I have been trying to mix things up and have a theme for each shop update! This month’s theme was hand painted laser cut wood (with one or two exceptions)

I went through my old sketchbooks and picked several designs that I thought would make neat brooches. They are all based off my own taste, but I will be open to suggestions in the coming months.

I also went through some of my fabric designs and took out a few elements here and there as tests.

All in all I’m very proud of all the new pieces and love seeing them up in the shop.

Oh and I also threw in some new XL Wall Scissors to mix things up a bit! These are made from 1/4″ MDF with Designer Fabric fused to the surface before laser cutting. They are a great addition to any sewing room (or any space really).

You can find all of these pieces plus more in the shop!

I am now a quilting contributor on the Sizzix blog!!! How awesome is that? This here is my first official post with them and I’m super excited to start sharing all of my projects on their blog and here on my own.

Ok, enough about all that, let’s talk about these trivets…

I made the above two trivets as part of the Spring Fling Blog Hop. We were asked to pick out a flower die and make something awesome with it. I chose the Sizzix Bigz Die Flower, Daisy #5 for the simplicity of the design and the options it gave me. I could go super crazy with patterns or very basic with solids.

I seriously struggled with which one to try out first, so I just did both.

The design itself measures 4.75″ square, (which means it’s very charm pack friendly). I knew I wanted to go with this particular layout right away, so to start I cut out a 10″ square from each of my fabrics to use as the background, and set them aside.

I then cut out two 10″ squares of Wonder Under Lite and adhered one to the wrong side of the patterned fabric and one to the solid using a dry iron (don’t turn the steam function on, otherwise you will get ripples). After they cooled down I cut around the interfacing and then cut the 10″ squares into four 5″ squares. This made them the perfect size to lay right on top of the die, with a little wiggle room. Fun Fact: I always wait to cut my fabric after adhering the Wonder Under so I don’t have to worry about centering, shrinkage or accidentally adhering it to my ironing board. It’s less work and stress in the long run.

To get a clean cut, I layered two squares at a time and ran them through my Fabi. The design can be flipped easily, so I didn’t worry about fabric direction or which side of the fabric was facing up. If you have fabric with words, or directional prints, keep track of which piece is going which way.

Once all of the pieces were cut, I took the 10″ square backgrounds and the flower pieces over to my ironing board. I placed each flowers corner exactly on the corners of the background pieces and ironed them in place. I made sure the leaves were the same distance from the side and everything was straight all around. Things can shift a little when there are thinner pieces like those stems.

I decided against stitching around the appliques before quilting the entire thing, because I thought it would be neat to use the outline of the flowers as the quilting itself!

I knew these would actually be used as trivets (unlike most of my projects that hang around looking pretty) so I wanted to make them the right way. I used Insul-Bright Insulated Lining to help protect whatever surface would be under these trivets from heat damage. Then I went the extra mile and added a second layer of cotton batting on top. I sandwiched both of those in between my prepped background piece and my backing fabric and basted them all together.

Like I said above, I wanted the flower design to be my actual quilting design. So I straight stitched around all of the flowers using coordinating thread. These are pretty thick because of the extra batting, so if you attempt this project, make sure to use a walking foot!

I absolutely love this process, because it leaves the neatest design on the back! Plus its a total time saver because you are combining the applique and the quilting in to one step.

Once I finished quilting both trivets, I attached the binding and hand stitched it to the back. Again, because of how thick these are, I seriously suggest hand sewing the binding on. I feel like you have more control this way.

Ta-Da! They are finished!

I didn’t realize when picking out my fabrics just how well they match my Pyrex collection. I really wish I had taken some shots of them together. Maybe another time?

Fabrics Used:

• Grid Fabric and Binding – both are from the Doe collection by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman
• Solid Fabric – Kona Cotton in Curry by Robert Kaufman
• Background Fabric – leftover bits I had of Widescreen 108″ in Grey by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman

I hope you enjoyed my first project with Sizzix! You should also check out all of the other amazing projects made as part of this blog hop:

Monday, April 6th – Jamie Fingal
Tuesday, April 7th – Nicole Daksiewicz
Wednesday, April 8th – Leslie Tucker Jenison
Thursday, April 9th – Cindy Cooksey
Friday, April 10th – Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Saturday, April 11th – Sue Bleiweiss
Monday, April 13th – Karin Jordan

So if you’re looking for a quick gift or decoration, then go check out the post,! (Theres way more photos too!)

Also, if you are already a Silhouette user, then make sure to check out the Silhouette Design Team Blog Hop Giveaways! Theres just one more day left to enter.

