Laundry Basket Makeover

Hello all, I thought I would share with you one of my quick and easy updates in my master bedroom. Now, I have one of those super ugly but oh so utilitarian laundry baskets. Don't you hate those thing you need out in plain sight but that aren't very nice to look at? Well, you can't have that. So, if you have one of those mesh and PVC monsters let me show you what you can do.

Doesn't it just scream dorm room?

AHHHHH! Much better, I had this curtain I got at Ikea in the AS-IS for $4 I used to transform my eye sore.

This curtain has tabs on the inside that I just feed the top portion of PVC pipe through. Then, I just sewed a channel on the bottom to feed the bottom PVC pipe through. I did have to cut slits in the channel for the corner PVC pipes.

If you wanted to use a piece of fabric.
1. Measure you basket, mine was 80" x 28", then add 1" to length for seam and 4" to height for channels to feed PVC in. So I would cut a 81" x 36" piece.
2. Sew a 1/2 inch finish seam on short ends. Then sew a 4" channel on top and bottom to feed PVC pipe through. When feeding pipe I would simple cut slits in channel to allow for corner pieces.

Hope you have a great week and be sure to come back to see what else I've been working on. As I type this I'm waiting for paint to dry on my next project.

Jute Sign Tutorial

Wow,it has been awhile, I've been out in my garage working on some great projects. Here is the first of many I would like to share with you. This DIY sign cost me less then $3.50 to make. Well... let"s get started.

First. I took this regular cardboard box and cut out a panel. I then drew out my EAT sign.

Second. I used a utility knife and big ruler to cut out my letters.

Third. I bought a roll of Jute @ Home Depot for $1.50. I used it to wrap each letter.

Fourth. I attached the Jute wrapped letters onto a old cabinet door I got @ a salvage yard for $2.00.

Voila... Easy & cheap DIY project just the way I like it. Can't wait to show what else I've been working on. Hope to see you soon. Happy crafting!

Linked @
bebetsy.com/

Nursery Music Time Bag

One of my callings in my church is to the Nursery. When I first got called it was a hot mess, but at the start of the year we descided to do an total overhaul. I made this music time bag that has proven to be highly success with my once roudy kids. I have a bag filled with fun items that stand for different songs and each child takes turns picking an item out of the bag. It took them just 2 weeks to get the hang of our new music time. Now they are so excited to do music time. Best of all it's a great tool to keep them revrent and to sing nice and loud. They know if they do that they get to pick next and they love to pick a item out of the bag.

Here are the different items I've have chosen.

Wheels on the Bus: I have a flip book, the kids love flipping the pages and doing all the hand jestures.

Itsy Bitsy Spider: I have this Itsy Bitsy Spider book.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: I made this monkey glove. The kids love putting it on as we sing.

Monkeys Swinging in a Tree: I have a monkey and crocodile.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam: I made these sunbeam sticks out of felt and popsical sticks. I hand them out when we sing and the loves waving them in the air as we sing.

Once There Was a Snowman: I found this cute little snowman. Soon I hope I get to replace him when the snow finally stops.

I Love to See the Temple: I made these fun "Magic Wands" that I hand out while we sing. The kids love waving the ribbons in the air.

Like I said this bag has worked some miracles in my nursery. My kids sing more, take turns and stay reverent during singing time.

Activity Day Prayer Bracelet

What is a Prayer Bracelet (or Personal Progress Bracelet)?

It is a beautiful beaded memory wire bracelet that has a charm that you can move around to keep track of doing daily spiritual task. There are letter beads on the bracelet that stand for the spiritual tasks: MP = Morning Prayer, SS = Scripture Study, WJ = Write in Journal, EP = Evening Prayer


One Of my callings in my church is Activity Days. Which is a class we hold for girls from ages 8-12. We meet twice a month and have an activity that pertains to one of the handbook topics. April is my month and I have the topic of Learning and Living the Gospel. I decided to make this beautiful bracelet. I have made it before for Young Women's camp and called it a Personal Progress Bracelet, so if you are called to YW this is a great project for you too. I thought this applied just as well for the Activity Day girls.

Supplies

Beads (Hobby Lobby, they have great color choices and one bag works great per girl)
Letter beads (Hobby Lobby, they sell a bag of one letter)
Memory wire (Michaels, They sell a longer piece then HL for cheaper, You can get 20 bracelets from one)
Head pin (Michaels)
Charm Clasp (Hobby Lobby)

Look at the beautiful color choices. Makes it hard to pick just one.

Lets get started. Like I said this is my second time doing this craft so always give the girls bowls to hold the beads and a plate to work on, keeps from beads going everywhere. I like to prep this project by putting supplies for each bracelet in a ziploc bag.

