Getting a little ‘tattered’
Posted: May 4, 2012 Filed under: Patchworking, Quilting, Scrapbooking, Tattered Inspirations, The Pen | Tags: Chook Scraps, fabric flower, flower, lap quilt, patchwork, quilting, scrapbooking, Simple Stories Fabulous, Tattered Inspirations, The Pen, tutorial Leave a comment »I am really excited to announce that in August I’ll have a Guest Designer spot over the the gorgeous Carol Mead’s store, Tattered Inspirations. Her store has some very yummy stuff (it’s in vacation mode as she’s moving house at the moment but be sure to check out her range). I’m looking forward to creating some cool things – scrapbooked and some other ideas in August for you.
I just finished my layout for the first round of Chook Scrap’s year-long challenge ‘The Pen’ (kind of like ‘The Block’ but with a Chook’s theme). You can read more about the challenge here. For my layout I used some bits from Simple Stories’ Fabulous range, inked a background using a Crafter’s Workshop mask and painted an ancient chipboard heart with some Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.
I made the flower by cutting a 1.5 inch wide strip of fabric using the pinking blade on my rotary cutter (you could use pinking shears or if you don’t have them, raw edges will work fine but will fray a bit). Then pop a line of running stitch up the centre of the strip and pull the cotton to gather evenly. Run through your sewing mating to ‘lock in’ the folds. Iron in half, wrong sides together. I used a Cosmo Cricket Gluber to stick my flower on to, but you could use a circular bit of card with wet, quick drying glue. Start at the outside, working around to the middle. Cover the centre up with a button and you’re done!
I shared a lap quilt I finished the other day over on Facebook, but I thought I’d pop it up here too…I’m absolutely loving the colours, it turned out so nicely!
I’m working on the wall hanging I started at a quilt workshop at the Northam Craft Centre last Sunday and it is completely gorgeous. Learnt some awesome techniques and can’t wait to show you some blocks…going back for ‘part two’ of the class to assembly it in a few weeks but I’ll aim to share the blocks before then.
Sew what’s new….
Posted: April 28, 2012 Filed under: Craft, Patchworking, Quilting, Sewing | Tags: birds, elephant, free motion quilting, toy, wall hanging 1 Comment »I’ve been busy with my sewing machine and just finished off this wall hanging the other day….
I tried my hand at free motion quilting for the first time…certainly something that needs lots of practice! But it looks pretty good, even at the learning stages. I thought the little birdie panel was especially cute so I made it up as a separate little panel and attached it with some of those hooks you use on overalls. I added a few little metal charms and some lace to finish it off.
I also saw a gorgeous little elephant on the Riley Blake Designs website a while back (you can find the pattern and instructions here). I thought it would be perfect for my friend Sam’s little girl Grace. Here’s the finished product…
I must be a bit thick, but even when I cut it out and sewed it up, it wasn’t until I was filling it that I realised the elephant only has two legs!!! Hopefully Grace doesn’t grow up thinking that elephants have two legs.
I’ve ALMOST finished the bias binding on a gorgeous jelly roll blanket…with any luck I might get it finished in a few days and can show you.
Sew, what have I been doing?
Posted: April 15, 2012 Filed under: Craft, Organisation, Patchworking, Quilting, Sewing | Tags: baskets, fabric, patchworking, pincushion, quilting, Sewing, wall hanging Leave a comment »Well, what I’ve not been doing for the last week is scrapbooking! I got my sewing machine fixed a couple of weeks ago after about 3 years of it being not working (I know, I’m slack, I was even more annoyed with myself when I found out the problem as it was simple to fix, but anyway, it’s working again now) and you may have noticed a fair bit of sewing happening on some of my scrapbooking layouts. I thought it was time to pull out some fabric and after seeing a really cute tutorial on how to make some quilted baskets, I started whipping up some baskets for my scrap desk…still a few to make but here’s a peak at the first three…
I’m also in process of making a wall hanging with some fabric from the same range. I have never done free motion quilting before and I’m going to a quilt class in a few weeks that uses the technique so I used this wall hanging to get some practice in. It’s HARD!!! Anyway, I have to hand stitch down the bias binding (job for in front of the telly!) and then I have some bits and bobs to sew on to it. I’ll take a proper photo when it’s finished but here it is hanging out on the ironing board…
If you like the fabric, it’s called Nesting Place by Dover Hill and it’s a recent release so your local fabric store might have some. There is another print (which I’m yet to sew up) that is birdcages and it’s exceptionally sweet.
