Quilted House Trivet

For some reason I really love making hot pads. 

That's weird, right?

Maybe it's because I bake so much... or maybe it's because they're useful. 

Don't know. Just know that I enjoy making these silly things an awful lot.

So, obviously, I made a house for my Hearts and Houses challenge.

It's pretty cute, right?

And this quatrefoil on the back... swoon!

QAYG Trivets

 I love monochromatic projects so when I saw an absolutely adorable tutorial for QAYG trivets on S.O.T.A.K Homemade I got right at it.

It was terrifically fun to take a chunk out of my scrap pile and sorting things by color is just as engaging  now as it was in preschool.

Each hot pad is about 10.5 inches square and they are padded with Insul-brite so they are heat proof.

Now that I've made a purple and green one, I can't wait to get going on gray, yellow, orange and blue.

Have you been sewing? What have you made lately.

Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks

I've always been curious about paper pieced quilt blocks so when the Creative Bug block of the month was this  Whippper Snapper (paper pieced) block by Anna Marie Horner I couldn't resist trying it.

Fun stuff. I really like not having to fret about lining things up as I just put my fabric on the lines I drew on the paper. Drawing lines on paper is very much my jam... lining up fabric... not so much.

I always try to do something new at least twice so I can commit the process to memory. So I made this one. Much faster and far more confidently. Yay

And being me, not knowing the first thing about leaving well enough alone, I decided to convert the blocks into circles. Because... why not?

Stay tuned as I actually have a plan for these cuties.

Felt Pizza with Heart Pepperoni

I've been making a lot of felt plush things lately. It's super relaxing and amuses me. Immensely.

This one went home with a wonderful human I adore before I could photograph it properly; so here it is, on my lap, in the car. 

Have a great weekend!

Quilted Coffee Sleeves

Coffee Sleeves... I think I've made a billion of them. LOL.

I'm that lady who sees a friend reach for the cardboard ones and says, "oh no dear." and slides a pretty one onto their cup.

And it's not really entirely for environmental reasons - although that's a huge perk - it's because they are soft and beautiful.

Coffee is pretty much the greatest plant based item on the planet (yes, I'm suggesting it's better than chocolate) and I want to make it as pleasing as possible. 

So at home that means my favorite mug and out in the wild I need a pretty sleeve. Otherwise where's the artistry? The sense of occasion? The celebration?

But, My husband was NOT loving the sleeve I always put on his cup when we're out together.  This probably had something it do with the fact I'd made it a zillion years ago with this fabric pack:

He requested one that, "was more metal".  His words, not mine. So I made a trigonometry and skulls 'more metal' one. What do you think?

Front

 

Inside

If I was any sort of blogger I would have procured a coffee cup to show the sleeve properly but that would have cut into my crafting time and you know how I feel about that.

Plus my readers have GREAT imaginations.

 As this is a very old, long-standing sewing project I won't rehash the instructions. I do use Insul-Bright  instead of batting inside mine as it's terrific at keeping the heat in my cup.

And I've used this pattern as long as I can remember but you can also trace a cardboard sleeve and add a seam allowance.

Mixed-Media French Press Cozy

My husband's coffee kept getting cold so I made a cozy for our French Press. It's a great way to use up smaller pieces of painted fabric.  It's quilted and the closure is made from a large button and a (new) fabric covered hair elastic.

Skull Canvas Bag

I've been totally obsessed with painting canvas and sewing it up into totes and bags. 

This fabric was spray painted through a hand-cut stencil and then  decorated with loads of fabric paint. 

I'm so smitten.

Tip: If you see a trashed purse at a garage sale or second hand store that has cute handles, buy it. You can 'harvest' them (and sometimes other decorative/useful elements like zippers and snaps too) for use in your own projects.

I love how the sides look on this one.

What color of tote would you like to see me make? 

I'll whip one up from the comments.

Warmly,

~~~Nicole

Paper and Fabric Art Quilt

For this assignment in our It's Sew Easy class we were shown how to make a paper art quilt featuring free-motion stitching and even more frightening - binding! Eek!

So I put it off... and off... and off. And then decided to quit being such a wimp and go for it.

To start I embellished tissue paper and lined paper with stamps and paint

Then I cut the tissue paper in squares and rectangles... ish. This isn't an exact sort of project.

Next I Mod Podged the tissue to my piece of batik fabric. I usually loathe batik but this one, to quote my kids, "looked like the sort of thing I'd make with paint and white fabric" so I went with it. 

I realized my piece was going to be HUGE so I trimmed it down a bit but followed the same Mod Podge steps with the spare strips so I had something to practice on.

And then, after all the glue had made a big old mess I placed my pieces in the bath tub to dry over night and then trimmed them into squared, usable bits including ATC sized cards.

If you recall my earlier post, I made these with the ATC-sized scraps:

Back to the topic at hand... I bound the scary art quilt and it really wasn't that big of a deal. I thought the mitered join of the binding strips was going to make me throw up with anxiety but beginner's luck saw me through. And Julie's instructions were excellent.

Trouble is... when all was said and done... (and maybe it was just the size...) I had made the worlds most time consuming placemat. Seriously. You'd want to place a plate on it if you saw it. Not good. I mean it was lovely, great colors and interesting... but so very, very placemat-like. 

So I printed a photo I had edited within an inch of it's life:

(Pretty, no? I went to Costco and photographed some of the bouquets. It was a cheap way to get some pretty images to play with.)

And then I sewed it onto the quilt to serve as a focal image.

I like this a lot better. It's certainly less like a placemat and once I frame it I think it might end up to be a pretty piece of art. That said, there's a fair-to-middling chance I'm going to seam rip that photo off of it, add a frayed, painted, textured mat of some sort and sew it back on. It looks kind of flat... and tidy. 

We can't have that!

What would you do?

My Teeny Tiny Zakka Pen Case

This "pencil" case was the bane of my existence. Let's just say in addition to giving me a throbbing headache, I got better acquainted with my seam ripper then ever before. Lucky.

But, I'd vowed come hell or high-water to get it done before the deadline and here, at 10:30 PM Sunday night I've got it made.

The word I've heard most often about this design is "clever" and I wish I could use it too, but I was so turned around that by the time the case actually worked I couldn't tell you what I'd done to get myself there. Normally this would be my cue to make two or three more until I know it so well I can make one without instructions but I think I'm going to pass.

 It's cute and will corral my pens in my purse nicely but it's just too tiny to have much use beyond that. See, these are my embroidery scissors. It's itty bitty.

Let's not even mention pencils...

Onward to next (this?) Zakka Style Sew A Long week's project :-)

Update: The deadline was 11:59 PM EST and we're Mountain...GAH... I missed it. Oh well, I have a rocking pen case to console me.

P.S. If you want to make your own (even just to prove what an incompetent fool I am at this whole sewing gig) there is a TERRIFIC tutorial over at one of the other participants blog. CLICK HERE to visit  I Finally Have Time.

P.S.S. Thanks to my wonderful MIL for the fabric scraps. I told you I'd use them *wink*

P.P.S.S. Thanks to my awesome husband for getting me through the fold and flip steps. I know I'm not the most fun when I'm tearing my hair out.