I’m a bit behind, but here’s my Novelty Cameo Brooch I made for the Silhouette America blog two weeks ago that was inspired by all of my novelty brooch loving friends!
There’s loads more information and photos on their blog.
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I had mentioned a few weeks back that I was working on other hexie projects that were almost finished. Well, here’s one of them!! It’s a pillow made completely from mini charm packs, specifically the Carolyn Friedlander Favorite’s mini charm packs I was given when I visited the Robert Kaufman booths at Quilt Market. It’s a mix of Carolyn’s newest line Botanics and a bunch of different solids by Robert Kaufman.
I was so excited to get a hold of these little things, and I seriously cut right into them the second I got home. Well, after I made custom paper hexagons specifically to fit these with little waste. I used my Silhouette Portrait to do that btw.
I documented the entire process on Instagram, so I’ll be sharing some of those photos too.
Making the hexies themselves took no time at all. There were 120 2.5″ squares total (3 mini charm packs worth) and I can do about 35-40 a night. The part that took me the longest was whipstitching them all together. There wasn’t too much rhyme or reason to where I placed everything, I did make sure to keep similar pieces as far apart as I could, but thats it.
I know some people stitch their hexies on the bottom and don’t go through the paper, but I found that doesnt work for me and my slightly uncoordinated hands. I work much cleaner and faster when i baste through the paper. You can see me taking out the basting stitches and papers above. I always use neon pink thread because it allows me to see every stitch so i don’t miss any before quilting.
The above photo was just taken for fun! This was right after taking all of the paper out and steam pressing the entire thing. Isn’t it pretty?
I seriously could not decide how I wanted this thing quilted. I’m really only good at straight lines and tracing around objects right now, so to make sure I secured all the hexies and still had a pretty design in the end I went with the above combination. I used the edge of the hexies and the edge of my basic walking foot to line up all of the lines. It went pretty fast this way and I absolutely love the texture it added.
I squared off the edges, quilted a simple back piece using Robert Kaufman’s Essex Yarn Dyed in Denim, added an invisible zipper and stitched the entire thing together…
Tada, I have a finished pillow! One that has already been taken by my four year old as her own. She even gave me a hug and said thank you for making it for her. Ok, I guess it’s hers now.
I’m waiting on an invisible zipper for my other hexie pillow I’ve been working on. This one actually IS for my daughters room. I’ll post photo’s of that project soon enough.
Who knows though, I might start working on a 5th and 6th hexie project too! I may be a little obsessed…
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It’s been almost 16 months since I started this quilt! I even wrote a blog post about it back in December of 2012! It’s the Modern Maples quilt pattern from Amanda of Hey Porkchop and can be found in the Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays book.
It’s the biggest quilt I’ve made to date, and I think that was a bit daunting. It was supposed to be a gift for my sister two Christmas holidays ago. I felt horrible that it wasn’t finished and finally took the plunge this past week to quilt it and bind it. Perfect timing too, because last week was my sisters birthday and I couldn’t think of anything to make her.
I seriously finished this thing AN HOUR before her birthday lunch. AN HOUR! So I apologize for the lack of awesome photos, I didn’t have time to plan them out. She loved it and put it on her bed right away. That’s always a good sign.
This was the first unfinished project that I finished as part of my time off from Art School Dropout! If this shows anything, I think I made the right decision.
”Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney
So this might be the hardest blog post I’ve written to date. I’ve been writing and rewriting it in my head for weeks, no, months. Always changing it, tweaking it so it sounds right. I figured in the end the best way was just to be blunt and say it in as few words as possible…
Starting June 15th, the Art School Dropout shop will be temporarily put on the back burner. At least in my head. I will not be creating new products and I will not be taking any new custom orders. The shop will be paired down to just Home Decor and Party Supplies (minus custom listings). All orders placed will be shipped out by my husband, not me, on Saturdays. From now until June 15th, all Accessories, Jewelry / Juxtapose Necklaces and Craft Supplies will be 40% off to help clear them out. Everything else will be 25% off just because. (discount will be applied in the cart, no coupon code needed) Shipping may be slow at first while we switch over, so please have some patience with us!
