Needlework Tuesday: Quick Crafts

It was a week of easy craft and sewing projects -- starting with this dog bed I made for our daughter's dog.  Roland is a large dog, so he needs a large bed.  Amanda had an old comforter to use for filling so, basically, she needed a large pillow case.  Amanda chose duck cloth for it's durability, and I added velcro to hold it closed and, hopefully, deter Roland from chewing on the contents.

Project #2:  A friend asked me Friday night If I could make an apron as a gift in time for a birthday party - the next day!  With no restrictions on fabric color, I was able to use what I had on hand and got it done on time.

Project #3 was a simple idea that I found on Pinterest. Inexpensive towels from the dollar store and scraps of ribbon become travel cases for toothbrush/paste or other potentially messy products.   

Project #4 came from a lovely blog called Blissfully Content - via Pinterest.  Worn kitchen towels get remodeled into dish/dust clothes.  I have several (many?) terry cloth towels in the drawer that are past their prime, and since I picked up new ones while Christmas shopping, I could spare a few.  

Before

The original instructions say to cut the towels into 12" squares; however, my towels were 22" long so I cut 10.5" squares and got two from each towel, discarding the hemmed edges.  Top each square with a like-sized piece of cotton fabric (wrong sides together) and stitch around the edges.  I used a zig-zag stitch (I'm not sure why) but the original blogger just straight stitched.  When they run through the washer, the edges fray into a soft fringe.   The addition of the fabric makes the clothes sturdier, for heavy scrubbing, not to mention a lot prettier.  This is a fast and easy way to "up-cycle" towels that would otherwise go to the trash - and add a little beauty to your housekeeping. 

After

My final craft didn't involve any stitching, but I'm including it anyway.  Again - thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration.  The recipe box in the picture above became a perpetual calendar.  The box contains an index card for each day of the year. 

The idea is very simple — flip to the current date and at the end of the day, write down something that happened. Some days it is big things like “Annie took her first steps.” Other days it is small, like “needed more than one cup of coffee this morning.”  The first year is the least rewarding, but I imagine that in 10 years, it will be a daily treat to be reminded of what happened on that date over the last decade. - Kate @ Design Sponge

For my version, I purchased 12 vintage postcards and adhered them to the divider cards that came with the box, using double-stick tape.  I still need to print out the names of the months to cover the recipe categories, but I have begun making entries.  I'll report back in about ten years.

I also found time to finish cutting the 360 strips (from 360 different fabrics) that I need to make my "book quilt" and made progress on my mini-quilts, but this post is long enough - so I'll save that for next week.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather @ Books and Quilts.  Visit Heather to see what everyone's stitching or to link up.