‘Gator Quilt Blog Hop- Tester Pics!

I am just loving seeing all the creativity in the ‘Gator Quilt! It’s remarkable to me how you can give someone the pattern and then from one pattern, such different pieces are created! I love it!

I had a wonderful bunch of testers. Some of which finished projects, others who just finished a block or two and then there are the ones who made a finished project but don’t have a blog to share it on. Today I’m sharing the work of some of these testers!

The first one is my ‘etsy tester’ as I call her! Sharon contacted me on etsy when I first posted a picture of the quilt and asked if it was ready to be purchased. This was a while back, so I had to say no. But then I thought, I do need testers (see this was before testers even!). So she took it on, twice! I love her two quilts! Especially the clock in the belly from Peter Pan!!! I also love what she did with the ‘Gator’s eyes! The roses are from a pattern created by Beth at Piece By Number and the alphabet is from Linda at Paper Panache.

Next up is Karen is new to the quilting world. This is her second paper piecing project. Her goal right now is to gain proficiency with as many quilting skills as possible. In “real life” she is an engineer living in Northern California. I love that it’s pink! It’s the first pink ‘gator I’ve seen!!

Next is Marjorie in Mexico! Now this one is cool too by using the different colors! I love how the blue and green pop! Marjorie is making this one into a wall hanging for a friend who’s nick name is ‘Gator! How fun!

And Kerrie is the last one to share today! Kerrie is an avid sewer who just started paper piecing around October of last year and was super excited to try this one! She was able to test the small and medium ‘gator for me. I love the texture in the patterns that she used. They just look great!

The quilt pattern is color coded. But only with codes like background color, body color, etc… So this way, you can come up with your very own personalized ‘Gator! And by the looks of the tester projects, everyone was able to do just that!

Keep checking in for more ‘Gator fun!

June 10th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

June 11th- A Quilter’s Table

June 13th- Marci Girl Designs

June 14th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty– showing off other Testers work!

June 15th- Made By Amanda Rose

June 16th- Wombat Quilts

June 17th- Wips and Tuts

June 18th- Shaffer Sisters

June 19th- Crafty Shenanigans

June 20th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Star Quilt Show by the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild

I’m not exactly what sure what happened to Friday’s post. I missed it. And I didn’t make it up… Instead I headed to Vashon Island and the Island Quilter to see the opening night of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild’s Star Show!

As we were there looking around, my son said, ‘Hey, every one of these quilts has a star in it!’ Observant little fella that kid!

I included my star quilt that I made with the help of my do. Good Stitches group. I knew the show was coming up, but I had resigned myself to not participating because I didn’t have a star quilt and I didn’t have time to make another one. Then my friend Debbie from A Quilters Table, who is also in another group of the do. Good family, pointed out that I DO have a star quilt to enter! Hello!  I do! I ran it by the group and didn’t get any opposition, so in the show it went!

One of the families favorites was this one by Ara Jane Olufson.

The main quilt it the front window was also AMAZING! I loved it! Refresh by Anna Boenish.

Top: Starry Eyed by Megan Riley, Middle left: Traveling Stars by Amber Arnold, Middle Right: Summer Stars by Vicki Christensen, Bottom left: no tag and Bottom Right: Lone Star by Season Evans.

Another one of my favorites is Elliot’s Quilt by Amy Kilian. I sat by her at a guild meeting not long ago while she was working on this and I fell in love! All the nad stitching is fantastic. From afar it looks kinda like a grey quilt with yellow binding. But once you zoom in a bit closer, you see all the hand details, time and love that went into it!

In one corner there seemed to be a teal theme going on! Left: Echo Star by Blair Stocker, Top Right: no tag and Bottom Right: Seeing Stars by Katie Pederson. And that little one in the bottom right didn’t have a tag either!

Top left: Stars for Robert by Meaghan Quinlin, Top RIght: Auspicious Sky by Debbi , Middle Left: A Tidal Pool of Starfish by Kirsten Ballou, Middle Right: detail from the bottom quilt, Bottom: Seattle Star by Katie Pederson. I’ve had Katie’s Seattle Star in my flickr favorites for quilte some time. It was lovely to actually see it in person and to see all the amazing quilting!

The last one I wanted to show you is this one with the bird! Stealing Stars by Carrie Franklin. How cool! The detail is amazing. There are tiny little pieces! I just love the bird! As with most of my indoor quilt photography, this didn’t turn out as beautiful as it is!

