Showing posts with label handmade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label handmade. Show all posts

09 April 2026

Adventures in More Cup Cozies

In today's installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures we are looking at more cup cozies. All of these were made from remnant fabric. My sister requested some microwave bowl hot pads as gifts for her coworkers (Christmas 2025) and I had enough fabric left from those projects to make some smaller items. I hope you enjoy!


Top: Peanuts! Charlie Brown and crew are happy to help keep coffee (or tea) warm. These were made from remnants of the microwave bowl hot pad project.
 
Bottom: Mulan was one of the gift fabrics for my sister's coworker. The purple and green cup cozie is just cute. The blue one is a batik and feels different than other cottons. I was surprised at how well it works for a cup cozie. We also have a beach shells print on the end. All of these are made with remnants from other projects. 


Below: Gothic skulls are a favored theme of my barista friend. She gushed when she saw this design. 

Stay tuned for more!

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

12 March 2026

Adventures in Hanging Towels in Christmas Colors

Today's edition of Tabi's Creating Adventures is highlighting Christmas themed hanging towels. These lovely gems are a simple pattern and worked up nicely. Stockinette stitch knitting is probably my favorite stitching pattern. I do enjoy lace quite a bit, but there is something about stockinette that is amazing in its simplicity. I like the look, I like the feel, and stockinette is among the basics of knitting.


Above: A set of four hanging towels, alternated, make a nice visual.


Above: the red hanging towels are lovely by themselves.

Below: the green with red hanging towels have a masculine charm.




Above: Traditional red, green, and white hanging towels are a festive option.
 
Below: Sometimes you just need a special theme. These blue, red, and white snowmen are perfect for a fun Christmas (or winter) addition. 


I hope you enjoyed this little installment!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

05 February 2026

Adventures in Ornaments

Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures! 

Last time I talked about corner bookmarks. Today it's ornaments! 
 
(Again, I'm not sure what's going on with the sideways pics. It might be a while before I can get them fixed.) 
 
So, scrap fabrics from other projects make great ornaments, corner bookmarks, and a variety of other things depending on the size of the leftover material. Ornaments and corner bookmarks use smaller pieces of scrap fabric.  Sometimes the material lends itself more to ornaments and sometimes more to corner bookmarks, and sometimes the fabric remnants lend themselves to making the loops for the ornaments. I cut and pin for both ornaments and corner bookmarks at the same time. The larger pieces of scrap fabric I cut to use for larger scrap busters. More on that another day. 

Anyway, above is a small selection of ornaments from Halloween, mats (soon to come!), and some non-holiday crafting. These ornaments are the third set I have made.


Here we have the front (above) and back (below) of some slightly larger Christmas themed ornaments. I was able to use the last of this fabric that I have had for quite a while, so if anyone wants something with a similar pattern I'll have to see about ordering from a print-and-ship site. (That might take a while... on my part.) 


I hope you enjoyed this installment on ornaments! If you have any ideas or suggestions for things you'd like to see, please let me know! My contact info is below!
 
Stay tuned for more!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  


08 January 2026

Adventures in Corner Bookmarks (Part 2)

Welcome back to Tabi's Creating Adventures blog! 
 
It's been a while since I posted last. Life has been crazy. We spent the last year getting used to our new normal and recovering from being exhausted. I plan to post blogs monthly going forward!
 
I'm still not sure why the pictures show up sideways. Maybe it has something to do with the pictures being in portrait instead of landscape. I'll work on figuring it out, though it might be a while.  
 
For today's installment, I made a bunch more of the corner bookmarks. These are great scrap busters and pretty easy to make. I tend to keep the pieces that are left from other projects (as most crafters do) and stick them in a box until I'm ready to do something with them. I had several fabrics that paired well together and a few left that didn't really go together. No worries, there will be more projects, more scraps, and more scrap busting to come!  


Above, I had a good number of fabrics in my scraps box. I think my favorites are either the duck and flower combination or the antique advertisement fabrics. 
 
Below, I finished using up some of the Christmas fabrics, so Christmas corner bookmarks made sense. So far, that makes 3 batches of corner bookmarks. (See my previous posts for the first batch.)  


Corner bookmarks is the focus of this post, but I have a couple of other things I like to make with scraps depending on the size of the scraps. Stay tuned for more cool little projects!

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

31 July 2025

Adventures in Small Art Pieces

Welcome to Another (overdue) installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures!
 
