start with a piece of pressed board (15" x 16")
make a strip of patchwork (17.5" x 4.5")
I made little log cabin blocks-inspired by this awesome little quilt
add a piece of linen to the bottom (3" x 18.5")
sew together
add a larger piece of linen to the top (13" x 18")
sew together, and press well
now check your piece to ensure that it is a few inches larger on all sides than the pressed board
wrap the fabric around the board and secure using staples
and here it is in use
It holds all my important information: my kindergartner's color days schedule, my second grader's spelling list, and a place to collect those little box tops for education. Hopefully this will help my counter to stay a bit less cluttered. This project makes me happy. :)
Now for the artwork holder...(another problem area in my house...my kids are very prolific in their artwork)
make a strip of patchwork the length of your pressed board, adding linen patches on each end for stretching around to the back (36" x about 2.5" )
cut a linen strip that is a few inches longer than your pressed board (5" x 36")
trim your patchwork to even out the edges-this one is about 2.25" high- (it is folded in half in this photo).
cut your long linen strip in half lengthwise...each of the linen strips measure about 2.5" x 36"
sew all together to make one l o n g piece of patchwork
press well
wrap it around the back of the press board, staple to secure.
I also added little picture hangers to the back so I could hang it.... (I warned my boys to treat this very gently, because I am not sure how much abuse this could take, but so far so good.)
and it is complete. originally I planned on making the patchwork smaller and embroidering the boys' names on the linen just above the patchwork, but this project kind of took on a mind of it's own. How fun would it be to personalize this, though?
and here it is with the artwork....
I have a feeling this will get a lot of use.
This one measures 4" x 33"
Like Katherine said in the comments in the last post...I can see one of these in every room of my house. 3 down...a few more to go!