Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Butterfly wall-hangings

A very dear friend of mine is trying to downsize a bit. She and her husband moved into her parent's home just after they passed away, so she inherited many of their "goodies". As well, she and her husband farmed for many years, and that always seems to end up making a collector out of you (ask me how I know!)
One day she showed me boxes of dainty lady's handkerchiefs that had been given to her mother for various occasions. The handkerchiefs were still pinned into their original boxes, and she estimated that some of them were at least 90 years old! She had no idea of what to do with them - she didn't think that any of the local "thrift" shops would appreciate them, so donating them wouldn't be an option. I have seen several craft ideas incorporating hankies, so I showed her a few pictures, and the crafting began. She has a daughter, daughter-in-law, and 2 grand-daughters.
The idea was to fold the hankies, then stitch them onto backing fabric so that the hankies looked like butterflies. That was the easy part! I finally ended up stitching fabric strips around the blocks, using colours that closely matched the variegated threads I'd used to stitch the hankies in place; then I bordered each block in brown to simulate windows. I added 4 hanging loops at the top, and the 4 women received their wall-hangings for Christmas! Brightly-coloured handerchiefs work a little better, but each one seems to have it's own personality.
Here's one of the wall-hangings:

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas quilts!

My youngest daughter has also been bitten by the quilting bug, and has become a great quilter in a very short time! This past spring, she suggested that we make quilts for her sister and brother, who both live 3 hours away from me. We each picked a few patterns, and then compared notes. We decided on 2 quilts from the Aug. '09 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. We raided our individual stashes, and had a few fun days auditioning fabrics in several local quilt shops. She spent 2 days here, as we first cut all the required parts of fabric, and we spent the 2nd day sewing merrily away! She made the quilt for her sis, and I made my son's quilt.
I know that I finished "my" quilt at 2:00 a.m. Christmas day..... and she may have finished hers at about the same time - but, they were completed, wrapped and "under the tree" when we opened our gifts later that afternoon.
Do you want to see what we made? Well, here are the Christmas quilts (we lovingly refer to them as "hugs from home"):
As you can see, they were put to good use:
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas - we did!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Some more of the things I've been busy with...


My oldest daughter would have my head if she read my title - you can't end a sentence with the word "with".... and I've almost done it again!
Moving on - I may have mentioned before that I belong to a quilting group on the internet. We have a number of swaps going on at any given time, the latest being an ornament swap. This was my ornament for this year. It's made from craft felt, and the little stocking has jewel-toned metallic floss stars stitched onto it, and the cuff has gold metallic floss French knots. The word "joy" is also done in the gold floss. The stocking is stitched on using my sewing machine's blanket-stitch; the ornament's 2 layers are also stitched together that way.
I've also been quite busy trying to get my Christmas cards made. I deliver our town's weekly newspaper every Wednesday, and every Christmas, I add a Christmas card as it gets closer to the 25th. Last year, I decided that I'd make all 70 cards that I need for my route's customers. I have an ornament-shaped paper punch, so I used it to punch out various different bits of designer paper. I drew a "hanging string" with a fine silver marker, and then glued on the ornaments. A sentiment stamp at the bottom, another one inside, and I'm good to go! Now I'm all ready for the extra 48 hours I asked for, so that I can finish up all my Christmas projects! Here are a few of the cards: Christmas cards 2010

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Pictures, pictures - I've got pictures!


After having been absent from blogland for a while, I have come back with lots of pictures to share with you! Of course, I can't share them all in one post - I'm going to drag it out for a bit (that way I don't have to work on any new projects, and you won't know the difference!)
Seriously though, when I uploaded my recent project pictures, I discovered that I had done a lot more than I thought - go figure!
So, for today, I'll share a few birthday cards I've made in the last week or two:
The top one is CASE'd from my friend Anja. I chose 3 colours of cardstock and matching ink, and stamped a field full of flowers, then added a birthday "banner" with a lacy edge from one of my decorative punches, and finally, a butterfly with 2 small pearls for it's body.
The second card is softer, with it's muted colours. I reverse-masked the center of the card, stamped it with a scripted stamp, and then shaded the edges. Using the same soft purple, I stamped some vines in the top corner, and then punched out a few flowers in matching cardstock. I stamped them with the same script stamp, distressed them a bit, and made centers with large brads. Finally, I stamped the sentiment with the soft purple - and voila! two birthday cards for some very special ladies!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

you've all been SO patient!


