Giving back

This past week I worked on sewing projects for three different organizations. Beads of courage, Heads at ease and a local Hospice.

Beads of Courage is a national program that is also expanding to other countries. It is a program that gives support and strength to children with a serious illness. Each bead they receive represents a milestone in their treatment. Beads of courage bags are given to each participant to store their beads in. If you would like to help sew bags, check out their website www.beadsofcourage.org or check with your local quilt shop.

Here is what it looks like closed

The next project was a pillowcase for an organization called Heads at ease. This program was started by a Navy mom who was sending her deployed son and his friends a hug from home in the form of a pillow case. This is a great way to support are military troops. For more information, here is the website www.headsatease.net  . I made my pillow case using some fabric I picked up while I was visiting the great city of Seattle. 

My last project this week is for a local Hospice House called Peppi's House. It's a home-like inpatient hospice facility. Each patient gets a quilt to help them feel more comfortable and more at home. Check with your local quilt shop or hospice house in your area for more information on donating a quilt. I used bright cheery colors in this quilt.

It's been a busy and rewarding week! That's it for this post. Have a great day!

Western pincushions! Yee haw!

Every year I go to a sewing camp held by the Quilters Market at the famous Tanque Verde Ranch here in Tucson, Az. I enjoy presenting our camp counselors with a new pincushion every year. This year I decided to use wool in my project. I wanted it to be a memento of camp this year and used some icons typical to the southwest and ranch living. I also added some decorative stitching and made a crazy quilt layout on the pincushions.

 



Since I was making two, I changed the second one up just a little bit by adding a flower instead of the horseshoe.

I filled them with crushed walnut shells that I bought from the local pet store. I love the added weight it gives them and the texture from the walnut shells help keep needles clean. I am currently working on another wool pincushion, I will post that as soon as I am done with it. But if you haven't figured me out yet, I like to work on multiple projects at once so in time it will be done. Have a great day!!

A resting spot

Hi all!!

I saw these neat phone / tablet holders on Pinterest. Ooooo I want one!! So I looked into purchasing one and after seeing the price I thought "I can make that!". So I scoured the internet for a pattern and after seeing how much that cost I thought hmmmm "do I really want to spend that much on a pattern". I'm sure we have all been there. After more searching I found a free pattern. Yay!! I got to work on it right away. I wanted to use it with my phone, but it came out much bigger than I thought it would. It works great with my mini iPad though.

I'm not crazy about the large pillow in front but you can still view the screen just fine. Back to the drawing board. This time I measured my phone and figured out how big I wanted my phone stand to be and came of with this version.

Much better huh?! I also filled it with crushed walnut shells and a bit of polyester stuffing to keep the shape of the point. I do like this version much better, in fact, I have had a few request for some, so I will whip up a few more. That's it for today. Have a happy day!

It's Halloween!

Disney has declared it Halloween season with the start of their Mickey's scary Halloween parties. Sooo... I thought it would be fun to make some Halloween themed pillow cases! My Daughter is currently in the Disney College Program Internship and is working at the Magic Kingdom. She absolutely loves it! I made these for her and her friends. I'm sending them now so they can enjoy them before Halloween is over. Hmmmm Christmas pillow cases next?

Making these pillow cases were actually quite easy. Just google "pillow case pattern" and you will get many to choose from. There are also handy videos also if you are more of a visual person like me. Here are some pictures of the ones I made.

 

I love the orange and black fabric, here is a closer look of the detail...

See the skull and cross bones? It's neat how they put those in there. I have to honestly tell you I did not notice it when I bought it.  The next picture is of some cute ones that I think are so fun!

I have been working on a few other projects so I well post those when I get further along on them. In the meantime, have a great day!

Grin and "bear" it

Okay okay I couldn't resist! My daughter wanted me to create a bear pattern for her. I searched through all of my patterns and couldn't come up with anything close to what she had in mind, so I had her draw up the initial bear shape she wanted and I did the rest. This is the second version, the first prototype was disassembled for pattern modifications. I used wool in this version, the ears and tail were glued on. The eyes are French knots and the nose is a satin stitch.

 

Side view of bear

Looking head on

The bear is only about 3 inches by 4 inches. Hope you like it! 

Finished!

Hi all! Hope your having a good day. We have reached 100 degrees in our temperatures so the days of hot steering wheels are here. Over the weekend I was able to FINALLY get the binding sewn on. I have been putting this off for quite sometime. Only because I was not sure on what color I wanted to use. I think it turned out quite nice!

And here is the back, looks a bit like sherbert ice cream to me, which would be perfect for a hot day!

