A Mountain Pillow- Quick and Easy Handmade Gift!

Every year my office has a White Elephant gift exchange with a theme at our Holiday party. Last year the theme was High Low.

We never really tell each other who got what, so I’ve never actually made a gift for the exchange. This year, I had a little problem…

I bought these beautiful beaded snowflakes from Blair at Wise Craft Handmade. They start high in the sky and end up low on the ground… Get it? High Low….

Well, the day of the party I decided I didn’t want to give up any of my ornaments and I needed to come up with something else to give at the party!

I’d been seeing a lot of these mountain pillows. I got the ornaments at our local handmade craft show. And at the craft show, there were a few people selling these mountain pillows. Most of them were made of beautiful felt and were way over my price range. But I kept being drawn to them! And then I had a great idea…. I’d make a new gift. I’d make a mountain pillow! High Peaks, Low Valleys… High Low!

I just happened to have this grey fleece that looked kinda like the felt that all the others were made of. And I had this fluffy white fleece, which I totally think looks like fluffy snow!

Although I didn’t actually made a tutorial, I’ll tell you how I made it! It was so easy and quick, I didn’t even have time to think about pictures! ha! I cut out the mountains, sewed on the snow on top. I made a front and back, with snow on both front and back sides. Next I sewed the front and back together, right sides together and then turned it right side out and Boom! A mountain pillow! SOOOOO easy!

And the pillow was stolen a couple of times, so it was a hit!

These were all adults that loved it, but they could be fun in kids rooms too! Adventure themed rooms… So many possibilities and such a quick make!

 

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A Halloween Pillow

Well, I had started a Halloween quilt back in January, I think… Despite the 10 months, I didn’t get it done….

No quilt, but I did get a pillow done! And I love it! I keep looking at it admiringly as I walk by the couch!

I also like seeing it with the other pillows I’ve made over the years. I love seeing the different styles and fabrics I’m into over the years!

For the pillow, I’m using a lot of the fabrics that I’m using my quilt. Or a different color way… Most of the fabrics are from the Cotton and Steel collections. I LOVE their holiday lines! LOVE them! Was this the best fabric to use for tiny piecing? I don’t know, really!

Last month I took a paper piecing class with Giuseppe Ribaudo, aka Guicy Guice. I’m not sure why I did, since I’m pretty well versed in paper piecing. Honestly, when I signed up, I thought it was a small piecing class, not paper piecing. It never dawned on me that his small piecing was paper piecing! Ha! Anyway, I’m glad I did! He shared his Mini patterns with us and I picked Courthouse Step block. I almost didn’t go because I had so much birthday party stuff going on and the whole paper piecing thing. But I’m glad I did! he was super nice and a lot of fun. And I loved seeing what everyone else made from the patterns! And I love my block!

Guicy Guice centers a lot of his minis in a neutral background so I thought this neon bat fabric would be great. And I did some matchstick quilting. I love doing matchstick quilting on small projects. One day I’ll do it on a larger project. maybe… ha!

I loved this fabric so much that I bought it in two color ways!

And if you know my pillows, I always do envelope backs because I’m kinda lazy that way… But this time I decided to put a zipper in it. I used to always put zippers in pillows. Especially when I was selling pillows. If I can do it when I’m selling them to other people,, why can’t I do it for myself? I did use Sew Katie Did’s tutorial to remind myself how to do it. Its’ not hard at all, but I used to be better at hiding the zipper than I did on this one. Luckily the fabric matches it!

Have a Happy Halloween from my photo assistants!

Ted Wiggins and his Unicycle!

This project is a kinda old one, but I never showed it! And it deserves it’s spot on the blog, in my opinion…

A while back my friend wanted a Ted Wiggins doll with his unicycle for her son, but couldn’t find one online. So she asked me! I love the Lorax, but was blanking on who Ted Wiggins is! He’s the kiddo in the lorax that goes and meets the Lorax outside of town and learns the whole story. In the movie he has a unicycle. A big red unicycle. And of course, I bit and took the challenge!

This isn’t a real tutorial, because I didn’t measure everything and I didn’t save my templates, or any of that. But I do want to show you a bit about how I made these guys! First up is Ted.

I started with the Mikey Monkey doll pattern from mmmcrafts. I have made this pattern before when I made Bear and his best friend Pear for my kiddo. I altered it a bit then for the monkey to be a bear and I did it again for the monkey to be a boy.

