Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. Thanks, Mom, for giving me life and raising me to be the person I am today!  I love you!

Here are the pillows I made for my mom's b-day gift. She loves birds and taught me to do the same.

See them sitting on my new quilt chest?  I got it a couple of weeks ago at a yard sale. The top and front are glass and the sides are wooden.  I have filled it with quilts I made.

Happy President's Day (and Mom, eat another piece of cake for me!)

Gale

It Has Been Almost a Month...

since I last made a blog entry.  I have been no busier than usual, but I have been spending a lot of time with my Kindle.  So many good books to read....

Here is my latest finished baby quilt.  I am going to list it for sale on Etsy.  The fabric is Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda.  I also got the same print in the brown colorway.  I love how the striped fabric (from my stash) goes with all the colors in the print. This is so cheerful!

I have several more unquilted tops to work on while I wait for spring to arrive.

Gale

Beach Theme Ornaments

This is a series of ornaments made with Jenni Bowlin Bingo cards. The cards are all beach themed and I added clip art and vintage images along with sand, glitter and real seashells to create them.

I added an extra layer of cardstock and sewed through the layers with my sewing machine. A ribbon hanger was added to enable these to be used as ornaments.

I may gift these or sell them. I have not decided yet.

Gale

Matryoshka Appliques

These are about 6 inches tall sewn with wool and cotton fabric.  I hand embroidered the facial features using perle cotton. The background fabrics, faces, and hair are made with felted wool.

I may finish these up to be the centers of blocks or combine them into a small wall hanging.

Gale

Baby Burp Cloths

I have seen several sets of directions for sewing burp cloths. Some of the more fancy ones I have seen are only made with flannel. I read some comments that several people had made that the flannel does not absorb spit up as well as the diapers. So I decided to use the diaper fabric for one side and flannel for the other.

At another time I made a set of these and only used flannel on the center section of the diaper. I was not totally thrilled with how those turned out, so changes were made with this set.

 These are made with girly flannel and cotton diapers. I cut the flannel to match the size of the diaper. Then I sewed the flannel on three sides, right sides together.

I turned it right sides out and topstitched around the sides, making sure to fold under the unsewn side for a neat finish. These are all flannel on one side and all cotton on the other.  
 
Slowly getting back into sewing.
 
Gale

Year in Review

I got a lot of sewing done in 2010.  I learned something from each of these projects. My goal in 2011 is to continue to learn.
Gale

How To Make a Putz House

More information on Putz Houses available here.

I started out with three plain cardboard ornaments from Michael's. Note the ugly jute hangers!

I painted the walls and roof with acrylic craft paints. Then the glittering started! 

I prefer Martha Stewart fine glitter. It goes a long way and covers nicely. The crystal glitter allows the colors underneath to show through.  I discovered this as a problem on the church roof, because the glitter looks less like snow than ice. Anyway, I decided that for the other ones I would add white paint before the glitter to give the snow more dimension.

 I started to run low on the crystal glitter and I went looking at Walmart for a suitable replacement. Not much luck there!  I did find some puffy fabric paint that looks white in the bottle with irridescent glitter.  I used it here to add snowdrifts next to the path, around the base of the church and icy drips to the eaves.  As it dries, it gets less white and more clear with glitter, but still holds its shape well. I was a little worried that this type of glue/paint would not work for this project.

Here you can see that the windows are now covered from the inside. I used an exacto knife and popped the bottom off of the houses to gain access to the inside. I cut scraps of patterned scrapbook paper to fit and taped them in with scotch tape.  I did not cover the church windows because I placed a Christmas tree inside and wanted it to be visible.

 After adding all the paint and snow that I wanted on the house, I used a small brush to cover the walls, roof, windows, etc. with Elmer's glue, just a thin layer. Then I covered it all in a final layer of Martha Stewart Fine Crystal glitter.  I cut off that horrible jute hanger.

 The church has a larger base than the others because I substituted the original base with a new one made of layers of cardstock.  I painted a pathway with gray paint and outlined stones for the walkway using a silver Sharpie marker.  I left plenty of room for bottlebrush trees and a figure, when I find some in the future.

These are fun to make and look so nice when they are finally done. I will be making more of these in the future!

Gale

Thrift Store Treasures

This is an August Moon collectible I found for a very reasonable price.  I think that she needs some sprucing up with crystal glitter. She is just not shiny enough yet!

 I love this paper mache Santa Box. It probably had some ornaments or something packed in it at one time. And when the holidays are over, I will probably pack some ornaments away in it again.

So, I am aware that this is a Coca-Cola puzzle, but I got it because Santa is shushing the Schnauzer!  My Schnauzer would certainly bark at the red-suited stranger on Christmas Eve night.  I briefly thought about putting this together and gluing over it to make a framed picture, but I think I will just display it as is. 

 I found several of these hinged ornament teddy bears in a bag full of other ornaments. Some were junk, others were cute enough to keep and use.

This glass egg was in perfect condition and abandoned at the Goodwill.  I had to bring it home and give it a place on the tree. 

 What an adorable ram!  His horns are seashells.

Here is a tiny bird feeder with a tiny bird perched on the side-- too cute. 

These were all found at a couple of local thrift stores. I love it when they put out the Christmas stuff they have received as donations all year.  It is a great time to find some kitschy and some wonderful decorations.

Gale 



Snow is Falling

These are the snow pictures from Monday's storm. Most of that melted, but it is snowing again today.  We already have more than we got on Monday.  It is very pretty, but is interfering with my Christmas break from school.  We will probably have to make up two days next week, when we were supposed to be off already.

Gotta finish my Christmas shopping!

Gale

Getting My Decor On!

It's starting to look festive at my home!

Gale

Countdown to Christmas

I made these countdown cards using a sheet of scrapbook paper that had the numbers printed on it and assorted shapes of more scrapbook paper cut with my Sizzix. 

I did not add ribbons to these yet because I am still thinking of how I will display them in my classroom.

Like the other ornaments I have made recently, these are stitched on the sewing machine.

Earlier today I finished up some placemats for lunch at school. It makes eating at your desk a little nicer.  I love how they coordinate, but do not match.

Back to school tomorrow.  This was a nice break.

Gale