A wife, a mom, a homeschooler, a crafter…
Dear Baby Zoey,
I made you a little cushion to decorate your nursery. It is a little vintagey and a little moderny. I was so happy with how it turned out…
until I realized I had spelled your name wrong! I’m sorry. There was a little bit of room left to add the Y so I squeezed it in.
When you’re older you can hug and squeeze it. I put a little texture in there just for you.
Until then I hope you and your family enjoys having it in your nursery.
Love,
Miss Linda (from church)
It’s been 10 months since I got a Yudu (nicely discounted at Michael’s). I’ve had it on a shelfdu in my sewing room since then and I see it everyday. I finally pulled it out last night and the good news is that after all that time on a shelf it still worksdu!
It was really hard to pick a designdu to start with. Yes, you can clean off your screendu and reuse it for a different design, but even though I knew that logically, the emotion of it was this is permanentdu. I finally just went with something I thought was cute and fundu – something that a friend doodled for me (and I got permission to usedu). And here she is – the crying girldu herself:
WAH!
I tried to play with different fabrics to see how it looked and at this point I’m pretty happy with what I seedu. And while I was looking around online I saw that there is a miniature Yudu for cards called Yudu Cardshop. I’m temptedu – I really am.
Tips for your first Yudu project:
My overall thoughts? 2 thumbsdu up – lots of fundu!
Do you Yudu? Have any Yu-tipsdu? I’d love to hear them!
So I made an ice wrap for my ankle a few years ago. Then I lost it. I left it in someone’s freezer after staying at their home. No problem because my ankle got better and I resumed playing indoor soccer on a coed team with my husband. Then last week I injured it again – but not too bad. It’s just stiff and needs some heat before I play on it. So I made myself a heat wrap, complete with a microwaveable rice bag.
I like the wrap because it can heat the sides of my ankle as well as the back.
I made 2 actually – just ‘cuz I was in the mood. This one is in the shop.
I’m feeling quite like a digital surgeon. You see, I have a bunion that I’m not super proud of. And the camera adds pounds (or so I hear), so even with the best of angles, my bunion never had a chance of looking svelte. And I’m not too proud to post it here.
Before and after. ;)
We have a nice little architectural salvage shop in downtown Fort Worth that I just adore.
It’s busy and packed full of all kinds of things and a fun place to go and poke around. Not everything has a price tag which makes me nervous heading up to check out with my things. My latest score: a $5 corbel. Yep, I sighed a big silent sigh when they named the price. I would have liked to get 2, but there was only one. It’s pretending to hold up my new laundry room shelf. The real brackets are hidden behind the washer.
One day a shirt,
the next day a bag.
Jersey was easier to work with than I thought – very stretchy and very forgiving. Lining the bag with regular quilting fabric helps the jersey keep it’s shape.
I wore this shirt until it shrunk a little too much. The sleeves make fun straps, don’t they?
Tutorial: Creating A Repeat Design in Photoshop here.
After my Spoonflower post I got into a conversation with a commenter about creating a repeat design for fabric printing. Although I’m not super experienced, I’ve used Photoshop for creating repeats for printing backgrounds on my pattern covers. So I wrote a tutorial. It is LONG. Long and hearty with 30 plus screenshots. So long that it’s getting it’s own page here.
As for the Spoonflower fabric? I finally got up the guts to cut into it. When fabric costs $16.50/yard plus shipping, you think twice before cutting and you think about how sparingly it can be used. I made a drawing case, adapted from my pattern to include a magnetic snap closure.
I paired it with some wool felt which I’ve always had a crush on but never dared to use. It adds a nice sturdy feel to the project, but I had to forgo some topstitching because it was too thick.
Sewing with fabric that I designed myself definitely adds a nice layer of fun to the creative process.
So after years of wanting to, but never feeling like I had a Spoonflower-worthy design, I finally took the plunge and printed something!
First off, let me say that I am NOT an artist. In fact, the reason these kids don’t have noses and mouths is because me and my Sharpie couldn’t get them to look right. What I’m trying to say is these kids looked better without half of their faces. I ordered a yard of cotton and a yard of linen-cotton canvas. I was really happy with the fabric, the color and really happy that the repeat design I created didn’t look too repetitive. Now to go sew something with these sketchy kids.
Yep, decorating, not remodeling – there won’t be any new cabinets or anything big – just a little touching up here and there. The size of this laundry room was one of the big reasons I fell in love with this house. It’s bigger than any laundry room we’ve ever had but it could definitely use a little style help.
It’s always easier for me to analyze a room if I take a picture of it and this room is no different. So here’s the no-I-didn’t-clean-up-beforehand-I’m-so-embarrassed-by-this before shot:
The most obvious thing to me is that the balloon in the laundry basket needs to go. I mean, really, who keeps balloons in their laundry room? Not me. Beyond that there are several things I’d like to tackle but my first step was the floor: I made a floor cloth to give the room some fun. I’ve really enjoyed my first one, and had to try it again.
The hexagons were cut from a layer cake of Sweetwater’s Hometown fabric. It’s stiff and sturdy and won’t slip around thanks to paint on rug backing.
I’ve been building up an album of laundry rooms I like on Pinterest, but the challenge will be making my dark machines look nice. Almost ever beautiful laundry room has light-colored machines.
In spite of the many, many fabric choices out there for quilters and sewers, sometimes I see some non-traditional sources of fabric and just have to nab them up. This shower curtain at Target was one of them. It’s been over a year since I picked it up so I’m not sure they’re around anymore, but the large scale design of the fabric just whispered diaper bag to me.
Now normally I would put on something cute and try to get a nice picture taken so that the scale of the bag would be easier to see, but I had already taken off my church clothes and didn’t have the energy to change back. The last few Sundays my husband and I have been teaching children’s church to 4-5 year olds. We’ve been involved in it for a while and I love it! We sing, we act out stories, craft and have an great time, but I find I’m drained for the rest of the day. Whew! So there ya go – I’m tired, but happy.
The interior – plenty of room for everything baby needs with a little room left over for mom’s things.
This was made with my pattern here and I’ve listed it in the shop here.
And it turns out, as I suspected, that hexagon cards are a lot easier than hexagon quilts.
It’s been years since I’ve made these fabric patchwork cards. They’re still super fun to make. Tutorial is here (from 2006 – seriously can’t believe I’ve been blogging that long!). It was a good time to make them because I still have some thank you notes to write from Christmas gifts. Shameful, I know, for having waited this long.