Here is a close up of the quilting. I have to say I didn't do the quilting. A wonderful  quilter named Linda Powell did it for me. I love the flower pattern she used. Makes it perfect for a little girl.

 

The pattern I used for this quilt is called Yellow Brick road by Atkinson Designs. It uses fat quarters and stitches up pretty fast.

This finished quilt is on it's way to its new home. Until next time, eat some ice cream!

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day here in the U.S. Wishing everyone who nurtures a child, friend, pet etc.. A happy day. I received a new charm for my bracelet and a wonderful 3D laser art piece. My daughter Amber cut it with the laser machine and little sis Ashley helped assemble it. I took some pictures, but they no where do it justice as seeing it in real life.

Amazing isn't it?? See below for some close ups.

 

The view below shows how it was assembled in layers, 13 layers in all.

For my friend Renee, Mom and MIL I made some cards with stamps from "Stamps of life". The design came from a fellow stamp club member from the Stamps of life Gallery. 

Until next time, have a great day and keep sewing!!

Pins pins pins

Hi all! 

Hope you had a great weekend! My daughter has been making polymer clay dragons so I thought I would give it try and made up some cute pins. I have seen pins like this on different web sites and have even purchased a few for myself with the old adage of "I can make this!". But of course that usually does not happen, can you relate? Well I impressed myself and made up a few. They were actually quite easy to make. So here are my creations....

They turned out quite cute if I say so myself! There are many tutorials on the web and you can find the clay at a local craft store. I used a brand called sculpty (follow baking instructions on package) and then I put a shiny gloss glaze on it when done. Until next time! Keep sewing!

Hey there!

Hello!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter Weekend! I enjoyed the day with my family. I wanted to get my girls a plush Easter bunny, but I couldn't find just the right one. So I decided to whip up two bunnies. This is what I came up with.

I thought they turned out quite well! The pink one is fleece with an appliqué print and the brown one is minkee. Sewing on minkee can be tricky as it slips very easily. So make sure to use plenty of pins!  I also finished up the last of my four owls. I know, finally!  It has been sitting around unstuffed for-Ev-VER! But I'm glad it's finally done. 

This owl will soon be flying off to its new home. They were fun to make just hard to finish! Hahaha. If you know me I can't work on one thing at a time. Right now I'm focusing on my wool project from Sue Spargo, a Judy Neimeyer quilt called Pricky pear that isn't published yet, a mohair jointed bear and another wool block of the month from the Quilt Basket that it designed and taught by Cathy Skow. I'll post my status on these projects later. Have a good day! And keep sewing!

More pincushions!

Hi there! Here are a few more pics of some pincushions I made. I attend a quilt camp every year that is hosted by Quilters Market at the Tanque Verde Ranch,  and I always make Lynda and Bonnie a pincushion. I made this cow (trying to keep with a western theme) but was not too enthralled with it. So I opted to finish up my owls (from ages ago remember?). Anyway, they loved them and the cow as well so they all got new homes, yay!!

My previous project I posted is coming along. I'll update soon. Have great day!

Finishing unfinished

I can't even tell you when I started this! I came across this unfinished project when I was looking for something else. I'm going to tackle this and finish it!! 

A New Year!!

Happy New Year!! Oh-kay everyone, let me try this again and see if I can do a better job this year. Today I went to one of my favorite Quilt shops, The Quilt Basket / Sewing Room. It has been awhile since I have been and it was great to see the staff again. Since I have a wonderful stash of fabric already, I have been trying to limit my purchases to must have sewing gadgets, books or patterns. Today I found this nifty Date keeper by stash books.

I thought I could use it to keep track of my sewing projects, time spent working on projects and of course blogging! It is divided into weeks of the month, with each page featuring a picture of a modern quilt. That should in itself, help keep me inspired.

A year ago, I posted a project I had started and I never showed you the completed project. Well here it is everyone! Isn't it great!!


Urchin Pincushion

This was a fun pincushion to make. Once you make all 12 pieces, you string them together and then wrap them around each other. The pins I have in the pincushion are from jennifer jangles shop, she has lots of fun stuff so make sure you go and look around and subscribe to her blog at http://jenniferjangles.blogspot.com/. 



Urchin Pincushion Patten by La Todera

The pattern for Urchin Pincushion is from la todera. I found it easy to follow. The hardest part for me was to stay focused on it making all 12 pieces at once. I did a few here, a few there until eventually I had them all done. The pattern offers 3 separate sizes, I made the large one which is 5 inches in diameter.  That's all for my first post of the year! I have lots of projects planned and in the works. Have a great new year!!