Gingercake

Piped Pot Holders Tutorial

We have some picnics to go to this weekend and although I may make box brownies as my contribution, I decided to make handmade cute pot holders to go with my dish to give to the hostess.  This may be my summer staple since I had fun making these and they look really cute!

I love a nice potholder.  But my issues with doing a nice binding keep getting in my way!  I don't want to take the time to hand sew it and I can't seem to get a nice machine stitched binding.  It may look great on the front but messy on the back.  

On the other hand, piping and I are great friends.  I realized maybe my pot holders just needed piping instead of that traditional binding.  They turned out great!

Here is how you can make one too~

~You need to find a 8.5" circle to trace.  I used an embroidery hoop but a plate or whatever will work too.  9" is fine too and 8" is OK but getting a little small.

~cut 2 pieces of 100% cotton fabric (i used quilting weight) and 2 pieces of insulbrite- all 4 pieces need to be 8.5" round.

~ 30" of piping rope.  Mine is about 1/4" thick (or sometimes I just cheat and cover a store bought binding if I don't have any rope but the store bought is a little skinny for this project.)

~32" strip of 1.5" cordinating fabric cut on the bias

~ 6" strip of 1.5" fabric that is the same fabric as the circles.  This will be your loop.  Fold this piece in binding and iron flat.  It can be on the bias or just with the grain of the fabric.

~You will also need a sewing machine, scissors. pins, cordinating thread, an iron and ironing board.

Fold the 32" fabric strip over the 30" of piping rope.  Pin every 6".   Sew down along the strip to enclose the rope and make piping.  See the photo above.

Next, take one of your fabric circles, and sew the piping around the edge of the circles.  Have your rope facing in toward the middle of the circle.  I don't use pins here since I find it easier to sew a little, adjust, sew a little, adjust, etc.  But you can do whatever feels comfortable.  Sew along the line you made to enclose the rope in the last step.

Once you sew all the way around the circle, overlap the piping and sew through the layers.  See the picture above.  Trim off the excess piping and set this piece aside.

Take that 6" piece of binding and sew it closed.  This will be your loop to hang your pot holder.  

Cross the loop over and pin it to the top of the circle without the piping on it.  Layer the 2 circles of insulbrite beneath the circle of fabric.  Sew the loop on and trim the extra binding off to match the edge of the circles.  6" will give you enough length to make the loop small or a little longer.  See the picture above as reference.

Now pin together the 2 sides- one with the loop and 2 layers of insulbrite and the other with the piping sewn on.  Right sides of the fabric should be facing each other.  The side with the piping should be facing up.  The line of stitches you made to attach the piping will guide you to sew the 2 sides together.  This way, your piping will be perfectly even all around your pot holder.  See the above picture as your guide for how your project should look at this point.  There needs to be an openning of about 3" to turn the pot holder right sides out.  Backstitch at both edges of the opening.

Now trim all your seams down a little smaller than 1/4" except at the opening.  See the picture above.

Turn your piece right sides out through the opening.  Iron nice and flat and fold under the opening to match your edges.  See picture above.

At this point you have lots of options to finish up your pot holder.  You can just sew a seam around the edge to close up the opening and flatten the edges or you can do a little quilting design like I did.  I did this by marking the center and 4 even sections with pins.  Then I just free quilted some loops that crossed over each other to close up the opening.

That is some wonky quilting but it was fun!  With some practice and planning, you could make this part really pretty!  I did loops, circles, and ups and downs.  Lots of possibilites to have fun with your quilting designs!

Hostess gifts for the weekend complete!  I plan on making more for myself too and finally throw out those old ugly ones!  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Please do not sell pot holders you make from this tutorial.  Contact me if you want to do them for a fundraiser or something like that.  If you do make one, I would love to see it in my Gingercake Tutorials Flickr group.  Thanks!!  

Have a happy holiday weekend!

 

 

 

National Parking with the Kids

Since we had NO snow days (truly a miracle) off from school this year, we had a break from school of 10 days.  That is pretty crazy for our school district and I took advantage by planning a trip south to see my parents for easter.  We decided to take our time on the way down and made several stops with our big destination being the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  

We stayed the night before in Gatlinburg which was crowded but really cute.  We got going pretty early and drove into the park at about 8:30.  This was great because although there were still lots of people around (turns out spring break in the smoky mountains is busy!!), we seemed to be ahead of most crowds for almost the entire day.  

After a stop at the visitor's center where we got maps, talked to nice park rangers, and watched a short nature movie about the park, we decided to take a short hike to Laurel Falls.

