ahhh... vacation

I had a whole list of things I wanted to get accomplished over the holiday break, but the weather has been so nice... hiking and disc golf make good distractions for the crafty life. Today is the first day I'll get to have some time to myself and my hobby... My first order of business involves a bit of lino carving. I heard about a valentine show being thrown to help raise mula for a really cool fiber store and workshop space in Asheville called Cloth Fiber Workshop. The shop is holding a handmade valentine auction, and I'm going to make one inspired by a poem about a scientist. Hence the microscope. I'm wondering how much detail I'll actually be able to get, and how my first adventure with fabric stamping will turn out... I'll be sure to post a shot or two. After the microscope, I've got my sights set on a Sailor-Jerry-inspired panther (just in time for the Panthers to make the super bowl, or so sayeth my hubby) for an equally mind-bending amount of detail.

Here's a shot of a beetle carving (with a stitched on fabric border) I did for the Lark craft show earlier in December. I had never really experimented with sewing paper on the machine, but it worked splendidly.

Also, for a final bit of experimentation, I decided to try my hand at some fabric earrings. These were easy and quick to make: I fused three layers of fabric together and zigzag stitched along the edges. I have a lot more ideas for this theme in my notebook, but right now, the carver is calling....

el segundo

Pheww... I survived to craft another day (but just barely). I'll share a sneak peek at the flamingo quilt I made for mom, complete with nine fused flamingo appliques. I'm such an enabler, and this piece takes the cake. Mom loved it, and she's somewhere in Georgia enjoying it right now. And my favorite part: a free motion stitched note to my mom (i heart pam pam). As soon as I have an action shot of the quilt in use (in my mom's camper with all her other flamingo gear, including the stained glass panel I made her last year), I promise to post it, in all its pink and lime green glory.

In other quilting news, here's a mini quilt I made for my pal, Beth. More fused appliques, with a flower design I've been planning for a while. I think I'd like to do a little more experimentation with this theme, but the best laid quilting plans...

And okay, okay, I can't help myself. Here's one more piece. I call it "trees," and it's probably one of my favorite mini quilts. The stitching in the background is done with a mixture of free motion stitching (at the curved ends) and stitching with the foot down. My mom is giving this piece to her gal friends Cookie and Jolene... it's nice to know it will have a good home.

More crafts to come... especially since I have all of next week off: woohoo! I'm thinking some more block prints... and maybe some experiments printing on fabric. I might also make some fabric earrings.

post numero uno

Okay, so I've been thinking about creating a blog for awhile. Not because I think the world needs another blog, but because my hubby is in this crazy nursing program and I have to keep myself busy somehow. Mostly, I've been sewing and making block prints, and I hope to log my creative journey here. But, enough with the small talk...

I thought I'd share my first crafty creation of the day, although there will be more (ugghhh, many more) if I'm going to finish my laundry list of holiday gifts. I'm really trying to do a homemade holidays here, folks, but its darn hard. Here's the first creation anyway: fabric journals for my lovely nieces Mira and Ella.

I free-motion stitched their names on the cover of three-hole pamphlet stitched journals, which I learned about because I've been working on a book about, you guessed it, book making. More pics to come as I slowly cross gifts off my list (it's going to be a long weekend...).