WIP: now panic and freak out

work in progress

Here's a sneak peek of my current WIP. It's actually a very very very old WIP - a belated birthday present that I started long ago and never completed. Better late than never, right?

mini tutorial: 5min wall art

Materials:

1 8x10 canvas (available everywhere)

1 chipboard word (available at Michael's, usually in the dollar section)

1 can spray-paint (available in hardware stores)

1 glue gun (available everywhere)

Steps:

Glue chipboard word to canvas.

Spray-paint both the word and the canvas the desired color.

Let dry for a few hours.

Enjoy!

framed butterflies

finished!

Today, while making more tile coasters, I decided I wanted to use the scraps of paper for something pretty. I'd seen lots of these framed butterflies floating around the internet, so I tried my hand at it.

Materials:

1 8x10 frame, spray-painted white

1 8x10 piece of cardboard, spray-painted white

1 Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Fine-tip applicator glue

Lots of scraps of paper (I used a Premium Stacks safari stack)

Total cost: <$15.00

Steps:

Spray paint the frame and piece of cardboard. Allow to dry. Punch out about a bazillion (or 54) butterflies. Glue the back of the butterflies' spines (which are very narrow, which is why you want glue with a fine-tip), so that the wings can be free. Arrange six across and nine down in a pleasing pattern (or wing it like I did (ahaha, get it? wing it? no? okay)). 

Easy peasy and so cute! I left the glass out, so that the wings stand out and give the butterflies a 3D effect.

closeup!

tutorial: words on a poster

finished!

 This will be a quick tutorial because the steps are very similar to my tutorial for messages on a canvas. 

Materials:

1 16x20 poster

1 set of 2inch vinyl letters (available in the hardware section)

1 can spray-paint in the color of your choice (be sure it is a color different enough from the colors in the poster that the words will stand out!)

Place the letters on the poster in the message of your choice. Use a ruler to make sure they are evenly distributed and straight. I placed my letters 3/8ths of an inch apart with a 1inch space between words. There is also a 1.5inch space at the top and bottom of the poster, and 2inches between lines of words.

Spray-paint the poster with the color of your choice. Let dry.

Peel off the letters, and frame to enjoy!

tutorial: message on a canvas

finished!

 This quick and fun project is a great way to personalize your walls! 

I made this statement piece for under $11 and in less than an hour.

materials

All you need for this project:

canvas in the size of your choice (I had an 8x10 and a 4x21)

spray paint in the colors of your choice (I chose red and silver)

paint pen in color of your choice (I chose silver)

vinyl 1inch letters (available in the hardware section)

Step One:

Spray paint your canvases! 

Make sure to get the edges.

Step two: 

Once the canvases are dry, place the 1inch vinyl letters to spell out the message of your choice.

It looks pretty good at this stage, but it will look even better at the end!

Step Three:

Spray-paint the canvas again with the second color of your choice, covering the letters.

Step Four: 

While that canvas is drying, write on the other canvas with the paint pen. Let dry.

 Step Five:

Once the second coat of spray-paint is dry, carefully peel off the letters, revealing the original color underneath.

 Hang and enjoy!

new items in shop!

remember this? now you can have your own!

Check out my etsy shop for cross-stitch and quilt goodness!

completed: remnant quilt

front and back

Yesterday, I finally finished quilting the gazillion pebbles on this quilt, and bound it with a scrappy homemade binding.
It's now for sale in my etsy shop!

all done!

lots of pebbles

tile coasters

new coasters!

As you might remember from previous posts, I really like making coasters. I'm very against making cookies for Christmas again, so I've been trying out various coasters to find a cookie replacement. Yesterday/today, I made scrapbook paper covered tile coasters. I used a cool clock paper that I found at Jo-Ann, because Adam likes clocks. I also used a random paint swatch for one lonely coaster.

The coasters were super easy to make with not many supplies required. I followed this (very simple) tutorial. The only difficulty in making these coasters is waiting the 15 minutes between each coat of Mod Podge! I got a few air bubbles in my coasters, but they had disappeared by the time I went to spray them with the finish today.
Overall, a quick satisfying project with infinite possibilities!

quilting snags

So today, I am peacefully quilting away when my needle hits something and stutters. I pulled the quilt out and checked it - and there was something distinctly hard inside my quilt! So I carefully unpinned a path to the unknown object and pulled it out. Not sure how this plastic thingamajig got into my quilt, but I'm glad that it's gone now!

new book

Today, I received a new quilting book in the mail. Not unlike my affinity for fabrics, I have a small quilting book obsession - and a matching collection. Some were gifts, and some I have bought myself. Today's mail brought me Dare to be Square by Boo Davis. It's a super fun book full of untraditional patterns. I can't wait to try out these patterns for myself! You can check it out on Amazon or your favorite book retailer.

wip: pebble quilting

pebbles!