Elsie will earn her hiking badge for Brownies for this little excursion and I am hoping Anne will get one too for Daisies.  For some reason earning badges is a big motivator for kids!  These girls were serious hikers!  This hike was on a paved trail but it was longer than we expected and our 4 year old boy had to bring out his umbrella half way up the trail.  Not sure how this helped but somehow it worked to keep him going.

I was laughing but his big sisters did not like this move one bit!  "But it's not even raining and he looks WIERD!" they complained.

We finally got to the falls and they were really stunning.  A cool mist was blowing off the water and since there had been a huge rain the night before the water was fierce!!  We were all impressed and agreed the hike in was worth it.  

Next we made our way over to Cade's Cove.  The drive over to that section of the park was so beautiful and followed closely next the Pigeon River.  We took a break and the girls waded out into the water.  Cal does not like feeling cold and wet yet so he stayed on the shore with Mommy & Daddy.

 Finally we arrived at Cade's cove and I wished that I had packed a better lunch because we stopped to eat out meager snacks at the best picnic location- complete with more water to play in and fire pits and grills.  It would have been fun to have something good to cook up there!  

Cade's Cove really did take my breath away.  It is so beautiful and calming.  The gently rolling fields and then the dramatic rising mountians surrounding the pastures was just gorgeous.  No wonder these people didn't want to leave but were also adamant to protect the beauty of their land.

We stopped at the cabins and churches.  We saw a gravestone that had the man's name and then below it was engraved "murdered by confederate rebels".  Cade's Cove's commmunity was a pocket of Union Support during the civil war even though they lived deep in the southern United States.  It really made you imagine the independence of the people who lived in this beautiful place. 

The girls were interested and excited.  YES, they got tired when we had to walk far but they felt the excitement of visiting such a beautiful and natural place.  Travis and I also loved it.  I wished I had planned to have cold drinks and a better lunch but a mom can't always do everything perfectly, right???

Cal was still a bit young for really apprecaiting this adventure but he was a pretty good sport considering he is only 4!  We would stop to get out and by the end he looked at me like I was crazy.  He liked the water though and spend lots of times throwing rocks in there.

The loop we took was a small section of the park and we are all looking forward to going back someday.  What we did was great for kids though and it gave them a wonderful taste of what the national parks are about.  Enjoying the natural beauty of our country and supporting the efforts to preserve it.  Make the trip with your loved ones if you can!

Introducing the Modern Folksy Bunny PDF Sewing Pattern

Ya Hoo!  I wanted to have this finished with plenty of time for easter and now it is complete.  This is a fun and simple pattern- easy to finish in less than a couple hours.  The pattern includes plenty of pictures and full size pattern pieces.   Thank you to my nice blog commenters who helped me with the button eyes and making the ears bigger.  

Who wants to make some bunnies for easter???  As usual, for you my blog friends, you can get 25% off this week (until midnight March 20th, 2012) when you buy the new bunny pattern.  The discount code is bunnyluvin.

How Googly Eyes Make Everything Awesome

My oldest daughter has basketball early on saturday mornings and I used this time alone with Anne (it is hard to separate those 2) to make some valentines that I saw on Pinterest.  For awhile the kids were into building card houses and that gave us a stack of mixed up playing cards with out anyof them being complete sets.  I read that the founder of pinterest hopes that it using his site will help people to spend more time doing and less time on the internet.  I am trying to harness that hope and do some projects since i spend A LOT of time on pinterest lately!

Anne cut the red pipe cleaners in half.  I cut out the hearts.  Anne drew faces on the hearts.  I punched the holes in the cards.  Anne poked the pipe cleaners throught the holes.  I put the glue on the cards.  Anne put the hearts on the glue.  I put the glue on the eye spots.  Anne glued the googly eyes.  We chit chatted the whole time and it was really fun.

The project recommends small googly eyes but we used big ones.  They make them even cuter!

Is it just me or do these make you feel happy too?  Anne wants them to be holding lollipops so I will have to get those before her party on friday.  Not sure why schools don't do these parties on the actual holiday but that is a whole other discussion!

I am thinking googly eyes make EVERYTHING awesome.

 

Hooped Valentines

Whenever I see embroidery hoops at the thrift store, i gather them up in my basket.  They are addictive!  I have too many now and it is time to start using them up.  I thought Valentine's day would be the perfect time to get started!

These are on our stocking nails which I thought was the perfect place.  The idea began as just hearts with fun fabrics and I could practice my embroidery stitches.  I then changed them into including envelopes to encourage valentine notes (more about this later).

I made Cal's first.  I also tried chain stitch for the first time.  Remember when I made the quilt I said I was trying to flex my crafty muscles?  Well this is about doing that again.  The stitching is a little messy and the fabric choices are a little more country than I usually like.  I was going for boyish though so this is what I got...

