In a Quilting Frame of Mind!

I recently added a long arm, or should I say medium arm quilter to my 'tools' collection! I have quilted for several years, but always finished everything by hand, so this is going to be a fun addition which will likely increase my fabric purchases by about a 120%! 

 

 First on the frame was some scrap fabric. Don't get me wrong, I really had no desire to actually PRACTICE before I tackled a project, but in the spirit of not completely ruining a quilt, I figured I had better run a few stitches through the machine to make sure I actually had it threaded right!

The whole quilting *thing* is catching right now... Miss Quin also has the sewing bug and is busy making a rag quilt. Exactly how can ANYONE sit on the floor and SEW? Both my daughters do this and it truly makes me cramp up just watching them!

I've warned Quin that sewing a rag quilt is the easy part of the project. The true endurance test comes when it is time to snip all the seams!

Back to my project! I did a simple free hand stipple all over my quilt...

...with flowers sewn into each of the circles.

Here's a nice shot of the colors... the majority of the material was from moda layer cakes. I think I had a new layer cake of Lollipop and then I scavenged the rest. The original pattern and inspiration for this project came from this Raw Edge Circle Quilt Tutorial!

I was very excited to do this first project and excited by how FAST it was to complete, once it was on the long arm it was maybe 3 hours!!

That's it, that's all! Want to read another blog? My daughter Alix is just starting one and would love you to drop by! nowthativecaughtmybreath

xxoo
Heather

The Fireplace Project

My office is in my basement. It's a lovely walk out basement with a very inviting view, but baby it's COLD inside!! And so, having a husband who is very handy and really NEEDS to keep busy, I developed a little project for him to do... upgrading my office fireplace so it actually generates heat.
Follow this link to see the fireplace before we started! 

This unfortunately turned into a year long project for him that I feared would never end... thank goodness that it is now done and in fact, I have enjoyed warmth all winter long!! As reward for completion, I will one day make him cheesecake brownies... they will probably take me a year to get to! haha

 

Once the huge gaping hole in the wall was gone, filled with a new and improved fireplace, (yes we did have it inspected), the rest was sort of easy... My husband gave everything a fresh coat of paint and then I started planning on the decorations!

 

I wanted to create a wall of pictures (very popular these days) and so I went on a frame buying spree and laid them all out on my floor to determine where each of them would go.

 

 I am pretty happy with the results! Not all of the frames are filled yet, but I will work on putting 'special' pictures into them as time progresses...

 

Pretty much every single frame has a favorite picture in it OR a letter from one of my children! It is pretty fun to see their thought process and handwriting, 15 years or so after they wrote these. <3

 

Now all I need is a new project for my husband! shh! Don't tell him I am plotting! lol

 xxoo
Heather

anybody home??! Our Pink Lamb Baby Shower!

I have been officially reprimanded for not posting on my blog... by several people in fact!! In an effort to placate those that care, I thought that I would post a picture or two, or three! You see, it's not that I have stopped crafting, it's more that I'd rather be creating that writing about creating!

The good news is that I have LOTS of fun projects to share with you... if you are truly wanting directions, let me know, otherwise our future together will be me providing you with some good eye candy!!

First up.... some of the decorations I did for my grand baby's baby shower. Cupcakes, made with Cricut cake!  These beautiful pink cupcakes even included an edible gem!I also did a lamb diaper cake and some pink tissue flowers,,,

Here are some of the results of my Google search that lead to the cupcake's creation:

Bakers Cakes

 Flickr

Curiouser Desserts

xxoo
Heather

Cricut + Baby = a LOT of projects!!

 I am loving the pink everything that is taking over my house, not to mention to the whole new agenda of inspiration that is leading my crafting projects along! All this pink and all that I can say is that my grandbaby's parents better be ready to visit often!!

My most recently completed project is a quilt for the baby's room. Knowing that it is a girl made this easy, as did my daughters request for a 'Lamby' quilt. She has chosen several really cute Lambs to adorn the baby's space :)

First step on my quilt was to go shopping!! Hooray! Fabric really is almost as much fun as paper!! Here's my photo journey of the quilt....

Step 1: Pick fabrics. We decided on soft yellows and browns with pink as a highlight. I loved including some fun textured materials in the design!

Step 2: Sew the quilt base. This was a simple but funky border with an area for a central scene.

Step 3: Design the scene out of paper. I learned this lesson after wasting mis-cut fabric on one of my very first quilt projects! I cut flowers & grass using Cricut, then drew my own lamb and hills.

Step 4: I used cricut to cut Heat n' Bond ultra flowers. Then, I gently ironed the Heat n' Bond onto my fleece material, which of course isn't cuttable by Cricut. Then, using scissors I trimmed around each flower, leaving a 1/4" border which I folded/ironed under the pattern before sewing each flower in place on the quilt.

Step 5: Next, I ironed Heat n' Bond ultra directly onto the back of my green fabric and cut out the grass for my central scene. With the hills in place, I used a decorative stitch to sew the grass in place. It took a long, long, long time!! I think I get some sort of special Grandma privilege just for sewing the grass!! lol

This was the quilt with everything cut out, and before I started sewing. It really did help enormously to have planned the pattern in paper first. It made cutting up my stash of material a lot easier! 

