Yarn bling for my minivan.

Here’s my latest Style School accomplishment, a cupcake to hang from my mirror!  Forget fuzzy dice.  This is waaaay cooler.

I’m supposed to take an action shot, but once again it’s past my bedtime and here I am crafting and blogging.  It’s too dark and cold to be out there.  Perhaps tomorrow I can show it in action.

Valentine craftiness! Conversation heart pillow tutorial.

Finally I finished my Valentine inspired quote pillow!  Once again putting me crafting late at night when I probably should be heading off to bed.  Instead I will make the world a better place and tell you how I made it in case you’d like to brighten your space with this cute little throw pillow.  Not only is it a pillow it’s a cute little message for my family since my husband or kids are welcome to follow the instructions anytime they like!

Sooooo first you need some hearts.  I cut 4 hearts out of pink, red and brown felt.  I just used the trick of folding the felt in half and cutting half a heart.  You could get fancy and use Google images to find a heart template to trace if you’re afraid to free hand it.  Then I embroidered the sayings onto the hearts with different colours, pink on red, fuchsia on pink, cream on brown.  I was sort of basing the sayings on a little thing my dad and me used to say so I needed 4.  You could have more of less hearts, bigger or smaller ones,  just depends on what you want on your pillow.  But you can still follow this horizontal stripe idea even if you change it up a bit.

Gather some heart/love themed fabric (part of why it’s taken me so long to complete this project) and fuss about which ones to use and how (another reason it took so long).

I decided to use the Timeless Treasures fabric again since this pillow will go on my bed with my “Sew in Love” and “Oh” pillows.  Wow, I can’t believe I have 3 decorative pillows on my bed . . . and they have names . . . ok, back to the turorial . . .

Pin the conversation hearts onto the backing fabric you want and get a feel for the placement.  I cut a piece for the back from brown fabric and decided on 20 x 13.  Think about how big you want your pillow and cut backing for that size.  Because I was going with a length of 20 inches I trimmed the swirly heart fabric to 20 inches and then just cut under the conversation hearts where I thought seemed nice and even with the top.  Then I added a band of brown to the top, bottom and the red swirly Timeless Treasures.

Once again, I was very scientific – I just added fabric until it was the same size as the back, trimmed it down so they matched and carried on.  The 2 pieces were basically 20 x 12.  There was some loss in the trimming.  So add horizontal stripes of fabric until your front is the same size as the back.  I had 4 stripes in total, yours is up to you.  I had gotten some piping for along the perimeter of the pillow to jazz it up a bit.  I wanted it to be different from the other 2 on the bed so I went with the piping and rectangular shape.

I was going to hand sew the hearts onto the backing fabric using contrasting colours but in the end I decided to have the stitching be nearly invisible.  So there I was changing my thread and bobbin a few times to get the right coloured thread, but it was worth it in the end.

I have never used piping before and the lady at the fabric store suggested sewing the piping to one side before putting the right sides together.  I followed her advice but I’m not sure it made things any easier.  It was finicky work and since you can’t really see how close to the piping the stitching is I found it annoying.  I stitched it to the front piece first thinking that would make a nicer edge on that side.

Lay the backing on with right sides together and stitch around leaving an opening for turning and stuffing of course.   Trim the corners so you’ll have a nice crisp edge when you turn it rightside out.  I turned the pillow, pushed out the corners with my trusting stuffing tool (aka chopstick), use what you’ve got.  Then stuff your pillow through the opening.  Once it has reached it’s desired fluffiness you’re ready to sew it closed.  I did this part by hand just to make sure the front was kept nice and clean looking.  The backing only has to be stitched to the piping part, I was a bit picky about mine but I wanted to keep the stitches virtually invisible so I probably fussed more than I needed too.

Tags: embroidery, pillow, valentine

Freckled Nest pin cushion swap!

Sometimes I don’t get to my RSS feed in time and miss a giveaway or some other timed event, which almost happened with Leigh-Ann’s Pin Cushion DIY and Swap. Luckily I got there just in time and now I get to be part of this super cool little craft making and gift giving extravaganza!

