Category Archives: sewing

Fun fabrics from the Creativ Festival

While wandering the festival I happened upon this lady’s lovely booth full of all sorts of fun modern fabrics.  Mad About Patchwork is in Ottawa, a city I love and miss.

On her blog, Pam did a 7 weeks of Christmas challenge and she found a bunch of neat tutorials and projects and then made them using Colorful Christmas by My Mind’s Eye for Riley Blake, with great results.  She whipped up a selvage needlebook coasters, little trees, tiny totes, placemats, a tree skirt, and a table runner.  Check them out over at her blog.

Here are the fat quarters I picked up at her booth, only a few since I was trying to curb myself and slow down before I wouldn’t be able to walk for all the fabric I was carrying.  Plus I wanted some pretty prints that would be easy to match up with other stuff.

How come no one told me!?

So there’s this whole obsession with 1930’s fabric for quilts.  While at the Creativ Festival I couldn’t resist picking up a . . . few fat quarters. I looooved these prints and the jelly roll thingie, which I have no idea how I’m supposed to use but I’ll figure it out.

Top trio is from Hamel’s Fabrics and the bottom stash is from Garden Thyme.

Then here’s the other things I picked up that are just fun really, not 1930’s ish.

First haul if from Sew Sister’s Quilt Shop in Toronto. I also had no idea just how many cool quilting shops are relatively nearby.

This fun stash if from Country Concessions. I plan to use it for crayon and car cozies, and the fun Dick and Jane print will be my ipad cover (once I save up enough to get it).

Here’s the neat prints I grabbed at the Quilter’s Palette booth. Again for fun kid projects.

Last one, I said there were many, is from the Quilters’ Line. More fun kid themed things, and some woodgrain because that’s just cool.

What’s your crafty book stash look like?

I’ve slowly been growing my craft and sewing book collection since starting my blog. Right now I’ve got many, some I haven’t even really looked in yet, let alone created something with. But that isn’t stopping me from dreaming about these 2 gems.

I really, really want Amy Butler’s new book to fuel my bag addiction and stick to my promise that I can only have a new bag if i made it myself!

Click the images for a link to read more, or spend your money if you’re in Canada.

Darth Vader and R2D2 go handmade

While browsing Halloween costumes, in an attempt to talk Wesley out of being a garbage man again, he saw a Darth Vader mask and cape and decided that was going to be his Trick or Treating get up. I approved. We didn’t buy the whole outfit type costume because have you seen the price of those things?!! Not to mention the terribly quality of them!! I figured I can’t make the mask so that’s ok to buy, and having the cape is just bonus but I can totally make him some pants and a shirt to go with it.

I googled images of Darth Vaders chest plate part to get an idea of what I had to rig up and came up with these sketches.

Then I went to Michael’s to take advantage of the 2 for $7 T-shirts they’ve had on sale lately. I grabbed the smallest youth size, they’ll still be a bit big, especially for Nate but great if they end up wearing jackets underneath. I cut up felt and stitched it to the front of the shirts and came up with these.

I made some of R2’s pieces gray when they should really be white but I thought this way it shows up better. I also still have to finish his hat, which is really his gray winter hat with felt pieces attached. Wesley already wanted to wear his T-shirt. Can’t wait to see them all dressed up and standing together. My mom made me some awesome costumes when I was little,  fittingly one was Princess Leia.  So, am I going to get in trouble later for making them costumes that go together?

Top secret project sort of revealed!

Wild Olive and I are going to tease you.  We’ve been working on something together for a while now and we’ll tell you all about it on Monday but why not give you a peek now?

Remember that time I stayed up really, really late writing a post that, apparently, never got posted?

Here’s Cobyn’s counting book.  The puppy was a new idea and considering the cute fuzzy ears and floppy tongue I think he’ll be making a reappearance in future books.I used some of my favourite standard pages #3, 4, 5, and 7.  Then I borrowed from Nate’s book for pages 8 and 10.I copied Mya’s book for page 6 and 2. Here’s Cassie’s book from waaay back, just for some extra handmade goodness for your eyes.

Got some spare time this week? I’ll show you how to make some Trick or Treat bags.

Of course, like most projects, I’ve been meaning to get to this one for a while. I finally managed to squeeze it in this weekend.
I wanted to make the kids some bags to collect all their candy in that they could use for a few years. I find most things out there are cheaply made or too big for their 4 and almost 2 year old hands. Soooo off to the cutting board I went.

Here’s my high tech diagram. I really need to learn some sort of graphics program . . .