And of course, it’s always nice to see people checking ours out! I hope they are saying nice things!! 🙂

And that’s pretty much it! It was a great show! Thank you Island Quilter and the Seattle Modern Quilting Guild for an awesome show!

 

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

Some Special Brown Fuzzies!

I’ve shown you my Ghosties before (here and here are two versions)… I used to make them A LOT. I sold them in quite a few stores around Seattle. Then the economy started falling apart and a few of my shops started closing and I honestly didn’t feel like finding new shops. Honestly, I had made a lot of these little guys!

But, I love them. As I make them, I turn them right side out and they each seem to have a little something different and a little something funny about them that makes me smile. So making them is always happy! I had a request to make another one and I never say no to a Ghostie!

A good friend is adopting a son (fingers crossed everything goes as planned) and she always gets Ghosties for baby gifts. Of course, her own needs one too! When she called I knew exactly what fabric I was going to use. I already had it in my head and when she mentioned brown, I was floored, because that’s exactly what I was hoping she’d say! This guys face seems a bit lop-sided to me, but the family thinks he’s just right, so he’s staying just like he is.

So this little guy is made of this brown blanket scraps I had received from my ‘recycled’ source. (I have an upholsterer friend who gives me all the scraps my husband will let me bring home!) And then I had this pile that was shedding all over my work space, but I hated to throw it away. It’s soooo soft! But all the leftover pieces were skinny strips… Scarf?

So I called my son and asked him if he wanted another Stay Put Scarf and even though he barely wears the other one I made him, he got SUPER excited about this one.

He pulled out all his fabric scraps and wanted to make a patchwork one. I didn’t agree to do the WHOLE thing as patchwork, but we decided to do a little bit. And he picked the scraps and laid out where they were to go!

I used the edging of the blanket for the loop on the scarf.

And I just love this picture of him and how serious he looks. Maybe it’s me being his mom, but doesn’t he look like a real model in this picture? Not just a crazy kiddo??? hehehe…

And if you’re not wearing the scarf, it can always be a blanket for the Ghostie!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m posting a little late today, but it’s still Valentine’s Day in my part of the world. So to those of you still in Valentine’s Day, I hope you are having a great one! And if it’s already passed for you, well, I hope you had a great one!

This Valentine’s Day I participated in a valentine’s Day crafty swap, hosted by Happy Hour Projects. My partner was Liza from Happy Lizard Hill.

I mailed off a ghostie to Liza. this little guy got all wrapped up in a little box and headed off to Ohio!

Hopefully he’ll be well received by his new family!

And then I got a cute little package in the mail myself! I opened it and there was this really cool package inside. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was the present! My husband and I were both thrown off a bit. But it rattled… It sounded like something was inside… So I opened it and there it was! A lovely heart necklace!

Thank you Liza!

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Ghosties with Heart

I have been making these stuffie dolls that I call Ghosties for, what, maybe 5 years now??? It’s been a while! I haven’t made any in a while until the other day when my friend asked for one. After that one, I remembered how fun they are to make! And with this whole Valentine’s day inspiration crafty thing going on at my house, I got inspired to whip up a batch of more of them. More of them, with a Valentine’s Day twist!

Welcome Valentine’s Day Ghosties!!

Like I said they have always been fun for me to make. I love seeing their little faces and ears once I pull them through! They all start with the same pattern, but they all end up looking a little bit different. It’s like they have their own little personality.

Like this guy, doesn’t he look like a little puppy wanting to follow you home??

I closed my shop a little while back, but am thinking about reopening! I took most of these Ghosties and an assortment of other pieces I’ve made to one of my shops today. So if you’re local and need a ‘Ghostie with a Heart’ swing by Twilight Artist Collective and pick one up.

Shared with these link parties!

and this one

Baby Gifts!

A while back I made a friend of mine some baby gifts for her new little guy! She really liked them and asked for me to make some for a friend of her’s… I couldn’t say no to sewing baby gifts!

I finally got them done! The blanket was the same as before, a pattern from Amy Butler’s book Little Stitches for Little Ones. It’s called the snuggie blanket and is a hooded blanket with a wrap piece. It’s a great pattern and super simple to make!

I had decided that I would use a color pallet of teal, red and white (loving that, maybe from left over from my Dr. Seuss Party???)

