How to Dye Pasta to Make Sensory Materials

Pretty much the last family activity that we did before taking the kids to college was an evening of making sensory materials together.

You know, as you do!

I'd had the idea that my preschool niece might like some of the same homemade sensory materials that my own kids had enjoyed at her age. We made her slime (although my kids actually played with oobleck, not slime, throughout their preschool years, you might remember that my younger kid went through a BIG slime phase as a tween and still has the recipe memorized), play dough, sand dough, cloud dough, dyed Epsom salts, and a couple of colors of this dyed pasta.

Out of all of those options, the pasta is the easiest! It takes just a few minutes of hands-on time, spread out over the course of a full day. Here's how to make it:

Materials

To make this sensory material, you will need:

• dry pasta. The pasta that you use is limited only by your imagination, your budget, and the size of the jar you plan to use. Rotini and elbow macaroni were perennial favorites with my kids, but bowties and shells also turn out exceptionally cute. Star pasta is a splurge but would be adorable, and spaghetti would be cool-looking but unwieldy to dye and delicate when finished.
• liquid food coloring or liquid watercolors. I use the snot out of our liquid watercolors, and used them for this particular project, but before I knew such a thing existed I made many fine and colorful batches of dyed pasta with cheap liquid food coloring. 
• old jars. I've always used glass jars, as in old spaghetti sauce or salsa jars, and never plastic, but I don't see why plastic wouldn't work.
• rubbing alcohol. You need this because it's a non-water-based solvent that can distribute the dye without dissolving the pasta. Some of my hippier friends buy super-high-proof organic vodka to make their own disinfectants, though, so if you like, I bet you can use that!
• newspaper, brown paper bags, cardboard, etc. You want something to spread the pasta out on to dry, ideally something you can toss in the recycling bin when you're done.

How to Dye the Dried Pasta

Pour dried pasta into a jar, filling it no more than halfway. Check out this old photo I found of my adorable older darling completing this step. She looks like she might be five?

Five was a really great age for that kid. Actually, though, twenty is turning out to also be a great year for her!

Add enough rubbing alcohol to just cover the bottom of the jar, then add the dye. Put the lid on and shake it around until the dye is evenly distributed, then add more dye as desired until the pasta looks about as saturated as you want it to be.

Here's the part you have to remember: put the jars on a table or counter you frequently walk by, and then for the rest of the day, every time you pass the jars, agitate them and shake them around for a few seconds to further distribute the dye and unstick any pasta bits.

After a few hours of that, dump out the jas and spread the pasta out in an even layer on your blotting paper:

Leave the pasta to finish drying out at least overnight, or even as long as a full day:

Your blotting paper gets pretty messy, so that's why you want something you can toss!

When the pasta has finished drying, kids can play with it right away, or you can store it in deli containers at room temperature. Look how cute it looks combined with all the other sensory materials in my niece's present stash!

Kids can simply play with this pasta, of course, but it also makes a great addition to a play kitchen or mud kitchen, or to a pretend construction site. Dump trucks love to drive around pink elbow pasta! 

And, of course, you can do art with it, especially making mosaics with different types and colors of pastas. You know you want your own pasta mosaic masterpiece hung on your wall!

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How to Make Quilted Greeting Cards

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

Quilted greeting cards are a great way to show off your cutest mini quilt blocks!

When I made quilted postcards, we all knew that I was just one small step away from making quilted greeting cards, right? I mean sure, there was a chance that I’d get bored with mini quilt blocks and move onto the bookshelf quilt that I promised my younger daughter, but you and I both know that when I start down a rabbit trail, I generally follow that trail to the absolute end.

It turns out that the end of the mini quilt block rabbit trail is a set of quilt-as-you-go rainbow quilted greeting cards!

These quilted greeting cards have a whopping two additional steps over my quilted postcards, so they’re still a terrifically quick and easy way to do some scrap-busting of your sewing stash. You should also already either have a mini quilt block in mind OR know how to do the quilt-as-you-go method.

