Playing with papier
I’ve been inspired by the awesome paper crafts over at Small Fry & Co. for a while now. So tonight I took the plunge and attempted a handmade anniversary card for Darling Husband’s grandparents …
I think I have found a new love in pretty scrapbook paper! I’m definitely going to keep experimenting.
10 things I love about you
An ode to my dream craft room (which I will have someday) …
1. It is painted a bright, cheery pink … possibly with an orange or yellow accent wall …
2. It has a worktable built into the wall, that stretches around the entire perimeter of the room …
3. One wall is covered with floor-to-ceiling shelves.
4. It is a storage love-fest. Every shelf holds a basket with a label proclaiming “Glueguns” or “Wire” or “Googly eyes.”
5. It has inspiring words on the walls, and beautiful drapes. It’s a room that makes you happy when you walk into it.
6. There are a bunch of rolling office chairs, each covered in different bright, patterned fabric. You can sit in one and roll up and down the long work table.
7. Jars and baskets of paintbrushes, pencils, markers, pastels, and pens are lined up along the back of the worktable — ready to jump into action.
8. There are work-stations everywhere! There is a section devoted to painting — with canvases stacked beneath that section of table — a section devoted to beadwork, sewing, sculpting, etc.
9. One wall is entirely covered with clear plastic file-folder baskets, like these — and each one contains a neatly-folded piece of fabric …
10. All my thread is arranged on the wall, like art, according to shade.
Heaven is a beautifully-organized craft room … my Heaven, at least!
Beary Cute Quilt: Steps 4, 5 & 6
OK, after another sorta-late night spend hunched over my trusty Singer, the Beary Cute Quilt is finished!
You already read about the first few steps, so here’s how things wrapped up …
Step 4: I sewed the top-with-attached-ruffle to the back-with-attached-batting (looked pretty much the same as the pic from Step 3).
Step 5: Then, it one exuberant swoop, I machine-quilted just a couple of lines across the whole thing — in sort of a plaid pattern …
… and from the back …
Step 6: The final step was hand-sewing a special label I picked up at the fabric store. So cute I can barely stand it!
So cozy!
I think this will be my last quilt for a while. I’ve done a few now, and I’m eager to move onto something new.
Felt toys? Bibs? A diaper bag? A wipes container? Or maybe nursery art? The multi-tasker in me is having trouble picking just one!
Can’t help myself …
I have been watching a lot of TLC lately — between Jon & Kate Plus 8, Little People Big World, and Toddlers in Tiaras — so it’s no surprise that I have seen this commercial 4,458 times …
Love it!
Beary Cute Quilt: Steps 1, 2, 3
The dangerous thing about a huge fabric store sale is … you start choosing fabric over sleep.
For the last two nights, I stayed up waaaaaaay late simply because I was in L-O-V-E with my new fabrics — they are gorgeous! You will love them, too — and wanted to play.
I am paying for it today (zzzzzzzzz) but alas, here’s what went down …
Step 1: In an enthusiastic attempt to “get a finished product” — which is definitely a problem of mine — I stayed up too late the first night cutting out strip after strip of blue flannel. Then sewing the world’s longest ruffle …
Step 2: Since it worked so well last time, I cut out the backing (more blue flannel) and the batting, and sewed them together. Fewer layers = less stress!
Step 3: Since this fabric is so beary cute — OK, I’ll stop with the lame beary/very crap now — I decided not to chop it up into squares like last time. I left it as one big chunk, and sewed the ruffle to the edges …
L is coming over tonight for another craft-sesh, so under her watchful eye, I will be attempting steps 4 and 5 — sewing all the layers together, and machine-quilting the whole thing.
Then I will have … drumroll, please … TWO finished baby quilts. Where is the baby, haha?
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Heather's Handmade Life 