Trip and cross stitch

Well, I am working on leaving town. My husband and I are going to California!! yay, Utah is freezing right now. It is not a good time with work and finances, but my cousin is getting married and we have been wanting to go the entire three years that we have been together, so off we go. Look for the pictures of the cross stitches that I am taking with me to do while we are in the car. I am hoping to make some major improvement in the next week. I have only been working on the one for 3 years now. Yikes!

yay!!! new fabric

Oh, check out this new fabric line! It is called Urban Flannel designed by Valori Wells for Free Spririt

This is just one of about 30 different designs in the line. They are so cute. Plus, they have a list of amazing free patterns that you can just download. I found this in an ad in my McCalls Quilting magazine. I think that i may just have to brake down and buy some to make some cute blankets with!!

Second, every one should go to Robert Kaufman Fabrics and check out the lines that are put out recenly by monaluna, about town and mingle. They are sooooooooooo cool.

Wow, a wall hanging and a table runner in the same weekend!

So, everyone has to understand that I love to buy fabric. I always have plans for that fabric and then I don't get to working on that project before I find something else. So, I decided that I wanted to work on using a bunch of my fabric and make the things that I have been planning on. Hopefully I can get a couple more projects done before I change my mind. This table runner (which isn't finished completely obviously. Only the top) is made using Shangri-la material by 3 sisters put out my Moda Fabrics and Little Charmers II patterns by Heather Mulder Peterson put out by Ankas Treasures. I bought the charm pack last summer on Ebay. If you can find the right auction you can get charm packs at such a great price and even with shipping they are cheaper than you could buy them in a local store. It is way way easy. I think that i took me about an hour and a half if that. The longest part of the time was just picking out the fabric for each part. Then the cutting and sewing time took about 45 min. Click on it if you want to see the picture a little bit bigger. Hope that you enjoy!

Wow, this craft room...

This craft room that is featured on Whipup looks like my husbands aunts craft room. Hers is all the area above their four car garage. It is awesome. This would be the most amaaaaazing space. Wish that you could get rich on simply dreaming and build the perfect space for everything you wanted.

The rest of the Welcome Sign

I guess that I should have just put all of the rest of the pictures on the same post, but I didn't know that I was going to have time to finish the front today. I have to admit, that one of the fun parts of sewing is that I put in a movie and listen while I am working, and I have watched Disneys Enchanted twice today. Too fun.

So here are the pictures of the squares inside boxes that go above and below the flowers. I didn't ever really understand the instructions and couldn't really see what they look like in the picture in the pattern or online, so I decided that I would do them my own way. While the pattern on the material is not upright the way that I did it, I really like it.
Then I sewed the flower border to the square border.Finally I sewed all three rows together.
Now I just have to decided how it want to sew around the applique flowers, squares and letters. I then have to find some material to bind it. (I always forget to buy that when I buy fabric.)

So, there is a cute welcome sign that so for has taken about 2 hours between the cutting, ironing and sewing. Of course, I was looking up to watch a movie so i can't totally gauge my time. However, I really like charm packs and the variety of material that they give you and also how easy they are to use. It would have taken a lot more time to cut them all out. I will post the final product when I finish with it.

The flower borders

So, these flower borders were really easy. I just traced the flowers, stem and leaves onto the Steam a seam and then ironed and cut out. Once you remove the steam a seam paper, you just iron the items to the material you want to add to. Now, I have to admit that that is very easy, I just don't like the time it takes to trace and cut. There are a lot of little different parts in this one. However, applique is not nearly as scary as it seems. It is rather easy using the steam a seam. Now I just have to figure out the stitch I am going to put around them to make them look like they are finished.
So, I am now finished with 2/3 of the front of the wall hanging. I just have to now understand the parts about the other squares. The instructions are quite confusing. Oh well. That is the fun part of the project. Figuring it out.

The start of the welcome sign

So, I decided that I would post the different steps of the welcome sign that I am making, mostly so that I can watch the process of a sewing job for me and about how long it takes me. Hope that you enjoy me first blocks. I am using a charm pack called Fig and Plum put out by Moda Fabrics. The pattern is "Flower Welcome" by Bloom Creek. (By the way you should all check out the OH, Americana pattern and just look through all their patterns. There are some really fun ones.) I first took and traced the letters onto Steam a Steam 2 and then attached them to the fabric. Here is the row unsewn. I really like the colors of these materials. Now, I know that these aren't the greatest picture, but it is a work in progress. I take terrible pictures. However, you can see one picture with the whole thing and the last couple a little closer up. I will post the next parts as I finish them.

