 squares to make one side.  Remember, the seams are 1/2" and are on the right side as you sew.  No batting is needed for this project, so, there is no quilting of the squares to do either!



I did exactly the same to the back, except that I only stitched 5 rows together and then made a separate piece that was 6 rows stitched together.  Between these two pieces, I sewed in a hidden zipper, which, after that was completed, made the two back sections into one piece.  Then I stitched the two large squares together around the perimeter, clipped the exposed seams at about 1/4" intervals, washed and dried the piece and it was FINALLY done!


Since flannel can be such a 'shifty' material when sewn, these frayed edge projects are just so wonderful to make up.  If your sewing isn't the straightest, or maybe you're just starting to quilt, a project like this produces a great result, hiding away any imperfections in those fluffed up ragged seams.  Have fun creating!