For Christmas one of my gifts to my mom is a promise to post 12 times a year on the blog. Freda's Hive is supposed to be a place for the whole family to post about our projects and crafts and ideas but my mom, Nanette, has to twist our arms sometimes to get the rest of us to post. I have a good excuse: I am a very slow crafter/sewer/whatever-er so I rarely have anything to post about anyway. But Nanette works very hard on the blog and there is some pressure to continuously come up with fresh ideas and new content. So I have committed to post at least 12 times in 2009 (in addition to any postings related to projects I ever manage to actually complete/make progress on) to give my mom a break once and a while (for instance when she is in Bryce Canyon teaching her classes in February!).

Now this is going to be somewhat difficult, to come up with fresh posts when I am an exponentially less prolific a crafter/sewer as my mom. But I do get inspiration all the time from the many delightful blogs I lurk on. I also acquire a lengthy list of goodies I yearn to buy or have or make but just don't have the money or time for. So I will most likely be sharing these things with you in my posts unless I come up with something else.

For my first post however, I will be sharing my fabric organization space. I don't have a house or an apartment, I just have a room. So I store my fabric in my closet, along with my shoes and clothes and all my other things. I have managed to save several shelves just for fabric and I frequently make the time to re-fold and re-organize these few meager shelves of fabric. I find it comforting, calming and very theraputic. I love to clean and organize and going through my fabric is a lot of fun! Below is my collection, neatly folded and arranged on assorted shelves (I spared you the shoes and clothes and books and all of the other things I over-stuff my closet with).

These are my animal and/or novelty print fabrics (you can see my books on the shelf below and my bags peeping on there on the right). The thinner stack is cowboy-related fabric.

I've put all my owl fabric together here on this shelf. It makes me so happy to know that the owls all get to be next to each other.

This is all the modern/new fabric.

I keep my solids together, naturally. After cutting squares for my cactus quilt my solid fabric stash is depleted and the sizes of each piece are all mismatched, as you can tell by the sloppy stacking. I suppose I could stack by size rather than color.... maybe I have something to keep me busy tonight...

In the bin is my scraps (beads also at the bottom) along with templates for earlier projects and other miscellaneous items. On the right I have an assortment of wool, mostly cut up pieces from my boyfriend's old sweaters. I like to save old clothes but I don't know what I'll use them for.

Here are my pattern/idea books, sketch note-books and the greatly neglected bento box quilt.

The top shelf is a set of brass (?) owls I found at a DI in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Next to them are all my lovely squares of vintage and feedsack fabrics. You can also kind of see my box and basket of fabric cut out for my planned hexagon project. Not seen is my shelf of cactus quilt pieces - finished, not-so-finished, and some still waiting to be cut out.

Okay, so I realize this isn't all that interesting. But, I am hoping this will give keep me motivated to keep on the crafty trail. I have been working on the cactus quilt project for about an hour a night for the past week so that is certainly progress! Maybe I'll post more about that soon. -Natalie

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My idea of going green is using vintage fabric and re-purposing fabric where possible. And speaking of vintage fabric - I've got a great FFF coming up Friday. You won't want to miss this. I had a goodie box arrive today and I can't wait to unveil it. Thanks Lori!!
Here is my sad large and well used heating pad. It gets passed around quite a bit at our house. And in the trip around the house the blue (ugly) fake flannel hot pad cover got lost. We've been substituting pillow cases since that but that is a terrible substitute for a heating pad cover.
So here is one of my 3 quilted roller shades that were in a bay window in my house. Excuse the really awful red ribbon. That is a different story but the fabric was rolled on a dowel and the ribbon wrapped under the rolled fabric shade and tied in a bow. I hated the ribbon and soon after I made the shades we remodeled the kitchen and these shades did NOT go with the tile back splash or the new counter top. So they were less than 6 months old when I took them down. It is just squares of fabric with batting in the center and the dots on the back. I put right sides together and turned it inside out to form the shade. Last year I made some hot pads and zipper bags with the other 2 shades. I blogged about it here. And that is a better view of what the roller shade looked like.
Back to the heating pad. I'd been thinking I need to make a cover for the heating pad for a while now and then I thought of the shade fabric. I wanted something a little insulated in the heating pad but not too thick and this was just the trick. Within 15 minutes the whole thing was completed since the edges were already finished. I took the lazy way out and stitched the top closed with larger stitches. I didn't have Velcro and snaps would be metal and might get hot. I thought about buttons to close it and then I just decided to sew it shut and forget about it. I can unpick to wash it.

