Sometimes I venture into the crafty realm outside of just sewing and quilting. Way back before I started sewing I actually played with rubber stamps and scrapbooking. Today, for some crazy reason, I was inspired to make a couple of cards for fall and Halloween. I know most people don’t exchange cards for those reasons, but my birthday is only four days before Halloween and when I was younger, my favorite colors were even orange and black! I also noticed that I had some of those clear stamps that were for Halloween so I thought “hey, why not?” and started playing. The first one I made was a lot like those cards I made WAY back a few years ago that look like a sort of log cabin quilt block. Here it is:

It’s not actually crooked, too much, it just scanned in that way.

The second was inspired by a cute pattern for an adorable embroidery project I found on a new (to me) blog call The Sometimes Crafter. I LOVE the name of that blog because that totally describes me too! She had this cute pattern and instructions available for free and since I was playing with paper, I decided to trace them out onto my scrapbook papers and make it into a card instead. I like her tree better, and I might even go back and add some more paper to give mine a little more heft. But I think it came out cute anyway. By the way, I {heart} my Xyron Create-a-Sticker machine!

Thank you Christina Lane for this cute pattern!

So stop by and tell Christina a big thank you for her cute pattern! I think there is still time to stitch this up into a cute trick or treat bag! Too bad I don’t know anyone who will be trick or treating this year!

I’m sorry for my absence from this blog for awhile. I’ve been spending all my time updating the Crafty Girls Workshop blog. I also just haven’t had any time to do anything sewing related so there hasn’t been anything to report on here. Bummer, who would have thought that opening an online fabric/sewing/quilting store would actually give me less time to sew and quilt! Until next time, I hope you get to  have a lot more time for crafting than I have.

Happy Spooky Stitches to You,

Anna

“Yes, Cinderella, of course you can go to the ball (a.k.a.sew all day long) as long as you get all your chores done before hand” Next scene is the evil step sisters piling mounds and mounds of work onto Cinderella. Do you ever have a day that feels like that? I sort of feel like that this morning and I have to say, I’m a little bitter about it. Originally, when I woke up and after I cleaned out the right side of the sink so that I could wash the coffe pot and start some coffee, I didn’t feel so down. It was raining outside and I thought “Oh goody, I can just sew all day long if I want!” As if the rain magically gave me permission to just ignore my “chores” and sew.  I even wrote a poem:

Rain rain, I hope you stay,

I really want to sew today.

If you stay I don’t have to mow,

rain rain, please don’t go.

How’s that for poetic? Well, my happy poem writing time has faded and now I have to do the rest of the dishes. I also feel the need to wash the laundry, fold the dry laundry, declutter the house, clean out the turtle tank, fold more laundry, vaccuum the floor, use the deep cleaning vaccuum to steam clean the carpets, and the list keeps going on from there. When am I going to find time to sew? Oh well, I guess I’ll just squeeze it in here and there. Sorry for the depressing post. This is just how I feel some Saturday mornings as my husband sleeps the day away. He’s a teacher, he’s tired!

Happy stitching to you,

Anna

P.S. I’ll post some pictures of my studio very soon for the studio post thingy from Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

I realized that I neglected to mention when I would be doing the drawing for the zippy pouch. I will draw the name tomorrow, September 30. I am sorry I didn’t set the date in the original post. So, there is still time to get the word out and get a few more entries! Thanks to all those who have entered so far, your feedback has been very helpful.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

One of my favorite magazines to read, that comes out only a few times a year is the Studios edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. The Fall 2009 issue is just about to hit the shelves, and here’s a sneak peak of the cover and link to purchase your copy!

I’m already inspired just looking at it!! I think I just finished pouring through the Summer Issue, I guess I’m a little behind the times.  So Cloth, Paper, Scissors has invited their readers to share pictures of their own studios to help promote the fall issue! But, we aren’t going to post those pictures today, you have to wait until Saturday, October 3! Until then, go an get yourself a copy of the Fall Issue of Studios and have fun reading about other people’s places for creativity. I will be ~ahem~ cleaning up my space a little and then sharing the pictures on Saturday. And Quilt Market is NEXT WEEK!! Check back for pictures about that and check the Crafty Girls Blog for great ideas for Christmas Projects and Market Updates! Until Next Time.

