I will start today’s post with a sad story that ended up ok. I promise!
A few years back, when my Shih-tzu Rosie was just a puppy she was a trouble maker.
(Rosie on the left, Frankie on the right. We walked them to the Snow Cone stand where they shared a Doggie t-bone flavored snow cone.)
I was also a totally irresponsible person and left a threaded embroidery needle on the couch without thinking. DUMB! Rosie ate the needle and it thankfully passed through her whole digestive system where it got stuck at the (ahem) very end. I cannot tell you the guilt that I felt but I was also so thankful that she ended up not needing surgery. After a doggie emergency room visit, $600 and a week of antibiotics just to make sure she was as good as new. Do not be as foolish as I was, we were very lucky.
After that incident, I made a needle book so I would keep my needles all in one place. I am very, very good about taking a needle out and then putting it back the second I am done. The thought of hurting my baby girl again sickens me.
Here is the needle book I made a few years back.
I used cheap acrylic felt and a daisy t-shirt iron on. The felt melted a little bit when I applied the daisy.
It was never very pretty and it didn’t wear very well. It totally did serve it’s purpose though.
Last week, I broke out my secret stash of vintage sheets that I bought months ago and started piecing bits together to make this, my new needle book.
I made the cover just like I would a mini quilt. I pieced the strips together, sandwiched the layers, quilted and bound the edges. Easy and a great beginners quilting project.
Here’s the inside:
I used felt again but used an 80% wool/20% acrylic blend for the “pages”. I like to used darker color felt because it’s easier to see the needles in the pages. The closure is a basic purse closure that I got at Joann’s.
I bound the needle book together with the grommets. This was my first time using grommets, they are a total bitch to work with. Seriously, my fingers were sore after the whole thing and punching holes into the book was scary. What if I made a mistake and ruined it? Thankfully I didn’t and the grommets were well worth that hassle as they do a great job of holding everything together.
To finish the look of the book, I made another Kanzashi and decorated it with a vintage button purchased from my favorite, local antique store.
Cute and functional, LOVE IT!
(I would like to take a moment to explain that we’re still learning about our fancy new camera and cannot seem to master the white balance. It’s like looking at the world through rose colored glasses, right?)
Categories: Crafts! · Embroidery
Tagged: Embroidery, needle book, quilting, shih-tzu
I’ve been obsessed with cute matryoshkas for about a year now and I still can’t get enough of them. I hoard cute matryoshka fabric, ribbons and all sorts of various supplies and I just can’t bring myself to use them.
A while back, I got my hands on an unfinished set of them and decided that instead of painting them I would use the second to smallest one and make a mold out of it using a basic putty mold medium (you can buy the mold maker putty anywhere, I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby).
At first I was thinking of using resin to fill the mold but I settled on using plaster-of-paris. I really like using plaster, it’s super cheap, it sets up really fast and all the dings can be smoothed out with a nail file.
Once I got a good stash of matryoshka’s, I settled down with my acrylic paints and just kept painting.
Each one is an inch and a half tall and sealed with Sculpy glaze so they each have a lacquered look.
Each gal sports a tiny, tiny jewel at their neckline. I found the super tiny jewels in the nail polish isle at Walgreen’s!
Everyone is different; different heights, hair colors, and outfit color combinations. I might drill a hole in one or two of them and glue a ring from the top so they can be worn on a necklace.
What else could I do with my tiny girls?
Categories: Crafts!
Tagged: hand painted, matryoshka, plaster, tiny
2 weeks late. I know.
I had every intention of posting pictures of these 2 weeks ago, but life got in the way. I bought these a year or two ago in a little vintage shop a few blocks away from my work.
Aren’t they just lovely?
The pipe cleaner arms and legs are thick chenille, the dress and hat are foiled paper and the head is ball of tightly spun cotton. I’ve looked over these carefully and I’m 99% sure that each face is handpainted. The “Happy New Year” is typed on a piece of thick cardstock, something similar to a manilla folder.
