"I Love You SEW Much!" Stitched Valentines

A friend of mine pinned a stitched heart Valentine project on Pinterest this morning that inspired me to to this project.  And I took the punny sentiment from this Valentine card project.

I deviated from the original project (I actually hadn't even clicked through to see the original project, I'd just seen the image of the finished project).  Instead of using a hole punch, I pre-poked holes in a heart shape with a needle, using hearts cut out on my Cricut as the templates.  I may do the original project with the little kids next week using the hole punch and yarn (even though Valentine's Day will have come and gone, but who cares!  They'll want to do what their older brothers did!).

This was my first idea, but after I stamped the sentiment, I realized "I love you SEW much" was SEW much better!  (ha ha!) And the brown kraft paper cardstock was a lot easier to poke holes in than the white poster board had been! I am really loving the rustic look of kraft paper cardstock lately!

 I'd originally told the boys we were making Nubbins today...since they've been asking me to teach them for months.  But with next week being Valentine's Day, I wanted to fit in some more Valentine cards.  But this particular project fit in well because it was some practice-sewing for them before tackling sewing their own Nubbins (which they're finding out isn't quite as easy as I make it look!).  They started their Nubbins today, but didn't finish them, so I'll have to write a blog post for that project another day. ;)

Make It! Monday: "Little Letter" Needle Book (Rachel's Needle Book)

Remember the "Little Letter" needle book I made for myself and how a friend of mine asked me to make her one as well? Well, here are some photos of the finished product!

My friend, Rachel, is one of the sisters from Primele. They are all about letter-writing, envelopes and stationary... so this little letter needle book fits very well! The fabrics she provided me with really fit their aesthetic as well. All it's missing is Tricia's calligraphy on the front! ;)

I loved the orange flower fabric she provided for the stamp! (and I bought new pinking shears just for this project!)

Rachel didn't tell me what color felt she wanted on the inside, so I picked out this peachy-orange wool felt I had in my stash. (Which she loved!)

If you want to make one for yourself, you can find the online tutorial I used here.

Make It! Monday: "Little Letter" Needle Book

I found a tutorial at KellyRachel.com (via Pinterest) for making a "Little Letter Needle Book" (it's a needle book that looks like a little envelope). I've been wanting to make myself a new needle book for awhile. The one I have is functional, but it's pretty plain and not really cute or pretty. (The outside is a "blah" navy-blue vinyl plastic with a piece of grey felt on the inside...I won't even bore you with a picture.)

This was the perfect project for me to use the sock monkey fabric I got from the thrift store!

I was most excited to use the sock monkey fabric for the "stamp". I would have liked the lines to be more evenly spaced (the fact that the top line is further up kind of bugs me a bit)...but, hey, this was my first attempt.

The back view of the envelope.

My pinking shears are kind of old and not the best for cutting fabric...so the edges of the "stamp" are a bit wonky.

I also used the sock monkey fabric to line the inside...

I used sew-on snaps for the closure, but you could also use velcro or even a button. I kind of wish I'd done a button closure...but I wasn't confident in my use of my sewing machine's button-hole function. I may practice a bit and re-do the closure with a button/button-hole later.

This is a great gift idea for anyone who sews! I'm looking forward to making more! Although I'd like to try making bigger ones. The template makes a pretty small "letter" (about 3 inches long), but if you wanted a bigger one, you could always open up a regular envelope and use that as a template. I want to experiment with making a bigger one that I can tuck a small pair of scissors into, or even one for crochet hooks (or a dual one for both needles and crochet hooks!).

I showed the one I made to my friends Tricia and Rachel on Saturday. They are the girls behind Primele and Fawnsberg and are into letters, letter-writing, and stationary. Rachel asked me to make one for her and gave me some fabric she wanted me to use. I'm using the same cream, canvas fabric for the outside...the green will be for the lining inside the envelope... and the orange flowered fabric is for the stamp. (I want to get some new pinking shears first though!)

Sewing on the porch...