I'm sorry it's taken so long to post a new submission - I couldn't access my account for some reason. That said, I don't have a lot to show for that whole time. I have lots of quilt projects on the go, but not much completed. But wait! I do have a kids quilt that's almost done!
A friend posted a link to a you-tube video - it's for a 10-minute quilt block. It looked fun, and easy, so I took advantage of my local quilt shop's anniversary sale, picked up some fun kid's prints, and this is the result:
I might add a narrow border in the green fabric, and then the binding will be the same green.

Monday, September 13, 2010

A card for a friend


I have a friend who's going through a pretty rough spot right now, and I wanted to let her know that I think she's stronger than she thinks she is - but, if she needs a shoulder to cry on, mine is there for her.
The C/S is the new In Colour "Pear Pizazz" but the pink and yellow are scraps. The quote is from a bundle of encouraging sayings that I have, and I used one of my new Nesties to frame it. I also lightly stamped the vines from Vintage Vogue over the sentiment.
Hope she knows how much we love her!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

One last post for August


I figure I'm on a roll, so I'll post one last card for the month. This is one I made for a friend's birthday. I recently bought a small butterfly punch, and spent about 15 minutes punching butterflies out of all sorts of DP and C/S that I'd stamped. I also finally broke down and bought the corner punch to go with my Scallop Trim straight line punch. Add a pair of oval Nestabilites stamped twice, a sentiment, and it's set to go. So, without further ado, here's my card:

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Oops! I forgot to post my Fri. night pics!



One of the conditions of the Friday Night Sew-In is that you have to post pics of what you worked on, if you want to be eligible for prizes. Of course, after I signed up and posted the announcement here, I found out that I have to have a Flicker account for my pics, so I'm debating whether to go that route or not.....
In the meantime, I'll show you what I worked on:
Of course, I didn't get all of this done on Friday, but I did manage to get a good start on the 4 bridesmaid's dresses that I made. I'm VERY happy to announce that all 4 dresses were finished in good time for today's wedding.
Liz and Jason - Congratulations on your wedding! May God bless you as you start your married life together.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Friday Night Sew-In

I've seen these buttons on a few quilting blogs that I read, and tonight, I'm jumping in with both feet - first time for me!

Check this out for more info: http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/2010/08/signup-for-august-friday-night-sew-in.html

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Baby Quilt - finally!


Waaayyyy back in early April, I mentioned a baby quilt that I was working on. I finally got it quilted and bound, just in time to enter in the Melbourne Fair (100th anniversary!). I'm so thankful to have received a first prize ribbon, but don't get too excited just yet - it might have been the only pieced crib quilt entered.....
Anyway, you want to see it, right? Every square measures 2" - a fact that I'll check out more carefully next time, before starting to cut the fabric!
I bought all the fabric on the same shopping trip, but I bought the kite backing fabric first, just 'cause it was cute. I found all the pastels in the next store, and discovered that they pretty much matched the colours in the kite fabric, so it was obviously meant to be!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

This is a first for me!


I've been making cards for a few years now, and I'm finally getting a sense of what's really "me". I've tried a lot of different techniques - some became favourites, some didn't - and then there was the list of "things to try someday". One of the things on that last list was watercolouring images. I've been quite content to stamp images and leave them as they are (whether stamped in one colour, or stamped using markers to get multi-coloured images), but watercolouring images has always been shoved to the back-burner. Then a friend gave me a sheet of watercolour paper (the trick to get good effects), and, coupled with the right images and the need to create a male-themed birthday card, voila! my first watercoloured card! I used the pick-up truck from SU's "Countryside" stamp set, and using a small paintbrush and a bit of water, picked up some colour from a few of my SU ink pads. The sky was sponged to resemble clouds. A length of ribbon, a sentiment from CTMH, Ruby Red and Black C/S mounted on Very Vanilla, and I have a "male" birthday card!
Stay tuned to this spot - I'll be posting a few other things in the next few days...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

It's not a quilt - or is it?




I get frequent e-mails from Kaye Woods, who is a quilting teacher and pattern designer. She was looking for quilters with blogs - she'd send me a free pattern and I would make the pattern and blog about it. Sounded good to me!
The pattern that I got was a new concept - it's called a Quarter Quilt, and is basically a quarter-sized quilt (duh!), but it looks like a quilt that's folded up at the foot of the bed. It's only one layer though, so you don't get the bulk!
My husband chose the fabrics for it, and I got busy - and I mean busy - it seemed like all of a sudden I needed to do 5 things at once! But, I finally got it finished tonight, and here are some pictures of it. I really like how it turned out!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Wedding invitation


The is one of the wedding invitations I did a few weeks ago. The bride chose purple and orange for her colours, and I wasn't to sure about the combo, but it works!
The embossing folder is 'Victoria" - perfect for any kind of romantic
project.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

This is what I've been up to....