Now I will explain a bit about WHY I’m doing this…
For the past 6 months or so, my mind has been going a mile a minute with ideas and things I would like to create. It usually goes fast, but lately its just out of control. At times it was getting to be a bit overwhelming and was causing me to forget important things, mess up on orders and such. I have been writing all the ideas down in hopes that I will one day have the time to try them all out. Well, when I realized Art School Dropout was turning 11, something just clicked in my head. I love creating for the shop and I love seeing my goods out in the world, however I have been doing the same thing for 11 years. I love learning new processes and I feel like I could be improving my skills. I have more unfinished personal projects than I do finished. I am my own boss, I have the power to cut back on business related stuff and work on personal stuff for once…
So that’s what i’m going to do. This may be a temporary situation, it may be permanent. I’m not sure yet. It’s scary to walk away from something that you’ve put so much of your life into. Actually it was almost my entire 20′s. Most of my adult life. The fear is what’s making me hold on just a little, and with the help from my husband (who’s been offering for years and I just never took him up on it) I think I can start chiseling away at my “Things To Try” list.
In a nutshell, I want to see what I’m capable of when I’m not tied down to a brand.
In the coming months I will be prepping for BlytheCon. I am scheduled to learn how to quilt using a longarm machine (and be certified to rent one). I will finally finish all of those quilts I’ve been working on for years. I am signed up to properly learn Illustrator. After that I would like to learn more about customizing wordpress properly. I would like to finally write patterns for all of those quilts I made. I want to paint CT’s room. I’d like to finally decorate our bedroom and bathroom. I want to build some furniture… and so so so much more.
I plan on sharing all of it here on the blog. So I won’t be disappearing into the mist, but possibly instead I’ll be around MORE!
I feel like I forgot so much that I wanted to say, but I also feel like this is good! I know it will be good for me, and that really is all that matters, making myself and my family happy.
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Have you see the fake cuckoo clock I made out of paper for the Silhouette America Blog? If you haven’t, you should check it out!!
It’s made out of adhesive cardstock, foil sticker sheets, chipboard and a clock mechanism. I’m not a fan of paper glue, but I am a fan of easy, and this thing was so easy!
Apparently hand sewing hexagons has become a bit of an obsession with me. I love it, and it really calms me every night before bed. I know I haven’t shown more progress with my first EPP quilt and I probably look crazy for starting ANOTHER one, but trust me, it makes sense. Black, White & Gray fabrics are hard to come by and add on to that I’m super picky, so that quilt will be a long term project and will only progress when I buy more fabric.
In the meantime I started the project above. It’s a much smaller hexagon and enables me to use up the enormous amount of scraps I have accumulated over the years. Plus I can trade for more scraps because a lot of people hoard them too.
When I first started this project my plan was to just make a pillow, I nice 18″ square pillow. Though once I reached that size I just didn’t want to stop, plus I had a lot of hexies leftover. So I decided to keep going and make either a twin size quilt, or a 90″ square lap quilt. So just like the first hexie quilt, this will be a long term project and can only progress when I find more scraps or buy small amounts of fabric. Which I’m fine with.
The best part about the random nature of this quilt is any fabric goes. It can be super simple, super weird or just plain solid color. It all goes together!
I also love how I can be a little silly in where I place certain pieces too! I’ve been enjoying combining phrases with illustrations of people and animals. Like the examples above! I’ve been holding onto that “I’m With Stupid” fabric for many years and never knew what to do with it. I also have this awesome food truck fabric with a bunch of word bubbles that I use throughout.
I’ll need to make over 3,000 hexagons so I get loads of chances to mix this little easter eggs in.
Yet again though, since this is a long term project I still need to keep my hands busy while watching tv at night, which means there is a THIRD & FOURTH hexie project I will be sharing with you all soon. I just have to quilt them both, which means they are mostly DONE! (Yes, I am a crazy lady)
Have any of you started one of these projects because you saw my progress on here or on Instagram? If so, please share!!!
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