Hello again!

Wow, I have really fallen off the blogging wagon! My mind has obviously been elsewhere for the last couple months, which has been a really good thing. I think I'm ready to get back into the blogging world now that My world is a lot more stable.

During my break, I did make a little bag/tote one day. The craft bug has been biting me pretty hard lately. Deciding what to do can be a challenge. Here's how the bag turned out:



I used fabric I had on hand for the bag and to line the support piece inside, and I used fabric I had pieced together previously for the strap. Not my favorite color scheme, but I just needed to make something.


Here's the inside. I cut out a piece of cardboard and covered it with fabric using a glue gun. Totally brought me back to my teenage years when I covered a lot of notebooks with batting and fabric and made all sorts of pretty notebooks. Perhaps that is when my love/infatuation with notebooks and binders began...


And here is the bottom of the bag. I used a plastic bag from Z Gallerie as the template, and it turned out pretty good. I think I'll use this bag to hold my current embroidery projects and embroidery supplies.



I also stitched a Jack-O-Lantern face on a fabric pumpkin that I stitched years and years ago and finally put stuffing in a few weeks ago. I still need to find a cute twig to put in as the stem, then pull and seal it shut. I unfortunately stitched the face too low, but it's cute to look at, anyway. (I'll try to remember to take a picture!)


My crafty efforts lately correspond with a quote I recently heard:

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

~Deanna Spillman

So, I'll take my imperfect crafts over no crafts at all. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Iwas crafty today!!! I should wait to post this, since I'm sending these to my nephews and nieces, but I just can't wait! I'm kinda pleased with the result. :)

I made this Valentine:








Not too shabby, eh?? :) Now I wonder if I have any envelopes that would fit these cards.... AND, what am I going to do for Patrick for Valentine's Day???

Vintage Gift Idea

I'm pretty sure I've posted this picture before, but I need to remind myself of this project. My creative juices are flowing in regards to this one!!



This is a collection of vintage multi-stamp transfers of old cars. My husband is a vintage freak and an old-car freak. This would be an awesome project to do for him. I just can't decide if I should do a wall hanging or a quilt.

My mom and her neighbor have been playing with her neighbor's humongous quilting machine. This thing takes up an entire room, and they've done some amazing work on quilts my mom has made. She is finishing a project and asked me if I want it. I am so wishing I had a camera so I could have taken some pictures. It's so pretty. I just don't have a lot of space. So don't kill me, but I said no. She told me (and I knew) that she would rather it go to someone who really wants it and will treasure it. A lot of time has gone into that quilt.

So, I want to embroider the old car patterns, put it together as a quilt with some sweet vintage fabrics, and have my mom and her neighbor quilt it. I'm giving myself 12-18 months for this project. :) Either next Christmas, or a year from Patrick's birthday sounds like a reasonable timeline.

Some hilarious embroidery

A little creation...the needle is alive!

The other night I finally pulled out my embroidery supplies and did this little stitchery. The pattern is from Sublime Stitching's China Town. I had fun doing it, but I've got to figure out what I'm going to do with all the random bits of embroidery on this tea towel of mine! I've thought about cutting them out and putting them on greeting cards, or piecing them with fabric to make a pillow or something. Who knows.

Any ideas???

The camera is alive!!

Turns out my camera just needed good batteries. Even though I put "new" batteries in, it still wasn't working! So, my trusty hubby got out his battery-juice-measuring-tool-thingy and let me know that the "new" batteries were no good. So, "NEW" batteries went in and whala! it works!!

Here's what my Bear & Bunny looked like before the kitties got to them. I'm salvaging the Bunny, but the Bear is one of Lunch's favorite kitty toys.




P.S. For some entertaining stories about our naughty cats, check out my other blog Family Life. It has been one interesting hell-week with these cats!

I don't look naughty!! :)

Damn cats

On Friday I got up the courage to pull out my sewing machine so I could turn the Bear and Bunny into stuffed dolls. It went pretty well, though I don't care for the shape of them. I stuffed them and started to stitch up the rest of the Bunny and a knot formed in the thread. After a few minutes of frustration I decided to set it aside for awhile.

A friend of mine came over for an hour, then I had to get ready and go to work...the Bear and Bunny were tucked away next to my sewing machine...

Saturday morning I noticed that the Bear and Bunny were missing!!!! On the floor was the poor Bunny...thread even more tangled, needle still hanging on. But where was the Bear? After looking for a couple minutes, I found him laying face down in the kitties little play tent thing. Those little shits! I grabbed the Bear and to my utter dismay, there are some pretty good claw holes in the fabric and a bit of embroidery floss pulled to the outside of the fabric. It's a good thing I like animals and it breaks my heart when people hurt them, because I seriously wanted to find Lunch (I'd bet a million dollars it was her) and yank out her whiskers or something. Grrr!!!

