crafty friends

Quick show of gifts from crafty friends. more later... I'm off to a piano party with 2 extra kids sleeping over. Wonder if I can sneak in some craftiness?

marker holders

Here is a marker roll up holder and a pencil case. I decided to go "fancy" on it and try a little quilting.

Why? I'm not a quilter. the sooner I realize that, the better it will be. I know there must be tricks out there to make it faster. I'm just schlepping around, wasting time. Anyhow, I love the colour combo. I didn't realize I had that many turquoise fabrics.

I wanted the strips to be staggered. I made a square instead of a rectangle, so had to cut it and sew it as a rectangle. There goes the staggered strips. How 'bout that nice even seam down the middle! :}


Anyhow, I like the overall effect and have learned a few tips for next time should there be one. And another birthday present made and given. I should keep a tally.


And today we discovered that daddy has a talent for face painting....

Not bad eh?

Have a good one.
Amanda

Chicken fish?

Furry chickens. Fuzzy photos. ugh.
A few works in progress.






And the ball version.


Hard to keep it round and still give some personality. Working on it.

I'm a woman of few words today.
Have a good one.
Amanda

sewing for me!

It must be an annual thing. When looking for this post,
I saw that it was March 10. Almost a year ago. To the day.

Last night, in denial of more snow, I decided I wanted something new to wear. At 8:30 at night, the easiest thing to do was to make something. :} I had this fabric for a few years with this top in mind. So it happened. And no problems.

I love making plackets. Not hard at all. I did make the red/blue/flower one I spoke of last year. With lots of tribulations. So this time, I folded the pattern pieces a little smaller. Did the trick. It's still a little tenty to me, but it's just helping to hide the new body I'm sculpting at the gym in time for a late spring reveal! BWAHAHAHA. And I had meant to make it a little longer. Alas, distractions while cutting nixed that one. As such, I didn't bother to hem it. Just a serge. Oh, and I made the placket much shorter. The previous one, I had to sew it together. This time, it's just right.

There's movie snow out there. With the forecast calling for 8 degrees tomorrow, I don't think it will last. oh well.
Time for spring.

Have a good one,
Amanda

Wool Flowers

In a bit of Thrifty Thursday news, my quest to score on wool sweaters this week paid off. I still would like red, orange and yellow, but I'll take the ones I have thank you.
And from them....

Happy, spring, wool flowers. They come from the book Fun to Wear- Fabric Flowers It's the flower on the cover.

The purple flower is made from felt. I have an idea for these as hair clip holder.
Speaking of such, here's my interpretation of a Hair clip holder:

I love how I made the leaves out of the ribbon.

So there are another few reasons to dig into this stash.

Last night, I had the most wonderful dream. Before going to bed, I went on the website Colours of Australiaand read the Papoose story. I wandered around Nepal and Mexico with her and then wandered around Thailand in a friend's blog. So last night, I wandered around these wonderfully amazing places on earth. And it keeps coming back to my mind today. Which is rather nice, considering I woke up to some surprise snow. Well, a surprise to me. As my son stated, " I knew it was going to snow. The Wii said so. The Wii is smart" So there you go. Listen to the Wii.

Have a good one,
Amanda

Leather pouch

I was given a pile of leather samples awhile back. Quite awhile back. Finally started to think about it. Hardest part was trying to remember to buy a machine needle for leather. When I asked what made the needle special, I was shown that it is slanted on the end more like a knife than an even point. No problems sewing with it.

I crocheted a flower and the blue bird is cut from pair of thrifted suede shorts with my QuicKutz die. Just let me say that the die didn't cut through the suede. Maybe if I take out the thin foam that is on it. It did leave an indentation, so I finished cutting it out with scissors.
And lastly, so sorry for the poorly focused pictures. I don't know what the problem is. Could be the poor lighting and the slow aperture or the lens, or just me. But even the auto mode is blurry. I really need to address this. It's driving me nuts.

have a great weekend.
Amanda

Piggy ball

Here's the piggy ball.

This time I wet felted the ball. First, I needle felted the shape of it. Adding layers like needle felting,but not making them so tight and dense.

And here is the after I wet felted it. It did shrink a bit.

