Crochet Flower Pins

The art show started at work this week and as per tradition, I made a lapel flower for all of the art committee gals to wear. 

This year I decided to use a crochet flower pattern put together by Lucy of Attic 24.

The pattern is fantastic to follow and makes the darn cutest flowers!!  Plus, you may be able to tell, that I had a lot of fun with all the different colors of yarn!

As they each picked their flowers it was often tough for them to decide what there favorite was.  I don't blame them.  I wanted to keep them all!

Art show week is a ton of work, but oh so worth it.  To see people I work with mingling, smiling, and enjoying each other's work really warms my heart! 

Here are a few posts I did about the previous year's work art shows: the scrappy flower pins I made last year, ArtFest 2011, ArtFest 2010.

And I am also giving a confetti quilting demo over a few lunches this week.  I hauled my sewing machine in with me and it should be interesting to sew in front of other people; not something I have ever done before.  I also have to laugh at the thought of using the sewing machine with pumps on.  I may have to kick my shoes off to be able to feel the pedal.

Wish me luck!

Savy Sewing Summary

I've had lots of time to spend in the sewing room over the last week.  Here's what I've been up to:

--CONNECTING THREADS FABRIC DESIGN CONTEST--

As Happy as a Hippo!!

To all of you who have voted for "As Happy as a Hippo," thank you from the bottom of my heart! With one week left in round one, I have received more votes than I ever thought I would get and I'm humbled. 

The top 5 designs with the most votes go to round two, I'm looking like a major underdog, but have learned so much from this experience!

If you like, click the image to vote, it's four rows down on the left.  Thank you for making this such a positive experience for me!!

--GETTING MORE ORGANIZED--

This may be the case with you too, but I have a lot of bent pins in my pin cushion.  I honestly think that all this time I have been using pins that I purchased in my high school years.  I shutter to think about how many moves these pins have made with me.

It was time for a change.  I removed all the bent pins and pinned them to a scrap piece of paper that I later folded up and put in the garbage.  Trying to do my best to not hurt anyone with them.  I put the other straight pins in a spare (and I'm guess handmade by me in my younger days) pin cushion.  The ones I left on my pin cushion jar were a few 'pretty' ones that had been pinned in fabric that was thrifted to me.

  

 I treated myself the other day to these beauties.  Just look at those popping Caribbean sunshine bright colors!!!

I ripped open the package and quickly stuck them all in my jar.  And my work space is all the happier to have them along for the creative journey!!  A pinning we will go!

--IN PROGRESS--

Big Blue

Yes, it finally has a name!!  Since this quilt is for my Giants football loving husband and it's all sorts of lovely shades of blue I shall be calling this quilt Big Blue.  And, I have nearly finished piecing this top!!

Backing up for a moment I should also mention that I started with Colored Bricks pattern from Stitched in Color.  I made the sashing a little wider.  The top a little bigger.  And instead of random placement of the bricks, I decided on an organized pattern to suit the mister.  You can see a bit more here and here.

X Marks the Spot

I laid out my backing.  Taped it down (with the clear stuff... masking tape was hiding somewhere in my closet -- don't laugh Mr. Happy)

Smoothed on the cotton batting.  I used Warm and Natural this time around and really really like it!  So smooth, no puckering, nice to the touch, not too stiff.  Pretty excited to see how it quilts too!

Then I laid out the top and smoothed smoothed.  Then pin, pin, pinned.  I probably don't use as many pins as others.  I'm a rebel that way.  So, the next natural question is how should I quilt this?  Any thoughts?  I have done the last few with free motion loopies... my comfort zone.. I wouldn't mind branching out to something else.

Yup, I'm falling hard for this one all over again!  Looking forward to start stitching... I bet I will be winding bobbins with peach thread tonight in anticipation!!

Oh, and here is a portion of the scrappy backing I made up using left overs and larger pieces. When I get a better shot... you will see there is a giant X on the back.  Too cool!

Color Wheel Charm Swap

I am cutting my charms for this swap!

I got the colors Orange and Orange-Red.  Looking forward to playing with all the colors of the rainbow shortly!

And last, but not least, I joined another quilt-a-long by Melissa at Happy Quilting. 

Remember the last one we did with her: Tribal? 

I am going to call this one Star Struck.

Star Struck

Remember those vintage sheet fat quarters?  I decided that I will be using them to make up the stars.  And because I never just go along with the crowd, I am going to try and use this light brown flannel as the background color.  Can't wait to make up the first few stars!!

--ON PAUSE--

{Insert Name Here}: Bottled Rainbows {ticker tape quilt-along}

I am looking froward to getting back to this one, but decided I needed a finish, so this one was put aside. 

Crewel Spring Flowers

Nada -- poor pretty flowers.

Katie Fiber Art

No action here.

You Can Sew-a-thon!!

You haven't heard of it??... check it out here or read about our first project (Strawberry Pincushion).

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 6
New Projects: 1 (officially added Star Struck)

Finished Projects: 0 (But getting closer on two)
Total WiP's: 7 (strangely still the same as last time)

Friday Night Sew-In was AWESOME!