I've been working away at my remnant quilt and the pebble quilting. I have almost a fourth of the quilt done. It's definitely slower than stippling or straight-line quilting, but it's going faster than I originally anticipated.
I had to go buy more thread! Like most kinds of dense quilting, this method uses a lot of thread. In fact, I am only taking a break right now because I ran out of bobbin thread!

today I learned: pebble quilting

pebbles

While contemplating how to quilt my remnant quilt, I remembered seeing pebble quilting on some quilts on the Internet and thought the circles would look good on this quilt. I googled "pebble quilting", and found a demo video by Handmade by Alissa. Then I tried it out on a scrap quilt sandwich.
As you can probably see, my pebbles aren't perfect - but then again, neither are anyone else's pebbles. It is difficult to create a perfect circle, and I rather like the imperfect quality of my pebbles. I also suspect I will get better with more practice.
I've read that pebble quilting takes awhile and uses a lot of thread. Wish my luck as I try it out!

completed: remnant quilt top

the quilt top

 Today I finished the quilt top for the remnant quilt. I think it looks pretty good!
There are a lot of seams to match up in this quilt pattern, which can be tricky, but the whole quilt top came together pretty smoothly. I hadn't worked on it much because of my time-consuming cross-stitching, but I decided this morning to finish it, and it was pretty quick.
This quilt, when finished, will go up for sale in my etsy shop!

Sassafras seems to like it too

completed: geeky binary love cross-stitch

01001001000100000011011000011011110111011
00110010100100000011110010110111101110101
i love you

This is a cross-stitched code of binary that translates to "I love you", and is a surprise gift for Adam. 

I've been working on this cross-stitch for the past two days. Cross-stitching always takes longer than I expect!

It is cross-stitched using three strands of black embroidery floss on "grasshopper" green 14-count Aida, framed in a simple black 5 by 7 inch frame. The color scheme is reminiscent of old computer screens. 

It took almost two skeins of floss to finish this pattern (which I designed (if you can call it that) on 14-count graph paper). I was inspired by techie fonts, and I found one sample that only had "ABC123", so I took the "1" from that and then made up the "0" to match. I used a simple heart at the end to finish the design.

design on graph paper

victory

you can never have too much batting

wip: remnant quilt

fabrics from the remnant bin

I can't finish my black and white wip because I don't have any batting for it yet, so I decided to start another work-in-progress! Call me crazy. I have a strange addiction to buying remnants, and so I pulled a bunch of remnants out of my fabric bin (which is red and from Target and awesome) for this quilt. It will be a gender-neutral quilt, and I'm going to use the same pattern (that I designed, yay!) as the black and white quilt top. I had more than enough yardage of each fabric, so I got to use my original dimensions again. I will probably use up the leftover fabrics to make a scrappy binding for the quilt.
I need to get batting! I like 80/20 cotton/poly batting, and it is increasingly difficult to find. 100% polyester batting just isn't as nice, so I will have to make a trip to Jo-Ann's soon to track down some batting!

wip: black and white quilt top completed

quilt top!

Since my last post (at about 1:30PM), I've been doing nothing but sewing. And lo and behold, I completed the quilt top of my black and white quilt! It took about three hours. It isn't a very big quilt - it measures about 37" by 54".
It's my own design (yay!), but I had to adjust the measurements that I had originally planned because the cuts on my fabric were atrocious.
If you like it, get excited... the quilt will be for sale in my etsy shop when it is completed, and there will be a pattern/tutorial for this design soon!

wip: black and white quilt

cut and ready to sew!

I bought these fabrics a long time ago with the intent of making a little lap quilt for myself. Well, time has passed, and now I am going to make this into a quilt for someone else (that someone is yet to be determined). I'm not in love with the prints anymore, except for that fabulous paisley. I have a secret weakness for paisley.

scraps

completed: super secret present quilt

surprise! it's a quilt!

You know that sneak peek project that I have been working on?
Well it is done done done!
It will remain a secret until the recipient receives it, but I will let you in on a secret: it' is awesome.

the snacks of quilting champions

delicious

Why do I need root beer and skittles, you might ask? Because I am quilting. And quilting is best fueled with sugary snacks. You might have thought balanced meals and wine were best for quilting, but no, my friend, you were mistaken. (Partly because wine would stain your quilt if you spilled any!)
I'm about 1/4 of the way done quilting my current project, and I just had to take a break to get some snacks. I should be done with my project tonight, so be on the lookout for reveal photos soon!

featured on craft gossip!

