New Quilt Brings Other New Projects To Mind

Greetings!

It's been 9 days since I last blogged. That's better than 14 days, but I promise to get back on a weekly routine. Summer is barely making its way here and it's slightly depressing. I keep pushing forward though. I've had a lot of energy for crafting, which is great!

Well, first off, I'd like to share a quilt. My sweet husband and I have decided to use a quilt that his grandmother made for him for our king size bed. It was brand-spankin' new. Never been used. As a matter of fact, it still has the chalk marks on it from her hand quilting. :) So, what does having a new quilt really mean? This means that I get to decorate our bedroom in all new colors! I get to sew new table toppers and curtains and pillow shams! I haven't decided which color I want to use from the quilt (in the photograph below) but I have time to decide.

Since my yellow quilt lost its place in the master bedroom, it is going to be a lonely spare in the house. I've decided to hand quilt this. I couldn't find a template I liked, so I drew up my own. I made a large flower for the center of each block and a small flower for the cross-road on the lattice (in the photo below- upper left). I will start hand quilting sometime this week, I'm sure. I think having an extra quilt on hand will be nice. I'm actually in love with the yellow lonely quilt now. I added a brown border - which I will photograph and post later - and I fell in love. It's such a pretty, pretty quilt!

Moving on... more hand sewing. This embroidery business has me addicted. Or maybe it's the hand sewing. There is nothing like it to bring me relaxation. I love using my hands and eyes together with fine detail. The results amaze me. Now this next photo is of the Kitchenaid cover I made. This was one of the most simple projects that I've completed in my life! A basic embroidery image of a Kitchenaid makes this cover just a little more fancy. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. :) The side panels are cherries. I might have put a little more thought into the way the cherries are floating because they aren't floating the right way. =o)  I'll remember that for next time. This type of mistake is what sewing is all about!

Random topic change coming now. Last night my girlfriend came over and we worked on making her garters for her wedding. She's asked me to help her with a variety of crafts - even stuff I've never done - and we've been successful thus far. She keeps asking me for more help. I'm so glad I am able to. All right, here comes another random topic change.

I'm not very smooth or fluent in my writing today. I suppose I would be a little more so if I were giving a tutorial of some sort. At any rate, here's my next project (next photo). :) I'm making a cute zippered tote. I like the tote in the pattern that has yellow and green stripes, so that's the one I'm starting with. My fabric is cheery light green with white polk-a-dots. The pocket fabric is this crazy bright teal with butterflies-all-over-it fabric (photo comes later). My girlfriend saw it and said "Yeah, that's Tawnya fabric." That comment made me smile.

Sorry for being sporadic or random. I have a lot of projects starting/finishing and wanted to get that all out on the table. (Which reminds me that I need to finish my crocheted white ruffle scarf.) My next post might be just as random if I can finish several projects. Time will tell...

Until next time, have a great week!

a Cherry on Top - Embroidery Fever!

Good evening everyone - Happy Easter! :)

I made time to craft this weekend. It was much needed. I've been thinking that I want something to do later in the evening that won't take so much brain power but serves as a creative outlet just the same. I have always wanted to work on my embroidery skills; I began at www.colonialpatterns.com to see what was available online. I've seen the Aunt Martha's patterns ALL over, so I thought I'd just go to their home site.

{* As a side note here - they are an American family owned business. Support them! They sent me two messages letting me know how much they appreciate my support for their business. They are incredible. I had my order in two days and they also threw in a free transfer pattern: Rock'n & Roll'n. :) They went the extra mile, so I thought I'd share and go my mile.}

For my project. I started on a dish towel using a design from Kitch'n Stitch'n. {I love the toast and the teapots -argh, so fun!}

I cut out the design I wanted from the sheet {I think it was 18" x 24"}. I heated my fabric up before I placed the transfer on it. I pressed it for about 5 seconds. Each transfer can be used several times.

A color chart comes inside the "Stitchers Revolution" line of transfers. I LOVED IT! If you look at the bottom of the chart, there are blocks of color names that they suggest. How easy is that? Yeah, I don't have to think. Love It!!

I picked the colors from my floss box that matched most closely to the color chart that came in the package.

OH! You'll need needles. I picked these up at Millie P's quilt shop in downtown Anoka, MN. {I want to visit the Mary Arden website.} I used one of these. I didn't see how they were any more special then the Dritz needles I've used previously. I guess I just wanted to try something new.

I also purchased a plastic hoop. Hoopity, hoop! I like the wooden ones better. This one became heavy on for my thumb to hold up. I eventually switched to a smaller wooden one. :)

Look at what my mom got me for Easter - BUNNY EMBROIDERY SCISSORS! CUTE adorable, FUN and CUTE! ...did I mention how cute they are? {I sort of have a thing for scissors. I love to look at all the pretty colors and creative designs. I know I'll have a million pair when I die.}

Okay, here's me starting to stitch. I started from the right and worked left, for no reason. I just wanted to.

Fiona wanted to sit on my left, for no reason. Just kidding, she wanted to lay on the heating pad that I had on my lap under my needle work, which she eventually shoved her way onto. LOL

Here's the finished wordage for the dish towel.

And here's the completed project. I worked on this on and off all day yesterday. Today I ran out and got some fabric to make a Kitchenaid cover. I downloaded and printed off the patter for that yesterday too. Ooo, that reminds me now, I need to get that in the dryer after posting this.

That's it for the embroidery project. Here's the last bit of my cutsie tote. I hand stitched the velcro band down. I'm so glad I chose to do it that way. You just can't get such a nice look if you use a machine. I guess "each to their own". I have come to learn that I really like hand sewing.

This next photo? I couldn't remember if I shared my idea on what to do with extra fabric on this blog. I drew up my own teddy bear pattern about a year ago and when I have extra fabric, I make these cute little bears! Today I had the great idea to draw up an owl pattern. They are really trendy right now and I've been bitten by the love-owls-bug. I can't seem to get enough of them. I run google searches just to look at them - tons of them! I'll show ya what I make when the times comes.

Thanks for reading today. I hope I encouraged someone to pick up an easy no-brainer embroidery project. If you get going strong and finish, please take a photo and show me! ---especially if it's of OWLS! :D

Until next week - have a good one!