Today I had a few minutes, that’s really all it takes, to whip up a pin cushion using her tutorial. The awesome thing about it is you need very little fabric and it’s a great way to use up some scraps if you so choose.

I pulled together some squares of fabric I liked and started sewing.   It was super easy and ironing between each step really helped flatten it out and make it look professional (sometimes I get lazy with that step).

It didn’t take long to have it big enough for the square, I put a black piece of fabric on the back and choose a but pink button for the front and a cute blue one for the back.  I had to get a little creative with sewing the hole closed, I wasn’t happy with my first attempt.  I think I’m going to go make another one and then decide which one I mail off to my partner!

Moda – yet another crafty addiction

Ok, shopping online is way to easy and fun.  You can find things you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise and then one day you check the mail and SURPRISE! you’ve got a little present waiting for you!  Too cool.  This week I got some fabric in the mail (not the first time that’s happened) for this child’s activity bag project. I thought it would be nice to make a little tote bag for the boys with some fun activities in it that we can . . . tote around with us. So off to ebay I went to order what I needed, and a few days later it arrived!

I’m still dying to make this stripey table runner but I’m having a terrible time finding a 1 Figgy Pudding Honey Bun and a 1 Moda White Jelly Roll. But guess there’s lots of time before Christmas.

I finally got the fabric I needed for my Valentine themed craft. I’m hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but here’s a little glimpse of the felt embroidered pieces that I’ve already finished.

Why staying at home with the kids rocks.

Today is my day off, I work every other day, so 2 days one week, 3 days the next and repeat!  Last week on one of my days off we stopped at Michael’s to pick some things up and Wesley just randomly asked to go see the bird houses.  He said he wanted to get one so I figured we’d run with it.

We grabbed some sealer to spray over it once it was painted and some birdseed to fill it with.  He started by painting over the windows, which I had covered in tape, but he was really into it.  After some redirecting, he got the hang of it and was painting the wood.  He started with blue paint but I wandered off to put Nate down for a nap he ended up pouring some pink and white into it and stirring it up.  So it ended up mostly purple.

After many, many coats of varathane I figured it was good enough and we filled it with food and I hung it outside.  Then I had to move it so we could see it from the kitchen window and avoid going out into the freezing cold.  I haven’t seen a bird at it yet but hopefully someone will notice it’s there soon!

Quote pillow project, complete with soppy story.

Finished my Style School pillow assignment today.  I was kid free for a bit and was able to get some crafting done, and some laundry!

I used some of my Timeless Treasures fabric, finally.  I’ve had a little plastic bag of fat quarters sitting around and decided to use one up.  I almost put the owl fabric on the back but decided to just use a plain brown fabric to match our duvet.  I sewed the doily onto the fabric around the outside and near the middle.  Then I embroidered the words curving around it.

Here and there the letters dip down and are stitched through the doily.  I figured it would help hold it down and I liked the un-perfectness of it. The words are from a Dave Matthews song, “Oh“. I embroidered them in a dark plum colour, the photos don’t really capture it as nicely as it looks in person. The line is from the chorus, “I love you oh so well like a kid loves candy and fresh snow”.

I also added a bit of a finish to the edge just to make it a little bit fancier and different than my “Sew in love” pillow since they’re both going on our bed.

Soppy story alert!
When I met my husband we lived about 2 hours away from each other. He burned me some music CDs, Dave Matthews being one of them. We met in March and spent every weekend together for about 3 months, then he got the news he had to move for his job, putting us about 4 hours away from each other. I distinctly remember sitting on the creaky fire escape like steps up to his little apartment on a warm night, staring at the stars and listening to Dave Matthews while I , ever the worrier, asked over and over “what are we going to do?” A month later I was with him in his new apartment while I looked for my own. I never got one. 6 months later we were engaged. Here we are now, coming up on married for 5 years. We danced to “Oh” at our wedding and it’s a cute soppy song.  Every time I hear it I smile and my heart gets all warm and fuzzy.

