Gift for Teacher

 This week one of my sewing friends wanted to come up with an idea for a little gift to give to her children's teachers as an end-of-year thank you. She thought an apple-shaped coaster would be just perfect for the teachers to use on their desks for their coffee mugs.

 So I found a pattern for an apple and made this little coaster!  I sewed two fabrics together and then quilted the top piece with thin batting underneath.  Then I cut out the apple shape, added a backing fabric and a thermal batting piece to the inside.  I inserted the jute rope for the stem before I sewed it all together.  Then I turned it right-side out and stitched around the edge, closing up the opening for turning.

I made a fabric leaf and attached it with a small flat button.  To complete the project, I added a little stamping tag complete with an apple!

The gift is all ready to go! 

Birds on a Wire Wall Hanging

Last week I was looking through some of my Debbie Mumm quilting books for inspiration and I came across the pattern for this cute wall hanging.  I remembered that I had wanted to make him for my home.  It certainly looked easy enough and quick to finish, so I started working on it.

I chose some greens and browns that match my decor and added bits of turquoise and yellow for some extra color.  I wanted to make one of the birds in a floral or patterned fabric and love how he came out.  Then I added just a pop of orange for one of the beaks and tail feathers to finish it up.

I did some simple background quilting in two of the panels with straight and diagonal lines.  It's hard to see in the photos, but I think it has just the right amount of quilting. 








Here you can see some of the lines in the bottom panel.  I edged the "wires" and the borders with some topstitching close to the seams. 

When it was done I added black buttons for the eyes and some vintage buttons to embellish the wings.  I gave the center bird two eyes to give the wall hanging a bit of a quirky feel.  What do you think?






Finally, here's a photo of the birdies hanging in my sitting area off of the kitchen.

 I can almost hear them singing.

Craftin'

 This past weekend I had a booth at a local Spring Craft Fair.  Funny thing is - I woke up to a very snowy day!  Someone forgot to tell the weather here in NY that it is now supposed to be Spring.

Anyway, for the sale, I made more of the lovely vintage fabric hearts.  Didn't I say that I would love to make more of them? They are so much fun to make.

Start with a fabric heart for the background, add strips of various fabrics like you're making a crazy quilt, add some lace and fancy stitches along the seams.  Then stitch together the heart front to the backing.  Turn and embellish with some fabric yo-yo's and fancy buttons.  I hand-sewed the hanging ribbon to the top at the very end and added a button to cover up the ribbon ends. 

Before the sale, I shopped around at a couple of flea markets and picked up this vintage wire shelf.  I put some of my items on it for a display.  Even the antique linens that I had on display were for sale!

Check out this little vintage jar that I filled with antique spools of thread and embellished with some ribbon and stamping.  Of course the threads were peach, pink, cream and purple! 

I crocheted some face scrubbies in colors to match all of my items so that every item had something to "go with it" in coordinating colors!  The idea paid off when I showed each customer that every item had things to match it.

Little fabric bunnies were in abundance at my table.  I made them in peach, pink, cream and purples.

And what would bunnies be without carrots?  I have been wanting to make these for a couple of years and finally sat down to do it.  I cut out a long triangle, sewed up the two sides, then turned and stuffed them.  Then I gathered the top edge and stitched the oval leaves right into the gather.  I finished them off with a ribbon on the top.  I love how they turned out.

Then I made some epsom salt "bath teas" to go along with the crocheted face scrubbies.  I love to use epsom salts when I take a bath.  I decored them using toppers for the bags in the matching colors.

Remember the fabric flowers from last summer's Boho party?  I added some stamped cards to clip them onto (using all the same colors) and they sold like hotcakes!

My biggest seller was the matching cards.  I sold every card along with a coordinating item. 

And who wouldn't want one of these lovely gifts?

Making Flannel PJ's

I have been catching up on making some gifts lately- I know, I'm always late in getting gifts to people on time!  These were the last of some of the Christmas gifts. 

I've been making flannel pajama bottoms for my sister and three nieces.  These pj's with the cute little kitties on them are for my sister who likes, you guessed it- kitties!

I made little matching note cards to go with the gifts.  When I took this pic, I didn't notice that one of the "kitties" was photo-bombing the shot!  Too cute, right?

