I am taking a day off before I start on my next quilt. So it’s been a lazy day at Ivory Spring even though I did pack in a bit of sewing. Meanwhile, Miss Baby and I did a fall craft during “school” time today…
I don’t know, but I see quilting possibilities in the final product. :) What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by. Do come back tomorrow as I have a finished project to show in its entirety!
I wanted to interject a bit of a homemade element in our Christmas… thus the homemade fabric briefcase for Miss Baby as her “something she can use” Christmas gift:
I found a most helpful tutorial for making this little briefcase. I reworked the dimensions to fit Miss Baby’s pint-size stature, about 2/3 of the dimensions in the tutorial.
The front of the briefcase is made of a corduroy print. I added a machine embroidered monogram and a puppy button for fun.
The briefcase opens up into a big pocket for coloring books on one side, and slots for crayons and a smaller pocket on the other side:
Since it was Christmas, I slipped in an entire sheet of stickers for baby as a bonus! Normally, she is allowed 2-5 stickers a day when she asks for them. Within five minutes, half of the stickers were lovingly transferred to Miss Baby’s best furry friend:
The smaller pocket will also function as diaper clutch when she is out and about with her little briefcase.
It was a fun gift to make for Miss Baby. Making her something for Christmas is a tradition I intend to keep.
Thanks for stopping by. I wish you a lovely day!
For my Friday Sew-n-Tell, I am actually showing you a project I finished quite a few Fridays ago. I just got it back from the editor this week. My (wing needle) monogram heirloom pillow project is featured in the March/April issue of Creative Machine Embroidery. There is a little blurb about the project on the cover!!
For my non-sewing readers – this is a wing needle! As you can see, airplanes and the flying fowls aren’t just the ones that have wings! :) The wings in this case are the “extensions” you see protruding from the sides of the needle shaft:
Wing needles have been used extensively in heirloom sewing to create breathtaking effects! I attempted to apply the wing needle to machine embroidery to create an heirloom look for my pillow:
The monogram was done using regular embroider needles. The designs are from the Heirloom Monogram collection from Hatched in Africa. These letters mimic the look of traditional candlewicking:
These bows (from Heirloom Daisies 2 Collection, also by Hatched in Africa) were embroidered with the wing needle. Due to the wings, the needle penetrate the fabric and made bigger holes, giving it a different look – an heirloomy look!
I used Victorian batiste on top of a print fabric to give a textured look to the pillow. In addition to that, I had also used a layer of linen to stabilize my fabric assembly on top of using Heat ‘N Sta fusible tear-away stabilizer by Floriani (I love this stabilizer by the way!):
You probably already know my personal buzz word is heirloom. This pillow was made with Baby’s initials so that I can keep it as an heirloom pillow for her.
Making this pillow happen was a learning experience for me as I had to experiment with different fabric combinations in order for the design to come out intact on the fabric with the wing needle. Not properly stabilized, the wing needle actually shredded the batiste into a pulp. But I don’t mind the experimenting at all – that was really fun for me. It brought back fond memories of working in a wind tunnel in my former life!
Flipping the pages to see what other projects are featured, I came across my own mug! ;) I had forgotten about being asked for a tip for readers…. here were the two cents I had sent along to the editorial staff at CME. That has certainly been true for my pillow project here:
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your little visit. I wish you a restful week!
... style! Here is the gift baby brought to her pal’s birthday party.
Seriously, at this point in her life, baby has no say she thought the gift was hip enough to bring to her pal’s birthday party. But Mom (aka yours truly) thought it a rather sweet gift:
All of my pillow gifts (you can view here, and here) are made from scraps from my scrap heap! And I have quite a heap. It’s always fun to see what scraps I can dig up for my gift pillow projects!
By the way, baby wore her smocked Gingerbear outfit to the party after I finally found a pair of tights that would go with the outfit. Who would have thunk it would be so hard to find good quality tights?! Back to the birthday party, a grand time was had by all. The babies present were the entertainment! The womenfolk enjoyed just sitting and watching the babies and their antics.
Have a grand week, everyone! Thanks for popping by. I shall catch up with you later!
Happy Friday!! I can’t believe how fast this week has flown by as well. Where has the time gone?!
