Sewing - large bag from outdoor fabric, button closure and a cool way to shorten the handle

I worked on this fun bag this week.  It is outdoor fabric that would be used for covering cushions on patio chairs, etc.  The colours were really cool and one of the girls found these fun buttons that coordinated very nicely.  It was a smaller piece so I made the best use of it.  I cut two widths of the piece to make the handle and made the bag from what was left.  It is about 18" wide, 6" deep and 15" tall.  This durable fabric would be perfect to use for a trip to the beach or for taking the kids to the play ground.  It is very spacious and the fabric will hold up to wear and tear.  It will need hand washing because the buttons are made of wood.

I added a cool feature - a length of black twill tape which I stitched to the side of the handle which can be used to shortened the length of the handle.  I tied it in a bow and it looks cool that way.  To shorten the handle you undo the tie make several folds in the handle and wrap the two ends around a couple of times pulling them tight and retying.  It works really well.  A good feature for such a long handle.  

The inside seams are finished making a really neat inside.  It is nice to have a bag with a light inside when you go looking for "stuff".  I only realized just now that it would have been even better if I had used white thread on those seams!!  Next time!!!   Therese

 

All occasion cards featuring birds with fluffy tails along with ribbon/seam binding and glue seals

These are the final cards that I made up from kits from my last cardmaking session.  I love these little birds which are simply created by folding a circle in just less than half so you can create their belly in a different colour.  These are best made with double sided paper but because these were not I simply coloured the belly area on the back of the paper - makes it nice because you can colour it any colour you wish.  They are so fun with their fluffy little tails!!  Card #1 - a stamped background with a little green bird and a gray seam binding and silver glue seal.  A nice soft look!! Card #2  - a black and white background with a tricolour ribbon across and a green glue seal.  I added clear glitter around the eye to give it a bit of definition against the black background.  Card #3 - very similar to the last one but with a very dramatic paper pieced background.  

Therese

 

All occasion cards featuring embossed arches, die cuts and punchies and fiber

I am still working on getting the card kits from my last cardmaking session finished.  It has been fun to play around with the elements and get these cards made up.  Card #1 features two gold hearts with a flourished embossed layer and a gold fiber tie.  Perfect for an anniversary - especially a 50th!!  Card #2 - this one has a flurry of butterflies which would be appropriate for sympathy card or any occasion for a butterfly lover.  Card #3 - another wonderful sparkly balloon in bright colours would be suitable for anyone's birthday!!!

Therese

 

Sewing - bowl cozies in fun fabrics

We have been sorting fabric for our upcoming sale.  A friend of mine asked me to finish up a project she started a while back  - some bowl cozies.  They were fun to make and featured plain yellow on one side and a very cute bee fabric on the other.  These have to be made with all cotton materials - outer fabric, batting and thread - as to keep them safe from melting in microwaves.  She provided all I needed including precut batting so I made up all four of them.  I misunderstood the instructions so these are a little larger and shallower that they should have been.  In the end, that is not so serious but I did have to rectify my mistake by adding several seams on the sides of the tucks in order to keep the batting well centered once these are washed which they no doubt will require at some point.  I was supposed to incorporate the batting and fabric in the seam when I was sewing the darts.  I only trimmed the fabric after I was finished sewing.  Had I trimmed the triangles out before sewing it was have been much more evident that I had to sew all four layers to each other.  My first time making bowl cozies so I have learned my lesson and I was glad to be able to rectify my mistake without taking them apart.    These are headed to our merchandise table for our Gramma Link Africa events later this year.  I did make several more with flannel which I had on hand so there is a good selection of colours in this little stack.  So nice that they are reversible so you can use the side you like the best.  