The main alteration was the shape of the head. I didn’t want it to be as round as the monkey head, so I worked that out. One reason I wanted to use this pattern is that he comes with accessories, like shoes and a baseball cap. I knew I needed a helmet, so I altered the baseball hat to be a bike helmet. I had to make a trial hat to make sure it fit on the new head shape though! I also added more pieces of fabric for the shirt to match the look of his shirt!

And I winged it on the hair and face! When I stitched the hair on the back of the head, I also stitched up through the brown to give it a little more dimension, instead of just along the edge. I didn’t like it just straight across the back, so I added a couple of curves. And the hat turned out great! I put the front and back together and then hand stitched the flames on. The hat is removable. In hindsight, due to the age of kiddo that this was going to, I probably should have sewn the helmet (and the shoes) on the doll! I wouldn’t be surprised if they got lost pretty quickly!

And I love the shoes!

I had fun taking pictures of him as he was being stuffed and coming to life!

And his unicycle!

The handlebar… So for the handlebar, I wanted it to be skinny and stand up straight. I tried a few things and this is what worked best. I sewed on the red pieces to the longer sides of the grey ‘x’. I included the seam allowances, ironed those over, folded it in half, wrong sides together, and then topstitched. I left the bottom open and one side of the handle to stuff in the pipe cleaners. Then stuffed the pipe cleaners in. As many as I could! Then sew up the other side of the handlebar!

For the bottom of the unicycle, I totally winged it and drew it out. I cut the black and red based on my drawing. The design is to have two sides and one long stripe going around the sides, like a box pillow.

So I sewed the two red sides to the handlebars.

I measured out how much black and red sides I’d need. Made long side strips. Pinned the sides on (yes, missing some step photos, but not a full tutorial here!) to the front and back, right sides together and sewed it all together, leaving a hole in the bottom. For stuffing I used foam pieces. I used two pieces of foam so that the handlebar would be situated between the foam.

And, like the helmet, I hand sewed the flames on the unicycle.

And there you have it! Tedd Wiggins and his Unicycle! I think he turned out pretty cute!

 

In the Magazines, a Mini and an IG Giveaway!

Last month I was in two magazines! It was so exciting to come home from vacation and have both of the magazines waiting for me!

Which one should we talk about first??? Let’s go alphabetically… Curated Quilts! Have you seen this magazine? It’s so beautiful! And I got to be a part of the 3rd installment focusing on Minimal Quilts!

Each issue of the Curated Quilts magazine has a Mini Quilt Challenge gallery in it. They give a theme and a color scheme and then you make a mini and upload to their website and they choose about 25 minis to be featured in each issue. I usually don’t do mini quilts. I can’t don’t get them. To me quilts are a work of art, but they are also meant to be cuddled with. So mini’s have always kinda confused me! But then when I saw the color palette for this challenge, I had to play along!

I loved the neon colors and I just happened to have them already! And I just happened to have an office meeting doodle that I wanted to turn into a quilt, so I put them together and look what I got! 

The little triangles are about a half inch tall. Pretty tiny!

For the back, I used another little strip of triangles and a big patch of pick! Ignore the lovely polka dot label. That’s totally NOT a design feature! Ha!

And of course the little label, but I love how the quilting stands out in this picture.

I didn’t get any quilts in the QuiltCon Show last year, so I was a little bummed! Until I walked into the Curated Quilts booth and what to my eyes should appear?

But a bunch of mini’s right there! With mine smack dab in the middle! So I kinda did have a quilt at QuiltCon after all!

And next up… Modern Patchwork!

How funny! I just realized as I am writing this that both of the quilts involve triangles! This one is flying geese, but triangles none the less! My Left and Right quilt was published in the May/June issue of Modern Patchwork. I love this quilt! This was a Nurture Circle do. Good Stitches quilt. The variety of fabric colors from all the different members is what made this quilt so exquisite. In my opinion.

image via Modern Patchwork

Are you wondering about the giveaway by now???

I’m going to give one reader, who is also an Instagram follower, one copy of each magazine! Be sure to go to my IG page and follow the directions!

Thanks for reading! Can’t wait to share these awesome magazines with you!