Measurements are in inches. That’s the handle placement I used, seems to be fine.

I used washable marker to sketch out some pumpkin shapes.  I just free handed it but  you could search for images or choose another design all together.  Cut them out and fuse them to a new sew adhesive, like Heat and Bond.  I wanted the black lines to show through on my pumpkin so I cut it up into a little puzzle and pieced it together on the front of the bag.  Then ironed it on.  I used some scraps of black and fused them to the Heat and Bond and then cut out some features.  Guess I was on a roll because I don’t have pictures of that step!

Layer your handle pieces together, I added some interfacing for some more stability.  Sew down both sides and turn them right side out.  That part is tricky, I found a chop stick helped.  Iron them flat to get nice crisp edges and then top stitch all the way around turning the rough edges under.  Hem the top edge of the tote, seam size isn’t really all that important just use the same mesaurement for the front and back.  Finally attach the handles with a fun box stitch.

Lastly lay your front and back pieces right sides together and sew around the sides and bottom.  I debated boxing the corners on my totes but decided not to, go ahead if you want.  Turn the whole thing right side out and ta da, fun Trick or Treating tote!

Congrats and don’t worry your chance is coming!

Congrats to Katie who entered over on Wild Olive and won herself a ‘I <3 t’ cup cozy!

I headed into to Toronto for the Creativ Festival yesterday and boy did I have fun! If you live in or near Toronto and can get there today or tomorrow it’s worth it.  They’ve got stuff for scrapbooking, knitting, sewing, crocheting, cardmaking, and all sorts of supplies and sellers.

I picked up a ton of fat quarters! They were everywhere and so fun and such bargains . . . I think I have over 30. I also met some really creative and fun people and managed to even work out a donation for a giveaway while mentioning my blog. I think I’ll let the posts about my wonderful finds trickle in over the next few days.

My cup cozy is in the ‘procrastinate’ position.

Weeeeell, maybe it hasn’t been all procrastinate I have been busy with my shop but that was only since July.  Remember my counting books?  I posted about them in . . . months ago.  A big part of the problem was running out of osenburg, which I have only found at Joann’s craft stores so that means a cross boarder trip.  When I went in September I bough 10 yards of it.  I should be good for a while.

Last night I buckled down and finished one for someone.  She asked for 2 of them so I’m hoping to get the other one done this weekend.  And spidey senses must have been tingling in my area because just randomly 2 other friends asked where the books are for their babies.  So I’ve got a little To Do list for this weekend and those counting books are on it!  Along with a few other things of course.

Here are some shots of Mya’s counting book.

I finished it at about 11:30 but wasn’t happy with the size of the first few pages, somehow the pages were getting bigger at towards the back.  So I did some stitch ripping and re-sewing until the wee hours.

Thanks to my fancy pants new to me sewing machine I was able to add some fun, and time saving touches.

I also got creative with the tactile side of things and put this fun stuffed cupcake on the first page.

Finished off with my lovely labels, which are iron on but I sewed them as well because I like that look.

“Hi this is Heather Ross”

So I was giving Nate a bath, which is strange because I usually have both kids in there, when hubby brought me my cell. So I say “Hello?” while multitasking and the noise of a splashy bath is going on around me. “Hi Tara. It’s Heather Ross“, and I reply, “Oh! . . . Hi”. It was so strange.

She had a sale on September 15th, thanks Keyka Lou for the heads up. Somehow I actually remembered and popped online to fill out the little request form. Apparently she sold out in 2 hours last year so I figured it must be good stuff and I was going to be part of it. So I filled out a form and said I’d like odds/ends/scraps to have fun with. Somehow something went wonky with my form, hence her phone call.

So Heather says, “There’s a problem with your address on this form. It starts out with a house number and street name and then it says blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah California”.

“Oh” I said, “well that’s strange. Wait, it actually says ‘blahblahblah’?” I ask.

“Yes” she replies. Then she told me how her wonderful assistant was talking to her from behind his computer and said to her, “Hey this address is weird it says blahblahblahblah. . . ” and Heather said something like “Can you read what it really says? I might be able to help if I know what it actually says” Then he told her that was in fact what it said.

Guess there was something silly going on with the form, maybe because I said Ontario, Canada or something. I have been tired lately but I’m pretty sure, as I told her, that I didn’t actually type 12 blahs into the form. Good thing the phone number field worked. Now I realize I was on the phone with someone kinda famous, fabrics, cool items and books. She makes cool stuff.

Now to await my fun package!