Pillow fun

Hello hello!  21 days until Christmas!  3 weeks.  THREE weeks. I'm not ready. Still shopping, still sewing.  Still need to decorate.  I'm planning on putting away Fall and getting my Christmas/Winter wallhangings up this weekend. Sunday is supposed to be cold here.  Perfect day to clean and sew.

I was asked to make 2 more personalized pillows for a friend of mine in October.  I'm going to be seeing her on Saturday and I had to get on the task.  I love making these pillows and at the same time, I hate it.  Too much babysitting and too much stress on something going wrong at the last minute and whole project goes down the tubes. Not this time though and for that, I am grateful.

2 girly pillows coming right up.  I was asked to do pink and butterflies.  I think the girls are cousins.  One pillow is headed to Poland.  :)  Bet you can't guess which one.  LOL.

The butterfly border was also used on the back.  Happy to have these done.

And a pillow for me.  I need to get more Sweetwater labels to use in decorating my house.  I just love this snowman.  Don't know if I'm going to leave it on my bed, give it to Punkie to use, or use it in the living room.  Decisions, decisions.

I will have more to show soon. I'm working pretty hard over here.  :)

Enjoy your day!  Remember.  3 more weeks!
Jen  :)

Little Things

Tomorrow is the big day!  Solo painting party.  Who wants to come and help?  My sewing room is all cleared out (somewhat).  My Koala sewing cabinet and the rack that holds all my fabric bins are staying in the room.  Everything else?  Out.  My bedroom is loaded up.  Punk's room is holding some stuff.  The hallway is crammed with everything else.  I'm excited to get started.  My goal is get out of bed before 8am and get started.  We shall see.  I may be up way before 8 am but I'm a bed lounger.  I love to get up at 6am, turn on the TV and just channel surf for hours.  It's a bad habit.  My focal fabric for my new window valance is here.  Just waiting on my accent fabric to show up and I hope to get that sewn up this weekend.  Few seams shouldn't take me that long.

I will snap some pictures before I get started with the re-painting.

I finished up a few small projects before I tore into my room.

A personalized pillow for a birthday gift.  Did things a little different with this one.  I used the capital letter set and a colored solid instead of my usual white. Brown and pink is the color scheme in the baby's room so I thought this would be a good match.  I was right.

A little cupcake mug rug.  Just messing around with this one.  In one of my older quilting magazines there is a wallhanging with 3 cupcakes just bigger.  I took the idea from that.  Now that I've made this mini, I'm going to make the wall hanging.  Either for my dining room or my new sewing room.

I gifted this one but I will make myself one. It's just too cute not to have one around.

Scrap purging has been happening around here and I have put some aside to giveaway.  Stay tuned for that if you are interested in some scraps.  They aren't mini scraps either.  Some pretty big pieces.  I just don't want them anymore.  I plan on also purging my patterns so that will be a second giveaway just for fun.

For those here in the US - enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!  You know what I'll be doing.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Pillow Talk

I worked on three requested personalized pillows for friends.  One was requested back late last year.  They aren't hard to do; just time consuming.  I figured if I was busting all the equipment out for one, I might as well get all three done.

I made some pillowcases for Amelia and my husband for a little something for Valentine's Day.  I love the fabrics I used for Amelia's.. Honey Bee Mine.  I want a set for myself.  How can you not smile when you see those bears!  Vintage trucks for my husband.

I have been keeping busy with various other projects.  I got a few more string blocks done and I'm working on a Schnibbles for the March 1st parade.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to join this time!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Getting back to it

I mentioned in my last post that Amelia was going to my Mom's for the weekend and I was hoping to get in some major sewing time.  Pedal to the metal and I got things done!

Three more personalized pillows.

Lilly

Sophie

Anthony

I fell in love with this doggie fabric and knew I wanted it for Anthony's pillow but I didn't know how to use it without losing the overall look of it.  So I used it on the back of his pillow instead of the plain white like the girls.

And a wipe holder.  My cousin has been asking for on for herself for a couple of years and I held back since, at the time, her oldest was out of diapers.  Now she has a new baby boy (my Godson this coming Sunday!) so I thought it was time to make her one.

I love this "classified ads" fabric!  Riley Blake - Peak Hour

I think she will be happy with me finally.  LOL!

