Sassy & Sweet Notes

Love Bug and Plush Friend

 
I had fun this week designing this cute Valentine love bug pillow case and coordinating plush friend. It's all very pink, and very girly! There's a pocket on the front of the plush friend, perfect for slipping in notes, or hiding little secret treasures!

 
The pillow case is sized to fit a standard pillow. Designer pillow cases like this have been a staple in our family as long as I can remember. Everyone in the family has special pillow cases, made just for them. They make great gifts, too! I like to send them to young friends, for special occasions like Christmas, Easter, and birthdays.

 
The plush pillow friend is made from the same cotton prints as the pillow case, but is embellished with felt, lace, and assorted buttons to give it character. I added a cute felt heart to it's "rump" -- and stitched on a cute heart button from my stash!

I've added this little ensemble to my etsy shop, if you're interested.

I'm Home!

Thank you, THANK YOU for all the wonderful notes you left for Alan while I was gone! I laughed and LAUGHED when I read his post! *snort* I can't BELIEVE he told you about me swimming with the chickens! Hahahaaa!! He's in so much trouble, now! Hahaaaa!!! Way too funny! And for all of you worried about Alan's beautiful quilt not being used, don't worry! It will be used by us, but critters are not allowed. No way, no how.

I had a wonderful time in California at the trade show. A BIG thank you to the Whipper Snapper family for bringing me along for the fun! The purpose of the trade show is for manufacturers to showcase their new products to retailers, and for retailers to place orders for their stores. Even though I wasn't the one doing the shopping, I had a GREAT time! I thought I would share a few of my favorite things with you...

 

  

My favorite new paper lines were from My Mind's Eye. Loved the colors, the textures, and the prints!

 

EK Success had OODLES of new punches -- I stopped to oooh and ahhhh over them several times, but only took this photo. Clearly I was distracted! The punch in this photo was actually a mini size! And worked like a CHARM! Punched through the heavy weight designer paper like a breeze!

 

More favorite papers from Core'dinations. They partnered with Cosmo Cricket and Jenny Bowlin to create embossed papers -- very cool!

 

I love BoBunny's double dot papers, and what's not to love about double dot ribbons, too!?

  

I also spent a great deal of time at the 7Gypsies booth. Yumm! I thought these little journals were particularly fun!

  

More great papers, this time from Basic Grey.

  

Basic Grey hit a home run with their Blush paper line ... and here's another home run with their Blush fabric line! *drool*

 

  

The Fruitcake line is another Basic Grey favorite... with yo-yo's even!

I picked up a lot of catalogs, and look forward to going through them one at a time to dream up all kinds of fun projects using this year's goods!

Quilt from Anna's Mother

Hi, Everyone. This is Alan. I am doing routine maintenance on Anna's PC while she is away and while I was here I thought I would respond to all of the nice inquiries from her blog fans.

Everything is going well here on the farm. Nice and peaceful.

I am not so sure about giving all of the animals hugs (Anna is the "hugger" on the farm), but I will give them a pat on the head from all of you. haha!

I don't know if all of you realize that Anna's inspiration for the chicken w/ the swimming suit came from this past HOT summer. While she was in the pool she would have me hand her one of her "favorite" chickens and she would let them swim with her! She said it was just to let them cool down, because 'poor Tiny Tim and Little Buddy, etc. etc. etc. were WAY too hot....'

I have a feeling that swimsuits will be sewn for the "favorite" chickens this summer! Anna really is crazy for chickens! haha!

Mrs. Wight, Anna's mother, sent me a very nice quilt for Christmas. Anna let me open it, she then told me the rules that she (Anna) had placed on the quilt: 1) no cat can lay on it, 2) no dog lay on it, 3)I can visit in her office when I want to see it, because I can't lay on it either! Let me tell you, those are some STRICT rules! haha! I did break it out of it's plastic prison and took a picture of it for everyone. Mrs. Wight makes the best looking quilts! Go Mrs. Wight!!