I'm so happy! I submitted my Nintendo 3DS case tutorial to Craft Gossip, and it is now featured there! I'm even on the home page at the moment.

You can find the little write-up here. I'm amazed it was accepted so fast! This is the first time my blog is really getting exposure, so I'm very excited.

Stay tuned for more tutorials coming soon!

wip: sneak peek of an old wip

This is a sneak peek of a current work-in-progress, formerly a pile of cut fabrics in my started-but-not-finished pile. I wonder what it will turn out to be... ?

tutorial: 60-minute fat quarter 3DS case

the end result

Today I am going to show you how to make a case for a Nintendo 3DS. This is a quick easy project with an awesome outcome! The case is padded with fleece and stiffened with interfacing, closes securely with a zipper, and only takes 60 minutes to make!


Materials needed:

• 1 fat quarter (18 x 21) or 1/3 yard for the exterior
• 1 fat quarter (18 x 21) or 1/3 yard for the interior
• 1/3 yard of fleece
• 1/3 yard of medium-weight interfacing
• 1 9 inch zipper

materials

Let's get started! There are only 18 steps for this project: 

1. Cut fabrics, interfacing, and fleece. You will need:

• 9.5 x 9.5 exterior fabric
• 9.5 x 9.5 interior fabirc
• 9.5 x 9.5 fleece
• 9.5 x 9.5 interfacing
• 2 1.5 x 2 exterior (or interior, your choice) fabric for tabs
• 2 1.5 x 2 interfacing

2. Interface the wrong side of exterior fabric and the little tabs, following the manufacturer's directions. (Basically, put the bumpy side of the interfacing against the wrong side of your fabric, place a pressing cloth over it, spray-mist with water, and press with an iron for 15 seconds or until the pressing cloth is dry).
* this is a good time to add a label to your exterior fabric, if you would like to do so!

3. Baste the fleece to the wrong side of the interior fabric.

this is what you should have - interfaced exterior fabric and fleece sewn to the interior fabric

4. Sew zipper to one side of the exterior fabric, right sides together. Use a zipper foot and sew as close to the zipper as you can. This will give you a nicer appearance in the end. See? Zippers aren't so scary!
* stop 0.5 inch from the ends! Don't stitch all the way to the end!

like this

this is what you should get

5. Sew one side of the interior fabric to the zipper, sandwiched with the interior fabric on top of the zipper, which is on top of the exterior fabric, right sides together.
* stop 0.5 inch from the ends again!

like this

this is what you should get

 6. Flip the fabrics right sides together and sew them to the untouched side of the zipper, making another nice little zipper sandwich.

you should get these two loops as a result

7. Turn the bag right-side out (you should have basically a tube) and topstitch along the zipper, getting as close to the zipper as you can while staying on the fabric.
* open the zipper half-way and leave it open!

nice tube

topstitched!

8. Turn your tube wrong-way out again, and flatten so that the zipper is centered.

like so!

9. Make the little tabs by folding them width-wise right sides together and stitch a 1/8 seam along the raw edges. Turn right-side out and press so that the seam is centered. Fold length-wise and press so that the raw edges are together and the seam is on the inside.

tab sewn together

finished tabs

10. Pull back the interior fabric and the zipper. Insert the tab between the layers of the exterior fabric, and stitch with a 1/4 seam.

like this

stitched!

11. Now pull back the exterior fabric and zipper and stitch the interior layers together the same way you just did the exterior layers. Repeat for the other end of the bag, remembering to add your tab between the exterior layers!
* make sure the sides of the zipper are brought together when you do the end of the bag with the opened zipper. This will make the bag look nicer later!

12. Cut out a 1 inch square from each corner, measuring from the seams you've sewn.

measure from the seam!

all cut!

13. Stitch right over the zipper, securing it between all the layers of exterior and interior fabrics. Don't stitch all the way to the end - that will make the next step more difficult.

14. Take one exterior corner and flatten it out so that the seam is centered. Sew with a 1/4 inch seam.

pinch the corner together and flatten it out

stitched together

15. Repeat for all the exterior corners, and all but one of the interior corners.

16. Turn the bag right-side out through the corner you've left open.

17. Stitch up that corner with your machine and a 1/8 seam or with an invisible ladder stitch by hand.

18. Enjoy your new 3DS case!

end of the bag

top view

nailpolish featured is Sinful Colors - Cinderella

* Please don't sell bags made from this tutorial, but do make plenty for friends and family! Let me know if you have any questions!