 

 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

This year was a bust… First off, I didn’t get to make a costume. The kiddo decided to be Harry Potter and we had already purchased most of the pieces. He’d been planning this for months! And then tonight he came home from school with 102 degree fever. So, while the other kids were getting dressed and heading out for some haunting, we hunkered down and watched a movie. The worst Halloween he said. Poor Kid!

But I made another Halloween pillow! I’m so excited to trade it with a friend for a piece of art!

I used my bat pattern that I have on Craftsy! It was fun to break out the pattern again! It’s pretty quick and easy!

I through is a little piece of with one of my favorite Halloween fabrics! I used this same fabric on my Halloween quilt from a few years back.

I always say I’m going to add a zipper back, but then I never have one when I need one. So I always resort back to the envelope style back. And I’m fine with that! At least until I buy a stash of zippers…

According to this guy, it’s pretty comfy too!

If you decide to make a bat pillow, be sure to tag me! I’d love to see what everyone else makes with them! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I can’t wait until next year!

Modern Sampler Quilt

You may remember me starting the Modern Sampler Quilt Along with Salty Oat, way back in at the beginning of last year. Then I got most of the blocks done by May and then finished the beginning of this year.

This quilt is pretty much not my style at all! I like it, but the low volume, not me! It was a fun challenge to try to stay low volume for a whole quilt!

And the pattern… Well, how to put it nicely… It was challenging. Maybe it was the difference between being familiar with my own versus a Japanese pattern. Or maybe it was just ‘challenging’. And the blocks weren’t our usual 10.5″ inch type block.

But I couldn’t stop. There were a couple of blocks that had me considering packing it up and calling it done. But I didn’t! And I’m glad I didn’t.

Some of the blocks were more challenging than the others. But what I did get used to was all the mitered corners on each block! The last few look much better than the first few. It just takes practice!

And the back! Although it’s upside down in this picture, I do like the minimalist layout! ha!

And a little bit of color to the binding!

It’s hard to see all the details that went into this quilt in the full frontal pictures. So this quilt is going to my do Good Stitches group They have very kindly agreed that I can keep my do Good quilt from last year that got accepted into the Quiltcon Show if I send in this one! I’ve grown very attached to my other one! I can’t believe it has taken me so long to show this one off!

 

 

 

National Thrift Shop Day

Have you been thrift shopping lately?? It’s one of my favorite things to do! And I’m excited to show you my latest purchases to celebrate National Thrift Shop Day!

Recently I was contacted by Value Village about promoting thrift shopping on National Thrift Shopping Day and I jumped at the offer! Um, yes! I had it my mind that I was ONLY going to get crafty things, but of course there’s so much more to thrift than craft supplies!

My first stop at thrift shops is always the linen department! And when I saw these whales, I knew exactly what I wanted to make with them. I’m totally going to make pillows for our beach house and maybe even a quilt to go with them. I came straight home and ordered some Kona cotton to match, exactly! Can’t wait!

I usually don’t buy pattern books, but I saw this one and it had some cool things in it, so I added that to my pile! I also found this pattern in my size. It looks a little dated, but last winter I saw a woman wearing a coat that was so close to this pattern. So I’m hoping that with the right fabric and this pattern I can recreate that look I saw!

So this pattern is what sold me on this book! And how about these pillowcases? I think they will be perfect for this pattern. through in a contrasting solid and boom! Gonna be cool!!!

This one is a cool one too. It could use the pillowcase fabric and be really cool too!

The thing about thrifting that I love is giving everything a second chance. Ok, well, number one, the finding cool and unexpected things is probably my most favorite thing about thrift shops! Second giving everything a second chance and keeping all things out of landfills. And finding new uses for the things I find. Like this book, for instance. It’s full of very traditional patterns. But I totally want to take them and make them modern or even, wait for it, Improv! Like a piece of this block will be cool as improve in my 2016 BOM quilt. Actually most of the blocks in the book will make cool improv blocks!

I mentioned more than craft things… When you’re kiddo loves books, you want to foster that love of reading, right? Books can be expensive… Unless you buy used books! The kiddo found a nice large pile of books that he wanted. Dad found the stamps and I jumped at the Frog Juice game! We love this brand of games, so I know we’ll love this one, too! And yes, you heard me right! This thrift shopping thing is a family affair!

