Hart 2 Heart

Studio view

I thought I'd share a bit of what was happening in my studio this week. I didn't clean up, I just thought I'd keep it real. This is NOT Martha's craft room. It is actually quite organized, but I'm always so busy working, that, well, what can I say. . .

Cheryl snapped some photos, while Paloma and I worked away. Since Paloma is way cuter that me, I insisted that she put HER in the photo collage.

I LOVE my workspace! That's me, in the back at the sewing machine. We are trying desperately to get a loan modification so we can actually afford to keep our house. I know we are in the same shape as so many people out there. There is hope, and it seems things are going in the right direction. 

My main project this week was sewing up some burp cloth sets. Each one includes two coordinating burp cloths, an appliqued onesie, and a baby spoon. Great new baby gift!

I like ribbons.

Lanky is always helpful in the studio.

Getting some spring skirts ready for the shop.

Sorting through a mountain of vintage linens.

There you have it. I won't see much of my sewing machine this week, as I have a big cookie order to tackle. It's for a Jamaican themed bar mitzvah! How cool is that! 

 

 

 

Oh sure, he looks innocent enough.

It's a long story. Let me start from the beginning. If you read my last post, you know I was pondering something new and creative and non work related to do. I was inspired by this awesome post over at Craftzine.

I used this photo, taken by the amazing Paige of my boys at an art opening. Trying to keep it simple, I decided to zero in on the smaller boy.

I changed it to black and white in photo shop, then used the "poster" application and made it look like this:

THEN, I enlarged it, made some of the lines darker, printed it out, and slapped it on my window.

I got so excited and forgot to photograph a few steps. Anyway. . . I found a piece of nice muslin in my stash, cut it, ironed it and taped it over the print out. Then I traced the lines I felt most important in replicating my boy, with a water soluble marker.

Then I went for it! I grew up doing a lot of embroidery. My mom taught me when I was little and I would draw pictures and turn them into embroidered pieces. I'll have to dig up those old projects to share. That's another story. Back to this tale.

I spent all Sunday afternoon relaxing on the couch, with my needle and floss, watching the JK Rowlings biopic on Lifetime. So, where did it all go wrong?!

It is still unclear when the crime occurred, but as I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee, I stepped out onto the back deck and noticed shards of wood scattered about. Upon further inspection, I realized it was the remnants of my EMBROIDERY HOOP! Aaaaaaargh. Fearing the worst, I inspected the perimeter, and discovered a wad of muslin, covered in doggy drool (dna evidence is being reviewed). There are holes too. Fortunately most of the damage isn't close to the embroidery. It occurs to me now that maybe Lanky misses Emmet. He's at skateboard camp this week, which might explain why I decided to embroider a portrait of him. 

I'm pretty sure the big man is an accessory to the crime. We may never know. 

 

My Latest Flower Garden

I love flowers, ALL kinds! This week I was inspired by Bitter Betty and her fantastic flower collar. And of course, I have lots of scraps, and I've had a thing for felt lately. So I made a bunch of fabric flowers (backed with heat-n-bond lite).

 

I layered 'em. . .

 

pressed 'em down . . .

 

stiched 'em on. . .

 

and voila!

 

I'm going to tweak the design a bit, and then put these tees in my Etsy shop. Yeah I know, not much in there at the moment. But I promise there's a big update coming. I've had a little trouble keeping all of my balls in the air lately. That whole, mom/wife/business/life thing. That's 4 balls. I can juggle 3. Really, I can. 
 
 
 

 
 

Woodland love

My shows are done and I finally have a moment to sit on the couch and crochet some more hats! 

 

The winter owl is my latest hooter. 

 

But my favorite is Ricky Raccoon. He looks a little like a grey owl, but you get the idea, and he's much cuter than the enormous counterparts we encounter in our back yard.

 

What I should be doing is getting on with Christmas. We got the tree, the boxes are littering the living room, and wrapping paper is taking over my studio. I did get my boxes mailed to relatives far are wide. That was a relief. I'm almost through with Kelley Hart special orders, and I have just a few more hand made gifts to finish up. Feels good to make progress. Now I'm off to my Leads group Christmas luncheon! 
 
 

 
 

 

Bring on the scraps.

As I've mentioned before, I have lots of scraps. Throwing fabric away, especially vintage, no matter how small the scrap, is a challenge for me. So of course I must find a use for said scraps.

One thing I like to do is make appliqued note cards. I cut hearts out and stitch them onto precut card stock. My Bernina does a nice blanket stitch.

The patchwork hearts are cut from an unfinished antique quilt top someone gave me. It was pretty damaged, so I don't feel too bad cutting it up.

I package 6 cards and envelopes in an organza bag. Cute no? 

Time to go to bed. Both Emmet and Andy are now sick with a raging cold and cough. I need to rest so I don't get it. I have too much to do to be sick! I know you feel me. 

Scraps

Was anyone into that "Watercolor quilt" phase of the 90's? It was a pretty cool technique. I took a class, made a couple quilts, and ended up with 100s of little 2 inch squares leftover.

One of the cool ideas I got from the class was to use pizza boxes (clean/unused) for all of the squares. I just went to my local pizza place and they gave me a few! I organized the squares in little stacks by print and value. And of course I saved them all. Back in June, Alicia wrote about a great way to piece squares. That was my ah ha moment! What to do with those pesky leftovers! Good thing fabric doesn't spoil.

The idea is to use lightweight fusible interfacing. Arrange your squares on the fusible side, butted up against each other, and then, iron away!

Next, with a 1/4 inch seam, sew each row of squares together.

At this point, it's most important to press VERY WELL, with all seams going in one direction.

