Pickled Garlic Jalapenos

This recipe has been revamped and reposted on the NEW craftybridge.com.
You can find the recipe HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

Trick-or-Treat Tote

 

Halloween as an adult is wonderful, but I miss rustling through the leaves in the dark from house to spooky house trick-or-treating. I remember feeling so mischievous, like we were up to no good as we rang doorbells and showed off our costumes. It was always cold, and I remember fighting the parents year after year when they would try to tuck my parka under my costume.
I don't have kids of my own yet, but I can't help but join in with my friends as they get their little ones psyched up for the holiday. This year I made my little friend Logan an awesome trick or treat bag to carry from house to house with his baby brother. He's the sweetest little man and he deserves lots of candy (so Mom can have some too).... so I didn't skimp on the size.

 

Trick or Treat Tote

Supplies you will need:
Fabrics:
     Outer fabric 3/4 yard
     Inner lining fabric 3/4 yard
     Batting 3/4 yard
The Usual Suspects: sewing machine, scissors, thread, iron

1. Start by cutting all of your fabric pieces.

     4 pieces 18”L x 14”W (2 inner, 2 outer)
     4 pieces 15”L x 6”W (2 inner, 2 outer)
     2 pieces batting 18”L x 14”W
     2 pieces batting 15”L x 6”W
     1 strip inner fabric 40”L x 3”W (for handles)
     1 strip inner fabric 42”L x 3”W (for trim)

Put aside your strips. You’re going to start by making the four sides of the bag.

2. For each side, you are going to make a sandwich: inner fabric – batting – outer fabric. Make sure the fabrics are both facing outward. You will have two big sandwiches and two smaller sandwiches (these will be your sides). Press all of your sandwiches with the iron. Forgive me for talking in food terms, I feel like everyone is more comfortable with food terms when they're learning (or maybe that's just me).

3. Quilt your sandwiches any way you like -- I went with assorted horizontal lines. (PS. Cutest fabric ever… was definitely the inspiration for this project!)

4. Sew the bottom edge of your two big panels (sandwiches) together, outsides together.

5. Open up your sandwich on the fold like above. Starting at the top of one of your big panels, pin on your side panel with outsides together. Sew. Repeat with opposite side. Your bag should look like a T so far.

6. Lay your “T” down with outside fabric facing up, take the remaining long side and turn up, pin side panels and long panel sides together outside to outside and sew edges together. Make sure you start at the top corner.
**I know this step sounds confusing, but all you are really doing is sewing the sides to the other big panel, same as with step 5.**

7. Once side edges are together, sew along two bottom edges to complete sides and close up bottom of tote. Turn bag right side out.

    

8. Pinch and sew 1/4 inch seam along all four side edges of bag, enclosing open seam in a spine. This gives the bag structure and allows it to stand on it's own.
The basic bag is done. Now for finishing touches.

Edging:
1. Cut long strip of liner fabric, press in half the long way. Open. Now fold edges into middle crease and press again. Fold long strip in half the long way and press one final time.

 

2. Pin along top edge of bag and sew.
In retrospect I would have like to edge my four pieces first, eliminating this process. But this is how I did it and it still came out great!

Handles:
Repeat step 1 as above in Edging. Sew fold closed length-wise. Pin to inside or outside of bag (per preference), folding raw end under itself. Sew down to secure.

 

Done! Definitely an intermediate level project, but still do-able. I had a ton of fun putting this together and I can’t wait to see little Logan trick-or-treating with it!

   

Happy Trick-Or-Treating!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

Bridget, XOXO

Pumpkin Beer Collage

This project was a fun start to seasonal crafting. As a typical New England girl, as soon as it was cool enough to put jeans on I headed to Starbucks and got myself a pumpkin latte (though I'm a DD's girl  at heart) on my way to the liquor store to get some pumpkin beer to drink while watching reruns of Hocus Pocus. Basic. My husband is cringing as he reads this. I just pulled out my riding boots and flannel shirts. FALL IS HERE!!!