I’ve tried in vain to recreate these, I just haven’t found the thick pipe cleaners or the correct size of cotton bead. I don’t think I’ve found the right resource, please feel free to share your resource ideas if you have them!
And then I decided to add a little color to the photo with these vintage, unfoiled glass gems.
So pretty! And if you need some glass gems for yourself, you can get them where I did, from vintagerecreations on Etsy.
Then I took it a step further and staged a fancy tea party. I couldn’t help myself!
I hope you enjoy these little girls as much as I do, they’re going back safely in their jar to be broken out next year!
Categories: I Love This
Tagged: dolls, glass gems, rement, tea party, vintage
I guess I’ve been obsessed with blooming flowers because everything in St. Louis (my hometown) is gray and freezing cold. As I write this it’s 12 degrees with a windchill of 4. BRRR!
One of my other lovely Christmas presents from my parents was Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts which is a treasure trove of inspiration and projects. I decided to spend most of my weekend holed up in my craft room watching bad TV, drinking soda and crafting. Friday, my good friend Steph came over and we made Kanzashi, Saturday and Sunday I bent over the table making these beaded flowers. (I cannot lie, my back is SO sore!)
These are made from seed beads and 34 gauge wire. For those of you not in the know, seed beads are the tiniest of beads and regarding the wire, 34 gauge is just a step above thread, it’s very thin, flexible and prone to kinking up. (Helpful hint, the higher the gauge the thinner the wire.)
This bouquet will be living in my craft room but I’m going to make a bouquet of all white flowers for a small vase for my bathroom!
Categories: Book Review · Crafts!
Tagged: beaded flowers, beads, bouquet, flowers, martha stewart
One of my many, many Christmas presents this yet (I’m very spoiled) was this book called “Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give” by Diane Gilleland. I was thrilled as I’ve had my eye on it for months now and none of my local bookstores carried it. So frustrating!
Once I got my paws on it though, I went crazy!
Kanzashi are made by simply folding squares of fabric to create petals and then assembling those petals to make a flower. Traditional Kanzashi are made from silk and are much more elaborate than these. Do a Google image search to see some more traditional Kanzashi and if you’re interested in creating these, I highly suggest you get Diane’s book. The directions were very clear and her writing style is like a friend sitting next to you. Love it!
Here is the first one I made out of orange cotton and embellished with a vintage button.
The next few were all about perfecting the technique and having fun with colors and buttons.
Pink with a big silver bubble button.
This is made from a brown and blue batik fabric that you might recognize from a previous post, it’s the back of the quilt I just finished!
This one looks like it has a wonky petal, I just didn’t adjust it before the photo shoot. This one is also the tiniest as it’s an inch and a half!
I’m mixing up petal styles here, also look for the tiny seed bead stamen.
Here, I sandwiched the petals to make things more interesting.
Then I got super crazy by sandwiching petals and added beaded stamen.
And now for my final flower this evening which included a technique that I’ll be talking about more very soon. This is a linen flower where I airbrushed the fabric with my new Color Artz airbrushing kit before folding. The airbrushing deserves its own post and it will get one.
Now that I have all these beautiful flowers, I’m going to put them on everything! What would you adorn with them?
Categories: Book Review · Crafty
Tagged: fabric flowers, folding, japanese crafts, kanzashi
It’s just a few minutes before it’s official but I wanted to pop in and wish you and yours an amazing, love filled Christmas!
Categories: 1
Easy and delicious!
Get the ingredients to the Nestle Tolle House Chocolate Chip cookies, decrease the butter by two tablespoons and get a pound of bacon as crispy as you can! Let the bacon cool, crumble and add to the dough when you add the chocolate chips. Sweet and salty! Mmmm!
And just for fun here are two pics I took while playing with my tiny toys and my husband Vinnie’s new camera. No Photoshop involved. For now.
Categories: 1
Tagged: bacon, chocolate, cookies, tiny toys
Completed in 9 days which I can’t believe but I do know that I can really focus on something when I put my mind to it!
This was all made from batik fabrics which my sweet little Singer didn’t especially like, all the leftover wax made things a little gummy at times. Of course, most people wash their fabrics before but I like the “heirloom” look that you get from not pre-washing your fabrics.
