Microfiber Dust Mitt Tutorial

I love my microfiber cleaning cloths.  I have a LOT of them, but I could not pass up these in  Joann's clearance area.

for the awesome prince of:

for two cleaning cloths!  Since my dust mitts were worn to a frazzle, these were used for new ones.  A  look online showed that simple microfiber dust mitts are sold individually for $4.50 and up. Making your own is way cheaper even if you didn't get this great deal at Joann's ;-)  And, by the way, who wants just one?  Doesn't everyone dust with two hands?  Two hand, people!  Slap one on each hand and get that dusting done in half the time.

Dust mitts are easy to make.  I created my pattern freehand drawing about an inch to an inch and a half out around my hand. You could use an oven mitt to create the pattern or find a pattern for an oven mitt online--there are several such as this one at Skip To My Lou.  (Remember that an oven mitt will be thicker.  You don't want to make the dust mitt that big.  It might help to throw one together using scrap fabric to get an idea of how big you want to make it.)

I folded each square of fabric in half, pinned on the pattern and cut out the two pieces.  Here's a picture while I was in the midst of cutting.

If you place the cuff end of the pattern at the bottom finished edge of the cloth, you won't need to do any hemming there.  I decided against serging because getting around the thumb would be a pain.  Instead, I sewed a scant quarter inch seam around, turned it right side out, and top stitched a quarter inch in to enclose the seam.


This fabric doesn't have a right/wrong side.  If yours does, you would  start this with the right sides together.  In the photo below, you can see  the scant quarter inch seam before turning right side out.  Be sure to reinforce the ends with back stitching at each cuff end.  

  (Remember to reinforce the start and stop points at the cuff when top stitching, too.)

You can see the top stitching in the photo above.  You can also see that I changed the pattern slightly as I went along to make the thumb area more defined.

Dusting with two of these on really is much faster.  When the front gets dirty, just switch hands and use the back.  You can even turn them inside out to use the other sides.  It's so much easier to do lamps, vases, frames, and dining/kitchen chairs.  Microfiber material holds an amazing amount of dust.

These make great little gifts for those setting up housekeeping.  Also, consider making smaller versions for the kids.  Mine loved the novelty of two-handed dusting with the mitts and finishing the chore quicker when they were young.

Open Book Quilt Block for Virtual Quilting Bee

I joined a virtual quilting bee of sorts started by Tracey of Itching2Bstitching.  We are working from the book, Modern Blocks:  99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers by Susanne Woods.  (You may be able to get it from your library.  Click on the photo of the book at the bottom of the post to take a look at it on Amazon.)  

I've never done one of these before, so I'll share how this kind of bee works for others who don't know about them.  Each month one person is the queen bee.  She chooses a block from the book for all of us to do.  The "queen" can send the fabric she wants us to use or suggest colors and such she likes.  The pic above is the block chosen by Kelleigh for February.  It's called "open book." 

In Modern Blocks, the center binding area of the book is actually the same color as the background fabric.  It almost appears that the book is floating.  Kelleigh chose to have that area in a light fabric different from the background so that each person could sign the block in that space.  I chose to embroider the name 'cuz my handwriting is not the best.

Scary thing for me to do sewing for someone else!  Fortunately, these are an understanding and accepting lot who are not expecting perfection.  One block down, eleven more months to go!  I can't wait for my turn to be on the receiving end in October.

2012 Owl Calendar--Free and Fun

(Jo James)

See that little button right across on the sidebar with the cute owls?  It will take you to Shivani's site where she has once again put together something that allows you to create your own personal 2012 owl calendar.  She gathered the work of forty-five international artists this year--all creating pieces depicting owls.  The set-up allows you to choose which piece of art you want for each month and print out the pages.

I did it last year, too.  The hardest part was, once again, choosing.  I wanted MOST of them, but could only have twelve.  Take a look!

Ongoing Apron and Art Smock Link Party!

