4th of JULY!

My favorite time of year!

New flag wall hanging, banner of Americana themed sayings and mason jars! Love crafting for the home!

More crafty things...

I saw this idea at the craft store. They used a pre treated board and it had the clips already on it, but it was a little spendy, so I looked around for something different. 

Then I remembered that I had this wooden serving tray at home already! I still needed the clips though...then I found the flowers and clothes pins at Michaels in their cheap, matchy-matchy bins. There was a sheep of flowers with a pattern and then the clothes pins jumped out at me and I thought, clothes pins will totally work! So I put it all together and here's the final product!

I can't wait to get some herbs going in the garden!

Then I painted my wooden tulips.

I got a few at the tulip festival and a couple at Michaels. They had pre-painted options but the colors were just a bit off from my tastes, so I opted for plain wood and I used cheap acrylic paint from the store to make them colors more to my liking. Love them!

The bunny, the bunny, mmmm, I love the bunny!

This is a knock off of a scrapbook page I made eons ago. I decided to make an Easter wall hanging. The back is a great turquoise blue, to represent the sky. It's about 20x20ish. 

Then, I just started cutting pieces for the body, the ears, the inside of the ears, and the tummy. I just ball parked it, but you could pre-draw patterns if you weren't sure how big to make them. I would do that on wax paper and get a general idea of the lay of the land. I used greens and yellows for the boy bunny and pinks and turquoise for the girl. 

Here's what that looks like half-way through.

At this point, you use wonder under or heat and bond to adhere all the pieces to the background fabric. Then I machine stitched  around the edges (fast appliqué). 

Once you have that, you can start to add embellishments! I added buttons for the eyes and nose, as well as the boy's shirt. I made a string of  beads for the girl. I made a bow-tie for the boy and a hair bow for the girl.

Then you can stitch in little details like mouth lines, ear accent lines, etc.

Then I added the outside border. This helps fasten the bunnies down.

Afterward, I decided to add a strip of fabric that was scrunched up in order to make it look like grass.

Fin!

Here's my month block, too!

Quilt Ladder

I love the idea of taking something very ordinary and truning into something fun and functional! I've been wanting a quilt rack, but all the ones I have seen in the old days are big, bulky and only hold a couple blankets. 

I found this idea on Pinterest.  http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2013/12/10-wooden-blanket-ladder.html

Her how-to is pretty good.  I will just say that I would have made it taller and spaced out the crossbars a little more.  I tried, but someone cut my wood pieces a little off, so we had to adjust. :)  Maybe I'll make anothe

Also, the sanding process is pretty intensive if you are planning on using it for nice blankets, you won't want any snaggy bits.  I may have gone overboard on the stain too, because I had to do a lot of sanding after I stained.  I think if you do a lighter layer, it would have been less time consuming.

BOOTM II: march

This one is extra tricky because almost every piece of fabric was cut on the bias, meaning every piece is extra stretchy. Fabric is kind of funny like that. 

You can stretch it this way 

and it doesn't really go.

Or this way 

and it doesn't really go!

But this way

or this way

are crazy elasticy.  So when you cut pieces of fabric into odd shapes, like triangles, things can get extremely off kilter. And so, if you don't pay extra special attention, your pieces go all caddywampus!

Here's the finished product! I think she turned out pretty well!

Garden Hose Wreath

This one was so fun! As soon as I saw it on Pinterest, I knew I had to do it! It's springy and gardeny and whimsy and I love it!

Here's what you need:

-length of hose (I used a ling hose and cut it into thirds--where I live, Fred Meyer was cheapest, $10.99 for 50ft.)

-hose hardware ($12.00 for 4)

-spring florals from the Dollar Tree

-gardening gloves from the Dollar Tree

-ribbon ($4.00 for 4 yards, cut in thirds)

-bird (I'm obsessed with birds, been putting them everywhere! $3.00 for three)

-glue gun & glue sticks

TOTAL COST: $12.50 per wreath! Wooohoo! Way cheaper than store-bought! 

Here's what I did:

1. I cut the hose into three segments.

2. I gathered the hose in the approximate spot where I would be gluing in the florals with one of the twist-ties that came on the hose!

3. I put hose hardware into the ends that were cut. Since I cut the hose into three segments, the two original end pieces had hardware, but the other four needed additions. You could probably skip this step if you don't care about it looking like a real hose?!?

4. I trimmed pieces of the florals and arranged them on the side of the wreath.

5. Then I placed the gloves (fanned out a bit) on top of the flowers, thus hiding any stems poking out!

6. Lastly, I added a ribbon bow ad the bird in the sprigs of flowers!

And voila! Lovely finished product! 

Special Someone Quilt

In honor of valentine's Day...and how much I love making quilts, I present a Someone Special quilt.  But I don't have anymore space in my house, so now I get to make them for other people! This one will be for a sweet friend that I miss everyday! I know she has mainly reds and browns in her living room and my favorite colors are green and turquoise, so it's a little piece of her with a little twist of me! I'm excited about how fast it is coming together!

This is the finished quilt on her couch! Awesome!

Pieced by Christina Konrad

Backed with twin sheet!

Quilted by Jennifer McCrea

Finished 2015