Notebook cover complete!

I had a hard time with this Style School project.  Maybe because I was tired, maybe because I was sewing stupid last night, but I could not make sense of the tutorial at all!  So I decided to just do my own thing and create the cover.  Well that failed miserably because I’d sew something and be wrong and have to stitch rip it.  Or I’d get to the end and realise I hemmed too much and didn’t leave enough material, i sewed it all together and put the buttons on last because it was too much thought about placement so it was really finicky with the pen spots there to sew the buttons . . . the list goes on.

However, I suppose it wasn’t all that bad since I did finish it today and I love it, so all was not lost.

Another Style School creation.

I’ve been dying to try to make this, but I can’t find a foam heart shape anywhere!! Despite Valentine’s Day quickly approaching.  So I decided to make my wreath project with a Valentine theme.

I was going to use paper for all the hearts but worried about it standing up to the cold and damp if i chose to hang it on the front door. So I used pieces of felt.

I used a multicoloured yarn to wrap around the foam wreath, there’s no way I’d be that uniform in my colours!

Style school project 10? And I didn’t even know!

So I was so busy finishing my pillow last night and blogging about it that I ran off to bed later than I meant to.  Today I wander over to check what the Style School assignment for yesterday was and lo and behold it was the favourite quote pillow!  So while this isn’t really a ‘favourite quote’  it’s still pretty darn cute, a quote and finished on the day a pillow was assigned!

I think I’m going to make a few more to go on our bed with this one.  I’m going to scour song lyrics and other inside jokes and use those, things that mean something to us or is an inside joke only we will get.  Can’t wait to have a few all prettily placed on our bed!

Handkerchief pillow tutorial. Complete with cute embroidery!

My friend gave me a few handkerchiefs her Grandmother had lying around figuring I could make something with them.  I had the idea to make them into little throw pillows for my bed.  I was going to make her one and give it to her, but I’ve already given her a pillow I made so I figured I’d be keeping it.  Then I realized one of the prints would be perfect for embroidering a little something right in the middle.

Perhaps a heart with our names in it?  So I cut out a heart and was just about to trace it when I remembered the awesomeness I had just ordered from Peptogirl!

I flipped through the patterns and found one I liked and I took the liberty of making a slight adjustment.

Here’s how I made the pillow:

First I cut a piece of plain unbleached cotton fabric a little bit larger than the hanky. Then I ironed the two pieces so they’d be nice and flat. In hindsight I should have cut the cotton a bit bigger, I ended up losing the border when I squared it up before putting the backing on.

Next, in a very high tech. transferring process, I freehandedly copied the ’sew in love’ pattern onto the hanky, adding my own little touch.

Then it was onto embroidering before a repeat ironing performance. I just put the hanky and fabric in a hoop together and stitched my design. When I took it out the stitching was through both layers holding it together.

So off to my machine I went where I stiched around the edge of the hanky, I went on top of the hem stitching with the same colour so it wouldn’t show.

While doing that I hit a pin!! Never in all my time sewing have I actually hit the pin. CLUNK! went the machine, and I totally expected the pin to have snapped and tried to pull it out, but nope! It was just bent like crazy! Everything seemed fine so I just took it out and kept going.

Then I chose some fabric for the back, our duvet cover is brown so I was going for something that would make this a nice little pillow to toss on our bed. I squared up the edges around the hanky and then I laid down the front, right sides facing, to see how big it was and cut a piece for the back.

Then I pinned it together, with the pins waaaaay inside to make sure I didn’t hit one again, and sewed around with a 1/4 inch seam.
In retrospect the hole I left for turning and stuffing seemed a tad too small but I got it. When I went back to my bag of stuffing to grab some more I found this peaking out.

I was so excited, a stuffing tool?! Wow. Was stuffing going to be easier?! Why hadn’t I found one in my last bag of stuffing?! Then I opened it and realised it’s really just a chopstick and I could have gotten one of those from the kitchen. My hands worked just fine.

Stitched the stuffing hole closed and ta da! A cute little pillow to enjoy!