Father's Day Pillow DIY

What do you get when you mix Sir-mix-a-lot and a dad who loves hunting? You get a pillow you're proud to give your father, that's what.

For years, I have struggled to find the perfect gift for my dad. I bet some of you have similar struggles! My dad loves to hunt, but I never buy him hunting gear, because I have no clue what I'm getting.

DIY Crazy Cat Lady Pillow

Modern Quilting

Quilting is a great way to use up the extra fabric you have. It's also a useful life skill. Imagine being stranded in your home during the winter and the heater goes out, you're going to need to put a quilt together and fast! It's also a classic pastime -- ever been to your grandma's house and noticed she has a gazillion quilts? That's not by accident. I believe age is directly related to the number of quilts you have in your linen closet. They have to come from somewhere, so before you are gifted another hideous quilt that only comes out for picnics, maybe try making your own modern quilt that can stay out year round and be loved by your children's children!

I became interested in quilting last year when I came across some modern quilts on pinterest. My favorite modern quilter is Tara from Rad & Happy. Go look at her stuff right now, I'll wait for you. 

This quilt is about twin size, which is the largest quilt I've made to date! I figure if I can make this one, I can probably make all my kids bedding in the future. See, useful lifeskill!

This is Georgia, the puppy we are puppy sitting for the week and she approves this quilt. 

This quilt is slightly smaller, and I made it with almost 100% scrap fabric that I already had. It felt good to get rid of a good chunk of my stash! Side note: This quilt is great for napping! 

I also tried something new to quilt the top of it. I used a free motion presser foot and did a meandering stitch. It worked really well for my first try. 

Georgia approves this quilt as well. 

This style cross quilt is incredibly easy to make. If you can sew a straight line, you can make this. I am working on a third quilt, so I put together this pic of how you can make the cross block. I used 4in fabric squares, by the way. 

Start with 3 rows of 3 squares. Make sure you've pressed down your seams!

Pin and sew each row, right sides together.

Press your seams open! Super important or the whole thing will look wonky.

And there you have it, finished square! 

I'd love to know if you guys are working on any projects! Leave your comments below, and happy sewing! 

xoxo Sallie

DIY Embroidered Napkins

The other day I stopped into Anthropologie to kill some time, and came across these napkins. I love cloth napkins, they make me feel so fancy, but usually when I have money for that sort of thing, I find myself drawn towards clothes. Who could blame me? After looking in my craft room, I found I already had all of the supplies needed to make myself a set of embroidered cloth napkins. There was just one thing left to do--channel my inner Martha Stewart and stitch, stitch, stich, and then throw together a 5 course meal to test them out. These are really so simple, here are the details.

The Players
You will need the following

1. Fabric  - I used linen, but cotton is swell, too
2. Embroidery thread
3. Embroidery Needle
4. Rotary Cutter
5. Ruler
6. Pins
7. 4" Embroidery Hoop
8. Sketch paper & pencil
9. Sewing machine
10. Iron & ironing board
11. Scissors

Step One: Using your rotary cutter and ruler, measure and cut your fabric. I made my napkins 14" x 10". After sewing they were 12" x 9".

Step Two: After your desired amount of rectangles have been cut (my heart's desire was 6), it's time to fold the edges! Using your iron, fold each edge over 1/4 in. and then fold again. Pins are helpful here too, sometimes those edges come loose as you sew.

Step Three: Using a thread that's close in color to your fabric, sew up all the edges. Be sure to do double stitches on the bulkier corners, so that your napkins hold up and have a nice long life.

Step Four: Now that all the sewing is done, it's time to decide what you want to embroider on your napkins. I went botanical, but there are lots of options. You could follow the Anthropologie version and do monogram--the sky is the limit! Once you have the number of designs you want, now comes the fun part.

Step Five: Using a pencil, I could not for the life of me find one in my home, so I used a felt tip pen, carefully draw your image on your napkin. If using a pen here, stay light with your pressure so the ink doesn't bleed through. You could use carbon paper here and trace over your original drawings, but as I was out of carbon paper I decided to go freestyle with just my amazing hand-eye coordination.

Step Six: Now the super fun part! It's time to embroider! Using you small embroidery hoop, frame your image, thread your needle, and start stitching. Tons of different options here, I went with a simple chain stitch, you can kind of see the process below. If you know nothing about embroidery, Sublime Stitching is one of my favorite places for ideas, inspiration, and tutorials.

Step Seven: Repeat with your other designs. Keep in mind that the best way to make the back of the napkin look nice is to limit the amount of "stops" and "starts" you have. It may take you a few practice runs to get the hang of it.


And there you have it folks! Embroidered napkins that have the potential to be in your family for generation after generation. Your children's children will fight over them long after you are gone.