Spaced Out!

Spaced out, me? No. Well not today anyway. I just received my quilt back from my friend who machine quilts, and was so excited I wanted to share it even though it's not quite finished yet. I am making it for P, who is only one, and still in a crib so I figure I have about a year to work on those finishing touches! (binding, and stitching aroung the many rocketship applique) It is a design from my head, a crazy take on a more traditional strip quilt. I had the great idea to square it up at the very end, a colossal mistake that I graciously passed on to my machine quilter friend. I was nice and warned her first. She was nice and didn't make me feel like a bad quilter. I have since learned quite a lot about squaring up quilts, and won't be repeating this mistake lest my friend reject my next one. :0)

P loves it. He knows it is somehow just for him, which makes working on it with him around a trifle difficult. Well, working on anything with him around is difficult, but he loves this quilt, so I am happy. In addition to the quilt, I have made a small wall quilt with a robot, and a robot softie. I fully plan on turning the last two out into patterns for the general population. I would do the quilt, but where to begin to be a teacher, when I feel ever the perpetual student when it comes to larger quilts. Someday perhaps. So here are a couple pictures as a warm up.

A picture of all of together, clearly his new bedroom has a theme! Robot, by the way, is well loved. He is starting to show signs of wear, which warms a mom's heart to know that she can create something as well received as Robot. :0)

My version of fabric flowers, a bit of a tutorial

I've been working on a handbag pattern, and of course this has been done. A lot. Next I want to add a large funky flower, and you guessed it, this has been done a lot as well. What's a girl to do? Get inspiration from a vintage piece of jewelry in her jewelry box. :0)

I wear this one often, and it's one of those pieces that gets a bit of attention. Worn with a modern outfit, it adds a bit of vintage fun to my (very small) wardrobe. Since my style was described as sophisticated funky, this fits! The multiple petals with a riot of beads coming out of the center can't be too hard to drum up in fabric, right?

Start by raiding your scrapbook cupboard, your daughter's costume jewelry, and anything with beads you don't want but kept just for an occassion like this. A small pair of wire cutters, some heavier gage wire, wool felt, fabric, needle, thread, fabric glue and safety pins is an approximation of what you'll need for both of these flowers. I also used some acrylic paint and a paintbrush, but that is totally skippable.

Cut a length of about 3" from your wire, and make a "V". Next, make two loops on either side of this to hold the beads. After placing a bead or two, (or charm, or other?) roll the wire down to secure the bead. Make three of these. Join all three down at the base of the "V", and twist a couple times. I leave a little loop at the bottom of the twist for sewing into the flower.

My first flower center!

Now I'm just getting carried away. But if you are going to make several of these, You may as well make them all at once. By the way, when these flowers are done I see multiple uses, pins, headbands... So if that helps you determine how many to make, that's great!

Next, have a break with some hot cocoa and marshmallows.

Cut two pieces of felt, with multiple petals, one smaller and one larger. Yes, I do know that these look like shamrocks. Humor me.

Totally unnessary step, but accent the petals with paint if you wish.

Next, using your needle and heavy thread, knot the end, and starting from the back you will sew your bead center in. Draw the needle from the back, through both layers of felt, and then through the loop in the wire. Basically you are sewing on a button, but instead of a button it's your flower center. As you go, pucker the felt a bit so that it has more dimension.

Making the felt back is easy, just cut a piece of felt, place through the safety pin, and using craft glue, fold the pieces together over the top of pin.

Sew this piece on, looping your thread over the top of the pin, and securing in place. 

A funky felt flower pin!!

This one is created with a 44" long strip of fabric, 2" wide, with frayed edges. Starting with a 4" circle of felt, glue down the fabric in the center, and start twisting and gluing as you go in a circle. Sew in the center of the flower like you did on the previous one, and glue and sew the back and pin on as well. I need practice with this flower, but for a first it's pretty cute!!

Speaking of,  it's hard for me to get much of anything done with this cuteness playing under my table! :0)

Have fun and enjoy the day!!

Someone tell me again why we did this??

Wow. I never thought living within a construction zone would be this bad, but really? Are you kidding me? I have now made the decision to never, ever, build a house. IF we move, EVER, it will be into a nice, pre-built, possibly new, home. Maybe on a lake, with birds chirping, and coffee made for me every day. Music will softly be playing in the background, and oh, wait. For now I'm living in a construction zone. I'll just share a few pictures, so that those who have been there may comiserate with me to make me feel better. :0)

This is the hallway to our bedrooms. We have tried covering doors in plastic, laying towels in the doorways to catch dust on shoes... and nope. Nothing works. I have stepped in big puddles of drywall mud and tracked it into our bedroom.

This is our soon to be bathroom. I really can't complain about this one so much, as we didn't have a bathroom here before.

This is our former family room, soon to be master suite. We walk through here to get to the patio, and the dogs used to sleep in here. I say "used to" because the contractors do not know how to clean up, or put anything away, so lest our animals chew up their tools, they will not be sleeping in there.

I know the end result will be fabulous, and just so this post isn't a complete downer, I will now post pictures of something totally fabulous.

My wonderful husband created (with a bit of help from a new friend) our new bowling lane table. It is a section from the old Lilac Lanes, the back section, where the two types of wood are joined, and the discs for the pins are. The discs are now inlaid walnut, and it is trimmed out in walnut as well. Our friend Derek even made us a cribbage board to match!

The base matches the trim in the house, I think the hubby did that accidentally. Don't tell him I think that. :0)
http://www.wolcottcustomwoddworks.com/
This is the link to Derek's site, he does amazing work, if you get the chance, check him out!

Well, I'm off to work, and to possibly list more things in my Etsy shop.
Enjoy the day!