Pin Cushions!

I am soooo excited for this post! Rather, I guess I'm excited for my new pin cushion(s)! I have been eyeing up these cathedral window pin cushions and have wanted to make one for months. I thought it would be much harder than it was, but thanks to this tutorial at My Go-Go Life, it was a breeze! I might make a million more of these someday... My second one is for my mother. We're going to a Mother's Day quilt retreat, so I figured it would be the perfect gift!

This is the pin cushion I was using previously... (sad, isn't it?)

This little guy I made in about 30 seconds when I desperately needed something to use for a pin cushion. I didn't have any batting, so I stuffed it with left over spiderweb from Halloween. That made it really dense and hard for the pins to push in without a little nudging. (Spiderweb is not a great medium, in case you're wondering, but it does actually work if you're in a bind.)

For my new and improved pin cushions, I used real batting. The pins just glide right in now and it's so pretty to look at! I've retired the old one into a cat toy. My cats were always stealing it off of my desk anyway, so now it can be permanently theirs. Everyone's happy!


So, if you've been procrastinating on making one of these, DON'T put it off any longer! I love, love, love, love, love mine! If it wasn't almost midnight right now I'd want to sew for hours just so I could use the cushion, but there's always tomorrow! Happy crafting!

Patchy Pillow

It's been a long time since I've put together a pillow. In fact, the last time I remember making one was when I was in grade school with the help of my mom. We had just gotten back from a family vacation to Shipshewana, Indiana where we went into many Amish fabric stores. That's probably when I really got the fabric/sewing bug. I think we made 12 pillows for my little twin-sized bed! (And I still have them!)

So, I had a few scraps left over from my jelly roll 9-patch quilt and figured I'd make them into a quick throw pillow for my brother- and sister-in-law. It just so happens that their apartment decor is yellow and gray, so it works out perfectly. Plus - if they don't like it they can give it away to someone else or throw it in a corner. :) It only took about 30 minutes to put together (once I got my math right on the borders and backing). And since I already had all of the fabric lying around, I'm not out one extra dollar for this project! I even had a pillow insert that was just stuffed in my closet looking lonely! The envelope backing was super quick and easy and it means they'll be able to wash the pillow cover if it gets anything spilled on it. I have plenty of pillows on my couch right now that I can't do this with, so now I'm contemplating making covers for all of those too! That will be a project for a day much farther in the future.

I know I should have ironed this pillow before I took pictures of it... but I didn't. It's probably going to be crammed into a little box to be mailed off to them, so it's bound to get some wrinkles! Anyway, just thought I would share since it's my only sewn finish of this week. I have also finished my blue/brown knit scarf and I made a knit dishcloth for my mother with a subtle butterfly design on it. Neither are too special, but maybe once I have a few more of those done I'll do a post of those knitted projects as well. Until next time - happy crafting!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for a Whoop! Whoop! finish. :) Check out the rest of the great projects and the fabulous quilt her friend made! Also linking up to Quilt Story so check out all of those awesome fabric stories as well!

Super Mario Quilt Top 1/2 Done!

Well... I would have gotten it over half way done, but I got distracted by this bright, shiny, new sewing machine! My husband bought me an early birthday present of a new Janome HD1000 sewing machine and I'm in love with it! I played around with the tension and dropping the feed dogs (something I've never been able to do on a machine before) for a couple hours and then got to sewing the Shy Guy character square.

Unfortunately the Shy Guy is still only 1/2 done, but I'll be able to finish it up this weekend. Otherwise, I've got 12 full character squares out of 24 completed! It's been very slow going, but now that I have my new machine I'm going to be sewing non-stop! I can't believe how smooth it runs! And, having the new machine is going to give me some accountability to keep sewing and get this quilt finished just in time for hot summer weather. :) (Maybe we'll have to blast the A/C to use it!!) Anyway, happy Friday and happy crafting!

Sneak Peak...

So, I promised my husband that I'd be working on his Super Mario Quilt while he's gone this week. So far I haven't had a chance to do too much, but I have laid out the Shy Guy square and that should be sewn together for an updated post by Friday for all of the characters that I've put together. So, just a quick update here today to say that I have made at least some progress!! (Plus, I should be getting my new sewing machine in the mail today, so of course I'll be glued to it for the next few days!) Sorry that the photo doesn't have quite the whole character square shown. I had already started gathering up the bottom rows when I thought "I should take a picture!" :) Happy crafting!