Here’s everything that you’ll need to make quilted greeting cards:

• fabric for quilting as you go or mini quilt block. Fabrics that are approximately all the same weight work best for this project, but otherwise, feel free to play with whatever fun fabrics you’ve got on hand. Those white suns on my mini rainbow quilts are pieces of my old wedding dress!
• double-sided fusible interfacing. This will allow you to adhere your mini quilts to your greeting cards without stitching onto the card. You can do without it, but I think it makes the final product look the nicest.
• heavyweight cardstock. Regular cardstock doesn’t feel hefty enough in the finished product, considering how much weight the mini quilt adds to the front of the card. I actually really like this Strathmore watercolor paper for this project, and I think you could even go as heavy as bristol board or cardboard food packaging.
• measuring, cutting, folding, and sewing materials. I used a guillotine paper cutter, a spoon instead of a bone folder, and regular sewing supplies.

Step 1: Measure, cut, and fold the greeting cards.

To make a standard 5″x7″ greeting card, you’ll want your paper sized to 7″x10″. I actually folded my watercolor paper in half first, then cut it to size with my paper cutter. I’ve got some nice scraps leftover for making bookmarks and gift tags!

No matter whether you fold first or cut first, the most important part of making a homemade greeting card look really nice is getting a really nice fold. With paper as thick as this, you pretty much have to use some kind of tool to smooth down that fold. The concept of the bone folder grosses me out even though I know most of them are just plastic, so fortunately the back of a spoon works just as well!

Step 2: Sew a mini quilt block sized to your greeting card.

I had the idea for this quilt-as-you-go rainbow and sun block, so in these photos that’s what I’m sewing, using that ‘Merica fabric as my base. I generally snap up 100% quilting cotton whenever I’m out thrifting, even if I hate the print, just for projects like this. I’ll also take all your old 100% cotton blue jeans!

By the time I finished my rainbow, you can’t see ‘Merica at all!

Edge-stitch around your completed quilt block, even though fraying isn’t going to be a problem. Your block also doesn’t need to be quilted, strictly speaking, so quilt it or not as you like. I quilted some of mine and left others alone, and I still can’t figure out which I like better.

Your appliques are another place where you can play fast and loose. I just zigzagged my suns onto the quilt blocks and called it good!

Step 3: Attach the quilt block to the greeting card front.

Cut the interfacing to size, then make a sandwich with the greeting card face-up, the interfacing, and the quilt block face-up.

Iron the snot out of your sandwich! Or, rather, follow the interfacing manufacturer’s instructions for how to iron it, ahem.

I ironed the snot out of it, though…

Trim any bits of the quilt block that are sticking out past the greeting card. If any bits of greeting card are sticking out past the quilt block you’re going to be soooo tempted to trim that, too, but trust me: that way madness lies. You will NEVER get it even, so just set your mind firmly to not noticing any sticky-outy card bits.

In case you’re thinking that now I’m SURELY done with mini quilt blocks, I’ve had the idea that maybe I could figure out a way to only temporarily attach, say, a mini quilt block coaster or mug rug to the front of a greeting card, so that the recipient could pull it off and use it. That would be super cute, right?

Move-in day. I HAVE to have that bookshelf quilt finished by my kid’s college move-in day!

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How to Make Quilted Postcards

 I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

Quilted postcards are a fun way to let someone know you’re thinking about them.

The scrap busting is a bonus!

It is apparently my Summer of Quilting Tiny Things, as I have quilted so many wee pretties so far! Completely ignoring the Foundation Paper Pieced quilt I promised my high school graduate for her college dorm bed, I’ve instead been busily sewing up little quilt-as-you-go bookmarks and zipper pouches and applique patches and these adorable postcards.

Quilted postcards have been my particular favorite lately, because they make such great gifts for so many occasions. I’ve made lots for the high school graduates in my life, but these would be a good gift for their parents, too. You can make themed and pre-stamped postcards for anyone planning a fun trip or heading off to sleepaway camp, and what better way to wrap up a visit to long-distance friends and family than with a lovely hostess gift of postcards that match their style?

You can turn most mini quilt blocks into a postcard, or alter almost any mini quilt block to be postcard-sized, as you prefer. Here’s how!

