Spring Cleaning

I know it is still January, but I have been wanting to clean up my fabric for a long time now, I have been putting it off, because I knew I wanted to use the fabric to make gifts that I would have, but i was still waiting for creative inspiration! So last night I had a little bit.  I am going to make a Rag quilt with my fleece leftovers. Here is a link to a great tutorial on how to make a rag quilt. Since I am using fleece I will not be doing two layers, or putting batting in the middle.  There is an intersection that I always go past when we go shopping that always has a homeless person, I hate to just hand them money-because of the natural judgmental woman in me- so I decided that I would make a blanket to hand to them next time I am out-and if they really are homeless a nice warm blanket would be better then money right????  I was hoping I would be able to make a couple with my scrapes, but I was only able to get one -guess I didn't have as many scrapes as I thought :).  

I ended up cutting my squares 5x5 and the full quilt I did 10squares by 15. That is not the way i am going to lay it out, I was just trying to figure out how big I needed it. I think I will just do this one random, with the border in the green.

My next project is to make some baby quilts for my daughters babies.  I think I will have enough to make a couple, and I it will be easy to machine quilt them since they will be so little.  

Another idea I had was to make these cute little "love" birds.  Aren't those the cutest!! I have plans for them later. . .:)

and also maybe make a few of these

link

I love the cube and the elephant. I am hoping to put them in a box to save for gifts for baby showers. . . I need some boy gifts :)

I also thought of making a bunch of bags, it's always fun to have a homemade bag to take a gift in or to even give as a gift. My sister did a tutorial for a really cute bag here.

Well with all those ideas. . .I'm off to get to work!

What are you going to make with your scrapes??

Cleaning your Clippers

I am doing this post, because a lot of you out there have resorted to cutting your own husband's hair to save money or for whatever reason.  I just thought this would be a great post to help you keep those clippers lasting longer, and saving you money longer!

Things you will need:

Clipper Oil, old toothbrush/bristle brush, screw driver and clippers

Next, on the back of the clippers there should be two screws.  You will want to unscrew these carefully and make sure you pay attention to how they go back together.  I know some clippers have extra little parts inside, but most are just the two plates. 

Then you will want to take your brush and clean out all the hair, be careful not to blow the hair down into the clippers, you want the hair to some out, so if you need to hold it upside down while doing this step, that works too!

After you get all the hair off the plates and out of the clippers, you will want to oil them before putting them back together. I like to put one strip right down the middle and then a little on the teeth of the clippers. 

Now put it all back together.  Before tightening the screws all the way down, flip the clippers over and make sure the teeth align, this doesn't mean they have to be the same height, but you don't want them farther apart on one side then the other, or the hair won't be cut straight.

Hope this was helpful.  Enjoy your nice clean clippers!