Moss Rock Zen Garnden DIY

My brother and his wife had this in their house and it is beautiful...................

It seems that you can pick up rocks and misty water it daily that already have moss on them or you can add it to the rock and water it to grow.   Julie, my brothers wife said that if you blend up yogurt and moss in the blender, that you can simply paint it onto the surface of what you want moss to stick to, and water it to grow, though I have yet to try this method.    Apparently, the yogurt helps the moss to grow.

They got a misty squirt bottle, and keep it in a shaded place in their house where there is moisture and it is flourishing.  I love the creeping jenny coming out of the top.   That is an added bonus. 

I started collecting my rocks yesterday to do this very thing on a much smaller scale.   Excited!

5 Things I made this week snowed in...........

Hand made baby blanket and burp cloths with

bolt left overs from upholstery material.   The burp cloths are sewn with cuts from a towel.

 Linen and Gingham plaid Tea Towels

Two toned Saddle Pad for the horse with a non pilling plaid fleece underside.   I cut out two at once with my bat wing swallow tail design and then

Cut them in half on the swoop to make them two colors.  Then I bind them together with a high fluff cotton batting and finished it off with satin colors opposing brown and red and a double nylon webbing spine for accent and durability.  Turned out pretty nice though not exactly as I had pictured it.

  Here is the one with the other ends of the cuts seeing that this one starts with brown and tapers off with the red.  

  And lastly this week I made two tea towels or dish towels with embroidered material.    They are linen purchased with this embroidery sewn into them.   I could never embroidery something that pretty but it made nice towels.

This is what you get when you driveway is a mile long and your car  is iced in.   I am getting a little stir crazy and not sure what to get into next.    Walking the poodles maybe and figuring it out.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HoosierHorsemen

Shadow Box Barn Wood Horse Carving Back Lit

 

I didn't take pictures while making this but it really wasn't that hard.   I drew on the unweathered

side of a piece of antique barn wood and drilled holes in all of my separate designs.  Then I went in with a jig saw and carved out the design.  After that I built a shadow box type of design and stapled lights inside which I put through a hold on the underside of the box.  The next one will come in thru the back.   I placed the top  carving wood on the box and screwed it down.   It turned out pretty nice.

You can email me if you want more detail on the how tos.  I would be happy to help you build one.

DIY Saddle Pad in English or Western Batwing Baroque Style is this one.

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     I enjoy sewing and designing things with my very limited skill set.  I love my sewing machine and my saws and screw drivers.   For me it is pretty much material or wood or flours and spices in the kitchen and I rarely use a recipe for any of these but with all the people in the world on a quest for making things for themselves, it would be silly not to make some of the things that other people have laid out for us.   With that being said, I set out to make my own saddle pads for my horses and discovered that there are many people making their own and some of them are making money while doing just that.
   The ones that I have seen online have been just beautiful but I don't have an embroidery machine or a serger machine so it is just me and my very modest singer that is newer but only has one stitch.  A straight line front and back.   None of the settings ever worked right off of the bus from amazon market place and I even have to move the needle position by hand but it was a gift and I love it (and I can't send it back because I didn't have the heart to tell my dear Aunt Lynne that it came shipped with broken functions.)   A year and four quilts, fixed clothing, pot holders,  tote bags, saddle pads and some pretty big forgotten (rejected) projects later, I wouldn't know what to do with a zig zag stitch or a button hole function or even the stitch length.  Bobbin threading, straight line stitching and the occasional backing of the stitch.   DATS IT!
     This is my sixth saddle pad to date of this design so I thought I would share how I came to make this magicland fairy tale looking bat wing or bird tail, baroque looking saddle pad for all purpose, dressage or even a western saddle maybe.   I have not put it under one to see if it fits.

            The first thing I did was get a cardboard box and trace out a template from one of my other regular saddle pads.

 

This is just a box I used as a grocery cart at Aldi's (I love that store) and I cut it open

and laid it under my old saddle pad and traced it out giving myself a little extra inch for mistakes

and stitching.

After I cut it out, I free handed the cut away to a design that I thought would look

pretty and unique under the saddle.

 

 

I set it on top of my batting or whatever you want to use as the cushion material inside of the blanket.  I doubled the material over and traced it out and cut my batting.

I also did this with the top (rainbow patterned material and the under sided fleece.  Double over and trace and cut for a full even on both sides blanket or pad.

 

 

I used pink fleece because it seemed to go nicely with the rainbow pattern.  I usually use

up cycled or recycled materials that I get at thrift stores but there is nothing like a fun trip to the fabric store to

dream a big dream at times.   This, however, I got at Walmart for five bucks a yard and there is nothing like a trip to Walmart to suck the dreams out of a big dream.

