I think I did the smallest shop update ever today! I had these huge plans to have loads of new pouches, earrings and rings…
but all that ended up in the shop was one pouch, three rings and a few earrings. They all happen to be very brightly colored too, a nice theme.
More coming later next week!
Pin ItIn my last post I said I wanted to quilt, well I kinda got cold feet. Kinda. I wanted to test out all the new skills I’d been researching, but I was afraid of ruining hours of patch-working (is that a real word?).
So instead I made my first quilt using cheater quilt fabric. More accurately, my own cheater quilt fabric. I designed it last year for one of Spoonflower’s fabric contest. I had it printed up will the full intention of making some simple, no binding, blanket. But as usual, I never got around to it.
The quilt measures 36″x36″. So it’s only one yard of the Cheater fabric. I then used some of my Monsters on the Loose fabric for the back. I quilted around all the triangles, white thread on top, dark pink on the bottom. I used some purple Kona cotton I had lying around for the binding, along with a small patch of my purple Monsters on the Loose fabric for some variety and to test out how it would look.
I used Red Pepper Quilts machine binding tutorial. She made the whole process very easy and painless. I really wanted to do traditional binding where half is hand sewn, but sadly I have bad arthritis and it’s pretty much impossible. I love how the whole quilt came out, and I’m already planning my next one.
If your interested in making your own Cheater Quilt, you can find all the fabrics I mentioned here in my Spoonflower shop. The cheater quilt fabric above fits onto one yard of quilting weight cotton and comes in several color combos, including the rainbow one. You’ll also need some batting and fabric for the binding.
I’ve taken on a new hobby. I’m going to quilt!
I’ve always had a thing for quilting and patchwork books, but I was never sure I could actually pull it off myself. After making that potholder not too long ago, I realized it may actually be possible for me to quilt larger items. Maybe even an entire full sized quilt.
During my “winter vacation” I started practicing my sewing skills on different patterns. I now feel very comfortable making a texas star, a wonky cross, intersecting crosses and geometric 45 degree triangles.I may be wrong on the names, I get my information from the internets.
I made a few pillows, pouches and a runner. I kept a few for myself, but I plan on adding the rest to the shop. I’ll show pictures when the light is better.
I now feel comfortable enough to make an entire TWIN SIZED QUILT! yep, I said it, a real life quilt. The whole process is overwhelming me, but I really enjoy a challenge. I really enjoyed sewing the intersecting crosses pattern, so I thought that would be a good design for me to start out with.
CT just moved to a big girl bed, so of course my first quilt would be for her!
I absolutely love Lizzy House’s 1001 Peeps fabric collection. I ordered a fat quarter of the entire purple collection, 8 patterns total. I also ordered about 6 Kona solids to match too. I did a paper mock-up of the quilt, that way I could move the crosses around to get exactly the feel I want. I don’t know what fabric I’ll be using for the back yet or the binding, any thoughts?
I’m still waiting for the Kona solids to arrive, once their here I’ll start showing my progress!
Pin ItWere back on for the weekly Book-A-Holic Posts! The holidays set me back a bit, but I’m all ready to go again and have a list of things waiting to be made.
Today’s project is from a Martha Stewart book. oooooh, aaahhhh. It’s a fabric covered bulletin board from Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.
In the book she talks about covering an entire top half of a room with a bulletin board and frames the top and bottom in molding. That’s not something I have a huge use for. Maybe it would be neat in CT’s room one day? Maybe.
I just wanted a HUGE inspiration board, something that would cover an entire wall in my sewing room, a wall that really doesn’t have much use otherwise.
I looked at buying a commercial cork board, but the prices just weren’t for me.
The way that Martha Stewart says to do it only cost me $25! and I ended up with a 4ft tall by 6ft long board! Super Awesome.
If you would like to learn more, continue reading.
Pin ItI thought it would be better to split my recap into two separate posts. So it wasn’t too overwhelming, and I won’t feel as bad about posting more photos!
Here’s the rest of what I did during my winter vacation…
- I ended up sewing loads of pouches for my family. I found this great tutorial on Pinterest.
I had never sewn a lined pouch before, for some reason they always scared me. This tutorial made me feel very calm about it all, and I dived right in. I was even able to use supplies I had accumulated over the years, win win. I also used some scraps to make these skinny headbands for one of my cousins. I wish I had a photo to show, they came out so neat.
- I whipped up a wood-grain quilted pillow for my sister and brother-in-law.
- I bought more sewing books, so now I have more projects to add to my “to do” list.
- We finally visited our newest twin nephews, Jack and Drew.
- I caught a few colds and spent the rest of my vacation catching up on tv and hanging out with my family. It was pretty sweet. I might make this an annual thing.
Pin ItI am finally back from my unscheduled “winter vacation”!
I didn’t mean to take such a long break, but I won’t lie, it was really nice. sometimes I just want to hang around and do ALMOST nothing. I figured the shop was closed, so there was no need to be 100% attached to the computer.
So what DID I do the past 3 weeks? well, let me tell you.
- First things first, CT had a birthday!! She turned the big 2! I was a little behind, as usual, so we just had a few people over. It was nice and cute. CT got to play with some of her cousins and loved everything.
I found this awesome tutorial online for a rainbow cake. I knew from tasting others rainbow cakes that I didn’t want to go all out colorful, it always tastes too much like food coloring. So I did a pastel version!
It was super easy and fun to make. I plan on trying it out a few more times.
- I hardly had time to wind down from CT’s birthday. the decision had been made to do a mostly handmade holiday season. It would help financially, plus I could make things that were 100% custom for each person.
It was a great thought, until you think about finding time to buy/order supplies, finding all the tutorials/patterns, actually making everything while having a very energetic toddler running around. I have a large family! That means a lot of gifts.
My first plan was to make several of those yarn wreaths that you see all over the internet. I had almost all the supplies on hand, and figured I could make them at the kitchen table. Well… It didn’t quite go as planned. I ended up with a second degree burn on the entire tip of my pointer finger after making only 5 flowers! Hot glue is dangerous! I only took off a few days to give my poor finger a break. I then burned myself again while sticking flowers to one of the wreaths. It was another second degree burn, but this time my palm on the same hand. I took this as a sign to not make anymore wreaths.
In the end I finished ONE!!! I gave it to my mom.
- While looking for a new project to do for all the women in my family I became addicted to Pinterest! It’s awesome the kinds of things you can find on the internet, and a site like that can help you, sorta, organize it all.
I went a little “pin crazy”, but I’m glad I did, I found some really amazing tutorials to try out.
I’ll show them all later this week!
By the way, If you are also a Pinterest user and want to follow me, you can find my profile here. If you’ve never seen the site, you should go check it out!!
It’s good to be back and I’ll continue my recap soon…