And lastly, I am loving these cross stitch tablecloths. I’ve been collecting a couple over the last year (to go with my lovely quilt collection… Since I need something else to collect!). So when I saw this one, I didn’t think twice as I through it in my basket. I want to do a whole cloth quilt out of one. I also saw my friend Blair, of Wise Craft Handmade, cut one up and use it in a quilt. It is really cool!

What do you look for when you go thrift shopping?

And I want to send a big thank you to Value Village and my new friend there for hosting my shopping trip! Shopping secondhand is a major benefit to your wallet with 96% of the retail items at Value Village being priced under $10. Go celebrate National Thrift Shopping Day!!! Every day is National Thrift Shop Day in my book!

 

Value Village provided me with a gift certificate for this thrifting experience. All opinions are my own, honest opinions!  

 

The 1-Hour Dopp Kit

I love patterns that say 1 hour!

Ha! Whatever! Well, it takes me almost that long just to pick the fabric. And if you quilt it, right away the one hour is out the window! Right? And maybe once you’ve made it once it will only take an hour, but the first one never takes me just an hour. Maybe you are faster than I am!

For this one I used the 1-Hour Dopp Kit Tutorial from the Craftsy Sewing Blog. Even though I’m complaining about the one hour part, I like the pattern and would like to make another one. This one was a Christmas present for my husband, but the kiddo took it instead!

I love the little handle! You could do two, but I chose to do just one. You only carry it on one end, so why do you really need two handles?

Although the inside corners take some thought, the turned out great. This feature was one reason I headed to this tutorial over some of the others. (ignore the toothpaste spots. It’s proof that it is actually being used as a toiletry bag and not a bag to carry toys!)

And the bottom! Do those stripes look familiar? I used scraps from my 2016 SMQG BOM Medallion quilt!

So what do you think? Would you give it a try? Do you have a favorite Dopp Kit pattern? I’d try a different one next time. I kinda want to make a leather one… Have you?

 

Sunset Dreamin’- April do.Good Stitches Quilt

I’m so excited to show off this one! I’m totally in love with it! And it’s going to Quiltcon!!!

This one is a bit long overdue… I designed the blocks back in April for the do.Good Stitches Nurture Circle to make. You can see the tutorial here. And honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the blocks when I got them back! I knew I wanted a stripey quilt, but not necessarily a striped quilt…. Does that make sense?

I was so impressed how well the blocks went together! It’s hard to make each block match up when you’ve got 10 people making blocks. But I couldn’t have asked for better blocks.

But what was I thinking? And why did I photograph this one at the beach?

Well, did you wear those stripey OP shirts back in the 80’s? Like these? I did… And I had the shorts, too. I remember going to Target as a kid in Houston and being so excited for OP. I can still see the intersection of where Target was. Anyway… The beach was on my mind back in April!

But I got the blocks and was stumped. I really did not know what to do with them! So I thought about it for months. (sorry group! I’m not supposed to take that long to put the quilts together.) Then one day it came to me. Striped angles hitting into each other…

So that’s what I got! The stripes went together perfectly! Then I added the big blocks of white. And when you cut triangles out of fabric, they can distort a bit… I learned that on another quilt I made. So I had to work that center a bit. But it came together quite nicely!

And that’s also why I photographed it at the beach. Ideally it would have been a nice summery day with blue skies and surf boards… But alas, I live in Seattle and we don’t get that weather all that often in the winter…

I did have one block that didn’t quit fit, so it’s on the back and break up the sunset and the water colors.

And a huge thanks to all the lovely ladies that made this quilt come together! And this is the second Nurture Circle do.Good Stitches quilt to be shown at Quiltcon! Yea! I can’t wait to see it hanging with all the others! I don’t know if I’m going yet or not, but I know someone will snap a pic, if I don’t…

I’m in love with this one….

And it’s the one and only on my 4th Quarter Finish Along that I actually finished!

 

 

 

Angry Birds with Shaffer Sisters

Welcome back to another fun day of Sew Ready to Play! Today’s guest is another one of my favorite online friends, Al, from the Shaffer Sisters! Al has been awesome to also be a returning Sew Ready to Play guest for a few years now! I always love seeing what she sends over!

And this year it’s Angry Birds! Come On!! Let’s head over to the Shaffer Sisters blog and learn more about what she did to make these guys! I love it!

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!