Thrifting Thursday: Whole Sheets

This week I'm featuring some sheets I've collected over the last little bit that I'm listing as a whole sheet. You may have a few questions, and I'll try to address those.

What are the advantages to ordering a whole sheet?

First of all, you may have joined a vintage sheet swap and need a whole sheet to cut up and swap. This is perfect for those of you who may not have good thrift stores near you.

Second, you may want to back your quilt with a patterned fabric. Whole sheets offer lots of uncut yardage, usually in sizes big enough to back a quilt.

Third, you are getting a bigger piece of fabric. This is great for quilts that require more than a fat quarter of each print.

Why did you choose to sell these sheets whole?

Mostly I've chosen to sell these sheets whole because they were either

• large prints that work best in larger fabric amounts,
  
• still new-in-the-package
• or something I thought a person might like in larger amounts.

So now that I've (hopefully) answered your questions, let's take a peek at what I have to show you today ...

Brown & Yellow Trees Full fitted sheet

These landscape prints are really neat, and I'm thinking this could be combined with the Island Getaway print in my shop for a neat effect. The trees are large, around 10" tall and 10" wide.

Lancaster Patch Full flat sheet

I've had this one for awhile now, and I'm just getting around to listing it. The print is the one featured on the pillowcase. This would make a great cheater quilt, if you don't like piecing and just want to try out quilting. You could even tie the quilt instead of quilting it and make it really easy on yourself!

White Daisy Bouquet Twin fitted sheet

I currently have the same print in fat quarters in my shop with a blue background (Blue & White Daisy Bouquet). This one has an off-white background.

Blue & Green Zoo Parade Crib-size fitted sheet

Are you working on a baby quilt? These vintage animals would be an adorable addition to your quilt. They coordinate nicely with several fat quarters in my shop, including Blue & Green Stripes and Two-Tone Green Stripe.

Have you made any projects with my vintage sheet fabrics? I'd love to see pictures, and I may even feature your project on my blog. You can e-mail me (see "Questions?" in the sidebar) for more information.

DIY Mailing Envelopes

Today I'm going to share a thrifty tip that I found on a blog called Patchwork Posse: making your own packaging envelopes.

First of all, you may be wondering why I even thought of this. Well, to be honest, it caught my eye because it's really cute packaging. Then I found out the money it could save me, and I was hooked!

Here's the cost breakdown:

6x9" envelopes - purchased (0.08), made ($0.02) - You can make 4 for the price of buying 1.
9x12" envelopes - purchased ($0.10), made ($0.04) - You can make 2 for the price of buying 1.

Maybe that doesn't seem like much to you, but after you've bought 25 of each, you're saving $3.00, plus the packing tape you would usually have to seal them with. The thread to sew these packages together doesn't even come close to the cost of tape, and this has the added bonus of being cute in a rustic kind of way. (Can you say that about those other envelopes?)

I realize this isn't for everyone, but I really like it and thought I'd link to it in case anyone else would like to make these, too.



Here's one of my packages of fabric, ready to be mailed. I blurred it to avoid showing the addresses, but I hope you can get the idea. I've discovered that these packages are much thinner, for some reason.

Another benefit of this packaging is that you can make these any size you want. If you're mailing an odd-sized item, you can customize the envelope size to fit it.

For my purposes, I found that the 28"-wide paper was the better deal, since I wasn't wasting any paper that way. Here are the cutting sizes for 6x9" and 9x12" envelopes:

6x9" - Cut a 10" length of paper, then cut it in half width-wise. You end up with two pieces measuring 10x14". Fold it in half along the 14" side, and you have two envelopes that measure 7x10", which should be about right after you sew the edges. No waste!

9x12" - Cut a 10" length of paper. Fold it in half along the 28" side, and you have an envelope that measures 10x14". You can trim the extra 1" off the edge to make it 10x13", or just leave it as is. It doesn't cost any extra to mail that way, so I just leave it. Again, no waste!

To see the rest of the details on making these envelopes, check out Patchwork Posse's great post.

Enjoy!

P.S. I've mailed quite a few of these already with no problems. Just make sure you tie off the ends of the threads and clip them close so they don't get caught in the machines at the post office.

Homemade Gift: Guest Book #11

Supplies: paper (ATD, The Paper Company, recycled Kinkade image); stamps (Inkadinkado Coffee House alphabet); ink (Jet Black StazOn); composition notebook.

This is one of my favorite Kinkade images. However, the more I look at his paintings, the harder it is to pick more than one "favorite". I think most of them are "favorites," if that's possible! :)

I'm linking to ... Upcycled Awesome,

Who wants to make a quilt with me?

I ran across a quilt-along of sorts last week. It's called the Summer Beginning Quilting Series over at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, and it's free to follow along. I really like the finished product (which is rare for me for a quilt-along), so I decided to join in.

As you might have guessed, I'll be using my vintage sheet materials. In fact, since I already have scraps cut to 2-1/2" strips, a lot of the work was done for me. It was almost like having my own "jelly roll."

She has great instructions, but I thought I'd address a few questions.

What if I want to pick my own fabrics?

If you're not using a jelly roll and want to go out and buy fabric for this project, you'll need 1/4 yard of 10 different fabrics. You don't want fat quarters, since they aren't 44/45" wide. She recommends that you stick to two color families, ranging your prints from lights to darks.

