Bits and Pieces

My Impatiens in August

Recently I saw a tutorial for quilt squares called Quartered Squares that I really loved. I immediately decided I was going to make a quilt using this design. Then a few hours later my brain said "Hold on there!" I knew I had so many other projects to be completed, and starting a quilt was not only silly right now, it would require the purchase of more fabric. And I really would like to work through the fabric I have plans for before buying more. But then, as I was pumping iron at the gym, the idea came to me... Make a few blocks and turn them into a table runner! For my kitchen shop. So while visiting my parents yesterday, I put some scraps and fat quarters together that coordinated (I should probably have enough to make 3 different color theme runners with what I have now) and dove into making a trial table runner. I did modify the sizes of each row to make the squares smaller.

Table Runner Quilt Squares - atop the fabric I will use for the back, binding will be a natural cream color

At this point all the squares are made and sewn together and I have purchased coordinating fabric to finish off the back and binding (less than $2 for a minimum amount of sale fabric from Hobby Lobby). I'm very excited, but a little nervous about the free motion quilting thing again. At least the size of this should be totally doable.

I HAVE been chugging away at some other shop items in anticipation for next week's Farmer's Market. Not sure I will make my goal, but I'm working on it. For a sneak peak, here are a couple of the HOLIDAY towels that are done. Yes, holiday already!

Love that reindeer fabric! Click to enlarge!

Today my totally sneaky and wonderful husband sent me a BEE-YOOtiful bouquet of flowers while he's off on a business trip! Aren't they totally gorgeous! He really tricked me into being home for our remodeler guy to bring by some paperwork to sign so that I'd be home for the delivery of these.

My Bouquet!! - perfect colors for the end of summer I think

Finally, (long post I know) I found another stitcher Marie through a recent feature on Heather Bailey's blog who is also creating these name pillows that Crystal of Little Bit Funky is making. I was so excited when I saw this grandma pillow. What a GREAT idea for a gift!! Pattern is available here if you wanted to try making one yourself. Make sure to check out Marie's blog, I love the personalized towels she makes too.

And I'm off to the Farmer's Market. I'm going to get my sewing scissors sharpened, buy some popcorn for the kids and see what else I can find.

Hope you are having a lovely summer day!

Easy Heart Ornaments

I made up these simple cuties using my latest batch of "bits and pieces fabric scraps" from lassiegirl.

I saw something similar to these on a blog I read.

I also saw another post at Nicole's Our Cozy Nest with Tshirt appliques she did using a decorative stitch. I decided then that I really wanted to use a decorative stitch for something. Unfortunately, my machine has no such stitches. Luckily, my mom's does, so when we went to visit my parents on Thursday, she let me use her machine and I used its decorative stitches to make these little pillow hangy things.

They each have a different fabric on the back. SO easy to make.

Cut 2 heart shapes from 2 different fabrics. Cut some ribbon long enough to form a tab. Pin ribbon into place as a loop at the top to the wrong side of one fabric. Place wrong side of other fabric to wrong side of fabric with loop. Stitch together around edges until just over the second hump of the heart. Stuff with polyfil and then stitch closed. So simple. Should I be ashamed? (Not to mention I SHOULD be working on things for the shop...)

These were lovingly made for my children's preschool teachers and aides as well as the women I work with as mentors to teen moms.

This is my favorite.

I'd like to make a bigger deal about Valentine's Day than I have in the past. This is just a start.

Have you made or purchased any fun Valentine's gifts yet?

Teachers' Gifts

Crafters, looking for ideas for a small gift for the holidays?

Another project DONE! My mom forwarded me an email from the site YouCanMakeThis and I scrolled down a ways to find THE project I was going to make for the teachers at my children's preschool for a holiday gift! I had purchased some holiday fabric at the quilt store not knowing quite what I was going to do with it. But now it has found its purpose, well at least one of its purposes! (There is more left).

Lucky for me, my generous mom has an embroidery machine and she agreed to do up some of the front panel for me. She has also made up some for herself and has started working on some of these (with different fabric for the border and back) as gifts for some friends.

The colors I chose are not the traditional Christmas red and green, but I really like these. The sample shown on the website has cool jingle bell trim at the bottom, but I couldn't find anything like that. So I went to the home dec trim section of the fabric area at Hobby Lobby and found these little dangly things that I thought looked like ornaments. I love how they turned out.

This is a FREE pattern that you can find HERE. You just need to register with the site to get the free pattern directions and if you want to get the file for the machine embroidery you can get that too. Or you can do it by hand, the pattern for that is included in the instructions. Such a simple fun gift to make! Here is the sample you'll find on their site.

The Covered Crate

Did you ever have milk crates?

 

Do you still have them?  We  have a few around and they are actually put to good use.  Mainly in the storage area of our basement.  Well it's time to break them out again people.  People who can sew a very easy project that is.

I first saw this idea on Joy's Hope where she referenced the original free tutorial.  These are milk crate slip covers!!

I've made two now and am just waiting for a storage closet to be done (shelves put up) so I can proudly use them to hold some of my fabric and other crafty business.  I'm pretty sure I need to make more for other storage needs. ;-)  And when I need to take them out to use something in them.  They'll look great, instead of milk crate...ish.  The Heather Bailey fabric I used to make these was purchased from the Fabric Shoppe.  The natural colored fabric is canvas, but you can use a lighter weight fabric.  I just wanted mine to be really sturdy.

If you want to do this project but find that the dimensions of your crate do not match those of the tutorial, the tutorial tells you how to adjust the measurements for YOUR CRATE SIZE!

