WEEKEND SALE IS ON...

THE WEEKEND SALE IS ON....

WITH THE COUPON CODE.."WEEKEND25" -ALL PURCHASES ARE 25% OFF. THE SHOP HAS BEEN STOCKED THIS WEEK WITH NEW FELTED COZIES, NEW BUBBLE GUM HAPPINESS FLOWER PATCHES, NEW MITTENS, NEW FAT QUARTER STRIPED BUNDLES, AND A VARIETY OF FUN VINTAGE FINDS FROM MY TRIP LAST WEEK.

FOUND A BEAUTIFUL VINTAGE WOOL BLANKET IN AMAZING CONDITION...

FOUND THIS FUN RAINBOW STRIPED WOOL SWEATER FROM NEPAL...19 NEW STRIPES THIS WEEK ON THE SHELVES....

FINALLY FINISHED A HANDFUL OF THE SCRAPPY PATCHES...

FINISHED 6 NEW PAIRS OF FELTED WOOL MITTENS.....

AND ABOUT 15 NEWLY DESIGNS WOOL COFFEE COZIES JUST IN TIME FOR THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS.....

Scrappy Patch Works in Progress....

It was time to give my scrap bins a little love and a little purpose! I have not made any new patches for the shop for quite some time and I know there are a few fun customers who have been waiting patiently for some new ones. These are not a project that I do 1 or 2 of at a time, these are actually the type of project that is a rather large undertaking. Because of the volume of scraps I am working with and the time it takes to sort through them to find the right patterns and colors, I would much rather have the outcome be a whole collection than only a handful. I start by collecting the fabrics I want to use as the background foundation for the patches, for this bunch, I am working with pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and a touch of green. They remind me of lifesavers-YUM! After picking the prints, I iron fusible interfacing to the back of each patch after it is cut to size( I buy entire bolts of interfacing now-always love when JoAnns has their interfacing for half off!) I really enjoyed the process this time because it is the first time I have worked on a collection at my new studio table(it measures in at 6x9 feet! HEAVEN) I was able to lay out all the patches and work on them in smaller segments of time until they were all designed and ready to be sewn together. They are finished after 3 days of prep. They are now at my machine and I am hoping to spend a little bit of time on them each day to have finished by weeks end. Then I will begin on the greens and blues collection for next week. Here are a few pics from the process...

All coordinating and yet all one of a kind!

My blessing of a work table that has given me the ability to work on multiple projects at one time.

My floor after I am done working on scrappy patches. My fingers are a bit sore from all that cutting.

And 32 patches designed and waiting at my sewing machine for me. It will be a fun collection to see finished. I may just snag a few to frame;) Madi has been telling me I should make a quilt with pathces like these, I may just do that someday-sounds fun!

Happy Patches.....

About a week ago, after a looong silence, I had mentioned some fun new patches that were added to the shop. I also mentioned that I would fill you in on the making of them, so here it is...

These little happy wonders are a great break from the normal sewing, cutting and designing. They are also a great way for me to use up those fun little scraps that i just cannot bear to throw out. These patches began as a way for me to avoid mending! I HATE mending! But with five kids, you can imagine the need for it. I am shocked sometimes at the things that can end up with holes in them! And I will show you one of them to prove what I claim! I also found that is was a fun way to get more use out of my free motion quilting foot on the dream machine.

When I make my patches, I do it in bulk, which I have found fills two needs...one it is the most efficient way to make a mess! It would be a bit of a tragedy to make such a huge mess for one little patch(haha) And second, I have way too many ideas that I just need to try out! So this last time, I believe the count ended up being over 30 patches in the new collection for the shop. I am still working on getting them all listed!

The first thing I do is to pick out some prints that I want for the background on the patches. I cut them into 6 inch strips and iron on interfacing. The interfacing, I believe, makes them durable which is really the point of a patch, right?
Then I cut them into six inch squares. I do make other sizes for special orders, but this is my typical size.
Such a fun little stack full of potential!
All laid out and ready to be built on!
I keep a crate full of fabrics that have been backed with interfacing. About once a month, I take around an hour to iron interfacing on to fabric scraps that I would like to use for patches, buttons, and appliques I use on clothing and totes. That way, I am not going back and forth to the cutting table, ironing board and scrap bins. Digging through the crate for the right fabric scraps is like putting a puzzle together-very fun!
Here are the patches starting to develop. Many layers are added to each one.

All set to head to the sewing machine. I did two full rounds of patches like this.
Here is the first batch all stacked up. I keep them sandwiched between two game boards until I can get them stitched. Keeps me from losing all their pieces. I takes me about a week to get them all sewn. I tend to work through one thread color at a time. Once I run out the bobbin of one color, I move on to other activities around the house.


