Creativity

I finally took time to do more sewing. I made this placemat (actually a couple of them, but this is the only one finished so far.) It was a Sew-Along project from Sew Mama Sew. I need to pick up some more handkerchiefs to use as napkins with these. I think they are a fun touch. There was a pattern for coordinating napkins, but I like the handkerchief idea better. I briefly considered putting a small pants pocket on the right hand side in which to put a handkerchief napkin and silverware, but decided it would take away from the design. Besides the placemat really isn't big enough for that.

Anyway, I think it came out pretty well. Eventually I'm going to make somewhere around a dozen of them, to use when we have company. I've been hoarding western fabrics for a long time, and this just seemed like the perfect project to use them on. I'm hoping to make some Christmas ones that look like peppermint candies, and maybe some Thanksgiving ones that look like turkeys - you know, just for fun... in my spare time :) Honestly I probably won't get to the turkeys this year, but it is on my "someday" list :)

There are so many great project ideas available on the internet. I find that if I don't keep them in a specific place I will completely forget about them. So I have a folder on my computer for projects I want to do "someday" (several sub-folders too) and a file for projects to make people for Christmas. The ones that I'm about to do get printed out and placed in a 3-ring binder. The ones that make it to the binder are the ones that are likely to get done. When I did the placemats I had my daughter help me figure out fabrics and placement. She's pretty good at that sort of thing and it makes it something we can do together.

So we took the page with the cutting layout on it, inserted it into the plastic cover of the binder, and she used a wet erase marker to take notes on which fabric she wanted where. I love this method. It keeps the page from getting lost or wrinkled, I can stand the notebook up so I can see the page easily, and the wet erase marker is a bonus. Looks kind of like Algebra, don't you think? I think she had more fun with this than with Algebra though... I hope so anyway :)

Oh, and before I forget again, when I listed all my things I've won, I forgot to mention a $25 gift certificate for printables from Clean Mama. They are pages for compiling a home management notebook. :)