I could Totally make that!

Do you ever see something and say, "I could TOTALLY make that!"  I do, nearly everyday now with the dawn of pintrest.  I find myself pinning nearly everything crafty.  Yet, rarely do I go back and to look it up.  Rarer still do I actually decide to make something from a pintrest board.  Well not today! (or er, this week.)  This week I jumped right up there on that Crafty bandwagon and made something.

As I told you in my last post I have been stockpiling teacher gifts, either for teacher appreciation week (may 6-10 for those of you who may not know) or for end of the year gifts.  I got tired of making the pouches and set out in search of something using an entirely different medium.  Paint!

I found this link to Personal Pizazz by Lindsey on pintrest.  Lindsey's designs are so adorable you cannot help but want to make them.  She obviously puts her heart and soul into each design.  So Stinkin' Cute!  Take a look and if you don't feel the need to whip one up yourself you are fortunate because Lindsey sells these from her blog.

Fortunately, I happened to have 2 --11X14in canvases just lying around in my sewing room.  I stumbled upon them at Walmart 2 for $7 (I think) and picked them up.  God only knows what I intended on doing with them.   So, there they were, collecting dust, getting moved from pile to pile, sad and lonely, well NO MORE.

I took both canvases and painted them with a coat of White Latex paint.  When that was dry I used a snack sized cup to draw circles at random.  I painted the circles a variety of colors blue, green, pink, yellow and purple.  After that coat dried I printed out some sheets with the names (properly spelled) in a font similar to what I intended to use.

For this size canvas I used a font Curlz with size of 140.  After measuring and re-measuring I drew a light pencil line where I wanted the text.  I used Black, fine point and medium point paint pen to draw the letters on each canvas.

Once the Black was dry I used a silver medium paint pen to put a few extra polka-dots around each large dot.  Now we're talkin'.

The final step in this process was Ribbon.  I purchased a few 'teacher-ish' ribbons from Hobby Lobby and used them.  I also added an assortment of other colors to brighten and fill the hanging ribbon.

TA-DA!  Teacher's Gifts a la Kristin.

Pretty Little Teacher Gifts

9 weeks left!  How can it be that the school year is winding down in only 9 weeks!  Before we know it Summer Vacation will be here and then we will be off to the park, the lake and destinations unknown.  But before we get there we still have tests, quizzes, homework, field-trips and end of the year parties.  In preparation for these end of the year festivities I have begun working on teacher gifts.

In the past I have given totes, fabric nesting baskets, baskets, and journals, this year it is pouches.  I purchased 2 great patterns from Michellepatterns.com (the zip pocket pouch and the little and long pouch). The patterns pieces are the perfect size for using up your larger scraps.  You could even do a little fussy cutting to surprise the receiver.

 The pouches are cute, easy to assemble (seriously it took me about an hour)  and I think they could be used for a myriad of things.  Stuffed them with a gift card and we have a cute, reusable gift that any teacher would love.  I may have to make up a couple of extra for Mother's Day gifts.

All a Blur

The past few weeks have literally been a blur.  After having surgery (something I'd rather not discuss)  I was on some serious pain meds.  The days seemed as if they flew by.  I did some hand quilting on my Modern Medallion Quilt.  A good quilting friend of mine warned me of the dangers of quilting while on pain medicine.  Did I listen?  Noooo.

My quilting varies greatly from section to section, and not just my stitch length.  The design is mostly stitch in the ditch with a little echo quilting thrown in just for fun.

I  left some rather large areas unquilted.  I moved around the quilt from the center out, mostly.

I added some stripes through the patchwork border, not that they all go the same direction. :)

Since all my stitches were different lengths, I continued the trend.  Should be an interesting finish.

Twirly

As promised here is a picture of my sweet niece in her "newly" made dress from Aunt Kristin. The pattern "Sweet Apple Frock" is from Ellie Inspired.  It is roomy enough to put a shirt under when the weather is cool and modest enough to wear without when it heats up.  Making this versatile dress a must have for any little girl.  The dress was a big hit!  And to quote a 7 year old,

 "It Twirls!  Just the way I like it!"  

But of course.

Baby Sister in her matching dress....

Spring Inspired

I have been feeling a little crafty lately.  I wanted to sew something that wasn't a quilt.  With Easter and spring right around the corner what could be better than two sweet sundresses for my Adorable nieces.

Drawing fabric from my extensive fabric stash, I pulled out all of the pinks I had, a few buttons and some elastic.

Waved my magic wand and said the magic words and "poof"  just like that the dresses were done.  Ok, it may have taken a bit more energy than that.  and yes, I needed a pattern.

 I chose this cute patchwork pattern from Ellie Inspired called Sweet Apple Frock.  The directions were straight forward and simple!  It could have only been simpler if my Magic Wand hadn't been on the fritz, or if I could have used a surger. Finding a pattern that would fit a size 10 and a size 12 months was definitely a challenge but I think this pattern made it work.  I cannot wait to see how sweet they look on!

A Long overdue finish

Here it is.  My finished Modern Medallion Quilt top!  Can I get a WooHoo?

 Many of you may remember way back last summer when I took the Handstitched class with Rachel Hauser over at Stitched in Color.  This quilt was a collection of hand-stitching projects that cumulate in one big dramatic quilt (that is of course) Hand quilted.  I will be undergoing surgery in a couple of weeks which means I will have a ton of time to sit and recuperate.  I thought this hand-quilting project would just be the thing I needed to keep me from going mad.

don't you just love quilt tops with feet?

Take a good look at this, you may not see it again for a year or more. :)

Now I am off to load the LOVE Quilt and dabble in a little negative space quilting.

Animal Jungle Quilt

Here it is the big reveal!

 After I tried the 101 block settings, I ultimately decided upon this on-point block setting. I took the few broken dish blocks that were already made, added 4 others to trim the top and bottom of the quilt. 

The backing is a cute and oh so soft! Jungle Flannel. I created an applique elephant based on the elephants in this flannel print.

For the quilting I quilted swirls along the border and a wavy line filler along the sashing.

The body of the quilt has an all over leaf pattern. I used a subtle orange peel quilting design for the broken dish block.  Now I am off to finsh up the binding.