Soft Hexie Ball

 When I saw this tutorial, I knew my nieces and nephew needed some! It was such a fun and easy project. I think the part that took the longest was choosing which cute fabrics to use!

 I love english paper piecing, so when I saw this tutorial from While She Naps I knew I had to give it a try! The ball goes together very nicely, I followed the directions pretty closely. The only thing I changed was instead of using a rattle, I just picked up giant jingle bells from the craft store. It gives it the cutest little jingle noise!

This first one was for my nephew and he loves it! I made sure to stuff it soft so there was enough give so he could grab it.

Can't wait to make more for my nieces!

Amazingly Quick Quilt

 Combine a wonderful book and clearance fabric already pre-cut into blocks, add a Mom visiting for the weekend and you will have a wonderful quilt in four days! This was my first dip into Modern Quilting and I am in love...



My biggest worry about machine quilting was that I would get bunches of wrinkles and tucks and spend more time ripping out stitches than sewing. I would rather pick pills off all my sweaters before ripping stitches out of an entire quilt. So I ironed the pieced top three times, I should note as I sewed the top together in strips I ironed it so all the seams lay in one direction. I also ironed the batting and the backing, to keep it smooth!

Unfortunately or maybe it was fortune, I made this quilt during a snowstorm which meant the light in the house was just terrible for picture taking. I had to wait two days until the storm was over so I could drag my blankie around the great outdoors for a photo shoot.

Incidently I think the yellow was a great choice of color to work with during a dark and cold winter week. I just love the backing of the quilt, don't you? All the ironing did pay off, as well as a lot of pins to hold it together, although I would recommend safety pins as my hands were really scratched up and bleeding my the time I was done.

My great idea to hang the quilt from the tree branch didn't work so well as the wind kept blowing it down. I was trying to capture the look of how I placed the blocks so the gray faded into yellow on a diagonal. When I started quilting, I chose a block in the middle and sewed out from there, that way any wrinkles that came up, I could hopefully smooth them out. As far as I know, there weren't any major wrinkles, but I haven't wanted to look at the back too closely.

Into the wash it went after that ordeal, my fingers were completely numb and my face was aching from the below zero wind chill. Oh what we do for a good quilt...

 

 

Crazy Cat Placemats

Sometimes fabric just jumps out at you to be taken home, even if you don't know what you are going make. When I saw this bundle of hilarious kitty prints, I knew I needed to make something for my aunt, uncle and their family of cats.

It was also a nice small project to try out modern quilting as I was inspired by the book "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cherly Arkinson.

I love the color saturations she uses and the very geometric shapes, also the concept that the quilt is not made up of little blocks, its more like they are pieces of a big painting. When you quilt with this thought in mind, I think you are more able to study the fabric and work With it rather then snip it up and turn it into something different.

After feeling the inspiration build for a few weeks, I began playing with fabric and folding it into shapes that fit together, sewing as I went. I chose one fabric that I wanted as the focal point for each placemat and went from there. Yes, I did tear out some as I went but thats ok.

It didn't take long to have a placemat! I made four in all and trimmed them up to be the same size...relatively. When I put the batting and backing together with the top I then decided to be even more daring and learn about machine quilting. I am very hands on, so instead of reading up about dropping your feed-dog or adjusting the tension, I just started sewing. Since this was a small project it turned out great. I did learn later on a big quilt that it helps to make some adjustments.

Instead of adding a seperate binding, my sister suggested I simply fold the backing up and around the top of the quilt. It was a good idea since a placemat will be washed a dried a lot more than a quilt and less pieces to come apart.

Ready for dinner to be served... Fun idea, if you make some placemats you can stitch a pocket on one side to the silverware in. I like how each placemat turned out differently but they all go well together.

Pineapple Tablecloth

 

We can't talk Pineapples without Carmen Miranda!

 

I often need a little a tropical flair to my day, especially in the dead of winter and I fell in love with this fabric at Neff's Country Loft.I didn't know what I was going make out of it so when all else fails....

 

 

A Tablecloth! I had a great time using a fancy stitch to simply hem this wonderful material. While I eat or craft or whatever I can stare at the beautiful fabric and envision something greater. All I did to the fabric was hem it, if I think of anything better to make, I can simply snatch the material off the table and start sewing!

 

The ivory and yellow shades really compliment my cherry dining chairs, I suspect this will remain a table cloth for a long time.

Check it out: Neff's Country Loft

...Happily Ever After

These are Evelyn's shoes that were made just for her, fit for a princess! Here is a picture of her all spruced up and fresh out of the box. The doll doctor told me all about Evelyn, she is a 1930's American made composition doll. Since she was that old her paint contained lead so she was coated by the doctor to seal that in.

 

Some info from the doctor-

 "During WWI, German goods were embargoed to the U.S. Most dolls were made in Germany. British and American manufacturers scrambled to come up with substitutes. Composition had been used for doll bodies for a long time, but very few whole dolls were made of compo. This started during that time. Usually head and hands were composition, and the body was cloth. This was the start of the American doll manufacturing industry. After the war, bisque-head German dolls were available once again, and were popular through the twenties, but American-made composition dolls were cheaper and less breakable, and mothers liked that."

 

 

Evelyn's box stuffed with good things...

 

 

 Two new dresses for the dolly plus the pattern so I can make more!

 

 

 

What a sweet face, can you blame me for falling in love?

 

Once Upon A Time...

This is Evelyn,

We met on a musty old porch at an estate sale and my inner child prompted me to pick her up and cradle her in my arms and have a tea party with her. But the adult on the outside looked at her skeptically for she was severely cracked and looked ready to crumble.

