A bit of sewing inspiration...

(Yes, TWO posts in the same day! How about that!? HAH! ;) )

A dear friend of mine decided to start a small personal swap among friends over on FBook and I jumped in. :)

As luck would have it, I am sending to her! One of her goals for 2012 is to start using her sewing machine more often so I made her some sewing accessories to help her along.

First, I made her a thread catcher with a scissor sheath in her favorite shades of blue. (I used 2 fat quarters in this project to make all of the items seen.) I also used some of my left over fabric to make her a machine pin cushion that ties around the machine so it's always in easy reach.

It is lined underneath with non-slip shelf liner so once it is put in place underneath the machine, it will not budge.

I didn't use a pattern. I just kind of pieced it together by eyeballing the measurements. Maybe someday, I'll actually start using patterns. Then again...maybe not!

Scrapbustin' with Ninnis!

As the Post Holiday fog starts to truly clear out of my head, I have come to realize that I didn't post some of the holiday gifts that I made! I've been remiss! lol

I ran a swap on Craftster called Ongoing Holiday List in which all of the swappers posted their "Need to Craft" lists and we chose things off of each others' to help ease the craft load off of each other, especially if it was just a hair out of our crafting comfort zone OR (as in my case) we had super snoopy little ones who won't let us be long enough to create.

One of the gals in the swap asked for Ninis (ie simple stuffy monster) as gifts for her nieces. Now, I learned a lot about Ninnis with this project. First, they are super quick to make if you have everything on hand. I made these three in an hour. Second, they are a wonderful way to use up scrap fabric!

I used some black felt for the wings, belly and tail/hair and white felt for the eyes and teeth. Their mouths are actually pockets so they can "chew" on things when they are hungry according to my daughter. A pair of black buttons were used for the eyes.

I sent the 2 purple ones to my swap partner and I saved the pink one for my daughter who absolutely LOVES it! She sleeps with it nightly by her pillow. :)

WOOOOHOOOO!

I won a Best of 2011 award on Craftster for my Bleached t-shirt project. *happy dance!*



I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!

A Small Respite

I've found myself in serious need of a small break from the Internet after the Holidays were past. From Thanksgiving until New Years, I had laryngitis, a nasty bout of vertigo, a cracked tooth, final exams, stressed students, cranky parents and my own holiday chaos with the kids' holiday parties, birthday parties and oh, that small thing called Christmas. I've just needed a bit of down time, both physically and mentally. I was washed out when I had to go back to work on Jan. 2nd.

Thankfully, I'm feeling more like Myself. My energy is up and the spinning from the Vertigo is completely gone (took nearly 3 wks to go away! BLEH!).

I have been creating since Christmas and now have the energy to share them with you once again.

I have made a Crafty Goal for this year to do more work repurposing. I've made purses from pants but I haven't taken it any further. Here's my next step in this direction. Leg warmers made from an old sweater!

We all have that sweater that we hate to get rid of and yet it's no longer presentable in public due to holes or stains. Here's another way to make that sweater useful again!

I used a thrifted sweater since this was my first attempt at this project. I found this wonderful tutorial at Fireflies and Jellybeans and just went after it. From the first cut on the sweater to finished project, this took about an hour tops.

After taking the picture above, my daughter who has thin blood just like her momma has already asked for her own. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a stash of sweaters for me to pull from so I guess I'm headed for the thrift store again. I'll share her leg warmers when I finish. :D

I shared this project at...

Love alters not...

I've been playing with my doodle embroidery again!

I will admit that I did draw the heart onto the fabric because I was worried about the wording not fitting inside but the background work is ALL doodle! :)

The wording is taken from my favorite Shakespearean sonnet, #116. I used to have a cassette tape (yes, I'm that old!) of Ron Perlman (back when he was doing the Beauty and Beast tv series!) reading various sonnets and this is the one that has always plays in my head whenever I hear his name mentioned.

I've also shared this project over in The Southern Institute's Creative Me Link UP!

Trying something different...

In an effort to get outside of my comfy little craft zone, I'm joining a Valentine Swap that was mentioned by Jenny at The Southern Institute!  I love to craft and love to share my creations so it makes sense to me to give this a try. :D




Would you like to join?

Winner Winner!

As promised, it is time to give away the book Needle Painting by Trish Burr!

AND the winner is....JUNE IN IRELAND!

June, I'll contact you so that I can send you this book. :D

Hop! Hop!

It's time to blog hop!

 

I'll post the winner to my first Giveaway tonight. My house was invaded by visitors all weekend and I could barely breathe, alone type. :)

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons of the year. I love the changing colors, cups of hot cocoa by a roaring fire and watching the snow fall. I love layers of snugly warm hats and scarves, building snowmen and reading by the fire late at night when the house is quiet.

On Craftster, we had a winter themed swap and my partner had requested wall art. This is what I created for her!

 

Detail Shot

I crocheted the snowflakes first and blocked them with starch. While they were drying, I stitched the clouds. The strings are strands of braided embroidery floss that are knotted just below the edge of the cloud's stitching. I just eyeballed the length and where to place the beads. To add a bead, I knotted the braid, added the bead with a needle threaded through the middle thread of the braid, tied the threads again and then continued braiding. The ends are just tied off. It's hard to tell from the picture but I painted the hoop white.

I've already given serious thought to making another one of these for myself. :D

Blog Hoppin'

It's Monday so it's Blog Hop Day! Come join the fun!

My Goals for the New Year...and my first GIVEAWAY for 2012!

Wow! We've made it to 2012!

I'm pretty sure that I blinked last January and all of a sudden, we were fast forwarded to this day. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. ;)

My goals were many for 2011 but I did manage to accomplish 2 of them!

One goal was learning to set zippers. With a couple of tries, I feel like I've got the basics and can now say that I enjoy working with them which is something I never thought I would say. LOL

My LARGEST goal consumed much of my time this past week. I OPENED MY ETSY!! WooooHoooo! There's a link to Trouble's Treasures in the upper right hand corner of my site if you are interested. I'm still working on fleshing it out the way I want it so be patient for just a bit.

And now for my new goals...

The top of my list is MORE DOODLING! This might sound like a silly goal but I feel like doodling will help me get out My Creative Box and push my boundaries of design and concept. I dabbled in doodle stitching in 2011 with some success but I want to take the concept further.

To help myself with this goal, I have decided to take the 30 Day Expressive Drawing Challenge in the form of Mandalas! I've bought all of my supplies and will endeavor to create a mandala a day for the month of January. I'll share some of my creations here as I go along.

As for my other goals, I would like to see some success with my Etsy so I'll be creating new items for my shop through the year. My definition of success is not to have a second income but to just make other people happy through my embroidery. I have no grand illusions of becoming rich and famous through my shop. I'm just not wired that way. :)

I also want to continue working on posting tutorials here. I just need to make some decisions as to what kind.

There's also a possibility of a second blog for me but it's still in its planning stages so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.


So what are YOUR crafty goals/resolutions for 2012?

Share your goals here and have a chance at winning this book!

You have until Saturday, January 7th to post (only one entry per person!) and I will choose the winner via Random Number Generator on the 8th.

I wish you all a peaceful and productive 2012. I look forward to sharing and learning with you. :)