Therese

 

All occasion cards featuring cute images, fun brads, and embossing with ribbon/ seam binding/ twill tape/ lace

I am just getting back to the extra card kits I made up for cardmaking a while back.  It has been fun to play with these and make them interesting.  All the images are from Cre8tive Hands.  They are all very cute and so appropriate for all occasion cards because of their flexibility.  Card #1 has a yellow and gray theme with a cute little elephant which would be appropriate for a new baby card or a child's birthday.    Card #2  features a flighty little heart butterfly with a floral background and yellow and green colour scheme.  Card #3 is perfect for a birthday!!  Your best friend or the little girl next door with is bright colours.  Card #4 would be perfect for a boy with both a robot and dinosaurs which would span a few years of interests.  Card #5 with its pink and green colour scheme and it's HB brads would do any feminine birthday.  Card #6 is a gender neutral baby card with a fun little baby carriage.  Card #7 features two little cats and a heart which would be perfect for a cat lover for any occasion.  I made a few in landscape format and also varied the embossing, the border punches, the "ribbon" and the brads.  Lots of fun to be playing with cards!!!  Therese

 

All occasion card featuring feather moths, a watercoloured flower and a splattered background

Here is a nice bright card!!  I started with little double feathers which I turned into moths/butterflies!!  These are stickers which I coloured with Sharpies to coordinate with my splattered background.   I thought it would be good to add a flower.  I found this one in my stash - silver embossed and fussy cut.  I simply watercoloured it to coordinate!!  It is very whimsical and fun!!!  I just added bodies to the feather wings using a brown marker.  

Therese
 

Sewing - Flying Geese bag with black guitar fabric

Here is the finished bag!!!  There are a few things I would change up for the next one.  I was not as diligent in keeping my lining even as I added strips so the bottom of the bag seems visually off because of that.  I should have left a larger margin on my lining so I could finish it off by machine.  I ended up finishing this one by hand because it was easier to fold over and stitch that way that trying to get a line of stitching in just the right place on the sides.  It worked out quite well in the end.  It is all finished inside and out with no raw edges and I made the handles so it would be reversable but in the end I boxed the bottom and that sort of made it less reversible because the triangles are on the bottom.  I suppose I could have stitched them to the sides and that might have been better - not sure.  Anyway,  it was great to have tried something new and the end result is very decent though not perfect!!  

Live and learn!!!  I like the look of the flying geese strip on the front and the fabrics out the outside all coordinate quite well.  

I will plan a bit better next time and watch the lining for shifting as I go along!!  

Therese

 

Sewing & Quilting - flying geese strip with black guitar fabric added to a QAYG bag

I have never really done any traditional quilting but there are several blocks and combinations that I like so with this fun guitar fabric I decided to have a go with making some "flying geese".  I found a tutorial for five different ways to make flying geese and one of them use a few squares to make four with no waste.  I checked it out and decided it would be worth a try.  Here is another site that has instructions for the no waste flying geese which makes four.  This link will bring you to a page where there is a chart of sizes and what size you need to cut your squares. I made mine 2" x 4" using one 5.25" square of the blue guitar fabric and and four 2 7/8" squares of gray fabric (two of one pattern and two of another).  It worked out so well!!  I have never done this before and I got them very near perfect.  Great tutorial!!  I sewed them all together to make a strip and then included the strip into a bag I was creating using a QAYG method.  I made up the handles and then sewed them into the top seam with extra stitching to make a good solid connection.  I prepped strips in blues, grays and blacks using what I had.  It worked out really well.   I had planned to have the turn around at the bottom but I forgot so it was added on the back of my bag where I overlapped the two two strips over the guitar fabric and over stitched.  Check out my next post for the finished bag!!  Therese
 

All occasion card featuring song sheet background, gold embossed mesh and serendipity heart die cuts

Another heart card!!  This one is for my DH for Valentines!!  He loves music so I like to include some reference to music when I make cards for him.  In this case I used sheet music which I tore into four pieces and then painted it to coordinate with my serendipity heart die cuts.  I trimmed gold embossed mesh for this hearts as well and add them little gold brads to them.  I mounted them with double sided tape onto my card front!!  I added a white faux stitching line to finish off my card!!  Really happy with it!!  Therese
 

GA - Sewing - black guitar fabric apron and to sets of potholders

       

 I volunteered to do some sewing for the Gramma  Link Africa group and the Fabric Sale coordinator brought in this fabric - black guitars on a textured blue background.  I offered to make an apron and coordinating potholders.  I was not sure how much fabric there was.  I made an apron and two sets of potholders and there was rectangle left.  Not sure what I could make with it but I will think of something. 