Not bad.  He likes it- especially the truck.

Next came Elsie's valentine hoop.  She is 7 and loving purple, pink & girlyness in general (You would never know she loves getting dirty in the garden and pushing kids over on the soccer field).

Again, I wanted to practice some new things here so I used Jessica's felt flower tutorial (fun and EASY) and worked again on the chain stitch.  It turned out nicer this time!  Loving the chain stitch.  I also told Amy recently that I didn't know how to use trim so I stuck some trim ribbon in the corner.  Hmmm?  Not sure about that choice but I DID use some trim!

Finally came Anne's which is my favorite.  She wanted (after my suggestion!) a rainbow theme.  I tried all sorts of different ways to get the look I wanted and then remembered this technique that I saw on pinterest.  It worked great and I loved the final look.

The rainbow and thrifted crochet doily took up the entire hoop so I added this simple duck cloth envelope to the bottom.  The heart is made from wool felt and then I used my embroidery threads to do a simple stitch to mimic the rainbow colors.  Whole lotta cuteness.  

And one more shot of the rainbow.  Wouldn't this make the sweetest baby quilt on a biger scale?  

The kids are really excited about these.  Valentine making and giving has been at an all time high.

Aren't they cute?  You would never know with all this love going around that I had a crazy meltdown last night after I had to clean up yet another HUGE valentine making mess.  This time included glitter EVERYWHERE.  I yelled at them that I was going to throw it all away and that I was done with all of this!  They looked at me with shocked little faces and then we (aka Me) decided to create some valentine making boundaries- no more paint or glitter and only small pieces of paper.  Of course Anne's painted and glittered one up there is so beautiful that we all know I am going to crack and open it all up again.  YACK! 

What do you think?  I liked the idea of having the valentine giving be constant the next couple of weeks.  Compliments and lovey notes are pretty fabulous really- especially in the dead of winter when we are all cooped up in the house together.  The kids are asking where my hoop and their dad's hoop is.  Hopefully I'll get around to that!  

Here are some details- I used 10" hoops.  I used the full embroidery thread-all 6 strands.  On Cal's and Elsie's I made the top with cotton fabrics and wool felt pieces.  I did not use interfacing on the envelopes although with Elsie's fabric envelope it would have been better if I had since it is a little thin.  I backed Elsie and Cal's tops with 100% cotton fusible interfacing to firm them up.  Anne's blue "sky" fabric was lightweight and when I used the interfacing it puckered around the name embroidery, so I just backed it with an extra layer of white cotton fabric and it worked fine too.  For the back of the hoops, I ironed the fabric back and then glued it down.  Easy peasy!  If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I will try to answer!  

What do you have cooking for V day?  Are you trying some new techiques to flex your crafty muscles?  Let me know about it so I can keep up my work out!

And this was supposed to be the year I didn't do as much Handmade...

I decided not to go overboard on handmade this year.  And really, compared to the effort I made in past years, it's not so much!  This post is going to be picture heavy and word light since I am supposed to pick the kids up in half an hour and I can't be listing these pictures while they are home!  Those kids are getting pretty smart about catching me in the act :)

First, Elsie's gift was a special request and is a holiday dress for her American girl doll Kit...

Yack!  Doll clothes!  They are harder than they look and working with cheap velvet from Joanns is not recommended.  But, hey!  It turned out pretty and I know my girl will like it.

Next, Anne requested a purse and wallet AND a credit card that spends.  Hmmmm.  The credit card that spends is not happening as of this point.  Maybe a gift card? 

I had fun making that one.  I used some pinterest inspiration and just made up what to do.  I liked using those kind of handles!  Very cute.

For the wallet I used Noodlehead's Zippy Wallet tutorial which was very fast and easy.  Learned some new skills too!  I love how she does her zipper.  The owl one is for Elsie since I couldn't just make one of those cute little wallets!

Cal's gift was my own idea since he is not really interested in thinking about gifts and what he wants for Christmas.  He has mentioned a haunted house with bats but I am not going to attempt to make that!

I used Wee Wonderful's Space boy and Robot pattern which I have had for several years now.  That yellow t-shirt is a cape that is not my best work but it goes with the robot so I'm sure he'll like it.  I used this tutorial.

For Elsie's class party we made Cake Pops.  They were a challenge!  But I have been wanting to try them for so long!  There were 2 left over that we are saving for some beloved cousins on Christmas Eve.