Now remember I said i would show you what i have used them for. Well here it is. Awhile back, my girls had the basement covered in forts. They were doing their school in the shelter of them one day and as I was working down there, all of the sudden Joslyn jumps out of her fort and says, Madi's fort is on fire! Talk about your heart stopping! Well it was actually not on fire-YET! See, against my better judgement, I let the girls take a light into each of their forts so they could see, and I of course validated my own fears with this occurence. Now, I must make sure Madison does not take the fall for this, she actually did turn her light off like she was supposed to, but my little guy, the curious, angel employer, decided to figure out how to turn her lamp on and then leave the crime scene. As he fled the scene, he knocked the fort down and in turn almost started it on fire. Thanks to Joslyn's keen sense of smell, we were saved! So, when I say, you can't imagine what I need patches for, I mean it! So after being quite strong in my speech of absolutely no lamps in forts and no forts for quite awhile, and me getting the chance to thank Jesus about 20 times for protecting us, for having us all in the basement when the whole thing went down so that we could catch it before real disaster occured, thanking him for the nasty smell fabric puts off when it is MELTING, and then airing out the house of the burnt smell that was extremely nauseating, I cooled down enough to put some creativity into this disaster. I was so upset about my fun little happy blanket being melted! But, it was saved and now has a story to tell. It now has 3 fun patches decorating it.
And now!!!

I make the patches sew on. I have just never been to impressed with the iron on materials out there, they never seem to replace some good old fashion sewing. But the sewing is simple and the product is long lasting.

What is New...

I thought I would take a bit of time to write while I am waiting for my "drowsy" allergy medicine to kick in. This past month I have been at war with bronchitis. At first I was simply thankful for it not interfering with the activities of my day too much, just was a bit irritating. But the last two weeks as it has been dragging out, it has kind of kicked by butt. restless night due to coughing up a lung, achy ribs and back from-coughing, weary from restarting my sentences over and over again because of-coughing, you get the picture. But with my second trip to the doctor this week, I think i am finally on the mend and starting to breathe again. So, there you go, that is why I have been absent here. As much as i love the blog, it is a bit of a luxury that I must let go of when other priorities leave no room on my plate.

But here are some highlights that I at least had pictures from.
Bell has been enjoying her art easel that she got from her GG(Great Grandma).


Joslyn decided she wanted a horse, so she hijacked my stash of boxes to create her mustang. So we now have a horse residing in our basement-sorry to my lovely customers, my studio is no longer pet free(Haha). Joslyn can bury herself in a project for hours when she gets an idea. I love hearing her say, I LOVE ART. She has been known to very dramatically claim she could not live without art.
Madison is my little lady who loves listening to old records and dancing around. I put together a collection of old record waltzes for her last Christmas. Talk about a fun treasure to hunt down. But this week, the waltzes got to her and she just had to have a partner to dance with her. So I found her digging through crates of Cole's old clothes that do not fit Noah as of yet. This is what she put together for Noah. It really was pretty darn cute! And Noah was quite the sport in it all. He loves hopping around to the music too.

We were able to finally dig up our carrots! They were excellent, kind of ruins it for me wanting to buy them from the store! Next year, there will be a whole lot more carrots growing in our gardens, that is for sure.
While Matt was able to take a vacation day to hang out with an old friend and catch U2's newest tour-which they were able to actually be in the inner circle , center stage for-I am so jealous. I spent the day with my folks, which was wonderful. We sat outside and had lunch and dinner on the deck while the kids played in the tree house my Dad had built for us kids when we were little. Noah took an awesome nap on Grams and gramps floor, thanks to Grandmas's great rocking skills! She has the touch! i can't remember the last time I was able to rock him to sleep!


And speaking of my folks! Dad has now been in his new job for 2 weeks-praise the Lord! After almost 2 years of searching for a job! If you know anyone going through jobloss or difficulty in finding a job, please remember to keep praying, I can tell you from watching my parents go through this, that it is so hard and so discouraging,words could never do it justice. prayer for the Lord's peace, and comfort, and guidance is always needed!

And we are still enjoying the Park across the street from our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is an older one, so it does not have a play ground in it like all the new developments do, but we are blessed to have something even better five minutes walk form our front door! We have Phillips park aquatic center, sledding hills, zoo, island, gardens, and playground and picnic site. Can't beat that! So we are enjoying that all times of the years.
And now, here are a few things I have been working on in the shop.
I love old books that have seen better days. So I have begun to cut tags from the pages of them. The kids love helping me choose what we try to work into the tags. Just a fun little extra to play with. I was blessed with a sizzix die cutting machine last Christmas that my husband brought home from a white elephant exchange!!! I have put it to use -a lot!
I have also had a chance to restock on patches. I enjoyed making them just as much as always! The perfect way to use scraps! I am hoping to begin framing collections of them soon. I will try and write up a post soon on how I make them.

Well, I am very sleepy and need to finally rest my head on the pillow. Toodles lovelies!