Coming soon...

Well hello there, internet friends. I'm very sorry for the long and unexplained absence. It all started with a studio re-do and then came summer and whoosh, suddenly it's early October. I promise to be back soon. I designed up some new fun felt projects that I'm looking forward to sharing. I just ordered myself some new felt and I'm resisting the urge to run out and check the mailbox. I know it's not here it. I only just submitted the order. Just now.

I've also been baking. Oh the joy! I'll be here soon to share it all...

Until then, hope you are crafting and baking and generally enjoying life.

Kate

Napkins for Easter

Easter is a lovely low-key holiday around here, providing me with the perfect opportunity to whip up some new napkins for our annual breakfast with the neighbors. Such a simple project, and yet one that I had never bothered to try before. I so enjoyed it that I will probably make them for every occasion and every-day use too.

For today's breakfast I wanted something with a slightly spring-y pattern but I'm not crazy about pastels or typical spring motifs. I had this fabric, called European Taupe by Kinkame (Japan) in my stash and it seemed perfect for a spring breakfast. (European Taupe is no longer in production but has been followed up by equally beautiful and similarly styled European Taupe collections II - V.) With the help of a favorite book of mine, Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross, a project was born. (This book unfortunately has lots of errata in the instructions but no matter, it's still a visually inspiring book with lots of great projects and yes, I would recommend it to anyone.)

I used two different prints for the cotton tops and because I wanted to conserve the print fabric I decided to back them in solids. For the European Taupe I used a linen-look cotton from Joann (frustrated as I get with that store, it's useful sometimes) and on the green print (also from Joann) I used a Kona cotton in off-white. I adore the look of the linen knock-off with the floral, though it is a bit thick and my napkins don't lay quite right. I've decided to come to peace with the imperfection I achieved and call it a day.

Heather's pattern calls for 2 fat quarters but after pre-washing my fabrics they were slightly smaller than 18" on one side so I used 17" squares to start with. I don't think anyone is going to be measuring my napkins for size standards, so I'm perfectly fine with the end result, which is a little over 16" square.

Happy Easter to you all! Hope you are having a lovely low-key (or high-amp if you prefer) kind of day.

Kate

More Magnets & A Puppy

Well hello there. You may have noticed that I haven't been all that active lately. Or rather, that I haven't been active at all in the last three weeks. Photographic evidence of my serious distraction follows. But I'll get to that in a minute. What I have managed to accomplish, and yes, it's not a huge accomplishment but right now I'm happy to have something, anything, if not something particularly significant in any way. I so enjoy this little patchwork pillow magnet project. This time, instead of using Bliss, I used some Cloud 9 polka-dot in a lovely aqua, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, and...oh yeah, Bliss. The white on white dots are from the Bliss line. But don't they work well with these other two fabrics? I'm in love with the aqua dot to the point of not wanting to use it because then it will be gone. I do that all the time and then I'll end up being sick of it before I ever even used it. I really need to get over that and go use it up. Maybe I'll use it to make a tote for myself or to make the Henny Penny and her 6 Chicks pattern from Anna Maria Horner. But I digress...

So here they are, a few more of the many patchwork pillow magnets in the works. And then there's this:

Meet Avery. Our Bernese Mountain Dog puppy who came home 3 weeks ago today. She is now 10 weeks old and has already grown so much that I get sentimental over it. Not that that is a stretch, since I get sentimental pretty darn easily. But still, the point is, we have a new furry member of our family and we are in love. And tired. Puppies are tiring. Did you know? I thought I did. Now I know for sure.

She wakes up at 5 am and goes bonkers for 2 hours and then does this for about 8 hours.

She's a love.

And now do you understand why I'm getting nothing done?

Kate

Quilted Pillow Magnets

Well hello! Long time no see. That's my fault, I know. Sorry about that. But I'm back now, crafting my little heart out. I actually started these quilty pillow magnets ages ago but you know how it is - you get a little sidetracked and before you know it three weeks goes by and your dusting off and reviving an almost-forgotten-about project.

I wanted to try these fabulous little magnets after I saw the ones that Nova posted on her Flickr page. Hers are MUCH nicer. Her stitching is as near perfect as you can be and her designs make me swoon. Knowing that mine would not look anything like hers, I just couldn't help myself and had to give it a try. They were really fun to make! And when you make an utter disaster out of one, you don't feel bad about wasting fabric because you are only using 3 square inches at a time.