My niece likes cats, too, so I made her this teal-colored pair with gray princess kitties.  Check out the matching note card with a gray siamese cat on it!  It says, "You're the Cat's Meow!"

I love the tie-dye look to these pajamas.  They're so colorful.  I even made a little matching pajama bag to go with them! 

Here's a peek of the card to go with them.  Yup, that's a little kitty, too! 

I also made more pj's, this time with hedgehogs on them for my niece that is away at college.  But I can't find the photo of them.  Maybe I forgot to take the pic!

Celebrate Your Birthday

 This month I had a stamping class where we made Birthday Cards.  I used Best Year Ever papers from the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  I just love the colors in this collection!  They are bright and cheery, just what we need this wintery, cold time of year.  I just love this card, maybe because of the colors and pretty papers, but also because of this cute little "critter" guy!  So, come on, Let's Party on with some birthday cards and a gift card holder.

This next card features more papers from the same designer collection.  I cut the papers into thin strips to resemble candles and cut out the flame using the top of the leaf from the Secret Garden thinlits!  The star cut-outs at the bottom are part of the Mini Treat Bag thinlits.  This is a quick and easy card to make if you don't have many rubber stamps.

Next up is a gift card holder to match either one of these cards.  Although there are many ways to make a gift card holder, I used the Envelope and Trim thinlit. 

Here is a photo of what it looks like on the other side.  Cute papers, right?

Let's not forget the all-important birthday cake!  This is made using a set called Big Day.  You could give this card to anyone, especially a guy that's in your life.  Sometimes it's hard to come up with a card that is fit to give to our male friends and family members.

Last, but not least is this Birthday card made with the Four Feathers stamp set and thinlits.  I love the colors in this card, the sparkle in the silver paper and how it all came together.  I used the Gorgeous Grunge set for the background and just added some strips and extra sparkle.  This card could also be used as a unisex card. 

I love to look online at different sites and on Pinterest for ideas on what to make.  Today's cards were made using ideas from Stamp with Amy K, Jan McQueen, Stamping With Sandi, Kay Kalthoff and Amy O'Neill.  

At the end of each stamping class, I always ask the ladies which card that they like the best.  This helps me to know what colors and styles of cards that people like to make.  In this class, every one of the cards got equal votes from different people.  Which one would you choose?

Eiffel Tower Frame

Remember the clock frame project that I posted in November?

Well, I offered a class to my stamping students to make this project.  If you'd like to visit that page and read more about it, you can click here.

For this new class, I took out some vintage papers and some of them had the Eiffel Tower on them.  I added another color, the Hello Honey to the soft reds and blues and let my students make their project however they liked. 



This is how my new frame turned out!  I added some more "towers" to my project to give it a cohesive Eiffel Tower look and changed up some of the embellishments and sayings. 

We had so much fun making this vintage frame.  Everyone's came out a little different depending on the papers that they chose, but they all looked amazing when they were done.

Here is a close- up of the center panel.  I wish that I had cut the papers so that the Eiffel Tower was more to the left, but I didn't think about that ahead of time.  Because I didn't want to cover up the Tower, I trimmed off part of the clock and moved it more to the right side.

 For the side panels, I added a couple of new words like Bliss and Amour to go along with the theme.  Instead of flowers as accents, I used butterflies in all of the panels.  It was fun taking out and using some of my old vintage stamp sets.

Which frame do you like more- the Clock frame or the Eiffel Tower?










 
I've never been to France, but I love things with the Eiffel Tower on them.  One of these days, I must go see it in person. 

I guess the Eiffel Tower at Disney World doesn't count, right?

Happy New Home

 This week I made some Happy New Home cards for a couple of my friends that are moving.  I saw a similar card online from The Dining Room Drawers and decided to use some sewing and painting on my card! 

So I stitched down the papers with my sewing machine for a unique look and then took out some watercolor paper and painted the "sky" color for the background of the house.  I colored in the house and cut it cut along with some clouds out to give the card a bit of dimension.  I love the happy colors on this card.

Of my friends just bought a new home with some woods in the backyard.  She said that in the summer she would like to have a fire pit and have friends over for s'mores.  The other day I saw this photo taken in Boston this winter by Fox 13's Paul Dellegatto.  I sent it to her saying that she doesn't even need to wait until summer!  Let's do some shoveling and have those s'mores in the snow.