S E W I N G - Quilting

I have been so in l o v e with sewing as of late. 

I mean, I always love to sew but lately 

I feel extra creative and  really 

enjoying the entire process. 

from picking out the fabric to 

laying out or designing the pattern, 

(almost feel like a designer)

maybe I missed my calling... 

although I am only Thirty Something, 

I probably haven't missed anything

We are supposed to design a name tag to wear at 

our guild meetings... 

Hello my name is...

So here is mine, 

I used fabric from my stash... 

It is only 4 x 3 so it is pretty small. 

I am going to put a grommet into it and

and stick it on a silver chain. 

This is the back. 

It would be my nod to 

the wonky log cabin

I LOVE my my little VW vans.... 

These might just be the worst photos in history....

The other thing that I made was this AMAZINGINGLY 

HUGE wonky Star wall-hanging. 

I saw it somewhere on Pinterest and decided I needed 

to make that. 

I am actually going to be entering it in the Sussex County State Fair. 

(If I get it done) 

I still have to back it and bind it and quilt it. 

When it is complete I will get some close up shots of it. 

It has a Star in a Star in a Star. 

The original I saw did not have the tiny

star in the middle square.

I also Made a Quilt for my Mom and Dad for their Anniversary. 

I made that in 2 days.

I planned on taking about a week, 

but life happened and I needed to get it done in a hurry. 

I captured the goings on with my phone...

Here I am piecing away.

Stitching on the very adorable binding... 

(and if you don't know how to make your own binding, 

please tell me, I would love to teach you how.) 

I adore pieced backs... 

So here is the back 

Sorry, I should have taken it outside and hung it on the clothesline but

I was on a very tight time schedule...  

The Front. 

I used Cluck Cluck Sews

Stars and Stripes Quilt and made it a Throw Size

My Mom and Dad really liked it. 

I was  pleased that I finished it. 

and even got it quilted... 

I just did a simple line quilting. 

anyway, I have been busy sewing all summer, 

what have you been up too? 

June Package Pals

At the end of May I stumbled across a package pal swap,

sort of like a pen pal but with crafts... cool. 

I received  word that  my pal was

Jenna from Two Oh Two Seven 

I read her blog and stalked her pinterest boards a little 

and saw that she was new to sewing. 

and had a fabulous gallery wall  

and so I figured something for that would be fun. 

so I thought and thought and 

saw the saying somewhere

She thought she could, SEW she did.

and since I am obsessed with canvas's lately I 

combined the too. 

and so since I completely can't locate the photos of the things that 

I sent her.... I borrowed the photo she took of them

I also made her some vintage button magnets, a vintage trim bracelet 

and a cute little vintage hanky.....

photo courtesy of Two of Two Seven

I love getting mail.
Letters, packages.. it doesn't matter.
the joy of seeing the mail man deliver something other then a bill...
well it makes me giddy. 

Jenna was so sweet and I loved everything she made me and sent.

She made the sweetest little bunting, I hung it up on my dining room cabinet.

even the card was adorable. I LOVE owls. 

 and she sent some amazing bottle caps that I can't wait to get crafty with.

my favortie.... the ORANGE crush. 

amaze-balls as Jen would say. 

and last but far from least she made me the 

most adorable burlap pillow. 

with a hand painted anchor. 

I adore it. 

 Its on a little bench by the back door
that we sit on to put shoes on.
I covered that bench with some chenille and I am loving the contrast of textures.
the soft of the chenille with the burlap.

Thanks, Jenna. I had a great time sending and receiving. 

How Fun. 

xoxo

amy

Pinspiration Friday

PINSPIRATION Friday....

Whose with me?

I thought I would share something I made a few weeks ago. 

Inspired by this pillow I found on  Pinterest. 

Isn't she adorable??

I love, love, love old airstream trailers. 

I did raw edge applique (sounds fancy) 

And I just drew out the shapes I wanted to make a pattern...

and then cut them out and stitched them on. 

I Adore Nicey Jane... LOVE is an understatement. 

and I got all this on sale... I think it was about 4 dollars a yard. 

YUP, amazing. 

For the bunting I used bakers twine ... 

turned out pretty. 

Now, this is one of those projects that I made that 

I look at and think of the things I would change. 

So here is what I should have done differently. 

The actual trailer should have been made out of the darker fabric. 

Either the blue or the green. 

and I should have stitched it on using a contrasting thread. 

I decided to add something more so I printed out 

onto my printable fabric 

"Where you go I will follow" 

The back is just some fine whale corduroy  that I had left over from 

the rollie pollie. 

I also made this pillow... 

I  found the pattern somewhere on the web... 