Happy Stitches (and happy reading),

Anna

Well, it’s not my blogaversary, it’s not my 100th or anything hundredth post. Hmm, according to the stats, Akismet (whatever that is) has protected my blog from 3,999 spam. So I suppose that’s worth celebrating. So I’m going to offer something as a bribe incentive to have you answer a few humble questions. Please just answer the following questions in the comments below and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a giveway. I know, you probably want to know exactly what it IS I’m going to give away. Well, here it is…

So, what do you think? It’s a zippy pouch, made with 1-1/2″ honey bun strips (see my post over on the CGW blog about other things you can make with a honey bun). Now that I’ve learned to insert a zipper, an invisible zipper, I actually want to do it again! Now, the zippy pouch will probably only be with similar fabrics to this because this one is being used and you probably want a brand new one, right? But I lined it in a totally cool lime green linen so I’ll do that with the new one as well. So is that good enough? Now you’d like to know the questions. OK, but, before I get to them, you might know your way around giveaways and want to know if there are MORE ways you can enter. So here’s the deal, I’ll give you the questions, then I’ll tell you a few more ways you can get another entry. Then I’ll publish this and see if anyone out there actually reads this enough to want to give me some feedback. Thanks sew much!!

Questions:

1) Do you shop online for gifts or gift making supplies?

2) If you do shop online, how would you prefer to see items listed,

a) by category, i.e., fabric, patterns, home sewn items

b) by price range, i.e., Gifts Under $5, $5.01-$10, etc.

c) some other way I can’t think of

See that was pretty easy, wasn’t it? Here are some additional ways you can get an entry into the drawing. PLEASE be sure to add your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you if you win. PLEASE leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

1.  Post about this giveaway on YOUR blog
2.  Twitter (Tweet?) about my giveaway
3. Post about this on Facebook
4. Visit my shop and tell me your favorite item(s)
5. Add this blog to your blogroll
6. Add this blog to your blog reader thingy RSS feed
7.  I hate to do this, but I’m dying to see if it will actually work. Purchase something from my shop or website and I’ll give you 5 additional entries.
8. Visit the Crafty Girls Workshop blog and become a follower

So how is that? If you answer both questions and do all those things, you’ll get at least 10 entries in the giveaway! Wow! How’s that for awesome!? OK, I have to go take care of my furry children now. 

Happy Stitches, Blogging, and Shopping,

Anna

In the fall of 1998 I joined the second oldest women’s fraternity, Phi Mu. One of the main reasons I wanted to join this group was that they support the Children’s Miracle Network. A friend of mine when I was very little had Lukemia and I vaguely remember her being sick many times and having to be out of school. When I became a teacher in 2002, I had a child in my class who had Lukemia and he was also out of school several times due to doctor’s visits. Sadly, he passed away in 2003, when he would have been in first grade. The Children’s Miracle network supports hospitals for children who have terminal illnesses. It provides the money so that the children can get the care they need to make them comfortable and help them fight their illnesses if possible. It just so happens that San Antonio, the city I live in, has a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital and the money our Phi Mu collegiate and alumnae chapters have raised has all gone to support our local hospital. We not only raise money, we visit the children at least once a year and are constantly looking for ways to support our CMN hospital. So, what is my point here? Well, it turns out that a wonderful event, called the Torch Relay, Miles for Miracles is passing through San Antonio in November! I’m going to participate, it’s a 5K walk, and my goal is to raise $100 (at least) whereas our team goal is to raise $2000.  It is very possible that the Torch Relay will be going through your town as well. Please, consider supporting this amazing event. The stories about the children are so fantastic and heartwarming.  If you feel comfortable doing so, please consider donating a few dollars to help me reach my goal. You can do so by clicking here.  It is completely secure and your information will not be shared, except to tell me you donated. Thank you so much, I hope you’ll consider this or some other organization to support, since there are so many amazing groups out there. Thanks for listening to me ramble about this special organization.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

I just found a giveaway on a very cute blog called Red Gingham written by a sweet girl from New Zealand named Sarah. She is about as crazy about quilting as I am so I was so excited to find out she was giving away some really neat items that represent her country. How awesome is that!? So here is the link. She gives you lots of ways to enter and there is still time.

You can also go over to Crafty Girls Workshop and get my craftygirls e-mail and drop me a message with your name and address and I’ll send you a pincushion! Yes, a cute one with a ribbon tab that is great for pinning it to your design wall! Two giveaways for the price of one, yippee!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. I know, I’m going to sew something on that LONG list of Christmas gifts, starting this afternoon.

I’ve added some links to projects I’m going to make for people for Christmas this year (hopefully), so if you need some ideas you might stop by that page. Boy do I need to get going! At least now I sort of have a plan of precisely what I want to make for everyone, including the guys! Don’t forget, if you have some projects you can post them on there too. Just add your blog link to the comments section. I’d add a Mr. Linky but I’ve heard it doesn’t work here on WordPress, bummer. Oh well.

Happy Holiday Stitching!

