Quick little something..

Here's a quick little snippet that I whipped up using my cricut, some elmer's, a $0.75 tile, and a hand-me down trivet from my granny. I think I'll put it behind my stove!

Christmas already?

Yes, the Christmas fever has hit me. I saw this entry on the blog called nannygoat that I keep up with. And since it was dollar-tree cheap, I decided to give it a whirl myself.

My Masterpiece:

It's super-easy and pretty dang affordable if I do say so myself. I think I may just have to make some to sell or give as gifts... :)

Embellished Shirt

I had a cute idea to put those little fabric yo-yo's on a shirt to spice it up. Turned out pretty cute!

All I did was make the things, pin them to the shirt in a way that looked right, and then sewed around the edges of each one.

Below is a detail close up of the yo-yo's.

I used the Heather Bailey tutorial to make the yo-yo's. You can find it here at her blog's website. While you're there, you should probably check out the fabric she has because it is my absolute favorite that I've seen out there.

Hope you like it!

Ta-Dah!

Finally. It has happened. I started a quilt in February for my sister-in-law's graduation gift. As the months went by and my sewing showed itself not to be up to par, graduation came and went. So... I decided to make the quilt for a friend's wedding. Then, the wedding came and went. And because of all of my mistakes, the pieces just kept getting smaller and smaller.

In July, I found out my brother's wife was pregnant. I decided that my small little quilt would be perfect for that baby boy! I worked and worked and finally made some progress. But the ultrasound had a different idea-- the baby is going to be a girl, and blue and yellow just won't do.

I decided to finish anyway. I was almost there right? So I sewed for several hours last Saturday and finally got to finishing the edges. That was all I had to do. And wouldn't you know it, the sewing machine chose that exact time to start eating the thread and doing some wierd bobbin thing. I was so sick of seeing this dang quilt that I prayed to God to just please let the machine work. I said that I would give the thing to a women's shelter if that's what He wanted. And believe it or not, that's when the machine started to work. So I guess that's where this sweet little baby blanket will be headed.... charity!

I hope whoever gets it thinks it's as cute as I do... !

Halloween

I absolutely love Halloween. I love the costumes, I love the candy, but what I love most of all are the decorations. Here is a snippet from Andrew's and my Halloween. Andrew carved the plain-jane orange one and I did the white one with polka dots. The trick-or-treaters' parents gave me lots of compliments on it! My favorite trick-or-treater of the night was dressed in a Harry Potter quidditch out. Too stinkin' cute! It made me want to have kids... but I think I'l wait just a little longer!

Just a peek at my curtains

I know this isn't much, but I made these sweet little curtains for the craft/computer room awhile back. I got the wild looking fabric in a discount bin at IKEA. It's pretty neat because when the sun shines through the window, all of the colors look like stained glass. :)

Too Cheap for etsy

Today I was doing my usual weekend morning blog-read when I came upon this:

Beautiful right? But would you believe that it costs 40 stinkin' dollars? I'm way too cheap to spend that kind of money on a shirt. I'm definitely a sales-rack kind of girl.

Then one of my absolute favorite phrases popped into my head: "I can make that." And wouldn't you know it, I tried. Below is the final result

I just LOVE it!!! It makes me smile! I think I might wear it to school one day this week with a long sleeve white shirt underneath!

Belated Wedding Gift....

I made this apron this morning for a friend of mine who recently got married. It was a beautiful wedding with a light-yellow theme and that is where I got the idea from.

I also got a few other yellow themed items: a dish scrubber & latex gloves, measuring cups and sponges, and a lemon shaped timer. Too cute. The (kind of) new Mrs. should expect her gift by the end of this week!

The pattern is self-made, but I used this as inspiration. Recognize the fabric?

Feeling a bit adventurous

In the days before school started back, I had an entire week to enjoy doing absolutely nothing. I read a lot of books, I tried some new recipes, and I even cleaned. But wouldn't you believe it---I still got bored. So, one day while I was perusing my favorite blogs, I came upon this. Pretty, right? Well, I decided to try it myself. I went directly to JoAnn's fabrics and came away spending about $60, because not only did I need fabric and hardware, I decided that a rotary cutter was necessary, too. Here is the final product:


I am pretty satisfied with my results. Andrew actually thought I had bought it!

Some tips for anyone thinking to try it themselves:

1. Make sure your fabric is facing the right direction (see upside-down fruit in picture)
2. You will need more interfacing that you think... it isn't sold folded like regular fabric. Trust me. I argued with the lady at JoAnn's.
3. Do not let your iron directly touch the interfacing fabric. Most crafters probably already knew that, but it's something I learned in the process. Thankfully, the hole I burned is in between to pieces of fabric, so no one need ever see it!

That's about it! Good luck!

Getting Inspired

A friend of mine from high school started a blog called That's FAMtastic, and I started to follow it several months back. The thing is, Elizabeth had a bunch of other blogs she was following with little buttons for each on the side. And one day, I clicked on them. After that, I couldn't get enough! I started seeing all of these amazing ideas that I just HAD to try. The problem was that I didn't know what I was doing. So, here is my first adventure in sewing after the haphazard quilt. I chose the pattern because it seemed easy. It is a sewing machine cover!! I have my own that I made, but it is kinda ugly because I made it from an old sheet. However, I recently made one for my mom that looks like this.

Don't you just love the little bow at the bottom? I still haven't sent it to her yet, but I think she will like it. For any beginning seamstresses out there, I definitely recommend this for an early project!!

Let's Get it Started

Here is what started my crafting adventures.... I had several sorority t-shirts after leaving college. I mean, a LOT. And it felt sort of silly trying to be a "grown up" and still identifying myself by my sorority. So, I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, and this is the first product that came from it.


It used just about every Alpha Sig shirt I had... starting from my own bid night shirt seen here
<-------------

• 

Up till the one from bid night my senior year: --->





And here is the final product:
It is very warm, too. :)

The hardest parts:

• I didn't know what I was doing and none of the shirts were cut to the exact same size
• My sewing machine kept eating the t-shirt material
• I decided to hand-quilt the thing.... which explains why that still isn't done
• I sewed the edges shut before quilting it. According to Granny, that just ain't how it's done.

But I still love it. It makes me smile every time I see it and I get to remember what was going on in my life when I was getting all of those stinkin' t-shirts. I guess this counts as filling my days with satisfying activity, eh, Alpha Sigs? I miss you girls!