Materials

To make quilted postcards, you will need:

• cardstock, cut to size. Postcards must be rectangular, not square. They can be anywhere from 3.5″ to 4.25″ along their short sides, and 5″ to 6″ along their long sides. Any cardstock of approximately 65 lbs will work, or you can upcycle cardstock or thin cardboard food packaging. Be VERY careful with the latter, though, because your postcard can only be .016″ thick, maximum, and that’s with the fabric and interfacing and stitching!
• fabric scraps. My favorite thing about mini quilts is using up my teeniest bits of fabric scraps. Frankly, I’m going to have to get started on my kid’s Foundation Paper Pieced quilt soon just because otherwise I’m about to run out of teeny fabric scraps for mini quilt-making!
• fusible interfacing. I know that normally all I do is gripe about fusible interfacing and how it’s just an extra thing to buy and an extra bit of polyester in the landfill, but you DO need it for this project. Lightweight interfacing, or any scraps of any weight (as long as you don’t go over the maximum postcard thickness!), will be fine.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing supplies. My universal needle worked well for this project from start to finish. If you’ve got a super-new needle in your machine, though, you could switch it out for an old one when you actually start stitching over the cardboard.

Step 1: Pick your postcard size and cut the cardstock and interfacing to match.

I actually started off with 4″x6″ pieces of cardstock leftover from a previous project, so I trimmed about .25″ from the long sides because I was paranoid about any stitching or extra fabrics making my postcards slightly too long. Postage is expensive enough without paying for an oversized piece!

Whatever size you choose for your postcard, cut interfacing to the same size. I used my cardstock postcard I’d just measured and cut as the template for this.

Step 2: Sew mini quilt blocks to match the postcard measurements.

There are so many great ways to do this!

The photo above is of a quilt-as-you-go mini quilt block, which you can stitch directly onto the non-glue side of the interfacing that you cut.

For all the other quilt blocks I’m writing about, we’ll save the interfacing for the next step.

The photo above is a postage stamp quilt. To make this one, cut 1.5″ squares from your scraps, then piece them with a .25″ seam. If you want to make your postage stamp quilt SUPER tiny, cut 1″ squares but keep the .25″ seam allowance, and your finished quilt block will have eensy little .5″ pieces.

The postcard above is a log cabin mini quilt block. Piece it exactly the way you would a log cabin quilt block, again with fabric scraps that are 1″ to 1.5″ wide. I added extra pieces along the side to fill out the length.

The quilt block above is a triangle hexie. After finishing the hexie, I filled out the corners by piecing it with more log cabin strips, then trimming the block to size. I can use those scraps in another quilt-as-you-go mini quilt project!

Step 3: Add interfacing and stitch the quilt block to the postcard.

Unless you made the quilt-as-you-go quilt block and therefore already have the interfacing attached to the quilt block, fuse the interfacing to the back of the block now. This will add stiffness to the block to make it easier to sew, and it gives the postcard a little more support, as well. But you could probably skip the interfacing, too–if you try that, let me know how it worked!

After the interfacing is attached, do any quilting that you want to the block. Technically it doesn’t really need it, but it IS pretty!

Place your postcard and the cardstock wrong sides together, and clip in place–I finally splurged on a set of plastic clips a year or so ago, and I LOVE them. The fact that they’re plastic is a huge bummer, for sure, but I just have to commit to taking care of them so they never end up in a landfill on my watch.

If you wanted to change out to a junk needle in your sewing machine, do it now. Set your stitch length to around a 2 and your stitch width to at least a 3.

Sew around the perimeter of the postcard. I don’t try to catch the edge in the stitching or anything–I just keep the stitching near the edge.

Finally, trim any excess fabric from around the cardstock.

To use this postcard, add a stamp to the top right corner of the cardstock, then the address on the right side. Write your message on the left side, and pop it into the mail! You’re about to be USPS famous!

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Tutorial: Quilt as You Go Scrappy Mini Quilt Blocks

 I originally posted this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

From bookmarks to coasters to these little guys, my quilt as you go obsession continues!

These quilt as you go mini quilt blocks are a terrific way to use up fabric scraps, and the finished quilt blocks are endlessly useful in all sorts of ways. I like to use them to sew zippered pouches, stitched coasters, and quilted postcards, in particular, but I have my eye on a few more projects they’d look beautiful in.

