Mom’s getting crafty

I haven’t been the only one busy in the craft studio this fall. Mom has definitely had her share of creative time. Which, if you ask me, is well deserved after she helped me reorganize everything after painting. 

She brought this fabric all the way from Chicago with her to make me a sewing machine cover. She measured everything and figured out her own pattern as she went along and I think it turned out looking great! We added a couple of prints from my stash and some fun notions we found in the big reorg. 

This pretty feather print went really well with the gray and pink Paris print. The second side has a pocket that could fit a pattern, a pair of scissors, some measuring tape, or whatever else it is I’m using at the time. I love the print pairing of that pink floral and the green abstract. 

We perused through buttons and chose a few to add to the front along with the pom pom trim to add some bling. A couple crowns got some sparkles, a moon got a star, and some crossed keys were adorned as well. 

Last but not least, the inside! This fabric is a nice loud orange and pink bohemian print. It absolutely reminds me of the rainbow sherbet flavor I loved as a kid. You know the one with the bright pink, bright orange, and white? It’s a fun addition to the cover and I’m sure some days I might just flip the whole thing inside out and have it on the outside for a while. 

We had a fun time getting this one done, and I think Mom is as pleased as I am. Honestly, she did most of it, I just entered an opinion here and there. :) 

 

it’s julekuler season again

It’s just after my birthday, so you know what that means - julekuler season is upon us! I got this book for my birthday a few years ago and have enjoyed making a few baubles a year since then. This year is no different. These two I started in August when I just couldn’t resist the siren call of this book on the shelf. Now that the tree is up, it’s REALLY time!

I’m still working off the same yarn I’ve used before; I keep it in it’s own little project bag so I’m ready to go whenever the fancy strikes. This year I had a rocking horse to make for a friend who is moving (who also happens to have a black horse... not a coincidence), and I decided to make patterns that I’ve enjoyed previously.

These knit up pretty quick, in a few hours, but I find that the quickest and most fun ones to make don’t have long color runs requiring a lot of twisting. The horse is an exception because well it’s a horse. But other than that I really enjoy the patterns with a lot of... pattern? Whatever the right word is, here’s a few that are done already.

Halloween catch up

Ha! Well predictably since my folks got here I have been spending much less time on the computer. That doesn't mean that I haven't been making things - in fact we've done lots of crafty things (including some festive Halloween masks!) in the last couple months. I'm going to round up the Halloween bits in this one post and then the rest of the things are wips that I can write about as the holidays approach. 

First things first, I finally finished my set of spooky pillows. These were really fun to make and they were good opportunities for playing with some more complex quilting. First the large ones. The one on the left got a geometric square spiral treatment across the whole pillow while the one on the right got some nested diamonds in the big arms of the X's. It definitely takes a lot longer than just straight line quilting but it looks really cool when all is said and done. 

I backed those pillows with this very appropriate print from Ruby Star Society. I'm not sure it was meant to be a Halloween print but it certainly plays the part well. It also works really well with the dusty blue zippers I used. An unexpected color given the holiday, yes, but that bluish purple moon pulls it all together and makes it look like it belongs. I've got just a little bit more of this print and I can already say it's going to be a precious commodity.

The set of smaller pillows look a little more "fall" and a little less "Halloween". They got a lot of different free motion quilting treatments on them. Unfortunately I was lazy and didn't put a back on the quilt sandwich when I did it (i.e. just the block on batting, no third piece of fabric) and I think the texture suffered. Instead of pulling the fabric down from the front, the threads just sunk into the batting from the back to relieve the tension. 

Kind of a bummer, but again fun to practice different shapes and swirls - and to realize how difficult it is!! I had a bear of a time getting my curves to look nice. Somehow I thought doing all those fun wavy lines and circles would be easy. Psh. Once I survived the quilting, these got a heavy gray canvas backing and some bright orange zippers. 

Possibly my favorite Halloween project was this wreath. Mom and I were out at Joann's and couldn't resist the pretty fall picks they had on sale. Well, we picked up a handful of those and a grapevine wreath and had some fun. It didn't take long at all to get this together and I looooove it. It was a nice addition to the decor upstairs

Along with our pack of pillows, our house had Halloween covered.