One of my recent adventures is in small art pieces. As with many of my adventures, these little art pieces were ideas and thoughts for a long time before actually becoming a reality. The bottom picture in this post shows the small art pieces I made most recently. 

Top: Peeking Panda sees you through the bamboo!
 
Bottom: Golden backed flower shines through in a diamond. 



Top and bottom: I set a standard pen next to these art pieces to show their relative size. 



Top: Starry Heart framed for you!
 
Bottom: Landscape (top left), Golden backed flower (top right), Starry Heart (right middle), Dividing Line (bottom right), Peeking Panda (bottom middle), and Ooze (bottom left). 


I only have one of each design, so any duplicates are included for emphasis or clarity.


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

01 April 2024

Adventures in Colorful Cup Cozies



Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures. Today we have cup cozies, the reversible, quilted version. Below: the cup cozies are turned inside out and are in the same place as the reversed pattern in the Top picture.

These are available in my PayHip shop as they are available. Stay tuned for more!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

Adventures in Corner Bookmarks

Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures! 
 
Today's highlight is corner bookmarks. These little guys are great additions to any reader's accessory collection. In the picture below, you can see two of the smaller corner bookmarks displayed on their tags. Some of the bookmarks even have a little reading buddy on them. Small enough to hold in your hand and big enough to mark a page, your favorite reader will appreciate the soft touch and ease of finding their page.



Making these is a great scrap buster! Each bookmark is made with two contrasting fabrics and sewn together like a pillow without stuffing (or a quilt without batting) and folded over to make a nook for the page of a book. The bookmark rests on the corner of the page and is held in place by pressure while the book is closed.

Stay tuned for more!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

22 March 2024

Adventures in a Lace Scarf

Today's edition of Tabi's Creating Adventures focuses on a lace scarf. It's absolutely beautiful and the picture here does not do it justice. I enjoy working lace, so this was a nice project to satisfy the lace embrace. My only regret is the yarn I used was a specialty or novelty yarn and it ended up being scratchy in the finished product, which was a surprise to me. I really thought it would be soft when it was finished.

On a side note, I am trying to figure out how to get my pictures to show up correctly in the blog. This one is sideways and I'm not sure what happened.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

Adventures in Devorative Pillows - Peacocks

Welcome to Tabi's Creating Adventures! Today we're looking at pillows! I made these for my sister and her husband out of remnant fabric from the apron I made for my sister previously. Some of the fabric (not the peacock design) came from a stack of fat quarters in five colors that were bundled together. The marbled effect on those fabrics is fun and I enjoyed working with them!


Top: the fronts of the pillows.

Bottom: the backs of the pillows.

As you can see, I made 2 of the pillows with pockets, one has a peacock on the front and the back, and one is a little skinny pillow. Like I said earlier, these are remnants from another project. I like stash-buster projects and I hope my sister and her husband like them, too.

Also, I am having trouble getting my pictures to upload upright here. They are upright everywhere else.


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

24 December 2023

Adventures in Potion Containers

Welcome back to Tabi's Creating Adventures! Today we're looking at an experiment in specialty bag making. Inspired by Critical Role's "Bailey's Dice Bag of Hoarding," this gem is intended for use as a potion bottle bag. Each slot has enough space for two potion bottles, but I don't want them to clank together, so the second potion bottle will be in a pouch.



I used a fealty fabric for the bag and the pouches. The pouches are made with my medium size drawstring bag pattern and have rope-ribbon for the drawstring part. (Pardon the distressed background of the table.)

Each pouch fits a potion bottle. Shown below is a Potion of Greater Healing (as per rules for D&D).


I recently received a box of bottles to use for healing potions. Time to get crafting on another project. =-)

Yay, stash-busters!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

19 December 2023

Adventures in Knit Hats... for Me!

Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures! Today we're looking at hats! 

I had some yarn I had bought years ago, when we lived in Washington state, and finally decided to use it. Both of these yarns were novelty handmade yarns and I only bought one skein of each, so that limited me on what I could make. With that in mind, and a new knit stitch pattern book, I worked up these beauties.


These were fun little projects. In the end, I decided to keep them for myself. After all, I did buy the yarn for me.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

15 December 2023

Adventures in Hanging Towels

Happy New Year! Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures!

Today we're enjoying some coffee... er... at least we're looking at some coffee decorated tea towels. Eh, take a look!