One problem fixed!

-nanette

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How was your weekend? Mine was busy. There wasn't much time spent at my machine in my sewing room but I did get some important things done. The most important was being with friends Saturday night at a wedding reception of a dear friend's daughter. It was time very well spent.

Some of the other things I did include . . . Binding

Reading - well, maybe not real Reading but more like looking at a picture book.

Admiring
Dreaming
Writing - isn't this journal just like beautiful fabric. My daughter Natalie brought this home for me and I immediately started a quilt journal - something I've been meaning to do for a while. (Thanks for spurring me on with your example Nedra.)
Cutting and kit makingLearning and tweeking - the talented Arlene (a new friend) and her husband Dave helped me get to know my featherweight and get it ready work.

I also went to church, fixed a nice Sunday meal and spent Sunday with family. Even though my "to do" list didn't shrink much, I tended to some important things. My google blogger still has over 500 posts to visit but I suppose they will wait for me along with that "to do" list.
A parting shot - the fabulous Flora took this picture in her front yard a week or so ago and shared her photo with me. Flora lives not far down the road from me. Now I've seen owls, foxes, minks, tons of racoons and heard quite a few cougar stories but I had no idea we had moose in Alpine! And she fed him so he may be a regular at her house. Would you look at that view. Isn't it beautiful. Almost like a post card.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

-nanette

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My previous house block I called a Cottage block. I decided to name this new house block pattern "Doll House". It is taller and smaller than the cottages and just reminded me of a little doll house. The block seemed like a perfect size for a pot holder but the Doll House could be applied to other crafts or quilt blocks.

It was really fun picking out fabric for each house and as with the cottages I enjoyed making each one unique.

Using the mylar batting called Insul-Bright keeps the potholder thin and light weight like regular cotton Warm and Natural batting. Just an FYI - the mylar batting is not safe in the microwave. I've never microwaved a hot pad, but you just never know. I only use one layer of the batting and I put the more shiny side facing the back. So far it works fine.

Doll House Cutting instructions:

House (1) 6" x 6" square; Roof (1) 6" x 3" strip; Background (2) 2 1/2" squares, (2) 8 1/2" x 2" strips, (1) 9" x 2" strip; Grass (1) 9" x 2" strip; Door (1) 3 1/2" x 2" rectangle; Window (1) fussy cut square approximately 2 1/2" or smaller depending on image in window and (optional) trim 7" long.

All seams are 1/4".

Round the upper corners of the door rectangle. Place the door along the bottom edge of the house and in from the right side edge of the house by 3/4". Position the fussy cut window in 3/4" from the left side edge of the house and down 1 1/4" from the top as shown above. Added note- You can fussy cut more windows and play with the placement. I sometimes put a little window in the attic. It is fun to look at your fabric and think what might be fun to fussy cut and put in the window or door.

Using black thread and your sewing machine's blanket stitch, attach the door and window to the house block.

Press a crease diagonally in the 2 1/2" squares cut from background fabric. With right sides together position the squares over the upper corners of the roof fabric.

Using the crease as a stitching guide, attach the squares to the roof stitching diagonally as above.

Trim to 1/4".

Press seam allowance outward towards the corners. You can see that I tried to center the stripe in the middle but that made the scalloped edge off center - oh well.

With right sides together stitch the roof to the house block. Press.

Trim is optional. Stitch trim just below the seam line below the roof securing both edges of the trim. Next sew the 2 strips of fabric (8 1/2" x 2") to the sides of the house. Press.

Stitch the (9" x 2") back ground strip and the green grass strip to the tops and bottom of the block. Press.

Finished Doll House blocks above. Some of the houses I made in slightly different sizes before I settled on the best size.

Cut a square of the mylar batting and the backing fabric larger than the Doll House block by at least 1" around all the edges. Place your finished Doll House block with mylar batting in between and a linen (or other fabric) backing and pin in place.

