Skirt Class at Quilting Adventures

Easy, beginner class.  We will sew a 31" long a-line skirt with an elastic waist and French seams.  The a-line skirt is flattering on all figures and looks great in any season!  Dress it up or down, it is a classic.  Register at Quilting Adventures today!



Feline Friday- Kitten Update

Good news- my neighbor is taking the kittens and mom!

Here they are playing.  They still like hanging out in our yard.

I'm so glad they have a real home now.



A Magic Trick- Bunny turns into a Frog!

I love interesting and challenging projects.  I had a customer that requested this bunny hat be turned into a frog hat, similar to the small frog plushie.  It was tricky.  I removed the ears and trimmed, stuffed and reattached them as eyes.  I then covered the whole bunny face with the new frog's mouth.

After a wave of my magic sewing needle- tada!

I am quite happy with the results.



Feline Friday- Artist Trading Cards

My daughter (12 yrs old) and I have started making Artist Trading Cards together.

I like collaging.  Notice the cats for Feline Friday!

Here are the backs of several cards.  I like them to be interesting too.

The two on the right are by my daughter.

Animals, food, music, etc.  I love the size because it is not intimidating (playing card size).

More backs.

This bunch I water colored and then drew over top.  I put maps on the back, then thought it looked like a postcard.

These are water colored, then drawn on.  The bottom two are backs.  I used an old pattern tissue and lace scraps.  I think I'm hooked!



Circular Weaving at Ginter Botanical Gardens

On a recent visit to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens we saw these wonderful circular weavings hanging in the children's garden.  No doubt a fun activity for kids, all I could think was "I want to do that!".  The large ones are on hula hoops.  They had some on wreaths too.

This one was on a much smaller ring.  I have no idea how long they will be there, but I am inspired to grab my scrap bag and get started.  Now where did I put that old hula hoop?



Feline Friday- Free Motion Quilting

This month's free motion quilting expert is Angela Walters.  I had a lot of fun learning to stitch what she calls tiles.  I also filled them with swirly things because I hadn't tried that before either!

What helped me the most (aside from relaxing and taking my time) was figuring out where I was going to exit each tile before I started.  This way I could get a game plan in my head.  Its not too late to join and there are prizes too! 

http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/07/july-fmq-challenge-by-angela-walters.html

And because this is Feline Friday- here is a merkitty that I free hand stitched.

I was inspired by the wave-like shapes of Angela's assignment!



Feline Friday- Kitten Update

Here are the kittens from the alley.  I estimate they are about 8 weeks old.  Mama is feral and seems to like our yard.  Our cats are indoor cats, but they started out just like these. 

Above is Peach (the kids have named them).

This one is Bronwyn.

Here is Peach again.  I couldn't get a good picture of Cinder.  She is all black and fluffy and very skittish.  I really can't adopt them, but they are awfully cute!



Fabric Bowl

Our American Sewing Guild group has an ugly fabric challenge every year.  I was handed this fabric to use in the challenge.  Actually, I don't think it is that ugly, but it is a synthetic- not my favorite to work with.  So after staring at it for a month, I decided to sew a coiled fabric bowl.

It is roughly 10"x 10" x 5" tall.  I used 2 different cordings around the rim. 

I made a tassel out of fringe. 

After hand sewing the trims on, it still needed something so I covered some

cord and looped it around.

Close up of the button and tassel. 

Not too ugly after all!