So get out that basket of fabric scraps, because here’s how to some mini quilt blocks the quilt as you go way!

Materials

You will need:

• interfacing. I don’t usually like to buy proper interfacing, instead subbing in whatever scrap fabrics I’ve already got squirreled away. Eco-fi recycled polyester felt, for instance, makes an excellent backing for my quilt as you go bookmarks, and scrap batting works really well in my quilted coasters. But because I don’t always know how I’m going to use these particular quilt as you go blocks when I make them, I do like to stitch them to fusible interfacing. Some of my favorite projects work better with fusible interfacing, so this way, these blocks are all ready to go!
• fabric scraps. Even the teeny-tiny ones work for this project! My seams for this particular quilting project are generally .25″, so any scrap that’s at least .5″ along one side can be successfully incorporated.
• seam roller. You can always finger-press your seams, but I really like this handy little tool for pressing my seams sans heat.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing tools. I mostly use a small pair of sharp fabric scissors, but I do use a quilting ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter to measure the interfacing and trim the finished block.

Step 1: Measure and cut interfacing to the size of the quilt block.

The interfacing is what will determine the size of your quilt block, so cut it to your preferred finished size. I’ve got a specific project in mind for these mini quilt blocks, so I cut my interfacing to 5″x7″.

Step 2: Stitch the first piece.

Your ultimate goal will be to quilt these pieces as you go without leaving any raw edges visible on the front of the quilt block. To that end, I like to start somewhere near the center of these mini quilt blocks, and piece around that center point at least for a little while.

Because I want to preserve the ability to fuse this quilt block to my future project, I’m also keeping the fusible side of the interfacing on the wrong side, and stitching my quilt block to the non-fusible side.

With right sides together, stitch down one side of your first scrap piece. Aim for a piece that goes off the edge of the interfacing, as pictured above.

Fold the piece over so the right side is up, then use the seam roller to press it. If you’re not using a fusible interfacing as a base, feel free to iron, but I don’t want to fuse this piece to my cutting mat!

Step 2: Continue to add pieces, quilting as you go.

Place the second piece you want to sew right side down, lined up with one of the edges of the previous piece. Again, the ideal placement of this piece will extend off the edge of the interfacing.

Stitch down that straight seam, then fold over and press the seam flat.

As you continue to fill up this space, remember not to leave any raw edges. This becomes trickier after a while, and so I keep a few larger scraps in reserve for those times that I need to stitch a piece that goes from end to end across my block.

Notice from these photos that you don’t always have to line up your new piece at the edge of an existing piece. Since I’m doing this project mainly for scrap-busting, I also don’t trim away that extra fabric underneath the seam, even if I’ve stitched my new piece far back from the edge and I have quite a lot of it. That excess fabric can stay right there inside the quilt block forever, thank you very much!

That method does add bulk, though, so keep that in mind for your own project.

Step 3: Trim the quilt block to size.

This whole time, I’ve been encouraging you to run your fabric scraps off the edge of the interfacing to make sure they go all the way and you don’t leave any raw edges. But when you’ve completely finished filling up your quilt block, turn it over and trim the block to be even with the interfacing.

These mini quilt blocks are so quick and easy to make, and I love how they tend to naturally complement each other, since I incorporate many of the same scraps into multiple blocks.

And they’re perfect for so many projects! If you make your template 2″x6″, you can easily sew bookmarks. If your quilt block is 4″x4″ or 5″x5″, you can turn these into coasters.

And if your quilt block is 5″x7″, you can make the postcards I’ll show you how complete next week!

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How to Sew a Bookshelf Quilt Block

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

These bookshelf quilt blocks are a LOT easier to sew than they look!

I promised my rising college freshman a quilt for her dorm room bed, something that’s always easier to promise than it is to do, ahem. Just between us, I’d hoped she’d pick the Cats in Space pattern, because I’ve been dying to sew it without a good reason to, but instead she got on Pinterest, discovered bookshelf quilts, and asked if I could make her one of those.