 

Here are the layers together before I started sewing with a picture of my template on top to give

better idea or what I mean about the doubled over material.

 

 

 

 

   The next thing I do is sew all the layers together right down the middle as if I were quilting

in order to put all the pieces together.  I have a cut in the middle of this one to give it some arch

and definition so I sew these together as well.   I didn't sew the middle batting together because I thought it might help it breath on the horses back.  Seemed fitting and gives it a nice contour.

 

I sewed to both sides of the spine or middle of the blanket to hold it all together.   A basting spray works wonders to stick them together and I am sure is old school cheating but I HATE to

hold them together by hand stitching.   I learned the hard way until I met a fellow quilter at the fabric store who said, "Oh Honey, forget the hand basting, that is a pain, just spray it."   My life was changed forever for that dear woman and I can't live without it.

I did live without it on this project because my Standard Poodle Puppy ate the spray nozzle off

of the can.   To bad it didn't temporarily glue her mouth shut for that day.

 

I pinned it instead which sucks but is still better than hand basting and for this small of a project

pins worked just fine to keep it from bunching up as I went.

 

 

After it was all pinned and held together, I started sewing it together or quilting it together.  On this

one I followed the lines of the rainbow after I had three or so lines at the spine.   I just jumped down to the colors and started following the colors of the rainbow to help them pop and give it a unique look.

 

 

For the spine support, I used a wide piece of nylon ticking and for extra support and prettiness. I pinned a pink stripe down the middle.  I like the colors.  I sewed the pink to the white, removed the pins and then sewed the entire thing right down the middle of the saddle pad only sewing on the white.   I sewed it on twice for I thought it might be taking extra pull from the weight of the saddle and rider and I didn't want it coming apart.

 

 

 

Here are pictures of it all sewed together before I sew on the binding.  That is the hardest part for me and I don't know if you are suppose to start from the top or the underside but when I start from the top then the bottom seams lines show and when I start from the bottom or underside it leaves a lip on the top.  I don't know what is right in this step so for the simple fact that I didn't want stray lines running through my binding, I started binding on the bottom side.   Uuuugg.   It's so hard.

 

 

 

I face the right side down onto the fleece and started sewing around the outside.

 

Here it is with all the binding sewn onto the underside.   I used satin from the store and it is kind of tricky for me but you can make your own  binding with strips of fabric or buy it.  I would have liked a cotton binding but the cotton binding that you buy is so cheap and transparent.  You can see right through it and I don't know of a good one but I am sure they are out there.

 

 

 

The hardest part for me is getting the binding or hem on the second side to look right.   I ironed it down and pinned it to the blanket to help with this part but the satin is unforgiving and really shows the bunching and pulling.  I have never basted this part with spray so maybe that works but I used and iron and pins since Serendipity ate the plastic spray nozzle off mine rendering it useless.

This takes the most time for me but maybe I am doing it wrong or something. 

By the way, if you use an iron to help hold in to creased place, make sure you

use a low setting.  I melted a hole in a small section and

had to double it over in one spot.   Dag gone it!

 

NONETHELESS, I finished it up with some nylon keepers and Velcro to the holders and WHAALAAA... I was finished.   All in all, I think I spent three hours over two days from start to finish.

 

 

 

 

Here is my newest pad, all finished and ready to ride.   Get started and show me what you made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sewing Machine Contest

They are giving away this sewing machine and it is a dream to anyone that wants to quilt or just plain sew for that matter.   I would love to have this one but winning it is my only option right now in getting one.   Ha

http://www.apqs.com/longarm-giveaway/

you can enter once a day.  Good luck!

Little Patio Side Table reclaimed wood.

I made this out of old reclaimed barn wood.  It took less than thirty minutes.

My Brother Ian showed up while I was building it and he designed the arched front and back.   I really liked it so we slapped it on there.   We traced it out the design and then cut them out with the jig saw.  Easy peazy and used screws to put it together.
Jig Saw
old Lumber (barn wood)
Screws
miter saw
30 minutes....
Measuring tape
Quick Square
Marker
That is all you need.

Barn Wood Kitchen Cabinets

Hand made by me......a girl.  This is my first attempt at something like this and it is pretty rough cut but I needed storage in a big way so I just set out and started building.  A saw, barn wood, screws and measuring devices.  That is it.  Oh yeah, sweat!
My husband and my brother gave me some pointers with door hanging but I did it all myself.  I didn't get pictures while I was building because I really didn't know where I was headed with this project so I will on my next project.  I am off to make a spice rack and a bread box.  I could live in the barn!

I will get more pictures up when I hang the spice rack.