Craft Book Month Blog Hop

It's Craft Book Month and sweet Lindsay from Craft Buds asked me to participate again.

Last year, I fell in love with a book another blogger featured--Hoop-La by Kirsty Neale so I knew this year I wanted to feature something from it since this blog hop is where I first heard of the book.  It's a great book filled with "100 things to do with Embroidery Hoops" including tooth fairy pillows, bird mobiles, mixed media designs and actual embroidery designs.  Kirsty does a great job of explaining each project with helpful hints into the craft involved and cutesy ideas with each design.

With fall not too far away (I hope!!), I chose the apple hoop (pg. 18) to make to add to my fall decorating.

Awhile back my sewing room was a total mess bit messy and I accidentally stepped on and broke a wooden embroidery hoop that had fallen out of my embroidery supplies bag.  No worries, the only injury was to the hoop.  :)

I couldn't bear to throw it away though, so I saved it to make hoop art with at a later date.  Perfect for this project!  I heavily glued the hoop back together since I was going to cover it anyway and it wouldn't affect my project and set it aside to dry.

Usually I find inspiration in craft books, but don't necessarily copy straight from them.  I'll find something I like and use that as a starting point, but I loved that the book apple used both green and red buttons.  My kids are very specific about their favorite kind of apples, so I thought it would be cute to use both green and red, with a touch of yellow thrown in too.

I used both vintage and cheapy plastic buttons from Walmart on this project and found they worked together perfectly.  On a side note, I think this would be so fun to do with kids, using glue instead of needle and thread.  It's the kindergarten teacher coming out in me again--all that sorting and fine motor skill action.  lol

At any rate,  traced the pattern from the book onto my chosen background fabric and started laying out buttons until I was happy with the design.  Then I basted them down with some regular school glue to keep my design intact while I started sewing.

You can see here if you look closely that I didn't necessarily stay in my template lines--going for a more abstract apple to fit my buttons.  You can see the stem and leaf outlines as well.

I did sew each button down, but you could just use glue.  I like the extra hand-made touch the sewing gives and it didn't take long at all.  After I finished, I thought the bare spaces could use a little something so I added a few more buttons on a second layer to help.

Then I glued down small pieces of felt for the stem and leaf and the apple art was done.  But I still needed to cover that glued edge and make the hoop a little prettier so dug out some old red Homespun Yarn I've been hoarding and quickly wrapped the outer hoop.

And voila--done in no time at all.  It honestly took me longer to decide on a project and gather my supplies than it did to make this cute hoop that's a small, homey addition to my fall decorating.  I do think I'll go back and embroider some text, but haven't decided for sure what I'd like to write.  I'm thinking something in cursive to go with the flowy background--maybe just apples, maybe apples written in different languages...  Ideas??

I've teamed up with some fabulous bloggers who will be showing off their projects made from craft books, all month long!

Monday 9/1: Fabric Mutt / Lindsay Sews

Tuesday 9/2: Rae Gun Ramblings / Craftside

Wednesday 9/3: The Feisty Redhead / The Fabric Studio

Thursday 9/4: Marci Girl Designs / Small Town Stitcher

Friday 9/5: LRstitched / A Prairie Sunrise

Monday 9/8: Hopeful Threads / sewVery

Tuesday 9/9: 13 Spools / Lisa Liza Lou

Wednesday 9/10: Stitch This! / My Sewcial Hour

Thursday 9/11: The Littlest Thistle / Fabric Seeds

Friday 9/12: Sew Sweetness / Clover + Violet

Monday 9/15: Inspire Me Grey / amylouwho

Link Up

The girls at Craft Buds want to see what you're making too, so they're hosting a giveaway this month. Link up your craft book project at Craft Buds from your blog, instagram or Flickr account, and enter to win prizes. To participate in the month-long contest, just link up any project you've made from a pattern in a craft book. That easy! You'll tell us a little about the book, the project, how you personalized it, etc. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, October, 1!

Rules

1) One entry per person.

2) Your craft book project must have been completed in 2014.