The blocks were made in a pattern called “Aircastle” which I got from a new iPhone app called, “Block Tool” made by C&T Publishing. This is the BEST app for making blocks as it’s totally clear and really visual.
I did a stitch in the ditch around the “air castle” pattern and the did stippling (free motion machine quilting over the whole thing). The stippling is what gives it the old crinkly look.
Here is the back, I loved this fabric the moment I saw it. It looks like aged copper.
Comments always welcome, now I’m off to bake some bacon & chocolate chip cookies!
Categories: Crafty · I Love This
Tagged: batik, iphone app, quilt, quilting
If you could take a minute to come on over, sign the petition and then spread the word, I sure would appreciate it! Thanks!
www.stlneedsikea.com
Categories: 1
One of my good friends Laura just had her 30th birthday and her husband threw her a surprise party. She’s great at appreciating handmade items and I wanted to make something for her. She also has an adorable two year old daughter who needs some fun presents from me!
Because I’m active in a lot of online communities, I noticed that a lot of people have been making this ridiculously cute and easy purse called the Buttercup Bag. (follow the link to get the pattern for yourself from it’s designer “Made by Rae”).
This is an amazing and versatile pattern as you really can customize it however you see fit. I decided to make Laura and her daughter matching Buttercup bags.
For Laura’s I used the regular sized pattern, for her daughter’s I reduced the pattern by 85%. Laura tells me that they have “matching purse day” which is a great compliment and thrills me.
I used a heavy cotton from IKEA for the out part of the purse, here’s a closeup of that.
This is one of my favorite IKEA prints, so pretty without being overly “cutesy”.
The Buttercup Bag is getting a good internet following, make sure to check out the Flickr group for inspiration!
Categories: Crafts! · Crafty
Tagged: buttercup bag, floral, IKEA, purse, sewing
September 29, 2009 · 9 Comments
The Before:
And the After:
What do you think?
Categories: Cooking/Baking · I Love This
September 28, 2009 · 2 Comments
Well, first of all I’m a better crafter than blogger. I think we all know that now and that’s a dig at my blogging skills not a compliment to my crafting skills.
As of late, I have been obsessed with super cute crafting supplies from Japan. Thanks to the internet these have become available and I have been buying it up! A few months ago, I came across one of my now favorite sites. Superbuzzy. Superbuzzy specializes in imported craft supplies and every experience I’ve had with the store has been amazing; fast shipping, personal notes and even candy thrown in!
I purchased what is known to quilters as a “charm pack” which is a variety of fabrics, cut into 5 inch squares. Yardage wise this is expensive but the variety of fabrics that you get is amazing. Each of Superbuzzy’s charm packs had a total of 30 squares but the more common charm packs (made by Moda) have 40.
Early August I was looking at the squares and just started sewing them together. Then I would stack them, cut a weird angle and sew them back together creating a block filled with fabrics at all different angles.
Even if you hold the quilt in front of you, most people think that the blocks are printed this way. Not so! The other neat thing to note here is that every single fabric was a floral print. Not so “old lady”, eh?
When it was time for sashing (the green fabric around the blocks) I went with a vibrant green with tiny leaves, abstractly representing the leaves and stems of flowers.
Now to get super “mother earth goddess” on you, I chose a blue water droplet print to represent the rain that waters the flowers.
Are you rolling your eyes? I’m totally rolling my eyes and I’m the one who is writing this!
Here is the quilt in it’s glory.
(click the picture to be taken to a HUGE version if you’d like to see details!)
I’m very, very proud of this quilt. This is the first time in a very long time where I’ve trusted my creative instincts and really made an effort on not second guessing myself so much. The results paid off and I’m taking this as a valuable lesson. This quilt has become sentimental to me, I see it as turning point in my abilities and a marker in the journey of creativity.
OK to get even more disgustingly mushy, while making this I really thought a lot about the people in my life and how their love has nurtured me in ways that I didn’t think possible. I think this quilt might be a physical manifestation of the love I’ve received.