Machine quilting this block is very easy. Using a walking foot, stitch in the ditch around all seams, door, window, trim and back ground fabric edges.

Detail of machine quilting shown above in the back of the hot pad fabric.

Trim batting and backing from all sides and square up the Doll House block.

Using a rounded edge template mark a curved edge in each corner of the Doll House block. Cut on marked line as above.

Cut a bias binding and create a 4" long loop with binding fabric. Attach loop to the top of the Doll House block and bind as you would a quilt. Optionally you can sew a tiny button to the door for a door knob.

Fun, fast and easy to make, these Doll House hot pads make great gifts and are colorful additions to any kitchen. Make them by the dozens!

-nanette

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Famous people born January 7 - David Caruso, Katie Couric, Nicholas Cage, Millard Fillmore, Kenny Logins and T from Purple and Paisley!
Go wish Terri Happy Birthday - and be sure to mention the ARMS!

-nanette

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I have the nicest friends. I know I say that all the time. And I don't just mean because I get presents from them. It is the thought that goes into them that is the most appreciated. It is the caring and sharing behind the idea and work that is the real treasure.
Our mail was delivered to the wrong house last week so last night the door bell rang and a neighbor girl handed us mail with a package I was not expecting.
From Sandy - she 's a darling that has read my blog for a long time now - well long in blog years. The most darling cute snowman vanilla scented soap, a strawberry needle holder, a very cute ornament - putting that away for next year, and a very very cute embroidered tea towel. Now it tickles me how Sandy knows I love strawberries. Incredibly thoughtful. I can't embroider well at all so I appreciate others careful work so much. My embroidery looks like that primitive stuff 6 year olds did 100 years or so ago. And I don't mean it to look like that. Anyway thank you so much Sandy.

Have you ever forgot a child somewhere? Or have you ever missed an appointment you knew was coming up until the moment you were supposed to leave? Or have you ever left boiled eggs on the stove until the water boiled out and the eggs exploded (now THATS a mess to clean up!)? Well I've done all these things but not those specific things lately, those are just examples of a problem. The problem is spreading myself too thin (hey I used the words myself and thin in the same sentence!) I know I have to take stock of my life right now and I know it is because I'm doing too much that I've become forgetful.

I have 500 creative lovely posts from wonderful blogs in my google reader. And tasks I was supposed to do and have completely forgotten which will bring horrible embarrassment at some point. I haven't caught up from Christmas. And things at the hive are kind of topsy turvy upside downish. I will probably continue to make fairly regular posts here. But I won't get around to reading as many blogs as normal. I hope my friends understand. I need to take a baby step backwards. I'm really missing seeing what everyone is doing. I'm sorry. And I'll catch up soon and hope that life returns to normal (whatever that is) at some point in time.

-nanette

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I hope everyone is ready to get back into the swing of things after all the holidays. I know I'm not!

I've decided the easiest way for me to update the latest links and ideas for the "Great Ideas for a Handmade Christmas 2009" is to just keep updating my original post about this. That way I won't be making new posts and then having to add all the ideas together at some point. So please go back down to the original post and look at your ideas I've posted so far. I'll update every few days. Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far. Keep 'em coming. My resolve for 2009 is to be better organized and having all the Christmas links together will help me keep that resolution (better than a diet!).

For Des - I can't make another post without a picture. So here is what I'm currently making, other than finishing quilting and binding the last of my "doll house" potholders.

You know Valentine's Day is 37 days away. I am making quilted Valentine Cards. They are small - 6"-8" in size. I seem to be making lots of small things lately. It is kind of fun to finish a tiny quilt in a jiffy. You can see the post mark feed sack, that I got for Christmas, is coming in handy. I am sewing a little post mark square in the upper right hand corner of each Valentine.

Underneath the valentines is fabric I'm going to use in the black/white challenge. I'm designing the quilt in my mind right now and pulling fabrics I think might work.

Go wish Eileen a Happy Birthday today! And in 2 days it is Terri's birthday at Purple and Paisley. And she's having a giveaway everyday all week to celebrate. Yayy Terri (I couldn't resist putting that in purple font). Happy Birthday to two of my bestest gal pals.

-nanette

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