From the right side, your block will look like rectangles.

Next, stitch the remaining seams. Miraculously you should have perfectly matched corners.

Using a quilting foot (1/4 ") is very helpful here.

There you have it!

Another UFO! Hopefully it won't be another decade before I turn this into something. Maybe a pillow. Yeah that's the ticket. 

So I finished a quilt.

What do you do when you're sad and lonely because your 13 year old has abandoned you to go to the skateboard camp of his dreams? You finish a ufo that has been stuck to your design wall for a few months. 

Naturally I got started late in the evening, because that's how I roll, so the lighting in my photos is crap.

It's been a while since I've sandwiched a quilt. I was taught the traditional way of putting a quilt together; taping the backing fabric to the floor, layering on the batting and then the top, followed by crawling around on your knees, hand basting the three layers together. My knees and back were a lot younger the last time I did this.

I decided to machine quilt this one, so it would be extra durable AND I could zoom through it. This is the best therapy when you want to be distracted and feel productive. So I found a fun chick flick on the tube, one that Andy would never watch with me. Have you seen "Under the Tuscan Sun"? I hadn't. The scenery was beautiful, and it featured a lovely middle aged woman (Diane Lane) looking for love while remodeling an incredible villa. It could happen. I kept waiting for Richard Gere to show up. By the end, I realized it was a different movie they were in together. Sheesh, now I'll have to watch that one.

One of my favorite activities in the evening is doing handwork, nestled into the couch...

...with Smokette's assistance. Really, she's so much help. I machine sewed the binding to the quilt, then finished it by hand.

This part takes forever, but again, it is therapeutic, and makes for a beautiful finish.

I used a couple pieces of vintage fabric I had in my stash for the backing.

Aaaahhh. I feel better now.

My YO YO obsession

I have a new hand work obsession, YO YOs! I've always loved the look of yo yos in quilts and such, but had never made any. Since I have scraps galore, I thought I'd try to whip up some yo yos, with no particular project in mind. Heather Bailey has a great tutorial that inspired me to get started.

So I made a few, tedious to be sure. THEN I discovered the coolest tool EVER!

Whoever invented this is a genius! Seriously! This clever tool is made by Clover and is available in several sizes. I got mine at Joann's, but it is also available here, among other places I'm sure. I've heard they have a heart shaped one too, but I haven't found it, but I must. Making a yo yo with out the tool may take, oh, 15 minutes, WITH the tool? Like 3, yes THREE minutes--not that I timed myself! The directions in the package are very clear. My head is spinning with things I want to make and embellish with yo yos. For now, I'm making these:

I'll be selling these fun hair clips, at my upcoming shows. I had (and bought more!) cute buttons that I sewed to the yo yo, then sewed the yo yo to a contour clip. 

And since I like to make things cute AND complicated, I decided to make tags and ribbons to coordinate with, and display the barrettes!

Did I mention I was obsessed?

Spring Break!

In these parts, we're on Spring Break. We were ALL ready. Too much homework, too many early mornings. So while the 12 year old was happy spending all of his free time skateboarding, I've been entertaining myself with a variety of crafty projects. Here's a sneak preview:

Can you guess what these will be?

This is pretty obvious. . .

. . . and scraps, boy do I have scraps!

. . . and you should see my studio! Maybe you shouldn't. Actually.

I could either finish these projects, or clean my studio. Let me think about that. Or not.

Valentine's Pin Tutorial

I wanted to make a cute gift to give to some of my friends for Valentine's day, and this is what I came up with. A fabric heart pin! I thought I'd better post about it before the big day passes.

I was able to use all supplies I had on hand, making it thrifty and sweet!

You will need:

Various fabric scraps (I used quilt weight cottons)

felt

Heat-n-bond light (iron-on adhesive) 

fleece batting

pinking shears

pin back (or small safety pin)

Step 1: Cut a piece of Heat-n-bond the same size as each scrap of fabric you plan to use for your hearts. Follow the package instructions and iron the adhesive paper to the back of your fabric. It is best to use the "lite" Heat-n-bond, which is also marked "sewable". The heavy is good if you don't plan to sew your project. The heavy adhesive will gunk up your needle if you try to sew through it. Believe me, I've tried it.

Also apply the adhesive paper to the fleece.

Step 2: Make 3 heart templates out of card stock, or other cardboard/plastic stuff. One should be 3 inches across, one 2 inches, and the last 1 1/2 inches.

Step 3:  On the paper backed fabric, trace as many hearts as you need to make the number pins you'd like. Also cut an equal number of 1 1/2 inch hearts out of the fleece.   

Step 4: Cut out your hearts.

Step 6: Remove the paper backing from the hearts and assemble the heart layers. Lay your felt on the ironing board, then place the small fleece heart, with the 3 inch heart on top of that, leaving enough felt border around the 3 inch heart to cut with pinking shears. The adhesive side faces the felt. (Does this sound complicated? It's really not!)

 

Step 7: Iron the 3 layers together. If your felt is synthetic (acrylic say), you will need to put a press cloth over the layers before you press, or the felt will melt to your iron. Nice.

Step 8: Iron the 2 inch heart on top of the 3 inch heart.

Step 9: Cut the heart out using pinking shears, leaving about a 1/8 inch border.

Step 10: Time to sew! Zig zag around both hearts in a contrasting color-bright pink works for me. It's helpful to use an applique foot for this part. (and yes, I know I need a manicure).

Cute, no?

 

Step 11: Sew on the pin back (or small safety pin). You can find pin backs at Michaels or Joann.

Make one for yourself too! And remember, though you should never wear your heart on your sleeve, it's cool to wear it on your lapel . . . or hat. Just sayin.