Anyways, this easy little project sprung from a need for seasonal decorations for our new-ish house and a large blank spot on our wall. I noticed some cute, overpriced pillows in the Fall Pottery Barn magazine with a pretty watercolor pumpkin on them and thought of painting a similar pumpkin... psh. Not likely to go well. But I did have some pumpkin beer cartons lying around that I'd been saving (cause that's what crafters do) waiting for a cause. Hence a collage was born... and an awesome, just-as-fun-as-when-you-were-little, but-actually-good-enough-to-put-on-the-wall one at that.

 

What you will Need:
- poster board (whatever color you want)
- pumpkin beer cartons - at least one per pumpkin wedge
- glue stick
- scissors

1. Drink lots of beer. I started nice and early, avoiding eye contact with the judging glares I got at the start of September when I was already buying the first batches of pumpkin beer. Lucky for you, it’s well into pumpkin beer season now. So stock up and get your husband to help and you can have a great weekend kicking off Fall.

2. Sketch a pumpkin on your poster board with pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect. Pumpkins are not perfect. They are lumping and asymmetrical. I looked at a picture of a basic pumpkin drawing on my phone while I sketched it out. Make sure to include some fat wedges. I like a plump pumpkin :)

3. Cut up some boxes. Leave as many whole pictures and words and phrases that you can. Cut the sides off the insides and put the insides aside (woah). You won't need them.

4. Collage your pumpkin. I chose to collage each wedge, but feel free to do whatever your heart desires. You can collage the whole thing together or even make a jack-o-lantern if you want!

5. Make a stem out of your scraps -- I flipped mine over and made it out if plain cardboard.

6. Hang it up! I used command strips because I'd like to use it again next year and didn't want to put a nail in the wall.

 

Happy Fall, my pumpkin loving friends!
Cheers,
Bridget
XOXO

Halloween Costume 2014

Halloween is a hit at our house... Because its awesome, and because its basically Joe's birthday.
Every year we try to come up with an awesome costume idea. The hardest part is picking one that we can actually pull off. Our best year thus far: 2010 Avatars. We will never surpass this epic-ness, I have accepted it.

Oh, College… I miss you so much.

This year we channeled our favorite Muppet: Swedish Chef! Bork bork bork bork! Joe came up with the idea and after a little research we learned that Swedish Chef is actually married! According to wikipedia (we extensively research our characters…), during some episodes Chef has a ring on his finger... But nobody has met Mrs. Swedish Chef so we let ourselves go wild coming up with a persona for her.

I was pretty much a cross between Swedish Chef and Julia Childs. And failed on all levels with any attempt at any accent.

This costume was fairly easy to make but did require a bit of prep. We bought white aprons and chef hats at a craft store. We spruced up the hats and Joe spray painted stripes on the aprons.

For the Chef hats, I added orange hair (bought at a craft store for $1) for eyebrows for Swedish Chef:

I also made a mustache out of the orange hair – sewing elastic to each end.

For Mrs. Swedish Chef I added felt roses to her chef hat:

The rest of our costumes included button-down shirts and accessories – bowtie for the man, pearls for the Mrs..

 

 

Have fun you crazy party people!

Happy Halloween!

Cheers,
Bridget XOXO

Halloween Wreath 2014

So y’all know by now that I’m showing true signs and symptoms of wreath addiction. It’s fine. I’ve got it under control. I think. OK, I’m not that bad, yet. So far I’ve been doing seasonal wreaths – but who can resist a little front-door-décor? Especially when it’s Fall and we need to celebrate all that is left of color and tolerable weather in the Northeast? Before we know it Old Man Winter will be here, cloaking the world in gray and making us dream of sunburns instead of windburns.
So buck up everybody, it’s Halloween and we get to dressing up and make fools of ourselves! Put that scary movie on, go on that haunted hayride, carve that pumpkin, and drink some pumpkin beer! It’s time to celebrate!