Valentines Day Wall Hangings

So, Abby and I have been working on these wall hangings for a couple of weeks. The pattern is by the Crazy Old Ladies. I think that the pattern is called seasonal skinnies. They have patterns for several seasons. They are extremely simple and fun. They called for enough material to make two hearts and so I made two and gave one to Shayla. This is hers:

This one has a lighter pink border because I think that the lighter colors come out more in the heart.

The next one is a little different. I decided that I was going to try and so a little quilting on my own machine. I don't have a foot that is good for it, but I cut out some paper hearts, penned them to the background and border and sewed around them. I think that they turned out pretty cute. My husband thought that they were awesome. He really wanted me to try random hearts. Hope that you enjoy!

Riviera Table Runner

So, I was looking through my Connecting Threads catalog yesterday and I found this table runner. I mostly like it because of the colors of the material, however, I like the strips too. There are these two views on their website. I am going to have to go through my bright colored materials and see what I can do with them.

The new stuff

So, I was with my friend abby today working on a wall hanging for valentines day (which I am going to finish Friday and will post as soon as it is done. It is soooooooo cute!!) and I have decided that I just can't look at my own posts anymore. It just makes me want to go and buy all the fabric I find and do the projects that I see. But that is just not possible. I have to use what I have and wait to have a little more money to spend.

So, I started the card making lists and scrapbooking links in a new list on the side of the blog. I think that those lists are never ending. But, it is nice for me to be able to find the things that I look at and I will look at again.

I was at a baby shower yesterday and my aunt made the cutest baby blanket ever. I am going to have to make one with all the scraps that I have around. She took a large piece of muslin and used it as the backing of the baby blanket. Then she cut squares of cotton fabric into squares that looked like they were about 3". She then placed them on the muslin and topstiched them on. She left about a 1/4" around each square free, like a rag quilt, so that it could rag up. Because the squares are placed a little bit apart from each other, they looked like they had a white border sewn between them. She then used other fabrics and made a small binding for the edge. It was the cutest baby blanket that I have ever seen. If I can get pictures I will post them.

Hope you enjoy checking out the links.

Back Porch Bouquet!!!

Oh my!!! I found this incredible quilt and fabric today. I love love love it!!! It is from Maywood Studio and the line is called Back Porch Bouquet. This is the pattern with the pink fabrics.The next one shows some of the purple fabrics in this set. I love purples and some day want to make a big quilt of all purples. I don't care for the pattern as much.This site has tons and tons of patterns and has many free patterns. You should all check it out!

First batch of cards

So, here are few of my creations. Some aren't that great and some I really like. This first one is one of my favorite ones. Not a great picture of this one, but I do like the colors.
This is my second favorite.
This is my husbands favorite because he likes the colors the best.
I like the colors on this one.
This one is just plain and fun. Not a great picture. I don't do well with pictures esp. with my camera.
Different, but cool.
I love the colors on this one, esp. the flowers.
This next one is not quite finished. I think that I want to put a tag through the eyelet on the top left that attaches to a tag that says either thank you or something.
I had to make something bright colored.

New creations, new blog lists and more fun!!!

So, I know that I have been doing all sorts of different things on this blog, new materials, new sites, quilts, baby blankets, wall hangings, patterns. Well, I have decided that this is just going to have to become an overall craft blog. I decided that I needed to de-junk on the craft supplies in my closet as my husband and I are looking at the need to move. So, i started making cards. I have to say that this card making think all started when my husband was telling me that he buys me things that, then I don't get around to using them for a while. (That is actually when I really started sewing too.) He bought me a Cricut Machine for my birthday and I acquired some new cartridges for Christmas. I think that I spend more time just messing around with my machine and not working on projects, but that is the fun of having a toy. Making cards is a fast way to use some supplies and yet new and innovative way of thinking for me. This is awesome. I am going to take and add some new lists of the different card sites that I have found and also scrapbooking supplies sites that I have been looking at on a regular basis.

Also, when I get around to posting new pictures, I am going to take a picture of my new serger that I bought for Christmas. This is the most awesome new toy that I have bought and I am sooooooooo excited about it.