Quilters know quilt shows, but in case you’ve never been to a CHA show, here’s my Top Ten List of Cool Stuff you’ll find at CHA:

#10. Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Pencils: Fabulous oil-based colored pencils: Strong, smooth, sharp, gorgeous colors, great for blending, plus no fading or waxy buildup. Need I say more?

#9. Soft Flex’s Trios: Love color? Love to make jewelry? Soft Flex colored beading wire now comes in fabulous variety packs. Here are two of my favorites from the new 2010 collection: Egg Hunt and Be My Valentine.

#8. Halina Tepper, Button Sculptor: Halina make amazing sculptures from buttons and recycled materials.

20,000 buttons are sewn onto this lion!

The cute mouse pincushion has slightly fewer buttons than the lion, but would make a fun addition to any sewing room.

These little kangaroos give you a peek at how the button sculptures are made. The buttons on the finished kangaroo are made from the same used glue bottles that form the base.

#7. Provo Craft’s Cricut Cake: Use scrapbooking Cricut cartridges in the Cricut Cake machine (specially made to be food-safe, don’t try this at home with your Cricut Expression!) to make sugar gum paste cutouts to decorate cakes with. These super cute animals look like “cake appliques” to me. Peel and stick. How cool is that? Now anybody can be a cake decorator! (Available April 2010)

#6. Epiphany Crafts‘ Button Studio & Shape Studio: As easy and fun as paper punches, make paper- or photo-backed epoxy scrapbooking charms and buttons. (Available April 2010)

Come back tomorrow to find out #1-5!

Now I have tried many different kinds of thimbles in my quilting career: closed, open, metal, leather, … and the list goes on. But for me, none can beat a piece of the simple bandage that they wrap around your arm after you donate blood. Cut a piece several inches long, enough to wrap around your finger or thumb a few times and voila, you’ve got yourself a thimble that is thin enough to feel the needle but just thick enough that you don’t get pricked. It fits perfectly, the price is right, it’s a great way to recycle, and it comes in fun colors too!

When the needle starts to poke through, discard the bandage thimble and cut a new piece. Depending on how hard and often you hand quilt, by the time you run out of bandage thimbles, it might be time to donate blood again. You can donate once every 56 days, that’s 8 weeks. Or if you run out earlier than that, you can buy a roll at the drug store.

Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. (American Red Cross) A gift of blood is a gift of life, so why not consider making a blood donation this holiday season? Wear your bandage with pride, then give your brand-new quilting thimbles a try and get started on a hand-quilted gift. Two gifts from the heart in one!

Visit Give Life: American Red Cross for more information about donating blood or to find a blood drive near you.

For this week’s inspiration try taking a treasured memory or two and incorporate them into a quilt. This cool cat block is made from my family’s old clothes and sports my daughter’s baby sunglasses for embellishment. Whether you literally sew the “memories” onto your quilt or use them as the inspiration for a quilt made from new materials, you’re sure to end up with something special!

Click here for more about this quilt.

Click here for more “memory” quilts.

Here are some fun and crafty ideas for using Red, White & You Sweethearts in your Fourth of July festivities.

First is the Red, White & You Patriotic Shaker. You can find complete directions for this and other easy crafts in the Sweethearts Patriotic Crafts for Kids booklet. Since I didn’t have all the exact supplies, I made do with what I had. I used an empty candy sprinkles plastic jar in place of the flip-top container and 20″ lengths of 1/8″ and 1/4″ wide ribbons, tied in the middle around the metal brad before sticking it through the lid. I tied red, white and blue pony beads onto the ends of the ribbons.

Next is the Folk Art Heart Party Favor. Cut two 3-1/4″ tall x 3″ wide pieces of wool felt (or you could use craft felt if you wish) and a strip 1-1/4″ wide x 9-1/2″ long. Cut a heart out of the middle of one of the panels and blanket stitch with 2 strands of embroidery floss around the opening. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the pattern. Click on the image and then print out the full-size pattern.) Click here for a great tutorial on blanket stitching on felt from Future Girl Craft Blog. (Variation: cut a heart out of a contrasting piece of felt and use blanket stitch to appliqué it onto the panel.) Blanket stitch one panel to each long side of the strip. Wool can sometimes be stretchy. If the strip stretches out past the edges of the panels, just trim it down to size. Put a box of Red, White & You candies inside the pouch.

Or use a small bag of Red, White & You Sweethearts to make a quick and easy Mini Favor. Simply cut a 6″ to 7″ square out of patriotic fabric with pinking shears or a wave rotary cutter, place the bag of candy in the center, gather the fabric around it and tie with a 1/8″ wide ribbon. Tie mini pony beads onto the ends of the ribbon if you’d like.

And finally my favorite, the Red, White & You Candy Dish Rug. You will need two circles of wool felt. I used a lid to trace around. My circles are 7-1/4″ across. That’s about the smallest circle that will handle four hearts. You can cut a larger circle and give more space in between the hearts or enlarge or reduce the size of the heart pattern for a different size rug if you wish. Check your candy dish to see what is a good size for you.

Next trace four hearts onto fusible web (click on pattern image at the bottom of this post for full-size heart pattern that you can print) and fuse polka dot cotton quilting fabric to the hearts, cut them out and fuse the hearts to one of the wool circles. Note: when you fuse the hearts to the wool circle, use the wool setting on the iron, you don’t want to scorch the wool.

Blanket stitch (click here for Future Craft Girl’s blanket stitch tutorial) around the hearts with two strands of embroidery floss, then blanket stitch the second wool felt circle to the bottom of the rug. (Variation: use solid wool felt hearts, no fusible web necessary, and embroider Red, White & You messages onto the hearts before embroidering them to the circle.)