 I used this Instructables tutorial for the apron.  It has measurements for both an adult and a child apron and it is relatively easy to do.  I had made two before so I have the pattern for the armhole facing ready to go.  I just drew the lines I needed on the back of my folded fabric and cut it out.  Then cut out the facings and made up a long tie.  Great instructions!! 

Therese

All occasion card featuring hearts tissue paper collage background and elements with vellum

I was on a roll with the heart theme and dug out another piece of hand decorated paper which I made a while back.  I collaged hand cut tissue paper hearts onto white tissue paper using thinned white glue and added gold glitter glue to the last coat to make it all shimmery.  I just had scraps left but managed to make the background for this card and die cut three hearts.  To not take away from the delicate look of them I used a strip of vellum to give a bit of contrast between the background and the hearts.  I used tiny gold brads to hold the hearts in place.  When I added this to my large green card is seemed to need a bit of something so I stamped a border of green hearts ( Pink Cat Studio).  That was better and I simply glued my very large element to my card front!!!  

 

All Occasion cards featuring bright embossed hot glue accents

 These are the last of the embossed hot glue elements I created a while back.  The purple one was very bright on that black hand decorated background and I was pleased to find some paper that coordinated with it perfectly!!!  I added paper piercing to the edges of my little flower, mounted it to silver cardstock and then onto my black card with the purple background!!  The second one I created onto a background which was a reject for a set of cards I had created a while.  In this case, the colour I had added completely overwhelmed the little flower digital I had printed on the the white cardstock.  I have been looking for a way to make these work and this hot glue technique worked very well.  I did manage to find some papers that coordinated with it which are also two hand decorated papers.  All this mounted on a blue card front.  

Just a little note on how these were created - they are super easy and quick!!

Choose any substrate you like - decorative paper, cardstock, etc.  Outline in very light pencil the shape you would like to create.  Get your embossing powder ready to use - any colour you want.  Use hot glue - any colour - and squeeze out glue following your outline and just go with it.  There will be threads but some of these will disappear when you emboss your image with embossing powder.  As soon as you are finished your image sprinkle on a generous amount of embossing powder.  The embossing powder will start to melt where the glue is the hottest.  Pour off the excess and heat with your heat gun until the embossing powder it all melted and smooth!!  A fun and interesting accent.  For the arty ones I simply made a couple of lines of glue and then pulled a bamboo stick through them to create more texture before adding the embossing powder.  The sky is the limit with this technique!!!  Have a fun!!  You can find a tutorial here on Splitcoast Stampers.   Therese

All occasion cards featuring serendipity heart die cuts layered with gold embossed mesh and hand stitched to ivory paper

 I love the simplicity of these cards and cannot usually get myself to leave it at that.  I had excavated a piece of beautiful ivory paper in my last "looking for something" session which was sitting on my desk.  I was wanting to get some inspiration for a Valentine card so I started with these.  I trimmed out two little rectangles of gold embossed mesh (window screening) which I made a while back which were just what these little red serendipity heart die cuts needed!!  I layered them onto the beautiful textured paper and used my sewing machine without thread to create some holes so I could hand stitch the hearts and mesh to the paper.  I used some red perle thread and did running stitch down and then back up to imitate back stitch.  Worked perfectly and I love how they worked out!!  Therese

Cards for a silent auction prize in a fun cellophane carrier that works like a book

I have raided my stash of cards to create a prize for our silent auction at our Gramma Africa fundraiser in March.  I have chosen 16 cards and created two long cellophane carriers for them by adding double sided tape between each card - creates a bit of an envelope. From the width of the cellophane I managed to make 8 openings with a little to spare which I trimmed off.  After a bit of brainstorming I added a piece of letter tape which joined the two last cards to each other and secured the folds in between.  They are sort like a book and stand very nicely.  We are needing a small foot print for our prizes so I think I will recommend one set standing and the other laying open.  People will be able to see all the cards without actually touching them which will be good.  

