Such an amazing singer- Bruce Cockburn. So many favorite songs of his, this is one of my all time favorites. Music, poetry, perfect.
Pacing the Cage

Enjoy,,,,,,,

Patterns coming soon!

Check back soon for patterns. I'll offer some as a free download and some to purchase. You can make and resell the products, too. I'm excited to share them with you. I'll have the Giraffe and Elephant patterns available first, then some easy doll patterns.

Hearts Three Ways

Hearts - Three Ways is a fun and easy project I designed that is published in the 2013 issue of Quilting Arts - Gifts Issue. The Gifts issue is a published once a year and features projects which make great holiday decorations and gifts. I'm thrilled to be in the magazine, and hope you'll give this project a try. I'd love to see any pictures of how you make it! It's a fun opportutnity to use ribbon, trim, charms, buttons and decorative machine stitches!

Heart with Flap

 

Heart with Pocket

 

Heart with applique and  charm

Can you make a fabric elephant about 2' big? Sure I can!

Portland Quilt Market 2013 is a Wholesale Trade Show (some are retail, too!) where fabric companies and designers present their new collections to store owners. They have School House Session, where attendees watch a presentation by the fabric designers and companies. Also, each company has a trade show booth where they present the fabric and also projects made out of the new lines. You can watch the School House seesions on You Tube, too.

My pal Lonni Rossi, who is a designer for Andover Fabrics asked if I could make an Elephant for the recent Portland Show. She had a vision of the elephant, about 2-3' long and made out of her Raindrops Collection. Then, to show off the new line, it would be draped with a beautiful small quilt, showing the gorgeous new fabric called Facets.

I've never made something like this before, but it turned out to be tons of fun, and a successful challenge.

Elephant Recipe:
Chicken Wire
Paper Mache- newspaper and flour kind
Two layers of quilt batting hot glued onto paper mache
3 yards of Raindrops Fabric
Needle, Thead,
Inspiration, Confidence and don't forget to have fun

Once the body was constructed, covered in paper mache, then covered in two layers of quilt batting, I draped the grey fabric over the elephant and hand stitched the enitre thing together. I used a long/big needle and upholstery thread. Since elephants are wrinkly, it was quite easy to stitch on, and I added wrinkles, folds, as I went along.



Close up of eye. I made two small stuffed discs for the eyes and used Wire Fiber for the eyelashes

 

Idea Board

Burlap Key Fabric

I have art and project ideas EVERYWHERE. In sketch books, on post it notes in my purse, pinned to my office wall, in a notebook in my car, and on and on. I also keep ideas on this idea board. I found it at a garage sale, and has nice basic wooden frame and a cork board. But, when I saw this fabric at Joanne's Fabric I knew it would be great for the design board. They had a several bolts with different designs including a nice Damask Pattern. This was a simple project which only took a few minutes to do. I measured the board, cut the fabric and used my hot glue gun to put it together. The burlap easily tucked into the wooden frame.

 

Scandanavian Stitches Book Review

With the cold weather and it being dark out so early, I find myself doing more wintery things. This includes doing more reading and I've recently started to order books on Amazon. How did I not do that before!? I love to peruse all the sewing, craft and art books. I can spend more time than I care to admit looking at books, creating wish lists, and ordering.

I pick wine by the label, and it turns out that I also like to pick books out that way! I love to look at the covers, and pick them that way. Just letting the cover catch my eye, title, and of course the subject, too.

It was fun to pick out a few books, just based on stumbling upon them.
One such book is Scandanavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman .

It's a wonderful book filled with beautiful and simple projects. Here is a doll I made from the book. She was very fun and quick and just took little bits of fabric, thread, buttons to make.


The wings are made of a fabric which is a lightweight metal mesh. Her hair is cotton rope, seperated into
strands. I used some hand dyes ribbon to help her fly.



She is a nice addition to this cabinet.

Fabric stuffed animals

The circus is in town, and it's featuring a few giraffes and one lovable elephant! These are two sided stuffed animals, all very kid friendly. The eyes are french knots, the mouth just a little hand embroidery. No little parts, or buttons so they can be for small hands. The giraffe fabric is by Lonni Rossi and it's just perfect for these little guys. I will have these patterns available on Craftsy shortly.

These were originally made for Lonni for her schoolhouse at the Houston Quilt Market. They are constructed pancake style.They would look great in any fabric, too! Retro fabric would be very fun. Think I will have to give that a try. The giraffes are about 12" tall and the elephant about 5" tall.  

Fabric Bird

This little birdy decided that being colorful is really the best way to be. The more colors the better, and as many fabrics as possible. These are fun to make- the more quirky the better. Great way to use lot's of little snippets of fabric, beads, bits of yarn and thread. I have basket filled with scraps, and make these by just playing with the fabric, picking colors that I like together. The tail is fun to do- layers of different colors! This one is about 4" or so and hangs from some twine.

What a mess

What a mess! How can I get any work done with such a cute cat on my table!? Mimi is a Manx, and true to her breed, she loves to be in the thick of things. As I type she is walking back and forth over the keyboard! When I sew she finds the most comfortable place to lay is exactly wherever I am working. She thinks it's even better if she takes up the whole table and lays on my fabric. I appease her for just a bit then, she is relocated! I have to get some sewing done afterall. If only she knew how to sew, she'd be sucha big help.

Fabric Cuffs

Fabric Cuffs- I saw something like this in Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I have drawers of buttons, tons of fabric and trims and this is a fun way to play with them.  I'm not sure if I'll keep making them, so far it seems liek they are fun to make but I'm not really sure how open people are to wearing them! I'm working on how to take this concept and make something else out of it. Notebooks? headbands? We'll see where they end up!