Book Clubbing

In celebration of spur of the moment crafting, I decided to give faux hot fix crystals a spin under the guise of sprucing up some of my little nieces outfits to add some sparkle for fun. Little did I know how addicting this little endeavor would be. I had my trusty versa tool from Micheal's and crystals from Hobby Lobby, and of course, an earlier project, a tote from blogpast!!!

And don't miss the video at the end! I'd like to think that our totes had some hint of inspiration for it! (Yeah, right!!) ;P 

first pass with gems

the crystals!! teeny tiny

The versa tool(box) and tweezers...couldn't have done it w/o those!

Voila!!!

Tough to get a good shot of them and their sparkly goodness



Village Quilt Part 2

The quilt top...just about ready for the batting/backing...

There is a whole world out there about batting and backing fabrics and then the quilting itself. D'oh!! Quilting is actually when you sandwich those layers together....oooooh!! Then you have to decide how you are going to stitch them together (there are entire books written on this, I kid you not) I was about ready to give up, there were just too many choices and variables and how was I going to do all that on my basic sewing machine? but then the more I looked at the quilt (top!) I knew I had to finish it, so I did some reading, a LOT of reading, (This fabulous book was a big help!) and consulting, and settled on 'stitch in the ditch' quilting. Which is when you top stitch (quilt) the sandwich together by following the lines where the fabric meets. I started with off white quilting thread, but it was proving distracting when my lines weren't perfectly straight, so I switched to clear plastic mono filament thread, and it was pretty much gravy from then on in. But of course I couldn't have even gotten that far had I not used an even feed foot or 'walking foot' as those in the know call it. A special foot for the sewing machine that helps push the quilt sandwich through evenly. Then, just when I thought the sewing ordeal journey was over, (I kid!!!) there was one more skill I had to learn, which was how to make binding and then sew it on, by hand. All I can say is, THANK YOU, YOUTUBE!!!! Once that was done, I was pretty thrilled with the results. I think I'd love to make another quilt (top) if I could just find someone else to do the rest of it! :-)

"even feed" foot

All Done!!! About 60"x60"

The flipside...you didn't think I forgot, did you?
I went with a solid gray so the stitching design would POP.

Village Quilt...

So, in the back of my mind, I've always wanted to try making a quilt and even more so since going to the IQF in 2010 & 2011, but I never actually took the steps necessary, like choosing fabric and settling on a design. And, true to my crafting habits, I like to dive right in, and not read ahead, that would be less fun!! (ha!) Anyway, when gobs of precut pretty fabric landed in my lap, from my friend who doesn't have a problem giving up hobbies like I do...it kind of got me thinking that I'd actually try to make one someday. Flash forward 3 months, and I was struck by inspiration out of nowhere when I saw the bright colors sticking out of their bag and thought that it had to be made into something pretty, ASAP. I played with the strips & colors, without a grand plan in mind, and before I knew it, I had assembled a panel of 12 strips in graduating colors.

Then I looked more carefully at the stash and I realized there were 4 strips cut in each of the 12 colors, so I went ahead and made 3 more panels. Then I was even more puzzled, because I didn't know how I could join all these together to form something cohesive enough for a throw, and I went back to the stash... there were even more precut strips that I had passed over before, and these were shorter than the original long strips I had made into the panels.

After playing with the colors and shapes, my quilt (top) had taken shape! I had a nice, square-ish design. I thought, wow, that was cool, thinking I was pretty much done. Never really having given any thought as to HOW a quilt comes into BEING!

Since you've been such patient readers...here's a sneak peek of the plan thus far...