Now that we have added our borders and the front of our quilt is complete it is time to start putting all the layers together. First I would strongly recommend that you iron both the backing material and the front of your quilt so that both can be laid nice and flat. Next lay out your backing material, right side face down, on a flat hard surface. If you have a wooden or tiled floor this would be ideal. I had to make do on the carpet. Smooth out any creases to make sure that it is flat and then secure the edges to the floor with masking tape. Now, roll out your batting on top of the ...
Egg-Carton Craft: Pretty Easter Baskets
This week I was invited to attend my first ever Google + Craft Hangout by the crafty queen herself, Maggy aka Red Ted Art. The theme for the hangout was egg-cartons and I saw some great ideas including cress-planters by Chris at Thinly Spread, paint-palletes by Rebecca at Here Come The Girls, and pretty flower fairy lights by Maggy herself. I must confess I missed a bit as I am not very techy and was unsure if I needed my own video connected so wasted quite a bit of time faffing about installing the necessary gubbins but will try and be more organised next time! Anyway, here is what I ...
Top 3 Easter Crafts for Toddlers
Below are three super-simple but fun and effective Easter crafts ideal for making with toddlers. 1. No-Dye Spotty Eggs. Here we simply attached double-sided sticky dots to blown out duck-eggs and then rolled each spot in glitter. So easy but so pretty! I used duck eggs as the shells are a bit sturdier than chicken eggs but you could always use a hard-boiled egg if you are worried they might break. For full instructions and pictures of how we made them see here. 2. Funny Bunnies I love finding fun ways to use up rubbish from around the house and toilet rolls are no exception. Here we ...
Easter Craft: Funny Bunnies
This is a super easy craft to do with your toddler and great fun for easter! You will need: An empty toilet roll Coloured tissue paper Old bit of card-a cereal box or similar would do Pink and white card A few balls of cotton wall Modge Podge or watered down PVA glue Paint brush Pipe cleaners Googley eyes Double-sided sticky tape Cut your tissue paper into small strips. Let your toddler paint the toilet roll with modge podge and stick on strips. Continue adding until evenly covered and allow to dry. Cut out two ear shapes from an old bit of card. Cut ...
How to make a Cotbed Quilt for Beginners, Step 6: Rotary Cutting and Adding Your Borders
Now it is time to cut the fabric strips for the borders of our quilt. If you began with a charm pack of fabric squares for the front of your quilt this may be your first time cutting fabric with a rotary cutter. I was terrified at first but if you just follow a few simple steps it really is as easy as can be. Before you begin cutting off strips make sure your fabric is folded squarely. This may well mean re-ironing the center fold when folded in half width-ways so it is time to get the iron out again...sorry. It is also a good idea to iron your quilt out flat at this stage too. Align ...
Easter Craft: No-dye Spotty Easter Eggs.
W and I had great fun making these cute spotty Easter eggs today, though I am still brushing the glitter out of my hair. We found the idea over at Better Homes and Gardens who have lots of great egg-decorating ideas but this one was particularly toddler-friendly. And there you have it, no-dye spotty Easter Eggs for a pretty Easter table centrepiece. Happy Easter! ...
How to Make a Cotbed Quilt for Beginners, Step 5: Ordering Border and Backing Fabric and Quilt Batting.
Now comes the step I found to be the most confusing when I made my first quilt, ordering fabric. I just could not get my head around it which is weird as I am pretty good at maths. The fabric world however appears to operate by it's own rules, and if you don't know the lingo it can take some figuring out! The switch from yards and inches to metres and centimetres I also find quite frustrating but am beginning to get used to now. I shall endeavour to supply both where I can. I have listed a few conversion factors below. 1 yard = approx 92cm (91.44) 1 yard = 36 inches 1 inch = ...
Easter Craft:Sp-EGG-tacular Superheroes!
I just could not stop giggling whilst making the following Easter eggs. I really hope they will make you smile. You can find templates for all of the 'clothes', feet and badges available to download free of charge here...Superhero templates Happy Easter! How to Make a Spider-egg-man: First dye a blown-out egg-shell overnight in a large bowl containing one cup of water and one teaspoon of red food colouring. Remove and allow to dry thoroughly for 24 hours. With a permanent marker draw on web lines over the top 2/3 of your egg. Next paint the bottom 1/3 of your egg with Modge Podge ...
How to Make a Cotbed Quilt for Beginners, Step 4: Sewing Your Rows Together.
Congratulations on finishing step 3! Now, I'm afraid to say, it is time to get the iron out. You should now have your 8 individual rows of squares. Before we sew them together we need to iron down the seams. This makes pinning them together ready for sewing much easier and you will find it helps to line up the squares more accurately. Take row 1. Place right side down on your ironing board and iron down the seams so that they are pointing to your right. Then take row 2, place right side down and iron down seams pointing to your left. Repeat, alternating direction for each row in ...
How to Make a Cotbed Quilt for Beginners, Step 3: Sewing an Individual Row of Squares
Now we are ready to sew row 1 together. Take squares 1 and 2 from row 1, the first two squares from the left. Place 'right sides up', for us newbies that means the side you want facing outwards is uppermost. Now place square 2 face down on top of square 1. This is called placing 'right sides together'. Now pin the right hand side of your squares together ready for sewing. Align the right hand side of your fabric with the side of your presser foot as shown. This will ...