I would have gotten a bit more done but those pillows take a few hours each.  I'm just happy to have them done since I have to give them to their respective owners this weekend.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Natalia

About a month ago, I was asked if I could make a few pillows for some little ones as birthday gifts.  Me being a slacker got the first one done over the blizzard snow-in to be delivered this coming Saturday.

This one is for Natalia:

I like it. I hope the recipient feels the same.  I have to do another for Natalia's little sister Lilly and one for a boy (Anthony).  The one for the boy stumps me because I don't have any boy fabrics.  I guess some fabric shopping is in order.  Oh darn.  ;)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

This post is brought to you by the letters A, H, K and M

Pillows.  Lots of pillows being cranked out over here.

It all started with the innocent question on Facebook to my cousin of what would my God-daughter like for Christmas?  She and Amelia are of the same age - Hope being 8 months older but her interests differ a lot from Punk.  Amelia loves to play with dolls and play pretend.  Hope loves to draw.  I've given art supplies a few times but I needed something different.  One thing on her list was an "H" pillow.  Oh.  I can so handle that!

Gears turning in my head, I came up with an idea.  An initial pillow but with some pizazz.  Gotta have some pizazz.  Hmmm.  Turn it.  Yeah.  That works.  Turn the block a bit so it looks wonky.  Okay.  Now we're cooking.  But it needs more.  It's not speaking too loudly yet for me.  It needs more WOW!  Ah.  FUR.  Faux fur in a fun color.  Ooooo yeahhhh.  That's it!

NOW the pillow is talking to me.  It tells me is works just fine for a little girl!

Hope

Here's where the "lots of pillows" comes in.  My other cousin is Hope's sister's Godmother.  And of course, on Katrina's wish list was a "K" pillow.  When I answered my cousin on FB that I could handle an "H" pillow, my other cousin asked me ever so sweetly "Since you're making one for Hope, can you make one for Katrina too?"  Of course.  Part of me wanted Hope to be "special" and have her own pillow but I had a feeling that on Christmas Eve when the gifts are exchanged between the extended families, I would have been asked anyway if I could make one for Katrina so why not.  I'm on a roll with them as it is.

I couldn't stop there.  I have my own little one who will certainly spot the pillows and ask for her own so I had to make an "A" for her.  THEN I remembered that another one of my cousin's got married in July and his step-daughter is of "fun pillow" stage so I had to make one for her too.  That's 4 pillows so far.

But I needed a guinea pig pillow.  My LQS had this aqua fur on their shelves that totally remind me of Sulley from Monsters Inc.  This guy:

So I bought some "Sulley Blue" fur and got to work and put my ideas in action.  Since I had color choices already assigned to those above, I made a pillow for my friend's daughter.  We exchange a little something for the girls every year.

As I was working on Amelia's pillow, who by the way, picked out her own fabrics for her letter and outer borders - so much for that surprise - it dawned on me that there is one more little girl in the bunch who would like a pillow I'm sure.  So I added another one to my list and quickly decided on her color scheme so that I could order the faux fur for hers.

Total of 6 pillows.  I love how they came out.  I can't wait to give them out at Christmas.  If you happen to be wondering... Amelia can't have hers until Christmas morning.  It's going under the tree.  :)

Maya

Kaleigh

Amelia

Abbey

Katrina

This isn't a "letter" pillow but it falls into the pillow and gift category.  Out on evil great Pinterest, I found a tutorial for some cute applique Christmas ornaments.  They were too cute.  My hairdresser needed a gift and she appreciates all the work that goes into handmade items so I made one for her.  I really like how it came out.  I ended up doing an envelope back so that she can remove the cover and wash it or store it easier.

D'OH!  Forgot to take a picture of the ornament pillow and I'm at work today.  Picture coming soon.   

For the Christmas Through the Year Grand Finale - I can say that I made more Christmas gifts.  I started out the year just fine with some small gifts but then I ran out of gift ideas and sewing steam.  I will be better prepared for next year. 

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Embroidery Machine Fun

I made another personalized pillow for a gift.  This one too is headed to TX.  It's for my BFF's neighbor's oldest.  Her sister has one too.  Her room is bubblegum pink and chocolate brown.  I think this one fits the bill, don't you?

