Sewing Storage Ideas

As some of you know, I have very limited space where I live so I don't have a craft room. Up until a couple weeks ago I had all of my sewing supplies/ fabric stored in about 3 different closets/places. It was driving me nuts! I could never find what I was looking for and hated digging through piles and piles of fabric trying to find the right one. 

I got thinking and looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to store sewing supplies and decided to buy a book shelf and display/store my stuff on it. I think sewing supplies are so fun and pretty to display.

I just got an inexpensive white bookshelf from Target that cost me $109. I put about $50 into jars, storage boxes, and knick knacks so my total was under $175. Not to shabby for a cute place to display and catalog my sewing supplies. 

I even dressed up my shelf with some wrapping paper behind the shelves to give it a little subtle pizazz. It is light turquoise and white stripped- you can kinda see it in a couple of the pictures. 

I have the shelf in my bedroom (thank goodness for a loving hubby that lets me do whatever I want with the decor of our room/house). I love waking up each morning and looking at the supplies that I have to work with, and for some reason just seeing my supplies displayed in a pretty way inspires me.

One of the ideas that I decided to implement on my bookshelf was this genius idea by Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots to make your own fabric bolts. I used comic book storage boards like she did to wrap my fabric around like a mini fabric bolt. LOVE IT! I think my mini bolts look so darling all lined up like a little rainbow. Plus- having my fabric stored this way I am able to access it so easy and I can "go shopping" in my stash before having to head out to a fabric store for fabric whereas before I was always guessing what I had and didn't have due to my laziness and not wanting to dig through boxes of fabric. 

The next idea of stage came while browsing the isles of Target... I came upon these darling little Ball mason jars. I knew they would be perfect for storing the vintage buttons and thread that I inherited from my grandma.

I picked up some larger Ball Mason Jars at Joanns to store some of my trims like pom poms and rick rack.

Next I headed to one of my favorite stores: Homegoods in search of glass jars with lids to store my pearl cotton balls and other threads. 

One of the fun splurges that I found was at World Market. I fell in love with this darling Stacking Doll Cookie Jar and just had to buy it. I love her! And the fact that she only cost me $12.99 made me love her more. I hid my pairs of scissors and rotary cutters inside here. 

My husbands sweet Grandma Jean gave these vintage stacking dolls to my daughters a couple years ago and I have just never had the perfect place to display them until now. I love them. Love that they were hers, love that they are from my husbands birthplace- Germany (no he isn't German- he's an army brat- minus the brat part:) and I love looking at them everyday.

Another thing I love about the bookshelf idea is that I can line up my sewing books and patterns for easy access too.

(can't wait to sew using these vintage patterns I got from my grandma's sewing stash- man... can you imagine being able to buy sewing patterns for 35 cents these days??)

For storage of my fat quarters and smaller cuts of fabric that wouldn't fit on it's own fabric bolt, I folded them up and stacked them on the shelf. Love how pretty they look- plus they are so easy to access as well.

I am loving being organized!! But I am loving even more being able to SEE my supplies displayed everyday. It is my new favorite place in my house. I find myself just standing in front of my shelf daydreaming of projects... I know... I am weird! ha ha

Stay tuned for next week... I am going to share my Master Bedroom Makeover. I went from bland neutral colors to bold and colorful... I think I have just about every color you see on this shelf incorporated into my room somewhere!! It is so fun and cheery... I can't wait to show you all! :)

Have a great week!

xoxo, Ashley

HOT WHEELS pow wow quilt

Last weekend, I did something that was a first for me. I used a quilt pattern. 

Usually when I make a quilt, I come up with an idea in my mind and make up a pattern for it.  

I used a pattern by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew, called Pow Wow.

I am so glad that I used a pattern for a quilt like this. I would have never been able to figure out how to make arrows like these on my own. I love the way it turned out.

I will warn you though- this quilt was time consuming! Very much so. By the time I was sewing the binding on- I was so ready to be done with the quilt! ha ha 

-But it was well worth it once I held it up to see it all finished. 

