ruby star wrapping

Hello, I’m Amanda and it’s my turn in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along. I’m one of the teachers at Sew To Speak and I’m so excited when they asked me to be a part of the blog hop!

Ruby Star Wrapping is a book by Melody Miller and Allison Tannery about making reusable gift packagings. If you didn’t know her yet, Melody Miller is a fabric designer that have a few fabulous collections with Kokka. I love her all of her vintage inspired fabrics.

You don’t necessarily need to know how to sew because there’s a lot projects in the book that doesn’t involve sewing. Everything in the book is so inspiring, quite simple, and doesn’t take very long to make. I made both of my projects there in one morning.

My gift (a yet to be knitted hat) will go to my bestest friend and I decided on the drawstring bag project so she could reuse the bag. The first try is the small pink one in Melody Miller’s Pyrex dishes fabric and Anna Maria Horner’s ribbon. Due to some serious miscalculation on my part, it turned out way to small. Oh, well… it would still be nice for my daughter’s stocking stuffer.

The second try was perfect! I used a Liberty Lifestyle fat quarter and pink lace trim. If you want to make yours about the same size as mine, cut it to measure 21″ x 16″. I added a handstamped tag and it’s ready for gifting!

Don’t forget to stop by the other blogs, we still have one more week to go!
Sun Dec 2 - April Rhodes
Mon Dec 3 - a post of some projects on the Sew To Speak blog plus show you what’s up for the second win!!
Tue Dec 4 - Rae of Made by Rae
Wed Dec 5 - Ericka of Low Beam Studios
Thu Dec 6 - Emily of The Boy Trifecta
Fri Dec 7 - another winner will be announced at 12 EST here!!

finally, some patchwork!

There’s been too much dolly related stuff on the blog, so I thought I should show you some non-Blythe stuff. I’ve signed up for a charity bee, do. Good Stitches. There’s five circles currently, with ten people to each circle. Out of those ten people, five are quilter and five are stitchers. All the quilters will make blocks and quilt, while the stitchers only make blocks. I am a quilter which meant that I get assigned a month and I get to ask all the other nine people to make me two blocks each according to my specifications from their own stash. By the end of the month, I will have 20 blocks to make a quilt which would be donated for charity. Isn’t that a wonderful idea?

The first blocks I made for the bee is the Roman stripes (last pic). Instead of two 12.5″ blocks, the quilter requested eight 6.5″ blocks. The middle pic is hourglass nine patch for the Planetarium quilt from Oh Fransson’s book. There’s no more triangles involved, yay! I still need to sew some thin borders and the blocks should be done.

And the first pic is a sneak peek for my partner for  kitchen swap over on Flickr. It’s fun to be working on normal sized projects!

 

a new year

Things may be quiet on the blog, but I do have many crafty things done during the Christmas/New Year break, mostly bee blocks, knits, and dolly things.

I feel a bloggy break is needed right now. I’ll keep posting on my Flickr, though!

new mug rug

Do you know what’s the rage these days? Apparently it’s a mug rug! It’s a fancy word for a mini coaster quiltn thingie, haha… I had to try out free motion quilting the other day so I made this one real quick. I am SO scared of stippling and you could definitely see it in this one. Oh, well.. practice makes perfect. I did try it out on a bigger piece and it’s a complete mess. I just don’t understand how it works. Any tips from stippling experts?

On another side, there’s happy, happy news! I’ll be at the Quilt Market in Houston this weekend, yay!! I’ve been busy making the perfect bag to bring there. I’ve made two, and neither feels just right. If I still have the time, I might make another one. It’s hard deciding what to bring and wear… there’s too many fabrics to use and I want to use them all while walking around the booths. Oohhh, I just can’t wait for the weekend to arrive!

blossom pincushions

Another quick mini summer project, two new pincushions! I am completely undecided about which one I love more, the blue one or the pink one. They’re from this book, which I should use more.

What is it about pincushion that I always think that I need new ones?  I think of them like shoes or bags. You need a new one for each season to keep up with the trends. You need more than one just in case you need to switch them out depending on your mood. And you keep your old ones because they’re classics. I have a shoebox half full with my old pincushions. Do you also feel that way about pincushions?

I’m already planning on making one more with this pattern.

scrappy nap pillow

Another pillow swap! This is the third round of pillow swap and I have gotten two wonderful pillows from my previous two rounds. For the third round, I’m making a pillow out of a pattern in Anna Maria’s new book, Handmade Beginnings. It is geared toward expecting and new moms and babies, but there’s some excellent quilt patterns in it. Of course, there’s also some cute baby clothings that I just have to make for Christopher.

Back to the pillow, I think this is my favorite pillow yet. I almost had a hard time letting it go, so I immediately put it in the envelope before I have time to change my mind. It’s going to…

in the works

I’m in the process of finishing two giraffes and a pillow cover for a swap. It looks very promising for all of them to me. I love looking at all those colors.

Even more color, new Martha Stewart markers! Just because it’s on sale in the craft aisle at Walmart.

kitchen swap

I signed up for a Munki kitchen swap ages ago and I’m ashamed to say I just finished it last week. I had to extend the deadline by two weeks, with a special agreement with my partner, of course. It’s on it’s way to Australia so I’ll just post a few pictures for now. We agreed on some coasters and a table topper with a touch of linen.

Here’s a neat stack of the coasters.

That goldfish one on top is my absolute favorite! Almost everything is pieced from my scraps, I just have too many of them. I seriously have to thin out my scrap box to make room for some more. It’s amazing how those scraps could fill up a space so quickly.

On other news, I’ve just come back from a week long cruise in Alaska!  I didn’t say anything because I’ve been reading everywhere NOT to post what you’re doing and will be doing for safety reasons. Or is that only a concern for Facebooking and Twittering people?

Anyway, the views are breath taking and the whole trip is wonderful, not counting the horrible plane ride to and from Seattle with two kids. Luckily, the in-laws are traveling with us so we have more helping hands. They are leaving us in three days after a six week long visit, that would mean I’ll have to cook again! Boo…

Now, I’m officially back on crafting mode and I have an ice cream date with Cristin coming soon!

destashing

Please help get me a new sewing machine! I will be destashing some books and patterns next week, maybe some fabrics too if I can decide which ones I’m willing to part with. I really really really want to get a new machine, something computerized and more powerful. My old basic one is just not cutting it anymore. It still works, but it really is time to move on!

I’m leaning towards Bernina Activa 220 or 210. If I can’t afford that, maybe Janome DC2010. Any thoughts or suggestions?

And here’s my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap 2, inspired by a table runner in I Love Patchwork.

This is what I get in return. Fabulous, isn’t it?

stockings – 2009

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying your gifts! I surely love wearing my new necklace (thank you, Papa!) and reading my new book. Our Christmas tree is still in our living room and Abby kept on asking me, where’s presents? I guess that’s a sign for me to clear it out soon.

Here’s our Christmas stockings for this year. I used this tutorial to make the plush initials and pinned it to the stockings with some safety pins. The alphabets are real easy to make, I was tempted to make more if not for the pressing time. A great way to use scraps and those pesky small pieces of batting. I just have to sew slowly, but like she said, no one will know if your O is crooked.

Papa is off for the whole week and we have a new dresser and a big girl’s bed to built from Ikea. Hot chocolates, leftover Christmas cookies, and a New Year’s Eve potluck is on the way. I’m signing off until next week!