We decorated our Candy Cottage at the end of last week.  I will NEVER go back to making real gingerbread!  This is so much more fun and less pressure (for me at least!).  All 3 kids helped this time, although Cal did a lot of eating candy and Anne somehow ended up with frosting on her ears! 

I made Caramel Corn for neighbors and relatives.  AWESOME!  EASY!  It tastes really good too.

My husband has a huge family so I also made some everday napkins to gift.  These have a back story and I am excited about sharing how I made these. I hope to make a quick tutorial after all this holidaying has calmed down.  I have the pictures taken and ready to go!

Like everyone who likes to sew, I had plans to do more but I am happy that I am pretty much ready for Christmas now.  Last year on the day after Chritmas I felt like I had been run over by a train!  I had no idea how stressed out the whole thing had made me.  I really wanted to scale back so i wouldn't feel so deflated again and I could enjoy the days after the holiday as much as the days before.

Last are a few more decorations that we are loving!   A playmobil nativity set that a good friend gave us.  I love that the kids are playing with the characters so much.  So sweet.  Playmobil is wonderful!

Also, I found this vintage gem at the thrift stoer for only $.50!  What a steal.  She is adorable!

Happy Christmas to you all!  I am not sure if I will be back next week so Happy New Year too!  Thank you for reading the blog and being part of my crafting life.  It is a real pleasure to share my work with you.  I am truly grateful to have this creative outlet and you to share it with!

 

Farmland Christmas Decorating

I love my new iphone.  Cal and discovered this snowman while running errands and we had to get a picture.  Isn't it awesome?  It is 3 hay bales stacked on top of each other.  The hat is a feed bucket.  The carrot nose is a construction cone.  He only has one arm!   I grew up in the atlanta suburbs where all the decorations were candles in the windows, a wreath on the door and a spotlight on the tasteful elegant brick home.   It's fun to be a little tacky in the country!  So, are you a tacky or tasteful decorator?  

Christmas Cookies Anyone? Cookie Party 2011

Whew!  Another cookie party has come and gone.  Those are my cookies above.  I did all the same things as last year.  I even used the same invitations!  Lame.  I know.  I wanted to add "wear your most obnoxious christmas sweater" to the invite but worried the christmas sweater wearing types might not think it was so funny!  Maybe next year I will be braver :)

That's all the cookies- well almost all since I bought a sideboard/ buffet this year that held some additonal trays.  I love seeing everyone arrage their cookies and walk around tasting.  

As usual we voted after everyone had tasted and looked and discussed.  The voting is VERY secretive.  Just kidding- everyone blah blah blahs about who they voted for.

  We also had cute kid entertainment during all this action...

And finally the votes were tallied and the winners announced!

Not my best picture of these excellent bakers!!!  They are holding my prizes which I forgot to get a good picture of.  They were cute patchwork pot holders and sanding sugar my friend Karen got from Amish country.  Michelle won best all around cookie AGAIN.  Her cookie was a peanut butter chocolate revel.  That's like 8 years in a row folks!   Aven won best tasting for a delicious light and fluffy orange buttermilk cookie.  And Mary (Michelle's mom!) won most beautiful cookie for her pretty truffles.  I only got a picture of the truffles and they are beautiful!

Aren't those poinsettas so pretty?  One of our newcomers was 13 year old Syndey and her mom Wendi who made 80 beautifully decorated sugar cookies.  That's a lot of mom/ daughter bonding!  The result was some really cute cookies.

I really toned down my Christmas decorating this year.  I even gave a big bag of decorations to the Goodwill.  Is this some kind of milestone in my life?  Instead of accumilating Christmas decorations, I am finally getting rid of them!  Or maybe I am just getting wise to less is more (and less clean up in January!).

I am fascinated by people who can take good pictures of their trees.  How do they do that?  I decided to experiment a little.  Here is pretty good one of mine from the party...

Our tree has been named "chubba wubba" by the kids.  I usually go for a taller and thinner tree but in a moment of pretending like I don't like to be in charge of everything (haha-but it's true!)  I let Travis and the kids choose this chubby short tree.  It's still cute though.

Here is another picture of the tree at night that has a little more interest...

Maybe night is the key since that one looks pretty good!  I set my ISO to the highest setting (1800) and took the picture with no flash.  Then I lightened it up in iphoto.  First I tried to edit it in PSE but I couldn't get it quite right.  Sometimes something more simple works!  

See my white tree in the background?  I love it so much.  A garage sale find!  I decorate is with pastel new and vintage glass ornaments.  Here is a close up..

 

So, cookie party 2011 complete!  Thank you to my talented SIL Jenny Stein for taking picture of the cookies and that sweet pictures of the girls entertaining the crowd.  

