DIY - Rag Quilt

I've had the fabric for weeks, ever since I discovered a blog entry by Northern Cottage called

you'll find the instructions there

This week I finally got around to it. It was a lot of sewing and was a bit awkward to sew because my sewing table is really small and the weight kept pulling me off track.

I wanted to use up all the fleece and wound up with 9 - 10" strips and 2 - 8"strips

I do want to mention that I changed it a bit by using fleece instead of flannel (The only flannel I could find was in kiddy patterns and I wanted Aloha prints) and did not include the extra, in between layer. Sorta like this:

 Snipping wasn't nearly as much work as I thought it would be. It is thicker than the flannel version, but I think it looks just fine.

Even the fleece has an Aloha design.

All in all it was a fun project and I'm really, really pleased how it turned out. I have some more fabric that I can use to make a couple of full size pillows and a few decorative pillows.

Should look great on our guest bed.....

Or on the couch.

Not sure which yet.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

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DIY - Tired of Fingerprints and Smudges

It's been weeks since we've returned from our trip and I can't stop thinking about how smudged up the door handles of our stainless steel fridge/freezer were and how I wound up wiping them down every time I walked by. I had to come up with a solution.

In one of the care homes I worked in they wrapped the fridge door handle in Saran Wrap to keep it clean. It worked, but I didn't want to be that wasteful.

Then it came to me. Why don't I just sew "handle covers"?

I knew I wanted some kind of green, Aloha print, quilted fabric, but didn't find anything I liked at the fabric store.

On a whim, at the thrift store, I went thru the bedding isle and found a small throw in just the right color.

Cha-ching - MINE!

First, I carefully took off the bias tape so that I could reuse on my covers.

Then I took measurements and cut out what I needed to make each cover.

Then pinned the bias tape all the way around and sewed it in place.

Next I wrapped the cover to be around the handle and using a vanishing marker I marked where they over lap. 

This marks lets me know where I need to sew the velcro.

I decided to only add a few spots of velcro instead of a long strip. Thought it would be less bulky this way.

Once the velcro was in place I wrapped the cover around the handle, with opening facing me.

I pulled it nice and tight, pressed the velcro dots together.

This is our fridge in Hawaii - excited to put it on our other fridge.

Then, ever so gently, I turned the cover around so the seam was in back and wah-la! A nice cover that won't show smudges and that I can toss in the washing machine when it gets dirty!

I made 2 for the french doors, but will have to wait till we're at the house again to measure how big it has to be for the freezer drawer.

What do you think? Maybe I'll go into production!!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

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This Weeks Thrift Store Find

Since finding the cute amber juice glasses I've been a bit more open to glass colors, other than my beloved green glass.

So it was no surprise when I saw this I found something that I could call mine.

Love the fluted edge and the pattern it makes when the light shines thru. There is no stamp or mark on the bottom, so I don't know much about it.

Anyone have an idea? or a suggestion where I could look?

What did you find this week?

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Click Away Monday #4

Last Friday we flew over to Maui to visit a friend and we did a bit of sight seeing.  We saw a lot of beautiful things, but I wasn't feeling too good, and you can see that in my photos, but I did get one that really made me smile. I hope it makes you smile too.

Looks like someone made the best of  a bad situation.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

This Weeks Find

I went into the store with the thought; Hey, I'll just take pictures of what I see...I will still have the thrill of the find, but won't have to worry about where to put it or reselling it.

Looks like someone got rid of their "funny sayings" statues

 

Gave me a giggle or two.

Repeated my mantra - I 'm not going to buy anything.

Saw a bowl like this (but totally tarnished)

photo source 

Turned it over and it had a stamp on the bottom" WM Rogers, 427". They wanted $29.90 for it. Did a quick google search and found a few just like it and it was priced about right. But it wasn't anything that I might find a use for and, to me, it wasn't unique enough to make me feel I should splurge and buy it....like I did with the decanter.

So proud, "I 'm not going to buy anything."

Then I saw this one

Nice shape, love the little feet...I could see this sitting on the sink in the bathroom with some doo dads.....It was in bad shape, but I thought if I can't get it clean I could maybe spray paint it....

uh oh, I'm thinking about what I could do with it...

You guessed it, I bought something.

When I got it home I wrapped it in paper towels soaked with Tarn-ex and let it sit for a bit. Then I polished it with my dremel stuff. Turned out pretty nice

I am really amazed how the inside turned out. The surface was  all roughed up and I though it was ruined. Guess I thought wrong. 