I cut the memory wire and curl the one side so the girls can start beading.

I hand the bag of supplies to each of the girls and have them make the charm first.

Charm

Step 1 Feed beads onto the charm pin.
Step 2 Feed clasp onto the charm pin.
Step 3 I have the girls tell me when they are done and I go around and loop the pin.
Step 4 As you can see the clasp is in the loop.

Bracelet

They simple feed the beads and letter beads onto the memory wire as desired. I have the girls tell me when they are done and I loop the other end of the memory wire to finish the bracelet.

Here are the girls making the bracelets. This is a great and easy project for a group of girls. They all had so much fun making them. I love this project cause it not only a cute bracelet it also has a spirtual purpose. Hopefully for at least a week it reminds and inspires them to pray, read their scriptures and write in their journals. Like I said before this can be used for Young Women and Activity Days.

Have fun crafting.

Chevron Baby Girl Quilt

I'm so excited I finished my very first real quilt and it wasn't a Pinertest fail. Yeahhhhhh. I've had a boy version of this quilt pined on my Pinertest for awhile now and have been wanting to try it. So, when I heard I had some nieces on the way I decided to jump right in and give it a try.

The quilt and free pattern: Mod Chevron Baby Quilt by Rashida Coleman-Hale.

I wanted to share some of the obstacles I had to overcome in case you have the same.

Fabric choice

What I love so much about this quilt is that it's baby without being too nursery looking. It has a bit of a retro feel. Now for me I live in a small town and we don't have a fancy fabric store. I'm thankful we have a JoAnn but trying to find like girl fabrics was an obstacle. Rashida also has 12 different fabrics which at first overwhelmed me. This is what I did to chose my fabric and how much I bought of each.

I first started by looking for a couple of colorful patterns that went together. Right away my eye was drawn to this fabric. It was perfect cause it has lots of colors to pull from. (I loved how it was girly without having pink or being to nursery like the original quilt)

I then used this fabric to find 2 complimentary fabrics and I fond these 2.

So far so good. I then took my original fabric and started to search for more solid colored fabrics. This is what I found. I was lucky to first find the purple paisley and then find they had the same paisley in green.

Yeah, I was happy with that so instead of 11 pattern fabrics in the original quilt I have 7. I purchased 1/4 yard of each except the purple, I purchased 1/2 yard. (Because this is the fabric I used as the middle big line, so I needed more of that fabric. everything else I had more then enough with 1/4 yard)

Then I searched for the base solid fabric and that was tough, but I found the beige fabric with a light pattern. I purchased 1 1/2 yards of that. So here is all my fabrics together aren't they pretty I couldn't wait to get home and transform them into a quilt.

What you need:

Neutral fabric 1 1/4 yard (25 squares)

6 Pattern fabrics 1/4 yard

1 Pattern Fabric 1/2 yard (6 squares for middle line)

Backing Fabric 1/2 yard (no piecing required)

square ruler 6 1/2" or larger

Pencil

Batting

Lets get quilting...

Cutting

1. Cut neutral fabric into 5 strips at 7 1/2".
2. Cut each strip into 7 1/2" squares. You will have 25 when done. You need 24 for HST (half square triangles) and one left as a whole square.
3 Cut 24 7 1/2" squares from the pattern fabric.
The pattern fabrics make up 6 lines. I have 3 solid lines and 3 quilted lines.

Piecing:

1. Pair up one neutral square and one pattern square, right sides together. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side from corner to corner.

2. Sew 1/4" seam on either side of diagonal line. 

3. Cut along the middle line creating two sewn triangle pairs.

4. Press HST open, pressing seams.

5. Use square ruler to line up diagonal seam line and trim block to 6 1/2" square. Repeat for (46) HST blocks.

6. Trim single 7 1/2" square to 6 1/2" square.

Sewing together:

7. Following illustration, arrange blocks.

8. Piece blocks together into rows, left-to-right. Each row has 6 blocks and there are 8 rows.
9. Piece rows together top-to-bottom.

Finishing quilt:

10. Layer top, batting and backing together. Pin all three layers together to prevent shifting when basting. I basted the quilt by sewing the chevron lines.

11. Cut off any extra batting. I used the backing as the binding.

Binding:

12. Cut down the backing to 1 1/2" all around to be used as binding.

13. Fold backing/binding in half and press.

14. Fold backing/binding on quilt and pin.

Corner Binding

1. Fold up one side.
2. Fold corner in.
3. Fold other side in half.
4. Fold up other side to make mired corner.
5. Sew binding and enjoy.