Monday, March 31, 2014

Sweet As Honey Blog Tour ~ Day 23

 

Hey there!!! Today I get to be part of  Sweet As Honey Blog Tour!!!! I was so thrilled when Bonnie agreed to let me be part of this tour! I had seen all kinds of images of this gorgeous line floating around social media and I honestly COULD NOT WAIT to get my hands on it!
If this is your first time visiting my blog, WELCOME! and thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you'll take a few minutes after reading this post to go check out some of my other work!


Isn't this line just gorgeous!?!?!?! I love the colors and the feel of the line! As soon as I found out I was going to be part of this hop I knew I HAD to make a pillow, because honestly, what's better than a handmade pillow? (besides a quilt) Not much if you ask me! I didn't want to do anything too intricate and take away from the fabrics so I decided to do a simple patchwork design that had been stuck in my head. I was sent 4 Fat Eighths to play with.

After squeeling with delight I decided I needed to go to my LQS and pick up a bit more of this line for the backing and binding and to throw a bit more contrast in my patchwork. So, with the above FE's and the fabrics below I was set!

Like I said I didn't want to take away from this gorgeous fabric and I wanted to keep as much of the design as possible so I decided to go with 2.5" squares for my patchwork.

I love the way these fabrics POP against the Kona Snow background! I am really happy with the way this turned out, these fabrics are a dream to work with! If you've never sewn with Art Gallery fabrics before you need to stop what you're doing and go buy some (this line would be my suggestion) and then just pet them for a while, then you can sew with them. LOL! The hand of these are beyond words....I just love them!

I decided to do straight(ish) line quilting on this and I think it works really good with this layout.


I chose to do an envelope style backing in one of my favorite prints from the line...who am I kidding? They are ALL my favorite!


I decided to snap a photo without the pillow form so you could see the entire design....I absolutely LOVE the way this turned out (have I said that already?) I have an idea for a quilt using this design, stay tuned...I may just do my first quilt tutorial soon!

     Anyhow, I am so honored to be part of this amazingly talented group of blog hoppers! (Click on that link and you will be taken to the entire line up! There is sooo many amazing projects on this line up!) Yesterday Celebrate Life With Us made some ADORABLE pinwheels! I can NOT wait to see what Everyday Miija has made for tomorrow!

I hope you all enjoyed my stop as much as I enjoyed playing with this gorgeous fabric line! I really can't wait to see what Bonnie will design next!

If you'd like to see the swatches of the entire line you can go check them out here!


P.S. Don't forget to go check out my new video on YouTube! Just click right here to see it! (I hope you'll become a subscriber so you don't miss out on any of the videos I've got coming up!)



~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

Thursday, March 20, 2014

DIY Pressing Board

Hey guys!!! Today I'm going to show you how to make your own pressing board!! This is a super easy DIY project that will really make a difference in your sewing and quilting! Don't forget to check out my video where I will walk you through exactly how I made it! 


The difference between a PRESSING board and an IRONING board is HUGE! The reason you want to use a PRESSING board when quilting is you need a hard surface. An ironing board has to much give from all the cushion the put on it and pressing your fabrics on it can result in warped fabrics, which we NEVER want! The hard surface of a PRESSING board will help you PRESS your seams without having to worry about fabric distortion!

Let's get started with the tutorial:

Materials you will need are:
Piece of Plywood from your local hardware store, in any size that will fit your needs... (mine is 3/4" thick x 25" x 25")
100% cotton batting (you don't want to use polyester batting for this)
Fabric (home decor weight, duck, or canvas is ideal (I'm using duck cloth)
and an electric stapler


Step 1:
Cut your cotton batting and fabric at least 3 inches larger than the plywood on all sides.
Then layer them as follows: fabric (wrong side facing UP), batting, then center your piece of plywood as best as you can.


Step 2:
Start on any side, pull your batting and fabric taught around the plywood and place 2-3 staples along the length of that side. Repeat for each side, leave the corners alone for now.


It should look something like this...

For the board to lay flat we will need to trim away excess fabric from the corners. I should've done this before I started stapling the sides down but I didn't think about it until I got to the corners. So, if you want to cut out a squarish piece from each corner before you start you can. But this is how I did it....
I took one side of the fabric and folded it down, like the picture above shows

I started cutting right where the 2 fabrics met, make a straight cut until you reach the edge of the board.


Now, pull that section straight up...

Now cut straight across. You will end up having a rectangular shape cut off.


Fold your shortest side down, then overlap the other side and staple into place. You want to make sure you staple through all 4 layers of fabric, I put an additional staple closer to the corner because I didn't want it to come loose.

