A Confession

I have a confession to make.

In front of all of my readers, I'd like to confess, that in my heart of hearts, my soul of souls, that I am...

A dirty hippie.

Well, maybe not so much the dirty part, but the hippie part for sure.

I see your, "Huh?" faces now!

Let me explain. I don't mean the stereotypical, pot smoking, musk smelling, no underwear wearing, dread rocking, free love giving hippie - I mean the nature lover, up-cycling, living off and giving back to the land as much as possible hippie. In my heart of hearts, I want a natural life with the smallest foot print possible. I feel now I'm too wasteful, with too much clutter and it's cluttering my mind!

But I also want internet and P is a TV freak...so we need to have technology! Maybe we can coin the term Techno-Hippie? :P Ahem, anyway..

I have a dream and in that dream, P and I live in a decently sized house, with a small garden out back, a compost pile, my cats, and simple decorations that are up-cycled/recycled/redone. I want to make my own soaps, shampoos, deodorants, lotions, chapsticks, and candles - and maybe have a side business doing this as well. I would love to figure out how to live as inexpensively as possible but still be able to comfortably pay all the bills that come with having a house.

I have ideas on how to do this (check out my "The Crunchy-Granola Life" pinboard on Pinterest by following the link at the top of my blog), but we need to make some BIG changes first. I plan to do some cleaning out, tossing, selling and giving away starting this week and I hope to document this endeavor here! Stay tuned!

LET THE DE-CLUTTERING BEGIN!

I need some inspiration!

Waaaaaaay back in April, I won this Tidbits Fat Quarter bundle:

Pretty yes?  Now what should I do with it?  Inspire me Bloggerland!!  :)

Look What I Made Monday! (On Tuesday)

My best friend was visiting this past week and we made a TON of yummy stuff including Super Brownies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Banana Banana Bread.  (A yummy post about the food is coming later on this week.)  Before she left I also made her a pillowcase.  She went through my fabric and picked a fabric for the body of the pillow that has all kinds of baking and cooking terms since we always bake and cook when we are together.  

I even had the coordinating fabric and I used that for the sashing.  

In between the two, she picked a bright yellow color that I wasn't quite sure about - but it worked out lovely! 

I really do love making pillowcases.  They are quick, easy and fun.  They also reflect their owner and not just to go with their bedding.  Here is one I made for myself a few months ago:

I kind of like elephants...  :P

Here is one I made for my mom this past year for Christmas:

Click here to learn how to make a pillowcase!

Making the pillowcase for my BBF kind of made me want to get back into sewing and quilting.  Hopefully this will happen soon!  :)  Thanks for dropping by and have a good week everyone!

Saturday Inspiration: Silly Signs

I need to get back into the swing of things regarding this blog!  Here's a wordless blog with some silly signs to get the ball rolling.  Have a good weekend!

Pic from here

Pic from here

Pic from here

Pic from here

Pic from here

Projects I'm working on...

1.  Block Swap Adventure Block:

Here's a preview for the block I made Jody S. in FL.  She didn't state a block preference and only a few color preferences so I hope she likes this block!  It was really fun to make.  :)

It's pretty scrappy - and I hope she doesn't mind that it came out kind of girly.  It is bright though!  This might not go out until this weekend seeing as how I don't get off work before the post office closes, but it will go out this week!  I will post the full block once I know that Jody received the block.

2. UFO's:

Two and a half inch strips that are eventually going to be two and a half inch squares.  Why?  Not sure yet...

Still not done with this quilt...

Fabric waiting to be washed.  :)

I also have three pillowcases pinned and ready to sew together.  :)  I didn't used to be the type who had UFO's laying around, but I can't seem to ignore the inspiration when it hits these days!

Wish List Wednesday

It's Wednesday and you know what that means!  Time for Wishlist Wednesday!  I have been racking my brain with what to put on my wishlist, but then I remembered something I have been wanting for a while now - a KitchenAid stand mixer in RED!  :)

I am not sure why I want one now - I have been avoiding them like the plague for years.  I think I felt that owning one would make me too "domestic" or something.  I guess I'm over that now.  :P  I would also like to venture into more baking and having one of these would GREATLY help.  