The next week and a half are for making a few handmade gifts and trying to enjoy this sweet time of year.  I am always torn between wanting to squeeze it all in (should I book a fancy breakfast with Santa?  the nutcracker?  go to the lights show?)  and just spending time at home admiring our cozy decorated home.  

So, did any of you attend a cookie party or throw one yourself?  Give me some tips to try next year!  This party may need some shaking up!  What else do you have planned before Christmas?  

Sprucing up Your Wreath

I was decorating my outside wreath and realized I have not shared this on the blog before!  This is a super easy way to spruce up your old fake wreath to make it fresh and beautful.  I guess my camera is starting to have some issues so please forgive the little bit of blurriness :(

 

When we get our tree there is usually a pile of trimmed branches and I grab a few nice ones from different tree types- fraser firs, douglas firs, & white pines.  When I am ready to do my wreath, I get a few more textures from the yard- yews, boxwoods and if I still lived in the south I would be all over the magnolias!  In the past I have searched the woods for berries but this year it's all about simplifying and I think just the greens is still beautiful.

Then I have my garden gloves and clippers and I go to town snipping and layering!  I start the dark green background greens and shove them into the fake green- using the wired fakeys to hold them in if needed.  My little man helped me by chatting away and handing over branches.

Keep layering more greens until you have a full wreath.

I add the green "bling" at the end- boxwood and gold juniper.  Small pieces of those make a nice contrast. Stick a fluffy bow in there and you have an elegant wreath!  

See?  No sign at all of the fake underneath.  We had rain and snow last night too and it still looks great!  This work well for garland too.  I have done it on my bansiter many times.  What are your holiday decorating tricks?   Tell me some good tips!

Trimmed Trees Tutorial!

I have a bin full of trims that have been gathered for various projects and from the thrift store.  All those bits and pieces have been piling up for years!  I was organizing them by color and noticed how nice the textures all look together.  These trimmed trees are the result!  They are a cute addition to your mantle or a table top.  I chose to use a light green Kona Cotton for these 3 but I am dying to find a moment to make a smaller pink and turquoise to finish up the look!

Want to make this simple project too?  Begin by printing out the pattern pieces

Download Trimmed trees pattern pieces.

Materials needed:

1 fat quater of solid cotton fabric in your color choice

Fusible interfacing to back your cotton fabric

Trims (rick rack, ribbon, bias tape, zippers, seam binding, etc.)

Coordinating thread or clear thread

hand sewing needle and thread

scissors

sewing machine

plastic grocery bags / or polyfil stuffing and rice 

Begin by adding your first trim about 1" from the bottom.  Ribbon, bias tape & seam binding (that cute lacy stuff) should be sewn on both the top and the bottom of the trim.  Rick rack and zipper halves are fine with just 1 line of stitching.  The bottom trim is important since it serves as a guide to adding the rest of the trims.  Maybe draw a line with chalk or use pins to mark where it should begin and end.

I wanted my trees to have a more randomly decorated look so I tried not to use a specific order.  You can see in the picture above that I am adding tiny rick rack.  Allow yourself to use a good fabric glue if you are not up for testing your skills with a tiny rick rack!   Make sure to backstitch and clip your threads at the end of each line.

Once you have sewed on all your trims, fold your piece in half to make a cone shape.  Start pining at the top and go down to the base.  Sew the sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance.  Leave a 3 inch opening to turn the tree inside out.  See the picture below.  Again, make sure you backstitch so that the side seams won't unravel when you turn it inside out!

In the picture above, I alread sewed on the base and trimed the side seams.  These steps are next!  Take your base circle and pin it to your cone.  Sew the 2 pieces toether with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim your seams down to 1/8" except at the side openning.  Turn your tree inside out and use a chopstick to poke out the tip.  I used plastic grocery bags to stuff my trees!  I liked how they made it sturdier and it used up so many bags!   If you choose to use polyfil stuffing instead, pour some rice/beans/popcorn in the bottom first to make sure your tree is bottom weighted enough to stand up.  

Above left is the tip of my tree and on the right is where I stitched up the opening of my tree with a blind stitch.  You can see that the trims did not line up perfectly. You can make adjustments to get yours to be  perfect if you would like.

My original thought was that these would go on our mantle but they also look cute in this little village setting too!

Such a fun project!  And I used up some of that trim pile AND pesky grocery bags.  If you make some of these cuties, I would love to see them in my gingercake tutorials flickr group.  Trimmed trees is for personal use only- please do not sell trees made from this tutorial.  

Happy decorating friends!  Is your house all fixed up yet?  Mine is still a huge mess but my cookie party is this weekend so i have to get busy!