3) Create a new blog post, instagram or Flickr photo (dated September 1, 2014 or later) and link back to Craft Buds/Craft Book Month in your post or photo description (tag #craftbookmonth for instagram). In your post or photo description, make sure to list the craft book you used and provide a link if possible.

4) All winners chosen via Random.org. Some prizes available to international winners, so please join us!

Visit Craft Buds and link up your craft book project during the window of Sept 1-30 and you'll automatically be entered to win some fantastic prizes from the Craft Book Month sponsors!

Another Random Thursday

I may not always have time to sew, but I always have time for Random apparently...

• Athena performed yesterday and then acted in a play tonight about Hatsheput, the first female Pharoah.  I'll have pictures tomorrow.  She did so great!!

• The kids and I ran a color run this past weekend.  Where volunteers literally chuck colored corn starch at you while you run.  Sounds weird--but tons of fun.  Poor Emma was sick with a stomach bug but wanted to run so badly that she ended up puking about halfway through (we'd been walking for almost a mile anyway) and couldn't finish.  But Oren and I did.  It was kind of a let-down when Chris and Em were already in the truck by the time we finished, but we still had a lot of fun.

• I finished up my bee blocks for Katie today.  She asked for Rugby Stripe blocks via Alex's tutorial.  She's making quilts for her nephews for Christmas and asked us to help out.  Now I want to make an orange and blue quilt for Oren's bed like this.  I looked at everyone else' photos and my blocks are way scrappier than the rest...hopefully they won't stand out too much in the quilt.  I hate that when you question what you've made afterwards by comparing it to others...  Comparison is the thief of joy you know.

Better pictures to follow tomorrow

• On a lighter note--I got my hair cut yesterday.  And when I say cut--I mean cut--like inches and inches cut.  I am never afraid of change with my hair because it grows pretty fast and I really trust my hairdresser.  Is that correct terminology--hairdresser?  I kinda feel like an old lady when I say that.  Is stylist better?  Anyway, I showed her these pics and told her to go for it.

This color

with

this cut

Here's what I ended up with...

I am not the queen of selfies.  In fact, I am like the anti-selfie-taker.  I cannot successfully take a good picture of myself!!

• I think I'll actually like it even more as it grows out, so fingers crossed this style works for me for awhile.  I think so.  Also, sometimes I dye my hair dark about this time of year, but decided to go with a darker blonde this year for now.  I read that honey and caramel blondes are where it's at right now--and you know me--shades of hair color named after foods--I'm on that.  It's not near as dark as the picture I took in to show, but I do like it.  I can always darken it as we get farther into fall and winter.

• Now I'm working on fall-inspired blocks for Shannon and our Empower circle of do. Good stitches.  She told us "Fall...go." well, a little more than that, but in a nutshell.  Our circle is great about trusting each other and being creative which I love.  We've done many quilts with a general idea only and come up with amazing results.  I couldn't have asked Rachel to put me in a better circle of friends and quilters.

Any guesses on what this will be??

• Last Friday Oren and I went on a field trip to a local (generally-speaking--it was about 45 minutes away) farm that has an awesome fall pumpkin patch and corn maze.  They had all kinds of fun things for the kids to do and they had a ball.  I got some great pictures of their flowers since I did nothing with my yard this year and have only weeds to show for it.  

Zinnias are my favorite.

And the fields of sunflowers...be still my heart!!

• When I finish up these blocks for Shannon, I've got my d.Gs quilt from May to finish piecing the top for.  I had to wait on some solids and then lost my mojo, but I feel it coming back to me...  And then I'm starting a project for my Dad for Christmas.  I wish I had a day or two with nothing but sewing hours in them...

Phew..that's plenty of random and more pictures than you really needed, but I sure feel better.  I'm linking up with Cindy and her awesome randomness.

What have you been up to lately??

Craft Book Month Blog Hop--My Fall Patchwork Pillow

Hello to any new readers!  I'm Kelli and welcome to my little corner of the world.  I was so excited when Lindsay asked me to participate in this blog hop.  I have a small stack of crafty books just waiting for an excuse to make something out of them!

I chose to work out of the book Pretty in Patchwork Holidays by John Q. Adams.

