Union Jack Trivet

So the other day I posted about the gifts that I had made for friends and family for Christmas.

One of those projects that I am especially happy about is the trivet (mug rug).

I have a friend who was born and raised in England who now has a wonderful family of her own in the states, and wanted to make her something to remind her of home. And since we both share the love of tea, I thought that something tea related would be perfect.

I had originally planned on making a tea pot cozy, but it just didn't turn out right on paper, so I decided a little quilting skills should work nicely.

I've always liked the Union Jack design, it's fun.

 I wanted it to look a little rugged, and folksy.

I barely used a pair of scissors.  I just ripped away.

I didn't realize that I made it so square, but it looks good anyway.

I painstakingly made the bias type and learned how to bind a quilt while I was at it. :)

Christmas gifts of 2012

First I would like to apologize for the lack of posts last month. I had some family issues that took precedents over this blog. But everything is pretty much back to normal now.

Phew! ::wipes sweat from brow::

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Handmade goodness!

 I drew this design up awhile ago.

Heart with wings.

 I kinda have a mini tutorial for this one in the queue. :)

 I'm not really all that thrilled with how this one came out. At least it's neat and tidy.

(Sublime Stitching)

 I did a simplistic outline with this one.

All those french knots!

(Sublime Stitching)

 These are the whole products. They are clothes hanger covers.

 You may remeber the top design.

 Yet another box bag. (I'm kinda addicted)

A Union Jack trivet (mug rug).

Attack of the 3 1/2 foot hands!

For Halloween my hubby wanted to be Manos, from Manos the Hands of Fate. A horrible, terrible B movie from the 60's that MST3K made a cult favorite out of it. I love that show!

The costume looked easy enough to make so I jumped at the chance to make it.

I bought a black king size bed sheet and a red twin sized one. That way, I had minimal sewing as possible. (At the time I thought so, boy was I wrong)



I started with drawing out a large hand on some craft paper.

 I left my foot in the pic for size reference.

 Then I started taping it in place for easy tracing. And yes, I had to start with that finger. I can't be mature all the time. ;p

 All taped and ready to pin and trace. 

 I like to pin first so everything is nice and flat, since I folded the sheet so i can cut out two hands at once. Then I used a sharpie to trace around the paper.

 Now it's ready to cut.

 I uses a zig zag stitch to applique that crap out of it!

 It took me two and a half hours and two full bobbins to complete all the applique work. 

That's what I get for thinking that I wouldn't have to do too much sewing on this project.

 Since it was just a Halloween costume I didn't take too much time and care in the stitching. It was dark at the party we went to so no one noticed anyway.

But the most trouble that I had was with the rounded corners and turns. They proved to be a major pain in the butt! But, I trucked on through.

So, after all this typing and picture posting, I realized that I do not have a picture of the final product. I 'm gonna have to get my hubby to put it on again and take pictures. I will make a follow up post with them.

Retro Stitches

Sorry for the radio silence. I've been working on Christmas gifts and started a new job that's taking a lot out of me (but not in a bad way).

I can share one Christmas gift that I was working on. It's for my grandmother. I wanted to use my Colonial Patterns' Stitcher's Revolution Kitchen Stitch'n. Wow, that was kinda a mouth full.

Just a nice simple tea towel to hang in her kitchen.

I know that she will enjoy it.

Blast From the Past

I've been doing some cleaning/maintenance on my old laptop. It sadly will no longer hold a charge and will not register the USB ports anymore. So in preparation of never using it again I'm getting everything off of it that I want.

I came across some photos of old projects that I have done in the past that I believe that I never posted about (they were made way before this blog existed).

So, lets take a look at the many past projects of forgotten land shall we?

 I made an entire royal court of flower fairies back in 2007.

 They heads are wooden beads and everything else is silk flowers, thread and wires.

 I made a plethora of appliqued canvas tote of various sizes for my Etsy shop.

 I had a short bout of jewelery making.

 And yes, I have ALWAYS made bags.

 This little guy is actually a tooth pillow.

 The pocket in the back for the tooth so the tooth fairy can take the tooth without disturbing the sleeping wee little one.

 One Christmas I made all my friends a "mini me".

I really want to start making these again.

 These are Shrinky Dinks. They were made in to various jewelery for the Esty shop. The artwork was done by my hubby. They were made into earrings, hair pins and necklaces.

I have loads more of photos, but I may save them for a different time.

Thank you for taking a walk down memory lane with me.

Yet another set of bags.

I normally bake for my family for Christmas, but this year my parents are on a special diet and can't stray from it.

My mom liked the bags that I have made before and asked me to make some for her for Christmas instead of sweets.

I used my resent Hobby Lobby stash to make these, now I need more zippers if I want to make more. lol!

I used a fusible lightweight interfacing to help keep it's shape.

My mom's not a very pink kinda lady, so I went with the grey on the outside, but I use pink as an accent on the outside to kinda tie it together.

 

I feel comfortable posting this now, because she asked me to make them and she doesn't really ever read my blog. :)

Night of the Living French Knots!

Not really, but I bet you know what I mean.

I got this design from rectangel from Flickr.

I took a TON of WIP (work in progress) pics about every night that I worked on it, and worked for about two to three hours a night. But I just decided to post the finished piece rather then to clog it up with a dozen photos of something half finished.

 The complete piece is a clothes hanger cover. 

 That, my friends, is a butt load of french knots. I use to hate these little guys with a passion. Now they are so stinking easy!

 I've noticed that the ombre thing is a thing now, so this is my "jumping on the ban wagon" project.

 Even though I think these stitches are easy now, they still take up a lot of thread. I believe I used almost an entire bobbin of the darkest pink.