the sea is calling...

These lovelies have been on my 'have-to-have' list for some time now... and now they are eye candy on my sewing room shelf. Beyond the Sea by Cloud 9 is made with organic cotton - I got mine at Cedar House Fabrics. I love the colors and the beachy theme of the prints.

I think I have narrowed down the quilt I want to use them for, I even bought some Konas to match. Now all I need is the time [and some more white thread - how depressing to run out of thread on a snow day!] There are alot of great projects on Flickr using this line - check out Michelle from Cloud 9's photostream.

A few weeks ago I bought some adorable puppy themed fabric with the plan to make Miss Sophia a new bed for in the sewing room. Before I could finish finding the perfect pattern, she had made herself comfortable in an old crate with some fleece stuffed in it. So much for making something fancy for this little dog!

harry potter power...

I am admittedly mostly Harry Potter ignorant... I have not read the books, I have not seen all of the movies, but sometimes things you aren't an expert in can make for great bonding experiences. I met my friend Jordan when she was in high school - now she, on the other hand, is a die hard fan. She pre-ordered and waited in line for the BOOKS [and then read them each in a day]. She introduced me to this mythical world. I'm still not a reader, so we watched a couple of the movies together. We went to see the latest release in theaters - she watches excitedly, I lean over and ask who the heck is that character and why are they doing that. [For Christmas my brother got me all of the HP dvds, so soon I will be in the know!]

I thought nothing could be more fitting than an HP purse. Here is my own take on it! The inspiration came from the paper piecing pattern I found designed by Jennifer Ofenstein and then enlarged. I love how the subtle colors take this purse out of the pre-teen accessory category.

This is my first attempt with the 'no tools required' plastic grommets. They get my seal of approval! Especially helpful is the little template that comes with the set so that you can cut just the right size opening. I used some fusible fleece to give the top more stability.

Best part of making handmade gifts is seeing them enjoyed!

framed...

Continuing on with the parade of Christmas gifts, I made these for the moms - my mom and Derrick's mom. I have really gotten into anything with an adorable little face recently. Kawaii is a Japanese word that means cute - and those little smiles and big eyes certainly are cute! I love this line on the wikipedia page: "In some Asian and western cultures, the Japanese word for cute (kawaii) has joined a number of other Japanese words borrowed by overseas Japanophiles." The term 'Japanophiles' makes kawaii seem like some disease or jailable offense.

I bought some cotton tea towels by Paperchase at Borders that inspired this project. [These towels will never see a dish - I picked them up purely for the fabric :] I continue to stretch my top stitching muscles; I'm so glad that the sketchy look is in.

I have been getting my fill of paper piecing lately [still working on my New York beauty quilt]. This scene is collage of a couple different patterns found in the book Down In the Valley [a REALLY great source of paper pieced templates!] Derrick's mom's style is primitive, so I coffee stained it and baked it in the oven to give it a more distressed look.

I love how the red border gives it the look of being matted - completely coincidental, the finished piece was a little too small when it was completed.

Another little perfect-for-the-holidays project I made was this little headband. I am over the moon for all those little hair flowers that are popping up everywhere. This fascinator was easy enough - a purchased head band, some faux flowers, a feather, glitter, and a couple of buttons. I arranged and hot glued them onto an oval of wool felt. Great [simple!] accessory for a fancy dress party.

owl be watching you...

Part of what has kept me off the grid is that much of my crafting energies were focused on top secret Christmas gifts. We had a spa/relaxation themed gift exchange for work. I whipped up this little owl sleeping mask. The inspiration for this mask came from a crochet version. Since the only thing I can do with yarn is knit a very simple scarf, I made my version using wool felt and backing it with terry cloth [from a washcloth].

I made a little net bag to hold some goodies from Bath & Body Works. I hope my exchange partner enjoys it!

Even Sophia likes to be a little night owl...

falling off the face of the earth...

I'm still around - even if my online persona has been mia for quite a while now! Again real life has taken me away from my computer. Between the holidays, pre-classwork, a masters level course intensive, and being stuck in Georgia any spare moment has been filled. Rest assured, my crafting addiction has not taken a holiday. I have projects to complete, pictures to upload and edit, and lots to post about and share in the coming days. Above is the final block for the Block Swap I was a part of in 2010. I joined in on the Nittany Block Party and my first fabrics have arrived - can't wait to get back into the swing of things!

How do you keep up with posting when life gets crazy?

hemishperes quilt...

I added another one to the needs-quilted pile! I started this quilt months ago, but lost a little momentum along the way. Following this tutorial over on cluck cluck sew, I used my handy dandy circle ruler with my rotary cutter.

This block goes together pretty quickly - there is alot of waste left over from trimming the excess fabric off the back of the quadrants. I'm not sure what to do with a million or so [not uniform] triangles.

I used up nearly all of my coveted bubbles in gray by Kaffe Fassett. I wanted to add on a border but couldn't find any additional yardage [that wasn't $20+/yard].

When I finished the individual blocks I was just not thrilled with the way they looked right next to one another. I am not sure if it was the fabrics I chose or what, it just looked too dark. Then a serendipitous moment, when I layed the blocks out on my sewing table I loved the off-white of the table separating the blocks. Enter Kona in bone... Sashing proved to be the perfect solution.

I would love to have it quilted with swirls in the circles and some kind of grid quilting or pebbles in the sashing. I have still not had any luck finding a machine quilter. Many of the quilters I have contacted don't do the free hand work and some I have emailed haven't responded at all! Do you have any recommendations for a quality quilter at a reasonable price??

of benedryl & pillows...

Oh the agony of sick days... If I were to be forced to take nearly a week off of life, I would have preferred to be able to function! I mean how much fun is a week off where you can't manage to even sew?! [I think missing my sewing machine may even have made me sicker] But I am back in action [mostly]. I wanted to show you the latest addition to my pillow obsession. Meet the crabby pillow!

Inspired by the Caribbean. We have many grand adventures while cruising, some more comical than others. At one of the beaches, they had these collapsible 'tents' for shade. So we picked one up and when we did the tiniest, and daintiest of crabs wandered out. Surely, as a lover of nature and crabs, I lept for joy and scooched in for a closer look.... umm no, I squealed fearing certain death if it came near.

This crabby pillow is much more cuddly. I am very proud of my original design. He was a time consuming little number. I made about a billion half square triangles to make up the zig-zag wave. It was lots of fun to use up a bunch of scraps: Summer in the City, Amy Butler, Flights of Fancy, and MoMo coupled with kona in bone. Then the million lines of zig-zag quilting :)

I was disappointed to have to miss out on this round of the Pillow Talk Swap... Just too many other life commitments this time of year. But if my crabby pillow has peaked your interest, and you are looking for more pillows - check out the flickr group!