And this is where I’ll be ending the Lifetime movie segment of this post.
There are two blogs that I really, really used as resources that I wanted to point out.
1. Oh, Fransson! was my major resource and inspiration. Everything that you will need information wise is here. The probability of me writing her a craft love letter in the future is high.
2. Hello, My Name is Heather is where I learned how to bind my quilt. She provides a great tutorial!
Now that I have my first machine embroidered quilt under my belt, I’m ready to buy up the fabric stores and lock myself in my craft room!
Categories: Crafts! · Crafty · I Love This · Links I Like
Tagged: binding, blue, fabric, floral, green, japanese, quilt, sashing
I am so blessed to have a really tight knit circle of friends that are really and truly “there” for me when I need them. When I got married a few years back they all went out of their way to make my wedding shower and wedding day so special, so of course I wanted to reciprocate when it was their turn.
And wouldn’t you know that 2 of my 3 bridesmaids decided to have special occasions at about the same time! ARGH! Laura was getting married in May and Kristin was due with her first baby in mid-summer but she lives out of town and we needed to factor in some “safe” travel time! No one needs to give birth on a plane!
May was shower month, it wasn’t actually too horrible just tons of list making and thinking and planning. I’m also so lucky to have a Mom who *loves* hosting things like this so she really lent a huge hand.
I had the perfect shower favor in mind for both that I got from the Soap Queen blog (excellent, excellent blog!) but I altered it a little bit. Her recipe is for bath bombs (bombs fizz in the water) and I changed mine to solid bubble bath (crumble under running water for bubbles!). I didn’t go with the bath bombs because we’re in St. Louis which can really be known for it’s humidity and a batch of 50 ruined favors would make me go ape shit crazy. Seriously.
So, here is the batch I made for Laura’s wedding shower:
Pretty cute, eh? I was really proud of them!
Here’s a link to the receipie that I used for the “cake” part.
For the “frosting” I used the Soap Queen’s recipe listed on the link at the top of this post.
Here are the baby themed one’s I gave away at Kristin’s shower:
How lucky was I that Kristin was having a boy and that Laura’s favorite color is blue? Believe me, being able to color all that icing the same saved me some major work!
I also wanted to share with you some tricks that I learned from making these!
- I scented mine with a butter cream frosting scent that I purchased from Bramble Berry. If you’re making a big batch to give away try to go with a universally liked scent. Almost anything in the vanilla family is a safe bet!
- Purchase more Sodium Lauryl Sulfate than you think you’ll need! I couldn’t find this locally so I bought it from Bramble Berry as well, I didn’t want to mess up a batch and not have enough materials on hand!
- When working with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate you must be in a well ventilated area and wear proper protection. This stuff flies in the air and will give you a horrible, horrible coughing fit.
- You also must include instructions with every single cupcake that you hand out that this is not food and how to properly use it. How horrible would you feel if someone’s Grandma bit into this? Once again include instructions, word of mouth doesn’t cut it!
- To mold these, I used Wilton’s silicone baking cups and packed them like I was packing brown sugar into a measuring cup. The flexible molds made it super easy to gently unmold each cupcake.
- Let each unmolded cupcake dry for at least 24 hours before icing. I put mine on a cookie rack on a cookie sheet in the oven. (Cold oven and gave proper warning to everyone to not turn on the oven.)
- Go to your local party store to get cute toppers so you can theme each cupcake. Oriental Trading online is also a great resource!
- Please don’t put all this work into these and not properly wrap them. A piece of cellophane and a pretty ribbon is all you need! It’s always the details that send everyone over the edge!
- Try to buy your Cream of Tartar from the dollar store as it was the most expensive ingredient.
The best compliment I received regarding these was when one of the guests pulled me aside and asked if I would be interested in making some for an upcoming wedding shower that she was hosting!
Let me know if you have any comments or questions and please, please, please let me know if you make these. I’d love to link them and show them off!
Categories: Cooking/Baking · Crafty
Well, this is going to be something new; I’m going to talk about my crafty intentions instead of a crafty project.