Several hours later after cooling down, I realized that:
1. I didn't like the shape of the dolls and would change how I did that
2. It was quick and easy to embroider both of them
3. I could pull out the stuffing and replace it with plastic grocery bags which would make a great crinkle sound and give the cats the dolls as new toys.
4. I'll make new dolls
5. The cats are smart little shits, and next time I won't leave the dolls sitting out.



I wish my camera was working so I could post some pictures. Oh well, this picture of NAUGHTY little Lunch will suffice for now.


She kept scooping water out of their water tank/bowl to make bubbles in the tank as it refilled the bowl. There was water every where in the kitchen. So to try to teach her a (unlearned) lesson, I mopped it up with her. (emphasis on unlearned)

Bunny and Bear Stitchettes in Progress

I'm half way done with a project! I decided to make the Bear and Bunny Stitchette Dolls by Wee Wonderfuls/Hillary Lang. Seems like most women I know right now are pregnant or just had a baby, so I may as well start making cute baby gifts! I started it today and finished the embroidery.

Here's the starting lineup of fabric and embroidery floss:



The embroidered Bear:



The embroidered Bunny:



The cute pair:



A few notes so far: I just traced the pattern with pencil (Bear) and pen (Bunny), rather than using a transfer pencil and ironing on a transfer. Tracing, being a little more simple, suited me today. The pattern says to tie bows on the Bear's shoes and on the Bunny's neckline. I was getting frustrated with the tiny little bows and didn't know how to get them to be permanent, as little hands and mouths would probably untie them. I know I wouldn't want to be responsible for 3" of embroidery floss being stuck in a kiddo's mouth or throat. Eewww. So, I omitted them on the Bear, and did French Knots on the Bunny's shirt instead. I'm satisfied with it. I think my bear's half grin looks a little smug. :)

Tomorrow I need to bust out my sewing machine. I'll be honest, I'm a little scared of it. I haven't used it in YEARS. My brother is super crafty and adopted my machine for the last chunk of years, so I am way rusty. I'm tempted to sew these dolls together by hand, but I know a machine would turn out a better, longer lasting doll. So, I'll be brave. I'll post finished pictures when they are ready.

THE Lotus

Okay, I think I've finished the lotus flower embroidery I've been working on. I think it has turned out pretty well. I must send my thanks to Lost, for through watching season 3 on DVD, I have been able to finish this last masterpiece. It's been fun.

Isn't she pretty?!?! Now I need to figure out what to do with her. Granted, she's on the kitchen towel of creation, but at the same time, I'd love to use her on a card or something cool. I'm damn proud of how she turned out!!! I love it! :)

How Could I Forget????

Last week I stopped by Heindselman's in Provo, UT and fell in LOVE with the store! They have all kinds of great craft supplies. I went there looking for Sublime Stitching patterns and found a few of them there. I'm excited to see what I can come up with using these new treasures! I found the cutest little embroidery needle holder...a wooden vile, painted black, with a floral design carved into it. It is so dang cute. A completely unnecessary, yet oh-so wonderful purchase. I also picked out a handful of Anchor brand embroidery floss. The ladies at Heidselman's were so cute...they were working on their current knitting projects when I came into the store. And they were so helpful. I accidentally left the embroidery needle holder on the counter, and without even calling, they sent it in the mail to me!!! The customer service there is superb! I'm not in Provo often, but when I am, I'll be sure to stop by. And when I'm not, they have a 1-800 number to call to order products...and they'll mail it to me in Salt Lake City. I love this place. I just wish their website was a little more helpful, but that's okay. I'll just call the cute little old ladies and chat with them. :)

I'll post pictures of my treasures when I find my camera.

Idea for my sewing book/bag!!!

I think I've found some good inspiration for a sewing book/bag!!! I found it on my daily email from Craftzine.com. (I love that daily email!!!) It's made by Elsie Marley



Tomorrow I plan to go to my local D.I. (Deseret Industries) to find a sweet old book that I can transform into a little case for my sewing supplies. I think I want a separate book for patterns, iron-on-transfers, and other things I cut out of my tissue boxes, calendars, etc. that inspire me. I can't wait to start working on this.

And I need to make a pleated purse to post on here too...Betty Ninja has motivated me. :) And there's no better time for a new purse than Spring, right?!?!


Oh! I starting working on a new little embroidery of a lotus flower, inspired by the last box of Yogi Tea that I bought. I swear, there are so many cute designs right now on clothing, packaging, etc. I'm loving it.

