BUT STILL SEWING TOO!

I love it when I have days off from work! I really get to play and have fun! So after cleaning the master bedroom and putting dinner in the crock pot that's just what I did today. Not only did I get to stamp but I also sewed! Stamping was in morning then when it got too hot to be upstairs I went down stairs into the cool basement and sewed. Here is what I finished. I say finished cause the Pooh baby quilt was already pretty much done I just had to finish up the binding.

Now you may be wondering what the funny thing with the space capsule on it is. It's a "Wubbie" for babies and toddlers. It is their own little 14 inch square quilt that they can carry around. The name "wubbie" came from a friend who gave one to her 2 year old. When asked if he liked it he responded "I wub it" so it became his wubbie.

The back of this little quilt is a fleece fabric so it is very soft and cuddly. The stuff poking out at the sides are little loops of ribbons of various different textures and colors. Quite a few are satin ribbons as most toddlers love silky fabrics. (Ask any mother who has been embarrassed by having their child lift up their skirt so they can hold on to mom's silky slip.) These provide not only tactile interest, but visual interest and can be used to hank on to the quilt.

I've also made some with print designs for little girls. They are very quick and easy to make. Hopefully they will be a popular item at the fall craft fair as I think I've already made 6 of them and have enough materials for another 3 or 4.

BACK TO STAMPIN'

I have gotten back to doing some stamping. In this case altering composition books and making them into Prayer Journals. I have also done some Gratitude Journals. It's soon to be October and so I am working toward making items for a craft fair that I am a vendor in at the end of the month as well as beginning to think Christmas!

I used my Xyron adhesive machine in to covering of these journals; so the papers are not going to go anywhere or peel off. I also this time place cardstock on the insides of the covers so that the school themed printed material would not be visible. The first set of journals I did not do that, primarily out of laziness I think and I don't like the way they look as much even though it is on the inside. I'm thinking that I may go back and ad the cardstock to them. It adds less than 50 cents to the cost of the materials.

I have also made Quilting and Knitting Journals and may do a few more of them as well as general diary type journals. I have some more composition books that I can alter and they are fun to do. Sometimes I just get bored with making cards!

My Life Is......

Here is the wall quilt I finished this week. It was a result of a quilting group challenge (the same group that did the Faces challenge). For this challenge we were all given the pattern for the bowl and had to create a wall quilt that had the bowl filled with something that was meaningful to me. I was working on the design for my quilt last spring when my husband and I were making plans for our summer vacation and I spent a lot of time thinking of just how much I love to travel. So my bowl is filled with "travel dreams". I actually have quilted into the light blue background, which is a cloud fabric "My life is a bowl of travel dreams". It was a fun challenge. I chose to place my bowl floating in the clouds and it is surrounded by grapes and patches showing Italian and French wine bottles. To help with the dreamy quality if the quilt is is quilted with a shimmery thread and has a sparkle in the blue binding fabric. Everything was done on the sewing machine.

A wonderful side note to this project is that I now actually have something completed for our guilds 2008 show next April!

Time Continues To Fly

Wow! We are already over half way through September. I have been busy with both stamping and quilting this month. In fact I have been so busy that I haven't had time to scan or take photos of anything I have worked on since I finished the cake. Which, by the way, everyone did love. I have also been busy traveling the past two weekends and extremely busy with work. This weekend is again VERY BUSY, but after that I should get some time to get pictures up here. For now I will just say I have finished a wall quilt and a Winnie the Pooh baby quilt. As for stamping projects I have done a number of altered composition books. Its fall which means we are approaching the holiday gift buying season and I am getting ready for a craft show at which I hope to sell both stamped and quilted items. So I need to be busy doing both!

LABOR DAY PROJECT

This was my big Labor Day Project. I had other smaller ones and some I wanted to get done but didn't, but this is the big one. And it was so much fun! It did take a lot of time and a lot of sticky strip, but it turned out even better then I had hoped.

I made it for a Women's Tea Party that we are having at our church on Saturday. In case you haven't guessed it is a paper cake! Each of the slices is a party favor box. I think it would be wonderful for a Bridal Shower as well.

The idea for the cake and the pattern came from SU's Stampin' Success magazine that is published for SU Demonstrators. They used all paper flowers to decorate theirs, but quickly decided I did not have the time to do all that cutting, especially of the greenery, so I literally tore apart some silk flowers that I had leftover from a quilting project. (Yes, I did say quilting project! If I ever finish it I will post and explain it, but don't hold your breath I started it 2 years ago and it is currently in UFO status.) I have decided that I really like the silk flowers better and if I ever do another one I will probably use them again.

I have all sorts of ideas for other cakes, such as a chocolate one made with Chocolate Chip card stock. It could be for a birthday party. Or a really fun one decorated for a baby shower or a child's birthday party. Really one's imagination is as usual in crafts the only limit on what can be done with a paper cake.

One really good thing about them is that they are calorie free. Unless your party favor is chocolate that is! I hope you have enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it. And I do hope the women Saturday enjoy their slice.