I wanted a little bag to hold them for their trip to the venue and the trip from the venue to their final home.  I chose this very textured paper was eye catching so I made a custom bag the size I needed and sealed the bottom with hot glue as the layers from each side folded in.  I added black organza ribbon handles.  This will work very well, is minimal packaging and it also looks pretty!!  Therese
 

All Occasion and Christmas cards featuring gold embossed leaves and trees

I have created a few more cards with the gold embossed elements I created a while back.  These ones feature leaves and trees.  I pieced backgrounds from decorative paper to put behind the leaves which were created on decorative papers.  After adding a layer to them I layered them on to my pieced backgrounds - I embossed the blue/green one with a ferny embossing folder.  

I made the two with trees Christmas cards so I used Christmas decorative papers.  I layered both of my gold accents with gold paper and then mounted the with 3D foam tape onto my card fronts.  I really like the feathery one!!  Therese
 

All Occasion card featuring a beautiful feather sticker, a vellum and embossing and a glue seal

Another card for my stash!!!  I created my card using light yellow cardstock.  The front was a little short so I added a green section on the bottom and overlapped a little strip of turquoise over where they meet.  I embossed the rest of the card using a ferny embossing folder (CB).  I added the feather to a small piece of hand decorated paper and the coloured it with Sharpie markers - worked really well!!  I added paper piercing to the edges and then trimmed a piece of turquoise vellum in about the same size and arranged them on the embossed area.  I added some fibers to the corner using hot glue and then added the yellow hot glue seal.  You can check out a few more cards with hot glue seals and read about how they were created here!!   Therese
 

All Occasion cards featuring embossed hot glue elements, decorative paper and brads

Using a few more of those gold embossed hot glue elements I made a while back.  The black ones have two different gold embossing powders on hand decorated backgrounds.  The other three were created on red decorative paper.  They are all arty looking and will make a nice set of cards to include in a gift basket.  I created the card bases using light ivory cardstock, painted the edges to coordinate with the decorative paper backgrounds I used.  The arty focal elements were layered with coordinating cardstock and some have gold brads included.  I added paper piercing to some of them and distressed the green one and embossed the black one.  It was fun to just be able to go with different approaches to these fun little artsy accents.  Therese

 

All Occasion card featuring another embossed hot glue art piece with ribbon and an embossed background

This card features another gold embossed hot glue accent piece.  I layered it with gold to finish it off.  The card was created using ivory cardstock but it did not work really well so I simply watercoloured the edges red before adding my embossed background to which I had added a red ribbon with gold trim with a flagged end.  I mounted the arty piece over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  Therese
 

All Occasion card featuring an owl sticker, embossed layers and background

For this card I started by adding this little owl sticker to a black hand decorated background.  It needed a bit of something so I added two tiny brads in the center of the eyes - that was much better.  I added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel to finish off this layer.  I created a large card using black cardstock.  It was a bit short so I added the embossed green piece on the right hand side of the front by simply overlapping it about a half inch under the black and securing with double sided tape.  I embossed a piece of light kraft cardstock and added to the black portion of my card.  I added a green flagged strip which I stippled with a black fine tip marker.  I added the owl piece over the strip using 3D foam tape.  Going to another family member this month.  Therese

All Occasion card featuring an embossed hot glue star, hand decorated papers and fiber in an eyelet

