Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV)

Long time no post…  I just saw a photo of a Christmas present I made so I figured I would do a quick post.

Who else has gotten into using Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV)?  There are many videos on YouTube, individual blogs, etc so I won’t repeat how to do it, but I will show you the first project that I did for a family member.

first HTV shirt

The lighting wasn’t great, but the trees are a solid green.  I used my Sizzix hand die cutting machine and some of the dies I had for making scrapbooks.  I had to play around with which way the HTV needed to be placed on the die since I wasn’t able to electronically flip my text.

The shirt is still being worn, but I have had to touch up a few of the letters with an iron.  I am still working on the correct amount of time, etc that they should be ironed for, etc.

Since this original shirt I have made eight more shirts for different family members.  So far I haven’t heard that the shapes or letters have fallen off.

What is your latest craft project?

Later – Heather

 

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Focus – Word for 2019

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I have decided to make some changes to the blog, but I am still mentally working out the details so it will be spelled out in a future post.

Do you select a Word of the Year?  Last year I picked ‘Be’ as my word.   ‘Be’ fit what I needed, whether I knew it or not on January 1st, 2018.

This year I decided on Focus since I want to focus on:

• my family
• my health
• on projects
  • Hopefully I will finish some projects so my active ‘partly done’ list is smaller at the end of 2019 than now.  This doesn’t mean I won’t add new ideas to the list, but I have to get some of the partly finished projects sitting around here done and provide some free space – physically and mentally.
• etc – I know other things will come up that will need my Focus for at least a short period of time.

One thing I am trying this year is to fill out a planner again.  I have tried to use a bought planner in previous years and have failed.  Then I tried a Bullet Journal for a while, but gave up since I was constantly having to rewrite tasks from week to week since they were not getting done.

So, this year I created a three month planner (to start) of my own design.  It is a combination of a regular planner and a Bullet Journal.  I will let you know at the end of March what worked and what I will be changing for the next three months.

Until next time, Heather

 

Tip Tuesday

So, I made some gluten-free sourdough starter with sorghum flour that I had in the house from the following recipe and we thought it was too sour.

https://successfullyglutenfree.blogspot.com/2013/12/easy-gluten-free-sourdough-starter.html

And, then I realized I didn’t have any brown rice flour in the house, but I realized that I had brown rice in the pantry so I ground some of the brown rice with a older coffee grinder (which hadn’t been used for coffee) similar to this one and made my own brown rice flour!

https://www.target.com/p/mr-coffee-174-blade-grinder-black-ids57-np/-/A-16391441?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&CPNG=PLA_Appliances%2BShopping&adgroup=SC_Appliances_Food+Dehydrators&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9030852&gclsrc=aw.ds&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1247068&ds_rl=1246978&ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&CPNG=PLA_Appliances+Shopping&adgroup=SC_Appliances_Food%20Dehydrators&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9030852&gclid=CjwKCAjw6-_eBRBXEiwA-5zHadkXcFHD7V0BYp0KC6q7QsO17p_9CJ-gNlpOm-ZmRcdib-k4wi3E9xoCxD4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

At the moment the brown rice flour and water are sitting on the counter.  Later this week / next week I will report back how the sourdough bread turned out.

What creative cooking tips have you done lately?

Later – Heather

 

Red, white and blue quilt

For a very long time we have had a store bought quilt on our bed and I wanted to make a new one, but I wasn’t sure what colors or design to make it.

In 2016, at the summer picnic meeting of the local Quilt Guild, I won a stack of 2.5″ strips of patriotic material.  When I brought them home I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them since I don’t really care of the look of Jelly Roll quilts.  Then I realized most of them were similar to the colors of our current bed quilt.

I then went searching online and found that some of the material was from the Stonehenge Stars and Stripes fabric line.  I found out that there were 10″x10″ squares, 2.5″ strip sets and yardage available in the same fabrics and I could also find some of it in the local quilt shops.

The next steps was designing the quilt top and figuring out how much fabric I would need.  Oh, and I don’t think I stated that I needed to make a slightly oversized quilt for a California King bed.  Until you start measuring the size and sewing the quilt top together you don’t realize how big that is!

I realized if I ever wanted this quilt finished then I had to make a simple design and use as much of the precut 10″x10″ squares and 2.5″ strips as possible.  Once I had a few designs figured out I showed them to my husband.  I had a plain piece of blue laid between the two different designs to separate them, but he actually liked it best with the plain blue strip in the quilt.  So, the final quilt is a mixture of the two different designed I originally came up with.