Once you get those fabrics home, you'll want to straighten the grain and then cut two 2-1/2" x 44" strips from each fabric. When you're done, you will have made your own jelly roll of sorts.

Is the kit a good value?

Of course, I did the math and discovered that the kit she's offering through Discount Sewing Supply is actually a good price, based on regular per-yard prices at my local Hancocks. (I didn't figure in shipping.) It's all a matter of whether you like those fabrics or not. I did notice that the shop offers to work with you on a customized fabric selection.

What is the hardest part of this first step of the project?

Precision is essential in cutting and sewing this pattern. If you vary much at all, you may discover that your "squares" are wonky. Here's an example:



I'm chalking it up to a cutting error, since I was very careful with my sewing. Vintage fabrics aren't as stiff as the yardage you buy in the fabric store (since they've been washed a few times), and mine must have shifted a little during cutting.

Is there any way to correct wonky squares?

If yours ends up like mine did, never fear. Your finished quilt will be smaller, but you can salvage your hard work by squaring them up. Now before I show you how I did this, let me inform you that I have no idea how everyone else does this. This is just what makes sense to me - and works for me.

First of all, I lined up one of the edges so that it was straight on my cutting mat grid at the bottom. Then I determined how much I was going to have to trim off the edges to make them straight.

I trimmed it first on the right side, then on the left side, being very careful about my measurements:

Then I flipped it so that my newly-straightened edges were on the top and bottom. Again, I straightened first the right edge:

And then the left edge:


I ended up having to trim my blocks to 4-3/4" square, so my quilt will be quite a bit smaller than the original. That's okay, though, since I might be able to make up for it by adding in extra sashing. If not, that's okay, too.

Can I do this using the QAYG method?

I'm not sure yet, since there is only one part of the tutorial up right now. Part two will address piecing the top, and that will be the telling part. I'll be analyzing the method of construction to see if I can turn it into a quilt-as-you-go project, and I'll be sure to let you know if/when I figure it out.

So, have I piqued your interest yet?? Is anyone interested in joining me? I'd love to see your progress, if you do. (I'm sure she'd love for you to post a link to your progress at her blog, too.) I'll be posting my results from Part Two next Monday, so stay tuned!

I'm linking to ...

Homemade Gift: Guest Book #10

Supplies: paper (Making Memories, recycled Kinkade image); stamps (Inkadinkado Coffee House alphabet); ink (Jet Black StazOn); ribbon (Michaels $1 bin); composition notebook.

I hope you're not getting tired of these guest books. :) If I were making them all for the same person, I certainly would be changing them up a bit. However, since they're all going to different people, I decided not to mess with a good design.

By the way, this is the time of year to be looking for good deals on these composition notebooks. Last year I think I was able to get them for $0.25 at Wal-Mart. I don't think it's as good a price this year, but even $0.50 for one of these is good.

I'm linking to ... Upcycled Awesome,

Thrifting Thursday and Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the pick-your-print fat quarter giveaway is:



That comment was:



who said, "I would pick Pink Roses 2 because I believe my grandmother had that same print, and I miss her."

Congratulations! If you will e-mail me (see the new "Questions?" in the sidebar) with your shipping information, I'll get it out to you ASAP. If I don't hear from you by Monday, July 25th, I'll pick a new winner.

Today I'm adding four new prints to the shop.

Small Pastel Hanging Flowers

This print would coordinate wonderfully with the Pastel Hanging Flowers print that is already in the shop. This is a smaller print, so it would work wonderfully for a larger/smaller contrast print project.

Multi-Colored Rose Vine

This is a different colorway of the Brown & Orange Rose Vine that I already have in the shop. I love it when I find a print in several colorways!

Bright Impressionist Bouquet

This is a lovely bright floral. It reminds me of exotic flowers, mainly because of the colors.

Beige Roses

The last print I'm adding this week is a great neutral that will blend with almost anything. I love roses, so you know I was thrilled to pick up this detailed neutral rose print.

I also found a few non-vintage sheet items at the thrift stores recently.



I got all of these zippers in a bag for $4!



And if you know anything about Creative Memories albums, you can appreciate the deal on these two - $2 for the blue one and $3 for the tapestry one. They both had pages inside, too!

I'm linking to ...

Passage to India Wristlet

Don't forget, this is the last day to enter my fat quarter giveaway!

Today I thought I'd share my favorite new "purse" with you ...

... my Passage to India Wristlet. I can't tell you how much I love this little bag! I have been carrying a huge bag ever since my first child was born nearly eight years ago. I'm a small person, so it's nice to carry something small for a change! :)

I'm one of those people that likes to carry along everything but the kitchen sink, "just in case." However, I've found that I don't usually use any of those specialty items in my purse.

So what I've been doing is going through my bigger purse (that's still sitting where I usually keep it) and only grabbing what I'll need for the trip I'm taking. As you can see from the picture above, this little bag can hold quite a bit. This is what I took along on my grocery trip yesterday, and I didn't miss anything.

Obviously I've been using this one, so it won't be going into the shop. However, I do have several wristlets in the works right now, so keep an eye out. :)

I'm linking to ... Upcycled Awesome,