Easter Cards

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ Leave a comment

Here are my 2011 Easter cards:

The card itself is made from Gina K designs pure luxury cardstock (lemon drop) which I cut to 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ and scored with my Scor Pal at 4 1/4″.  Then I stamped and embossed the fabulous design from Gina K designs (Christ has Risen by Nina Brackett) in black embossing.  Then I stamped the background stripes (Hero Arts Repositionable Rubber Stamp) with Vivid ink (lemon ice).  The greeting is from the same Christ is Risen stamp set from Gina K designs and I cut the label (labels #14 by Spellbinders) using my Cricut.  The pearl embellishments are from Close to my Heart.

Here is the inside of the card.  Again the sentiment is from the Christ is Risen stamp set.

Garden Stake Banner

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a new little banner to hang on my hall tree.

The pattern is from Nancy Halvorsen’s book, Garden Song.  I followed the pattern instructions exactly, except I omitted the side border strips and used the red fabric as binding instead.  Why did I do this, you ask?  Because I wasn’t paying attention and I quilted the little block together before I added the border strips.  Oops!  Oh well, it still turned out cute and I have it hanging in my living room as a reminder that Spring really will arrive in a few weeks (or months).

When I finished the block, hung it up, and stood back and looked at it, I noticed that the flowers (particularly the top yellow flower) blended into the background and the banner looked a bit blah.  My awesome daughter suggested adding stamen to the middle of the flowers.  I was too lazy to add any more sewing to this little project, so enter my Silhouette die cut machine.  I cut the “stamen” shapes with my Silhouette and applied the iron-on rhinestones to bling my flowers.  I also used Tim Holtz Distress Stickles to outline the leaves on the top flower (the color I used was Shabby Shutters).  Much better!

New Tablecloth, No Pattern Used

~ Pamela Klingensmith ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been in search of a new tablecloth for a couple of years now.  I never realized finding an oval tablecloth (in anything other than a solid polyester, blah!) would be so difficult.  Am I the only one on the planet who owns an oval table?  And are oval table owners only worthy of ugly tablecloths???  This is when sewing skills prove priceless . . . if fabric manufacturers would see fit to produce fabric wider than 54″ for the home sewing market!!!  That said, here is my newly sewn tablecloth, and I LOVE it.

My table, without the leaf, is 42″ wide and 60″ long.  Therefore, the sides are slightly shorter than I would have liked them to be, but all in all I’m very satisfied with the result.  The fabric I used is Rural Jardin by French General for Moda.  It is a linen/cotton blend and is 54″ wide.  I ordered 2 1/2 yards from one of my favorite fabric stores http://www.fatquartershop.com/ .
Here’s how I made it:  I started by prewashing my fabric, ironing it, and laying it out on the floor to mark my sewing lines. 

I then took an old tablecloth purchased a number of years ago and placed it over the top of my fabric so I could “draw” my sewing lines.  Before layering in this fashion I did mark the center of my fabric and the center of my existing tablecloth by folding each in fourths and using a pin to mark the center.  Then I matched and pinned the centers when I layered them.  It then looked like this: (See how the fabric is not quite as wide as it really should be?  Oh well, it can’t be helped.

I simply traced around the tablecloth with a washable fabric marker.  I did not leave much of a seam allowance (only about 1/4″) because I knew I would finish the edges on my serger with a rolled hem.  My tracing lines looked like this:



There was no need to even cut around my traced lines because the serger does all that for me.  I just took it to my machine and stitched away.  

Here is a close-up of the rolled hem:

Some time ago I made a table runner using the same line of fabric (100% quilting fabric, no linen) and it looks great on top of my table with my new tablecloth.