So I get to the store, thinking, ‘This won’t take long! I know just what I want!’ Um…. Well, let’s just say I had to reinvent the project color scheme. The store didn’t have anything I wanted. And I don’t know the friend of a friend, so I was hesitant on what to pick out! I finally ended up with these browns, greens and oranges. I loved it, but was still a bit unsure if anyone else would… So I emailed my friend and told her, crossing my fingers that she’d be ok with it. Ends up the nursery for this new little one coming along is green and brown!!! Can I tell you how relived that made me??? MAN!!!

I haven’t made one of my Ghostie dolls in ages! I used to love to make them, because they always make me laugh when I turn them right side out. And this one didn’t let me down! He popped right side out and it was like he was saying, ‘Hey, where have you been? What have you been making? It hasn’t been Ghosties and look how cute we are!’ Warning: You might be seeing more Ghosties in the near future….

 

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Sorry We’re Closed! and a Giveaway

Yep, I’ve Closed  the Shop, Shut the Doors and have moved on.

If you’ve followed along for a while, you might have noticed that I used to have a link to an etsy shop. Yes, right over there on the right. (under the picture of that adorable baby…) But wait, it’s gone! Where did it go???  It has mysteriously disappeared…..

You caught me. As my son says, ‘You were jus jokin’.’ It didn’t actually just disappear. I hit the delete button! I had an etsy shop a LONG time ago, but never really did anything with it. But what I did do was sew and sell things locally in about 7 or 8 shops. Then with the economy headed in the wrong direction a few of the shops closed. I had a baby…. Blah blah…. And man, sewing for wholesale and consignment is a lot of work!! But then I thought I’d go with it again….So last year I re-opened my etsy shop thinking, I can do the etsy shop, blog, work full-time, be an awesome  Momma, sew for the kiddo, make fun random stuff and do my photography business. i know what you’re thinking…. She’s insane… Yep, I kinda am! My husband just rolls his eyes, smiles and tries to come up with ideas on how to make things easier for me!

Wondering what is it that I make???

Well, I talked about how I started here with my I’m scared of really big cushions story when I re-opened my shop. Although I make all sorts of things, I sell a few particular pieces…

Purses

 Totes

Wallets

Baby Blankets and Ghostie Dolls.

When I started I also did pillows, but rarely do those anymore.

All my pieces are made from post-industrial recycled materials (scraps from an upholsterer that I reuse rather than sending them to the junkyard). So therefore each piece is different. And on top of that I freehand stitch images of birds and flowers and rocket ships and all sorts of things onto the pieces!

Why am I closing the doors on da-a tis, you ask?

First off it was getting a bit stressful trying to keep up. Secondly, I fell in love with blogging and making a wider assortment of things. Thirdly, I discovered quilting! And lastly and probably most importantly, I love seeing my son’s face light up when I make him something. I know that isn’t going to last forever, so I decided I wanted to spend my sewing and crafting time making him things while he enjoys it!

Are you still reading to figure out what the giveaway is?

I’m giving away one of my pieces to one lucky winner. I have a stash of pieces that I never sold nor took to the shops. Purses, wallets, totes, and Ghostie Dolls. You choose!

Ready to WIN? You have FOUR ways to enter!

Don’t forget to leave a separate comment for each entry!

1) Leave a comment telling me what your favorite things to sew are.

2) Become a fan of Feelin’ Crafty on Facebook.

3) Subscribe to Feelin’ Crafty.  

4) Share the Giveaway on your blog/FB or tweet about it or just somewhere out there in the internet world.

That’s 4 possible entries! You must comment on this post to win. The giveaway will close on Thursday, September 29th at 11:59 p.m. PST, and I’ll choose one winner using Random.org who will be announced on Friday.

Georgetown Garden Walk

The name implies that it’s just a garden walk, but it’s much more! There’s Art too!

For the last 5 or so years, Joe and I have been meeting once a month with our art critque group at our friend Dawna’s studio in Georgetown. And each year she opens up her studio for the Garden and Art Walk. It used to be called the Art and Garden Walk, and for me it’s hard to break old habits and I still call it both… Anyway, come check it out.

 I just got some great notecards made with images of the Alabama Gulf Coast prior to oil… The proceeds from the cards will go to help oil cleanup efforts through the Alabama Coastal Foundation, http://joinacf.org/.

And I’ll also have my usual purses, totes, wallets and ghosties!