After cutting, sewing and trimming down to size for what felt like forever the quilt top was done.  Then I wanted to use up as much as possible of the extra 10″x10″ squares and left over material so I decided to make a design for the back of the quilt too.

When it was all done I handed it off to Quilt Legacy in Dayton, NV to long arm quilt  since I had other projects I needed to work on and I knew it was going to be a major pain to quilt that size quilt on my domestic sewing machine.

I am very impressed with how the final product turned out.  The quilt pattern they used was perfect for the quilt top.  And my husband was very happy with the finished quilt.

 

As I stated, when I showed it during Show & Tell at the local Quilt Guild, I don’t quilt that often, but when I do I take on BIG projects.

From some of the matching yardage I also made two pillow shams.

What big project have you tackled lately?

Heather

 

 

Fabric painting using vegetables?

I am guessing you have a weird look on your face after reading the title (I would!).

I tried an experiment and I am happy to say that I was pleased with the way it turned out.

Fabric painted with a celery

*Note this is not a sponsored post.  I bought all of the supplies and the opinions are 100% mine.

Supplies I used:

• Plain red cotton material
• Jacquard Textile (fabric paint) in black
• The waste end of a celery

You are probably wondering why I decided to try this.  Well, I was actually cutting a whole celery up so I could store it in a container with water so it could be put in my husband’s lunch later that week.  When I got to the waste end I was going to put it in the compost container, but then realized it looked like a flower.

So, I knew I had a piece of the plain, red cotton material, which was kind of boring and I had bought a container of the fabric paint so I figured it was worth trying out.

Plain red fabric

Paint used for fabric

Rose created by celery end and fabric paint

I was happy how it turned out and even took the final piece of material, after I had washed and dried it, to the local quilt guild meeting and showed it at ‘Show and Tell’.

Since then I have seen multiple ideas on how to use stamps, etc on quilts.  That will be a project for the future.

This piece of material was actually cut into strips and used in a project.

Have you ever tried this?

Later – Heather

 

 

Custom aprons

This winter I made custom aprons for two little girls I know.

One was a birthday present for Mia who was turning  two year old.  Her mom told me that Mia loved the movie ‘Frozen’ and I happened to find some perfect fabric.

 

Then I told my hairdresser and she said her three year old would love an apron too.  So, I found some more material and I made her one also.

They were pretty easy to make and I was happy to hear that both little girls enjoyed them.

Later – H

 

 

Curtains made with Grommets

Note:  This is not a sponsored post.  I bought all of the material and the opinions are 100% mine.

When I started to setup the sewing/craft room I used a set of pink curtains I found in the garage.  Since I had painted the room a light green color the curtains gave a horrible tint to the room, but they at least covered the windows until I found a set of curtains I liked.

Temporary curtains

I didn’t find a set of curtains I liked, but I did see this package of Dritz Home Curtain Grommets, in Pewter, at a local fabric store.  I had never used them before and was willing to try.

Dritz Home Curtain Grommets

Next, I had to find the material I wanted.  I happened to be in Walmart one day and saw this material for less than $3.00 per yard.  I bought four yards of the main material and four yards of the white material as the liner.

Since I had never used the curtain grommets before I decided to cut a header and attach the grommets to it and then sew the header to the curtain.  I used a ruler and pen to mark the center of each grommet location and then used the pen to trace the template mark.

Note:  I also decided to stitch the two layers together on the template line so the curtain would not move while I was cutting out the circle.  This step wasn’t mentioned on the package or by the fabric store.

To cut out the circle I made a small cut in the middle and then worked my way out to the outer edge.  The cashier suggested that I cut the hole slightly inside the template mark which was a very good idea.

I followed the package instructions to install the grommets.

To make sure that the edges of the curtains didn’t roll I top sewed about 1/4″ from the edge of the curtains after I had pinned and ironed the edge flat.

When the curtains were done I hung them up and found out that they were not as full as I wanted.

Finished white curtains

So, I went back to Walmart and found that they were out of the white material, but I found a black material with the same pattern on clearance also.

So, I bought a third package of the Dritz Home Curtain Grommet and made two curtains, which were half width that I hung on each side.

Final curtains

I think they turned out really good and I would definitely make more of these curtains.

Some additional information:

– I saw similar packages of the curtain grommets at Walmart.  I think they were for a slightly different size curtain rod and I don’t know if they go together as easy as the Dritz Home package.