Boy, this summer is going by so fast! I've got my running shoes on, and I can't keep up...
I have had a few minutes here and there to do a bit of sewing, and I did an order of wedding invitations too. I'll have a great new quilted project to share with you, hopefully this week yet, but for now, here's my latest effort:

It's called a Margo Handbag, and it's a Lazy Girls design. I've made a few of her designs before, and I really love them. This has got to be my favourite! I used two coordintating batiks for the outside, and just a tan "blender" fabric for the inside. It zips shut, so you don't have to worry if it tips over - your goodies will be safe!

Friday, June 11, 2010

2 new cards - finally!



I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post! I knew it had been a busy month, but I guess this proves it, huh?
To compensate, I'm posting 2 cards!
The first one is made with some SU DP, and I picked the Cameo Coral from it for the oval. Then I stamped the stems and leaves from the set "In the Spotlight", added flowers from a random flower punch and tucked in a strip of Old Olive that was punched with one of SU's new border punches. I'll add a sentiment to it when I'm ready to use it.
The second card is one that I made at this season's final Tues. evening stamping group - we'll start up again in Sept. The card is one that my sis designed (we each come to the evening with a card design and all the elements for everyone else to make one too) - we had our choice of letters, so I chose "a" - I think I know someone who's name starts with an A.... A fancy border punch, DP, some cute flowers and brads, a few bits of ribbon - and voila!

Monday, April 26, 2010

I can finally post this quilt!



A very special friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. We share a number of quilting friends, so I asked a bunch of them to help make a quilt for Pam, to let her know that we were thinking of her, and praying for her. The weeks passed, and I started getting quilt blocks in the mail - it was so much fun! I ended up with 29 blocks, plus a special label which I ended up making into a block. The quilt has 15 blocks on each side, and was beautifully quilted by one of the members of our quilting group. Pam loves butterflies, so a few people made blocks with butterflies on them, and the quilting motif also has butterflies. The only requirement for the quilt blocks was that it had to have pink in the fabric. My block is the 3rd down on the right side of the white-bordered side.
Pam got the quilt this morning, so I can finally post the pictures of it here! She has just finished her treatments, and hopefully is cancer-free!

Monday, April 19, 2010

a sympathy card...


I find that I need more sympathy cards lately.... I don't like having to make them, but I know they're so appreciated.
The wife of the minister that married us passed away last week after a short illness. I saw a card on a site somewhere, and realized that I probably have all the items I'd need to make it.
Here it is:
I bought the copper paper a few years ago at The Stamp Shack in Galleria Mall (or whatever they call that mall now...) - I ran it through the CB; the C/S is Soft Suede from SU, and the DP is from SU too. The emblem is one of the "tiles" from CTMH's Damask Tiles, and I just printed the sentiment onto some C/S.

Monday, April 12, 2010

a birthday card


I have two friends and a family member with birthdays this week, and since none of them know each other, they'll all be getting the same card - it's so much easier that way!
This card is a total CASE of a card on the Splitcoaststampers website - I just can't remember who to give the credit to - if you REALLY need to know, let me know - or you can just CASE my card! Here it is:
I still had some Groovy Guava, one of SU's "In Colours" from 2 years ago, so I've used it all up making these cards (well, I have bits of it left, but not enough to make a card from). I used Very Vanilla for the light panels, and stamped the heart onto the GG C/S, cut it out, then stamped it again onto the VV C/S. The GG heart is mounted on pop dots over the heart on the VV C/S. I used Groovy Guava and Close to Cocoa inks for the stamping, and each of the pieces are mounted on Close to Cocoa C/S. I also had a bit of GG designer paper for the first panel.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

This is what I did last week...


I have so many quilting projects that I NEED to work on, so you'd think that going to the quilt shop would be helpful, right? Well, actually, no, it isn't! The quilt shop was having a sale, and they had some really cute kid-friendly fabrics in 4 different colours! It just so happened that earlier that day, my cousin called, and mentioned that her daughter is expecting a baby in a few weeks, which of course means that I need to make a baby quilt (you see, I have nothing better to do with my time...)
I have a fun quilt pattern that I use when I need a quick, cute quilt, and one of the sale fabrics had just a bit left - EXACTLY the amount I needed for this quilt (I think it was a sign!) So, I bought it, and then a few hours later, bought some more, and in two days, I had this quilt fabric washed, ironed, cut and the entire quilt assembled! Now it just needs to be quilted. It ended up being too big for a crib quilt, so the fabric I bought later is in the process of being made into a lovely baby quilt, and this will be a bigger, kids quilt for the local women's shelter.
The baby/crib quilt that I'm still working on, is made up of lots of tiny parts, so you'll have to wait for pictures of it - sorry!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Here's another card....


