DIY Quilted Shaker Serving Tray Liner - Because You Know You Want to Make One!

A Funny thing happened on the way to my next blog post. You'd be wrong to think "well, it's been nine months since she last wrote on this dumb blog, so I guess maybe she had a baby or something."  If you guessed that, you'd be wrong, of course, me being of the "childless by choice" faction!  I thought about starting this whole blog thing over again, but honestly, there's a lot of history following behind this post and I cannot bear to part with any of it, however boring some of it may be. I'm popping in to post this DIY Quilted Shaker Serving Tray Liner that I made up today because literally everyone needs this and will want to make one! Disclaimer though: there are no promises that I'll actually write another blog post before another nine months have passed again. So here's this DIY!

This beautiful, handcrafted tray is made by the Early Americana Workshop called NHShakerShop which you can find on Etsy via the link. I'd been searching for a clean beautiful design, simple wood serving tray and immediately started looking at Shaker versions. This one matched all of my demands and I couldn't be happier with it. I wanted to create a quilted liner for the tray. Mainly because I'm compelled to try to solve many issues with quilting somehow, but mostly because I wanted to protect the beautiful wood surface from scratches, and ideally for something to keep items from sliding around on the tray while carrying it from place.  

Here are the steps (illustrated as simply as possible):

1. Take your tray and measure the width and length of the oval and base your fabric needs on that. Mine measures 14" wide x 19" long, so I used just under a half a yard of fabric.

2. Fold fabric with right sides facing and selvedge edges together and lay on a piece of batting the size of the folded fabric.

 

3. Place your tray on the fabric/batting pile and trace around the edge using some kind of marker. DO not use a permanent marker...

 

4. See, I'm using a Crayola washable marker. Get the fine line ones! I love these things. Clean the edge of your tray immediately if you get any marks on it, but try not to.

5. Cut the shape out.

You should have two layers of fabric (right sides facing) and batting.

 6.  Pin layers together. Put your walking foot on. Sew a 1/4" seam through all layers, leaving a 4" opening or so. 

 

7. Pull the insides out through the hole. Here's your opportunity to check that it fits your tray properly. Flatten it out. Put it in the tray. Too big? Turn it back and sew a larger seam allowance to get the fit you'd like. 

 

 8. Once your size is good, flatten it out and press the whole thing so that the seam lines up around the edge. I use one of my long paint brushes to accomplish this!

 

 9. Now sew your opening closed however you want. I just sewed it with my machine very close to the edge with black thread. Can't even see it.  

 10. Now quilt it however you'd like. I'm a big Alabama Chanin fan and have made a bunch of Natalie's clothes and accessories using her hand sewing techniques. I thought this style of stitching would look really nice on my tray liner, so I used Button and Craft thread and left the knots and tails on one side. I can turn it over for a smoother look, but I love the visible knots. If you haven't looked at Alabama Chanin style, and don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and do so. Natalie has several classes on Craftsy too. I started with her Swing Skirt Class.... which I made using old tshirts. So cool!

I digress. This post is about my Tray liner. Well, there you have it. I hope you'll try it out. I supposed you can use this technique to make liners for lots of other things too. So have at it! See you in nine months... maybe :)

Kimono Quilts

Bags on SALE! 40% off

I'm discontinuing this bag style...after careful critique I've decided to redesign the project bags. The inspiration for these came from the old style newspaper boy/girl bags with the thick straps and deep pocket (oh, and not to mention my need for project bags to contain all of my various knitting endeavors around the house).

You can see all the bags that are being discontinued in this section in my shop.

BTaylor Quilts Video

My video, created by Jeff Derose of One Match Films. I asked him to create a short film about my creative work, which includes quilting and painting. It was especially important to me at this time, because I had been preparing for an exhibit at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts here in Massachusetts, and wanted to document that. At the same time, I had recently resigned from my job as Coordinator of Easthampton City Arts and was embarking on a new adventure...self employment, focusing soley on my painting and sewing.

It felt like the right time to make the video, with all these important events converging, and it became apparent that it was a good way to get the word out about what I am doing. Making the video has been such a great experience and I discovered things about myself and my work that I hadn't even expected. After recording several interviews, Jeff took all the raw footage, my voice, and stills that he had taken, and wove the narrative and images to create this story. I would have had no idea how to put this together, and I'm so happy with the results. This is why we hire the professionals!

Sewing Room Tip #1 - managing new fabrics

I've made a resolution to reorganize the shop so that I use the space better. Like most, I have a limited amount of space and like to have all of my fabrics within site, so that I can quickly see all the possibilities while I'm working. Normally, when I get new fabrics, I wash them, fold them up, and organize them by color on a series of bookshelves. Lately, I've been looking at the piles of fabrics and wondering how to condense them so that I have more space. The answer, scarily enough, is ironing all this fabric!!

Believe me, I was not really keen on ironing everything, so I did a test to see if all the effort would pay off. While cutting out turquoise fabrics for another ocean themed quilt, I ironed each piece of fabric as I went along and then carefully stored them back on the shelf. I buy a lot of fabrics two yards at a time, but I do have a lot of fabrics that I've purchased the whole bolt....this takes up LOTS of room. After going through the turquoises, what was once three shelves of fabric now took up only one and a half shelves! Yay! It really worked!

For example, here is a photo of my green fabrics, you can see how much space it takes up, and how messy it is.


Now, here is a photo of the turquoise...all ironed and beautiful! I'm hooked :)
And so the lesson here is: time saved by not ironing = loss of much needed space in the workroom. I haven't gotten through my entire fabric collection, but I'm working on it :)

For Black Friday - stay home and shop - buy handmade - buy local :)

A new queen size quilt in the shop :)