For me, this week has been another crazy week working with editors, designs, and more. One thing I did get done that I have been meaning to do is to make this pair of overalls wearable for baby (sorry for the absence of a “before” picture):
You see, I had bought this Italian boutique pair of overalls before having kids was cool in my life. You see, this was clearly a pair of overalls for a boy, but no longer so. The overalls are lined for warmth, so I really hated to waste it by not having baby wear it for the winter. So, I machined appliqued / embroidered a girl bear on the front to add a smidgen of girlishness to the overalls. I think with the orange-y red top, the overalls should pass as a bona fide girl outfit. Don’t you think? Oh, the design is from Sew Many Designs:
Especially, when worn with the polka dotted yellow hairbow…
Then, I got adventurous, and started mixing and matching. I thought this might be another workable combination as well…
While I had my embroidery module out, I went ahead and made this as well. It is going into a pillow. Baby is invited to her first ever birthday party — so, the pillow will be a gift for her pal! This will have to be finished by the weekend. The design is from my all time favorite collections for babies – Alphabears by OESD:
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a great weekend. We are going to try to stay warm and cozy despite the bitter cold!
As much as I try to slow down the ticking of time, I have found that it is to no avail! :) So, here we are, ticking closer and closer to Christmas.
I have a jewelry pouch project featured in the latest issue of Creative Machine Embroidery:
I rarely change out the basic gold pieces I wear to suit my outfits. So, I think I am actually going to use this as a needle case for all the different needles I use for different projects:
My husband informed me that a certain young member of our family had “read” the magazine. He was very proud that this little member knew how to flip the pages. Here is the condition of one of the pages after it was being “read”!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely day.
… pals! I met Natima earlier this year through the Quilt Festival online. I was excited to make her acquaintance because of our shared South-east Asian heritage and love of quilting:
I embroidered this little tea towel and sent it over to Natima in Oz-land for her birthday:
Earlier, Natima has sent me the pattern for the Civil War Bride Quilt. She will be my quilting buddy in this endeavor. I am going to try doing this quilt by hand. I haven’t started on it yet, but am in the process of starting a practice project before I jump into the CWB project because I want my CWB quilt to be perfect:
from Threadbear Patchwork & Quilting
It truly is nice to have pals in one’s life, is it not? Thanks for stopping by and being my pals! I wish you a very beautiful day.
I was running behind, as always! But I was more than happy to take a few hours out to work on a birthday gift for my little friend:
She is not merely the daughter of one of my closest friends; she is my little friend. Growing up, I recall being a young person of barely ten years of age and had many OLD people (in their twenties) befriending me at church. So, over the years, I have made sure to include in my circle little friends as well.
The design is from OESD’s Alpha Bears. I have use this collection a whole lot as you can see from the quilt on which the pillow lays.
This little gift from the heart, though simple and unpretentious, was made with many sweet thoughts of and prayers for my little friend!
Thank you for coming by to visit! I wish you a sweet sweet day.
This is a sneak peek of an heirloom pillow project I worked on for Creative Machine Embroidery. The soft pink look conveys such a sweet sense of childhood innocence:
Here are some close-ups. You would probably be surprised, but this was done on a piece of sheer Victorian batiste, on top of a cotton print quilt fabric (for a shadow textured effect), on top of a piece of heavy linen, and on top of a heat fusible tearaway stabilizer:
Thank you for popping by. I always enjoy your visit. Please leave me a comment so that I can visit you back. Meanwhile, I wish you a sweet sweet day!
… always warms my heart:
This is a preview of a Christmas embroidery project I am doing for Creative Machine Embroidery. I love how the gold metallic thread really brings out the glow:
I know it’s way too early for us to think about Christmas, but not the hardworking magazine folks!
Thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your kind comments. I am running a little behind in getting back with you, but I will visit you back and respond to every comment. Take care!
Remember these?
I have been working with a local paper craft artisan to produce some custom- made birth announcements:
Hours were invested in planning and designing these dainties:
More hours were spent in the final assembly:
But the hours and hours of work are well worth the final product, I think! :)
Have a LOVELY Monday, Everyone!
[Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in these custom made baby stationery.]
The new issue of Creative Machine Embroidery is out!
My cafe curtain project with a primitive Americana look is featured in the magazine:
The cafe tier window treatments are not hard to make, so you can quickly whip them up and jump right into some machine embroidery fun! :)
I don’t have a place to use these in my house, so I am using the bottom tier as a bed scarf. I added some lavender sprigs in a basket to add to the primitive country look. Doesn’t look too bad, does it?
Thanks for visiting. I hope my little project here gave you a lil’ bit of inspiration. Have a great weekend. I will see you Monday!
Ivory Spring 