Summer Has Me In Stitches

As the summer sun beckons and creativity blossoms, most folks love to head outdoors. I do love the warm sun, enjoying beach days, and gathering with friends for a picnic! But my biggest love is about exploring how to infuse my sunny days with inspiring and fulfilling creative projects in hopes of reducing my various stashes of beautiful papers, fabrics, and even saved materials I had hoped to find new uses for. 

Throughout the recent weeks, I have enjoyed beginning to whittle my fabric stacks. Yea!! My sweet friend Melanie Diane brought her serger over along with a few bags of scrap fabric and some rolls of waffle shelf liner. We had in mind a useful gripping tool for opening containers. I had seen many clever names for these handy devices...Good Grip, Robotwist, GetAGrip, Magic Twist, Rubber Husband, MightyGrip. There are some very clever and humorous people, HaHa! My favorite so far, is Rubber Husband!

MY HOW TO:

Using scraps of fabric and Dollar Store shelf liner we churned out a stack of these handy dandy tools pretty quickly. I tried it in square, rectangle, and square format eventually deciding on a 6-inch square as my favorite. 

The waffle shelf liner I mentioned was a Dollar Store purchase. You can find it at other places like Walmart, Target etc.  

Our fabric choices were varied. I had some scrap left over from my table runner project. (I still have more of that scrap so after sewing these grippers up decided to make some coasters similarly). 

Let me share with you how we made these! 

The process was simple. Cut 1 piece of fabric and 1 piece of shelf liner 6 inches square (or your preferred size.) 

If you are using a serger put your fabric right side up and your shelf liner grippy side up facing the wrong side of your fabric. I stitched my laters with the grippy shelf liner on top. It did drag a bit under the sewing foot. (A suggestion to minimize drag is to put painter's tape on the underside of your sewing foot.) Just stitch around the edge.

If you are using a standard sewing machine put the right sides of the grippy material and fabric together and sew around the edge but leave a few inches open to allow for turning the fabric. Turn fabric. Tuck the seam edge in and finger press at the opening. To finish each gripper top stitch along the edge all the way around back stitching at the beginning and end to reinforce stitches. (The sewing machine method will be used when I make the coasters to match my table runner since the runner was top-stitched.) Sewing these grippers had me inspired and I've been a busy bee. Check-in with me to see what's next 😁!

Are YOU Ready to Say Bye-Bye To Summer??

Are YOU Ready to Say Bye-Bye To Summer?? What a question! REALLY??? It is always so bittersweet.

I don't know about you but my summers seem to start out with alot of waiting...waiting for the weather to warm up, waiting for vacation dates to be firmed up, waiting for those early summer first fruits in my garden, then waiting to do that #one thing on my summer list...you know, the one you've  been planning for God only knows how long. Then all of the sudden SUMMER is here in full regalia, the garden is bursting forth, our vacation time is finally set and then Oh No!!, it is almost over... it just never seems long enough... <sigh>. My summer has gone this route and as I think of the many experiences I've enjoyed, the wonderful friendships I've rekindled and the precious moments with family there is a sense of joy...happiness and accomplishment.