Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Windmill block!

I love this windmill block! So easy to do, great use of scraps too!

I used a variegated blue thread to quilt circles in the middle of each block...

And a stippled free-motion quilting along the border. Notice the neat border fabric...blue bamboo print I picked up somewhere local!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Dream List

I love this wire hanger...made for hanging just one completed block, how cute is that! And the tree block below is just my style!








Friday, October 28, 2011

Specially handmade

Just a little case/pouch I put together the other day to hold some little handmade presents for someone special. I used Japanese themed fabrics for the most part..

And a metal clasp closure, which are so easy to put in now that I've figured it out!!


And filled it with a few presents...felt bunny and bracelet from me, clay jizo from Julia and a little paper mushroom from Jordan!





Sunday, October 16, 2011

For a bitty baby!

Our new to the neighborhood international friend's wife just had their first baby, so I worked on a couple little baby girl presents...Jordan and I were able to stop by and greet the adorable little one in person!
A quick to sew bib!
One of my favorite basket patterns from The Pink Penguin!
And a diaper clutch from The Noodlehead!


Sunday, October 9, 2011

Taking from nature!

I love shells...and driftwood...and shells! I have jars of them, about a decade's worth of careful collection. I used our last gathering of shells to make a simple candle holder...using an empty spaghetti sauce jar, shells and a tea-candle!








Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Quilty Placemats

Continuing with my theme of 'Presents for Grandchildren!' I stitched up these two placemats for a couple more grandkids celebrating birthdays! (When one has many siblings, kids, friends and grandkids, one is always busy making something or other)! I used buttons to create holes in the e's and a...I thought it was kind of cute!

Here's a closeup of the free-motion machine stitching I did...

I did actually start off wanting to take pictures of the process...Here is picture one with the letters machine appliqued to the top strip... I used fusible webbing to iron the letters on, then a small tight zig-zag to applique them.



Next step was to sew the main body of fabric to the name strip...

Then I layered it with batting and a backing, and binding [Love the purple binding with little Japanese rabbits on it, one of my favorite accent fabrics!]

Then I walked away from the project, and forgot I was taking pictures when I came to finish it off!




Monday, September 26, 2011

Granddaughter presents!

Had some fun sewing up little bags to send my little grand-daughters in England. I really love making small bags, they are so fun to creatively use fabric and scraps!


I put a little surprise in each one too, to make it even funner for them!

Not sure if Suzy Zoo is popular in England, I thought it was British, but it's pretty popular in Japan, and I love the cute little characters.
Really funky scrappy pouch, with lots of pink, I hope she doesn't mind pink!!

And there they are!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Bento gift bag

Once in awhile I break down and purchase a pattern...and this little lunch bag is one of them. It's perfect, a little drawstring reversible bag with a flat bottom, I love it, and I really love the, I don't know, sort of 60's style print fabric? Made it for my step-daughter's birthday coming up in a few weeks.

Inside is a clover/butterfly print, really cute stuff. It could be lined with interfacing to give it some stiffness, but I like it without.

And using a bunch of scraps I snagged from my Mom's scrap basket, I made a log cabin block on a day I was bored (how the heck did that happen?? Me...bored...wish it happened more often!)


I used a really pretty yet pain the you-know-what thread to machine stitch the outer border...

...and finished it off with my leftover embroidery thread and a running straight stitch.




Friday, September 16, 2011

Bitty Etsy Steps

Launching my slow venture into the world of Etsy, I worked on these three bracelets today, from start to finish, including pictures and listing them online. I'm quite nervous, excited, with a bit of trepidation as to how it will all go, but the worst that can happen is they go nowhere and end up as gifts for people in my life.

They are each made with semi-precious stones and use leather cord on the edges, and wrap around the wrist 2x.

Wish me luck!



I really like the hematite for a base, it's kind of silvery, and the onyx to set off other stones, then sprinkle in a bit of color, not too much color though. I also like the pewter button clasps, they seem to balance the bracelets out the best.


Camera Bag!


Decided it was time to make a camera case...and here it is! It actually turned out quite cute, considering I didn't really have a pattern, just an idea! I wasn't sure about the fabric choices either, blue mushrooms on brown, with newspaper print on the sides...but somehow it seemed right, and I really like it!

Lined with green polka-dots on cream, and it even has a magnetic clasp, I'm getting pretty darned good at putting in those clasps!

Bound with a colorful purple Japanese fabric..and it's padded too!! I can safely drop the camera and not worry it's going to break into a hundred pieces (I have no plan to test it out though!)

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Bitty Hexagons!

I loved this tutorial for hexagons so much, I had a bit of a Hexagon Craze! Unfortunately, it was such a craze that I forgot to document most of my work, and this is the only picture I have to show for it! With 4 people having birthdays between aug-september, all my work (except for the grand mistakes!) have gone for presents! (Yes, they are all Virgos, in case you were wondering...) They are somewhat time consuming, it takes about an hour to create one project this size (table doily/centerish/sort of thingy), but makes wonderful use of scraps (of which I always have an abundance!) I really tried sticking to a color theme, but eventually the theme got lost in the sewing, yet somehow I think it turned out pretty nice! AND....I got more practice with free-motion machine quilting using my new darning foot! (I LOVE that foot!)


Used a mix of Japanese, waterish sea colors, and modern prints (basically, whatever I grabbed out of the scrap box that was big enough to work with the project).

I did plan to put that flower in the center, a little bit of pre-planned fussy-cutting.
And this was presented to my very good friend Dawn! Love ya babe!


Comments!

Wow! I just discovered a treasure chest of comments left on my blog! Somehow I didn't set up the blog to forward comments to me, so assumed that I was writing into the great unknown cyber-space, but discovering all those wonderfully positive comments has made my day! Thank-you you awesome people who take the time to let me know you enjoyed my little bitty blog!


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Bracelets!

Wrapped leather bracelets, those these just have one wrap in them. The leather cord I got was sort of thick, so future 2 or 3 wrap bracelets will be made with a thinner leather cord. I love the beads, some genuine stones
onyx
hematite
amethyst
bamboo coral
rose quartz
and purple/brown cracked glass

I think my favorite bead size is the 4mm (smaller) vs. the 6mm. 6mm would work on a single wrap but might be too overwhelming for a double wrap. I also prefer the dark leather cord to the lighter beige cord, I think cause my skin tone is lighter, but I like the flower/shell button clasp.

More bracelets will be coming soon! (waiting for leather cord to arrive :) )
Oh, I used a tutorial from Rings and Things to make them!


The black one is misshapen cause I had to remake it a few times, it is now a gift to my husband .

...in a pile...

6mm cracked glass and rose quartz with brass button clasp

4mm onyx with some hematite and bamboo coral, flower/shell clasp

4mm hematite with a touch of onyx and amethyst, wood button clasp









Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Robots and Boys

Little Man started preschool this spring...big event for us all! I had wanted to make him a nice backpack, but was unable to find a suitable pattern...a few months later I found this pattern for $6, and using some robot-based fabric I picked up here and there, I adjusted the pattern to create a bag for the school-boy. Good news is, everyone likes it, and no-one has given me a hard time about him taking a home-made robot-backpack to school...though the big guys haven't put in any orders for their own, ah well...guess it's not cool enough for a 15 y/o.

The main fabric is canvas weight and
I appliqued a funky robot to the front pocket, with metal button eyes...

It's a good size to hold his towel, shirt change, attendance book, tissue and a few other things...
I combined fabric with handle cord for the straps, and learned how to make an adjustable strap...

Inside is lined with a lighter cotton (robot) fabric...

And he's ready for school!