Blessings and Button Joints (& a Patchwork Horse)

I received a great deal of gorgeous fabrics from my bloggy friend Brooke (Silly Mama Quilts) a few weeks ago and some of it was already pieced together.  I know Brooke makes some top knotch quilted items (mug rugs, table runners, quilts, etc.), but I decided to go altogether different with this material.  This Patchwork Horse seemed just the thing!

 

If you haven't been following my blog, I'll catch you up: I like making soft toys!  I ran across this Patchwork Horse pattern in a book entitled "More Softies Only a Mother Could Love", and knew it was time to try my hand at this thing called button jointing.

(Please excuse my off-kilter photography - my point and shoot skills are pretty basic.)  The buttons on this horse are not just for show.  I threaded my 3-inch doll needle with some extra strong thread and sewed them completely through the body, to the opposite leg.  When it's all said and done, the legs can move around!

See?!!

If you can't tell from the photos, the fabrics are all Christmas-y (Basic Grey's Fruitcake, Figgy Pudding, etc.).  The legs, mane and tail are all from a vintage pillowcase.

Look at that MANE!!!  It's spectacular.  I really like the raggedy, raw edges.  And the ears - I chose one red and one green.  Don't think anyone will notice, but since it's a Christmas horse I thought it fitting (maybe I should have made reindeer instead?!!!)

Patchwork Horse (pattern by Abby Glassenberg - http://www.whileshenaps.typepad.com)

I am really excited about button jointing now.  It won't happen with all of my soft toys, but I love having a new "tool" in my toolbox.  So thanks, Abby, for the instruction, and thanks, Brooke, for sending me such a wonderful assortment of fabrics, and for quilting with quality (I'd have been really bummed if the stitches didn't hold up to my stuffing - I really pack it in there!)  

Charm Pack Peacock

I don't have any stunning photos of this little fellow, but wanted to share my new little friend with you.  He was made from several different fabric charms (thats a 5" x 5" square) in the Terrain fabric line.  

A while ago I won(!) a Terrain charm pack from Julie at The Intrepid Thread (http://intrepidthread.blogspot.com/).  She's got a sweet online fabric store (look her up at TheIntrepidThread on Etsy).  Seriously - I could look at her fabrics for HOURS (if I could - but since my kiddos are so high maintenance I don't have the time - which is probably a good thing, because I can't be drooling over my keyboard - my little Sprout is teething so there's enough drool in the house already!)  (Can you say "run-on sentence"?!  Aack!  Where has my education gone? :)
Anyway, this little peacock is palm-sized.  In the photos he's sitting on my windowsill.  Poor little thing can't even see outside!  Do peacocks live in cages?  I don't think I want to put him outside.  I'd hate for him to fly away....

Oh, and breaking news:  I'm having a giveaway!  Not today, but in a week or so.  I'll keep ya posted!!!

Picking Photos for Purse Week!

As I said in my previous post, I'm going to enter A Lemon Squeezy Home's Purse Week challenge. It's a sort of on-line competition of the crafty type. So the first thing I had to do was figure out what to enter. My first entry will be this robot bag.

It's a messenger bag I made for my Spunky's first day of kindergarten (which happens to be today!).

The thing is, I can only enter 2 - 3 photos. So which should I choose? I need HELP here, folks. Which photos are the most eye-catching of these? Or should I take different photos? Any input would be appreciated!!!

Did I mention the lining is ALIENS? Talk about a little boys' dream bag!

I love this "model"! He's so...SPUNKY!!!

Which of these photos "sells" this bag? I'd love to hear from you!

Getting Ready to Compete

I am super excited! I'm going to try my hand at a fun online contest sponsored by "A Lemon Squeezy Home", for their PURSE WEEK! I'm working on two entries - I'll post about them soon!!!! I've never competed in anything like this before - I'm looking forward to it (don't really expect to win - there are some AMAZINGLY talented people out there) but it will be (as Spunky says) "FUN FOR ME"!!!

Here's a sneek peek at one of them:

Gotta run - I hear my sewing machine calling...

~ Caren

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Meet Dazzle! (my new elephant)

Have you ever made something from scratch and it ended up WAY better than you thought it would?

That's what happened with this elephant. I got the pattern drafted, pieces cut out, and started sewing.

It turned out much better than I thought it would!

I like the ears.







And that cute little tail!

The fabric was one of a bunch that I got in the mail last week. It's a fabric line called "Dazzle" (hence the elephant's name) by Melissa Averinos for Andover. So beautiful.

In fact, I was so excited about the fabric that I forgot to wash it. That creates a bit of a problem in the stitching quality of the final product (I had to do more hand-stitching than I usually do to cover some of the issues), but Dazzle is definitely one I plan to make more of.

So squeezable!

I have linked up this post to the Sundae Scoop Link Party from http://www.iheartnaptime.net/ . I, being not so technically savvy, have not figured out how to a link, but please, there are some REALLY cool crafty sites in the link party so go check 'em out!!!

My First Dress Pattern

I made this adorable dress for Sunshine this weekend from a pattern I drafted myself. Oh my, I'm definitely NOT a professional! First of all, my pattern was made by tracing a dress that fits Sunshine just great. I have no idea why, but it ended up about 3 sizes too big (I bet pleats were invented by someone who screwed up just like me!). And jeepers creepers, folks, I totally forgot to wash the fabric before I cut it.

This bias tape (several packs of it) came in a bag from the thrift store (90 cents!), but aack! it is single-fold! So, being a novice at bias tape I ended up sewing it on backwards. Oh well, these days are full of learning experiences. So I hand-sewed all of the trim.

And the cute little heart on the pocket, too. Oh how I love applique! (This one is going to fray over time - on purpose - I thought it'd look fun with a fuzzy edge).

Oh, and I also put one of my custom (ok, home-printed) labels on it. See it right there on the outside of the dress? Can't tell, but it's a cAdamsCREATIONS label. (It's on the outside because I hate the feel of tags in my clothing. No, I'm not going to wear this, it's just the principle of the thing, ya know?)

She is just too cute, sporting that dress with a sock on. But hey, she put it on ALL BY HERSELF. So fashion or not, she wasn't taking it off!

So - what do you think? Should I make another one like this (with less mistakes) or go back to using some other pattern? I like the end result of this one (and hey, I made it so big she'll enjoy it for several YEARS!). But I also liked learning as I went along.

Let me hear from you. Is the fun of creating in the end result or in the journey for you?

Show and Tell

I got a surprise last week in the mail. A bloggy friend of mine sent me a USPS box stuffed to the gills with designer fabrics. Like A HUGE stash. Big pieces, small pieces, and everything in between! Talk about being blessed! I mean, I have a pretty good stash of thrift store fabrics (shirts, skirts, sheets, etc.), but WOW! I'm talking DESIGNER fabrics. I'll introduce you to my generous friend in a future post, but for now, I'd like to show you just some small bits from my new stash (which now has been re-named "the GOOD fabric store"). So let the show and tell commence: