Soft and Simple

My friend Ashley was thrilled to have a baby girl. She already had two little boys and now she was ready for some pink. I asked Ashley what colors she liked for her daughter's room and she said that she was going with pink and green and she really liked owls. The funny thing was, I had just the right fabric to match her wish without heading out to a fabric store. I will be honest with you, I don't like the fabric stores in my area at all. I have a few favorite in Utah that I love to go to. So when I am there I don't feel too guilty buying fabric because I know I will use it, and I know I will never find anything that I like as  much back where I live. 

 I just couldn't cut up this lovely owl fabric. I think it was destined to stay  in one beautiful piece .

                          

The fabric is by Valori Wells, it is called Owl Friends.

I machined quilted it by following the pattern on the printed design of the fabric. I went around the owls and the circles. The binding is a silk soft pink. 

It is simple, no fancy piecing here. Some times the fabric just speaks for itself.

Pillow Talk

My embroidery machine is my friend when it comes to gift giving.  Before  I bought it I would look in boutiques and be drawn to pillows with embroidery on them, or monograms. That got me started with wanting a embroidery machine of my own.  Here are a few pillows that I would like to share that I have made up for gifts.

The Gone Haunting Pillow is something that I put together for a service auction that we had at our church. It was a fun activity where people made things to auction off, or they auctioned off a service that they could give. I really do enjoy making things, but when I give them as gifts I despise being around when the gift is open because I get embarrassed. I worry if my friends will like it or think it is dumb. This was  hard for me to have it auctioned in front of me. It turned out alright and it was well received but it was horribly frightening to me. I bought the spiderweb download at urbanthreads.com . The fonts are things that I design on my ART program.

The next pillow, the Sensiba, was for part of a wedding gift. I knew the couples parents well, but didn't know them, so I thought I would try something personalized. It took about an hour to just stitch out the monogram alone, not including the name underneath. I think it came out nice though and I hope they like it. 

I love pinterest. It helps me when I am trying to figure out what to do for my friends when their birthdays come up. Sierra was having a birthday and so I went to her pinterest board and I found something on there that I thought I could duplicate. Here is my attempt to mimic a RELAX pillow that she had pinned. 

I have a whole board on my pinterest about pillows I love. The board is called pillow talk. If you want to check it out click on the red P on the side bar. For my next pillow project I want to try something more on the feminine side, a little ruffle or retro. I have some vintage handkerchiefs that I would like to find a fun design for. Any ideas?

Grand baby number 12

I have been having so much fun in Utah. My son Marcus and his wife Jacque had a new baby. I was able to spend two weeks with them and I enjoyed every minute of it. This makes four babies for them, with their oldest being four years old. We were busy. I think the hardest job was keeping the new baby safe. Little Mason was so welcomed and loved by his older siblings that they just didn't want to leave him alone, I mean ever. What a sweet little family. I am so grateful to be able to share this with them.

 Jacque is incredible. She gave birth in a birthing center just two hours before this picture was taken. Seriously, no touch ups with a brush or make up. I was surprised when they came home with the baby so quickly. Jacque is a happy mother. Some women just don't seem to enjoy motherhood as much as others, this lady loves motherhood and it shows. Little Micah didn't mind not being the baby anymore. He stepped up to the plate of big brother quite well. 

Hayden is three. He really wanted to have the baby be named Spiderman (take note of his pajamas) He is a die hard fan. His parents thought this was so sweet that Mason's middle name is Parker, after Peter Parker, you know, Spiderman.

Josie is the oldest. She is just so sweet. She really wanted a sister, but she is ok with a boy this time because she told her mom that the next two would be girls.

Welcome to the world littlest Mason Parker. You are loved, wanted , and will be in a happy family. What a wonderful world this is.

Home Sweet Home Pillows

When I was first considering buying an embroidery machine I wasn't sure that there were  enough embroidery designers out there that had updated designs. As I did my research I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh downloads available. meringuedesigns.net was one of the companies out there that dazzled me with its modern touch. I bought this wonderful home sweet home design from them a while back and I have loved making these pillows.