I have been working a lot more than normal lately and we haven’t really done much this summer due to colds and other illnesses. My husband, JC, thought we needed to do SOMETHING! So he used some hotel rewards points he had and booked us a hotel about a half hour outside Washington DC at no cost. It was only 30 mins away from our house, but it had an indoor pool, lots of neat restaurants close by and IT WASNT HOME! We spent the first day there kinda wandering around the local mall, eating good food and relaxing! For me relaxing meant reading the new Martha Stewart’s Living and sketching and for JC and CT it meant swimming. It was nice.

The second day away we spent at the National Zoo in Washington DC. One of my favorite places! It was supposed to rain, but apparently we had some luck for once and it was just a bit overcast. It WAS super humid, even though it was only 75*F out! My lungs hated it, but I pushed myself to keep walking. It was also CT’s first time visiting the zoo, I wanted to make sure she saw as much as possible.

Oh and of course I took a load of photos, so prepare yourselves, there are a bunch…

I treat my trips to the zoo like photography challenges. It probably has something to do with the yearly field trips my photo class took to the zoo in high school (and the few times I chaperoned my siblings trips later on) We were let loose on the zoo for an entire day and told to take photos certain ways of certain subjects. I loved it! One of the nice perks of living near a big city growing up. We also did Baltimore trips, but nothing beat the zoo!

My personal challenge this time was to only use my 75-300mm Lens and the largest aperture my camera would let me. Nothing else. Its obviously not a hard challenge, but I still like the limits. This did mean that whenever I wanted to take a picture of something close by, I had to back up really far and look like a fool. The photos came out with such a nice depth of field that I don’t care!

(This ragged looking little bird wasn’t part of any exhibit, he was just wandering around. I just wanted to share a photo of him because he was so friendly and came right up to me!)

Anyway, back to our trip…

The zoo ended up being a huge hit with CT. Though her favorite part ended up being an orangutan who would throw up on the glass and eat it again. She’s STILL talking about that! I’m so happy we finally went. It’s hard to justify not going when we live so damn close to the city. I’m going to make it a personal goal to visit DC more often. We even live down the street from  MARC train stop that goes into the city every weekday!!! No excuses.

The rest of our time away was spent wandering IKEA and thrift stores. I ended up with some Blythe furniture from IKEA and a sweet Pyrex bowl from the thrift store. CT found a huge wooden modern dollhouse for $10!! SCORE!

I’m so happy we were able to do this and its made me a little more excited, and less nervous, for our NYC trip coming up in October. I’m going for BlytheCon, my family is just going for fun. Any of you guys going too?

This months crafternoon was all about Easter. There were adorable Easter decorations everywhere, plus awesome awesome colorful sweets to eat. If you need a visual, Heidi did a post about it yesterday with some great photos! The craft this time around was dying Easter eggs, something I haven’t done in years! I didn’t know we were supposed to bring eggs (absent minded, again!) so I “borrowed” some of Katie’s home grown eggs!! (thank you again Katie!) They were sooo small and cute! Plus they were all different natural colors. I felt they needed to be super simple and modern for some then layering the different tones. I loved the way they came out! I now feel like this might be the year we start dying eggs at home too, I think CT would love it.

The past couple of crafternoon’s there has been a white elephant gift exchange, which has been super awesome! We can bring anything handmade, thrifted or just bought that is around $10. I usually leave with something food related, and have been happy every time. Plus I get to make something that is for an unknown recipient, I really like that. It forces me to think outside my normal making box.

This time around Heidi tried something different. Instead of the normal gift, we were to bring Easter baskets filled with whatever we wanted. I actually struggled with this a bit at first, apparently I thrive on limits and rules when it comes to blind gift giving, but in the end I decided to do mostly handmade items.

I didn’t do a traditional basket, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to fill it. So instead I did a little bucket. I added some candy, a cast plastic brooch, hairpin, and a ring. I also made a little clay Pyrex brooch (please don’t mind the painting, I haven’t even held a teeny paint brush in almost 8 years) and a set of Pyrex themed pot holders. I hoped the handmade nature of it all would make up the baskets lack of size! Ha.

The recipient who ended up with my “basket” really seemed to like it, which always makes me happy! The basket I got was also really sweet! It contained a bunch of candy (that CT has been getting at), adorable egg ornaments, a little wooden puzzle, sunflower growing kit and some Biggs and Featherbelle soap (which was the main factor in my choosing that particular basket, I LOVE their products!). I seriously made out in this deal.

As always I really enjoyed my day and can’t wait for the next one! I’m already thinking of what I’ll bake and what I might make as my gift. Thank you again everywhere, especially Heidi!

