Reading Pillows

Earlier this year a friend had asked me to make reading pillows to sell in her shop. I tried to make one up as a sample to send her and I just didn't like how it turned out. I altered it a few times and no matter what I did it was not acceptable. 

With a craft fair coming up soon, I thought I would give it another shot. I had this idea to use up novelty fabrics I had lying around. So I picked out my half-yard cuts. I chose some camping-themed fabric for my first try and I had this idea to use my embroidery machine to make the front pocket.

I didn't use a big enough piece of fabric so I ended up adding a band to the top and bottom to make it large enough. It really gave it a nice finished look. 

I used a free online tutorial to make the pillow. It helped me determine the right sizes for the pieces. The only real change I made is instead of using fiberfill stuffing, I used a pillow form. That meant I had to make a overlapping back piece to insert the pillow form. I discovered that was what I needed to do to improve my original pillow. It was the lumpy-looking fiberfill that was unacceptable. The pillow form really made a difference. 

Even from the back, the pillow had a nice finished look. Now that I solved the quality control issue, I needed to make some more. I had so much fun matching embroidery files with my fabrics that I ended up making a bunch more so I went on Amazon and ordered a bunch of pillow forms. 

While looking through Etsy for embroidery files I came across the cutest bird file. I fell in love with it. And now that I'm gaining experience with my machine, I conquered this file with over 34,000 stitches. It took a few hours to stitch out but I sure had fun with the colors. I chose them from the colors in the Tula Pink fabric scraps I had leftover from a quilt I made last year.

I made this little beauty into a reading pillow as well. 

I will put this one up for sale along with all the others, however this one will be a little more expensive. I'm not so sure any of these will sell but if they don't, I can always ask my friend who owns the boutique if she would like to put them up in her shop. It feels like a good business plan.

Wooden Gnome-like Santas

I used to do a lot of wood crafts. In fact, I sold many of them at craft fairs. I don't know what made me stop, but it's been years since I dabbled in woodcrafting. I saw a photo on Pinterest of these wooden gnome-like Santa and I thought I could certainly do that without purchasing a pattern or instructions.

After a some thought, I drew multiple sizes of triangles on paper using my 10-degree quilting ruler. I cut them out to get a real visual of the sizes I wanted to make. I then determined the base sizes from scraps of wood my husband had lying around his woodshop.  When he saw what I was up to he volunteered some pallet boards and dowels for the legs. I loved the idea of using pallet boards! This was going to be fun. It also made him clean up after himself so I had room in the workshop to cut on the bandsaw and sand my pieces. I did most of the work myself however I did ask Jeff to drill the holes for the dowels. After painting the pieces, I glued them together and stained them. Once the stain dried I took them outside and sealed them with spray matte-finish sealer.

And viola...

The real fun was choosing buttons for embellishments.

They are ready for my craft fair next weekend. I can't wait to see how they fare. Then I will know if I should continue with woodcrafts. I hope they do well because I had lots of fun making them.

Longarm Quilting for Someone New

My cousin's sister-in-law contacted me out of the blue to ask if I would longarm a quilt for her. The funny thing is that my cousin lives in Ohio and the sister-in-law lives in a northwestern suburb of Milwaukee. It's probably a 40 minute drive from her house to mine. The surprise for me is that she remembered that I was a quilter. I was definitely honored by her request and immediately said yes.

The quilting challenge for me was that there is a block that's embroidered and she doesn't want any quilting over it. This is something I haven't done before but I love new challenges.

She chose her thread.

She chose her quilt design.

And away we go!

I went around the embroidery as best as I could.

I'm happy to report that she loved the way it turned out. She is new to quilting and is loving it so she asked me if I would be her quilter. I absolutely said yes!

In the meantime, friends of ours asked Jeff to make a 4-foot tall wooden tree. They have a cat that likes to get into trouble and they wanted something to replace a Christmas tree. Here's what they asked for. They love it and will use it this year unfinished and stain and seal it in the summer when they can do that outside. I like it so much I might just have to ask him to make me one.

Finished Quilt Projects

I have so many carrots in my garden that I can pick a bunch like this one every single day. I love it. No matter what the will never go to waste around here. If they aren't eaten right away they will become jalapeno carrots. The cucumber in this photo was overlooked on the vine. I can't believe how hard it is to find them sometimes. I only have 1 cucumber plant but the vines are so hardy sometimes I just can't see them.

My sister is turning 60 this month so I made her a t-shirt for her birthday party. 

Here's my little helper. When I'm sewing she sits nicely on whatever quilt is loaded on the longarmer and when I am longarming, she sits on the sewing table and watches intently.

My poor boy is curled up in this new bed. All of a sudden he likes to be surrounded while he sleeps so I got this for him to enjoy.

I finished quilting and binding Her Maj this week. I love how it turned out. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Maybe it will become a gift for a little girl.

I made this quilt using my Accuquilt cutter. I used the half square triangle die for all the blocks. Isn't it amazing how just turning the blocks different directions make a total different look? It was a fun experiment and will be a good quilt for Quilts for Kids.

I made this quilt using a 3-Yard Quilt Book pattern. It went together quickly and will be turned in at my next Quilt for Kids meeting.

Barbenheimer

I've had some success using my new Cricut Maker so I thought I would try my hand at making a t-shirt. Again, I go to YouTube to find some good advice on the vinyl products and how-to's. Then I headed over to Etsy to find this fun Barbenheimer graphic. I couldn't wait to make this shirt and it turned out great. 

It's amazing what happens when you follow the instructions, haha!

