A Sunday Morning Kind of Pillow

I made this last night after finishing a quilt (can't share that here because the recipient reads my blog sometimes).  I've had this in my head ever since a friend of mine lost someone close to her unexpectedly.  She bravely shared some of her grieving process with her Facebook friends, often posting inspirational quotes.  This is an oldie, but a goodie. :)  

George Michael was right, you gotta have faith!  ha ha!  I raw edge appliqued the letters down in a free motion style.

I used a different font style for each word.

I made "love" the largest, as a nod to the quote.

The background fabric is Basic Grey's notebook paper fabric.

I added black piping around the pillow.  This was the first time I've done piping around a pillow and it went really well!

I had already made the front before I picked out the back.  

Strangely, I had this Robert Kaufman print that matched the colors perfectly!  It was fate!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Notice Something New?

EEEEEK!  I'm so excited!!!!!  I have a new blog header (and etsy header)!  Isn't it too cute?  Recently I asked Stefanie--a friend of mine who designs wonderful stationery as well as sews super adorable stuff--to create some tags for me.  I'm participating at a local bazaar in October and I wanted something with my shop name and info on it that I could tie around items I sold.  She came up with the great logo you see above!  I promptly asked if she could do a little more work for me and design a header for my blog and etsy.  Poof!  A few hours later I received the total cuteness above!  I'm in teal butterfly heaven!

Please, please, please check her out!!!  Click HERE for her stationery store--which, by the way, has buy one get one free until the end of July with the code "SIZZLER"!  Um, hello?!?!?  F.R.E.E.  Click HERE for her etsy shop where she sells patterns, quilts, and some great destash fabrics!  I'm getting absolutely nothing for promoting her,   I just think she's wonderful and deserved some recognition for her awesomeness!

Thank you so much Stefanie!!!  I look forward to meeting you in person next summer when we move to Tennessee!!!!

Pretty {little} Pouch Finished!

I finally finished my pouch for Round 2 of the Pretty {little} Pouch swap.  I feel a lot of pressure since I'm co-mama for this swap!  Hopefully my partner will like it!  I paper pieced the flying circle of geese block--after I shrunk it down 50%.  The circle finishes at 6" square.  I used some pretty teal colored linen and various pink and green prints for the geese.  

For the back, I fussy cut out one of the Ruby Star Rising ladies, appliqued her on, then added some decorative stitching.  I thought about embroidering a phrase below the lady instead of the stitching, but I wasn't sure how my partner would feel about "I'm a lady, damn it!" :)  I thought it was funny, but you never know if someone would be offended by that or not.  

The lining is a pink floral print from Heather Ross.  I love this swap and I can't wait for Round 3 (coming this fall for those who are curious)!  If you want to know more about the frame, glue, and template I used, see my previous post.

Pouch Practice

I had never made a glue-in metal frame pouch and I knew I wanted to make one for my Pretty {little} Pouch Swap--so, of course, I had to make a practice pouch!  I made my own template for my 8x3 metal frame.  You can download my template HERE!!!  I used the tutorial found here.  The only thing I did differently was to use fusible fleece on my exterior and light-weight woven interfacing on my interior.  Oh, and I got my frames and glue here.  I used an old Anna Maria Horner Garden Party fabric for the outside and a Little Folks Dobby stripe voile for the inside.  I have something a bit more elaborate planned for my partner, but, for a first attempt, I'm happy with how this came out!

In other news, I did finish my next MBS project!  Unfortunately, I can't share it yet!  I love it so much more than my first version!  I guess that's all for now, I need to get back to my next pouch.  I'll leave you with a picture of my cute babies, who aren't so little any more!

The Fabric Devil and My Trip to Nashville

The Fabric Devil made me do it!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Come on, there must be a fabric devil out there!  He sneaks up on unsuspecting crafters and hits them over the head with his evil fabric pitch fork and forces them to buy tons of stuff!  Well, it's either that or someone ordered a boatload of fabric in my name!  What other explanation is there for what I came home to after 5 days away:

Geez!  I'm not sure what happened here!  I got solids, Kei dots in three colors (thanks Mom!), Habitat, 1001 Peeps, Metro Kitchen, It's A Hoot in twill, Prince Charming, Tailor Made, Heather Ross, FMF, Alexander Henry, Summer in the City, loads of fun scraps from Gabrielle, Echino, purse frames and glue, thread, and a rainbow of pearl cotton.  OOOPS!  My hubby about had a heart attack when he saw all this laying on the dining table.  Granted, some of this is swaps (the FMF, AH, SITC, and fun scraps), but still.  Yikes!  Even I was a little ashamed!  Oh well.  What's done is done.  P.S.  A good bit of this came from fabric.com and I know that a lot of people have issues with them (poor/no real folding technique, sent wrong fabric, etc.), but honestly, at 30% off with free shipping, they can have a blind dog cut, pack, and ship my fabric and I wouldn't care!  Some deals are too good to pass up!

Now for pictures from my trip to Nashville!  We did more than go to the zoo, but somehow, I forgot to snap pictures of almost anything else!

