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gosh-more Easter? Yup, sorry.
Here are the cards we sent out this year. And all from my stash here in the craft room-not one single thing purchased for this project (well, not purchased recently-you know what I mean) so-I only made 10 cards-sorry to friends/family who didn't get one-I burnt out and am officially using the "2 kids under the age of 3" excuse to those of you left out.-So, lots of Easter love a few days late!
She lives here now. I splurged and got this blue bunny from Camilla Engman. She is so lovely.
and look at the swap I got from The Small Object! I think Sarah (might have gotten the short end of the deal-I made out like a bandit! It was all gift wrapped so pretty-she sent me postcards, a photo album, original artwork (!)
and the Family Tree I coveted so much! Wow! I raved about her last week and am a bit stalker-ish about her illustration style, and now I have all this stuff from her-too much! Nice-happy-crafting- goodness-overload! Must drink some coffee now, go for a walk and calm down. . .
Easter was wonderful-albeit very rainy. Here's some cupcakes Grammie made with chick-in-red bonnets toppers that I had to have from the decorette shop.
and Grammie made the chicken cupcakes from the March Martha Stewart magazine
On the way home from the chiropractor today (pinched a nerve and woke up with such a pain, I looked like I was wearing an invisible neck cast all morning, charming!) I was able to score some Easter decorations half-off today. Love the day after sales. And love the fact that one of the shops that sells this sort off stuff in next door to the chiropractor. . .I feel much better now.
Before I show the tutorial about tying off a simple quilt-I have to talk about Mecozy. Multi-talented artist Kerstin Svendsen makes quilted tea cozies. Yes, I said quilted tea cozies. They are minimal and wonderful and so lovely-please go take a look at her shop. She also has a nice weblog (and thanks for the mention, Kerstin!)
okay-here's the visuial tutorial on tying off a quilt-which was mentioned last week as a way to keep your precious fabric intact beacuse you are too in love with it to cut it up.
Pretend this is a big quilt, not the small little thing I'm showing for this demo-Layer the backing, batting and top, and smooth out. Then pin no less than 6" apart in rows and columns. This will take a long time-smooth as you go and tell puckering to take a hike- If you have created quilt blocks, you can pin at the corners and in the middle of each block.
Next-using yarn (you can also use embroidery floss) stick the needle through all 3 layers at each pinned spot. Go up and down, and then to the next pinned spot-leave the long strand in-between. You will cut at the end, just keep sewing. When you have all your pinned spots sewn through, cut the yarn in the middle of each section-so you have tails to tie in a square knot.
Tie each in a square knot and then trim, leaving about 1/2" tail-
here's the back-you can see the little spots where the yarn has gone through. If you really don't want anything distracting from your lovely top fabric-you can tie the knots on the back. Then the front will look like this (of course, you can also match the yarn to the fabric, so it won't show as much)
Here is a lovely vintage quilt of mine that has been tied off. You can see the yarn tails where the points match up. Now you just have to bind the quilt and you are done! Binding is it's own subject-and I suggest a book for this. There are several ways to do it, so there is no need to re-invent the wheel and make up your own way (which I am always tempted to do and always regret!) I like this book-but any book that covers binding should help-checking one out from the library is a great way to go, too. Hope this helps and send me photos of your whole cloth quilts if you try this!
these kitty heads have a lot to say! happy easter.
Here's the "nap pillow" Grammie made for Sadie. Amanda was talking about Amy Butler's patterns on SouleMama-this is the only one I have experience with-although I bought many more. Mom said the petals were hard-but she busted this out for me in a weekend!
Here's the back-I gave her a huge pile of fabrics that I hadn't used from my stash and she did this great scrappy back-this was not in the pattern.
And check out this CUTE spider!! This is in the pattern-it's a good one. The whole flower cover comes off the pillow form (which you also have to make) so it can be washed-but it gets a bit lumpy when it comes out of the dryer because the petals are stuffed as well. The babies LOVE it. Thanks Grammie!
This is my favorite sewing book ever. I got it in college and use it all the time. It's especially good for crafters who like to make up their own patterns-so you don't have to re-invent how to put in a zipper, etc.
When I asked my costume instructor which general sewing book I should buy, she said this one, and boy was she right. Plus it has all these really groovy patterns and photos which are amazing.
look at this "garden smock"!! too cool. I can't believe that I haven't made this one yet.
I'm feeling the power of the internet. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way, but sometimes I just get so dang HAPPY that I can say hi to such amazing talent out there-for example, I fell in love with this Family Tree print over at The Small Object that Sarah did (this is a detail) and then just decided to say "hi" and tell her how much I loved everything over there that she sells-then she said "hi" back and now I am totally happy.
Also, Tania has a lovely new spring look and a lovely illustration up now for illustration friday (which I will participate in next week-my new goal. at least once a month) I finally said "hi" to her after lurking on her blog forever. And again, she said "hi" back. See the happiness?
I also am feeling that special kind of funny mama pain with this from Amanda over at SouleMama-please read it-it's too good-
as is this from Krystyn over at coffeegirlstudios, scroll down to the very bottom to read "girls don't have wieners"-mothers of young boys will laugh even harder.
Hooray computer!
I really want to learn how to do crewel work. I haven't even tried but I know it will be next on my list of crafts. There is this great shop on the coast, the twining thread, that has this pattern. They sell it as a kit-which is so tempting-so I don't have to figure out what to buy.
Then, when I am good I can do this pattern
from wool and hoop-which is such a great company I think everyone should buy a pattern from Katherine.