Embroidery stuff, plans, practice, etc.

I've been working on developing some of my skills with different embroidery stitches, and it's been a lot of fun. I bought a little gift set at Wal-Mart that had some Jasmine tea, a cute teacup, and a little calendar. The calendar and the box it all came in had the cutest floral design on them. I used the floral design from these to inspire a floral design to embroider. I'm really happy with how cute it looks!! Here are two designs:


I don't love the French Knots in the petals, but I wanted to experiment with that. That's been my focus...experimenting and developing my skills. I want to feel more confident when I do embroidery on REAL projects! :)



Last summer after we found my awesome bike at D.I., Patrick and I would ride around and hit up a bunch of yard sales. I found this embroidery work at a huge yard sale and bought it, because it's cute and has a great example of using various stitches to create a great piece.

My bike:




The piece I bought:


I'm also a tea lover. I opened up a box of Yogi Tea and noticed the awesome design they have inside the box. I want to tie this into an upcoming project:



Such a cool lotus design!!! I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

And last of all, I really need to put together a cute little bag to hold my embroidery floss, current projects, needles, scissors, etc. This is my current "sewing bag." So sad...


So...I'm keeping my eye open for a cute design somewhere. If you know of any, please send them my way!!!

New Pattern/New Project

Today I received in the mail a pattern I bought from PatternMania on Etsy.com.

Here's the picture:

Description:

Design 413 transfers to make an embroidered 63" x 91" Old Fashioned Car Quilt. Each block measures 12" square.

Included:
1908 Chevrolet
1904 Oldsmobile
1904 Studebaker
1912 Packard
1896 Ford
1893 Duryea
1911 Model T
1908 Ford
1904 Ford
1903 Cadillac
1908 Buick
1909 Studebaker

Condition: Very Good, unused.


I'm going to make a quilt for Patrick. I'm super excited to join his ranks as a vintage products lover and consumer. As I complete blocks I'll post pictures. :)

My First Embarkment on Redwork Embroidery

I thought I had posted this on my blog, but apparently it didn't happen! :) I am so excited about this project I did for my mom for Christmas. It took quite a bit of time, and I loved every minute of it!!!

The pattern I used is: Aunt Martha's Sunbonnet-Mother & Daughter, Too 3948. I used embroidery floss #321. The main pattern part I used 2 threads and a normal stitch. For the outside border (square or circle) I used 6 threads and the split stitch. I didn't sign any of them, because I think I'm horrible with creating my own letters...something I'll have to get over. Anyway, this is the collection.


I liked this one because of the socks. I don't know if they're getting ready for bed and going to read a book, or what?? Doesn't matter...it's cute.



My mom loves to quilt, so this pattern was perfect to add to the collection.




Mom also loves to bake and cook and passed that passion onto me. So, I love this pattern, Mother and Daughter with their creations at a Thanksgiving (I guess) table.


My mom also plays the piano beautifully. I never took any lessons, but I enjoy listening to her play. This was my first time doing french knots (for the music notes). You can tell (or at least I can tell) that I got more comfortable toward the middle and end of the notes. The top left notes aren't as full and comfortable looking. Great learning experience!


So, that's my latest project. I can't wait to get started on my next one...once I figure out what to do. :)

My Embroidered Kitchen Towel :)

Here's a picture of the towel I recently finished embroidering. I am quite pleased. I got the pattern in a packet of iron-on patterns at Wal-Mart. I'm a lover of plants and herbs, so this collection called out to me! It took me a few weeks to finish, because I'd work on it late at night after work while Patrick and I watched Futurama and Family Guy. :) When I finished, I wanted to embellish it a little bit, so I added the stars and hearts to the top part of the pot. They didn't turn out as well as I would like...I need a lot of work when it comes to free-hand embroidery. Give me a pattern and I'm fine! ;) My little signature turned out ok, though the "o" in my name looks like an "e." All-in-all, this is the first thing I've embroidered in a long, long time, so I'm pretty happy with my work.

What a Stitch!!

I finished my first embroidered kitchen towel! I still need to take a picture of it. Patrick got home last night and I told him to go look on the oven door handle. He came back into the living room and said it looked great! (Awww)

It's a pattern of the herb thyme in a pot. For the first embroidery I've done in a long time, I'm pretty proud of myself. I've got to practice some cool new stitches before I start the next one.

I bought a set of patterns that I'd like to do for my mom for Christmas. It's going to take some time, so I'm becoming an addict for now. Patrick works on his engine and rebuilding carburetors in the living room, and I work on my embroidery. :) It's a good system.

Pictures coming soon!!