 I bought this book last year and then promptly got busy and forgot to make anything out of it.  Not this year, my friends.  This book is filled with great projects that are both cute and fun to decorate your home with.

I chose to make the Holiday Surprise Reverse Applique Pillow by Angela Mitchell who is a star in her own right.  She's got such a great sense of style that I was sold at once.

photo found here

Only one problem--it's not even pretending to be time for Christmas decorations.  I mean, it's 91 degrees here in Florida this afternoon.  And I wanted something I could enjoy now!

So, I took Angela's pillow and modified it.  I changed the Christmas tree template to a leaf and I changed the green patchwork to more fall colors.

I love it!

I'd done reverse applique before and it really is quite a simple concept, but the results are stunning!  If you've never done reverse applique, you layer your base fabric over your design (in this case the patchwork) and then after sewing your desired shape, you cut away the base fabric to reveal your design.

I keep a scrap bag with just 2.5" squares and strips in it, so I dug through it to find scraps that screamed fall to me.  Originally, I added a few more colors in but my helpful husband guided me toward more yellows and oranges.  He wasn't a fan of the turquoise at all, but I think it makes the other colors pop so well and being perfectly honest--it's my favorite color so I try to add it in any place I can.  ;)

I mean, it's going on my couch, right??  Why not add in something special?

I only have one problem with this pillow...now I want more!  I want to line my couch with fall-inspired pillows!!  This little beauty needs some friends.  He's so lonely down there on the end of the couch by himself.

So I'm off to dig through the scrap bag again to make him some friends.  But rest assured, come winter, I'll be making this pillow again only using Angela's Christmas tree design...finally!

The girls over at Craft Buds are spreading the Craft Book love this month featuring different bloggers each day and offering prizes for anyone who links up a project made from a craft book this year!

Blog Hop

Week One

Monday 9/2: Fabric Mutt / LRstitched

Tuesday 9/3: Stitch This! The Martingale Blog / Stitched in Color


Wednesday 9/4: Fabric Seeds / Pile O Fabric

Thursday 9/5: The Feisty Redhead / Rae Gun Ramblings

Friday 9/6: Sew-Fantastic / Clover + Violet

Saturday 9/7: A Prairie Sunrise / Small Town Stitcher

Week Two

Monday 9/9: Hopeful Threads / Go To Sew

Tuesday 9/10: The Sewing Rabbit / Sewing Mama RaeAnna

Wednesday 9/11: Marci Girl Designs / imagine gnats

Thursday 9/12: Sew Sweetness / amylouwhosews

Friday 9/13: Lindsay Sews / 13 Spools

 Saturday 9/14: Inspire Me Grey / Angela Yosten 

Week Three
Monday 9/16: Sew Very / Craftside
Tuesday 9/17: The Littlest Thistle / CraftFoxes

9/1-9/30: Link up your craft book project at Craft Buds from your blog or Flickr account, and enter to win prizes. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, October, 1!

To participate in the month-long contest, just link up any project you've made from a pattern in a craft book. That easy! You'll tell us a little about the book, the project, how you personalized it, etc.

Rules

1) One entry per person. 

2) Your craft book project must have been completed in 2013. 

3) Create a new blog post or Flickr photo (dated September 1, 2013 or later) and link back to Craft Buds/Craft Book Month in your post or photo description. In your post or photo description, make sure to list the craft book you used and provide a link if possible.

4) All winners chosen via Random.org. Some prizes available to international winners, so please join us!

Prizes

Visit Craft Buds and link up your craft book project during the window of Sept 1-30 and you'll automatically be entered to win some fantastic prizes from the Craft Book Month sponsors!



No time to make a project? You can also follow Craft Buds all month long for your chance to comment and win some new sewing and quilting books for your library.

 

Another Random kind of Day

It's Thursday again, and that means I've been saving a week's worth of random for you...  Here goes!

• Why is bias binding called double fold when you only fold it once?  I get so confused when instructions call for single fold or double fold bias binding.  Especially because when you buy tape at the store--double fold is folded twice!

• I'm putting the finishing touches on my project for Saturday's craft book blog hop.  Yes, the directions called for double-fold bias tape.  Yes, it did confuse me--again.

