Quilty Cats

I had bought several old full size quilts a few weeks back for $4.00 each... Being that they are so old and fragile with some small minor worn fabric areas I decided to use them as "cutter quilts" and create something with them. What to make....
Cats of course! I created a slender cat pattern and traced it onto one of the quilts. I made one, thought it was to skinny... then made two more each a little chubbier than the first. It was after all of that work that I realized I liked the first pattern I used to make the skinny cat the best. I managed to get a total of 22 cats out of one quilt. I finished up a total of four so far.
I love the little faces of these cats...

 I am going to use different colored buttons for the cats eyes. Vintage buttons of course.

 I think these quilts are from the 1940's, which would make them about seventy-seven years old.

 I stitched around the cats with my sewing machine and then did a running stitch with some embroidery floss to add to the vintage look of each cat.

 I've got a stack of cut out quilty-cats that are still needing to be stitched together. This will be a nice "go-to" project when I'm wanting something to work on.
I've also got a lot of scraps left over. I just couldn't toss out the lovely looking little bits and bobs of hand sewn goodness. I'm sure this is how hoarding begins... bags full of cut up pieces of an old-old quilt.
big hugs,
Cheryl

Camp Buckets

I guess bringing a bucket to a kids camp is the new "thing?" You get to store your stuff inside of the bucket and have a quick seat to sit upon too. Pretty durn-smart. My two grandkids brought over their buckets to work on them.... yep, I ended up making one for each of them. I just couldn't help myself.

Here you can see the before buckets. My grandson's is the one with the blue duct tape on it, that was his bucket last year.  My grandaughter's is the new orange bucket.
I used wrapping paper to create a pattern piece to fit around both buckets.

When you wrap anything around a bucket it is going to have a slight curve to it, almost like covering a lampshade.

I cut off all the clipped pieces of paper to get a more exact piece that would fit around the bucket...
Once the paper piece was created, it was just a matter of laying it on some fabric and cutting it out. I folded the paper in half and placed that along the fold in the fabric and drew a line along the edge. I added about 1/4 of a seam allowance which I turned under with some iron on hem tape. I used spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to each bucket. I also used hot glue to the top and bottom edges of the fabric to make sure it was really good and attached. I hot glued the seam of fabric where the fabric overlapped on the backside as well.

I used the lid to mark a circle on the fabric pieces and also the batting used to make the seat comfy.

I created the cushion for the buckets by sewing the fabric with wrongs sides together and putting the seam allowance on the outside. I stitched about half way around, then laid in the batting and continued to stitch the cushion closed. I created a long band of fabric to go around the bucket with a casing in it so that I could feed ribbon through it to attach the seats cushion to the bucket.

Here you can see the strip with the casing in it pinned to the seats cushion.

Once it was stitched together, it was just a matter of feeding the ribbon through the casing.

Pulling the ribbon snugly against the bucket helped keep the bucket lid "locked" on the bucket.

I gave my grandaughter a bunch of rhinestones and some fabric glue and let her bedazzle her bucket.

I had wanted my grandson to add wiggly eyes to Yoda... but nooooooo--- he didn't think that was funny. I thought, and still think-- that would have been hysterical.
(@ @) wiggly/jiggly eyes on Yoda... Would.Have.Been.Hysterical.
big hugs,
Cheryl

Treasures...

Here are the latest and greatest treasures I've found. I found another ship in a bottle...I've now got a collection of three. All of this below was only $5.00.

 After coming home from a trip to Six Flags Amusement park, I found two pots of doubloons waiting for me at my front door. Aren't friends the best?

 I had a good laugh at the guy who was selling all of this skull stuff. He told me it was in his "man cave." O....k..... not a pirate man cave mind you, just as "manly decor.".....O.....k...... He was asking $10.00 for the lot. I offered him $3.00~ 

 I also scored on a bazillion fat quarters from Wal Mart. One hundred and thirty seven to be exact. At .25¢ each, I just couldn't pass them up!

I also came across a yard sale with an old-old man selling all kinds of brand new craft items. He told me he bought a storage locker full of boxes of new craft stuff.... man, some people have all the luck. Anywho, I got all of this for $10.00. I've wanted to play around with that hot melt Mod Podge stuff for a few years now, those bags alone are around $9 bucks each at the craft stores. *score*

One of my sweet friends who sells out at the swap meet sold me all of these seed beads for only $5.00. Purdy huh? The beads will come in handy when my wire wrapping classes begin again.

 Of course, no treasure hunt would be complete without some jewelry. I got all of this pictured below for $3.00.

The weather had been pretty fabulous lately, causing me to spend a lot of time outdoors... but now that the heat is upon us, I'll be spending a lot more of my time indoors with the air conditioner on! Oh well, I can actually make something with this fabulous stuff I've found! The struggle is real!
big hugs,
Cheryl