Cowgirl Up Tote Bag and Rag Quilt Rice Heat Pad

     

      
Last craft show I went to, someone made the suggestion of doing a cowgirl themed bag, so I began my search on fabric.com to find some cute cowgirl related fabric and this is what I found!
      I had some decorative horse buttons that I found at my grandma's house, that she probably hid away since the 70's, so I guess that would make the button vintage or retro or whatever people are calling old "new" stuff these days! I think it tops off my cowgirl bag perfectly! Hopefully everyone else will think so too at the next craft show when I try to sale them.

Close Up

I also had the idea of making a Rag Quilt rice heat pad. I've looked on Pinterest but couldn't seem to find any other rag quilt heat pads, so maybe this is the first! I thought it turned out cute and was really simple to make! Hopefully people will like them as well

Baby Carrier Creation

I was asked by a good friend, who is having her first baby, if I would make her a car seat cover for her baby shower. I was excited to make one for her, I have only made one before this and it was fun and easy to make. 

I found the fabric at Wal-Mart and thought it was cute. I hope she likes it when she opens it at her shower!

Homemade Christmas Blankets For The Kids

   


 I decided to start a new Christmas tradition of making one gift for each of my kids. This year they are both getting rag quilt blankets.
     My daughter is getting a Tinkerbell quilt that is 8 squares wide by 10 squares long and my son is getting a Spiderman quilt that is the same width and length.
     Also, along with the quilt, I have bought them both storybooks collections with Tinkerbell and Spiderman so they can curl up in their blankets and read their stories.




Close up

               The Front

The Back

   


      My son is really into Spiderman this year so I know he will flip out when he opens his blanket.










Close up

The Front

The Back

When life hands you lemons, you better make something

     When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. When life hands you the wrong kind of fabric, you make stuff with it anyway! I ordered a bunch of fabric online to make the rag quilt bags for the craft show. Half of the fabric that came was perfect, exactly what I ordered, 100% cotton material. The other half they "claimed" was 100% cotton, but anyone with their sense of touch could tell it was polyester fabric. 
     So here I was with a decision to make. Do I complain, send it back, and have fewer rag quilt bags to sell at the craft show? or do I suck it up, cross my fingers, hope for the best and try to make the bags anyway? I decided to push along and try to make them. 

I had never actually worked with polyester before and let me just say there were pro's and con's!

 The Pro's:
The fabric is stiffer, so the bags stay up right without a lot of prompting on my end. 
The fabric is very colorful and seems to shimmer a little when you set it in the right light.
It seems like this fabric might be easier to keep clean than the cotton fabric.

  
  The Con's:
Because the fabric is stiffer it is harder to make the bags.
The seems ripped pretty easily if I didn't triple or quadruple stitch them. 
It's supposed to be a rag quilt bag but the polyester does not "rag" very easily, luckily I made these bags with scalloped edges, so it at least gives a little definition to them.



     All in all I think they turned out cute but I don't know if I would ever make them with the polyester material again. It will all depend on my customers at the craft show, I guess they will make my final decision because after all, The customer is ALWAYS right. 

Do I take special requests? You bet I do!

     A good friend of mine asked me if I would want to make her a throw rag quilt with matching throw rag quilt pillows. I was excited for the challenge because I had never made one that big before, normally I have just specialized in baby size items, so it was fun to do something more grown up!
     

My friend wanted a quilt made up of all different colors of purple and this is what she selected for her quilt. I think it turned out really pretty and the pictures just don't really do it justice.

Rag quilt and

 The Rag quilt pillows

 There are 5 different kinds of fabric in this quilt, with different patterns. Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera to take a clear picture of all the different kinds.

 

The pillow was really fun to make. To be honest I have never made a throw pillow before so it was a new experience for me to try to make it. Turned out cute I think!

Rag Quilt Explosion!

     I will confess, I am a rag quilt addict! Rag quilt quilts, Rag quilt throw pillows, Rag quilt burp rags, and my latest project, Rag quilt bags! I like doing them because I can get them done fast, they come easy to me, and I can take breaks in between to play with my kids without ruining my groove!
    Here are just a few of the Rag Quilt bags that I am making for the upcoming labor day craft show!

 These rag quilt bags are adorable and I think you can use them for many different things. Just a few that I have tried on my own are: 


*A PURSE
 It fit my wallet, cell phone (which has an inner pocket to hold cell phones) my keys (it has a secondary pocket for things like keys), and other accessories that are found in the average woman's purse!

*A SCRIPTURE BAG
 It makes a great scripture bag if you have a set of scriptures and other religious materials lying around. It's a fun and colorful bag to keep your scriptures in for sure!

*A DIAPER BAG
 I tried it out as a small diaper bag to see how well it would work. I know there have been times when I am just making a small trip to the store and I want to bring a diaper bag, for those "just in case" moments, but you don't want to carry a huge diaper bag with you. I found that this is PERFECT size for those kinds of situations! It holds 6 or 7 diapers, wipes, a bottle, and I am sure with a little organizing you could fit a onsie in there as well.

 I am sure you can think of more uses, but I think everyone will agree, these bags are cute!

I am selling them at the craft show for 
$20 each or doing a special of Buy One, Get One 1/2 off. I think that is a good deal and I am expecting them to go fast!

 I want to start selling more of these bags, so if anyone is interested in one or wants to special order one, just let me know!

Welcome to Small Town Expressions!

    My name is Melissa Free and I want to welcome you to my blog. A place to go and view my latest creations! I mainly make things to sale at local craft shows, but I am hoping to get orders off of the blog as well. I also want to start doing special orders for people.
      I am a stay at home wife who enjoys taking care of my two energetic children and I live in a smoke-free, pet-free home. When I am not taking care of the kids or cleaning the house I enjoy crafting, mostly on the sewing machine. I hope people will enjoy this blog and if you see something you like, feel free to place an order!