MIA

I know.... I know, I've been MIA lately.  In fact, it's been almost an entire year since my last post. I apologize, I keep meaning to post in my spare time, but that explains the problem... I am currently running extremely low on spare time.  In January, 2014, I went back to school for my second bachelor degree and it has been incredibly hectic here ever since.  I had a few spare moments tonight, so I thought I'd let everyone know that I am still here and creative, just lacking on time.  I'd like to share completed projects that I had promised to share, more projects, and past happenings.  So here it goes...

I couldn't resist sharing this self portrait my son created during the 3rd grade.  I absolutely love it and it is still on my wall of fame!

When I was in Chicago visiting my girl, Jessica, we had a photo booth session.  As a 'thank you' for hosting my trip, I replicated the film strip at 1.5x the size in graphite and gifted it to Jessica.  I kept the original film strip as a souvenir from my trip.

I was so incredibly inspired by Lucky Jackson's stitched portraits, that I used her technique to create similar portraits of my kids...

This one turned out alright, but I was really taken by the backside stiching,  pictured on the left.

We had another robin make a nest in the tree in our front yard.  In just a few short weeks the baby birds grew up and flew away.

Unfortunately, these baby robins weren't as lucky.  After a spring storm, we found these guys on the ground.  We took them in, nursed them back to health, and released them in a nearby green space.

We also hatched baby quail in the spring.

Did I mention that my 9 year old was a budding artist?

Remember the opera gloves I made for my aunt's wedding last spring?  For her wedding gift, I wanted to make her something special and meaningful, so I made her a "wedding band quilt".  I didn't have the time to create an entire quilt, so I settled on making a small pillow sham.  I wasn't a fan of any of the traditional wedding band quilt patterns, as they tend to have flat sides on the circles... so I created my own pattern and used a paper piecing method to piece the top together.  I didn't manage to get a finished picture, but here is the quilt top completed.  If you look close you will see that it isn't perfect, but for my first real attempt at quilt piecing, I was pretty happy. Besides, you can tell by the errors, it is handmade.  :-)   As a special bonus, I used gold fabric I inherited from my grandmother, who passed away in 2004, and fabric I cut from a few of my dad's old shirts.  I thought this would be more meaningful for my aunt to have her mother and only brother represented in this quilted pillow sham.

I made this fox stole as my mom's Christmas present last year.  You can find the pattern here.

 My passion flower bloomed this past summer... one of my favorite flowers!

And check out this Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  This was a volunteer that sprouted from our compost!

I re-decorated my house, painted the green-apple wall color a neutral gray and updated the wood toned trim and mantle.  The before picture can be seen here.

These were fun...  I crocheted/knit masks for my cousins.  Both attended their first semester in college  this past fall and I thought, who doesn't need fun masks/disguises in college?  This one is an Ood mask from the Doctor Who series. Pattern can be found here.

And this one is a viking disguise, pattern found here.

I knitted a fun button cowl for my son's art teacher. (I made up the knitting pattern and if I find my notes, I will post this as a free pattern).

 ....  and I made one for the Music teacher too.

On a sad note, our lovable rooster, Duck Dynasty, passed away in early November from old age.  This happened only a few weeks after I created this screen print, which was created as a testament to our family's fondness of our sweet rooster and turned into a tribute piece.

I also played photographer for my friend, Kiesha....  out of the 900+ pictures that I took during this photo session, I did manage to get a few good shots.

I did one of those BYOB painting parties with my craft group...  it was fun, although I wish we had the option to paint more interesting subject matter.

Last but not least, I used this bracelet as inspiration to make my mom a bracelet for Christmas.

That just about catches you up to now.  I have very little time to create, but it still happens now and again. I have big plans for this summer and hope to be able to post sometime between now and then.  If you have any questions about anything or just want to say hi, feel free to e-mail me! Until next time, Happy Crafting!!

Quilt Market

Here are the highlights from the Quilt Market.