For each of these pictured, I used scraps of Bliss fabric by Moda (I think we all know I have a lot of those scraps laying around) and backed them with linen from JoAnn. I used Beacon Adhesives craft glue to secure the magnets that I got at Michaels. As you can see, my quilting designs are rather simplistic - mostly just 1" squares that I sewed together using 1/8" seam allowances. I stuffed them with a small amount of batting to make them pillow-like but I didn't want them to be too firm.

I confess, I have about 10 more in the works already. They are highly addictive to make because they are quick and easy and give you a chance to be creative with all those tiny little scraps. I have a long list of projects begging to be started but they are just going to have to wait a little longer...

How are your crafty adventures going this weekend?

Kate

Creative Fits and Starts

I've had a lot of creative starts and stops this week. I had a little unplanned hiatus, thanks to some delightful illnesses that the kids brought home, followed by a total fail of a project that I had hoped to complete for February's Craft Book Challenge. I can't even show you photographic evidence of the fail because I was so frustrated that I couldn't bring myself to take a picture. I didn't do anything rational like walk away or put it aside to see if I could salvage it later. Oh no. I immediately hacked it to bits (well, that's dramatic - I cut up the largest pieces of fabric to salvage for other projects) and tossed it into the trash. I won't even tell you what project it was. It's too embarrassing. I will just tell you that sometimes I think I'm taking a shortcut, or doing something an easier way, when in fact I'm actually just doing it WRONG. End of story.

Moving on. See the fabric above? It's from French General for Moda and I bought it last summer but haven't done anything with it yet. Since I'm also in possession of the French General book Home Sewn, I thought it would be fun to use these rich fabrics to create something for the Craft Book Challenge using a project from the book. As you can see, this is still in the conception phase and I will let you know how (and when) it materializes. If it does. Which remains to be seen.

Does this ever happen to you? Creative fits and starts and fails that kind of suck out your mojo?

Here's hoping your creative endeavors are going better than mine today!

Happy Crafting!
Kate

Sew Simple Heart

This little scrap of the paisley print from the Bliss collection seemed destined to become a heart. I already made it's sister scrap into a mug mat that lives near my favorite craft book collection and I decided that I have enough mug mats for now ("for now" being a relative term). So a heart was the fate of this scrap of my current favorite fabric. I love hearts anyway and with Valentine's Day creeping up on us it seemed appropriate.


Like with my heart magnets, I cut a heart shape out of paper, Kindergarten-style, traced it onto the fabric, and sewed. Not perfect but not too shabby either. I threaded some embroidery floss through the top because, well, frankly I just forgot to put in a hanging ribbon before sewing. Oops. Oh well, the thread works just as well. Now I have a festive little decoration in my craft studio. And because I generally like hearts and this one doesn't really scream "Valentine's Day", I will leave it up all the time.



Hope your Valentine projects are coming along well!



Happy Crafting!



Kate

Valentine Card

Today I have a Valentine card and tag duo to share with you. We still have a very wintry landscape outside, thanks to the buckets of snow that have been pummeling us lately, so the winter wreath seemed appropriate for a Valentine card.

I also wanted to make some very simple tags to go on Valentine treats that I have in mind (chocolate truffles anyone?). For the tags, I wanted something that would be very easy to make in numbers, and I don't know if it gets easier than using 3 punches and calling it good. (Tag supplies: Tag and heart punches, whisper white, perfect plum, and crumb cake cardstock all by Stampin' Up!)
The card is equally simple in design and I fancied it up a bit by dotting the wreath with some liquid pearls in White Opal and painting the heart with the sparkly champagne ink shown above. The stamps are from one of my favorite stamp companies, Memory Box. I purchased the stamps and liquid pearls at Ink About It and the cardstock, heart punch, and champagne ink from Stampin' Up! (Colors: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake, ink is Basic Brown also by Stampin' Up!)

Now to go check the spinach-artichoke dip and potato skins in progress for our Superbowl viewing pleasure. Hope you're having a fun and craft-filled day.

Happy Crafting!

Kate