New twist on crayon rolls

Needed to make some crayon rolls for a benefit.  I've never been satisfied with the closure on my crayon rolls.  These elastic hair ties don't last.  They get thin and lose their stretch.

The ribbon ties are too difficult for kids to use.

So I came up with this idea.  I used a few inches of 1/2 - 3/4 inch elastic and a strip of fabric twice as long.  I sewed the fabric into a tube, inserted the elastic, and sewed it in place.  I think it's a good improvement, but I'll need to hear the final say from some kid-testers!

Hope they work because I made a bunch!

Christmas Pillows

A friend asked if I could make some new pillow covers for her for Christmas.  Of course! 

For the first pillow I used wool felt, cut different sizes of circles, and added different kinds of embroidery stitches for fun.  I hand-sewed the circles on the background. I got the idea here.

My friend had some scraps left from some Christmas stockings she had made.  Because the pieces were so small, I had to do a pieced design.  I decided to make four wonky Christmas trees for this pillow.  I machine quilted around each tree and quilted some random stars.

And another felt design...found here.  This was definitely the quickest one to make.  I used fusible web and machine sewed around the edges.

After making the other scrap pillow, I was left with only tiny pieces. So I decided to make nine small blocks.  I cut different widths from the scraps.  After cutting squares of quilt batting a little larger than I needed, I sewed the scraps on, using a quilt-as-you-go method.  After each square was covered with fabric, I trimmed them to the right size and stitched them all together.

I REALLY wanted to keep each one of these pillows when it was finished, but it sure is fun to make them for a friend...and she loved them, too!