Step 6: Lamby was the last element to be sewn into place. It was definitely the hardest part of the project with all of that fuzz floating around!!! I used a similar technique with the Heat n' Bond, drawing my pattern onto Heat n Bond and then cutting it out.  

Step 7: Ok, maybe this was the hardest part! I used my sewing machine to stitch the quilt front to the backing material, which is the same fuzzy material used on the lamb! Of course there is also a healthy layer of batting in there too. It was thick, but I only stitched around the yellow sections of the border and the pink inner border that frames the center scene. 

Step 8: My final and finishing step was sewing on the ruffle! I used my sewing machine and stitched it to the top side of the quilt and then hand stitched the back edge for a perfect finish!

This is the finished quilt, ready and waiting for the arrival of it's new owner!

xxoo
Heather

Baby It's Cold Outside!

This morning Sweetums and I headed outside for a quick walk and it was raining. Nothing serious, nothing freezing cold. I was wearing a hoody and a tshirt and didn't feel the 'sting' of the weather. I was, in fact, relieved that I didn't have to gear up in boots and all that fun stuff!

Now, Sweetums on the other hand was singing a different story. FYI, Sweetums is our new Yorkie pup and she is a pretty little thing, little being the operative word. She did not appreciate the mild fall weather and was shivering enough to gain my sympathy and convince me that it was time to head to the store and get her some outdoor clothing.

Once it warmed up a bit and we headed to the pet store (Sweetums came along to try things on and make sure they looked nice) we didn't find very much! There were lots of little t-shirts on sale, and a bunch of halloween costumes, but very few winter jackets or even hoodies, and even fewer CUTE options! 

We headed to a second pet store where I found the little Martha Stewart fleece below:

Fleece Puppy Jacket ala Martha Stewart! 

It's pretty cute and probably pretty warm, but I have to say that it is missing some PINK GIRLYNESS!! What's the point of dressing up a girl puppy if it isn't going to be in pink??!! No problem though, my sewing machine has been sitting on my desk all week along with a gazillion pink swatches of fabric that I am using to make Alix a baby quilt (I'll share when I'm done!).

Cricut + Heat'n'bond + CUTE!

I cut some Heat'n'bond into flower shapes (the same flowers I am putting on the baby quilt!lol) and  then ironed it onto the back of some lovely pink fleece. Then I cut the fleece out with scissors. I WISH I could of cut the fleece with my Cricut, but cutting the heat'n'bond provided an awesome pattern and it was the next best thing.

A few lacy details...

After cutting the flowers, I ironed them onto the fleece jacket and top stitched the edges. As a final touch I sewed some lace and pompoms around the edges of the outfit, added a pom pom to the center of each flower, and, whoola!

She is NOT cringing!! Honest! She just doesn't want to walk in it just yet...

I had a lovely, fashionable PINK and brown fleece jacket for Sweetums! Quin says it looks like something Sherlock Holmes would wear. humff. I like it!! And Sweetums does too, sort of...

She did eventually walk in her jacket :)

It took her a few minutes to see it's merit, but eventually Sweetums was happily wandering the back yard in her warm little outfit.

Lovely poses...so professional! 

Is that a smile?!

And so, my mission for the day is done. I also picked up a little gray Martha Stewart winter jacket. I'll get started on it next week!

xxoo
Heather

Weekend Review Aug 7th!

What a whirlwind! Summer is definitely in full swing as I try to stay caught up to all of the fun, sun and socializing! I am LOVING every minute of it, though it is cutting down on my creative time!

Last week my family spent time at Disney World! We had a FABULOUS time and I easily convinced my daughter (and her friend) to journal each day so that we could create an album when we got home. We purchased postcards each day of the trip that represented where we were and then added a second journalling card when the day was so busy that we overran the postcard. My intent is (was) to bind all of the postcards together with pictures that we took and voila! Instant scrapbook!

Now, you may be noticing a lack of pictures of this wondrous scrapbook?! That is because the postcards are on a plane, or in the garbage or SOMEWHERE between Florida and Calgary. Quin was journalling en-route and sadly left everything behind somewhere.

I'll continue to call airport lost and found, but my guess is that  I will be searching for some Disney and Universal postcards so that we can re-create the project!

The good news is, that my souvenir of the trip arrived home safe and sound!! Meet Sweetums, our new Yorkie puppy!

She is a lovely little 5 month old Yorkshire Terrier puppy, and we are very happy to add her to our family. My husband LOVES the name Sweetums, NOT, but it really does suit her!

Sweetums is named after the Ogre Muppet. I have always been a big fan of the Muppets and the combination of sweet puppy and ogre-ish behavior is PERFECT for this tiny fur ball!

Notice the resemblance?!

Sweetums eat frog! 

Happy summer days to everyone! Hopefully we will have many more sunny days in August!

Heather

A fun new Blog that I am writing!!

Good Day! Come join me at a fun new blog that I am writing!! Just follow the link....

Scentsationals Wickless Candles