A quilt by Tula Pink.

Tula Pink and I.

This is me sitting in Anna Maria Horner's booth.  I did get a chance to have a conversation with her, but she was talking to others when we went back for a picture.

Amy Butler's booth.

Amy Butler and I.

Melody Miller in her booth with her cute designs.

And today at Urban Arts + Crafts, we hosted a book signing with the authors of One Yard Wonders, Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.  They were super nice and we all had a blast with them.

That's it for now, hopefully I will have some cute projects finished to post soon.  Until then, happy crafting!

Pillows

I have recently been obsessed with throw pillows....  it's pretty bad because they seem to be on my mind all of the time!!!!    Recently I saw this one on Pinterest:

Which is available here on Etsy.  I thought that it was adorable and since I have 2 "momma's boys", I made my own version for each.  I had some linen just laying around in my craft room, so I drew them out and embroidered them.  I initially was planning on using one piece of coordinating fabric for the back, but I have so many scraps left over from their quilts that I pieced them together with all of the "too small to use for anything" pieces.  

 Here are the finished pillows.

Quilting

I am finally done with the quilt for my youngest.  It wasn't long ago that my youngest moved into his big boy bed and ever since I have been pushing this quilt to the top of my priority list.  Now that it is getting colder at night, I really was pushing to get it done.

Quilt #1:
The 1st quilt I made for my oldest and I decided to make it instead of buy it because I wanted to be able to wash it.  It doesn't matter where you buy your bed spreads these days, they just aren't made to be washed, to last or to really be used.  I guess it is pretty genius in the business world because then we are just forced to buy more...  however in the sustainable, practical and frugal world...  it is just ridiculous.

Traditionally, early quilting was stuffed with flour sacks and materials that were to be thrown away and instead were reused and up-cycled.  This is the direction that I wanted to go.  At least if I stuffed my own quilts, I would know what was inside and I would KNOW that whatever was in there wouldn't melt in the washer or the dryer.  So I dug out all of the dingy, flannel and brushed cotton sheets that I have accumulated and refused to use and stuffed the quilts with those.  They are light enough for the summer and heavy enough in the winter.

My Oldest son's favorite colors are orange and yellow and when his room needed to be repainted, he told me he wanted the walls orange...  I decided on a compromise (painting only one wall):

This is right about the time when Anna Maria Horner came out with this book and I loved how she pieces the cover quilt together (hanging on the edge of the crib).

It wasn't the construction of the quilt, it was the color choices she made with the fabric.  With this in mind I started accumulating little bits of fabric here and there to piece together a simple "scrap" quilt.  I did only a little hand quilting with embroidery floss (a la Anna Maria Horner) for the utility of it.  I used 100% cotton sheets for the backing and the binding and this is how it turned out.

The best part is that my oldest LOVES his quilt...  still... to this day!!!  I think he was the most excited to see how his brother's turned out than anyone.

Quilt #2:
I had a lot of scraps from the 1st quilt and I wanted the 2nd one to "go with" the 1st one but not be too matchy matchy.  Each of my boys have their own room with their own twin size bed, but the beds are bunk beds in case they ever want to share a room.  So the quilts needed to match but I wanted each to reflect their own personality.

So, I started collecting different fabrics for the 2nd quilt with my youngest in mind.  Once I felt that I had a good mix, I decided on lay out that I also wanted to be slightly different.  This one is still a "scrap quilt" but I decided to keep the scraps in the center and I cut apart a 100% cotton sheet to make the green edges. I also bound the quilt with bias tape that I made from a 100% cotton sheet that I cut apart and I used a flat 100% cotton sheet for the backing.  I did a little more hand quilting with this one, I outlined the edge of the scraps on the solid fabric with matching embroidery thread.

I love how this turned out and I am glad that I got it done before winter arrived.  Now I have my mind set on a King size quilt for my bed....   I think that might take me a little longer to complete  :-)  Happy Quilting.