I found this online at Supermarket HQ and the price was kind of ridiculous for essentially 2 long strips of fabric and 3 snaps. I'm not sure if the fabric had gold in it or what, but seriously ...

Anywho, my boyfriend fell in LOVE with this and was going to buy it for his mom for Christmas. But I talked him into letting me take a stab at it. We bought some vintage wool and I plucked a pretty lining fabric from my ginormous stash. I got out my hammer and added some snaps.

And 45 minutes later ...










Also, sorry for the dorky outfit underneath. I'm planning on making another one for myself and taking GOOD photos with a cute outfit (and makeup with my hair did).

Thanks for looking!

My mom requested that I make an apron for my niece. I found this really basic tutorial and adjusted it to make it reversible and to fit my niece.

I like how it turned out, especially now that I walked away from it for a while. There are a few mistakes, but she's 3, so she won't notice.

//////// EDIT ////////////// Post-Christmas in-action photos!






I especially love the fabric that I used for the top part. It's perfect for an apron! I'm glad she's little so I could stash a scrap of the fat quarter back for later.

 

I reconstructed a threadless (beat it) T-shirt into this pillow with the help of some patchwork. This is a Christmas present for my boyfriend's brother-in-law who LOVES MJ.







Thanks for looking. I kinda want to keep this one for myself ...

Howdy craftsterinos!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted over here and I haven't really lurked for a while either ... I've not had much time for quilting and I didn't want to be jealous of all you lovely people completing beautiful quilts.

I finallllllllly completed a quilt that I'd created a top for back in 2009. This was supposed to be for my niece's 1st birthday. She's 3 now. So instead I made it for my friend, whoopdedoo_5 and her baby that is coming on February 21, who will be named Stella.

Also, I just got a new Janome sewing machine to replace the hand-me-down (I've always had a hand-me-down machine!) that didn't like to quilt. This machine does well with straight lines and semi-straight lines. I quilted this by following every other coin in the coin stack. I did 5 wavy lines and tried to cross them over each other.

Hello!

I've seen such lovely cake stands made from all sorts of different materials. I've been hoarding some pyrex grey plates and some milk glass vases for a go at making some cake stands.  I also did some painting on them.

Here are my finished products.  I'm really excited for them. I got to use them for the first time last weekend for my b-day. And yes, that's naked MJ from 1984. He lost his clothes.







Thanks for looking!

I don't paint. Other than walls anyway.

But, today one of my twitter friends saw that I was going to be painting this afternoon (for work) and said "Oooh paint me something."  I didn't have a chance to explain before he DMed me and asked for a commissioned piece. Soooo I couldn't turn him down. After all, he IS one of my best twitter friends. I would only do it under one condition: that he didn't pay for it. He's been a good friend from afar for a while now and has done a lot for me.

Well ... guys ... his twitter name is @nerdboner.  Yes. NERDBONER. Because he geeks out over comics and all things nerdy. Which is actually why I started following him in the first place. He seemed like a cool guy — and is.

SO — what better than a comic book inspired painting for him?  Not to mention, I could limit the colors that way and basically draw it out and do a paint-by-numbers sort of thing.

I decided to do a triptych because I looove triptychs.  And instead of attempting cheese by doing characters, I used typography and went sort of the Lichtenstein route (but in no way am I claiming to be half that awesome). 

Anyway ... hope he likes it! I'm mailing it on Tuesday.









Thanks for looking!

Whoo! A few months back I started sweatshopping some camera cases based on a pattern I found on sew mama sew.  I originally had 25, but after my friends got a hold of some, I'm left with about 10.  I decided to do this because I had a ton of extra batting from quilts that wasn't really big enough to do much else with, not to mention lots of scrap fabric.

Anyway, they're super easy. Definitely check out the tutorial!











Thanks for looking! Hope this inspires you.

let me just preface this with the fact that I forgot to post this a few weeks back and was prompted to post it when I saw this amazingness by miss ireen.

Mine is not nearly as awesome, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.

I have a wedding coming up and I bought a really nice dress and wanted a statement necklace to go with it.  I didn't want to drop the insane amount of money that Anthropologie is asking for its necklaces and I was inspired by local artist Bean and the Sprout.

I started with a really ghastly necklace, a pair of earrings I no longer wear, a lone earring and a bunch of fabric scraps.

I ended up with this:


More details on my blog if you're interested.

I picked up this little dude during a girls' day trip to a local antique store a few months ago and have finally spruced him up.

Let me just say, this is some gorgeous dinnerware. It’s Franciscan El Patio and I would LOVE to have a full set of these dishes. In any color. Preferably multiple colors, actually. The texture and detail of the teacup is just beautiful.

Judging by the color and the shape, I’m guessing this came out of the early to mid-seventies. Either way, they only had one piece at the antique store, so I snatched it up.

I thought it could use a really regal-looking tea bag. Maybe some Earl Grey, hot — ala Jean-Luc Picard.

I debated on where to post this, but decided it should go in paper crafts and not quilting. Hope I made the right decision! The tutorial for this came from Denyse Schmidt Quilts.

I've been hoarding a bunch of nice paper that I received as samples a while back from Neenah Paper for a portfolio revamp that never happened. I also hoard fabric scraps.

I decided to make some of these cards after drooling over the ones in the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book.

They're A6 size (6.5"x4.25" — fits in an A6 envelope). 

These are super quick and easy to make. They make a great gift for friends if you put them in packs of 5-10 with envelopes. Or they're nice to have around for all your notecard or greeting card needs.

You can find the tutorial in the book, but here's a super quick rundown.

1. Cut your cardstock or heavy paper to the size for a card.
2. score on the halfway mark using a ruler and the back of a butter knife (or a real scoring tool)
3. fold in half
4. take scraps of fabric and arrange on the front part of the card
5. once happy with the pattern, use a glue stick and glue fabric to card (makes it easier to sew)
6. use a zig zag or another fun stitch and stitch along the edge of each piece of fabric
7. use the regular stitch and make a few lines or zig zags in the opposite direction of your strips to "quilt" the card
8. trim to the edges

One tip — don't use the needle on your machine for anything else BUT these cards. The cardstock will dull your needle and it will likely tear fabric when sewing regular materials.



More details on my blog if you're interested!