Supplies you will need:
- Floral ornamentals/ faux flowers of your choice – grab your coupons and wait for sales!
- Wreath
- Wire cutters
- Floral wire (thin, pliable wire to help secure everything)
- Ribbon

This wreath requires very little tutorial – just find some fun flowers and ornamentals and stick ‘em into the wreath whichever way pleases you most. I went big on glitter just because it made me happy. I suggest you do the same :) Then, secure everything with floral wire so it doesn’t fall apart. Hang from a ribbon – I have an upside down hook on the inside of my door that I hook the ribbon onto. Stand back and marvel at your brilliant work.

All the stuff I bought – didn’t end up using it all, but my total came to $18
 

My lighting was terrible for these photos!
 

 

I love that glittery broom. It shed glitter all over my house and I didn’t even care.
 

 

Happy Halloween!
Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers,
Bridget XOXO

Halloween Quilted Table Runner

I am so excited to share this post with you guys… this was my FIRST TIME quilting. Gotta tell ya, I was super intimidated. In fact, I was considering taking a class before even attempting to quilt… I mean, this is the major leagues of sewing, right? Well, that’s what I thought, anyways. Turns out, it’s not that hard.

I found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest for different styles of table runners, but I decided to start simple and go with strips. I tend to gravitate towards simpler design choices anyways, so I knew I wouldn’t mind looking at it for a long time.

One of my favorite parts of making this table runner? Coordinating fabrics! I literally filled an entire cart full of bolts of fabric trying to find my favorites to put together. You don’t need a ton of fabric, but a good variety makes it more interesting.

What You Will Need:
- Fabric: use this as a stash buster, or go to the store and find 5-6 coordinating fabrics (or just fabrics you like together – be creative). You don’t need much; maybe a 3/8 yard each and you’ll have some left over.
- Fabric for the back of the runner 1 yard
- Batting: I used Pellon Fusible Fleece 987F – I had some already, but use whatever you prefer, just not anything too heavy.
- Quilt Binding
- The Usual Suspects: thread in a coordinating color, sewing machine, iron

Halloween Quilted Table Runner

1. First things first: clean up your fabric, cut off the selvedge, press. I don’t bother pre-washing my fabrics.

2. Cut strips of your different fabrics. Make them all the same length, but vary the width for each strip. I chose to make my runner 20” wide. Length depends on your table and preference.

3. Organize your strips by laying them out and picking an order that you like. Once you like your layout, stack the fabric strips, keeping the order that you want them sewn.

4. Start sewing! With right sides together, line up one edge of these strips and sew a 1/4” seam.

5. Press open the seam.

6. Now add on to your sewn strips with another strip and keep going in that order – sew, press seam open, sew, press seam open. I sewed half of the runner at a time so it was easier to manage with the sewing machine – less bulk to move around. Then I sewed the two halves together when I finished both.

7. Cut your back fabric to match your runner length and width, as well as your batting. Make a batting sandwich. Pin together.

8. Press your batting sandwich.

9. Starting in the middle of your runner, start quilting. This is a ton of fun. You can do anything you want, but I did parallel seams and made them totally random. This is my favorite part. All of a sudden, it seriously looks professional and finished. It like, transforms… I’m not even kidding.

 
I rolled each end of the runner so it was easier to manage while I sewed. Also, please ignore the mess haha

10. Press your table runner. Clean up your edges so they are squared and clean. Pin on your binding. Don’t forget to miter your corners. I also sewed the two ends of my binding together and pressed open the seam for a clean finish.

 

11. Sew your binding in place. DONE!

Jump up and down and celebrate and show everyone on Facebook and Instagram how awesome you are. :)

Literally, it looks awesome. I’m not trying to brag, but I was so flipping surprised at how easy it was to get to the finished product. The whole time I was waiting for the moment where I shrugged in defeat and said “well, I’m a beginner, it’s not going to look perfect”. And that moment never happened. That means you can do it too.

Please comment if you have questions and if you make one! I love to see your hard work!

Happy Halloween!
Cheers,
Bridge, XOXO