Lovely Scraps

My fabric scraps have finally outgrown their bin so lately I have been trying to incorporate more scraps into my projects. One sunny morning at the breakfast table, I sketched out this idea for a sunflower made of strips of scraps.

Well... it hardly made a dent in my orange scraps. I cut into some of my freshly purchased fabrics for the background and enjoyed a bit of embroidery. I do believe that Percy Persimmon likes all the orange!

I realized half way through that I needed to glue baste all the petals down because they were flopping all over the place. I will be finishing it off with some yummy free-motion quilting... lots of petals to secure all the scraps and then something fun in the wide outer border. Off to do some doodling!

And here is a scrappy mug rug I made for the VMQG March challenge & swap. I tried different free-motion quilting on each strip! I quite like how it turned out and since I'm unable to go to tonight's meeting I guess that means I can keep it ;o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

House, Leaves & Teacup

Here are a few more gifts that I made for friends & family. I made this sweet little Welcome Wall-hanging for a friend. The background and main part of the house are all pieced.

All the other small pieces including the letters, windows, doors, birdhouse and hearts are raw edge applique with fusible web. Note the mismatched socks hanging on the line ;o)

I noticed than I have been adding a lot more embroidery to my creations now and I am enjoying the hand-sewing immensely! I believe my method of embroidery is different than the regular hoop method. I make the quilt first and add the embroidery as the last step. Working from the top of the quilt, I sew through the top fabric and some batting and I avoid piercing the backing fabric. It works for me!

And of course I always love to add buttons! I usually finish the back of little wall-hangings with these little corner pockets sewn into the binding. Just add a small stick and it's ready to hang!

These scrappy Leaf Potholders are for my Mom on Mother's Day! I whipped them up yesterday using a tiny bit of my green scraps. I actually had no idea that these would turn out to be leaves! I started out sewing scraps together in a crazy quilt fashion :o)

I made the mini Teacup Pouch for my daughter. She said she needed somewhere to put her chore money :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Partridge & Pondering

I wanted to share this little wall-hanging I made before Christmas. It turned out different than I had originally planned... the background fabric changed, I added trim to the lace at the bottom, and the way it hangs changed as well. For the most part though I followed my original sketch :o)

It's interesting how the first photo feels so much different than the finished piece. Sometimes I wonder if I had waited another day how much more different it would have turned out... which fabrics or trim would have whispered to me, "pick me, pick me".

It hung with my teacups for my bird-themed Christmas. I think next year may be another peppermint Christmas... this time with pink and LOTS of candy canes! Maybe I should make my peppermint garland into a PDF pattern later this year?

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Books & Procrastination

Yup... that's what I have been so busy doing over the last month! I have just been having so much fun lately becoming totally inspired by everyone else's blogs & creations that I haven't had much time for my own but HEY! ...We all need a break from time to time :o) Thanks to all of you who left those little messages through my e-mail, blog, flickr & etsy telling me you missed me!

I have been sewing a bit here & there but not as much as usual because I have started reading again... yes, I haven't picked up a novel since before Claire was born (4 1/2 years ago) and I forgot how time consuming it can be... especially if you read two 950 page novels in two weeks! I admit I am a fantasy girl and have been utterly enthralled in the new television series Legend of the Seeker. This series is like nothing I have ever seen on TV! It's like one long epic motion picture. The film quality, acting, & special effects are all top notch. It is based on Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule so I started reading to find out what REALLY happens!! I find that books are always better that the film version! I have just started the third novel in the series.

During my break, I have collected a large number of photos in a folder titled "to blog about". It's been so long that I just can't go back that far to catch up in order so what I am going to try to do is every time I blog about something new, I will throw in something old that hopefully relates in some way!

This week I sewed some more Book Pillows. One of my bestest customers requested two smaller ones (6x8x2inches/ 15x20x5cm) and this time I remembered my rule to always make more than one! That means there are three extras in my shop :o) I was really happy with the label for the Beloved Poems book. I finished it off with a border of french knots and cotton crochet trim...

I also listed my tiny "teapot" wall hanging in my shop at the same time. The idea came to me while I was surfing Etsy and saw these long wooden beads from SupplyCandy. As soon as I saw them I knew exactly what I would make!

Don't you love how a little thing like a bead can inspire a whole piece of art?!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Father's Day Quilt

I have been waiting all week to blog about this quilt...

I was totally inspired by Kajsa Wikman of Syko to create this little art quilt for Father's Day with my 3 1/2 year old daughter Claire. As you may know already Kajsa's birds were based on one of her daughter's drawings and I think that is amazing! I also like the way she writes messages in her quilting and how she adds trims into the borders. Thank you Kajsa for inspiring me and Thank you Claire for your awesome drawing of Daddy!

This was the first time I have ever tried stippling on a quilt. I think I ripped out more stitches than I sewed! I had a lot of trouble but the effect was worth it. I love how the daddy character became poofy! I think in the future I may try a different stippling pattern because this was really difficult for me... maybe something with spirals or loops!

We also made him this amazing Chocolate Banana Nut Bread! We increased the cocoa powder to 1/2 cup, added an extra banana and increased the flour a bit, and used walnuts instead of pecans. We drizzled some confectioner's sugar mixed with milk & vanilla extract on the top. Claire helped by mashing the bananas, pulverizing the eggs & mixing. Here's the recipe!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)