So, these bad boys were not quite what I expected. I pulled the towels out of the box and opened them up, and they were not the size I was expecting. They were much wider, and the coffee logo was not centered. In the end we have 4 different work-ups of the same color and pattern scheme. I don't think I'll call these a set, but if someone wants all four, awesome!

As for process, I cut each towel in two (like usual) to make four towels, then I elected to sew the top seam allowance on the sewing machine to make the anchor stitches more secure (I find it helpful). Next, I simple stitched with a wide embroidery needle (it looks like a sewing needle and works to thread yarn through fabric). Finally, crochet! Finishing touches include adding the functional buttons and weaving in the ends of the yarn. 

I experimented with how to fold the towels for the crochet part so they look nice and are usable. At least two of them were folded into quarters before I set the base stitches (with the embroidery needle), and the widest one is folded into almost thirds.

I hope you enjoyed this post!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

09 December 2023

Adventures in Quilted Cup Cozies

Welcome! Today's post is all about quilted cup cozies. These little gems were inspired by the crochet and knit versions of the cup cozies in combination with my recent endeavors with the Microwave Bowl Hot Pads (MBHP - see the previous blog posts). As I was cutting and preparing to make the MBHPs, I realized I had large enough pieces left over to make some smaller items. Eventually it dawned on me that I could use the paper sleeves from my recent trips to the coffee shop as a pattern for quilted cup cozies. After a few questionable attempts and some wonky stitching, I finally figured out how to piece it all together and make it work well. 

As a note, all of this batch of quilted cup cozies have been gifted. The next batch will have some for sale.

 
Above: This is the picture of the "right sides" of all the cup cozies I quilted. 15 in total. They are all reversible. 
 
Below: The next three pictures are of the same cozie. I stitched a tree, an ornament, and a light around this winter holiday cozie.
 




Above: With 4 different cactus cozies, each with green plaid on the reverse side, two were stitched around the cacti. This seemed to work quite well.

Above: This cactus cozie was stitched with the "pebble" design.

Below: I particularly enjoy random "squiggle" quilting.




Above and below: The duck and flower fabrics are the reverses of each other. Super cute!

 
 


Above: Computer fabric on the "right side" with simple stitching.

Below: Computer fabric on the "right side" with a "wave" stitching.


Above and below: The computer fabrics are reversible with the blue fabric (below), and the "squiggles" stitching blue cozie below is reversible with another blue fabric. I really like this picture because it captures the fading of the blue fabric as well as where I closed the fabric into a cozie shape.


Above and below: This bird fabric is super cute and pairs nicely with the floral fabric (two pictures down). One of these is reversible with another bird fabric and the other is reversible with the floral fabric. The floral fabric two pictures down is reversible with another piece of the same floral fabric.


These last three are gifts to the same friends who received the MBHPs of the same fabric.






I hope you enjoyed quilted cup cozies!

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod  

21 August 2023

Adventures in Quilted Cup Cozies


In this installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures, we're looking at the beginning of a product line. Previously, I had made cup cozies by knit or crochet and put applique motifs on them; this time I decided to play with cup cozies by quilting. Not to say that the knit and crochet versions are no more, but rather that I am expanding into a new (to me) method of making cup cozies.

 
 
Above is my first demo. I designed this one with a Velcro closure and carried it in my purse to see how well I like using it. (My favorite local coffee shop is great about letting me use my own cup cozies.) Functionally, it's great! Then I asked, "What if it didn't have a closure?" After thinking about how to design a solid round cup cozie for a while, I finally came up with an idea!

Below are my second two demos. These two are solid round cup cozies (no Velcro closure) and based off of two different paper cup cozie designs. One worked much better than the other, so that made the decision for which one to use for future cup cozies much easier. One template was simple and straight forward while the other had some notches that made the construction a bit difficult. In the end, the template with the notches cinched up at the bottom and made the cozie too tight to fit the coffee cups, while the simple design template has fit each coffee cup well.


Overall, the experimentation with quilted cup cozies has been interesting. The one I will be using for the product line is the solid round, simple design (bottom picture, the one on the cup) primarily because of how straight forward it was to put together. There are a few details to iron out, but I look forward to sharing a full line of quilted cup cozies in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this little update.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

TabisCreatingAdventures@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/TabisCreatingAdventures

tenacious141b (Instagram)

https://payhip.com/TabiElrod