At S4H, we save all the beautiful ribbon scraps from our projects. Most of our ScrapBuster bookmarks are made using the gorgeous jacquard ribbon from our friends at Renaissance Ribbons. Because of their intricate designs and rich colors, jacquard ribbons are ideal for making bookmarks. Many kinds of ribbon, however, are suitable for bookmarks, and you may have just what you need in your stash. Velveteen ribbons with vintage rhinestone embellishments make beautiful bookmarks and require no sewing. Grosgrain ribbons in school or team colors are a fun way to personalize, plus you can embellish with custom mascot charms and beads. Ribbon bookmarks are fast and easy to make, especially if you do a bunch at once.

The bedroom dresser top. In catalog and magazine photos, it's always so clean – a single rose in a vase adorning one pristine corner. In reality, this is one of the most cluttered, easy-to lose-things-on surfaces in the house! Scatterings of coins, broken jewelry, forgotten notes, safety pins, missing buttons, dusty photos, watches in need of batteries... you name it, it's likely to end up on the dresser top. We've come up with a beautiful way to help you organize at least some of it. We're not promising miracles; you are still going to have to take those watches in for batteries one of these days, but at least you'll have a place to collect a few things. We call our cute fabric basket a Coin Catcher, but you're welcome to let it catch whatever you'd like. 

Ditch the brown bag and lighten up your lunch table with this very cute insulated lunch bag. It uses a half a yard or less of two decorator weight fabrics for the exterior with PUL for the lining. Insulating fleece between the layers helps keep your lunch warm or cool. We added Velcro® to seal it shut while still allowing for a quick open... gotta be able to get in when you're hungry! If you wanted to amp up the insulating properties, you could reconfigure the design to add a zipper. The wipe-clean PUL on the inside makes any spills easy to remove. And, extra long handle loops mean you can grab it and go or slip it over your arm, leaving your hands are free to grab a drink or tote your latest lunchtime reading material.

The biggest sewing category around the world is quilting. If you've been thinking about jumping on the bandwagon, we recently finished a five-part Quilting Basics Series and have included links to all the parts below. It's a great way to get started. Today during Janome Week, to show off the quilting features of Janome's sewing and quilting machines, we've chosen the Horizon Memory Craft 8900 QCP to create a beautiful bed runner: a decorative throw for the foot of your bed. It's lovely to look at, but can also be used to help protect a fancier full-size quilt or bedspread. You can sit on a bed runner or even stretch out and place your feet on it. Ours finishes at approximately 92" x 24" and is sized for a king or queen mattress. Our sample is shown on a king; there would simply be more drape down either side on a queen. We've done basic nine-patch blocks with each inner block made up of four pieced triangles. The clever mixing of the colors creates a three-dimensional effect within each of the inner blocks as well as in the finished nine-patch itself. Stitching in the ditch was used to quilt the center, while the inner and outer borders are done with stippling.