Anna

P.S. I’m not sure if it shows up on the sidebar, but I just posted something new on The Crafty Girls Workshop blog as well. Stop by and check it out! And there is still time to enter the drawing for the pin cushions!

OK, I’m going to give this a whirl. I think I can write a tutorial, why not? I mean, my real-life job is as an instructional designer, which is just a fancy pants way of saying that I write instructions for things. I can do this, OK, here we go.

Want to make a REALLY easy and REALLY fast gift for a special someone in your life? Why not make them a couple of cute pillowcases to decorate their beds and send them off to sweet dreams each night?

Finished pillowcase plus a quilt I made to match (free pattern below)

Supplies for ONE standard 20″ X 26″ pillowcase (great for a twin bed, double these supplies for two cases):

* 3/4 yd non-directional fabric (for body of pillowcase)

* 1/8 yd fabric for small accent band

* 1/4 yd fabric for outside band

*Sewing items such as sewing machine, coordinating/matching thread, scissors, rotary cutter and mat, iron

Cut the fabric:

From the main body fabric, cut a rectangle 26″ x 42″

From the small accent band fabric, cut a strip 2-1/4″ x 42″

From the outside band fabric, cut a strip 8-1/2″ x 42″

Fold and press:

Fold the 2-1/4″ strip in half lengthwise and press.

Do the same with the 8-1/2″ strip.

Attach accent band to the outside band.

Using a 1/4″ seam allowance, line up the raw edges and attach the accent band to the outside band.

Attach the body fabric.

This is where things get a little tricky, but it’s OK, I’ll walk you through it. Lay the accent band piece so that the raw edges are up. Then line up one of the long edges of the body fabric with the raw edge of the accent/band fabrics. Make sure the small accent piece is sandwhiched between the two larger pieces. Stitch together with 1/4″ seam allowance.

Close up of how to put layers together.

 Got it? Good. You’re almost done!

Press bands and sew pillowcase body

Press the bands forward so that they lay flat and the small accent band is on top of the outside band.

Fold the entire piece in half with right sides together and stitch along the bottom and side seams. Backstitch at the beginning and end to secure the threads. (Backstitch means stitch forward a couple of stitches, then press the reverse button, if your machine has one, and stitch backwards over the same stitches.) If you don’t have a reverse stitch, that’s fine, you can just tie threads off.  At this point, you’ll probably want to turn right side out and press the side seam flat or at least to one side so that it lays nicely, wha-la you are DONE!

Optional finish, zigzag the inside edge:

To prevent the seams from fraying with repeated washes or to give it a more finished look you can go back and do a zigzag stitch over the seam allowance. When you do so, make sure that the outside points of the stitch go over the edge of the fabric. Also, be sure to stitch over the seam allowance of the outside bands as well.

Here is what the finished pillowcase looks like:

As you can see in the first image, you shouldn’t feel limited to just cotton fabrics for the pillowcase body. I used a soft, snuggly fabric called Minkee for the pillowcase that matches the backing of the quilt I made above. So, now, that you’ve made the pillowcase, I’m sure you’d just LOVE to have a pattern for the quilt shown above too, right? I mean, don’t we all just have a ton of old jeans laying around the house that we’ve been wondering what to do with? OK, so here are the patterns, a PDF for the pillowcase tutorial above AND the quilt pattern! Yippee a twofer! Now, go and tell all your friends about these great patterns (if you think they are great.)

Right click and select Open in new Window

PDF for Pillowcase Pattern

PDF for Quilt Pattern

Happy Stitches,

Anna

I added this as part of the Gifts You Can Sew guide on Skip to My Lou

I just found out about two great projects that really need your help. One is called The Pink Slipper Project. Here is what the website says about this project:

Warming the hearts and toes of those who will spend this winter living in women’s and children’s shelters.

Please see what you can do, it’s a really easy pattern, just one seam. Make some for your friends and while you’re at it, make a few pairs to send in to the project. Plus, share this with all your guild friends to help spread the warmth!

The second project is called Hope Squared which is sponsored by a great organization called Margaret’s Hope Chest which is providing quilts for many different, wonderful reasons. This particular project is to help homeless children in the Michigan area to each have a quilt to keep them warm this Christmas season. They are working to get 100-200 quilts by Christmas! Please visit the blog and the website for more information about this project. You can also see Carin’s post on the Quilt N Stitch forum which has the address to send quilt tops or completed quilts to. Thanks for your support!

Please, please share this with anyone and everyone that you might know who could help. You can also add links for any other project that you would like us to know about in the comments for this post.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. I’m adding this to the Blissfully Domestic post links because I hope that by doing some good for others we’ll feel more Blissful.