My first ideas were significantly overengineered, based mostly on the Fandom in Stitches bookcase quilt blocks. I even went as far as to check out a bunch of books from the library, determined to teach myself Foundation Paper Piecing to make the quilt happen. Fortunately, though, I also started noodling around with my fabric scraps, and I figured out that I could use fabric strips to make a pretty darn convincing shelf full of books.

It turned out that my college kid loved the look of a plain bookshelf quilt block with nothing but books on it, no paper pieced vases or potted plants or little tchotchkes needed. And it’s certainly going to make my life easier to use the same piecing method for every quilt block! I’m also loving how I can use up fabric scraps, including more unusual scraps like bits of favorite clothes and old blankies and curtains, etc., to make books that also have secret sentimental value.

Here’s a tutorial for the basic bookshelf quilt block that I’ve been making dozens of over the past few weeks. This bookshelf quilt block is 10.5″ unfinished (10″ finished), but you can scale it up or down as needed.

Materials Needed

• neutral background fabric for the bookshelf. I’d recommend something like a Kona cotton solid for this fabric. My kid had suggested black or brown, but unfortunately not until I’d already started and gotten a couple of blocks under my belt, so for this quilt we’re going with the grey I originally chose.
• fabrics for the books. Anything that you can sew and that would feel pleasant in a quilt should work for this. Jelly rolls are really nice to work with, since they’re already cut to a good length, but any fabric solids, fabric prints that look believable as book covers, and most clothing-weight and home decor-weight fabrics can be used. I’ve got canvas, upcycled curtains, bits of old clothes, and refashioned formalwear cuts in the bookshelf quilt blocks I’ve created so far, and they all look great!
• measuring, cutting, and sewing tools. The most time-consuming part of the process is measuring and cutting all the fabric strips. I’m multi-tasking by catching up on Call the Midwife as I work–feel free to suggest what show I should binge next!

Step 1: Cut and piece your first book.

I’m going to assume that your bookshelf quilt block is also going to be 10.5″x10.5″ unfinished, so make your own adjustments if it’s not.

In your block, you want books that are different colors/patterns, different heights, and different widths. For heights, any book height between 10.5″ and about 2″ looks good, and for widths, I’ve been going with increments between 1.5″ and 2.5″.

Start with one book strip that fits those guidelines–above, my purple strip is 1.5″x6.5″.

Using a .25″ or .5″ seam allowance, as you prefer, sew a strip of background fabric short ends together to the purple fabric. I precut my background fabric into strips of my most common widths to save time here. Trim the background fabric as needed so that the finished piece is approximately 11″ (later, you’ll trim it down to 10.5″).

Step 2: Cut and piece additional books.

Pick a new book fabric and piece another strip! Notice how the new book, which once used to be part of a silk blouse, is both a different width and a different height. This is what will give realism and dimension to the finished bookshelf quilt block.

Don’t worry if your books don’t look good together, because as you can see above, you can rearrange them as you go until you get an arrangement that you like.

You can also piece the book strips to look like fancy binding, as I did with the book on the far left in the above image, and you can piece the book strips horizontally so that they look like they’re stacked on your bookshelf. The scrappiness of this project reminds me of the quilt-as-you-go blocks that I love to make!

Your final design should also be 10.5″ wide, subtracting the seam allowances, so keep piecing book strips until you’ve got it.

Step 3: Piece the bookshelf quilt block.

Piece the book strips together, ironing the seams however you like.

The final step to finish the bookshelf quilt block is to square it up to 10.5″x10.5″. If you need to add extra fabric to the height of the block, put a strip of background fabric along the top of the block and it will just look like you’ve got some short books in that section of shelves. If you need to add extra fabric to the width, stick another book on your shelf or add a strip of background fabric to either end to make it look like you’ve got space for more books on your shelf!

With 20 blocks done and 28 blocks to go, I’m so excited about how lovely this bookshelf quilt is looking so far! I’m getting anxious to start piecing blocks together to make whole shelves, but I know I need to wait until all my blocks are done so I can rearrange them until they look their cutest.

And with this method, the blocks are coming together so quickly that I might even have time to Foundation Paper Piece a couple of vases or plant pots or tchotchkes, after all!

P.P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!