 Working on cards for members of my family.  This one will be for one of my grandson's.  I started with a gold embossed hot glue star which I created on a hand decorated paper.  I added paper piercing and layered it onto a green decorative paper.  I added the embossed (SX) hand decorated background to a warm blue card after wrapping it with a coordinating gold edged ribbon.  I added a large eyelet to the star layer and then inserted a few short lengths of coordinating fibers.  I secured them with double sided tape on both the back and the front.  Love how it worked out!!  Therese

All Occasion cards - heart watercolour, embossing and yellow seam binding

 I had prepared the heart watercolour at the same time as I did this card. Just got back to it this week.  I added the little heart die cut which I watercoloured to coordinate with the whole.  I embossed a coordinating layer with diamonds to echo my background and tied a length of light yellow vintage seam binding across it and then tied a short piece to it to simulate a bow.  I added my trimmed background to my deep rose card and then my focal element with 3D foam tape.  This one is going into my stash!! 

Therese

All occasion card featuring a wintery scene photo, some paper piercing and contrasting chevrons

 I started this card with the photo which I trimmed from last years photo calendar which my sister, Sylvia, gives me every year for Christmas. They always make such wonderful cards!!!  I used a piece of distressed brown cardstock and created my card.  I adhered the trimmed photo and added lines of paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel around the card front and then one to the right of the image as well.  I added a wavy one in the middle of that section and then added colour coordinated chevrons following the line.  Therese

Quilting - small quilt with precut and stitched triangles with a yellow flannel backing

Another quilt using triangles.  This one made use of several large triangles which were a group of assembled triangles.  I assembled three of the large triangles and then squared off the ends.  I added the two ends to the last triangle to make this small quilt.  It measures 38" square.  The lines did not all line up on the edges but I simply sewed the off cuts to the triangle from edge to edge.  With all the colour and texture of the pieces it is not very noticeable where they are not aligned.  I added a yellow flannel backing which I stitched right sides together leaving an opening to turn it inside out.  Worked really well!!  I top stitched the outside edge.  I used green on the top and ivory thread on the bottom.  I just followed several of the lines across to quilt the pieces together using gray thread on the top and ivory on the bottom.  Another bright quilt which will be donated to the Linus Project.  Not sure when I will get to the top created from the large triangular assemblies but there will several more quilts that will be made up from the remaining triangles.    Therese

 

Quilting - new walking foot and triangle quilt

I have acquired a unfinished quilt that would have finished as a very large circular quilt.  I decided to use the pieces to make some smaller quilts.  I used some of the triangles - some are pieced and others are a single layer of fabric - to make rows and then added strips of fabric in between to make up this quilt.  It finished at 41" x 56" which is a good size for donating to the Linus Project.  It was fun to sew and make up rows from the variety of triangles.  I used a cotton sheet as batting and then trimmed a rectangle from the large backing for the back and used the backing as binding as well.  I dug out my walking foot to work on the quilting of the layers of this quilt.  I have had it for over a year and finally had the time and energy to figure out how to use it.  Fortunately, it was pretty much plug and go!!  I just put it on my machine and used it.  Had I know it was this easy I would probably have used it sooner.  Needless to say, I am quite impressed and will be using it more often.  I so easily quilted all three layers to each other with any shifting or stretching of the fabrics so it did not need to be trimmed once it was the quilting was added.  I used it for the binding as well - so neat!!!  So this is a bright and energetic quilt!!  There will be a few more before all those triangle find their new home.  Therese

All occasion card featuring a watercoloured panel with hearts, an embossed layer and a double knotted ribbon

It is time to get at my cards for special occasions in February!!  I am sending this one to my sister & brother in law for their anniversary.  I created the watercolour following a watercolour tutorial posted on Splitcoast Stampers.  We started with a overall light watercolour then drew a few hearts and then added darker watercolour all the way around to give the piece depth.  I added a little silver die cut heart to the largest heart to give this piece a focal point.  I layered it onto an embossed blue layer which was longer than the art.  I border punched the bottom edge and added a double knotted ribbon in yellow.  Love how it turned out!!!  Therese