Kyler's Denim Quilt

My Grandson's 5th birthday is today! He is such a joy! I have been working on a denim quilt for his birthday. I am almost halfway done binding it. It has red stars that I appliqued on every other block. I then tied the quilt in each of the blank blocks. I also embroidered his name, todays date and that his Nana Janzen gave it to him.

It took me quite awhile to do since I am recovering from cervical spine surgery. I could only work on it a little bit at a time. Every bit of pain was worth it for him though. He's great! Hopefully he will always have the memories of me making it and giving it to him as well. We are actually celebrating his birthday on Thursday when his daddy will be home from work. My hubby got him off the school bus this afternoon and I got to sing Happy Birthday to him before his Mom came to take him home.

Fabric Flowers tutorial

I have tons of fabric scraps that I just can't bear to throw out. I keep thinking I will find a good use for them. Quilts are one option of course but that takes a lot of time. Recently I saw some fabric flowers on a purse a friend had. I looked it over and thought what a great idea it would be to make some of these from my scraps. They could be used for embellishments for purses, a brooch, clothing, hats, hair bands, you name it! They would even be great for gift packages. The possiblities are truly endless!


This is what I did.


Cut three lengths of fabric. One piece 20 inches long and 2 3/4 inches wide, one piece 15 inches long and 2 inches wide, one 9 inches long and 1 inch wide. With your pinking shears cut a scalloped edge along one side of each strip. Next take the longest strip and using a running stitch by hand sew along the straight side and gather and pull into a very tight circle. Do the same to the other two strips. Hand stitch the layers together with the largest on the bottom the smallest on the top of the middle. Finsh the top with a button or several small seed beads mimicking the look of a real flower. If you would like to wear it as a brooch you can sew or hot glue a small piece of felt on the back and attach a pin bar to it. Or you could just use a safety pin if you'd prefer. When its finished I sometimes trim it a little to even the layers a bit.
A great alternative is to use different coordinating fabrics for the different layers of the flower. Tulle would be a great addition to the back of the flower as well. There's not a right or wrong way to do it.