I looked up the company, San Giovanni, and it seems they mainly made real silver items, because I didn't find anything silver plated. So maybe this is a rare, unique find?

Judging by the shape and style it could be from the late 30's or 40's. At $4.99 it was a good deal.

Love the light reflections and am sure it will add a touch of somethin-somethin to our bathroom.

So this is my find, what's yours?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Click Away Monday #3

This week was a.....let's say busy week. I'm busy sewing, getting ready for a craft fair later this month and work added several challenges to my days.

That being said, I didn't take many pictures, other than pictures of what I'm sewing. So I'll share that with you.

First, I found and fell in love with this fabric

I'm not a red person, but this one just spoke to me. I have big plans for it.


I made a Kope cover (your Hawaiian word for the day: Kope (koh-peh) is Hawaiian for Coffee)

Then I made a Clothes pin bag out of it

I also plan to make a few hanging kitchen towels like these

So, these pictures reflect my highlights of last week.

How was yours?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

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Under the Table and Dreaming
Sugarbee Crafts
I should be mopping the floor

On a Clear Day

You can see clear over to Maui 

and Molokai

and Lanai'i

This pic was taken at Lanai'i Look Out, just past Hanauma Bay.
We don't often drive around this way anymore and the visibility isn't always as great as you see here. But when we do and it is....it's a beautiful day.

Also wanted to share this ham with you.

When we pulled up there were a bunch of doves sitting on the rock wall of the look out. As we got out of the car they flew away...all except this guy. He totally hammed it up for the camera and let me get a bit closer than most birds.

Look at those Red/Pink eyes!

Usually I take pics of things that don't move, that is unless the wind moves it...So I'm very pleased to have gotten this fairly sharp portrait of a live object.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Product Review - Bag Clip from Jo!e

I had some time to kill while Roger went on his 10K walk, so I wound up at Schnick Schnack heaven - Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I have to admit, going to this store was a bit of self torture...seeing all these cool things, and I saw a number of things that I would have love to have, BUT why buy it now and wind up paying to ship it to Idaho?

Some time common sense wins over the satisfaction of buying something cool, which we all know only lasts for a bit anyway.

I'll admit that I did buy one thing though, because it is something that I could really use, not only a cool thing to have.

I bought a giant clip from Jo!e called "Bag Clip".

Jo!e always has cool stuff

Just sayin...

"Yeah, but what is it?" you may ask...

It is a clip you can use to re-close any plastic bag.

The clip is available in 4 different colors: red, green, yellow and orange and I paid just under $3 for it (is most likely a lot cheaper on the mainland).

The over all length is about 10". The clip-able length is about 8" and is very easy to use.

Pull it apart, lay the bag as flat as possible over the white part, push the orange part down.

It's that easy!

The clip holds tight enough that you can't pull the bag out.

Although it is a tight fit, it isn't too hard to pull apart to open.

The contents in the bag remained fresh.

Not that the bag had the chance to get stale.

It doesn't mention if the plastic can take freezer temps, I'll have to try that and get back to you.

Over all it's better than the clothes pin, rubber band or twisty I usually use and very much worth the 3 bucks.

I'll give it a 5 out of 5 and that's all I have to say about that...

Aloha A Hou Hou!

Harvest time!

In April I noticed that my pineapple plant - that I planted from the cut off top of a pineapple I got from a friend that is a Professor of Agriculture - was sprouting it's own baby pineapple

I had had one grow before, but it didn't get very big and I didn't have high hopes that this one would either. Was still looking forward to watching it grow.

Just last week when I was pulling weeds in our raised bed I noticed that the crown was really getting big and  the fruit itself was about fist size. Bigger than I thought it would be.

This week we had the maintenance guys here and one of them put a pole together to try and get some Avocados off one of our 2 trees (one is ready around now and the other tree drops it's fruit in January/February). While they were picking I went to go look at my pineapple and was sad to see that the stem holding the fruit, for what ever reason, bent and the fruit was all golden.

I had to pick it.

It's rock hard, but smells heavenly!

By the looks of it, our avocados are larger than our pineapple.

Hope to be able to harvest a few tomatoes soon and maybe make some pesto again - made some really good stuff with sun dried tomatoes last year.

Aloha a Hui Hou!