my creations: Fun fast projects

I got the honor (?) of doing the last demo of the summer. It was a two-fer. I was only planning on doing a demo on one project, but P asked me to do a demo on another project too.
First up: wine glass lampshades. These were another market find. Quiltsmart has lots of great patterns using fusible interfacing to make quilts and bags. This little project was new. One panel makes two lampshades. Very little fabric needed. You can leave them plain or bling them up.
I added beaded trim, rick rack, lace, ruffles, and pom poms to name a few. They go over a wine glass. Drop in a battery operated tea light and you have a pretty party favor, or some mood lighting.

The second project is one more market find. A chenille rug. We got the fabric to recreate the rug back at the shop. A customer (and former employee) saw the fabric and quickly volunteered to make the sample.

This is an easy project and one that anyone can do. The actual rug was five panels, a layer of batting and a backing. For my little sample I did four layers of fabric, batting and a back. Anything will work, it is about the color. If you are using panels line them up by picking something on the panel (like the center of a flower)m and put a pin through that reference point on all layers. You will need to do that in several places to get the panels lined up. Layer them with the batting and backing like you would any quilt.

Next stitch seams on the diagonal about 1/2 inch apart. If you go closer together there is less fabric to fluff up when you are done. If you go much bigger, the fabric is kinda floppy when you get done. Start at a corner and draw a line on a 45 degree angle. Then mark the other lines going out toward the edges.

Once you finish all the stitching you are ready for the scary part. Slicing. Some tips. Don't get in a hurry now. Use a chenille cutter. It looks like the top of a rotary cutter and has a plastic projection which helps you guide through the channel that your stitching created. You do not want to cut through the bottom layer of fabric, or the batting, and certainly not the backing. Sooo on the 5 layer rug you want to cut through 4 layers. B used a letter opener under the cutter to sort of lift the layers to cut and prevent cutting into what shouldn't be cut. Once cut, bind the edges.