Fabric Memories

I found the journal cover I made using Teesha Moore styled fabric pillows. It’s been almost two years since I finished the cover and there is no journal inside. I love the fabrics I used and all the stitched textures. I really want to make these into something I use, so I took my cover apart.
I saw these beautiful photo books and binders that PhizzyChic made over on Craftster and I think that is more the route I need to go. I will need more pillows, so I dug through my stash and found a good selection to work with.
I’m not a scrapbooker, but I got to thinking about all the memories I have in fabric and so I thought I would share some of them.Here are the new pillows that need to be stitched: 1. One of the first dresses I ever made (it was awful, wonky buttons, poor pressing, loose threads), 2. Little Miss’s toy sack, 3. Little Sir’s toy sack, 4. an apron, a top, and several other projects, this is a personal favorite of mine, 5. the sewing machine cover, 6. Little Miss’s bassinette, 7. One of my first hand dyed fabrics, and 8. I love this fabric, have made two different tops from it.   Here are the ones I finished two years ago: 1. Little Sir’s curtains, 2. Little Miss’s curtains, 3. apron for Little Miss, 4. Little Man’s car seat cover, swaddlers, and boppy cover, 5. Sketchbook cover lining, 6. Reconned caften fabric, and 7. another personal favorite fabric. These are the pillows I was working on while we waited for Little Man’s arrival. I was even working on them in the hospital.
What kind of crafty memories do you have? I think I might need a swatch scrapbook! Have a super crafty weekend!!!

Weirdness and an ATC Download

As you know I’ve been working on some new stuff for the Halloween season and I’ve been having so much fun I decide to share one of the images as a free download.

  

Click on the link and you will be able to download and then print the four images (two mirrored pairs), I would love to see what you do with them, share your links in the comments.

Now for the weird, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but suddenly it seems like I have a lot more going on.  I redesigned the blog, there are a lot of new things being listed in my online shops, I have been working on some new designs, and my blog posting has been more random.  Things are weird here normally and you never know what we’re going to be doing, but it has been amplified by my husband losing his job a few weeks ago.  I feel like I am scrambling to pull things together and come up with a plan (don’t worry, I have come up with a plan).  I am also enjoying having him home, we have been doing a lot more family activities and having a lot of spontaneous fun, it’s like he’s on vacation!  Unfortunately that hasn’t left a lot of time for the random crafting and blogging that I normally do.  I am hoping to be back on a regular routine in a few weeks, please try to ignore the random chaos for the time being, there is a lot of creating going on, but I don’t want to annoy you with every little new design I finish, you’ll see them soon enough!
Another random question, Do any of you collect smashed pennies?  My kids love collecting them, but we’ve gotten all the ones we can find locally (seven different designs).  I was wondering if anyone in a different area would like to swap pennies?  Comment here or email me if you’re interested.

The Collector

It seems like almost everyone has something that they collect.  I am a collector of lots of things: art supplies, aprons, shoe figurines, Halloween decorations, and more, but my favorite collection takes up very little space. 

For my confirmation I received a lot of cash gifts and my Mother insisted that I spend it on something that I would have forever (now I’m really glad she did that, then I just wanted to blow the money on clothes).  Jewelry seemed to be the best option, I selected a lovely ring (yes I still have it, but it needs to be resized) and a charm bracelet with four charms.  One of the charms is a confirmation charm and it’s engraved with the date so I know when I started collecting my charms (ahem, 1989).The great thing about having a charm bracelet is that charms, even sterling silver ones, are fairly inexpensive and easy to find.  Several of these charms were gifts, but most of them have been added by me.  About a third of them are engraved with dates, all of them have special, personal meaning.  Surprisingly enough I think that there is room for about six more charms.  A few of the “cheap” charms need to be replaced with real silver and I need to get another head charm for Wyndham.  I buy my charms online at BlueMud, they match the antiqued look of my bracelet and they have a really good selection.  You can also get beautiful, hand stamped charms on Etsy.

If you have any questions about my charms just ask in the comments.  What do you guys collect?

Quilts

My family loves to make quilts, I have so many hand made quilts I don’t think I’ll ever have a naked bed.  A lot of the quilts I have are special with memories attached and are not used as blankets, but I do have several that get used daily and will be used until they wear out.  I should also point out that all of the quilts I am talking about today have been made by my Mother.