I have been searching for a very long time for these pieces with no luck. It wasn’t until Molly brought some of the matching mugs to last months crafternoon, and told me what they were called!! I seriously got right on eBay the second I left the party, and ordered me some. Oh and for anyone else searching for these, their by Re-Ment and are part of their American kitchen series! (they also have adorable mugs that look like milk glass)

I am over the moon about them. Oh and if you look at the photos you can see one of the pieces matches a piece I already own (which was actually a gift from Molly too!).

I haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to display them, their so damn tiny! I do have a miniature hutch I picked up a few months back, maybe that would work? Maybe I can frame one of these photos for my kitchen? that way the whole pyrex collection is together?

I may be over thinking this…

From top left…

• a doctor who pouch for my friend Molly
• a Pyrex inspired pouch for my friend Tasha
• the Modern Maples quilt I mentioned earlier this week for my sister Ashley
• a hedgehog pillow for my sister Cori (using the paper piecing pattern I found here. Oh and this was my first time trying paper piecing! I’m in love!)
• a pillow for my grandmother using the Modern Maples blocks.
• a hedgehog pouch for my sister Cori (as you can see, she loves hedgehogs, she even has one)
• two Tangled inspired dresses for nieces.

I actually made a few other things too, but they haven’t been gifted yet.

It was all a lot of fun to make, but I am beyond exhausted. New rule: Start sewing gifts in the summer!!!!!

To get me out of the house, my husband has been suggesting more and more treasure hunting trips. Antique malls, flea markets, and thrift stores. Any place where we can walk and look at neat stuff. Well, apparently it’s a great time to do this, because I have found A LOT! So be prepared for a long post…

I have been on the lookout for some neat holiday decorations for a long time. I even had my entire family looking this year. None of us had any luck until last week! I found two blow mold pieces at a local shop, the snowman and the Santa in the above left photo. Then this past Saturday I found the little Santa plus the really large candle and what I think is a gnome. That gnome is the same size as CT. ha. I really love these types of decorations for the same reason as I love Mold-A-Ramas, the process behind how they are made is so neat and the colors are always so vibrant.

I also found a, new in package, plastic Santa garland. There’s 10 feet worth of Santa’s that spell out MERRY CHRISTMAS. How cute is that? All the pieces were still there and the Santa’s were in really good condition. I’m planning on assembling them tonight and hanging them tomorrow. I’ll post photos once their up.

I found the above wicker lamp at the ReStore. I walked past it a few times, I really wanted it but had no idea where I would put it. By the third time walking past I figured it out, it can go in my soon to be new sewing room! (The previous room got hid hard by Hurricane Sandy. and is the middle of being repaired, so I’m taking over another room permanently). I also found the glass ship in a bottle at ReStore, I just liked the way it looked.

The dad mug was found this past weekend at a thrift shop near my hometown. It’s milk glass, and I think it’s super funny. I like to think that illustration was done to look like someones actual dad.

Fun Fact: I can’t crochet (or knit), and it upsets me that I can’t. I have been wanting a granny square afghan for years, I tried to make one, but that did not go well. I asked my sisters to make one, but that also didn’t happen. So I started looking for them at thrift stores, but apparently everyone had the same idea as me. Finally this past weekend I found the mother load. An entire aisle of afghans!! I didn’t just stumble on one that MIGHT be the right colors, I stumbled on a bunch of choices. I picked out the above one b/c I liked the colors and the zig zag edges. It’s in great condition too! I’m thinking of placing it on the back of our living room couch. That room could use more color. HA!

No thrifting post from me is complete without some Disney and Pyrex. Well here is the Disney! I found that Disneyland cookie jar a few months back at an Antique Mall for $35, I really liked it, but didn’t want to spend that much. So I left it behind. Well last week I found another one, the one above, for $3! So of course I bought it. It has a small crack on the back that has been repaired, but I’m fine with that. The Minnie and Goofy mugs were the same story. I saw them super expensive at an Antique Mall, but then found them for less than a dollar a piece this past weekend. I just wish I could have found Mickey too.

… and here’s the Pyrex! I have been finding a lot of pieces for amazing prices lately. I haven’t been buying it all because it’s the holiday season and I need to spend at least some of my money on gifts. I was really excited to find the two gravy boats above. I have a bunch of pieces in both patterns, so if I feel like being super silly and matching everything, I can. The little red Pyrex was only $1 and I figured I could find a use for it, maybe for makeup? The best find out of the first photo is that deep pink colored casserole!! It’s so pretty. I don’t think I could use it, but I did find a place to display it in my kitchen.

