Hooooo Loves Ya Baby?

I'm so proud of myself.  I have fallen in love with applique cuz there is just sooooo much you can do with it!!  I made this tonight....it's super cute and I just adore it.  It is my own design...no tracing involved...I drew everything myself.  The only thing I copied was that I went to google and looked to see how to make the owl, but I didn't trace anything - I just did my own design based on various ones I saw that I liked.  :)  I think it turned out pretty well!  There are a few changes I would make but not that many honestly!  I love owls, and this is my husband and I as owls in looooove.  :)  Oh and it's a plain green table runner that I found at a thrift store and just added all the applique to it.  I would use it as a runner but I know my kids and/or cats would destroy it and it would just break my heart, so I am hanging it safely on the wall in my sewing room lol.

 

ETA:  I am going to be doing a tutorial on how to do applique very soon.  I am having problems with my digital camera so its a real pain in the butt to get pictures off my camera at the moment.  Took me about 30 minutes just to get these ones.  *sigh*  So as soon as I remedy that problem, I will be posting a couple of tutorials on things I have learned lately.  I'd really like to do a video tutorial at some point but for now it'll just be pictures.

A Cute Hotpad & New Toys

So tonight I decided to take pictures of my new toys!  This is just a small sampling of the stuff I got at Joann's (spent way too much but it was worth it!).

 

What you see here is my thread variety pack with various colors, a pincushion wrist band which is sooooo handy, I adore it!  In front of that is my marking tool.  Under there you have my clear ruler (awesome) and then my cutting mat which also serves as an ironing pad!  The white side (which you see here) is for pressing/ironing and if you flip it over there is the green cutting mat which is awesome and I love it!!  I also got some fabric, batting, fusible web, can't remember what else lol.

 

So this is my newest project.  It's a quilted hotpad (potholder).  The front has two solid blocks and two print blocks put together in a 4 square pattern, and the heart is actually appliqued on!!  It was actually pretty easy to do.  I wish I had chosen a different decorative stitch to go around it, but we live and learn.  :)  The binding, I made myself and just basically "winged it" so it doesn't look that great, but considering I didn't really know what I was doing....I'd say not bad lol.  I'm happy with it and I think it's super cute!

 

This is the backside....no applique, otherwise its the same as the front.

 

My hotpad in action!!  :P  I didn't use thermal batting so I can't technically use it as a hotpad.  Well I could, but it probably wouldn't do its job lol, so its just for decoration.  I might actually hang it on the wall as a mini quilt because I think it's cute.  I love the possibilities with applique and I cannot wait to get some more fabric and play around with it!!  I have alot of ideas!  The next one I made, I'll do a tutorial.  

Coasters For a Friend

A good friend of mine asked me to make her some quilted coasters, so I decided to let that be my first quilting project!  It took a long time and I learned from alot of mistakes lol, but I finished them and they look pretty cute and serve their purpose, even if they aren't perfect.  :)  I know my friend, Dianna (http://afloweredpurse.blogspot.com) will love them, cuz she loves me!!  LOL.

Here they are....

 Top side: pinwheel design using two different fabrics

 

Bottom side: single block of a coordinating fabric

Tooth Fairy Pillow

My 7 year old lost another tooth at school today.  They gave her a cute little red treasure box for it.  But I decided to make her a cute little Tooth Fairy Pillow!!  I made some mistakes, but overall it turned out great.  I just need to get a hand sewing kit to "tie up some loose ends" sew to speak.  ;)

This only took about 30 minutes or so, and I actually ended up making two because the first one wasn't working out - so I just didn't add the pocket to it and gave it to my 9 year old daughter as a pillow for her dolls.  It looks the same as this one, just different fabric and no "pocket".

This one has Disney Princess flannel fabric and the pocket is appliqued all the way around and then sewn onto the front of the pillow.  I have been looking at pictures of appliqued quilts all day and I think they are just beautiful so I wanted to try my hand at it lol.  I am dying to make a quilt but I need to get some fabric first.  Maybe I can make just a small quilt block or something with scrap fabric to get a feel for it.