One of My Projects...

Quote for the Day:

"Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago."
~Erma Bombeck 

A couple of weeks before Christmas, my daughter-in-law asked me if I could make some bean bags for Andrew.  It seems he has developed a fondness for them after seeing them in one of his therapist's offices.  

A search for info on the internet turned up sites that showed them with appliqued numbers or letters on them.  I didn't have any stencils and every time I tried to print stencils off of the internet, my computer would freeze up and go whacky on me.  

For a couple of weeks I ruminated on what to do for a "stencil".  As Christmas time approached, faster and faster, I started to PANIC about these bean bags.  What to do...what to do???

Finally, I decided I had to face the sewing machine and just figure out SOMETHING!  That's when I saw it...it had been there all along right in front of my face.  

My EMBROIDERY MACHINE!!!

I set to work cutting 5.5" blocks out of my own pre-cut 5.5" strips (from my scrap-users system).

I picked out a variety of cute "kid" prints and  embroidered the numbers 1-10 on them.  I chose one fabric for all the backings so that you would know right away which was the front or back.  

Right sides together, I sewed the front embroidered squares to the back squares, leaving about 2" open on one side.  Then I turned them "right side out" through that small opening, using a blunt pointed object to poke the corners out where they belong.  After pressing, this is what they looked like...waiting to be filled...

The cheapest beans I could find were from Aldi's.  I purchased 2- 2 pound bags, but only ended up using just shy of one whole bag.

Making a funnel out of a piece of paper, and using a cup to hold the bag while I filled it, I put 1/2 cup of beans into each bag...

After each bag was filled, I took it to my regular sewing machine and, making sure there were no beans in the way of the needle, I used a zigzag stitch and stitched all the way around each bag...

I gifted these to my grandson, Andrew, on Christmas and he LOVED them!  

In addition to lining them up in numerical order, he also liked to put them into the box and then turn the box upside down over his head making them rain down on him!  LOL

There are so many ways to play with bean bags and they were so cheap and easy to make!   Now who do you know that would like for you to make them some bean bags??? 

Loretta