I’ve been trolling Pinterest for some ideas for the window boxes on front of the house now that spring is here.
The plants need to be full shade tolerant.
Leaning toward the Impatients:
Which is your favorite? What have you had luck with?
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Table Top Show and Tell
Recently I shared my stepmother Marcia’s version of the “Just the Right Angle” table runner featured in Fons & Porter’s 2013 Easy Quilts. Well, she had table runners on the brain, and stitched another design that I’m sharing with you here today.
The pattern is “Recipe Cards” pattern from Modern Quilt Relish.
She says, ”I started with the yummy gold with white flowers and joined it with Large Flower in Grey. The Metro Leafy Stripe in Gold from V and Co fit right in! I used some mottled black from my stash for the shadow effect fabric. Plain white makes a crisp and spring-like background—an easy choice!”
Here are the close-ups of the prints Marcia chose (Don’t you just love the palette?!):
1. Indie Main in Yellow – Indie Chic
2. Large Flower in Grey – Lotta Jansdotter
3. Metro Leafy Stripe in Gold – Moda
Do You Washi?
I stumbled across these DARLING little washi covered tacks on one of my favorite blogs a couple of weeks ago. They inspired me to sit down for a mother-daughter project on a rainy afternoon.
The kiddo and I got to work messing around and whipped some fun up with one of these.
There are more ideas over on my Pinterest board!
My favorite part of the Days of the Week tape is that it actually offers TWO fonts! So clever!
What is Washi??
It’s a decorative tape printed with different patterns made with rice paper. These tapes originated in Japan in 2006 but are used worldwide. The tape has a mild adhesive so you can reposition it as needed, which is extremely helpful for a clumsy crafter like me.
What is your favorite Washi project?
April Sew Along – Nigella Bag Part 1
Hey all! I started my Nigella bag (designed by Amy Butler) for the April Sew Along last night and wanted to share my fabric choices, thoughts and process.
I selected this LOVELY variation of the fabric selected for the Biggie Bag. Nicole is a smaller scale of the design for the Emily. Lots of colors in the shop to select from. This solid is what I paired it with hoping it will allow the print to really pop.
To start, I adjusted the pattern a bit. Rarely I make things like they tell me to. I guess I need to make it my own a bit.
Any way, for the strap I wanted to make the top of the strap in the print and the bottom of the strap in the solid. SO, instead of instead of ONE 14″ WIDE by 34″ LONG from the exterior fabric , I cut:
- ONE 7″ WIDE by 34″ LONG of the exterior fabric
- ONE 7″ WIDE by 34″ LONG of the interior fabric
Skipping Step 2, since I selected home decor fabric, and on to Step 3.
Right sides together pin and stitch up one side of the strap.
Fold and press wrong sides together.
Then continue with Step 3.
The other change I made to pattern was to cut TWO Bottom Panels from each fabric. I wanted to be able to choose which fabric I wanted to use when the time came.
Any one taking on this project? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
April Sew Along: Complete!
Happy day all!
So we left off more then half done with the bag! First thing, before you tackle the gussets, be sure you press the seams open on both the outer fabric and the liner fabric. I forgot to mention that in the last installment!
Gussets: So…. I was going to go into detail about the gussets, however when I looked over the tutorial it was SO detailed! Her explanations and pictures were so thorough I felt there really wasn’t anything I could add without duplicating her work. But if you have questions just let me know!
Assuming you have made the gussets and are ready to move forward, let’s go from there!
Next up is “Make the Button Loop.” I don’t use the button loop very often, hardly every actually. I like easier…..so I usually use this elastic or just make a button hole. So I just skip this step altogether. In this case, I used an oversized button so I paired it with elastic.
Now on to finishing the bag. Be sure to match your seams well before pinning it all the way around.
In step 3, once your bags are pinned together, you will want to tuck in your key fob and elastic for the button and pin in place.
Make sure the you tuck those straps in well.
And lastly, hand sew your button and you have yourself my version of this tutorial! I call it the Biggie Bag! 
I would LOVE to see your bag!
Share on our Flickr group and chime in if you have any hints or questions.
I love how this print worked for this bag!!
Oh and here is another bag I just pulled out to take to yoga the other day! Same method.
Namaste.
Fabric Friday: Daffodil Edition
It was warm here yesterday. The first sincerely warm day in a very long time. The weatherman insists that there’s still some inclement weather yet to come (just in time for the weekend) so I figured now was my chance to get the first mow of the season done. While mowing the lawn on my Deere, my mini-me was riding around on HER Deere right behind me. While I did the bits along the road (where she’s not allowed), she snuck off and collected some wild daffodils to present to me! She held them behind her back and everything! Her smile, the flowers, the matching Deeres. Lovely day!
So today I selected fabrics inspired by the yellow daffodils that are popping up ALL over now that spring has arrived.
Hope you have flowers all around you as well! Happy Spring!
New Leaf…Amateur Style (Part 1)
Earlier this week we shared the Wowie Zowie quilt my stepmother created from the New Leaf Collection by designer Daisy Janie. Marcia is incredibly talented and has YEARS of experience (I’m gonna guess decades, but that just makes us all sound so old, so years it is!). She has techniques, ideas and an eye for putting prints together that ONLY come with patience, practice and time.
I, however, do not possess any of those qualities when it comes to quilting. So, I start my quilting journey with a more realistic approach to the craft. With that said, I thought it would be fun to take a two-pronged approach to the New Leaf collection and show you all what you can do if you’re just starting out like me. We can dream of achieving a bit of amazing while building skill sets.
Here’s a peak at my New Leaf quilt, which requires a much narrower set of skills. It doesn’t pack the punch of Wowie Zowie, but it will have to do until I figure it all out!
Here’s what I did:
MATERIALS (for quilt top):
1/4 yard each of eight prints
1/4 yard each of eight prints
7/8 yard of solid white
CUT:
15 Blocks – two of each print in the New Leaf collection – 11.5″ x 6.5″ (you’ll have one block leftover–you can see I used just one yellow block)
20 Small Bricks – Solid White – 2.5″ x 6.5″
6 Long Bricks – Solid White – 2.5″ x Length of Fabric
The finished size of the top will be approximately 41″ x 42″.
For inspiration on how to create my own pattern, I found this.
The measurements were manipulated quite a bit, but it was helpful to have a starting point rather than working completely from scratch. My other tip: I used graph paper. The measurements were much simpler to configure when working with the graph paper because everything was to scale.
Any way, I thought the white really allowed these bright, complex prints to stand out and speak for themselves.
Will let you know when it’s done!
Linking my quilt in the works up today with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.
