More fun...Pot Holders, mug rugs wood working...what the heck else would I do?

Here are a few I finally go the binding on!  :)

These are going to be pot holders for a swap.

 More bindings...yaaaaaaaaaaaa!

So here is my small adjustable weaving bench with the seat at it's lowest level.  It's a customer order, just got it all boxed up and sent her a picture of her new bench.  Hope she loves how easy it is to adjust the seat height.  :)

Some recent projects

Here are some new projects that I've been working on.  Sometimes it's nice to do little quilts or quilt projects to mix things up a bit.  So without further adieu....

Another kitty pin cushion, this was a commissioned piece.

A handful of mug rugs and pot holders for swaps

This is a trade I did with the original piece of art.  

The original

This is for a pot holder swap called "Cute as a Button"  

And here is a customer order with carrying case.  Weaving spool holder, warping stand.

And as a surprise I made this bag for it.  However I never even got a thank you or a review so probably will never be so nice again....yeah I do expect a thank you or at least a review.  just saying.  Some people just have no couth.... wish I could right a review sometimes...;)  oh well...all is good.

Esther's Blog: WOW: Lily Rose the CBBs

Esther's Blog: WOW: Lily Rose the CBBs

My new weaving bench design

I've been making and selling weaving tools for about 15 years now.  Wow time flies doesn't it!
One of the items I made is an adjustable weaving bench.  I've been wanting to take the time to design a new bench that is easier to adjust the height. The old bench required that you turn the bench upside down, remove the 4 bolts holding the seat into place and then stacking books or some other object under the seat at the height that you wanted to make the bench then screwing the 4 bolts back into place.
The new bench only requires slipping the seat off and moving the supports up or down.  Also the new bench can now either be set at an angle or straight just but turning the supports one way or the other.

The new bench comes in large and small.  The large bench adjusts from 27.5 down to 15 inches in the following increments, 27.5, 25, 22.5, 20, 17.5 and 15 inches .
The small bench adjusts from 24.5 down to 14.5 inches in the following increments, 24.5, 22, 19.5, 17, 14.5 inches.  I am happy to be able to offer two sizes.

Here is the prototype of the new bench, the optional spool holder can also be added to the new bench.

And here is the old bench with the new one so you can see the optional spool holder.

This is the first sold bench with spool holder

 

My Little Valentine Pot Holder swap.

I've been very busy getting all the swaps I'm doing done. I've finished another one today for the My Little Valentine Pot Holder Swap. Now I'm working on the It's all about the embroidery Redwork Pot Holder swap. I'm doing the red work while I watch TV tonight then tomorrow I have a weaving bench to make for a customer and those take a good day to make.

Well here is my Valentine pot holders. I made one to keep :)

All Things Spring Mug Rug Swap

I searched the internet for something I'd love to make for the All Things Spring Mug Rug Swap....
And I came across this picture.  I never could find the website it came from or the pattern so I can not tell you where to get the pattern.  I printed the image and made it as close as I could to the picture.  This definitely makes me think of spring.  One more swap complete and now on to the Valentine swap.  I also found a picture of the pot holders I'll be making for this and the website that originally posted the pattern is no longer being hosted :(  very sad indeed.  I'm going to try and recreate them without the pattern but It would be so much nicer to be able to purchase a pattern!

Well here is the All Things Spring mug rug I made.

Mug Rug Swap

I started a Facebook swap group for mug rugs and pot holders.  You can find it here.
This is mug rug is for the Laundry Day Mug Rug Swap that is due February 19th 2015.  I finished it today and am very please at how it turned out.  I did put a hanger on the back in case who ever gets this little beauty wants to hang it.
Here it is...so much fun to make and finally finished.

Just some fun crafty stuff I've been up too.

One more UFO top complete.

My new years resolution is to finish as many UFO's as I possibly can before the end of the year.  Also to use up the fabric and supplies I have and not purchase any more fabric till next year.
I will mostly just be completing tops and maybe next year my resolution will be to get them all quilted or quilt them myself.  We'll see about that :)
Here is the first one completed of the year.

I did this yesterday....

Then I decided it needed borders so I did this today along with completing one row of another one I'm working on.

Lesson Learned....

Lesson Learned....

I was beginning to think that my machine just did not want to make this quilt.

I sit down everyday and do some part of this quilt (for the life of me I can't remember why I just had to make this difficult quilt) and everyday my machine just doesn't want to sew over more than two pieces of fabric. So everyday I've been cleaning it, dusting it, and yes even polishing it... all the maintenance that hence far I've neglected to do for this machine and it had never complained before. Then I continue to sew and find to no avail that it's still not liking thick seams. I get the manual out, I make a few adjustments etc... nothing seemed to work but I'd plug along taking it slow each day and getting through what it was I wanted to accomplish on this quilt (that I know hate).

Today after following the same ritual I've been following...cleaning, adjusting etc. I decide it's time to just take it in for repair and use of of my many other machines (not sure why it took me so long to make this decision but it did). So I'm taking the table off and dusting the machine and then I see it.... yes right there all the time. A clutter of thread spools that I've used for some other project sitting right next to my machine because I'm too lazy to put them in their place. So I begin picking up the spools of thread and actually putting them away when I get to the last spool of thread and notice it's lodged up against the feed dog button....yep that was the cause of my endless days of hating this quilt. My feed dogs were half up and half down all because I'm too lazy to put thing where they belong.

Lesson learned...clean up after each project and don't let all the bits and pieces collect around your machine!

My window pane cabinet all dressed up

I seen this sentiment on a quilt group on Facebook and loved it.  I did a search; and found one for sale.  I paid way to much for it but I thought it was much larger.  Oh well it didn't go on the wall as planned but I put it on my window pane cabinet I made when I was organizing my quilting room.  I had to split it to get it on the cabinet but I LOVE IT.   It's a great addition to the old window pane don't you think.

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Instructions


In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the warm water, oil, yeast, and sugar. Allow the mixture to rest for 15 minutes. While waiting get oven up to temperature.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix 2 cups of the flour, the salt, and the egg into the yeast mixture using a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup at a time.
Shape dough into 12 balls and place in a 9x13 pan. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
Bake for 10 minutes or until tops are just golden brown.