• I am thisclose to finishing up my Wonky Pinwheels quilt.  It just needs another hour or so of hand-binding tonight.  I'm hoping to show it off here tomorrow.  I LOVE it.

• I think I'm getting back into my school-year groove of getting stuff done during the day.  This surely means I'll get called to sub for the next 3-4 Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

• I've been working really hard to make smart food choices and get myself healthy for real this fall.  But then I saw these and I want them bad!!

Cookie Dough Billionaire Bars

• I mean seriously--are you wiping drool right now, because I am.  

• I've got like 6 projects lined up to finish/start when I finish what I'm working on now.  I hate having this many projects going at once.  I feel tied down.  I want to rebel and forget about them all.

• That's probably how I got so many in the first place...

• Halloween is around the corner.  I miss making costumes for the kiddos, but I am secretly a little happy to just buy something and have more sewing time for me.

• But that means Christmas is around the corner too and I haven't even thought of making gifts yet.  I actually know what I'm making for my Dad--I just have to get around to making it.

• I can't believe I just mentioned Christmas.  Not only is it almost 90 degrees outside but I'm not even ready to think about it yet!

• Ok--back to the grindstone before I go pick up the kids from school.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring a Finish it Up Friday post!!  

What are you thinking about on this random Thursday?  

Linked up with Cindy

Nearly Wordless WIP Wednesday

Laying out some fall inspired patchwork...

Come back Saturday to see the final reveal.  There's more to this project than just what you see here... Muahahaha, that's my sneaky laugh.  Is it working for you??  Are you intrigued?

Linking up with Lee.

Breakfast goodies

Is it fall where you live yet??

It's not even close here, although I could almost feel the beginnings Friday night at the football game.  2 hours after sunset, but still, it was almost there.  :)

I think fall may be my favorite time of the year.  You can go outside without sweating.  You can wear sweaters and scarves and boots.  There's football and bonfires and you know--the whole not sweating thing. :)  Fall brings apple and pumpkin desserts along with lots of cinnamon and spices.  The colors darken and even my aqua-loving self finds comfort in mustard and burgandy and even, gasp! dark purple!

My point to all of this is I started my fall baking!  Well, actually, our PTO hosted the first coffee bar yesterday and a friend and I were in charge of bringing muffins.  We serve coffee to the teachers twice a month to help brighten their Mondays and usually, another group sells breakfast goodies alongside.  But they're not up and going yet, so PTO footed the bill and fed the teachers this time.

So--what do you make for teachers??  Something with apples of course!  I scoured my fall and breakfast boards and decided on these winners right here.

Apple Cinnamon Roll Muffins!

YUM!

You know, I'm not sure I'd ever made cinnamon rolls from scratch before.  I don't know why not, because they're really easy to do.  Yes, there's a time commitment with the rising process, but the actual hands-on work isn't bad at all.

I would recommend this recipe for sure.  I ended up taking about 20 muffins and they were gone in an hour with other goodies available too.  But, I will also say that next time I make them, I'll bump up the flavor a little more.  These were definitely tasty, but if I'm going to invest in the calories inside a cinnamon roll, I really want those calories to be worth it, you know?  ;)  I'd also add that it might be best to not add the apples to the mixture but just sprinkle them on the dough before rolling.  I had them filling mixture sitting for 5ish minutes and it was already juicy and messy on my counter during the cutting step.  Delicious and the smell--oh my!  But still messy.

I will also add that I didn't remove these from the pan after baking.  I got busy quilting and waited a few hours and I did have a few stick (why I only took 20) to the pan.  Actually, it was just the liner that stuck, the muffin was in great shape, but I can't really serve someone with only half a cupcake liner, you know??  So, I would remove these after 10-20 minutes and let them cool on a wire rack.

If you're ready to start your fall baking, this is a great place to start.  Or check out my pinterest boards for more inspiration.  I've got a bunch there for you.  Pinning recipes is almost as good as eating them, right??

A-corny snack for Thanksgiving

See how I did that there...a-corny snack and my snack is little acorns.  I know, I'm incredibly witty...