I wandered through the rest of the house, picking up a few old records, dishes and books, but it was too late. I had fallen in love and I could almost hear Celine Dion..."near far, wherever you are..."

I had a panic moment that someone else had found my treasure and stolen her away as I rushed back to the little porch. There she was waiting and I did pick her up and cradle her in my arms but held back from kissing her.

As you can see from the before pictures, she was a pretty sad little creature. But I found a fantastic doll doctor and little Evelyn came back to me better than new with a diaper, shoes, new clothes and all kinds of goodies.

Watch for Part 2 of the Evelyn Story

 

 Check out this lady's ebay store!

http://myworld.ebay.com/dollilou

Kate's Quilt

I found these fabrics bundles on clearance, already matched up and ready to be a quilt. I love clearance shopping don't you? The brightness and contrasts immediately brought to mind my sister-in-law Kate, and what a good time to make her a quilt as she graduates this year.

My sister came for the weekend and helped me cut and piece the whole thing, because I have found that you need to piece a quilt all together in a few days. That way you don't lose motivation and also when the quilt pieces are put away and then brought back out, they just don't go together the same way again. Don't ask me how that works, I just know now that you have to do it ASAP!

So thanks to my sister, another sister can be warm and happy this winter! We stayed up into the wee small hours getting it finished, but it was worth it.

The pattern was a little difficult with some odd shaped pieces, its always nice to have a patient sister on hand. The pattern was from Better Homes and Garden's American Patchwork & Quilting, February 2008 issue #90 Windy By the Lake.

I love the texture of a quilt when its hand-quilted and then washed & dried. It gets little "rumply" as Mom says. 

And don't you love the fun paisley backing I chose? I think  a quilt is nice when you can reverse it for a comforter as well.

 

Here's a link to a great website that has a tool where you can look up quilt stores as you travel. It's how I discovered Neff's Country Loft in Ohio.

 

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/

That's So Corny!

What could be better than a few ears of lovely corn to start your autumn decoration? Scatter them on the table for your Thanksgiving feast or hang them in a group on your door, here they look so comfortable in my basket by the door. The best part is that they won't get old and moldy.

  It started when I saw a few cloth ears of corn at the local craft store. They were made out of different patterns of fabric but I liked this upholstry fabric that was just the right texture, only it was brown and tan. I lightly brushed yellow acrylic paint on the fabric, I didn't care if it was blotchy in places, going for a very organic look.
 

In keeping with the organic style, and also very easy, I didn't use any kind of pattern for the corn, each and every ear that grows is different anyway. I just cut each piece freehand and machine sewed as I went along, leaving the top open for turning and stuffing. I did use a stronger waxed thread, mostly because I wanted to use it up and also it was a little heavier for the fabric.

Leftover quilt batting was cut into strips for the stuffing, it was a great way to use up those pieces trimmed from the edges of quilts. I turned the top edge to the inside and did a quick running stitch to close it up, it left a small hole, perfect for inserting the raffia for the top.

 After wrapping the raffia in loops around my four fingers, I stuffed one end in the corn top, then I poked my needled through the raffia, securing it to the fabric on the other side. I went back and forth with the needle through the raffia about eight times so it wouldn't pull out.

Then I clipped the top of the raffia so it would feather out, and crunched it in my hands to create a texture.

 

 

Ready for a feast!

Partridge Pillowcase

We do have a mania for old sitcoms and for a while it was The Partridge Family. When I saw the crazy daisy fabric, I instantly thought of Shirley Jones and her gang. It took me a long time to decide what to make out of this fabric, but I decided if I loved it and just wanted to stare at it, a pillowcase would be useful and accomplish that idea.

I had to sew the pink edge on three or four times before I figured out how to get it on with no raw edge to unravel and create a mass of strings after washing. I finally decided to fold the edge under on the wrong side. Now I just need to make my husband a matching one with a blue edge. How could he not wake up in love?

Embroidery Successful!

Embroidery is such a beautiful and elegant way to dress up a simple towel, pillowcase, shirt etc. I have long admired the texture and simplicity of it but only recently have I successfully mastered the art of embroidering. Believe me, many sorrowful projects have been discarded on this road to success. It seemed like every weekend this summer there was a wedding or a shower taking place, I whipped up a stack of these flour sack towels for gifts and enjoyed every minute of it!

 I was always told that a truly good piece of embroidery had a neat and tidy back. I am proud to show that mine is relatively neat. I used the Basic Outline Stitch on all these, on the radishes/turnips I did some longer satin-type stitches. It's really pretty simple once you get the hang of the stitch and you can easily take it out and do it again if a certain stitch doesn't look right. And of course vegetables are always a good theme for a kitchen!

I think I need to make myself some, don't they just match my table-cloth perfectly?

Yo-Yo With A Twist!

A few months ago I was inspired by a craft article on yo-yo's, circles of fabric traditionally made from scraps of cotton and used to embellish and decorate. They were often sewn together as a blanket or pillow cover. I made a few for fun and then got the brain wave to use silk scraps, the colors are brilliant and fabric is wonderful to work with...take a look...

 I used the cork coaster from my coffee table as a pattern. It was handy and turned out to be the perfect size, about 4 1/2 inches across. Fold about 3/4 of an inch over and put in a running stitch.

When you have come full circle, gently pull the thread as tight as you can and knot it off, but don't cut.

*A traditional yo-yo would not have the center or "eye".

The silk is heavier and that is as small as I can gather it together. So I came up with the idea of sewing a 2 inch circle on top, folding the raw edge under as I go.  Don't worry about it looking perfect, they are handmade and are all unique.

 Just be careful...they will take over...

Now the question is, what to make out of them, any suggestions?