What a fun - easy - and pretty project!

In family news...

The whole family enjoyed the downtown trick or treating event on Saturday.  We also painted a room, had a date at a local Italian restaurant and then attempted to walk off the calories at the mall.  

Last week Ella graduated in her swimming class from Pike to Eel.  Both kids will be taking swim classes now.  Both kids are in DANCE class.  Yes, even Miles.  What's wrong with that?  He loves it.  The teacher picked out cute costumes that have a boy verson with trousers, suspenders, a tie and hat.  Cute.  

I am enjoying teaching 3-4 year olds in my 3 new classes.  I still teach an accelerated ballet and jazz class but just added two pre-ballet and tap 1 classes and one pre-ballet and tap 2 class to my schedule.  I am also doing some paper pushing for the dance program and... drum roll please... pretty much got a very nice RAISE this weekend.  

In less happy news, hubby is sick.  He never gets sick, so I'm worried.  I was gone most of the day teaching and taking kids to dance classes when he needed me. :-(  He is sleeping now, so I hope his body is healing.  Seems like he has the flu.  Glad I got a shot.  We don't need two parents out of commision.  Just hope the kids don't get whatever he has.  I haven't gotten them flu shots  yet...

Tune in soon for exclusive photos of our newly painted 

DINING ROOM!

You can sew a Fabric Basket

Last week I found a tutorial at the PinkPenguin for a cute fabric basket and make one of my own. I think I'll use it for a little waste basket for fabric scraps when I'm cutting out pieces for projects.

I gave the other project I made to my mom. It was a wristlet, but I forgot to take a pic, so you don't get to see it. Sorry. I did cut out fabric to make another one, so maybe you'll see a similar one sometime down the road.

We had a very interesting Sunday. I had discovered the musical artist Bushwalla (Billy Galewood) through looking through some of Jason Mraz YouTube videos and such. We are big Jason Mraz fans. Anyway, Bushwalla has co-written some of Jason's songs, namely Curbside Prophet and they are good friends. I liked Billy's music and looking around further on his website found out he was doing a show (party) in Chicago THIS SUNDAY. I also noticed that he seems to prefer to do small shows, what he calls living rooms shows. This really attracted me because I prefer much smaller venues when going to hear a musician. I contacted the party organizer and we made it out to the venue (a forest preserve) to go see him. It was so fun as we met a lot of wonderful and welcoming people who were all Bushwalla and Mraz fans. Also, at such a small setting (there were only about 20 people there), we had "front row" seats and got to talk to Billy quite a bit. He was very gracious and friendly and just a really funny guy. He is a self proclaimed acoustic rhymer and has a other talents such as juggling, magic etc... So anyway, on with the pics...

Yes, this was our view of his show.

Having fun and goofing around. Two audience members helped fill in with the music.

He sang for quite a while as he balanced the tripod on his chin.

More than happy to pose for pics.

It was a great time and a fun adventure! I hope we get to see him again. I really hope we get to see the other great people we met again.

Cute Project/Present

I saw this crayon holder at Skip to my Lou and just HAD to make it. A friend who's little girl is turning 3 this weekend will be the recipient. I will have to get a few coloring books to go along with it.

The actual tutorial is here. She has plenty of other great projects to try as well.

Finally Halloween Pics / Just Call Me Lady Luck

Oh so much more happened on Halloween than you can see in these photos!

But let's start somewhere! Here is the lunch table for the adults. Finally I can show my friend Junie the table decorations made using her pattern. The witches hats were a hit! Each of the three families we had for lunch took one home as a gift from me! I also made one in a different fabric for my daughter's preschool teacher. Not pictured here is Ella's Halloween "parade" which we and her grandparents attended.



Here's just a sweet picture of Miles spending time with his paternal grandpa!



I had so much fun trick-or-treating with the kids! Here is a fun moment with Miles and I. Not pictured is the dancing he did in front of the house that was playing music.



The kids loved trick-or-treating. It was the first year Miles understood what was going on. What is not pictured is Miles crying his eyes out because he didn't want to put on the costume and me forcing it on him. Don't worry, he was quite happy when he figured out what this was all about!



Finally, this is the third year Ella has helped pass out candy. Not pictured is when she went away to get a treat and Jason and I were busy and Miles took over without us knowing. He just got right in there and did a great job!



So that was our fun Halloween. We let Ella carve (or patch as she calls it) her pumpkin yesterday. We were so busy that we didn't have time before or during Halloween.

I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I cleaned up my craft area. Jason helped get the kids' baby clothes and the rest of the garage sale leftovers ready for charity to pick them up tomorrow. I have ALMOST everything up on EBay. What else? I hope to soon find out if any of my crafts sold in Indiana this weekend at my friend Gail's mother in laws show.

AND FINALLY. I had a rough week, but God is looking down on me and has blessed me with good probabilities this weekend.

1. I won the neighborhood bunco on Friday. Not to mention I had a blast with the gals AND some of them are interested in my bags. They want me to bring them to Nov. bunco.

2. I won one of 2 gift baskets at a vendor show my MOMS club held to raise money for a women's shelter.

3. I won another bloggy giveaway. A cute Hello Kitty necklace to give to my daughter Ella from Co Co Kisses.


Isn't it cute? I might have to borrow it from time to time. ;-)

One thing I have learned lately is why not enter drawings, there is always a CHANCE! Not to mention the more you enter the better your chance of winning something. Not to mention my husband has the best "luck" in the world and it apparently it has rubbed off on me! :-) I never used to win anything.