From This to That: January 2014

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Paris wreath

One of My dearest friends loves all things Paris, so when I found Paris burlap, I knew I had to make her something. Of course since the burlap was on sale and I hada "25% off total purchase" coupon, it was a no brainer. I also found some gorgeous toile ribbon on clearance. I used This tut: http://www.susieharrisblog.com/2013/08/burlap-wreath-diy.html?m=1
And in less than half an hour (Christmas morning) I had Nelle's wreath finished! It was a fun easy project and well received! I did learn NOT to wear black while working with burlap! The picture is of my lap after making the wreath! There's a double blog hop going on over at Sewwequilt this week! Sewing room organizing and doorstops! Very cool projects sew far! Check it out!
I am planning to sew along to day with Sew much 2luv. Hopefully i willremember to upload my pictures thisweek!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Monday sew along on Tuesday

Monday, I decided to look for something in the craft room, aka "i don't know where to put this, let's throw it in here room" and got side tracked.
"I can't clean my craft room because I get distracted by all the cool stuff I find"
One of the "cool finds “ was a zip lock baggie of HSTs. These are for one of my first quilt attempts. The quilt was for my sister's first or second Christmas after her wedding. She's been married for over 10 years now. I remember being so happy that the quilt to was going to be ready to wrap by Christmas. I knew the whole quilt wasn't going to be finished but the top was coming along nicely and then.... (insert dramatic music) if you look closely at the pictures you will see that these lovely half - square triangle squares are stitched wrong sides together. EVERY ONE OF THEM! I didn't even notice until I had cut 14 of the little boogers apart. My friends and I had a girls night that evening, watching a movie and they helped pick some of the offending squares apart but these were still waiting. For Christmas I gave Lou the book that had the pattern with one finished block inside and a note. And that was as far as this quilt ever got.
I started picking the squares apart and have only a few left. Who knows? Maybe she will get a quilt for her anniversary this year! :-)

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Wake up

Good Morning - its time to Wake Up with Kona!

I must admit, I have never worked with solids - I even have trouble using them with prints, never mind by themselves. When I signed up I thought it would be a great time to use up the Jelly roll I bought ages ago. Then I looked at the Jelly roll and it wasn't Kona. Oh stink! I have less than a week to find fabric and then make something fabulous. Why didn't I check that sooner? ( because it's me) Of course last week - we were in a polar vortex and it was 16 below zero. and my driveway was very full of snow. Thankfully I had a friend who was going the right direction and she offered to pick up my fabric! (I have the best friends)To make things easier I told her just to grab 2 blues, 2 greens and a white.at this point I didn't really care- I just needed fabric. I still didn't have a clue what to make.

you will meet professor Kona in a moment

Stanley doesn't care about the catnip, but he
did play with it a little

In my Hawthorne Threads Newsletter there was a pattern for catnip mice- "hey, they are solid I will try those!" Of course they are made from felt so it didn't work quite right- it took me a few tries but I got one to look ok!

Making the mice got my creativity jump started and I found the pattern for Owl you need is a Sewing buddy and made....

Professor Kona:

Professor Kona is holding all my little necessities.
I added some elastic on the one wing to hold more stuff!

He also sells my supplies so I can't find them

I noticed with the rotary cutter covering his eye that he looked rather villainous. I believe this could be the gremlin responsible for all those sewing mishaps.

Kekoa Pueo means Warrior Owl

Kekoa Pueo's Pet is one of the earlier attempts at the mouse
I just couldn't get the formula for the ears right

I found this pillow on Pinterest and decided to give it a try- I really love the pattern and will definitely make it again. I made it a pillow case for my favorite reading pillow.

Another Pinterest find ! I fell in love with this heart

decided to try a solid one- I found a piece of black solid in my stash- I stole it out of a kit so hopefully I will remember to replace it before trying to make that project. It is definitely NOT Kona- not good quality at all. I made a postcard ( thanks Sheila for getting me addicted to these) This picture is not the greatest. :(

Since these hearts were so small, I decided to FMQ all
over them instead of around the edges of each one.

For my last project- I was inspired by a comment left on another post- " I was expecting a coffee cup" Since the logo for this hop is a coffee cup, I made another postcard.

The Best Part of Waking up is Kona in your Cup- be it coffee or fabric! Since I didn't have much color to work with ( the yellow is a scrap of "not Kona" from my stash) I used a variegated thread for some more color and rickrack for fun.

the postcard backs

This hop was a challenge and I will definitely be adding to my solid stash and making more all solid projects! (although I still really want to add some polka dots to my owl!) Thank you Madame Samm and Carol for S t r e t c h i n g my creativity!

Be sure to check out these other GREAT Projects!

January 16

CeLynn’s Sunflower Patch

Robin’s Fabric Nest

Quilted Delights

Sew Me Something Good

Saturday, January 11, 2014

january

Wow! Wow oh wow! It is only January 10th and I have FINISHED some projects! I know - it is rather shocking! First I finished Seth's blanket:

I just Love this little guy!

Then I finished 3 small projects (no matter the size- a finish is a finish!) for the Wake up to Kona Hop- but I can't show them to you yet! So here is a picture of Earl Stanley Grey "helping" me out.

You can see all the bright colors I got to work with.

I am also close to finishing this quilt top- I started it a couple years ago for a friend who loves kitties but since they travel all over the country for most of the year, they can't have one. :( This way she can cuddle with a whole bunch of kitties! This quilt is working up a lot larger than I thought it would- I had "lap quilt" pictured and it is almost covering my double bed- and I have two more borders to put on!

Kitties in the Garden I am using 3 different kitty prints and a lot of flowers
(the flowers that look like Easter eggs in the picture are not eggs,
they really are Hyacinths

Be sure to check out last week's Blog Hop Participants- there are a lot of Gorgeous projects and the colors will brighten your day!

January 7

Just Let Me Quilt

Sparrow in Flight

Geta’s Quilting Studio

How ART You

Desertsky Quilts

January 8

Stitchin’ By The Lake

That’s Sew Julie

Living With Purpose

Nini’s Patchwork Blog