Currently there are four denim quilts in use, two that I have had since high school, they were made in the traditional quilt style with a backing, batting in the center, and tied instead of quilted.   The denim is still in fabulous shape, but the backs are almost totally gone. 

Now we make denim rag quilts, with the seams on the top and the edges frayed, they seem to hold up better, although 15+ years for the others isn’t too bad.  I also wash my quilts more that the average person probably does, with kids and cats they’re always seem to need a good wash. 

We have one plain flannel back one and one with special appliquéd stars and circles that Little Sir has for his bed. My Mother is also making two new denim quilts for the boys when they start sharing a room.  One with orange flannel backing and one with turquoise flannel backing.  I really like denim, it holds up so well and goes with almost anything.

The latest addition to my quilt collection is the baby’s new quilt. I got to pick out the pattern and fabric for this one, but I didn’t get to see the finished project until Little Man was born.  (If you would like to make a quilt like this the pattern is from The Purl Bee:  zig zag quilt.)

Little Miss has a quilt waiting for her to get her big girl bed, she’s still has a toddler bed and isn’t ready for a big bed yet.  It’s a sun bonnet Sue quilt the my Mother started for me when I was little and just finished it last year for Little Miss’s birthday, so I guess it’s new vintage?!?

Here’s a close up of my favorite one, look at the hand embroidery!

That’s all for today, believe me, there are a lot more.  Do you use or keep you quilts?, I think I’m kind of half and half.  Which one of these is your favorite?

Vintage Sewing Notions

I love vintage sewing notions, the packages are so interesting and colorful and the display prices are so cheap.  I also really like wooden spools of thread.   I have a small collection of vintage supplies and I plan on displaying them in a shadow box of some sort in the craft room.  Here is a sample of my collection, the needle book on the bottom is one of my favorites and I also like the snaps and hooks and eyes cards, especially since they are missing some and not in perfect condition.It is surprisingly easy to find vintage supplies (not in mint condition)and most of mine have been found at yard sales or in “grab bags” from thrift stores.  I also got a nice selection out of the sewing cabinet that I purchased this fall.  The only thing I haven’t had much luck finding is decorative buttons on their original cards, but I do have several nice loose vintage buttons.

I got this box at a yard sale, some of the vintage quilt fabrics/squares inside will become part of the background for my collection, I might even try to incorporate the box, it’s really interesting.I also finished my amigurumi dolls from yesterdays post, aren’t they cute!  I definitely need an army of these with a few ninjas thrown in.

I ended up making all new hair for both of them and adding weight to their bottoms so they could stand on their own.  I think I may need to embellish the hair on the right one a little more with some bows or French knots or something.

BTW, If you have any super ideas how to display my vintage notions be sure to share by leaving a comment.  My collection has been hidden in a box for to long and I’m ready to get it out and on display.

Trying Not to Traumatize the New Neighbors

Since moving in to our new house I have been slowly adding window treatments to every room based on privacy.  These are not all permanent solutions, but they do keep people from seeing straight through our house.  The curtains upstairs are stapled up!   The only bare windows still left are in the kitchen.

Our kitchen is at the back of our house and really the only people who could see in would be our neighbors or the random peeping tom.  However, occasionally I find myself naked in the kitchen and wondering if maybe my neighbors may have noticed.  They just moved in a couple of weeks ago and I really don’t want to traumatize them before we get the chance to properly meet them, so we definitely need some sort of curtains!

Yesterday while folding more fabric (I finished off another tote, yay!)  I found my stash of vintage aprons and thought that they would look really cute as kitchen curtains. 

I made a special trip to Hobby Lobby and bought some mini cloths pins and strung them onto twine.  I used clear push pins to tie the twine up.  I starched and ironed the aprons and hung them up.  I think I can almost hear the neighbors sigh of relief, “Look honey, we don’t have to see our neighbors naked anymore, they got curtains!” 

I can easily switch out the aprons if I get tired of these or get new ones for my collection.  I could also add another line to the top of the windows, but I like the sun shining in.  BTW I have a lot more aprons, these were just the most brightly colored ones and the ones with the most details, I love the cross stitched gingham ones!  Does anyone else have a good idea on how to display aprons, I have a lot of full aprons that I would love to have out.