Why not gather together some Red, White & You candy hearts, red, white and blue fabric, scrapbooking papers, beads, trims and embellishments and see what you’re inspired to make …

If you’d like to sponsor a USO Care Package and send a personal message to encourage a deployed U.S. service member, click here for the USO/Sweethearts secure donation page.

Reincarnated
Recycled double bed quilt by Lois Cowan
A true quilt … made from clothing to create a useable quilt. Made from two pairs of jeans and four shirts. The maroon is a sheet. The batting is a mattress pad. Backing is a duvet. I needed another dark color so the gray around the border. I dug out the gray plaid shirt and began cutting, when my husband said … “But I still like that shirt.” “Oh well, now you can really enjoy it.”

Days of Wine and Roses
Wall quilt by Marguerette Tate
Grandmother’s Mother’s linens (napkins/small tablecloth) background/backing. Used ribbons for grapes and binding. Mother’s scarf for roses. Lace center from old lampshade. Family jewelry for beads. This challenge was fun! Corks from “2 Buck Chuck”, not from gifts.

Literally Green
Wall quilt by Violet Vaughnes
Made from my collection of men’s neckties. Batting is necktie interfacing and a baby’s receiving blanket. Backing is a shirt from Salvation Army Thrift Store. Pattern is “Boston Lettuce” from Pieced Vegetables by Ruth McDowell.

Pizza & Coke
Wall quilt by Lily Marie Amaru
This piece came from my love of pizza and Coke. The idea started with collecting Coke cans and etc. from around the world for about 15 years. My favorite pizza is from Pizza Hut. The ideas kept coming and being refined until this piece Pizza and Coke materialized.

In the Garden
Wall quilt by Marguerette Tate
So much fun — old linens, coasters for wine glasses (flowers), cuff links, earrings, pins and family jewelry — beads, old cheesecloth (flowers). I used fabric ink for dye.

Sewing Room Floor Massacre
Wall (floor) quilt by Donna Gaston
Often times while sewing in my room the dogs are playing. But when it’s been quiet for awhile I realize something’s up. And usually this is what I find.

Jean Jacket
Recycled pair of jeans by Lois Cowan
Made from just one pair of jeans. Everything, but the front pockets were used. While attending Chaffey College fashion classes, we were assigned to design a wearable garment from a pair of jeans. This was my design and it placed second in the California State Community College Fashion classes Denim Deconstruction Contest.

I Love Coke
Wearable by Lily Marie Amaru
Working with Coke cans and other fun ideas I have made several of these vests. My collection of Coke memorabilia is displayed throughout my home and this vest is my wearable to display my Coke pins and caps that have been collected from all over the world.

Grandpa and Grandson Matching Outfits
Child’s shirt and jeans by Lois Cowan
Taking the idea from the Fons and Porter ad … the two women that are always cutting up the husband’s shirts and pants. I made Grandpa and Grandson matching outfits. But I don’t think Grandpa is going outside in his outfit.

Turn Me Over — One More Time
Shopping bag by Marlene Padavick
Using the socks with holes (my husband’s) and the gardening gloves (mine) was the start. The denim pockets from granddaughter’s discarded jeans sent me on to pieces of beach towels, dish towels, and plastic bag from our travels. Then lastly the single earrings, bottle caps and a broken watch completed it.
And of course, my upcycled quilt:
Quilt-cycle Sampler
Wall quilt by Laura West Kong
Quiltmaking has a long tradition of reusing materials. In Quilt-cycle Sampler I used a variety of old clothing and linens. I couldn’t resist adding some fun and unusual recycled materials as well: plastic grass sushi garnish, a souvenir keychain, pieces of old jewelry, broken baby sunglasses, buttons off the old clothes, fused plastic shopping bags, part of a juice pouch and clear vinyl packaging, used stamps from around the world, and a painted dryer sheet.

Finally, instead of challenge ribbons, I made cell phone charms out of recycled vintage fabric and beads as souvenirs for each participant.
Quilt green! =(^_^)=

Top row embellishments: embroidery from torn kid’s clothes, plastic grass sushi garnish, souvenir keychain, metal fish charm from a tag sale brooch, printed silk motif from my former favorite skirt that eventually got shredded in the washing machine.

Middle row embellishments: my daughter’s broken baby sunglasses, plastic grocery bag “fabric”, cancelled stamps in windows made from clear vinyl packaging.

Bottom row embellishments: yo-yo flower made from thrift store dress and buttons removed from various clothing, jeans’ pocket and parts from two old bracelets, recycle logo made from painted used dryer sheets.

Bottom border and fringe: juice pouch, tie from jersey T-shirt, dimensional flower cut from jeans shorts, seed beads and vintage yellow faceted glass beads from two different necklaces, metal globe charm from an earring, and Dora the Explorer party favor from my daughter’s 2nd birthday party, with one of her birthday photos glued in the center.

The batting is recycled from an old towel, and some more old cotton sheets for the backing. These sheets were so threadbare that they ripped several times while I quilted it, so a few appliqués for the back were in order. It’s a good thing this quilt is for the wall. I would recommend you recycle your sheets before they start to shred in your hands.
Here are a few more tips in case you get inspired to create a quilt from recycled materials:

* Fusible woven interfacing will help strengthen fragile fabrics and help keep uncooperative fabrics in line.

* Beading, upholstery, and top-stitching threads work great for sewing on all kinds of embellishments.

* Consider adding a photo or two to make a memory quilt if you are using sentimental materials. You can use a printable fabric sheet, sew a clear photo sleeve onto the quilt top, or simply glue the photo to a trinket using all-purpose adhesive.