I swear that Western New York really only has two seasons...Winter and Summer...and Spring and Fall just gets crammed into a few days between the two. Most of April has been very wintery...rainy and cold...and even some snow. Today was one of the first days it was nice and warm. It was in the upper 70's all day. So rather than sitting inside in my craft room, I decided to sit on the porch to enjoy the warm breeze and work on some hand sewing that needs to get done before Mayday Underground on Saturday.

It was so warm that I busted out my favorite summer dress that I got at the Lilac Festival last year. (I'd love to get some more of them this year!)

Some owls that need their heads sewn up...and a monster that needs a pucker in his lips.

My animals seemed to enjoy being on the porch too. Luna, for some reason, decided that her favorite spot was right under my rocking chair.

Terra loves the porch...since we've decided to keep her an inside cat and the porch is the closest she ever gets to being outside. She was in a few different places...on the window sills watching and "chattering" at the birds outside ...in the blue "telephone chair" that I picked up off the curb this past fall and am planning on refinishing this summer...

But her favorite place was on the floor in the sunbeam. I got on the floor and took some really nice close-up pictures of her....but I'll share them tomorrow.

Emily's Nubbin

I hung out with my 11-year-old friend Emily last night while her dad and my husband were at a men's Bible Study. She had a specific activity she wanted us to do last night...she wanted me to teach her how to make a Nubbin.

New Year...New Project...

Happy New Year! With a new year comes a new project for me!
I have gotten the itch to make a quilt...a project I have never attempted before. I've gotten inspiration from an issue of Readymade (which I finally have a subscription to! Thanks honey!)

"Not-So-Crazy-Quilt - Hang onto your sanity when you make this patchwork quilt by sewing one row at a time. Keep all the fabric pieces in each row the same width, but cut to different lengths"

I'm planning on starting by making a small quilt (baby blanket?) out of some of my hubby's old dress shirts. I laid them out on the kitchen table tonight to work out a simple design...

We'll see how this works out! Maybe when I finish this one, I'll try making something bigger and more patchworky.

New Nubbin Sneak Peeks

Turquoise has become my new favorite color recently. And I have a thing for combining orange with turquoise lately. But it makes sense...check the color wheel...they're complementary colors. Well, orange and blue are complementary...and I consider turquoise a form of blue.

And I realize St. Patty's Day is coming up on us soon. So I've been making some green "Lucky Nubbins".

This shamrock took a lot more work than the typical heart (I cut out three little hearts and a stem). I wanted to do a four-leaf clover...but it looked crowded and funky when I was laying it out.

The Curious Case of Brownie Bunny

After Christmas when Wal-Mart had Rubbermaid bins on sale for $5, I decided to try to organize our storage in "our" corner of the attic. While doing so, I came across my bin of select, childhood stuffed toys that have sentimental value to me. One such toy is Brownie...a little brown bunny rabbit that was one of my very favorite toys when I was little.

I've had him forever. And I think he was old when I got him. His head is filled with an old-school looking fiber filling and his body is full of beanie-type thingys. But sadly, as you can see, one of Brownie's eyes was chewed off. It's my own fault...my old room was a disaster area back when I lived in my parents' basement before I got married, and I didn't have Brownie in a safe place up off the floor...so the mice got to him, no doubt to obtain some bedding for their nests or something. (Just to let you know...before my mother gets upset at me for announcing to cyberspace that their house has mice...my parents have since fixed the mouse problem.)
Anyway...when I found Brownie last week, with that gaping hole where his right eye used to be, too sentimental for me to bear the thought of throwing him away, I decided to fix him. First I sewed up the hole...

Then I was going to give him a classic "X" eye with black embroidery thread (although I had the option of replacing both eyes with safety eyes) , but CJ made the suggestion of giving him an eyepatch. I thought it was a cute idea...so now Brownie looks like a Pirate Bunny...

Now I suppose I need to make him a little pirate shirt and give him a little cutlass! I know he still looks a little ratty (give him a break! He's probably over 20 years old!), but he's going to need to literally fall apart before I'll throw him away!