Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Shake Your Pom Poms!

Greetings to all! Today is the second day of the "Shake Your Pom Poms" Blog Hop and it's my turn to display my pom pom creations. But first I want to thank Madame Samm from Sew We Quilt for all the work she must go to (that we don't even know about!) to make these blog hops happen and happen successfully. And I also want to thank Thearica from Pig Tales and Quilts for the GREAT cheerleader she's been. She's done a wonderful job of preparing us for this hop and making sure that everything was good to go!

We all know that you can make your own pompoms or you can buy them in bulk or by the yard in long strings. We also know that they come in quite an array of colors. I knew they came in different sizes, but I didn't realize that they also come in little bitty strings! They're SO cute! I knew I had to use them in some way for this blog hop.

My first idea was to make this large hot pad using regular pompoms. As I began working on it, I thought that it might be nice to make matching coasters, using those cute, tiny pompoms. We don't use a tablecloth or placemats on our wooden dining table, so we're always needing something to put underneath hot beverages or hot mugs of soup--these were the perfect choice to go along with the hot pad.

I used this great ruler to cut out the circles--you place the ruler on the fold of the fabric and then place the rotary blade in the size groove you want to cut. (You do have to use a VERY small rotary cutter--18 mm.) I cut 10-inch circles for the hot pad and 4-inch circles for the coasters. I traced circles onto Insul-Bright to use as the batting and then cut those out too.

Originally I had planned to make these reversible, thinking I would sew around the edges, leaving an opening for turning. It quickly became apparent that I would NEVER be able to turn under that curved edge and have it look halfway decent. So instead I cut the back pieces to overlap, with the outer edge turned under about 1/4-inch.

Then I stitched the outside edge in one complete circle. I pinked the edges so they would turn smoothly and turned the whole thing right side out through the overlapped opening in the back.

I was able to sew the larger pompoms onto the hot pad before sewing it together, using a zipper foot. But for the coasters, I used Liquid Stitch and glued the pompoms around the outside finished edge and then topstitched them. To quilt everything, I just drew concentric circles with a Frixion pen and stitched over the lines.

So here's my pompom-trimmed hot pad and coasters! Our large soup mugs fit on them perfectly!

And they can still be reversed (just don't look for the little seam on the back!)

And now for my next project...

I've always wanted to make some of those Kanzashi flowers, so this was another opportunity to try something new. I only made the one flower, but I'm sure I'll be making plenty more. After assembling the flower, I glued a single pompom in the center, surrounded by a ring of those itty bitty pompoms.

My daughter, Laura prefers headbands to barrettes, but this would have worked with either. I hot glued the flower to the headband.

And here's Laura--modeling her new headband! We'll be making lots more of these!

Now be sure to continue hopping along and visiting all the other blogs with their great projects! Here's the schedule for today:


Get More Done...Today--You are here!


And as always, there's still plenty of time to Get More Done...Today! Have a great one!

64 comments:

  1. The hot pad and coasters look so bright and useful. Thanks for showing how you made these.

    Laura looks very happy with her new lovely new headband. I really like the way you used the different sizes and colors of the pom-poms.

    Thanks for sharing ... :) Pat

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  2. Laura looks lovely in her headband!

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  3. Love the hot pad and coasters! Laura's headband is really sweet.

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  4. Laura looks lovely with her new headband! Your hot pad and coasters are wonderful too. Thank you for sharing.

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  5. Love the headband! It looks like Laura does too. The hot pad and coasters are great and love the extra little embellishment with the Pom Poms!

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  6. Your hotpad and coasters are adorable. I've loved pom poms on a string since I was a kid ... we used to call them dingle balls. Laura looks so sweet with her headband on.

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  7. The little bitty teeny tiny pom poms are oh so cute! I can think of so many uses for those itsy bits of color! I really like they way you placed them around the larger pom pom as the flower center!!! :)

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  8. Great projects! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Oh, how I love the headband. The hotpad and coasters really look great with the Pom poms.

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  10. Love the hot pad and coasters. They are sew cheerful. Headband idea is neat.

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  11. Love the flower.
    The pads are also beautiful
    Thanks for sharing
    Frederika

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  12. The coasters and the headband so pretty.

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  13. cute hotpad and coasters. Love the headband idea.

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  14. Thanks for sharing the sew many ways to use pom poms.
    Laura looks great with her bright and new headband too, love that flower detail.

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  15. Adorable coasters they cheer you table up! And a very sweet headband, Laura is a lovely model. Thanks for sharing.

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  16. The hot pad and coasters are so cheery and clever!

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  17. Very cute hot pad and coasters....love the different scales of pom poms! And Laura looks great modeling her new headband!