Plus it's red!!  :)

Random Thoughts

Good afternoon.  I am home sick for the second time in a row.  I am not sure what's wrong, I feel sort of in the middle of getting horribly sick and not being sick at all.  And, I have given whatever this is to my husband - great.  Anyway, lately I have been wrestling with where I fit as a quilter, sewer, hobbier, etc.  In the past I have gone through so many hobbies, picking up something, being all gung-ho about it then loosing interest in it quickly.  I'm not sure if it's a growing up and discovering yourself thing, lack of inspiration or that it's just the way I am.

Right now, I can count on two fingers the things I am interested in as hobbies.  One is baking.  The other is quilting.  For some reason or another, these two have stuck around to the point where I actually WANT a mixer for baking AND I have taken the time to put together a room for quilting.

Which brings me to my random thoughts.  (Bear with me, the threads that hold these thoughts together are thin and frayed!)  First, I am not attracted to traditional quilts like these - except maybe the double wedding ring, the compass star and the hexie flower.  Don't get me wrong, traditional quilts are beautiful and I always appreciated the work put into them!  Anyway, sewing together blocks that are all the same except for their colorways (btw, if you Google colorways and click images, you get shoes!) doesn't really inspire me.

Also, I can't seem to be able sew a straight line to save my freaking life!  I want that foot for my machine that guides your fabric and helps you sew a straight and even 1/4" seam - but they don't make one for my machine.

So, what does inspire me?  Well, I'm trying to figure that out.  As for quilts and fabrics, I love working with scraps, charms and small pieces.  I love the look of these scrap quilts.  I also love the look of the "wonky" quilts like this one from Blue Elephant Stitches and this one from r0ssie blog.  I came across my first string quilt when I came across a post from Wendy from Sewing in the Wendy City who was guest blogging over at Sew We Quilt @ Stash Manicure.  Then I discovered the work of Crazy Mom Quilts who just makes EVERYTHING seem so simple to make.  Even her "simple" quilts always look so beautiful!

So...I seem to be attracted to quilts that don't NEED to be sewn with straight lines; ones that look scrappy, bright and like a jumble of ideas in fabric.  However, I think I'm stuck.  I feel that if I go in the scrappy, uneven direction then I won't be respecting the traditions of quilting.  Maybe I also feel that if I don't learn the basic, fundamental, traditional blocks of quilting then I won't be seen as a "quilter?" I mean, I can appreciate the beauty in traditional quilts, really I can!  But when I *TRY* the blocks, or look at quilts that are "traditional," my brain gets bored.

Then there is the fabric.  So many of the quilt blocks out there seem to showcase the fabric in beautiful ways.  Like the 9 patch.  9 squares of fabric sewn together that show off the good choices of fabric you made when you picked out fabric for this quilt beautifully!  How can I justify taking a chunk of fabric I payed $7.95 (OR MORE!) a yard for and cutting it up into scraps?!

I don't know.  I feel the inspiration just bubbling at the surface!  What is blocking me?  Am I over thinking here?  And by over thinking, could I be stifling my creativity?!

Handmade Christmas

I know it's April, but I wanted to post the projects I made for my family for Christmas.  This large floor pillow was made for my brother and sister-in-law.  It's made of charm squares for the front and that awesome polka-dot fabric I used for my curtains for the back.  I also added a cute little edging out of the scraps of the charm squares.

 I added a small rosette in the middle to give the pillow some shape, but I don't think it survived in the shipping process.

 Here's a picture of the back and my signature star.  I try to put a star on everything I make.  :)

Then I made them a small decorator pillow with a rosette in the middle.  I hope it's not being used a ton because it's kind of fragile.  :P  If it did fall apart, I can put it back together.

I thought the middle of the rosette needed something, so I put a button in the middle - my sister-in-law loves buttons.  :)

The star on the back of the decorator pillow.

 The two of the pillows together.  I hope they like and use them!  :)

 For my dad, I made a bow-tie pillow - because bow-ties are COOL!  I found the flannel at WalMart and got the pattern from Sew4Home.

I was really impressed with how easy this pillow went together.  I stuffed it kind of full and yet left it squishy.  I'm glad I did because he uses it to support his neck while napping in his chair.  :)  He says it's the perfect amount of squishiness.  :P

 My signature star.  :)  I also made a pillowcase for my dad with the same fabric as this bow-tie pillow but when I went to take a picture of the two together, my camera battery died.

