Friday, December 12, 2008





My Latest Creation

ORGANIZER



Check it out. Here's my latest creation. I guess you could call it an organizer. It's something I needed for my bathroom. I only have a small drawer to keep things in so I thought it would be nice to have something hanging up on the wall to put the things I use the most in.


Anyone who sews even just a little could make this. It's got three slots in the top pocket just the right size for tooth brushes and a slot for the toothpaste. The other pockets are big enough to put just about anything in. I have put my curling iron and brush in the bottom pockets and the middle pockets I have things I tend to use often like bandaids and antibiotics.


This is so cool you could use it anywhere in your house that you need to organize things. You could even fix it up to hang on the back seat in your car for your kids to put stuff in when you go on trips.


Here's how to make it...


You need:


2 yard of solid color of fabric


1 yard of some kind of print fabric (I chose dolphins because my bathroom is decorated in dolphins)


1 yard of batting


Cut your 2 yards of the solid color into two 1 yard pieces and about 18 inches in width.


Cut four 3 inch wide strips of the print fabric to fit the length and width of the solid piece.


Sew the print strips onto one of the solid pieces. right sides facing making a frame all around the one solid colored piece.


Put the batting in between the two solid pieces and quilt it. I used the sewing machine to do it quickly but you can do it the old fashioned way if you want.


Fold frame around and turn under edge and sew to back side of solid quilted piece.


Cut pockets out of print fabric. Cut 2 the same width of the quilted piece up to the frame. Pockets should be about 6'' x 18 ''. and 2 smaller pockets about 6'' x 5''. If you want sturdier pockets you can cut double this and add some batting to it and quilt the pockets before putting them on.


Fold the top of the pockets down and sew to keep from having a ragged edge. If you have a zig zag stitch on your machine use that to sew the pockets where you want them onto the larger quilted piece. I placed my two smaller pockets at the top and the two larger ones at the bottom. If you don't have the zig zag stitch fold the edges under just enough to sew pockets on.


Once pockets are in place. If you want a slot for slim things such as toothbrushes or pencils etc stitch lines down the pockets that leaves a wide enough pocket for the item. I also sticked a line down the middle of the larger pockets but you don't have to do this.


Now take a small piece of fabric about 1/2 '' wide and 4'' long and fold it in on both sides making it about 1/8 '' wide. Sew it all the way down. Make it into a loop and sew it to the back of the top corner of your organizer. Do the same thing for the other top corner and you have loops to hang it with.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Improved upon my patternless curtains


A couple of weeks after making the nascar curtains and pillows I decided to make curtains in my guest bedroom. I improved on the curtains I made before by adding a ruffel and some tiebacks!


I'm proud of these curtains! I'm going to post how to make them on my triond page so if you're interested in making some nice looking, inexpensive and easy to make curtains check out my article on Triond.

Triond.com then click "Users" at the bottom of the page and type in Peggy Toolen. Then look for the article called "How to Make Easy, Inexpensive, Nice Looking Curtains"

I made Crutains!



I like making quilts because you don't have to go by a pattern and you can make your own creations. I made this quilt a few years ago for my husband. You can't see it on this picture but it's a nascar quilt with my husband's favorite nascar driver on it. Ryan Newman.


A couple of months ago I decided it would look nice to have big throw pillows and curtains to match so I made them without patterns! Awesome!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

First real blog

This is my first real blog so bare with me while I get used to what I'm supposed to be doing here.
I'm planning on sharing some of my creations here.

I enjoy writing, quilting, drawing and reading. I will try to share some of all of that if I can. I'm not sure how to do all that but I'm sure I will figure it out as I go along.

I have spot on triond.com http://www.triond.com/explore/users-search?search=Peggy+toolen where I have been posting some things I have written. I also have a website at freewebs.com/peggyatoolen to sell my published books and drawings. So far I have published romances and children's books. And offer some of the colored pencil drawings from my children's books for sale on that website.

I quilt but I don't follow patterns. I hate patterns because I feel confined to what they are telling me to do and I love the creative part of it. Besides that I want my quilts to be different than other people's quilts. And for the biggest reason I don't use patterns, they are so darn confusing!I don't really sew much I just do quilts. All the quilts I have done so far are all my own creation.
Oh and I have figured out how to do curtains too to match my quilts. I'll get a picture of the Nascar quilt, pillows and curtains I made for my bedroom. I did it for my husband. He wanted to put Nascar stuff all over the house and I told him I would let him put everything he wanted if he just confined it to the bedroom. :) So now I can create things for the rest of the house and not get bored with Nascar.

If you are into creating check out triond.com and for publishing things (books, artwork, music, calendars etc.) check out lulu.com these are both great websites.

I'm hoping to meet other people interested in the same things I'm interested it.