– I recently saw similar curtain grommets used to make a tote bag.  She used them as decoration and for the handles to go through.

– I used quilt weight material so I didn’t have to worry about the two layers of material being too thick for the curtain grommets.

– The package of curtain grommets says that the grommets can be removed with a flat screwdriver and that the curtain grommets should not be put through a washing machine, which is another reason I sewed the two layers of material together.

Leave a comment if you have any questions.

What project have you worked on lately?

Later – H

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated: DIY Ribbon Organizing

This is an update to one of my first blog posts.  I think this idea is much better and takes up less room.

So, when I was first organizing ribbon I used a plastic basket, dowels and some twist ties.  This basket was still in my cupboard until January of this year.

 

January is when I started to seriously reorganize the sewing/craft, etc room (that will take multiple posts to show so that will be done some other time).

Anyways, I saw on Pinterest (or somewhere) about the idea of hanging ribbons on a mutiple pant hanger (or at least that is what I call it) and I had one sitting in my closet.  This allows me to use the space in the cupboard for stackable items  (labeled boxes, etc) and I can hang the ribbon holder on the door handle when I am working on a project.  When it is not being used it could hang in a closet.

You may see another update in the future if I figure a good way to hang extra ribbon below the lower bar (which doesn’t open).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Later   -H

I unclogged the bathroom sink!

The bathroom sink has been running slow for a few months.  I had tried to pull out the hair, etc using the end of a chopstick (it worked to pull out some of it), but I didn’t think it had much hair, etc still down the drain.

The husband suggested I clear out under the sink (ugh) and we pull the stopper out so we could get it really clean.

Well, I got the area under the sink cleared out, but he didn’t have a chance to work on it.  So… I did a Google search on how to get the stopper out.

Here is the link I used (photo 3 shows how to get the stopper out).

http://www.familyhandyman.com/plumbing/drain-repair/unclog-a-bathroom-sink-without-chemicals/view-all

I was shocked by how much hair, etc that I pulled out of the drain.

After I got all of above out I wiped down the drain with a paper towel and put the stopper back in.

To get the drain even cleaner I then put 1/2 cup baking soda over the drain.  I poured a warmed mixture of 1 cup vinegar + 1 cup water over the baking soda and closed the drain for about 30 minutes.  After that the drain appeared to drain quickly.

I guess I need to add this task to my To Do List (maybe every six months, if not sooner).

What household task have you learned to do recently?

Later – H

Word of 2015 – Simplify – #2

If you saw a previous post  ‘Specials Words of 2015’ then you know that one of them is Simplify.

Here is the second project that I did that has simplified an area of my life (which in this case is the corner cabinet in the laundry room).

We use the corner cabinet as an extra pantry area, but it was difficult to keep track of what was stored in there.  For years (and I do mean YEARS) I had a piece of paper taped to the inside of the cabinet with a semi-running list of what was inside.  I knew there had to be a better way.

Last fall, I found a roll of cork sheeting (on Clearance after school started) and cut a piece to fit the inside of the door.  One problem was it didn’t like to lay flat and the second one was I realized I couldn’t nail it to the door, but tape and glue would not make it stay.  So, that came down and I still needed a solution.

 

A few weeks ago, Hand Husband asked if I needed anything from Amazon since he wanted me to order something for him (and then we would qualify for the free shipping).  That is when I remembered seeing the

Fancy-Fix A4 Sized Weekly Planner Blackboard Sticker Memo Removable Vinyl Chalkboard Wall Sticker   

and

SuperChalks White Liquid Chalk Marker Pen (4mm Regular Tip)

I realized the A4 size should fit (or would be easy to cut down) and I liked the idea of liquid chalk (I hate using regular chalk, especially in dry Nevada).

Once they arrived it took me about 5 minutes to have three of the Blackboard Stickers installed.  It was tricky to get the Liquid Chalk Marker Pen to work at first, but then it went on neatly and dried pretty quickly.

 

I also found an idea for a Pantry inventory sheet at Organized Home   Pantry Inventory

that used boxes and ‘/’ to show you have the item and ‘x’ to show when it was used to keep track of the inventory.  I thought that idea was brilliant!   (go check out the free printable at http://Organizedhome.com )

So, I will be taking everything out of the cupboard and writing it down on the sheets when they go back in.  Hopefully then we will be able to keep track of everything.

 

Now, to figure out how to do something similar with the regular pantry (which has bi-fold doors)…

How do you keep track of your pantry inventory?

Later – H