And I can't remember because I am getting old... 

It was a fairly simple block. 

I just happened to turn it into a pillow. 

they are happy and springy. 

Just what our living room needed. 

Please feel free to link up in the comments with anything you have

been inspired by pinterest to make. I would

love to see. 

Have a glorious weekend. 

Quilt a metaphor for my life?

Last year Jen and I took a trip to Lancaster, PA. 

While on that fabulous Fun trip I bought lots and lots of 

my very favorite fabrics .... 1930's repro.

I have always had a love of these fabrics. 

I knew that I wanted to make HUGE dresden plates out of them

and make a quilt for my bed. 

I also purchased red fabric for the sashing... it is an odd choice

for me since I don't really love red all that much. 

It was a labor of love hand stitching all those wedges together to

make each Dresden. 

I cut all the sashing and got to work. 

I put the quilt top together...

I HATED IT! 

Seriously Loathed it. 

All I saw was the red. 

eww. 

I didn't even take a picture of it. 

I folded it up and put it away. 

I did tell my Mom about it. 

She kept telling me that she would pull it apart....

She took it and ripped out all the stitches.

(What a MOM) 

she then carefully washed 12 HUGE blocks 

rolled them and placed them carefully into a bag.

Which I carefully placed onto a shelf into my closet. 

I wanted to forget about it. 

I was annoyed and frustrated by it.

It was not how I envisioned it. 

My Mother knowing how much work went into 

all those blocks kept at me. 

"lets take it up to Kindred Quilts and figure this out" She'd say.

So one day in the fall we did just that. 

I picked out a cream color Kona to do all the sashing with. 

A wonderful Lady won owns the shop figured out all the math for the sashing and the all that

stuff that goes into a quilt. 

We came home and the fabric sat and sat. 

Mom finally cut it last week. 

(I was in no hurry) 

Mind you I have no directions for this quilt... 

it was something that was in my head 

Also, I am not a quilter.... really I am not. 

Quilters would not consider me to be a QUILTER. 

with that said. 

I actually started to get excited about getting the quilt top together. 

So I began. 

Got it together... and realized that I had pieced it together all wrong. 

Oh I was not happy. 

but, I was going to leave it. I was going to leave it together wrong, 

because I was frustrated and sick of this quilt. 

My Mom dropped in yesterday. I brought out the quilt top to show her...

"Amy, I will rip it apart for you." she told me again. 

No Mom, No. I don't want you too.... 

She took it anyway. 

She sat and drew me a picture of how it is supposed to look.

Of how it will be when It is finally finished. 

How could I have seen it so differently in my mind

I loved the idea of it. I loved the vision I had

standing in a tiny little quilt shop in Lancaster with Jen, a year ago. 

The vision I had was so different then the one that my

Mom had just loving drawn out for me to see. 

She had showed me that what will be the finished 

quilt is more beautiful then anything I would have ever imagined 

or dreamt of in my head.  

  I received an email from her last night that simply said. 

(All unwanted stitches removed, ready for a good pressing, and then ready to stitch!  
Didn't, take long.   Talk to you on Sunday,  Mom) 

Which started me thinking. 

that quilt is like my life. 

I had a grand dream of what I wanted it to be. 

I wanted to quickly stitch up some pieces of fabric together. 

Held together by more pieces of thread and fabric. and when I thought 

I had finished it I disliked it. 

My Mother, like My Heavenly Father told me, 

I will take it out for you. I will help you to make it the way it is supposed to be. 

(and he does that for me, when I let HIM)

and He has done that for me my entire life. 

And My Mother showed me that in helping me with this quilt.

No, I wouldn't have dreamt this life for me. 

I wouldn't have chosen this  bumpy road or journey for my life. 

I didn't envision it this way, But When God looks at our Whole lives

He sees the completed Quilt. 

He sees all the unwanted stitches. He sees all the scars. 

He sees where he has mended us. and Healed us. 

and carried us along. 

He sees the beautiful Quilt that my Mom drew out for me yesterday. 

That he can use to bring others to Him. 

If I can touch one person with the trials that I have gone thru in my life,

Then every bump, scar, bruise is worth it.

Because in the end, He will take that quilt even with all its imperfections

(and it will be more loved and beautiful for them) 

 I am more loved and blessed and beautiful for every scar I have. 

I am more desired and gifted then I ever allow myself to feel. 

I have a precious, precious gift of my  life. 

No one else has my story. It is only mine. 

and I am so grateful for it. 

I needed this quilt to be a reminder of all that I just wrote about. 

I needed to make every single mistake

so that I could allow correction to take place and heal my heart. 