Long story short, my husband and I purchased our first home in November. It’s been great, we really love our home and have been enjoying the slow but satisfying journey of putting our stamp on it. We are on the verge of finishing our kitchen which has been painted and outfitted with new appliances, counter tops and cabinets. We’re about to install a back splash and make the surprisingly difficult decision regarding hardware.
The hall bathroom might be the next candidate for some color (the whole house was painted in a very neutral beige that was great in the beginning but now I look at our walls and yawn) as I’ve been stalking this gorgeous shower curtain and will hopefully be purchasing it this week.
The one area of our home that is in desperate, desperate need for some love is our bedroom. It’s painted in the boring beige and it literally has nothing decorative in it, it’s purely functional. I keep looking at comforters online and in stores and nothing has really excited me. I’ve decided that once I figure out the bed covering, I’ll use that as the foundation for styling the room.
So, I’ve had horrible luck in finding something so it’s come to the time where I’ve decided to make something. I already have a nice down comforter, so I’ll make a duvet cover for it. As far as bedding goes, a duvet is a simple thing to make as it’s really only two large pieces of fabric sewn together. Once the duvet is made, coordinating pillows and curtains can follow. Easy! (Isn’t it funny how I’m saying the project is easy before I even start it?)
I’ve decided to make things a little more complicated to really bring home that “one of a kind” feeling. Here is a MS Paint version of what I plan to make.
1. Instead of searching for and purchasing yards and yards of fabric patterns that I like, I’m going to purchase bleached cotton to dye from Dharma Trading Co. Because I need a lot of yardage (duvet, pillows, curtains) and I need a decent quality, this fabric and the appropriate amount of dye will be the most cost effective way to go.
2. To create an interesting pattern on the blocks, I’m going to screen print a pattern on fabric and then add a few details of embroidery here and there. For the screen printing portion, I have my heart set on purchasing a Yudu, one of those new fangled screen printing machines. (Side note! Every purchase from my Etsy shop goes toward the Yudu! Go and buy!).
3. I have not come up with the pattern that I’m screenprinting yet. Hell, I haven’t even decided on what colors I’m going to use! to dye the fabrics!
So, there’s my prelimary battle plan of the start of the bedroom. I didn’t even touch upon the refinishing of the 100+ year old chiffarobe that I inherited and was told that I would be killed if I ever lost possession of.
Categories: Crafts!
Tagged: duvet, Embroidery, home decorating, screenprinting, yudu
Instead of just hoarding my pretties, I’ve finally decided to make some things with them. Today I made some pendants using my vintage beads and buttons.
Here’s the group shot:
And here are some different angles of each one:
Categories: Crafts! · Crafty · Etsy
Pretty Maids One – PDF Embroidery Pattern by loopsies
I actually purchased these a few months ago with every intention to at least create one. Unfortunately, I have even transferred one of these sweet dollies on to fabric. Shame on me. After ordering these, the PDF was in my inbox in about an hour, you can’t beat such amazing service. I am a huge fan of embroidery patterns that allow you to really get creative with customization like these. Can you imagine a whole quilt of these sweeties?! Make sure to check out her shop for set 2 & 3.
Bird Measuring Spoons by beehivekitchenware
When I first saw these, I IM’ed my husband and said that I was pretty sure I would die if I don’t have these in our new kitchen. I don’t own them yet but I still thinking death will be imminent without these. The funniest thing is that I actually am not a fan of birds in general but I do love all the cute bird imagery that’s out there. These spoons come with the mounting rack so they are actually functional art.
“Morning” print by yellena
I am a huge fan of yellena’s style and would love to get a series of her prints for my living room. I really like how she can really capture a fresh, delicate feeling but use intense, saturated colors. I am a huge fan of color and am always trying to straddle that line of using as much as I can without looking like I live in a circus tent.
Categories: Etsy
Wow, it’s been months and I have a whole list of excuses as to why I haven’t posted.
