I made a couple of quilted cushions as gifts for friends here.  One for a friend’s daughter,

and one for a newborn’s nursery.

What makes these cushions special for me is that I screen printed the main panels with my Yudu.  After yuduing, you are supposed to set the ink by ironing it for a really long time (3-5 minutes).  That worked fine for the little birdie because it was small enough to fit under the iron, but the alphabet print took a while because it was so much larger.  Standing at the ironing board with an iron that automatically shuts off every 30 seconds and trying to heat set the ink in 6 different places – I got bored, I lost track of what I had done, and I was wishing I had one of these heat presses.  I have to admit that I was scared that when I threw the cushion covers in the wash the ink would wash all off.  But all is well and I’m hoping the recipients like them!  And now I have extra room in my suitcase to pack in some craft magazines for the trip home.

It was washed and wrinkled just hours before before gifting,

& wrapped with a little teddy bear.

It was a lot bigger than I anticipated – 52″ x 52″.

Have you ever given away a quilt only to have the recipient say that they were going to to keep it in a drawer because it was too nice?  I made sure mom knew it was fully washable and intended for burps and spit up.  Hopefully it will be doing it’s job well in the coming months!

Photography by Brent Ward.

Love what they’ve done to the Tailored Bag in Creative Machine Embroidery magazine!  Isn’t it purdy?  Beautiful silk, beautiful model, beautiful photography.  They did a super nice job.

Happy New Year to you all!

I’ve been looking for a while for the perfect solution to store my fabric. It had to have open-front shelving so I could see my fabric.  The shelves had to be short, because fabric doesn’t stack very high and any extra space would just be wasted.  And finally, it had to be CUTE.  I wasn’t going to spend $ on something that wasn’t cute.  Then I found it (see photo).  It was the right color, right height, right size and exactly the right level of cuteness.  It was a splurge, but I will splurge for cuteness & perfection.

When the shelves finally came, I opened the box and the first thing I noticed was how cute they were.  The second thing I noticed was how smelly they were!  But not to worry – I opened the windows and aired them out for a couple of days.  Then when I thought it was safe,  I started getting my fabric folded into perfect little piles to fit in those perfect little cubbies.  That’s when it hit me.  Not only did the smell seem stronger, I was getting a headache from it.  I can’t sew with a headache.  :(   A little online research told me exactly what I needed to know – the MDF used in this furniture releases formaldehyde, polluting the air in my house not for a few days but continuing to release it for several years.  I think the paint is also partially to blame.  The sad thing is that this furniture is marketed for use by children. *sigh*  Needless to say, I called, complained and got it all returned.

It was around that time that we got a new handyman.  He does it all, including building furniture from scratch (so jealous). So after going over the dimensions, paint color, and wood, he brought me the finished product: my early Christmas present.

The only adaptation I made was cutting one set of shelves into 2 shorter shelves.  These shelves hold WAY more fabric than the shelves I had before.  And the old shelves took up more space.  So happy with these.  They cost $100 more than the ones I returned – definitely worth the cost of no headaches!  Wishing I knew about cabinet makers before – am now a huge fan of custom furniture.

One one side is a little fabric tab and on the other are two short ties.  One tie goes through the tab and with one half knot you’re good to go.

The added bonus is that a little kid could easily tie this one up herself.

Nice.  Simple.

But then, being the overly generous person that I am, (haha) I thought it would be nice to make her older sisters something, too.

Ignoring for a second that when I do this to myself I create a psychological black hole in my mind where all my sewing motivation gets sucked into, where I have a hard time even starting because the project has taken on gigantic proportions in my head, and instead of  3 cushions taking 3 times as long as 1 cushion, they take 6 times as long to actually complete – ignoring all that, when I actually get sewing I enjoy it.

I can’t help myself, really.  I’m hoping the girls like their pink cushions.  And yes, I double checked the spelling on the names.  :)

Love the font – all the letters except the capital “S” are from Candy Inc. available for free here.

Two thumbs up to Moda for their fun and playful displays.  Lots to see there.  First up, colorful paint stirrers and

paint cans!

and of course, fabric,

fabric,

and more fabric.

(Clicking on the pictures should take you to some links.)

Dinner, of course, was yummy.  But no surprises here.  After a delicious meal, gains are definitely expected!

I got a large board (3′ x 5′) which just barely squeezed into the van, painted the edges white and wallpapered it.  It sounds easy, but this job took hours – getting the wallpaper to hang straight on the board, then trying to get the board to hang straight on the wall.  I like to think I’m handy with tools, but sometimes it’s still a challenge.  The wood is actually anchored to some pieces of wood behind it so it isn’t flush on the wall – sorta like art.

Since the table was clean, I took a few extra pictures.

I happy with how it turned out.  I originally wanted to hang pictures on and around the board, but I’ve decided I like the simplicity of it.