ok here's a pic we recieved from Dawn. She made her Mr. Potatoe head a costume for Halloween this year. Can ya guess what he is ? 

Ok I have a new project I'd like to get some help with. I found a site for " Soldier's Angels " .

The new project is to make " Cooling neck ties " for our Military and send them over to Iraq. These are so very easy to make even a child could sew them but I wouldnt allowe them to add the crystals as they are NOT edable.

http://www.soldiersangels.org/heroes/sew_cool_scarves.php

This is the website that will give you the directions on how to make the neck ties. I went to Lowes Hardware, you can also go to Walmart or Homedepot and by the crystals called " Soil Moist " it says Absorbs and releases water in soil.

IMPORTANT: do NOT over add the crystals, you will think 1 teaspoon isnt enough but trust me , it is ! I found out the hard way,,,,lol.

Just so you know, this is something that anyone can do, its just sewing a straight line, and using a spoon, and the cost: less then $ 1.00. So like I said, anyone can do this, you can use any scraps as well, just sew them together if you want too.

Ok, so I"m challenging everyone to send at least 5. When you send yours, could up please post here and we would really love to see your pics as well,

good luck and have a blast making these neck cooling ties that take less then a buck and less then 15 mins each to make.

Tess

Attention ALL crafters !
Did you know that you can print on fabric using freezer paper or even iron on fusable stablizer ? Well you can ! I did it the other day, I did'nt have any freezer paper and I had gone to 2 stored tryin to find it. So while out messin around in my cottage, I looked up and saw my roll of iron on stablizer and thought, hummmm I bet I can use that. So I did and it worked ! I just ironed on the fabric I wanted to use for my baby quilt poems, cut it the size as my printer paper and hit print ! I then turned the paper around and hit print again, I was able to get 2 out of one size.

Next, I'm going to try printing a pic that I want to use to make pillows and see how it comes out.

What have you done with something like this ? Wanna share your pics ? 

Hey Ma, it looks good. I absolutly LOVE love love love the butterfly and dragon fly you did on the flap!!!! 

To give everyone an idea of what you did to "make it more yours", tell us what you changed?

also, is that a "deco" type hem you did on the flap? 

to get a better pic, you should take it off and lay it flat on your scanner, it will come out really clear. 

Great job though.   

~Melisa Marie

haha glad ya like it cause that was the 1st one and I made it for you. I didnt see the kitty fabric till this morning so your stuck with flowers 

yes its deco, I cant stand to leave things so plain. I had to change some of the demitions, they werent totaly correct but close.

I made another one, its on ebay right now, but I love the fabric of the one on ebay just a wee bit more, its more playful

ok this took me about an hour to make, from cutting to wooooo hooooo 

I had a wee bit of trouble with the only directions and pattern I found on the web, so my friend Dawn helped me figure it out. Not sure if it was really that hard to understand of if I was just on over load. Melisa and I tryed all day to figure it out.

Thanks Dawn 

Anyway, finally got it, I changed it just a wee bit to make it more mine.

If I can make this, so can you,

share your pics please 

Hellooooooooooooooo crafters

ok, I"m hopin someone other then Melisa Marie will see this post and help out. Melisa Marie and I found instructions and pics to make a cricut cover, but.......... the pics were awesome but the instructions left alot to the imagination...lol

We both have tryed all afternoon to figure the directions and I even tryed 4 diff ways to make a new pattern myself, nothing has worked,

  HELPPPPPPPPPPPPP 

Good mornin all you quilters and crafters. We are glad you are able to join us in our new home. We are hoping that with our new name we will attract new friends. We always love sharing pics and ideas with others.

So, for now, have a seat in one of our over stuff chairs by our hearth fireplace and we'll bring you a cup of tea or  or we always have sweet tea for you to enjoy.

Hope to see more of you around the cabin !

Tess 

Hello everyone. I'm Melisa Marie, Tess's daughter and I'm also the Co-Owner of Quilts and Keepsakes.

I am 30 years old (bday June 24, 1978) and I currently live in Somerset, Kentucky (yep, the boonies!! )  Since we (my ma and I) live on opposite sides of the United States (I'm on the East Coast and she is on the West Coast) this forum and our website is a great place for me to spend time and share things with her, and with you!

I am married to my wonderful husband, Hazen. We have been together for almost 12 years and we have been married for 2 (we got married March 18, 2006).
We don't have any biological children, though we do have five furry children. We have three dogs and two cats. Our dogs are: Dusty Boomhauer (Born in 1997--he is 11 years old) is a German Shepard and Dobie Mix. Buddy Butters is a 2 year old Jack Russell mixed with Blue Healer. Our youngest daughter Bella Ann was born on March 8th 2008 and she is a mini schnauzer (the most adorable puppy EVER!!  ) Our Cats are: Tabitha Marie (we call her tabby). She was born Aug. 5, 2005, so she will be 3 this coming august. Her brother is Adam Bigboy and was born the same day in the same litter of kittens.

As far as crafts, I started doing them with my ma when I was just a little girl, and I've grown to enjoy it now just as much as I did back then! My ma has taught me SO many things that give me so much inspiration. Even now, though we live so far apart, I still find guidance inspiration in a lot of the crafting that she does and shows me.
When I was little, ma got me started out decorating things like straw hats with lace and flowers, seashells, small boxes, and then I moved on to sewing small things, and then onto cross-stitch. We would use these items as household decoration or give them to friends and family as gifts... To this day I still do the same thing! I'm not that much into quilting; however, I do sew misc. items such as smaller blankets, baby blankets, curtains, and lots of different types of craft item holders.

My main nich of crafting is scrapbooking and other related paper crafts such as card making, paper piecing, embellishment making etc...

It all started about 10 years ago. I got upset with not being able to find greeting cards that had sentiments of what I wanted to say to people, so, I started to make my own! From there I started to make paper piecings and other paper craft items to "decorate" my cards with. Then, about 9 years ago I met a friend that was really big into scrapbooking. I was amazed at all the things she did with PAPER!! One day she invited me to a scrap-a-holic class at the community center and I went, and fell in love with all things scrapbooking. From the embellishments to the textured paper, and everything in between, I knew that scrapbooking was my calling! I have made about 25 scrapbooks total since then, but I'm always making handmade embellishments and other elements to work into scrapbooking.

I do have a couple of my "own" scrapbooks that I've made; but since my ma has most of the family photos (which she's recently been giving me copies of so I can scrap them), I haven't made too many for myself. I have however made a LOT for friends and other family members (mainly my in-laws).

If you have visited our website (http://www.quiltsandkeepsakes.com/) then I'm sure you've seen some of my handmade items and scrapbooking pages. Here on the forum, I will also be sharing some of my handmade items with you, along with my scrapbooks and some of my digital scrapbooking items as well. Since I'm not that big into quilting, (mainly because I'm not as good at it as my ma, and I don't have anyone here to teach me) for now, I hope you find my paper crafts delightful.

Enjoy your stay here on our forum, and visit often (visit our site often too!!)

~Melisa Marie

Ps, I've attached a pic of my hubby and I