U.S.S. Crafty

One of the awesomely, fun things about the online crafty community is the swapping.  It is such a great way to improve your stash, try out new things you wouldn't normally by, or in this case, add to your lovely collection of mini quilts.

A few of us friends decided to do such a swap where we would make a mini quilt and add it to the flickr group for all of us to see and then we would cast our vote for the top 3 that we most loved and then the leader would then let us know who to we would be sending our minis to.

Here is mine

When I first put it together, it was a little different.  There were no curves or crafty jolly roger flag, and I hadn't decided on the quilting.  So I brought with me when we went on vacation for our 10th anniversary hoping to come up with something to jazz it up a bit.  I love the way it turned out and I was happy to practice my paper piecing skills a little more.

A quick Pop in

Hi Hi!!!

Just popping in to let you guys know that I have been doing some spring cleaning and I am destashing some quilt tops for the crazy price of $50 each!!  (crazy for me, not for you)  So head over to the shop and check them out!!

Is it bigger than a bread box?

Last summer while I was out thrifting, I found this old wooden bread box.  It was pretty grimey and beat up, but I still wanted to bring it home and give it some love.

Well now, almost a year later, I have finally gotten around to giving it a new life.  I took it apart, sanded it down (just enough to get the bigger bumps and bruises out), painted it my aqua (of course), added some shiny new hardware to it and a fancy new back, and put it back together again.  And VOILA!...  what was old is new again.

The glass cleaned up really nice.  Once I scrubbed off all of the icky stuff that was stuck to it, it was like new again.  You can see where I scrubbed just a tad too hard and some of the R came off.  Oops.

The inside especially makes me happy.  Just can't go wrong with some happy scissors peeking out at you.

Now I have a new place to keep my works in progress, or tools, or..... well, I haven't quite figured out exactly what it's new purpose will be, but doesn't it look so nice sitting in it's new home?

And of course, it wouldn't be mine, unless I had some toys or other geekery to adorn it.  Not sure this is the right mix for it though.  I may have to go find some new toys just for my happy little box.

I have been experimenting with some new ideas for the shop.

It's been pretty empty since Christmas, but I plan on refilling it with all sorts of goodies soon.  I will be sure to give you a heads-up when I do.

A Granny A Day!!

So Pip, over at Meet me at Mike's is doing a Granny a day and I decided to sign up!  It sounds like a bunch of fun and I don't wanna miss out.  I may not get to do 1 granny square every day, but I am definitely going to try.

Note: this isn't a picture of a granny square, it is a picture of the beginnings of a monster mermaid, Pattern by the fabulously talented Jess Rollar of MilkyRobot.  I <3 all of her patterns.

Envelope Clutch

As soon as I saw Anna's blog post about her upcoming clutch pattern, I have been obsessively stalking her blog for the release of the pattern.  It is finally available!!!!  So after I dropped the girls off at school, I got to work.  This consisted of staring at my fabric for about 45 minutes trying to get "inspired".  Nothing was making me happy.  So I decided to delve deep into the secret parts of my stash, a place that I call "The Horde" and pull out things that give me anxiety to even think about cutting into.  I decided on an Ink and Spindle print that I bought for my birthday several years ago an old Echino quilting weight cotton, from the Chelsea collection, that has been hanging out in the horde also.  And finally, I went with some matching teal Ta Dot for the pockets.

The pattern was very well written and easy to follow.  I love the fact that the clutch is interfaced with canvas fabric for extra sturdiness.

She offers a lot of different options to truly make this your own.  I made the smaller size and opted to do the squared flap instead of a pointed one and left off the piping.  I didn't have the right size D-ring so I used a small split ring I had in my old bead stash and I left off the swivel clip because I didn't have one.

She also has an option to make an Ipad sized one!  I will definitely doing that one next.  And I can see making a ton of these in the future for gifts.

Lot's of sewing has been happening over here.  I have joined in a quilt bee and have been doing some other crafty things, but I will save those for another post.  :)

Wiksten

Continuing in the "trying new things" mode I am in, I decided to give making myself a garment one last shot.  I have tried several times to make something for myself that looks nice on me and that I would actually wear.  It always ended in disappointment.  Either it didn't fit, or it didn't turn out the way I wanted it too, or I would just something that I would never wear.  So I had pretty much just given up on the whole garment-making-thing.  Until I started seeing these gorgeous tanks start popping up everywhere.  So after contemplating for a few weeks, I decided to splurge and use some of my christmas cash to buy the Wiksten Tank Top pattern by Jenny Gordy.