I could list them off for you but the main one was that I really wanted to focus on a complete site redo and well, you can tell that didn’t happen. Time passed, life happened and that goal sort of slipped away. Of course the goal of this blog is to provide good content but I really wanted a better looking site. Ah well, not happening at this moment. Hopefully in the future, sooner than later.
I also need to stress that I never, ever stop crafting. I will always have one project that isn’t completed and now I have a great backlog of posts to write about.
For example:
1. In the month of May I threw a wedding shower and a baby shower for two of my closest friends. I made similar favors for both; solid bubble bath in the shape of cupcakes. They turned out a lot better than I had hoped! I’ll share my sources for the recipes and do a complete tutorial.
2. My husband and I are about to complete a total kitchen makeover and I have a lot of great before and after photos. I want all of your input regarding decorating!
3. I’ve started working on the Babette Blanket that I’ve talked about before. This is an amazing project; it’s super easy as long as you can keep at it. The intial investment was a little daunting for me, I purchased 17 skeins of different colors.
4. I’m in the middle of 2 quilts! One is pretty close to getting it’s binding!
5. Speaking of quilts, I just finished a Mini Art Quilt on Craftster. I loved what I gave and loved what I received.
6. I dove into the world of lino-cutting. So fun!
Ok, that’s all for now. I just wanted to reach out and say, “Hey, I’m still around and I’ll try better.” 
Categories: Crafts!
Tagged: babette blanket, catch up, linocut
One of my best friends gave me the book Creepy Cute Crochet; Zombies, Ninjas, Robots and More! as a birthday gift and I put it to good use this weekend.
Corporate Zombie
and the Ninja
I crocheted the Zombie first but like the Ninja better because it looks cleaner. I think I might have screwed up the head on the Zombie because it looks a little screwy. Hrm.
I also had some gorgeous Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn hanging around that I had no plans for so I used two strands at once and made this pouch for my new iPhone. (SQUEAL!)
Here’s the front:
And here’s the back:
I love Noro yarn, you couldn’t even imagine how pretty this is in real life!
Categories: Crafts! · I Love This
Tagged: amigurumi, crochet, iphone, knit, ninja, zombie
Here is the gorgeous pincushion that I received from my craft swap partner Anary!
Categories: Crafts! · I Love This
My wait is finally over!
I actually finished this about a month ago. It was for a Craftster swap where we had to make a pincushion for our partners, I had to wait until she received it so I wouldn’t ruin the surprise!. I knew I wanted to make something blue, covered in cherry blossoms as my partner had something similar wisted. I decided to splurge on some real wool blend felt for this project and headed off to the fabric store.
The fabric store had an array of the ugliest color’s known to man. I figured I could buy white felt and color it with Sharpie’s to get the colors I wanted.
After a few minutes of coloring and my hand aching (I was never a good colorer) I gave up on the Sharpie idea. I then decided to use artist’s chalks which turned out to be an amazing idea as not only could I color the felt quite quickly, I could also achieve a gradient effect.
As you can see, I used gradients all over this thing. Each (handcut I might add!) flower has a dark pink chalk round the rim, a light pink ring in the middle and was left blank to give it a white center. The bottom was done in a sky blue, the top and top rim in a green, one circle in the sky blue again and a circle of a blue green color. The butterfly is yellow and green.
The flowers were individually sewn on and each flower has 3-5 french knots as the center.
Mr. Butterfly was added to fill up a bit of space and because I wanted an excuse to throw a dash of a different color. Stuffing his wings with polyfill was a pain in the ass.
I sewed him on the side of the pincushion, but now that I think about it, I should have attached a pin back so he could be repositioned.
As a last minute detail, I added a few Swarovski beads to add a little sparkle all around it.
The pin cushion was all stitched in blanket stitch and before closing it up, I glued a think piece of cardboard to the bottom piece inside to it would be stable. This was a very good move as the felt expanded with all the stuffing!
I received the most wonderful email from my partner telling me how much she loved it. I really loved making this and told her that I think this might be the best thing that I’ve ever sent out in a Craftster swap.
Categories: 1 · Crafts! · Embroidery · I Love This
Tagged: beads, chalk, felt, pincushion, stitching, wool
