• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Panda pillowcases

    When I spotted some panda fabric at local quilting store I just had to grab it. Mini-me loves pandas. I thought I’d make her a cute accessory for her dorm room.

    My neighbor has been making beautiful custom pillowcases for family and friends over the summer. I’ve been admiring her handiwork. I happened to be with her at this particular quilt shop and guided me on how much I needed to purchase for a set of pillowcases.

    After giving me a brief verbal tutorial, she passed along the YouTube video tutorial she followed to create very professional results with French seams.

    I tried to snap some photos along the way but honestly without the video, my photos may not make a whole lot of sense. Not being one to try to recreate the wheel…and really just wanting to get these made…I didn’t take enough photos to create a tutorial of any sort.

    Sausage rolled fabrics that had me questioning my sanity.

    I’m mainly sharing my images to of course show off the cute fabric, but also to show how crazy this process seems and how you may fear you are doing something wrong…but don’t worry…it all comes together in the end.

    Again, this had me questioning my sanity…closing the seams with right sides out and raw edges exposed. All I have to say is, patience…follow the process…it will turn out right in the end.

    I love this little detail. A small tab of contrasting fabric.

    And here you have them…perfect French seam pillowcases…no exposed seams or raw edges. It’s a kind of magic especially when you think about the fact that I only sewed three lines of stitching, Crazy!

  • Blog

    T Tuesday: fabric addiction edition

    Months ago I mentioned working at scrap management for my fabric collection. Yes, I said collection…let’s be honest…buying crafting supplies ends up being collecting sometimes.

    I really knocked the scraps down to some key sizes that would work for other projects.

    With that in mind I came up with a “pattern” or maybe pattern concept since the pieces really fit together in so many ways.

    This is a pile of chain pieced scraps. Its really relaxing to sit and sew…then once I have a really large pile of pieces I go sit in front of the TV and snip them all apart then sort them for ironing. So much ironing but so worth it.

    Since I’ve starting making a few more masks I had to buy some more fabric….I had to…I really did. That’s me trying to convince myself too.

    My neighbor brought me to a wonderful little quilt shop in a nearby small town. I ended up buying a stack of fabric with a few projects in mind. The two floral fabrics were just because I absolutely fell in love with them.

    I’ve also found some fabrics at rummage sales. So fun…but now I have some more scrap management to handle. It really never ends…

  • Blog

    T Tuesday: Tuesday thoughts edition

    The start to the school year has been a bit rocky…stress levels are up. I’m hoping everything is settling down now. My most recent posts seem to have been mostly about gardening. This one will touch on that as well.

    Additionally, I have taken a little time to be creative. Some cards and a few journal pages.

    I can safely say that my gardening days this season are numbered. I pulled up the shed garden and amended the soil with the compost from the bin. Yay, free! I’ve also started emptying pots and composting the spent plants for future compost.

    I pulled up half of my carrots. They are small but mighty good. I’m just impressed that I successfully grew carrots…they were not looking good all summer.

    Marvin is in the display case at school for our “pet show”. I wish I had taken a wide shot…there are over half a dozen photos of named chickens as well…makes me smile and giggle a bit.

    Blogging seems to be getting harder for me even though I REALLY love it. The problem seems to be that I am not scheduling time for it. I sit down and before I realize it,  I have squandered hours of time on idle pursuits…down the proverbial rabbit hole on Pinterest or YouTube. Or bingeing a series on Netflix. I know I am not the only person who struggles with this…those platforms would not be as successful as they are without the continual audience. 

    I know some of my struggle is learning what my new normal feels like. What I have time for, what I should be doing vs what I want to do vs what actually needs to be done. Look at me, verbally processing with you…. 

    I literally have pages of notes and ideas of content for the blog. Some are just rough ideas.  Others are plans for projects not yet started or works in progress.  Additional ideas for reworking of old content…so many things. I feel as if I have analysis paralysis. I can’t decide what to do, so I do nothing.

    Does that ever happen to you?