It was hot and late, but so fantastic to get back behind the sewing machine with a little purpose.

Here is what I was starting on.  Any guesses?

For those of you who said pillow.. Yup!  For those of you who said Sprocket Pillow -- exactly!  I've had this on my want to do list for way to long and it was time to build some circle sewing confidence.  (Thank you Cluck Cluck Sew for putting together such a great tutorial!!)

For those of you who have already noticed... yup, there is an error in these first two pictures.  Sigh.

Take a closer look.

I had forgotten to put the two right sides together.  Silly-heat-got-the-best-of-me sewing mistake.  

Thankfully, I caught it before I got all the way around the circle.  It came out fairly easy and the rest just flew together!

The button was the next most challenging part, but I couldn't be happier with the results.  And I can see making more in the future.  This is the large size in case you are wondering.

Here is a look at the back.  Great way to use a favorite fat quarter!

My brown flowers on the sides.

I was even able to feature a cupcake.  Too cool!!

And that was enough accomplished for me to retire to bed with the biggest smile.  Satisfaction!!

Hope you also had a great night whether you were sewing or doing something else.

Also linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory... come see all the other great projects brewing!




日本のための多くの愛
Much love for Japan

The Weekend.... the glorious weekend!

Just a peak into what I found to be one of the most peaceful and grounding weekends for me in a long time. 

Yes, we stacked wood, played with the pup, ate lots of good things -- the picture is french toast waffles... recipe to follow -- there was sewing time, there was a date night, and it was magnificent!

Hope you all had a great time too!  Let's go kick this week's butt!

日本のための多くの愛
Much love for Japan

Fabric Flower Pins {Carnations}

I wanted to make a little flower or something for my art show committee to wear during the art show this week.  Last year I make origami flowers, so I wanted to try and mix it up a little this year. 

I had fabric flowers on the brain and have seen a lot of really good tutorials for darling little flowers.  However, when I stumbled across Kara's tutorial at Craftastical for a fabric flower that resembled a carnation... I knew I had found the one!! 

Kara's instructions are clear and easy to follow.  I also liked how these are made from circles of fabric... and that the circles don't have be perfectly round in order for them to work.  It's a very forgiving pattern that way!  I enjoyed trying different fabrics and colors to see how the flowers would look!

Cutting all the circles was messy business... but at the same time all those colors together looked a bit like festive confetti to me!

Don't they look great together!

I used a dab of hot glue from a hot glue gun to add a pin on the back.  I did cover the pin with a small square of fabric to make the pin base a little more sturdy.  They have worked like a charm!!  It's very easy to take them on and off ... and I do think they will last a long time!!

It's also a perfect way to use up some scraps like left over binding!  I have found that two inch circles work really well for this!

Sorry for the short post today, but I am hoping this weekend will bring a little more calm into my life and I can get back behind my sewing machine for a bit.

日本のための多くの愛
Much love for Japan

Confetti Quilt is ALIVE!

Confetti began here with cut pieces that were one inch by one inch in a wide range of colors from my scraps.

As I began playing with the squares they begged for a background, so I dug around came up with this square which is about 21 inches square.

I started arranging them into cute color coordinated flowers.

I even pinned the heck out of it. 

The it hit me *bam* that in order to stay true to confetti... that this had to be a celebration of chaos!!

I began to rearrange and re-pin.

I added more and more until I exhausted my tiny square pile.  Yes, I already see more of these in my future!

I went right to layering this with batting and and a backing and safety pinned things in place.

Quick sneak at the picnic yellow backing -- so cheerful!!

And off I went.  Round and round and round I went with the free motion foot on.  I just did the edge around each square with some simple swirls between to draw a connecting line.

I decided I wanted frayed edges.  It's organic, it's chaos, it's true to confetti!

Here you can see the back right corner is sewn down.  Slow and steady progress.  

I finished nearly 1/2 of the squares in one sitting.  It was also fun to come back over the next day or so to sew a few more squares at time.  It's a really easy project to pick up and put down again.

I'm getting to the end of them now.

When I finished I squared the mini quilt and the results are the trims below.  Is it funny that all I see is stuffing for more birds and strips for more tiny squares??!!?!

I have yet to put the binding on as I am still trying to decide it Confetti is finished.  I showed it to Mr. Happy and he said that I should add more color.  More color?  Hmm... but I do see what he means.  I think it is still too uniform, like I am still fighting the chaos.

I am debating adding embellishments like beads or buttons. 
I am debating if I want to do more quilting with all sorts of colors of thread. 
I am debating if I should take this chance to try embroidery.
Yes, I am still debating.  Which is why I am leaving you on a trim pile and not the finished thing. 

Fun to see things develop isn't it?  And I also have to report that I have Central Park fabrics are cut, sewn, ironed, and adorning my fabric wall. 

Hoping to show you more tomorrow and seriously all your thoughts and ideas are welcome!  I can't wait to hear what you think too!