 I made my mom and my mother-in-law pillowcases (tutorial here).  I also found these neat flannel prints for my mom at WalMart.  I was impressed with these flannels so much!  They washed really nicely and came out of the dryer so soft!

I also found the doggy prints for my mother-in-law at WalMart.  She is so hard to make and buy for since her only two interests are dogs and horses.  However, every time we visit I notice that she is using this pillowcase - or she takes time to put it on her pillow when she knows I'm coming.  :P

 For my coworkers I also made pillowcases - Christmas pillowcases from fabric I found for half off.  :)  All the little sashing pieces match on all four pillowcases - but I'm not sure if they noticed.

I love creating gifts for family and friends.  Although, for the past two years, I've done pillows and pillow-related projects for everyone...anyone have any new ideas for gifts for this year?!

Fabric Shoppe Giveaway

Fabric Shoppe is having a giveaway!  I learned about it from Julie over at Jaybird Quilts.  If you hop on over there and leave a comment, you will be entered in the giveaway to win this amazing 1/2 yard bundle of Ty Pennington Impressions:

I am sooooo drooling over this fabric right now!!

Or a beautiful Robert Kaufman Half to Have It Radiance bundle in Oceanic:

So...pop on over to Jaybird Quilts and check it out!

I'm a WINNER! :)

One thing I love about blogging is being able to connect with people of like-mind.  I have gained some wonderful inspiration following the blogs of some very talented people.  One of the blogs I stumbled upon is the blog of Ryan Walsh called Im Just A Guy Who Quilts.  Ryan interviews all kinds of people including fabric designers who sometimes offer samples of their work to giveaway to his blog readers.

Can you see where I'm going here?  :P

That's right, I won one of his giveaways!  Check out the beautiful Tidbits fat quarter bundle designed by Kary Ramsey:

 I just love how the fabrics are soft in color and yet have such bold prints!

 I haven't decided what I'm going to do with these fat quarters yet, but I also won her new book, Tidbits from Triangles.  I haven't ventured into the world of triangles yet but this book might prove to be inspiration.

 I really love the look of this quilt, so maybe I will venture into triangles some day.  :)

Thank you Ryan and Kari!  :)

Go Vote For Meredith's Design!

I follow the blog Sewing in the Wendy City and her sister Meredith has entered a contest to be Spoonflower's next fabric designer.  Her design is for a little boy and is SO adorable!  See?

I don't think I have ever seen a fabric with paper airplanes on it.  I love it!  It actually reminds me of my brother when he was a kid - so much movement!  So, head on over to her blog Peacedonearth and follow the link to vote for her design.  :)  You can vote for the other designs but make sure to vote for hers too!

A Charming Work in Progress

Remember this picture?  That bin Anu is sitting on is full of charm squares.  I love charm squares but I realized about two weeks ago that I had filled up this box that I had specifically designated for charm packs and was quickly running out of room to store anymore.

 So, inspired by this post from crazy mom quilts, I decided to make a raggedy quilt out of my charm packs.  To start the project, I went through my charm packs, picked the packs I liked then went through the packs themselves and picked out the individual charms I liked.  I didn't have any neutral flannel in my stash so I decided to use two of the the rejected charms as the filler.

 I sewed the charms corner to corner making an X and stacked them up for some neat pictures.  I love all the bright colors coming through in this picture!  :)

  Once the charms were all sewn together, I laid them out on the floor of the sewing room to check the size.  At this time, another of my kitty helpers, Quixote decided to put in his two cents.

Apparently he didn't like that charm in that space!  :P

I ended up sewing the charms together randomly and have gotten 6 rows sewn and a few more pinned, so far.  Here are the sewn rows pinned up on my design wall.  I love how it's turning out!

 Every square is different on the front as well as the back.  

 Even after making this quilt, the charm pack bin is still over half full!!  Maybe I should make another one?

I still have to sew some more rows, sew the rows together, snip all the seam allowances and then wash it.  I think it's too heavy for my washer though...  More pictures to follow when it's completed!  Thanks for visiting!  :)