Weekend Wrap-up

I want to start by showing off the project that Jean and I worked on this weekend. Although we didn't get together, we both separately made aprons for the quarterly challenge over at All People Quilt. Tomorrow is the deadline and since we both love aprons, entering the challenge was a no-brainer. Let me just say, I am not a contest person. I don't like to compete. I really don't like havng my work judged. I'm a novice quilter/sewer and still learning the ropes. But Jean and I wanted to do this together, so I thought what the hay?

Here are our entries:

This one is mine. Jean dubbed it "Read All About It" based on the old joke: What's Black and White and Read all over? A Newspaper!

This one is Jean's. Hers is called "Cherry Bomb".

Both are made with Robert Kauman fabrics. If you'd like to see these and other entries in the contest, here is the link. Feel free to vote for our entry, we'd love to win some goodies!

I also hit some yard sales yesterday. I think I spent a total of $15 and got some really great stuff!

This blue shelf was at the first yard sale I went to and was only $3. I have absolutely no clue what I will do with it, but I love the color and the aged appearance. The white one was at the last place I stopped and was $2. I think I'm going to put the white one in my bedroom and fill it with some knick knacks.

I paid .50 for this little owl, but he was a bit too shiny for me, so he quickly became teal in color:



I know he looks blue, but, again, the lighting in my studio makes for horrible picture colors.

I paid a dollar for this wire heart basket, which I'd love to fill with flowers, but since I kill all flowers and plants rather quickly, I will have to find a different use for this.

This black wire basket was probably my favorite find. This is a horrible picture of it because you can't really see the details, but it's really cool and once I fill it with a whole set of apples, I will take a better picture. I considered painting it, but I think I'm going to leave it black.

Speaking of apples, I made a few more like the one I made last weekend. I really love making these!

This is my favorite one. I love the fabric and it matches perfectly with the new blue shelf!

This is another one made out of a vintage sheet.

And this is just a better picture of the original one I made last week.

I think I mentioned that these are huge. More like a grapefruit size than any apple I've ever seen! After making these, I played with the pattern a bit and was able to downsize it to real apple size.

This was a test apple using the smaller pattern and it turned out fine. I have a wrought iron apple stand that I want to fill with fabric apples in coordinating colors and this is the perfect size.

After finishing the apron today and making the apples, I worked a little more on folding and organizing my fabric stash. I really don't like this wire shelf and I have a shelf I want to use for my fabric, but it won't fit into the space I have (yet) so I am using this one for now.

Sadly, I am quickly running out of space on this shelf and this is maybe a quarter of my fabric stash. I'm going to need to do a major reorganization of my studio soon!

So that's it for now! Please remember to check out my entry into the quarterly challenge and vote for my and Jean's aprons. The link above should take you straight to our entry!

always,

K

Sneak Peek

I had a great day of yard sales and sewing today. I started to take pictures of my finds to post, but the batteries died in my camera. I didn't feel like looking for new batteries, so I will post pictures tomorrow.

I did have enough juice to take a few pics of a work in progress before the camera died, so here is a sneak peek of what I'm working on.

It will be finished tomorrow (I'm on a deadline!) so I will post pictures of the completed project tomorrow.

Can you guess what it is?

More tomorrow!

always,

K

Another Crafty Weekend

I had such a wonderful weekend! After a crazy busy week at work, I needed some down time to be creative, and I got my wish.

Saturday, I got together with two of my sisters and niece, Stephanie, to catch up and do some crafting. Since Steph just had a baby we spent the first hour or so getting to know my great-nephew. Let me tell you, little Jimmy is such a sweetie! He is so tiny and adorable, I fell in love with him right away! I wish I could share some new pictures, but I grabbed my camera bag as I raced out of the house to meet him, but forgot to check if my camera was actually in the bag. *sigh*

Once we got down to crafting, my sisters and I decided to work on a nine patch wallhanging using bits and pieces of my mother's fabric. My Mom loved calicos and blues and purples and florals. So this is what we came up with. We all have 4 similar blocks to create something with. I decided to just join all of mine together with no border.

I still have to add the backing and edging and quilt it, but just looking at this jumble of florals brings back so many memories of my Mom. (Even moreso since, as I type this, I am looking out my bedroom window and seeing the window of my Mom's previous quilting room next door. In my mind's eye, I can see her standing at her cutting table cutting hexagon after hexagon for one of her many Grandma's Garden quilts.)

After we worked on this for a few hours, we decided to make a trip to a local quilt shop, The Bear's Paw. We got there just before closing and didn't have a whole lot of time to pick out fabric, but I did pick up two new books. Both are by Art to Heart (I love all of their patterns).

I really need to find more of their books, I only have 3 and I need more. The best thing about these books, for me at least, is that the patterns are doable. Other books intimidate me. These inspire me.

I've already completed one project from the Cider Mill Road book and have another work in progress from the same book.

This fabric apple is one of the projects. I made it out of a vintage sheet. I've tried other patterns for apples and they never turn out correctly. I love how this one turned out! I used a piece of a stick I found in my yard for the stem and cut the leaf out of felt. I can't wait to make more of these...very easy and almost instant gratification!

This apple blossom is my WIP. I think it's going to be pillow. But it may become a wall hanging. We'll see. I'm probably going to hand applique it so that I can add detail. The backgroung fabric looks washed out in this picture (horrible lighting) but it's actually closer to the color of the teal buttons. The same with the petals, they look kind of pinkish here, but that is actually white on white fabric from my Mom's stash.

So all in all, a pretty productive weekend for me! Last weekend I accomplished nothing crafty and I felt so sad Sunday night! I did hit a few thrift stores and flea markets last weekend and wanted to share my favorite score. I got this adorable little cupcake teapot for 50 cents! Can you believe it? I love it so much!

So on that note, I'm done for now. I have a head full of plans for next weekend already!

always,

K