I also had some fun trying out a new "In the Hoop" project from Digistitches.  They always have some cute projects but I never buy all the ones I really like.  This one caught my eye and I had to get them both.  A little work is needed on my part with better placement of the zipper but overall, I like them.  These are both for Amelia.  She'll find something to stick in them.  I just need to add a key ring or something to them for her.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

AnnaSophia

I've mentioned several times in the past that my BFF lives in TX.  I made both her girls a personalized pillow.  You can refresh your memory here and here (if you want).  At Sydney's birthday party, my BFF's neighbor really liked the pillow and inquired about how much I would charge to make one for each of her girls.  Instead, my BFF ordered 2 from me and she's giving them as birthday gifts this year.

This one is for AnnaSophia.  She turns 1 in May.

I tried to get a decent picture of the pillow but her name is so dang long.  LOL.  The lettering took me 3 hours yesterday morning to complete... AFTER I got home from the sewing store with my embroidery arm that I thought was busted.  Turns out there was a loose screw and a 5 minute fix.  Thank goodness!  I ended up ripping out 5 letters out as I went along.  The spacing was too off.  Too much white space.  Since I have to squish this baby into a box for the mail, I wanted it as short as I could get it.  As you may see, by the end of her name, I wasn't really too picky on my spacing.  It's hard to judge when everything is hooped up for the embroidery arm but I'm getting better at it.

I haven't worked on anything else.  I need to get back to my Postage Stamp blocks, Bliss blocks, my Summer wallhanging and blocks that I haven't even shown you yet.  Maybe later.  Right now, I'm starving and I have 40 cookies to decorate for next Saturday.  That's a whole 'nother story.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

The last one... for a while

Tomorrow we're going to a birthday party for my friend's daughter and I made her... can you guess??  LOL.  You should know by now.  I made her a pillow.

I think she will like it.  Since she can't find anything with her name on it out there in the stores.

That's about it.  I've been working on cutting out a quilt but there's a lot of cutting and I'm getting bored with the process.  But I'll work through it since I would like to get it done so that I can start piecing it.

Also.  Today is my 6th wedding anniversary.  We don't have much planned.  I think we're going to go out to dinner tonight somewhere.  AND today is my 2nd year blogiversary.  I'm sure I'll have a giveaway soon in celebration.  Probably around my birthday next month.  We'll see.  I want to make something for it.  I just need to find the motivation to be creative.  I've lost it.  :(

Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Jen

Show and Tell

First - thank you all for the condolences.  I just can't imagine what their families are going through at this most difficult time.

On to happier things... some show and tell!!  As you know (or don't know), Punkie was away for a bit last week which gave me some time to work on some sewing.

I got two more pillows done.  Well, 1 1/2.  The second one - the name is stitched out.  I just have to get into pillow form. This one is for my BFF's niece.  She loved the one I did for her cousin that she asked for one for herself.  I need to get it into the mail.

Next up - the 2nd and 3rd FQS BOM blocks.  CUTE!

block #2

block #3

I went back to cutting a quilt that I put aside months ago when I had all the swaps to work on and everything snowballed.

BUT

The GO! cutter craze is here and now I want to do something with that (my husband does too since he bought it for me).  Yes, I own the GO! and no, I haven't used it yet.  And yes, I've had it since Christmas.  But I DO have my reason for not using it yet.  After I received it as a Christmas gift from my loving husband, I went out a bought another die for it.  And then I measured the output I received from that die and was very disappointed.  Accurate it was not.  I spoke to the shop where the system and die were purchased and they too got the same results using one of the dies off their shelf.  LOOOONG story short, I was disappointed and bummed and just put the whole thing aside.  Now that I see everybody having so much fun with their GO!, I want in on the fun.  So I'm going to put my feelings aside and think up a project.  I think I know what I want to do.

That's all from me.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

I'm Almost Getting Tired of Making These Things

My niece's 3rd birthday was this past weekend and I thought I would make her a pillow to go with her pink and green bedding.

I like how it came out but I need to work on my spacing.  It looks like her name is Abi Gail.  There is too much white space between the I and G for my liking but it's hard to tell if you're going to run into the previous letter when you re-hoop your project.  I've come to learn that the machine is more than generous when you check your spacing and layout.  I'll have to remember that for next time.  I have about 6 more of these to make!!

I hope she likes it!  We missed the party since we were traveling back from our New Hampshire weekend away.  I have plans to stop at her house on Saturday but if I don't make it, I'll see them at Punkie's birthday party.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)