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!!

Peek a boo!

Well, lets say my intentions from January did not go as planned. I was looking at some of the blogs I follow and some of them seem to be just as great as blogging as I am! No I am not making excuses but I realize that blogging does take a commitment and if it is not scheduled into your day, week, month, life...etc. it just is not going to get done.

Today I thought I would share a few updates on what I have been working on. Let's jump back to last year, Month of October. For the first time we went to Mickey and Minnie's scary Halloween party, so of course the girls had to have a costume. They wanted to go as the characters from the movie Brave which had only been recently released at that time. So finding any sort of patterns was very challenging, I finally just had to use several and take elements from each one and throw in a few winging it here and there's and this is what I came up with.

 

We found this Pez dispenser at a local craft store thought it was cute!

 

 

I fell in love with this embroidery design when I saw some made up at the Sewing Room. The embroidery design is from OESD called Minkee Monsters. They are a stitch in the hoop design and really easy to make.

 



 

Aren't they adorable!!

 

 

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far and getting lots of projects done. I'll post next time on my finished creations I have going right now.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's looking to 2013!

I am looking forward to a new start with the new year. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and got a bit of rest. I was able to work on a few of my projects, didn't finish any but got close.

 I am not one to make resolutions, but this year I am going to sew more, finish some of my unfinished projects and blog more!  I know, I know, I don't have a very good track record, especially with the blogging part, but I can dream can't I? I'll give it a good go and just take it week by week and see how I do. I'll post what I have been working on as I go, so for a start, here is a sneak peek...

No, it is not a forest of dotted trees in the snow... I have a few more to make and then I can put it all together.

Until then... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Finally finished something!

Well, I finally finished up this pincushion I started way back when. If you read my earlier post you will see that I had made a different one from this same pattern company. This one has a little bit more items to sew on it but was not hard at all to make. Only thing I don't like about it, is that I used some polyfill to hold the sand in where I closed it and it just feels squishy on that side. No sand gets in that area. I may just open it back up and remove the polyfill. Will see... In the meantime, here is a picture of it and also the pattern I used. Next on my list is to finish up the rest of the owls from a prior post. Have a good day everyone!!

Barely here!

Hi! Its been a long HOT summer so far. Now monsoons have set in and its just plain MUGGY!! I know I have really let this blog go but somehow everything else has just kept me too busy from getting some of my projects done. So... I wanted to share a couple of pincushions that I did a bit ago. I made these for a local quilt shop called The Quilters Market here in Tucson. Both of these pincushions were made from patterns by Heather Bailey. She has the cutest stuff! When making these pincushions, I found the Pear alot easier to make than the turtle. I could not quite get the stuffing right in the neck of the turtle so it is a bit wrinkled, but it gives it character! Until next time, Stay cool!!

This is a pear pincushion

This is a turtle pincushion, isn't it cute?!

One month down, 11 more to go!

One month down, 11 more to go! This month just flew by didn’t it? I have been busy working on a few projects simultaneously, which is never a good idea. Why? Because neither of them get done and it seems like they take forever to complete! I need to stick with one and see it to completion but I think I get bored and then start another one. So I have been jumping back and forth with them. I did however, make some valentine cards (oops! another project thrown in there). Every year our church has been donating valentine cards to the Veterans Hospital here in Tucson and then they hand them out to the Veterans on Valentine’s Day.

I wanted to use my stamps but I could not find anything “valentine” enough. My next thought was to use a heart shaped punch, but…  I do not own one of those either.  After a bit of looking I came across my Quickutz squeeze and surprise! Heart shaped dies! Quickutz used to be its own company but from an internet search its looks like they have joined the forces of lifestylecrafts.com.  

When using the Quickutz, it is best to use paper with an adhesive back because some of the pieces are so small it is hard to put adhesive on with an adhesive runner. I used a glue pen called Quickie Glue. It worked great when I wanted to apply small controlled amounts of glue to hold those cut outs down. The last thing I used to add a little punch to the card was Glossy Accents. I just carefully applied it to the top of my hearts and then let it dry. I think they turned out great!

I stamped the tree and sewed over the hearts

You can see how shiny the heart is from the glossy accents

This is what it looks like

Well, those are my cards! I like the simplicity of them and that they say “valentine” without all the mush. I don’t know who will be receiving them so I wanted them to be generic. The inside message says “Happy Valentine’s Day! Thank you for serving our country!  That is it for now, I will continue to work on my projects and keep you updated! Have a great day!

New Year, New Beginnings, Thank goodness!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here we are again at the beginning of another year. This year I plan to not spend as much on fabric and supplies, I want to use what I have on hand. As my husband says, we are the afterhours craft store. I am also going to try and post here a bit more often. I know, I know I said that before… new beginnings right?  Okay enough of that, I have to share with you a few quick things that I did get finished up in time for Christmas!

First thing I made was this cute pincushion owl. I started out by making 4 of them at once but only 1 completed the flight. I am sure the others will eventually get there. I got this pattern off of a website called The DIY Dish . It is an online crafting show hosted by twins! I still can’t tell them apart, but they do have the cutest crafts and ideas. Check them out! I am sure you will enjoy watching them as much as I do.

The lucky owl who left the nest!



Still waiting for the other owls : (



Another thing I made was a little Sassy chick scissor fob! Isn’t it cute!!  Sitting next to it is my Sassy chick pincushion that I used to teach at a local quilt shop The Quilter Market .



One Sassy Chicken



I fell in love with this pattern when I saw it at the Quilt basket . It is from a company called Hatched and Patched . I was surprised at how super easy it was. The best part was I used what I had on hand! I filled it with decorative sand I bought from Lowe’s. I like using sand as it makes it a bit heavier and the bitty grains will help keep your needles clean.



Lazy Daisy Pincushion

Last thing I managed to complete was this adorable moose! The pattern is from Carol’s Zoo  (Read one of my prior posts and you can see the Hippo I made!) Her patterns are pretty easy and always two or three pieces. The time to make this one said “1 hour” on the front of the pattern. It took me at least that long just to cut the pattern out! Maybe I was just being extra careful and methodical. I recommend she just leave the time to make it off completely. Then no one will feel inadequate if it takes them longer. She does have great instructions and even tells you how to stuff your plushy, so make sure you read it all the way through before you start. Isn’t this moose just adorable!



Mr. Moose!

Time to start on some new projects! I’ll keep you posted!! (But just in case? Please don’t hold your breath ha ha ha) Wishing you all the best in this coming new year!