I had a great time at my first East Bay Modern Quilt Guild meeting at the end of June and came away with some assignments and some fabric! And it’s not just any fabric – it’s from Jay McCarroll’s Habitat line – and I have been wanting that fabric in a major way so I was thrilled! So guess what I made with it? Well, a mug rug of course.
The quilting lines aren’t straight but I am quite happy with the final result. I found the fabric was a little difficult for me to use because my favorite pieces are like quilt designs in themselves. Really awesome quilt designs in themselves. And I didn’t know how I could showcase the design of the fabric in my quilt design, while keeping the end result simple. So it took a couple of attempts. I hope the group likes it
I also made a quilt block for a baby quilt a guild member is making. I got to the meeting a little bit late so I didn’t hear the whole story – if there was one – I just raised my hand when we were asked who wanted to contribute.
Continue reading Baby quilt block and Habitat mug rug for the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild
I know I am probably totally late to the party, but I am so excited that I have discovered the mug rug! Now I can get good at quilting by making small quilts that are functional. Well, sort of. I mean who really uses a mug rug anyway? It just sounds lame: “Honey have you seen my mug rug?”… How could one even answer that question without rolling their eyes?
My friend Mrs. Simmons is pregnant and her due date came and went yesterday, so right now I am in a state of on-edgeness. At any moment I could receive a text – that the time has come and Mrs. Simmons is on her way to the hospital, entourage in tow. However, the text could take days to come, so I have to focus on other things. Today is Mrs. Simmons’ sister’s birthday so I have a feeling the baby might come today. Nobody knows what the sex of the baby is going to be which makes the whole situation even more exciting.
My friend Ali spent the last year and half in the process of finding and buying her very first house. And now that she’s moved in and has started the process of remodeling a portion of the house – there is clearly no rest for this girl – I am so happy for her! Congratulations Ali!
I could see how stressed she was throughout the entire ordeal and I hope now she can get back to what she is supposed be doing i.e. hanging out with me—whether it’s talking dogs, having a glass of vino, or eating our favorite lunch together (i.e. a Trader Joe’s log o’ goat cheese, eaten by itself and in entirety, with a spoon. You should try it.)
When I hang out with Ali, I tend to behave less like an adult and more like a kid. And it’s not just any kid I tend to act like. It’s…a fat kid. And sometimes even a mean, fat kid. Can you believe that?! Me neither! So I will try to explain so we can all better understand.
One thing Ali and I have in common is our love for food. We have very similar tastes when it
Continue reading Ali’s house
For years i have been saying that I need to come up with a quick, fun & easy holiday project so that I can send all my relatives in England something handmade. Well, this was the year that I finally made it happen. And for that I thank Kajsa Wikman, the author of Scandinavian Stitches (Stash Books) because were it not for a certain project I found in the pages of her book, my relatives in England and I would have been disappointed yet another time.
Here is a photo of her Yule House project from the book.
Yule House project from Kajsa Wikman's book Scandinavian Stitches
And these are the Yule houses I made for my relatives and a few other lucky people on this side of the lake.
my Yule Houses
These houses made the perfect gift for the relatives because they are incredibly lightweight and so are cheap to mail oversees. Also, you can select fabrics, and window and door shapes and sizes that you think will suit the person the house is intended for. I admit that it took me a long time to come up with fabric combinations I liked,
Continue reading A new year’s take on holiday house softies
I have had some time to get crafty! Look what I’ve been making!
a belated birthday and mothers day prezzie for my mom
my dad emailed me this pic of his belated birthday panel prezzie displayed on his cubicle wall
awful iPhone shot (there must have been schmutz on the lens) but you get the idea
These pieces are acrylic paint and spray paint on 5″ x 4″ canvas panels. First I painted each panel with a couple of coats of Liquitex acrylic paint, and then I used the Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter to cut out some stencils from freezer paper.
I ironed the freezer paper cutouts to the canvas panels, plastic side down. Freezer paper works like a dream with stencils because you can seal the edges to prevent leakage simply by ironing the stencil down. When you are ready to remove the stencil, it comes right off. The only difficulty I had was I had to keep ironing the freezer paper down in between coats of white spray paint. But I blame the $1.50 spray paint I was using that I got from Walmart. It was seriously lacking pigment. When I moved
Continue reading Stenciled Canvas Panels
Well my punishment for getting a speeding ticket a few months ago finally arrived the other day. If I want to do traffic school (and save the point on my record and resulting insurance hike) I must pay $271 by December 17th. The good news: I have some time to save up for the payment. The bad news: My options for holiday gift-giving are severely limited. I’ve already decided not to participate in the Secret Santa thing at work. And I’m pretty sure my friends have stopped expecting anything from me gift-wise at holiday time. But this still leaves my immediate family and a few special buddies that I just can’t remove from my “Nice” list this year. So I’ve been wondering what to do and have come up with a few ideas so far:
#1 I am going to raid my Etsy shop. There’s only 4 items left in it, but they’ve just been sitting there so… <shrug>. I hate to give slow-movers as gifts though, so I am not sure this will work unless one of the items just happens to start screaming the name of someone on my list.
#2 Shirt.woot.com. The T-shirt of the
Continue reading Holiday Gift Ideas for 2009 – On the Cheap
I just added the tree bird scrapbook I made to SpazMade, my Etsy shop. This is the front cover…
These days it’s hard to justify an impromptu spending rampage in jo-ann or your favorite local quilt or scrap supply shop. Some of us can’t even justify spending the gas it takes to get you there. As much as our local, independent craft suppliers need our support right now, we are limiting our purchases to the essential items we need to complete a specific project, instead of stocking up on fabric and papers we like but have no plan to use in the near future.
When I imposed strict limits on my spending earlier this year, it wasn’t with a happy face. But then I started thinking like a creative person should, and not only discovered a *silver lining* to my situation of limited means, but craftily came up with some new ways I could get my hands on the craft materials I need…
Mother’s Day is tomorrow so you may wonder why I am bothering to post a Mother’s Day gift project at the eleventh hour. There’s three reasons this post still makes sense:
#1 I know there are others like me out there who aren’t quite satisfied with what they’ve done, bought, or made so far for mom