After it dried, it wasn't as dense as the needle felted one. I think i prefer the denser ball.
Little piggy tail.

And with the ears on the top.

And the happy piggy. At least, I think he is. Is that his tongue sticking out?

Here's the post on the doggie ball
and theowl ball

This happened on the weekend. I have a scrapbook page in mind for this one. Imagine, me with a scrapbook page in my mind! It's been a long time since that happened. Just need to clear the sewing clutter off my desk to make room for paper, scissors and glue!


Have a good one,
Oh, False alarm on the computer breakdown. I just plugged it in, closed the cover and did a little heekeejeekee dance around it.
And pressed the power button for a long time. It made weird sounds and then powered up!. Hurrah! But hubby still thinks it's on it's last legs. shhhh.

I'm blushing

Really. Anna, who won my blog giveaway in the new year, finally received her package in Australia. Guess it takes that long. She was very complimentary in her post about it.
Go and see what she did with the pouch. Some adorable creatures live there.
Anna Branford

Oh, and some not so nice news...
my computer is kaput!
I came home, it was frozen. Shut it down and now it won't come back on. I'll have to leave the diagnosis for my techie husband. (thank goodness I married a geek). But I'm not too hopeful. It's the 2nd time it died. He revived it with some new parts the 1st time. Let's cross fingers he can work his magic again.
So, no pictures right now. and I have a cute little piggy, a leather pouch and a felted wool sweater flower brooch to show you.... i've been busy.

have a good one,
Amanda

How much is that doggie in the window?

The one with the waggly tai-a-a-a-ail! C'mon everyone join in....
How much is that doggie in the window? I sure hope that doggie's for sale!

Another needle felted ball, just bigger than a tennis ball. It's felted very firmly and it has good bounce.

It's so nice to see them come to life. I wonder if I should add a bell or something inside, but there are 2 reasons I'm still on the fence about it:
1) it's harder to felt around a bell or shaker maker
2) I want them to be pure. just wool, nothing else. Oh, and a lot of elbow work.

The ball is not all the outside colour. Rather than use up all of a certain colour, I take a few strips of colours to make the ball, then wrap the required colour on the top in a few layers.

Next up, a pink ball waiting to be a piggy come to life!
Stay tuned.

have a good one,
Amanda

Hair Clip Holder

I'm forever looking for hair clips. Of course, they are all upstairs. That's where we take the hair style out at night, but we put the hair up downstairs in the mornings. Maybe this will help?

This comes from the book Sewing for Childrenthat I bought at Christmas. There are a few things here I want to make. I also made some fairy wings from there, but need to work on how the kids get them on. It's formulating in my mind.

Back to the clip holder. All the shapes are cut using Quickutz and the cuttlebug. I sewed the hanging ribbon to the batting inside the pot before I sewed the pot pieces together. That way, it will be a little stronger.

Did you see the skull ponytail holder? My new way of making clips, holders... covered buttons. fun.
Now I just need to make one for us. This is a birthday gift. I tell ya, my goal of making all presents this year is going to be the end of me. I need to make a stash. Is everyone born in the 1st few months of the year? lol

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

owl ball

I needle felted a ball for a little toddler I know.
Disclaimer: crappy photos from my phone

just added layers of roving and needle felting each layer.

There are a lot of layers. When it was big enough, I thought to make an animal out of it. This one is supposed to be an owl. I only had 10 minutes to work on it as we were late for the party.

I want to make another as a dog. Stay tuned. This has a bit of bounce to it, which was a surprise. The little boy loved it.

I think next time I'll try to wet felt the final layer. I don't feel as I 'lived' with this toy long enough before I gave it away. But now that it was made, I can do another. Why not try it? I heard wool balls are also good to use as dryer balls to help with static?

thanks for looking,
Amanda

games bag

This was fun to figure out.

I think it is the first time I made a quilting block like this. Any kind of quilting block. There's a reason for that. Precision. Precise I'm not. Anyhow, it works for a checker board.
And a note book to keep score of card games. (cards inside the bag)

On the other side, a tic tac toe board with a felt star from Ikea. It was in the Christmas aisle. I bought a few. Or more.

The gift's recipient likes it. that's what counts.


Have a good one,
Amanda