I think that this pattern is the perfect quilt for a boy. It would be cute with girl fabric too, but it just screams boy to me. Since I am in a house full of girls (with the exception of my hubby) I mainly sew with pinks and florals. It was totally different to sew with boyish prints. To be honest.... I love sewing with my girly fabric more! I think sewing with the boyish fabric added to my readiness to be "done" sewing this quilt! ha ha

(nothing against boy fabric at all! I love it too- I just love making girly things more.)

I made it for my little brother Logan, who just turned 19 this week. He loves cars and he has an awesome sense of style, so I thought it would be fun to make it bright, fun, and kinda youthful, but not babyish of course.

When I saw this hot wheels fabric I knew it was perfect for the quilt. It totally screamed "Logan". I chose a couple colors (yellow, gray, and greenish turquoise) from the hot wheels fabric and just found fabric in those colors to coordinate. 

When I bought my fabric, I got enough to make the lap sized quilt, but once I finished the quilt top I realized that it was going to be a bit small for my 6 foot tall brother. So I used a bit of leftover fabric and added a small border. 

I have never used a solid print for binding before but I kinda like the way this solid Kona Charcoal turned out. Sometimes less is more, and with the busy-ness of the hot wheels print I don't think another busy print would have looked good as the binding.

I did a 3 inch border of the hot wheels fabric and then a 3 inch border of white around that. So it added just under a foot to the width and length- which was perfect. 

(I liked it better before I added the border, but it was a necessity since I didn't have enough to make more of the arrow blocks to add on.)

My hat is off to Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew... Awesome pattern woman!

P.S. I bought my pattern here. I got the pdf version so it was just emailed straight over... perfect if you are wanting to get started "right now". Which is how I roll, once I find something I like! ;)

Ta-Da Tuesday... All good things come to an end.

Hey Everyone!!

Thanks so much for coming by to link up your projects each Tuesday for the last year. It has been so much fun seeing everyone's awesome ideas, tutorials, and projects each week. You all inspire me so much! Which makes me sad to say that after a lot of thinking about it, I have decided to quit doing Ta-Da Tuesday's each week... for one reason. 

My family. I want to be a better mom and wife. 

Blogging takes time away from my kids and hubby- no if's, and's, or but's about it. Even though I mainly blog at night when my girls are asleep, there are times when I have a deadline and make exceptions. Don't get me wrong- I still love blogging, and I am not quitting by any means, but I feel like taking away one post per week is going to lighten my load and give that much more time to my family.

I hope that you guys understand and still stick with me even though I don't have my party each week! xoxo, Ashley

Darling Doll Quilt Tutorial

My very favorite thing about sewing, is being able to make things for my two daughters. 

I love when they come to me with something that they want me to make for them. The look on their face when I am all finished and hand it to them is priceless.

Lately I have been making a lot of dolly quilts. They are so fun and easy to make and as opposed to regular sized quilts, they only take about a day to make depending on how labor intensive you design it.

For this dolly quilt, I used some of the leftover fabric that I had from my Tied with a Bow Car Seat Canopy- which was the Fly a Kite fabric by Riley Blake.

I loved this cathedral window print and thought it would be a lot of fun to hand stitch since the pattern was pretty much already there for me to follow.

-Note to self/you guys: This took a lot longer that I had anticipated! Like a full week of stitching each night once the girls went to bed. It doesn't look like it would take that lone until you get started... ha ha

But to be honest, I really love the way it turned out! The other day my little gal spilled water all over it so I had to throw it in the dryer and when I took it out it was even cuter than before since it got that "crinkled old quilt" look from being in the dryer. LOVE IT!

You totally don't need to hand stitch your quilt like I did- you could machine quilt it in any way you wanted and it would take minutes!

 I find that for my girls a fat quarter (18x22 inches) sized quilt is just about perfect for their little hands and arms to maneuver and wrap their babies in. But you could easily make this any size you would like.

Ok... so here is how I made it.

(Keep in mind that for this quilt I didn't really leave any over hang of batting, or backing fabric. Since it is so small there really wasn't any shifting when I was quilting. But if you like to play it by the rules- add a few inches on each side of the backing and batting so that you have a little leeway.)