I have a card to share today that came about after I made another one - I had used my Cuttlebug to punch out a scalloped oval, and then I realized that I could use the leftover piece as a frame for another oval. I stamped a flower-head design on a white oval, and then stamped it again without re-inking it. I mounted it on a deep copper-coloured metallic paper, and pasted the teal frame on top of it - and ta-da - another card!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

my stash project


I belong to a quilter's forum on the 'net, and really enjoy the challenges that are posted. Our last one was to create any project, using only fabrics from our stash. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I had this many reds - the beiges, creams and tans are useful for so many things, so I don't have to apologize for them!
The challenge ran from Jul. to Dec. '09 and, in typical procrastinator style, I finally got around to sewing it together in Jan. - but, now it's done! Well, mostly... I still have to put a border or two on it, and then quilt and bind it, but you know what I mean. Now the challenge is to decide who the recipient is going to be!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

a birthday card for Rebecca


I have all these stamp sets on my shelf, and I decided that I'd better either start using them or get rid of them - so I grabbed a set at random, and this is one of the cards I made.
This set is very versatile - I think I made 6 different cards with it, and I could probably make another 5 or 6!
I originally put the cards in my box, but I've sent out a few since then. I just noticed last night that it's Rebecca's birthday on Sat., so I grabbed my box, picked this card, and just before I put it into the envelope, I realized that I should share it here first. I know that Rebecca doesn't even know that I have a blog, so it's safe to post it here!
Happy birthday friend!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Now that's bright!


I got a few quilt tops done in Dec. but didn't have time to get them quilted. Now that most of the busyness is over, I can get back to some quilting. I pulled out another child's quilt, and quickly stitched it in the ditch, sewed on some binding, and stitched that down with a decorative stitch. I managed to get it done in time to bring it to our Jan. quilt guild meeting, to donate to the Women's Rural Resource Centre. They always have a need for quilts of almost any size, and I thought a bright one might make someone's day!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Look at what I made this morning1


A friend opens her house almost every Monday morning for anyone that wants to come to make cards. We each bring our own supplies, and coffee and tea are provided. We always have a wonderful time - we see what everyone else is making, and we get inspiration from other cards, magazines and the other ladies that are there. Sometimes, I don't get any of my scheduled projects done, but that's fine, because I've usually picked up a new card idea, or I've spent the morning looking through my friend's magazine collection (and believe it or not, sometimes I get quilt-y inspirations from card-making magazines!)
This morning was no exception....
On Sat. night I randomly pulled a stamp set off my bookshelf, and challenged myself to make a card with that set - and if I couldn't find any inspiration, the set had to be donated to charity or sold, so that's what inspired this card. I chose the two blues for the left-side panel, and then used the coordinating inks, plus the dark brown that I used for the key, and randomly inked up my "Linen" background stamp; I also used the same 3 inks to stamp the different elements for the top panel on the left. A quick punch created a slot for the top panel to slide into, and a brad holds it in place. A bit of ribbon in the same brown finishes the details on the card - hopefully it's "manly" enough for cousin John's birthday!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

This quilt is finally finished!


I heard of a local group that was in need of some quilts, so I started madly pulling fabrics from my bins. At that point, I didn't really have a plan, just wanted to see what inspiration struck. I had lots of fun fabrics, but it wasn't until I started checking out quick-quilt options that I decided to do the tried-and-true Split Rail Fence.
I thought of making it "on point" (the blocks are set on the diagonal), but I didn't have a lot of fabric left over when I finished cutting the blocks, so I very carefully cut my precious bit of leftover navy fabric - and then realized that I had cut most of the fabric the wrong size, and now didn't have enough to set the blocks on point. So, back to doing just a straight layout. I sewed several strips, and then when I started laying out the strips, I realized that if I turned every other strip "upside down", I'd get an interesting secondary pattern - navy or green pinwheels.
I also no longer had fabric to use for borders or matching binding, so I used some leftover backing fabric, but, as the saying goes, "Finished is better than perfect!" and that's what it is!