Thank you Lord,  that you used my Mom to show me that lesson. 

Thank you Mom that you allowed God to work in you to help me. 

This verse has been in my head all week. 

I found it on pinterest and I understand why now. 

I recreated it and please fell free to take it. it is high res so you can print it out if you want to. 

Romans 5:8

The Message (MSG)

 ^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. 

*revision to this post. 

The image above was recreated by me, 

I  found it on PINTEREST. 

I didn't have a direct link back to the 

picture. until now. Mollie at 

http://crookedtooth.tumblr.com/

emailed me to let me know that the image was indeed hers. 

just to be clear, I just was so moved by it that I honestly and truly recreated it in Photoshop.

sorry to offend anyone. 

mornings & rollie pollies

Maddie and I sit in front of the fire in the morning for a while. 

She usually eats some breakfast.

I drink my coffee and read some blogs... 

And when I get up 2 make my second cup of coffee she always, 

always, steals my ipad and plays

temple run. 

She is a whiz on that thing. 

seriously, I stink at it... 

So , never blogged about the rollie pollies I made her. 

I got the Pattern from MADE. 

I made the large ones 

they come together quickly. 

they are awesome and all my kids use them daily. 

they loved Maddie's so much I made another one.

this time I used a yellow corduroy 

It has a very fine whale and is so so sooooo soft. 

put a little nicey jane in the handle to give it that extra something. 

I was seriously just trying to take a normal photo of my

child with the rollie pollie

but why on earth would that ever happen....

She likes to swim on the sofa. 

Yes, she takes off all the pillows and swims.

I may or may  not have bribed her (with a cookie) to sit on the 

rollie pollie.

oh I forgot to mention that every morning after we take the girls to school 

and we cuddle by the fire 

we use these rice packs that I made to stay cozy until the fire warms the house. 

these rice packs are the simplest most wonderful things ever. 

YUP. toasty toes...

I throw them in the microwave for a bit

and cuddle under a blanket and we are all warm and toasty. 

if you have never made a rice pack

you should. 

just google it and you get about a billion and one tutorials for it. 

I made them for Christmas gifts this year and people loved them. 

You can use them for aches and pains or toasty toes...

you can even keep one in the freezer for a cold pack.

enjoy your day. 

snuggle with someone...  

monster on my bed

So these are the little creatures that I was working on when I fell and 

Cracked my Coccyx bone.. 

anyway, If you are local they down at the Cherry Hat in Little Falls. 

They are doing very well there. 

Selling like Hot Cakes...

I had made a bunch for my girls and then everyone that saw them 

fell in love with their ugliness.... 

they are really soft and squishy.

My Brother in Law came up with the 

Monster on the Bed.

Which I ADORE! 

{thanks Kirk} 

right now I have them in 2 sizes 

but I also made a little tiny one... and stuck it on my key ring...

I am actually loving the entire process of the creating and 

getting to use some treasured vintage buttons from my stash. 

Etsy

The little Beansprout is now on ETSY. 

YAY! 

only have one item up but will have more by the end of the day. 

This is sucking up my time..... 

Thank you to my Loving Husband who 

has been picking up the pieces around here. 

I am really excited.... this is been a long time coming. 

hmmm think it is time for a giveaway..... 

tune in tomorrow for details. 

and thanks for all the kind and encouraging words from everyone in BLOG land. 

it means  a lot to me. 

thoughts...

I have been sewing like a mad woman lately. 

my little dolls. 

that is all I have been sewing. 

I was asked (yup, they asked me) 

to participate in a 3 day show with local artists. 

now.. I wouldn't exactly call my sewing (art) but

they are, so I will go with it... hehe. 

There was a meeting on Wednesday where I found out

the details surronding this. 

I really thought it was a simple craft show. 

a set up a table for a .. kinda of deal

I felt a wee bit out of my element.
Picture this....

Posh Etsy sellers from Manhattan... and me.


So sitting next to these woman... I am thinking .... what on earth am I doing here.
I don't exactly fit into the category as Posh, or chic... or any of those things.

no, I wasn't wearing Christian Louboutin
or carry my Louie...
(HAHA)
I had on  my Chuck Taylors .

So anyway,
I sat and listened. I started to realize that out of the 14 artist's invited...
she picked me.

Cool.

now here is the part that left me feeling a bit woozy...
How on earth do I make enough little dolls and monsters and other things to
go with them to have enough for a 3 day sale???

so hence I have been sewing like a mad woman.
creating tags and graphics.
choosing cute little fabrics and notions....
& in the meantime shirking all my household duties.
So, today I have to take time to clean and organize.

hope you have a wonderful Friday!