“Start Where You Are . . .”

 

Recently I’ve been pondering an intriguing quote I read on Bows, Baubles, and Beliefs, so I decided to make something with it!  I cut the letters for the saying in not-perfect rectangles from a remnant of black and white alphabet print I’ve used for a few pillows and glued them onto the squares of some gingham a friend gave me–a bit of “randomness on order.”  I ran into a little glitch when I discovered that the fabric has no r’s . . . but I took the quote’s advice to “use what you have” and turned some n’s into r’s with a black sharpie, so all is well. ♥   I finished the project the same way I made my fabric memo boards (here and here), by covering a piece of cardboard with quilt batting and then stretching the fabric over it and stitching it together at the back. Finally, I added my biggest black button for a-la-mode. Will it hang on my office wall? Or become a gift? Time will tell! ♥  P.S. THANK YOU to SownInPeace for helping me track down the author of this quote. The original version was “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”  (Teddy Roosevelt)

Embroidered Classroom Poster

One of my teacher friends posted this adorable chart-paper poster from the First Grader At Last! blog on Pinterest. I wanted to make one for a teacher in my family, but instead of recopying it on paper I decided to embroider the whole thing! Crazy, I know! 🙂 But here are the steps:

• Find some fabric that looks like notebook paper, cut out a rectangle, and embroider the red line and “holes.”
• Print the sayings lightly in pencil on the lines.
• Embroider, using a different color of floss for each line.
• Cut out a piece of quilt batting and back fabric, stack and pin (with right sides together), and stitch the sides and bottom.
• Trim the seams, turn, press, and top stitch the edges.
• Sew a strip of 2-inch seam facing to the top (right sides together), fold it back to make a dowel rod casing for hanging, and handstitch it down.

Here’s my colorful version, taped (a bit wonkily!) to a wall for a photo shoot before heading to a new kindergarten classroom. Happy school year! ♥