  

This picture doesn't do it justice. Sorry for that! Anna takes MUCH better pic's than I do. I will have her post a better one once she comes home. Aren't those stripes COOL! How does Mrs. Wight do that?!? I think Anna called this pattern "log cabin" and the red square in the middle represents the fire or fireplace (I can't remember! ha! I just know it looks cool!) 

Here is a close up of part of it...

  

Isn't that cool!?!

Ok, I gotta get back to work!

Have a great day!

-Alan

P.S. No, I have never made a card with Anna's stuff. Anna tried to get me to once, but...umm...it didn't go well and I got kicked out of her office! haha! No more stamping for Alan! hehehe! (That was a fun day for Alan! hahaha! Right, Anna? hahaha!)

CHA, Here I Come!

Happy FRIDAY!! Finally -- the WEEKEND! Now that I've got things wrapped up from the work week, it's time for some FUN!

I've got to pack my suitcase and get ready for a few days of fun in sunny (?) California! I'll be attending the CHA Convention and Trade Show, and can't wait to see what's NEW for the coming year!

CHA, for those of you who might not know, is the Craft and Hobby Association. They have two major convention trade shows each year, where companies release their new products and lines for the year. It's very exciting for retailers, manufacturers, and designers like me! Not only is it a great place to check out new, exciting products, but it's a great place for bumping into celebrity crafters, too! 

I won't have a computer with me so I won't be able to post photos during the show, but stay tuned for an update from me when I get home. I'll showcase some of my favorites, and who knows...maybe I'll bump into a celeb or two, as well!

Have a wonderful weekend! ...

Oh, and drop a note here on the blog to Alan every so often. He's staying home to tend to the farm while I'm out in California oogling new crafty goods. *grin* But even while I'm away, he keeps up on the blog comments and gives me updates when we have time to catch up throughout the weekend.

PS: Do I smell a Whipper Snapper release coming soon!? Yes, yes! I think I do! Stay tuned for more!

You Give Me Something to Crow About!

 

I worked on a fun custom project for my friend, Diane, this week. Diane wanted a "chicken" themed quilted wallet and coordinating zippy, so I put this little number together for her (sorry, no photos of the zippy, yet).

 
Diane has a warm, friendly personality, so I chose the cheery colors of this chicken fabric line.

 
I used strips (varying the width) of several prints from the fabric series to create a patchwork design, and then quilted the pieces.

 
Inside, there are lots of pockets (10 to be exact) for cards and cash -- perfect for a cheery addition to Diane's handbag!

Hope she loves it as much as I do!

Henny Penny Pot Holder

 

I put the finishing touches on my new Henny Penny Pot Holder tonight. I drew up the pattern and stitched her together earlier this week, so I just had to stitch down the tips of her wings tonight, and she's done!

 
She's in my etsy shop, if you'd like her to live at your house.

Cluck cluck!

ewwwww.....

Mister Farley has spent a good part of the day tossing his cookies. Miss Daisy worries over him, undoubtedly thinking that she is a better mother to Mister Farley than I am. Except for when it comes to cleaning up tossed cookies. She leaves that chore to me. Gross.

New Items in my Etsy Shop!

I posted my recent stitched creations in my etsy shop, for those of you who are interested.

You'll find zippy pouches and quilted wallets, too!

Visit my shop for details!

UPDATE: Holy hotcakes! Most of the items posted have already sold -- if you'd like to see the items I had posted, you can view my sales page here. Stay tuned... I have more projects in the works!

Little Quilted Zippies...

Before last night, I had never installed a zipper before. At least not that I can remember. I figured it was about time I learned how! So I made a couple little zippy pouches, the perfect size for handbag odds and ends. What fun! I'll be making more of these, for sure!

 
For my first pouch, I chose to use a cute cotton kitty fabric and some nice linen. The linen was nice to work with, but you need to be careful not to let it stretch out of shape too much. I picked the kitty fabric up sometime last year, probably at Joann's. I thought it was cute then, and I think it's cute now!

 
For the inside lining (yes it's even lined!), I chose a small gingham check in a sunny yellow color. Gingham makes everything cute.