And, one other sewing thing for the weekend. Seem to have lost my pincushion (and some pins!) so whipped up this pretty lazy but, I think, cute, pincushion.
Disaster zone…well, maybe not quite THAT bad
Posted: April 9, 2012 Filed under: Organisation, Scrapbooking, Sketch | Tags: craft room, Echo Park, fabric baskets, layout sketch, organisation, spring clean, This and That Leave a comment »After setting up my lovely new craft area, I confess to having been a bit naughty about keeping it tidy. Not an outrageous mess but I can definitely see some things I’d like to improve….
The girls over at Chook Scraps have a bit of a personal challenge going with lots of Chooks deciding to give their craft area an overhaul. My plan includes getting a couple of wall shelves from Ikea when I’m over that way next (have to check with the Man that they will go on the wall ok and that he’s willing to put them up for me!!! I know, useless of me but it’s just easier to get someone else to do that sort of thing). I want to make some fabric baskets to store some of my stuff in and hopefully I might find somewhere around that still has some cropper hopper paper holders in stock. That’s the plan anyway.
Despite the mess, I have done some creating.
Here’s a layout using the April sketch from Anna’s Craft Cupboard…
And here’s another layout using a sketch from March over at Stuck?!Sketches but I was too disorganised to get it finished in time. I actually had it finished but had to go out and didn’t have time to upload the pic!!
Anyway, this isn’t getting my craft room tidy is it?
Sketch power
Posted: March 31, 2012 Filed under: Scrapbooking, Sketch | Tags: Echo Park, layout sketch, scrapbooking, This and That 2 Comments »I haven’t done much scrapbooking ‘just for fun’ for ages and when I saw Stuck?!Sketches’ challenge on Facebook this afternoon, I decided it was time to scrap for fun. My lovely friend Sam sent me some pix of her gorgeous girl Grace reading a bath book we got her at Christmas. I thought the pix were just perfect for this layout and I just bought a pack of Echo Park’s This and That range (which is just delicious, like most EP stuff!).
So here’s the sketch…
And here’s my take on the sketch…
Feeling on a bit of a roll, so might find a bit more time to do some more scrapping before dinner.
Accessorize-it
Posted: March 1, 2012 Filed under: Off The Page, Organisation, Scrapbooking | Tags: Basic Grey, desk accessories, desk accessory, handmade, little black dress, notebook, pen caddy, scrapbook store, stationery stores Leave a comment »I love desk accessories. Or at least browsing in desk accessory/stationery stores and then have to battle my inner sensible person about whether or not I ‘need’ or ‘want’ to make a purchase. This month for the challenges over at Little Scrapbook Store it was my turn to come up with a challenge (with the focus on OTP – off the page for those non-crafters among you). I came up with a couple of cute desk accessories using some bits and pieces from Basic Grey’s Little Black Dress range of papers and embellishments…
These two cute pen caddies are a couple of old boxes that had a set of tea light candle holders in that I got for a gift ages and ages ago but never chucked the boxes as I thought I’d maybe use them one day 
And this cute little notebook was really quick and easy to whip up. If you think you might make something for your desk this month, you might like to check out the March Challenges over at LSBS as there is a $30 voucher for the shop up for grabs.
Nothing much else crafty has been happening around here, mainly as I’ve been off in Perth for work for the past 3 days. However, I am going down to see the girls in Darkan on Saturday for some crafting, so I really should get some crafting done…although it may be more chatting than crafting on the agenda!!!
Slack, I know!
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Card making, Craft, Scrapbooking | Tags: card making, fur kids, head over heels, lily bee, pets, scrapbooking Leave a comment »I have been ridiculously busy with work of late…thought I might just have time to sneak in a quick post today before I get on with actually starting work. Only 7 sleeps until we get our proper office for work and I won’t have to work from home anymore…can’t wait to be around some humans everyday!!!! But it’s probably a good thing not to have any human distractions at the moment as I have a huge amount of regard for a tender panel I’m sitting on, aside from all the usual work things on the ‘to do’ list. Despite all the busy bits of work, I have found time to do a bit of crafting. I got the Lily Bee Head of Heels range a couple of weeks ago and it is seriously gorgeous. Not my usual stuff but I loved that patterns and bring colours. Here’s a couple of layouts featuring our fur-kids…
And no rocket science involved in these cards, but they were quick and, I think, cute…
That’s it for now (really must go get to work!) but hopefully I’ll get to do some crafty stuff over the weekend. That’s my plan anyway.