The best find of all though are these Pyrex plates. Their all in perfect condition and really pretty. I found three sets of 24, plus a pile of desert plates. I only bought the plates and one set of 24. I don’t think I could have found a place to put them all, or enough people willing to trade for them. I had a hard time justifying the ones I did buy. I’m wondering if they came from some restaurant or diner? I know they come in other colors too, because I have some of the tea cups in blue. Anyone know if there are any other colors besides the two?

So those were all the finds I could get pictures of. We also found a complete Playmobil pirate set for super cheap, a littlest pet shop house, a kids Ikea table and chair set in perfect condition, another holly leaf Corelle platter, a few Hallmark ornaments, a bunch of Little Golden books, an awesome Strawberry Shortcake book, some Muppet Baby books and a Fraggle book. I don’t just buy stuff for me when we go out. I think CT makes out the best.

I have a pretty busy weekend coming up. I have a Pie Party to go to Saturday and then CT’s 3rd Birthday party is the next day. I also still have loads of sewing to do. So I don’t think I’ll be thrifting for awhile, but who knows.

Oh and a side note, it felt good to write this post, so I think I’ll be back to my normal blogging schedule soon.

Well, this past weekend my husband thought it would be a nice to go treasure hunting again. We didn’t have too much time to go all over the place, plus CT has been very curious and has to touch EVERYTHING, not a good thing when their glass everywhere. Even with those limitations we still found some neat things…

The two pieces of Pyrex in the middle weren’t from this weekends trip. The bread loaf dish on top my mom found and gave to me and the casserole on the bottom I found for $1 during a quick pop in at a Goodwill, a week or so ago. I try not to buy pieces that are similar to ones I already have, but it was $1 and it’s a good size to use for Thanksgiving (which I’m having at my house for JC’s family).

The blue and yellow mini casseroles were an awesome find! I have been wanting the 8oz size for awhile now and was so happy to find them. Apparently friends of mine had seen them too, but left them behind! Thank you friends! Ha.

The Pez are for CT’s collection. She didn’t have the weird blog monster in middle, which she has named the “milk man”, so I picked them up for her.

Another awesome find, from the same shop as the mini Pyrex, was this Disney themed metal dollhouse! It was 50% off! This thing combines two of my favorite things to collect, Houses and Disney! I already have a metal dollhouse in my library, but I think I like this one better, so I may be switching them out.

These awesome holiday themed Corelle plates were the last of my finds. Like, they were actually the last thing I found before checking out. I was super excited because they mostly complete my set. The woman in line in front of me was also excited and tried to convince me NOT to get them! Ha. Who does that?!? Apparently I’m not the only one trying to complete a set.

So now that I have these holiday plates, I guess that means I have to actually use them? Maybe I’ll do a family dinner or something. Maybe.

I have plans to go out again this weekend. I’m on the lookout for some specific types of holiday decorations, I’m in winter decorating mode. Is it to early?

I was able to sneak two quick thrift stops over the past month and did find a few neat things…

I found an awesome, single drawer, metal card catalog case at a new shop two weeks ago. Other than some paint chipping here and there, it’s in awesome condition. No rust! I have a few double drawer models that I use to store random stuff, mostly tape. I plan on using this one in the kitchen to hold random little things. I figured it would add a little industrial feel to my kitchen (which really doesn’t have much personality of its own). I love card catalogs, wooden, plastic or metal. Something about the little drawers all lined up in a row is so neat to me. One day I hope to own a huge, multi drawer unit. One day, maybe when the craze dies down.

I also found a few milk glass McDonalds mugs (we had four, but JC gave away one, and I lost the other). I would have found more, plus a Stuckey’s mug but the lady standing next to me at the shop snagged them all. She was super nice though and told me about her collection at home and how she goes to all the local shops looking for glasbake and pyrex pieces. Basically, I have competition. Ha.

On another trip I found the six pyrex bowls. I already have six similar shaped bowls in a different pattern that we use all the time. So i was super excited to find these! Now I’m on the hunt for matching plates and tea cups.

CT really loves the thrift shops just as much as we do now. She knows the layout of each one and knows where to look for the cool things. On one of our trips she picked out the globe pictured above. She loves mine, and apparently wanted one of her own. She told me she was going to keep it in her bedroom, right on her dresser. So thats exactly where I put it, and it’s exactly where it has stayed! She’s very gentle with it.

Our local goodwill apparently got a lot of Borders stock when they closed, because we have been finding piles of brand new, never been used books for $1 a piece! CT’s Dr. Seuss collection has grown very fast, and so has my craft book collection. I would show a picture, but there is just too many.

I’m really hoping things will calm down soon, because I really do miss “treasure hunting” at the thrift and antique stores.