 
Because I had so much fun with the first zippy, I decided to make a second one! I chose various prints and created a pieced and quilted exterior.

 
For the inside, I chose a nice turquoise polka dot print. These pouches are about 4x6" in size, and since they have a bit of padding from the quilted layers, they're a nice size for tossing in a phone or ipod. Can't wait to make more!

Lessons Learned...

This evening I thought I would make a little loyalty card wallet for my Mom, so she can keep all of her punch cards from the various quilt shops she visits all in one place. This should have been a simple project, but it was a three hour ordeal, complete with at least a dozen lessons learned.

 
I chose to use pieces of various reproduction print fabrics, and rather than using just one or two pieces for the outside cover, I decided to create stripes by using 1x4 inch strips of fabric. By the time you get a couple of 1/4" seams on either side of 1" strips, you're left with 1/2" of fabric, and narrow strips!

Lesson 1: Opt for slightly wider strips.

Lesson 2: When adhering Pellon (interfacing) to unwashed fabric, beware that the fabric might shrink - or at least it seems to...

Lesson 3: Always start with pieces longer than your finished project -- it's easy to trim off excess later.

I decided to free-motion quilt the outside cover of the case. Free-motion quilting isn't something I've done much of, so I'm not very "good" at it. I've heard that you're not supposed to let lines of thread cross each other when you do free-motion quilting, but I don't bother with that idea. I rather like the meandering swirl trails, even if they DO cross paths now and then!

Lesson 4: Practice free-motion quilting.

I decided to add some cute white rik rak to the cover. Nothing like a little rik rak to make things extra cute!

Lesson 5: Acknowledge that the "3-way auto shut off" device on the iron was designed to irritate me.

  

I was having a bit of trouble with the bobbin tension while I was sewing. I didn't notice it until I had sewn all the way around the wallet -- and I wasn't about to take out all the sewing around the outter edge of the wallet.

Lesson 6: Thread machine correctly. Bobbin tension issues resolved.

I was having trouble with my bobbins winding poorly. They looked like miniature bird nests, all loopy and loose.

Lesson 7: Thread machine correctly when winding bobbins. Bobbin winding issues resolved.

Lesson 8: Learn to use snap pliers before starting project so you know that you need interfacing between the fabric layers on the closure tab where snaps will be placed. You'll notice there are no cute fabric closure tabs OR snaps on this project....maybe next time.

 

Lesson 9: Do not sew the button on THROUGH the pockets on the inside. Oops! Now there are three usable pockets instead of four. *grin*

When I finally had the entire case assembled, I wanted to give it a good pressing to help give it it's final shape.

Lesson 10: ...darn self-regulating iron... no wonder it takes me so long to do anything. I'm always waiting for the iron to heat up.

 
 
Lesson 11: Do not iron May Arts rik rak. It melts. And smears all over the face of your iron. And stinks. Good thing I noticed it rather quickly, or this project would have been a REAL mess!

Lesson 12: Remember that there are many more lessons to be learned. That's what makes crafting so much fun!

Quilted Chicken Wallet

 
When I was a teenager, I had a quilted wallet that my cousin made for me. I thought it would be fun to make a new one for myself, so I did some poking around online until I found what looked like a nice pattern to use.

 
I chose to use this CUTE chicken fabric (from a line called Hen Rietta) that my Mom sent to me last summer. I don't have any snaps (or even a snap fastener), so I wasn't sure how I wanted to go about fastening a closure. I showed the unfinished wallet to Alan and he suggested that I use a button and string, so that's what I did! (I actually used a medium sized elastic hairband to go around the button instead of string).

  

Inside, I used coordinating fabrics from the same line, of various colored polka dots.

 
I think it turned out pretty cute for my first try at the pattern! Of course, how could I go wrong with CUTE chicken fabric like this? *grin*

Thanks to the gal at that darn kat for the nice tutorial and pattern.

Happy New Year!

I'm HOME and already enjoying the day off for new years. Plans for the day: catch up with life on the farm, and play in my supply "stash".

Alan and I want to wish all of you a VERY happy New Year!