Threading My Way has just started an ongoing apron/art smock link party.  It would be great if you would add any of your posts on these items to it.  I so like the idea of having one place to go that will have lots of information and inspiration on a given subject.

http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/2012/02/
threading-your-way-aprons-and-art.html

Pam of Threading My Way already has a number of these ongoing parties on right now including these:   

• Bags and Totes 
• Girls' Dresses 
• Women's Dresses
• Hair Accessories 
• Pillows and Cushions 
• Boys Clothes
• Skirts for Girls 

If there is another party you'd like to see, you can email her or leave a suggestion in Pam's comments area. I'm looking forward to seeing all your creations over there!

February's Blocks from Craftsy's BOM class

As you may recall, I am doing the "block of the  month" lessons from Craftsy in both browns/blues and orange/blues.  Here are the browns/blues  for February:

The first one is a Balkan Puzzle also know by numbers of other names as is true of many quilt blocks.  I LOVE this one.  The second is a Chunky Chevron.  By itself,  I'm not so fond of it.  I'll bet it's cool when these are put together as a whole quilt, though.

Here are the orange/blues:

One of the reasons I'm not too fond of the Chunky Chevron blocks may be that I don't like my choice for the predominant pieces--that blue/yellow fabric--in this one.  It's a beautiful fabric when not cut into pieces and repieced (Repieced comes out with a red line under it.  I, however, am using it because I think it should be a word in quilting!)  This fabric would require some incredible fussy cutting to make it work well.  I'm hoping that it will blend in well once the whole quilt is together.

Here are all the January and February browns/blues together,

and the orange/blues

All in all, I am quite happy.  Of course, I've been cutting these down to make them uniform rather than redoing them.  If I absolutely HAVE to, I'll redo one to make it fit. For the most part, I'm not that fussy with quilting.  As I have said before, I go with the , "if it can't be seen by a man riding by on horseback, it's okay" rule.  I quilt for fun and to have something on the bed rather than for show.  That may be because were I quilting for show, I'd still be on my first quilt;-O

Confession: I Am a Potter Head

For our last day in Florida, we went to:

The lovely Mr. Easton posing before the Universal Studio globe.

Universal Studio's theme park.  Mostly because I wanted to see:

I am somewhat addicted.  I reread the books and/or watch the movies almost yearly.  I really, really wanted to taste:

Butterbeer!   I had two.  The resulting sugar high is probably why I'm still up at one in the morning blogging.  I know it's just cream soda with some creamy flavored foam on top, but it is so good.

The castle ride has to be the most awesome one in the park, and you get to see all kinds of cool stuff while moving through the ride line including the sorting hat,

 and walls of talking pictures.

The best part of the ride was flying over the quidditch field.  Never thought I'd get to do that. Flying down toward the lake was a close second.  It was so like the scene in one of the movies.   You honestly feel as though you are flying.  I actually moved my leg at one point 'cuz I thought it was going to hit something!  I dragged my husband on this ride twice.

Olivander's wand shop proved too tempting.  I am now the proud owner of what they tell me is an exact replica of Professor McGonagall's wand.

Too bad it's not real.  It would be so nice if it would do all my laundry when I get home.

I Finally Got the Signature Line to Work in My Blog!

I saw a post at Serendipity and Spice with some suggestions for spicing up your blog.  I've tried to do the signature line before without success.  I get to the part about making sure you save your original html code or you will mess everything up and panic. Melissa at Serendipity suggested going to Mylivesignature.com to create the signature which I did.  I copied the code I made there.  Then I could not figure out WHERE to put the code.  I finally emailed Melissa at Serendipity.  Here was her response:
 
"In your blogger dashboard (main page) go to Settings, then Posts and Comments.  On the right there will  be a box labeled Post Template.  Just insert the html code in this box.  Then your signature will automatically load every time you make a post."

I went to the dashboard, then to Settings.  There wasn't an exact "Posts and Comment."  Maybe I have an old version or something.  In any case, this is what I did.  I finally tried going to "Settings."  Then under that there is a tab for "Formatting."  At Formatting, I scrolled down to "Post Template."  I pasted it in there, saved the settings, and voila!  There it was.

I know there is a way to get it to be on the old posts, too. With my lack of knowledge in this area and fear of messing up everything,  I'm gonna stick with this. Here it is

Now if I can just figure out how to get the signature out of the little white box, I'll be all set.  It's a start!