Look!  Monkeys!

Nonna and Roarke

Woah!

It's a meerkat, Mama! 

Um, yeah, so I saw this and thought, "It's a quilt!"  I have a sickness.

I had to use the zoom on this one because no way was I getting close!  This is a hissing cockroach!  I'm terrified of roaches.  I can handle almost any other bug or animal, but not those.  *shudder*

Those weird, thin twig looking things are actually part of an electrical fence

Zebra butts! :)

I'm always surprised at the color of flamingos! 

They only had one animal out to pet in the petting zoo!  What a bummer!  This goat saw a lot of action though!

A yard long Icee with unlimited refills.  This made everyone's day!

Nonna and Roarke were best pals on this trip!

Cian kept holding out his hand for my camera because he thought it was my iPod and he wanted to play.  

Stink face at the zoo.

We only got a single stroller for Cian, but Roarke got hot and tired so he had to ride too. I don't blame him!  If there had been room I would have crawled in there too!

Giraffes are my favorite!

We also went house hunting!  We think we're going to build something like this!

Or maybe this!  We aren't sure yet, but building seems to be the way to go.  That way, we get everything we want!

Or maybe craftsman?

Dang.  I love a porch though!

I did check out one fabric store while I was in Nashville (Fabric Textiles), but holy cow!  Their prices are higher than I have seen ANYWHERE!  They do have a nice selection of modern fabric, but there is simply no way to justify that kind of markup! (think over $12/yard for regular quilting cotton!)  They did just have an amazing sale at the end of June where everything was 50% off.  My mom got me three colors of Kei dots (see picture above) for $10/yard, but just think, that means they retail for $20/yard!  What?!?!?  Insanity!  Anywho, I'm sure we'll be making more trips to Nashville since we are pretty sure we're moving there once hubby gets out of the Military (next summer).  

Why Was I Worried?

This is why I love Flickr.  I was putting together a quilt for my friend Sara (a photographer) and I got to this point:

Then, I got nervous!  I was going to make a Modified Bento box, but I really didn't want to cut into all the blocks I just finished piecing.  There is something really traumatic about *cutting* something up that took a long time to put together!  Anywho, I posted this picture with a call for courage and reassurance that Bento was the way to go.  Within a few minutes I had many Flickr friends assuring me that cutting was the way to go.  Time to pull out my big girl panties and my rotary cutter!  This is the result:

I love it 1000X more than I did before!  So much cooler this way!  Thank you Flickr peeps!  I'm excited to see it finished, but I'm leaving today to visit my mom in Nashville for a few days so it will have to wait.  

For those of your who want to know,  everything is cut from a FQ, but I cut the pieces larger than necessary and trimmed so I could be sure everything was the same size. I cut 5" square, and two each of the following: 1.5x5, 1.5x7.5, 3.5x7.5, 3.5x13.5, 2.25x13.5, and 2.25x17.5 I had 2 FQs of the blue and green solid.

Another One Bites the Dust!

Yahoo!  I finished another WIP!  This is a Sweet Harmony bag for my godmother.  She bought me the fabric forever ago to make her 6 different bags, this is the 4th one I've completed.  It's certainly my favorite so far!  I really do love this pattern--especially all those pockets!  I had the pieces cut out for almost 3 months and the exterior put together for almost a month!  I'm glad I can check this off my to-do list.  I feel so terrible that I dragged my feet on it!  I'm just no good at starting and stopping projects.  I have to finish one before I begin another--lesson learned!  I'm also having to prioritize my WIPs because as much as I would like to quilt the two tops I have completed, they aren't for anything special (just something for myself and something for my shop), so I've decided to work on the quilt I started as wedding gift for my best friend.  She got married in May so I really need to finish it because before I know it, their 1st anniversary will be here! :)

I also finished 3 blocks for a special, secret project.  I'll post more about this when I get the ok from our secret group leader!

Sunday Sewing

I decided I need a break from working on my WIPs, which I promise I have been plugging away at!  I decided I wanted to make some boxy pouches.  I had made one on Friday for part of a birthday gift for my son's friend--I used Circa 50's rocket ships and dots then I filled the pouch with Cars 2 figures and Star Wars Legos.  Sorry, no pictures of that one!  It was such a fast and satisfying project I thought I'd make some for my shop!  If you use the code "FLICKRPEEP" and you will receive free shipping--oh how I love free shipping!  Did you know if you leave items in your cart at Land of Nod they will send you a free shipping code?  Just a little tip!  I always have sticker shock when I see how much it costs to ship things so I get giddy when I order places that have free shipping.

I love all these linen blend prints because they obey so well for sewing pouches and purses.  These are all large pouches, 10.5"x4.5"x4.5", but I think I may experiment with smaller sizes too the next time I need a rest! :)  I did love using up more of my crazy-big FQ stash though!

See?  It fits a lot of big items with room to spare!

Update:  this one has sold!

Oh and the party we went to had a Star Wars theme and they gave all the kids (most 3-5 year olds) Jedi robes as the party favor!!!  Best party favor I have ever seen!  Here's a shot of my little Jedi!