Strawberry Mango Soup

Have you ever been on a cruise and been in awe of the fancy, exotic sounding fruit soups they serve? Well, I have, and I was bound and determined to make one of my own. And...I've been successful! It actually was really, really simple. Here's what you need to do:

Ingredients
1lb box of fresh strawberries
1 large mango
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup ginger ale

Directions
1) Cut strawberries and mango into small chunks and place in a large food processor. Add sugar and orange juice.
2) Blend on high until all fruit bits have been incorporated and mixture is smooth.
3) Add ginger ale to fruit mixture. (This will cause the mixture to foam a bit, so make sure there is room in the food processor bowl for the mixture to expand.)
4) Divide into bowls and serve.
*Optional garnishes: mint leaves, basil leaves, sliced/fanned strawberry
**Steps 1 and 2 can be done the day before or a couple hours in advance. Only add the ginger ale once you are ready to serve the soup.

This recipe also makes a great smoothie! Happy cooking!

Designing

Well, I just got the best birthday present from my husband! We just ordered it, and my birthday isn't until July, but he said I could have it early. He bought me a new sewing machine! A Janome HD1000 which I can't wait to use! So, I've been designing quilt tops like mad and thought I might share. They are probably really hard to see in the pencil sketches without making the pictures larger, so I apologize if you can't make anything out at all.

The first one is a zigzag pattern. I've seen so many of these that I kind of want to try it on my own. My biggest fear is that I haven't cut or sewn triangles in a few years so I'm gonna have to re-learn how to do that. I'm hoping its not as bad as I think it is. I think I have an irrational fear of triangles so all of the patterns that I've made tend to use squares or strips instead.

The second quilt is a snowball pattern. I've always liked this quilt because it's geometric but also circular. I think this could be really fun in bright colors with a black background. Something that will really pop when you look at it.

The third quilt was inspired by Amanda Jean's latest finish. I loved her rolling stone quilt so much I decided I want to give it a try. The rolling stone block really reminded me of the card trick block. so I figured why not put the two of them together? I think I'd like to make this one in some whimsical prints with a white background. Of course that will change when I go to the fabric store and fall in love with something totally different!


So, my new sewing machine should be here before the end of the month (hopefully I'll already be sewing on it by that time). Until then, I've promised my husband I'll keep working on his Super Mario Quilt (that I've been neglecting horribly!). So, stay tuned for an update on that sometime this week too since I plan to knock a few character blocks off of the WiP table and into the completed file. Until then, happy crafting!

Inspired

My husband, Alex, and I just returned from a 2 week long trip to Europe. It was amazing and we had a wonderful time, but I'm glad to be back home. Unfortunately, he had to whisk off on a two-day business trip right after we got back so I'm at home with just the cats. I guess that gives me lots of time to reflect on our trip and all of the wonderfully crafty things I saw!

Our favorite stop on the trip was to Porto, Portugal - famous for Port Wine (yum!!). This city is very artsy. Everywhere we turned there was a little street market with local artists selling their creations. I fell in love! These are two things that we purchased for ourselves:

The left picture is a hair barrette made from a zipper (I guess I'll be the only one using that, but Alex thought it was really cool). They were also selling necklaces and bracelets to match these, but they were all a little too large for me. The right picture is supposed to be a necklace, but we are going to use it as a Christmas ornament for our tree. It's made out of comic book pages and newspaper that has been rolled together and shellacked. The vendor was also selling baskets and bowls that he had made with the same technique. I want to try to find a tutorial for this, or see if I can figure out the craft on my own. The bowls he had were really unique, but I really didn't have room to bring one home.

Everywhere I turned, at any city we went to in Europe, all of the women were wearing scarves. I guess this is a big trend in the US as well, but much more so in Europe. It seemed like they thought they would be committing some type of fashion crime if they didn't wear a scarf every day. I saw a lot of these type of T-shirt scarves for sale in Porto, and I want to make one of those soon. This picture on the right is just one I found online from Make & Do Girl. But... I've started another knit scarf. I'm so new to the world of knitting that I wanted to give it another shot with better yarn. This scarf is so soft compared to the one I made for my husband, and coming out much neater. It's still getting warmer here every day, but not too warm to still wear a scarf.

The last major thing that inspired me was the Rose Window in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It is so beautiful, colorful and vibrant that I can't help being in awe of its splendor. Someday, I really want to make a quilt that tries to capture its beauty - or maybe a cross stitch. Either way I won't be able to do it justice, but I like the idea of having a crafty work of art made in its honor.

I hope you've all been inspired recently to create something beautiful and unique! Happy crafting

Linking up to Freshly Pieced today for WiP Wednesday.