Repeat for each additional corner.


Now, flip it over and VOILA you are done! You have made yourself the perfect place to press!!!!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial, if you have any questions make sure to leave them in the comments and I will get back to you!

Don't forget to check out the video for this tutorial (just click right on the image above!) and SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel!


~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

My YouTube channel is LIVE!

Hey guys!!! I just wanted to let you guys know that I have my introduction video up on YouTube!!! YAY! I am so nervous to be honest with you! But, it's a learning process, right?
Sooooo, go check it out and PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! Leave me tons of comments and give me a thumbs up! LOL! I feel like I'm "pimping" my channel! hahahaha!
Okay, so ya ready for it? Here it is!!!
lol I look like an idiot! Oh well, you guys understand, right?
I hope you will go check it out!



~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

Saturday, March 8, 2014

2 Finishes and Pretty Fabric

Hey guys!!! How's it going? I've got some pretties to show you! (YAY!!!!)


         OH...let me just tell you, I AM SOOOOO EXCITED! I just got my BRAND NEW camera today! I sold my other one so I could get this one to make it easier to do my videos! The main difference between my new and old camera is the new one has a viewfinder that moves around....yeah...don't know the technical term for it...but at least I'll be able to actually see if I'm in focus now! YAY! lol

okay, back to the scheduled (haha yea right) programming!
First, I'll show you what I've made.....

I made this gorgeous "K" for the background of my future videos! I love the way it turned out and am really excited for what else I've got planned! I think it's going to look really good! (I hope you guys agree!) (I'm not going to show the backing because I just threw a piece of fabric back there since I know no one else will see it!) I got the pattern from Moda's blog hop they did called Spell It With Fabric. I was going to link you to the main page with all the different alphabet links but I can't find it! It says "Sorry the page you are looking for can not be found" so I don't know if they took it down or what? If I find it I will update you guys!


Then I loved my "K" so much I decided to make one for a friend that I'm doing a swap with, but the bad thing is, I think I like hers better! LOL! Oh well!!!! It's pretty huh? I wanted it to be really scrappy and fun and I think I accomplished that quite well!


Here is the back of hers, just something simple!
I quilted both of the "K"s the same way, stitched in the ditch around the "K" and then  just echoed that line with my walking foot. I'd say the lines are a little bit larger than a 1/4". I really love the way they both turned out though!

Now onto my other pretties......
I have been on an EXTREMELY tight budget for the majority of this past year and have not been able to buy much fabric at all! (I know, very sad right?) So with that being said I decided to splurge a little and buy some fabric that I've really been wanting!
Soooo, I hopped over to one of my favorite online shops Westwood Acres and did a little shopping! I don't know why, but lately when I actually get to buy fabric I've just been buying fat quarters instead of actual yardage (unless the fabric is for something specific!)  Wanna see what I got?

Yep, I went a little crazy! I HATE fabric diets!


This line right here is one that I've been really excited about! I absolutely LOVE Lotta Jansdotter's fabrics! Like, seriously L-O-V-E! This is her newest line called MorMor and it is every bit as fantastic as I expected it to be! I will buying some yardage of a few of these prints! (I really want like a yard of each but there's this thing called a BUDGET that I hate! LOL!)

Then I got these beauties! I really LOVE Allison Glass too! And I have pretty much all of the other prints in this line except for Corsage. This is called X and + and is from the Sun Print (I think) collection.


I've been DYING to get my hands on this collection from Joel Dewberry's line "True Colors" this is called Herringbone and I absolutely LOVE it! I really wanted to buy yardage of each of these but I contained myself pretty well I think! And then Amanda also sent me a cute little mini charm pack of April Showers as a little gift! I love getting surprises like that!

So, after I did all that damage one of my friends decided to have a "pop up" sale over on IG and I really really could NOT stop myself....

I got these beauties!!!! The new Pearl Bracelets, they are tone on tone and a few metallics too! I know FOR SURE I will be buying yardage of these! LOL! I just wanted a little to be able to play around with! You can find Jen's shop right here it's called Knotted Thread! Jen is really super sweet and her prices are amazing! (No, she did not pay me to say that nor does she even know I'm writing this post, I just REALLY love her shop and her! SO GO CHECK HER OUT! and tell her I sent you!)


Here is another view of the Pearl Bracelets, just because I love them soooo much!

Anyhow, how was your week? Have you got any ideas for videos for me to shoot? If so, leave them in the comments!!! I'm sooo excited about my upcoming channel! You guys just have no idea, seriously it's all I've been thinking about!!!! I hope y'all are just as excited as I am!

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~