For such a bad joke, I gave y'all a bad picture of me...how's that for fair?!?

I told Oren's teacher last week that I'd seen a really cute snack online that I thought would be cute for Thanksgiving--little acorns.  We've all seen the Oreo turkeys, the marshmallow pilgrim hats, etc and those are super cute and I've made them in the past.  But I thought these acorn snacks were cute and different.  She agreed, so I went in today to share them with his class.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me just mention that I am totally ripping off the girls from Our Best Bites here as they featured both of these acorns a couple of weeks ago.  So, I'm not going to give you the recipe or tutorial, because Sara did such a great job already.  

This is our assembly line in action

The kids and I made the little acorns last night so they icing would have time to set up and they'd be more solid for snack time.  Oren unwrapped all of the kisses for me (we used dark--yum!) and Emma put all the kisses on the Nutter Butter Bites after I dotted a little icing on there.  Actually-Sara mentions using chocolate frosting or some melted chocolate chips for this step, but I had some black glitter decorating icing in a tube and I used that.  It worked great and I didn't have to buy anything extra or get another bowl dirty.  :)  We did it assembly line, meaning we attached all of the kisses, waited an hour or so and then I came back and added all of the mini chocolate chips with a tiny dot of icing as well.

I think this new lens is helping--I almost look like a food blogger!  ;)

But, I saved the donut hole acorns to make with Oren's class.  I made a few at home to practice and I changed 2 things to Sara's directions--I used Nutella instead of melted chocolate because I knew I'd be at school and that would save me time and headache and I didn't cut an end off to make it flat.  I found this made it harder to spread the Nutella because the donut kept breaking off.  I spread the Nutella and then let the kids choose from a few toppings to make the acorn their own--we had toasted coconut, chopped pecan pieces, chocolate sprinkles and some leftover Halloween sprinkles.  Who am I to curb their creativity with realism??

The kids loved their fall snack and I'm sure their parents loved it too since we ate them about 15 minutes before they headed home for Thanksgiving break--chocolate, sugary donuts and more chocolate--yes!

This is a super easy project to do with kids and makes a great gift or centerpiece idea.  We bagged up a few for the teachers and sent them to school with a fall-inspired paper folded over the top of the bag and tied.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of that, but I figured a picture wasn't worth a tardy slip, you know?

I'm linking these up with Debbie for Tuesday at the Table.  Go see what other great ideas are there for Thanksgiving (if you're American) and fall in general (for everyone else!).

Fall color

  Down here in Florida, we don't get much fall color.  There are no spectacular color tours where you drive around to see the leaves changing colors.  There are no pumpkin or apple-picking adventures.  There is slightly cooler in the mornings and evenings and hot summer-like days for awhile longer and then we'll have a brief fall before winter starts.

So...we have to make our own fall color sometimes!  As I mentioned on Saturday, the kids had some fall pictures taken on Friday by a friend who set up her own fall-like environment.  All we had to do was dress our kiddos in fall colors and clothing and find a happy medium between fall apparel and summer temperatures!

I ended up putting both of my two in jeans, but I whipped up a skirt for Emma as an alternative in perfect-for-fall colors.  I knew I wanted Oren in the shirt he ended up wearing--it was a plaid featuring dark turquoise, navy, orange and green.  And I decided that the accent color I'd pick out of his shirt was turquoise for Emma--it's one of my favorite colors and I hoped it would stand out from the fall decorations while still coordinating with them.   Even in Em's jeans, she wore a turquoise headband and earrings.

But for the skirt I picked this lovely fabric I bought from Connecting Threads last fall to make a simple elastic-waisted skirt.  I believe it's called Golden Afternoon, but is all sold out.  The colors all matched the colors found in Oren's shirt and the brown matched her boots well.  Plus, can you get more fall than this?

I just cut a rectangle of fabric 16 inches long by the width of the fabric (~44 inches).  Then I sewed the selvages together (with turquoise thread!) and folded the top down to make an elastic casing.  Inserted a strip of elastic 1 inch smaller than Emma's waist, sewed the waistband shut and hemmed.  Done.  The entire thing took me maybe 20 minutes.