This one I made for my daughter in law Jacque. She shares my love for all things red and aqua. 

This is another pillow that came to life in my sewing room. I have made others for gifts for family and friends. I even made one for a white elephant gift exchange at Christmas time. You can see why I love meringue designs. You should click on their link above and see what fun things they help you make. I would like to see some of your creations, e-mail them to me, that would be great.

Project Linus and Kaps for Kendall

I belong to a women's organization at my church called the Relief Society. This is an world wide group of women who try to offer relief to their congregation (ward), to the community, and to those in distant lands, where ever the help is needed. I was  a ring leader for this project. I finally collected the last of the blankets and hats to be given to projectlinus.org and kapsforkendall.com. Many fabric stores take the donations so there is no need to mail anything. Just take them to the nearest drop off place. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my local fabric store took the donations. The blankets were for the project Linus, you know, as in Charles Schulz's Linus character with the beloved blankie. Project Linus tries to get cuddly homemade blankets to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or other wise in need. Our group pulled together 22 blankets of varying sizes. From an infant size to 93"x 93". 

Here they are piled in my family room. 

Some super cute rag quilts.

Aren't these just so cute? the ladies did a good job.

This one, I am really proud of. A friend of mine has been wanting to learn how to machine quilt but has been nervous to try. She made this cute little blue and yellow blanket and made her first attempt to machine quilt. I think she did a great job. What a smart way to practice too, on these little blankets that you know someone will love.

Many years ago, maybe even a decade ago, I had my first go at machine quilting. I am sometimes too hard on myself, so this red and white blanket was stuffed away never to be looked at again. I was too embarrassed to give it as a gift because I just didn't think I did a good enough job. After I saw my friend's first try and how much I liked it, I decided to pull this out and add it to the pile. Really, it wasn't doing any good hiding away at the top of my closet. Now someone somewhere won't judge me on the stitches, but will just cuddle and love this little guy. Why are we so hard on ourselves sometimes?

We collected 48 little caps for our Kaps for Kendall Project. You can give  any type of hat to them, crochet, knit, or sewn, and they deliver them to patients who have lost their  hair from medical treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation. We have one lady in our group who had to  undergo chemotherapy. She said that she loved to wear hats after she lost her hair. Not just because of  her lack of hair, but she told us how cold she would get because her hair was gone. A hat would just keep the warmth in. Here are a few shots of our collection from my thoughtful friends.

There are so many wonderful hats, all different colors and styles.

This is a fun one.

Don't forget the soft baby hats. Unfortunately, these are needed too.

I love this. One lady was really busy but wanted to contribute still.  She bought some hats from a lady with a little company called A Chick with Sticks. This company gives much of their proceeds to a charity. So she actually ended up giving two ways, bought for a charity and then gave it to a charity. The little hats were so cute too. I tried to find this company on line, but I couldn't make a match. I didn't try REALLY hard though, if you wanted to try yourself.

Baptism Towels

My Embroidery Machine is going in for a check up and a cleaning tomorrow. I have had company for 6 weeks and haven't had much sewing time lately. So, as you can imagine, it will be hard to see my little friend go in for a few days.  Hopefully she will come back purring like a kitten. My last little project on my machine was this CTR towel. Our ward (church group ) provides the towels for the children getting baptized and I put a simple CTR on them in the primary colors. CTR stands for Choose The Right.  I have seen some very fancy baptism towels with names and dates on them, but this works well for our purpose. We have a large primary, and this way they are ready for any child to dry off with on their special day. The child of course gets to keep them as a memento. When my machine comes home, I will finish the stack of other towels so they will be ready for their moment to shine, or dry, or whatever.

My Wrap Wreath

One thing  you will learn about me is that I absolutely love aqua and red. This wreath is in  my living room. It worked for Christmas because my decor is none other than aqua and red, and it was ok to leave it up long past the season, because it still matches in there.