I enjoyed wearing the shirt when I took my granddaughter to see the Barbie movie. And what a great movie it was. I had so many memories of the Barbies depicted in the moving.  So much nostalgia. It was a great girl-power movie full of positives for little girls like Avery.

The same week we saw Barbie my husband and I went back to the theater to see Oppenheimer so I got to wear the shirt twice. 

Cricut Maker 3

I finally started using my new Cricut machine. One of the first things I made was this sash for my granddaughter who is the state of Wisconsin Poppy Princess for the American Legion Auxiliary. I think it turned out great. Plus it matches her dress very well.

After making the sash, my legion friends noticed it. They asked if I could make them some ribbons with names on them. I told them I was a novice but I would be happy to give it a shot. So I bought some ribbon.

I made the names up in Design Space and added a few stars. It felt like a nice and patriotic addition. I used a YouTube video demo to apply the lettering to the ribbon choosing to use only the red because the blue was grosgrain which meant there was a texture to it. I thought the lettering would adhere to the satin ribbon a little better than the grosgrain. 

For a first try, I think they turned out great.

And here's what they look like finished.

We spent a week on vacation in northern Wisconsin. It was a wonderful week away and when we're gone, our friends come to our house twice a day and hang out with our cats. Our older cat, Ruxin is on hypothyroid medicine and has been for about a year.  Our friends just love Ruxin so very much that we know he is well taken care of when we're away. 

When we returned from vacation Ruxin was his same old self. But two weeks later, he lost 2 pounds.  He was already down from 10 pounds to 7 pounds from his disease but now he weights just 5 pounds. I don't think he has much time left. I can't stand the thought of losing him. 

Where I've Been

I've been planning this project for over a year. The thing is I wanted to collect up a few different stencil sets to make the letters for each of the signs.  They weren't easy to find and they weren't all cheap. Some came from home parties, some from the local craft stores and some I ordered online. It was fun to search for them but time consuming. So it took me a while. 

Last summer I worked on the boards. They are mostly pallet boards. I cut the points on one of the ends of each of the boards. I made sure I left the more interesting ends uncut. I also tried to keep the nail holes, cracks in the boards, and the imperfections in the wood. I want all those interesting features.

I looked up the mileage for each of the signs I made. I started by making a list of places we've traveled to. I was surprised to see how many places I had listed. We've been very lucky to travel so much. It was such a fun project figuring it all out. The thing I didn't do very well is plan the direction of the arrows. I just slapped the stencils on and painted without any concern for where they would go. What an afterthought that was - ha! 

Once I started planning how I would mount the signs I realized I should have planned things better. First I had to decide where the center pole would be positioned in the yard. Then I had to make sure that each sign was pointing in the right direction. So all the cities east of Oak Creek point east and all the places north point north, etc.  After I worked things out there were signs on all four sides of the pole. So now, depending on where I place it in the yard, I will get to see different cities. How fun!

Client Quilt and Clam Up Bag Swap

I completed a client's baby quilt on the longarmer.  It's a cute little quilt. The funny thing is that the client loves high loft batting. I've never cared for it myself but that doesn't matter. If the client likes it, I'm happy with it. After I finished quilting it, I did like how puffy it was from the thick batting. It really made the quilting show. 

The quilt shop had a clam up bag contest. You purchased a kit that had a zipper and a fat quarter in it. All you had to do was make the clam up bag any way you wanted as long as you used the zipper and somehow incorporated some of the fat quarter. So I had to make one. I chose to do it as a quilt-as-you-go bag. It went together quick and luckily I got to use my favorite color, yellow. Not that it mattered because after you made it, you voted for your favorite, then they became part of a bag swap.

A funny thing happened at the contest...I got the most votes! I don't know how or why but I did. The thing is I did not qualify for the contest really because I am an employee of the shop. So I never told anyone I got the most votes. How funny is that!?!

Here is the bag I received in the swap. It is cute and I like how they used vinyl to line it.

Quilts for Kids and Barn Blocks

I finished this dog themed quilt using a panel then build all the blocks around it. It was fun to add different elements and watch it grow - haha! It was and experiment in color and design. I think I will send it to Quilts for Kids.

There's a little shop called Country Sisters, City Sisters nearby that makes wooden barn blocks. You book a session with them to paint it in whatever colors you want. I had a lot of fun making one. Although I don't like the colors of pink I chose, I think I should have made it a darker pink. I might have to go back and fix it before I add the finishing coats to seal it. I do know that I definitely want to make more of these.

I used my new Cricuit Maker 3 to make some elements for this story board I completed for the American Legion Auxiliary. It was fun to finally get to try the machine. Now I am really hooked.

Winter Storm and my new Cricuit Maker 3

We had quite a winter storm last week. Luckily it didn't happen until we returned from the Vintage Shop Hop. It's a good time to enjoy the warmth of home. I get the most sewing done in the winter. It's not my favorite time to be outside so it works out for me. My backyard sure is beautiful.

My husband surprised me with a Cricuit Maker 3 for my birthday. I am amazed at his generosity, this was quite a nice surprise. He got a bundle of craft supplies along with the machine so I can have lots of fun. I can't wait to see what I can do with it.

                                                 

                                                 

I took home a kit from the quilt shop that needed to be made into a sample. It's from Riley Blake, one of my favorite fabric manufacturers so I knew I would enjoy putting this together. 

                                         

My girl Peyton sure likes hanging with me. When I have my morning coffee she is right there with me. Even when I longarm she is hanging out on one of her hammocks. 

                                         

                                         

This week I started a new project at Quilts for Kids. This is as far as I got before it was time to head home. It definitely needs borders in order to make it bigger.