Living, Loving, Learning

I made myself a little clutch last week and I absolutely adore it.  I used this tutorial as a guide.  I have never put in a zipper before and now can't even figure out why not.  That was one of the easiest parts of the construction process.  I picked fabrics that were neutral, but of course, now I want one in every color of the rainbow! It has an awesome little divider in it that keeps my cell phone from rubbing up against my keys and lip gloss.  AND 2 little pockets for my plastic.  (Not quite sure what to do with cash, but since I usually don't have any on me it hasn't been an issue!)    I found the hardest part of construction was getting the gathered front straight.  Here is my first attempt, you can see how it shrunk and the fusible webbing is larger.  I solved this by cutting the front gathered fabric 1/2" bigger to start and then trimmed it after fusing it.  That worked out perfect.   ...

I have seen all kinds of pennant banners all over the Internet for a while now and have LOVED them.  I finally got around to making one this winter.  I decided to go with Happy Birthday because it will be such a fun and quick item to grab when celebration is in order.    I used this tutorial as my basic template.  I bought the fabrics from Connecting Threads .  I have about a billion ideas swirling on all the occasions or words I could make pennants for.  You may see more of these in the future!

For Christmas Bruce bought me an awesome book I had been wanting that was filled with tips and designs for hand embroidery.  This is something I love doing but drawing is not a skill I possess so having this book of examples is soooo fun for me!! Of course, I was then eager to begin a project to use some of these designs.  Usually when I sew, I start with some sort of tutorial or pattern as inspiration or a leaping off point but happily, this project is all my own.  I decided to attempt to make an interpretation of old fashioned fabric valentines.  I have been working on my sewing skills enough for the past few years that I actually have some project construction knowledge locked up in that wee brain of mine! So, I had a bunch of muslin left over from some Christmas projects that I traced a heart design onto (the heart I got by adjusting some clip art to my desired size.)  I then cut out the 2 pieces of muslin and a piece of qui...

Reviving my love of handwork. Makes me think about my Grandmother and her legacy of thread art and how hopeful I am that Lucy and Alethia will want to learn someday.

This is a quilt I made for my dear friend, Kassi's baby girl Olivia who will be arriving shortly. Not too quickly though, as her older sister came way way to early, everyone is hoping Olivia will stay in the nest for as long as possible!!!! Kassi is a gorgeous kind wonderful modern Mama, so when I saw the new Central Park line for Moda, I knew it would be perfect. I was delighted to see that it goes with the paint color in the nursery so so well. Can't wait to meet you (and who am I kidding, sniff you) baby Olivia!!!

Nothing like a good quilt action shot. Had to share these photos that the Moms sent me.

The Moms' both have a super big birthdays this week....ends in an 0, if you know what I mean. With so much love and honor and respect we wanted to show them, Jessica and I decided to collaborate on making this throw quilt for them. I pieced the front of the quilt. I used a pattern called " Tokyo Subway Map ". I started working on it in August. It was hard not to talk about it at the time, it was so consuming. It has 986 2" squares in it. I finished the top by November and and shipped it to Jessica in the beginning of December. Jessica then worked her magic, hand quilting THE WHOLE THING. Each subway line is quilted in the same color, making the back super interesting against the dark fabric. She also embroidered a message and bound the whole thing. I really love the way it turned out!! This quilt has so much meaning for me. Not only as a gift, but it was such a cool project to work with my sister on! I can totally see us doing more things like this in the future......

Some of you may have noticed (Thanks, Chanley!!!) that my ETSY store, Thread Head Designs, is officially open for business! I am really excited about this. Check back often for new items, which I will also be updating on facebook. I would be so grateful if you would consider my items for gifts before you head to Target!! Spread the news and share the link with your friends. I will include a free handmade fabric wallet for my first THREE sales on Etsy. In the coming months I will be adding gorgeous pleated scarves, meditation cushions, tile necklaces and alot more fabric choices in bags and crayon rolls. Thank you for your support! Big Love to you all!!!

We had soooo much fun yesterday. Our friends, Cassie and Ava came over to dye silk scarves with us. A few months ago, Cassie and I had purchased 100% silk scarves for another possible project that never happened. Cassie told me about a tutorial she had seen that told one how to dye silk with kool-aid. I am not going to re give the tutorial here, but I will give you some hints that we figured out. We watched a few youtube videos to learn some new ways to fold the scarves. While this produced an interesting pattern, in the end there was a lot of white left showing...that could be good or bad depending on your desired results. We used rubber bands to hold our scarves in the desired folds. We used large Ziplocs no matter what size scarf we were dyeing. Our first scarf turned into a smoldering plastic/silk mess in the microwave. We found that if you lower the power of your microwave to 5, use the bigger size bags and add about 1/2 cup of water into the bag before sticking it...

Hi friends. It has been a while since I've had a sewing post. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned my machine, in fact, it gets lots of use almost every day. For a while I was making the same things over and over and over...you get the point, to build up supply for Thread Head. I also have a hugely time consuming TOP SECRET project in the works, so alas, no pictures of that one yet. But this is something I am excited to share, I made my own meditation cushion. It is made out of cotton duck cloth, filled with buckwheat hulls and I even managed to put a little handle on it. You know, for the meditation practitioner on the go! I really love it, and it has really helped me to be more comfortable while meditating, there by deepening my practice. For the last couple of years, in regards to my spirituality I have considered myself a Seeker. I have done a lot of reading, thinking and absorbing of different religious beliefs and practices. I have such a strong background i...

Well, I am ALL in. All into starting my own small business, that is. I have spent the last month or so directing much of my energy into growing a little dream of mine. I would love to be self employed, to be able to support my fabric habit plus a little extra for the family by making and selling my home sewn items. My friend Katie invited me to share a booth with her in nearby Greenville, for their annual Squash and Gobble event. I decided that would be a great time to kick off a campaign to get this little train moving. I worked with my uber-talented friend, Chanley to get business cards and and a sign made. The hardest part of that was choosing a name. It had to be a name that didn't limit me into a certain product and was catchy. I have picked Thread Head Designs. Kind of a play on Dead Head (Grateful Dead fans) or Parrot Head (Jimmy Buffet fans) - both of which I would consider myself one, not coincidentally. The day was a great success. I sold a good amount of p...

A friend of mine (thanks, Cassie !) shared a link with me to make this skirt . The pattern asserts that you can make it in 20 minutes. I took that as a challenge and yesterday afternoon I pulled out some supplies and went to it. It took me about 25 mins. but I was having some elastic issues. I thought it was a titch plain when I finished it, so I chose a font I liked and printed out her name as largely as I could. I took that paper to Staples and enlarged it x200. That made it the perfect size. I then traced it with a pencil onto the skirt and hand embroidered it. I love the way it turned out. Now to find a shirt to wear with it!! And maybe some aqua leg warmers it the fall.

We are home from our travels...whew. Feels good, but we are lonely for our beloveds we had to say goodbye to. I thought I would sneak in a crafty post while I take a day or two to process my vacation photos. I recently finished my third quilted wall hanging. This one was for my sister Alexis' birthday. Yeah, that was back in April but I got behind, then I hurt my arm....yada yada yada. I gave it to her last week at the Cape. I think she loved it. I know I sure loved making it for her. I had a vision of what I wanted to make so I painted it with watercolors first. Then I pulled together the materials I needed and got started sewing. I texturized the tree with embroidery stitches, the new spring leaves are beads and the roots are yarn. Alexis totally inspired me to make this exact piece. I felt like I may not be able to verbally express myself well, so as I was creating, I took notes of what I was thinking. Then I sewed a little pocket on the back, transcribed my note...