Supplies:

This is the perfect quilt to use scraps from your stash, but if you want to buy your fabric- here is the yardage I used-

1 fat quarter for the back of the quilt

1 fat quarter for the front of the quilt

5x44 inches of fabric for the binding 

2 strips of fabric that are 3x20 inches

Optional:

Lace trim- I used 1 1/2 inch lace- two pieces that are 20 inches long each.

batting- you can use it or not. I like it both ways. It is a little stiffer if you use the batting, but for this dolly quilt I wanted to use it since I was hand stitching everything.

Step 1: Cut your fabric. You will leave the fat quarter for the back as it is. Take the fat quarter for the front and trim it to be 12x20 inches. Cut two strips of fabric that are 3x20 inches each. And then cut your binding- you will need two strips that are 2 1/2 by 44 inches.

Cut your lace (if you are using it). You will need two pieces that are 20 inches long each.

Step 2: Now it is time to sew. Take your main piece for the front and line up each piece of lace along the 20 inch side on each side and then lay the 3x20 inch piece of fabric on top of that for each side right sides together with the main fabric. (If you aren't using the lace then just put the two pieces together without the lace)

Pin each side so that the lace is sandwiched between both layers on each sides.

Step 3: Sew along each side. I used a 1/2 inch seam just to make sure the lace was hooked in there good. Once it is sewn, press your seams toward the outside of the quilt.

Step 4: Top stitch as close to the seam as possible to give it a finished look and extra durability. (I set my needle all the way to one side and sewed as close as I could to the seam.

That is it for the quilt top. Easy right??

Now for the quilting. Prepare your "quilt sandwich". Start by ironing your backing. Lay it on the ground so the wrong side is facing up. Either pin it into the carpet with t-pins or tape it to a hard surface. Lay your batting on top of that if you are using batting.

Lay your quilt top on top of the batting and backing and pin it in place every several inches- I used curved safety pins. This will hold it in place while you quilt it. 

Now you can quilt it however you would like. Like I said- I chose to hand quilt mine pretty intricately, but there are multiple ways you could quilt yours.

Once your are all done quilting, trim off the excess backing and binding. Next you will sew on your binding. If you need a tutorial of how to prepare your binding here are a couple- here is one that is all done by machine and another that is part done by machine and part done by hand. 

I prefer to sew the binding to the front of the quilt with my machine and then hand stitch it to the back of the quilt. It takes a little longer, but I think it looks a lot nicer- plus my very favorite part of the whole quilt process is hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. I know- I am a total weirdo! ha ha

That is it. Easy right?? Bet your little lady will be so happy once that quilt is tightly wrapped around her baby doll!

Ta-Da Tuesday Link Party #50

Hi and Happy Tuesday everyone!!
Is everyone still having a blast watching the olympics?? I am loving it!! Especially swimming and gymnastics! So much fun!


Last week I shared a fun baby quilt that I made for a friend using my Vintage Modern stash.

Here are some of the most viewed/favorites of last week:

Olympic- Inspired English Trifle by Family Ever After

Rosette Pillow Case Tutorial by The Winthrop Chronicles

Ombre Necklace Tutorial by Miss Lovie

Dew Drops Dress by Groovybaby... and Mama

Truck and Cars Quilt by Pink Polka Dot Creations

Great job guys!!! Grab a featured button! :)

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So here is to another awesome party!!!

I would love for you to:

1. Become a follower of Mommy by day... Crafter by night via GFC or RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
2. Link back to my blog, or put the Ta-Da Tuesday Button anywhere on your blog to share the link party love!

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Please remember to link to a specific post, and no links to giveaways or etsy shops. And please only link to posts with projects that you have made- No Pinterest roundups please. Thanks!!!

Vintage Modern Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago, my friend had a darling baby girl. 

Of course I jumped at the chance to make a quilt with my stash of Vintage Modern fabric. I made it using 2 mini charm packs which are squares that are pre cut to be 2.5x2.5 inches instead of the regular 5x5 inch squares. I also used a white jelly roll and cut up some squares (2.5x2.5 as well) to lighten up the quilt and then added some borders.... I loved how it turned out! So simple, but so cute!

I honestly love this color combo so much! DARLING!

I am still working on getting my hand quilting straight so don't look too close!

I have quite the stash of this lovely fabric... Now I just gotta come up with some more fun ways to use it! 

What are some of your favorite fabrics that are hiding in your stash??