I ordered some fabric from Sew Mama Sew and  headed out to my local shop to buy some pattern ease to trace the pattern.  There aren't that many pieces to the pattern so it didn't take long at all.  Cutting the actual pieces out of the fabric went fast also.  But after that, it took me 2 weeks before I actually got up enough nerve to finally start putting it together.  I read through the instructions over and over and over again, just to be sure I understood everything and last friday morning, I finally sat down to do it.  At first, I wasn't sure how it was turning out because it looked huge, but I just kept going hoping for the best.  When it was done, I rushed to the bathroom to try it on and I was thrilled that it fit perfectly (And goes nicely with my new unicorn cardigan)!

The simplicity of this pattern amazed me.  I was able to completely put this together in just a couple of hours.  I have already pulled fabrics from my stash to make 3 more.  So now that I have made this, my very 1st successful piece of clothing for myself, I may have enough confidence to maybe try sewing some other garments.

Swaps and Gifts

Before Christmas, I had mentioned to Jacey that I don't have a hand knit hat for myself.  I make them all the time, but they are always gifts for friends or family.  So she suggested that we do a swap.  She would knit a hat for me and I would make a mini quilt for her.  So I planned, and planned, and planned some.  Ordered fabric and waited for it to arrive and before I knew it, Jacey was done with my hat and I hadn't even started on her mini.    SO I told her to hang on to my hat until I was done and we decided to do our swap when we met up in Birmingham in early February. I knew she shared my love for the TV show Firefly and it's companion movie Serenity.  And being the geeky crafter that I am, I used this as my inspiration for the mini quilt that I came up with for her. 

Also, like me, one of her favorite fabric lines is Goodfolks by Anna Maria Horner.  So I knew that I had to use this for her mini.  Luckily, I have a pretty hefty stash and I was more than happy to dig into it for her.  I knew I wanted it to be somewhat whimsical and I knew I wanted to incorporate wording of some sort into it.  This is what I ended up with.

I embroidered a quote from the movie that the character Wash says.  "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."  I used the Goodfolks for a paper pieced border on the bottom.  I am very new to paper piecing and have been intimidated by it in the past but I was really stuck on and idea I had in my head so I just bit the bullet, got over my fears and gave it a shot.  I am very happy with how it turned out.  And I think I will be trying this border on other things in the future.

And here is what I got in return!

This gorgeous, cozy hat in my favorite color!!  I love it SO much, Jacey, thank you! A couple of other gifty things to share with you.  One given and one received.  The beautiful Darci of Stitches and Scissors and I have been chatting back and forth since we met at Sewing Summit last year.  And I am so happy that we have become friends.  I was having a rough week a little bit ago and she made and sent me this beautiful mini quilt!! 

Thank you Darci!  I makes me happy every time I look at it! For Christina's birthday, I tried so hard to think of something that she wouldn't make for herself.  So again, I turned to my geeky side and decided to make a little mini quilt for her inspired by Dr. Who.  More specifically, one of her favorite quotes. 

I always have such a fun time making things for her.  Her tastes are SO similar to mine, I can o crazy making things for her and know that she will like whatever it is.  :) Being a part of the crafty online community has been such a great experience.  And I have met some of the best people because of it.

Trying new things

I've been fiddling around with all sorts of new things lately.  New toys, new gadgets, new techniques  Get the idea?

Back in January, my friend Christina got a Pogo polaroid travel printer.  So of course, being the gadget freak that I am, I NEEDED to get one.  I am so happy that I did.  It is so much fun!  I can print wirelessly from my Macbook over the bluetooth and the 2x3 prints that pop out are stickers!!  So...much...love.  I made the cutest Valentine's Day card for my husband from the girls using a picture I printed out.

The printer doesn't use ink.  It uses a special thermal paper which is much less expensive.  I just want to print, and print, and print and then stick them everywhere!

So, while I was on this tiny photo kick, I decide to get an Instax mini 25, or rather, I suggested to my hubby that it would make the perfect gift for his valentine  :)

I have been having a lot fun playing around with this little camera.  It is so different then using a DSLR or even a point and shoot digital camera.  I am still messing around with it.  But it is a lot of fun.  Again, the photos this camera spits out are business card sized and they develop like a polaroid.  It has a little mirror on the front for taking self-portraits and that little white discy-thing on the wrist strap is an attachable lens for taking pictures close up!  Very handy.

I am working on some fun projects using these tiny photos, so hopefully I can share them with you soon!

I am working on the next blog post now about some crafty stuff I have been messing around with so you can expect that in a few days.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!