I used the thick yarn to wrap around a styrofoam wreath. It took me about 2 1/2 hours of wrapping. I tied a  knot in the beginning wrap, and then just wrapped over it. At the end, I did the same, tied a knot and hid it under some wraps.

I found this lovely white button in my stash. I am pretty sure I bought it at JoAnn's fabrics.

I love the wool felt. The thickness is awesome. They sell a lot better selection now at Micheal's Crafts.  I was one excited girl to find the aqua back there on their shelf. I even bought an extra stash of it to play with in the future.

Mary Engelbreit rocks

My daughter Elizabeth gave me this book about 8 years ago. I am a Mary Engelbreit fan. I love her sweet illustrations and the bright colors. This little book is full of Valentine little posters. Sometimes I want to cut this book up and frame the pictures, but that poses some problems. The first is my book would then be messed up, the second, I would have to decide which side to use. All of the drawings are so cute, that would be hard. So, I have decided to leave it in its perfect condition and just adore it as it was meant to be adored.

 Each page is so cute. I was seriously trying to pick a favorite to share, and as you can see, I couldn't pick just one.

She gets every little detail right. I love her little signature ' ME'. How is that for perfect initials?

This is one of my favorites, ahh

I love this one too.

Now come on, wouldn't these be cute framed?

Remember when I mentioned her attention to detail? In the little book is a vellum envelope attached to  the inside cover with a little gift heart.  Isn't it just so beautiful?

Even the back is covered in cuteness. 

My Valentine Decorations

I know it is a little late to share Valentine decor, since most of  you will be taking yours down today, but I just wanted to share some of  the things I had displayed this year.

I really love my embroidery machine. There are so many fun things you can make with them. I love this design on my pillow I made, my little love birds.

We made these little wooden stands at a Super Saturday at our church. I  will do a tutorial of them soon. I was teaching another class at the time so  my friend Staci put these together for me. I need more, so when I make them I will share it with you. My friend Marcia sent me that puppy card last year. It was a must keep for my holiday decor. I just love it. The blocks were a fun find in the Target dollar bins one year. I love a good bargain. Those poor blocks keep getting switched around to say all kinds of things this  year. Little hands keep spelling a certain not so Valentiney word. Good thing I checked before this pic was taken.

This board was my attempt at decoupage. I found out it was harder than I thought. Don't look too close. I just had a board on hand, and left over doo dahs from my scrap booking phase and I put this together.

I found this door at a Good Will store for $35. I was with my daughter at the time and we were fighting over it. I won. It hangs in my courtyard by my front door. I tried to decoupage again. This attempt was a little more successful. I sprinkled some glittery stones on them before they dried. I waited a few hours, (maybe not, I am not that patient while crafting), and then hot glued them onto a ribbon.. 

My Be Mine blocks came from a party I went to last year. My friend Sierra won them. She knew I liked them, and she liked the prize I won, so we switched. Friends are good. I found this white metal tree at a store called Real Deals. I like to decorate it for different holidays. Some day I would like to find little frames and decoupage pics of my family in them. The little keys were found in the $1 bins at Micheal's. I couldn't pass them up. Too cute!

I made this Be Mine banner on my embroidery machine. I have been getting into the banner mode lately. This one looks a little vintage to me. It was tough to take this photo because my dog kept wanting to get in the shot. She can be pretty sneaky at times. I am sure you will see her in some other post. I also made that love pillow on the table. I love decorating for the seasons.

I have been married for 33 years to my Mark. That may seem like forever to some, but to me, it is just a beginning. I made this little pillow for fun. It is nice to have some things personalized.  I love my husband. On the Friday before Valentines Day  he took me out to dinner. While we were driving there, he turned to me and asked, "Why aren't you wearing any earrings"?  I reminded him that my ears closed up about 6 years ago. I noticed the panic in his eyes, and I asked him if he got me earrings for Valentines day- which he did. That night after dinner we went to the mall and got my ears pierced again. That was a fun night.