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  18. Those coasters and the hotpad are so springy looking! and laurra is beautiful in her new headband.

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  19. very cute items...I just love the colors

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  20. Heavens my dear...I love that ruler idea...ok, I am with you on coasters and pad....great colours of fabric...I am soooo into yellow for this season...and Lauras's head band..ohhhhh so perfect colour..yes there is no doubt you will be making more...they look great on her

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  21. Your projects are so lovely Thanks for sharing

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  22. Great pom pom projects. Love all those super bright lemons...Great spring fabric. Nice headband for Laura. I am sure she is gonna enjoy it. Nice to be able to create cute girly items.

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  23. lovely projects love the coasters and pot plate and the head band is adorable.

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  24. I love how bright and cheery those coasters and hot pad are...wow, just beautiful. Your flower on the headband turned out so cute.

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  25. Hi!!! Love your coasters!!! Very pretty,cheerful and useful!!!! Love the flower headband!!!

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  26. What a great way to use pompoms. I love them and never thought to add them to hot pads. Thanks for th idea. Also I love how cheerful your flower headband is. Thanks for sharing all your wonderful creations.

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  27. Now that`s how to set a nice table. So bright and cheery. The pom poms make them very special!

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  28. Your hot pads and head band are so cute!! Great job!

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  29. Fabulous! I love the lemon fabric and the pom pom trim matches perfectly!
    Thank you for sharing!

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  30. Thanks for explaining how to get the pom pom trim on a project! I know when we had the mug rug hop recently I wondered if Insulbright was required or preferable. What lovely additions to your table in seasonal colors!

    I love the flowered head band too. One of my local friends has been making a ton of those cute things. I need to watch her in action at one of our next meetings. She was using all kinds of cute accents to the centers, just as you did!

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  31. Very cute projects. I love those flowers too. I had made one in a class and we glued a button to the center but I like the pompom even more.

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  32. Love that lemon fabric with the pom-poms. It really adds a nice touch.

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  33. The coasters look so cute with the pom poms and the headband is darling.

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  34. Beautiful- love these coasters and hot mats

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  35. Very cute! Love the fabric choices. The headband is sweet. I think I need that flower maker!
    Thanks for sharing.

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  36. Just adorable. What a fun, summery set of coasters! I love your flower, it's a perfect headband!

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  37. Beautiful coasters! I really like the headband too.

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  38. what great ideas.... I think I will have to try making a couple head bands ..... I think just about any age could wear them ... right ;)
    thanks sew much for sharing
    in stitches

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  39. Really cute projects. I love the hot pad and coasters. Would brighten any table. Thanks for sharing.

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  40. Love the hot pad and coasters:) Too cute!!!!

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  41. Creative coasters! Good for you!

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  42. You have an adorable model! The headband is a great idea! I don't know that I would have had the patience for the hot pad and mug rugs and then you broke the projects down into manageable units. I have the circle ruler and have not used it yet. Now I have a new use for it, too! Thank you for participating in the hop and encouraging me to know that I, too, can do this. And now I really miss my daughter being so far away. I'm going to see her next month. Again, many thanks for participating and being a great encourager.

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  43. Ah!! that's so sweet!! Thank you!! Adorable

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  44. Well! That's just too sweet - love the pom-poms for an extra special touch! Great idea!!

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  45. How fun your pom pom trivet and coasters became with the tiny little poms. Adorable headband and smile! Happy Hearts are Creative Hearts...

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  46. very creative..love all of it...

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  47. I love your coasters, they are so fresh and bright!! Great idea!

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  48. Your 2 sets of mats/coasters are wonderful; I absolutely love both fabrics. The poms work beautifully. When I saw the first photo, I thought you'd made a fabric pie! The poms are great on the flower, too.

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  49. I love your pom pom trims . The coaster fabric is nice and cheerful. I never knew that you could get mini pom-poms on a string. Great idea!

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  50. The coasters are great but I love love love your flower!!!

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  51. Very cool. I love the little pom poms too and they make a very nice coaster set.

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  52. I love your hot pad & coaster set! brilliant idea to use the smaller pom poms on the coasters!

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  53. I love the beautiful lemony hot pad and coasters. And your beautiful daughter too.

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  54. Perfect fabric choice for your hot pad and coaster set. They came out wonderful. Love the pom pom trim.

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  55. Great idea to make coasters & the headband is too sweet ;)

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  56. I love the itty bitty pompoms on the coasters! The hot pad and hairband look great too.

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  57. Love your coasters Gwen! Great idea!

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  58. Perfect for spring. They sure will brighten any room up. Thanks for sharing.

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  59. Wonderful idea and I love the fabric.

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