Decorating for a Quilting Tea

Wow, I haven't blogged since last October.  Things went crazy in early November, and I haven't had much time for sewing, etc. since then.  Things are finally settling down, thank goodness.

I'm the lead for two upcoming Tea's.  One is for church (Pearls and Aprons is the theme) and one for my little quilt guild, which is a sewing theme.  I found a few oversized sewing notion ideas on Pinterest (the only 'social media' I'm on other than blogging.  So far, I've made a few things.

oversized spools of thread

You can see the size by looking at the spool of Aurifil thread I included.  I still have 3 more small spools to 'wind' and then I need to add 'labels' to the top of each spool.  I took photos of some of the vintage wooden spools of thread that I have, and have enlarged them to decoupage on the wood.  I've never decoupaged anything before, so I haven't had the courage to try it out yet. (Any suggestions are welcome).

These oversized spools were easy to make, and fun.  I bought different yarns (different sizes, depending on the size of the spool).  I bought the wood circles at either Joann's (gonna miss that store) or Hobby Lobby.  The 3 largest spools are made with a set of three stacking canisters that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  The small (red) spool is an empty can of Chunky soup (hubby eats lots of Chunky soup).  I glued the wooden circles onto each can/canister with E6000 glue, and let them dry.  For the yarn, I painted each canister/can, with Tacky Glue, using a sponge brush. (I did paint the orange BEFORE I started adding the yarn).  When the Tacky glue was on the can/canister, I used a small dot from a glue gun to hold the end of the yarn in place, then started wrapping the yarn.  When I got to the bottom of the canister, I started wrapping back up to the top of the can/canister.  

The next project was oversized buttons (again the Aurifil thread for scale).

plastic plates

I found these plastic plates at Meijer (grocery story chain) for 50 cents each.  I bought 2 in each color.  Walmart also has some, but only 3 colors, and Walmart's colors are dull.  I had hubby drill holes in the plate for me, then 'threaded' the buttons with more yarn.

not finished yet

I found some chargers at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents, and bought 5 of them.  I'm spray painting them in different colors.  I ordered the wooden circles from Walmart, and hubby drilled all of them for me.  I'm also spray painting the small wooden 'buttons'.  It's taking time, since we've had so much wind lately, that I can't spray paint unless I know things won't blow away.  I'll show photos of them when they are finished.

I also saw an oversized tomato pin cushion on Pinterest.  I decided to make one. I tried to 'jumbo size' a pattern I found for a small one, but my orange peal parts don't oversize very well, so I had to work on it a bit.  I found some redish orange velvet on sale at Joann's, and also some green felt (you have to buy 2 yards of all fabrics now, so I have plenty left over).  This is my finished oversized Tomato pin cushion (with a regular sized one beside it for scale).

oversized Tomato pin cushion

The 'pins' are metal flags (from the thrift store) and wooden beads hot glued on.  I did have to stab each hole with an ice pick so that the pins would go in.  I used 1 1/2 old bed pillows as stuffing for the pin cushion. 

I have been sewing, but I haven't taken any photos of all the projects I've been working on.  

If you have any ideas for other things to use for decorations for either Tea (Pearls and Aprons) or (sewing themed), I'd love to hear them.  I do have a few other ideas that I haven't had a chance to get to yet.  Both Tea's are in September, but I'm trying to get things done really early, since I have lots scheduled (crazy busy schedule) the next few months.  

What have YOU been working on?