She tried it on with this turquoise shirt and I loved it, but she said for the pictures she felt more comfortable in the jeans.  Another way I know she's growing up--this kid has been a skirt and dress fanatic since she was old enough to point to what she wanted to wear.  Who let her grow up into a preteen so soon???

I didn't mind, because I knew going into it the skirt was a backup plan. Plus, it's not like she won't wear it ever.

So...since I didn't get professional shots of her in it Friday night, I decided to do a little mini-photo shoot at our house yesterday.  She loves to model, so she didn't mind too much.  ;)

AND...when I was cutting out this skirt panel--I accidentally cut two!  So...I've got another one ready to whip up and I thought I'd share!  So, let's have a giveaway!  Comment here if you'd like to win a skirt just like Emma's.  I can shorten the length if your little girl is smaller.  And because I am so thankful to all of you who come back repeatedly and keep me company, I'm going to give 2 entries to followers.

All you have to do is comment with your favorite fall color.  And then comment again to tell me that you follow if you do.  **Edited to add--this giveaway will be open for 1 week--you've got until Monday, October 8 at 11:59 p.m. to enter!  I'll chose a winner Tuesday morning.**

Thanks for making my fall brighter just by visiting and going on this journey with me!

All finished!

It's a delayed finish, but I'm done with my Fall Pops quilt.  Back before I had a blog, I was reading a post by Kate that said she'd designed a quilt pattern and wanted a few people to try it out for her to see if it was written well.  Kate chose to do her's in bright colors and gave it the name jelly pops.  I agreed to try it out as a newer quilter (although I've been sewing off and on since I was 8).  But, since she'd done bright colors with white, I wanted to do something totally different so I chose a jelly roll of Cotton Blossoms from Bonnie and Camille.  When it arrived, I realized it was mostly the darker prints from the line and I'd missed out on the bright colors I love, but I decided it would be perfect for a fall through Christmas quilt for our living room and it did provide a stark contrast to the colors that Kate had chosen.

  This quilt was SUPER easy to construct.  Kate did a great job using the pre-cut to it's full advantage.  I paired my jelly roll with a khaki-colored solid (I really can't remember what brand/color name.  It's from JoAnn Fabrics though.)  When done, I took all of the scraps and sewed them together to make a pieced backing consisting of the khaki and scraps.  I remember I even layed this one out to baste, but I had trouble getting it to lay flat and I gave up and folded it up for another day.  And then you know what happened...the WIP basket swallowed it and turned it into a poor, pitiful unfinished object (UFO) just hanging out waiting to be loved again one day.

So, I got it back out and conquered it!  This was my first attempt using spray basting.  The quilt-blogging world has featured many hints, tips and tutorials on using it lately and I do hate getting down on hands and knees with all of those little safety pins, so I gave it a try.  It was much easier and I can see using this technique in the future.  Not having to stop while quilting (especially with all of the issues I had with quilting) to take out pins was really nice.  I do have a few little bumps where I didn't get the top or bottom all the way flat, but as a first attempt, I'm okay with that.

Fallen pine needles is about all the color we've got so far besides green.  Fall color is fleeting in Florida...thank you pine needles for letting me pretend.  :)

Then came the quilting, which if you follow along, you know gave me fits last week when I had trouble with my machine chewing up my thread and causing major breaking problems.  But, y'all came to my rescue with tips to try and good thoughts sent my way and I persevered!  It was my first FMQ project on my new machine (which is almost a year old now!!) and it came back to me easy enough.  Actually, it made me want to do more!  I used a looping meander on this quilt.

I chose the dark brown for the binding because I thought it would define the edges of the quilt well and it was a scrap I had, so I did a little stash busting at the same time.  I originally had planned on using more of the khaki, but I'm also using it for my Summer Sampler and I didn't want to run out (since I can't remember what it is...), plus I thought the dark brown added a little more oomph anyway.

So...it's in the wash with this bad boy and then I imagine I'll find Emma cuddled up in it on the couch.  She's claimed first dibs on it!

And since it's full of fall color, I'm entering it in Rachel's Celebrate Color contest!