acorn tutorial time . . .

These little fellows were just so much fun to make ... and to me they were especially endearing, knowing that their little caps came from our own trees!  They whip up really quickly and easily, so if my instructions are tough to follow, it's me, not them!

First, round up some caps!  We have a number of different types of acorn-bearing oaks in the camp, so I was able to find some different looking styles and sizes!  

We've been really wet over the past several weeks, so after I picked up all the caps I wanted, I put them on a tray in the oven at about 200 degrees for several hours.  They were nice and dry after that!   Then I was able to sit down and get busy! I used a variety of wool colors--because variety is the spice of life--but feel free to stick to more traditional colors/patterns if you desire.

Cut your wool in a circle (about 1.75" diameter). I didn't even trace it; I just held the circle to the wool and cut around it.

Using a sturdy thread or floss, knotted at the end (but with an inch or so of floss to work with on the tail end), stitch a running stitch around the edge of the circle (about 1/8"). 

End your stitching on the same side you began it.  This makes it easier to pull the circle closed.

Pull the ends of your thread together, slightly pulling the opening together (this will help you find the center/base of the acorn). Put a healthy dollop of hot glue (about pea-sized) into the opening, directly on the wool base. This will help you to shape the acorn and will also give the base some weight.

Take a pinch of polyester fiber fill and stuff it into the opening onto the hot glue.  Use your discretion.  If your cap is a bit bigger, your acorn can probably handle a tad more fiber fill.  But remember, you're putting it in over hot glue -- so it's better to start on the 'less' side of fiber fill and add more if you want to.

Pull the ends tight to close the opening and tie it off. You can snip off your ends, or do what I did and stuff them down into the acorn using the tools in the next step.

Using a stiletto or the pointy end of junkie scissors, stuff the excess thread and any fiber fill into the cinched opening. At this same time, work the hot glue in the wool into an acorn shape with your fingers.  This step is not pictured because I couldn't actually do what I was talking about and take a photo at the same time.  LOL!

Place a generous dollop of hot glue at the top of the acorn, over the opening , and cover with the acorn cap.

Set it straight on or make it jaunty!  Personality counts!

Finally, make a GAZILLION more!  Because they're so stinkin' addictive!!!

Happy Fall, y'all!

:)

let's make it . . .

. . . a wonderful Wednesday!!  (Did you think I was going to say something quilty-cutesy? Psyche!)

I'm just going to be straight out honest and say that I got in more napping than stitching on Sunday afternoon. (insert cheesy grin here) But I have done a smidge of stitching on Evey's quilt . . . 

"G", to be exact.

I found a cute pattern for bubble britches for Evey (to go with her turtle smock). I was prepared to buy a pattern when I remembered I've got a pretty decent arsenal of patterns for little girls' clothes saved on my laptop. Sure enough . . .

Just the bloomers. For now! Pdf patterns are interesting, because you've got to print them and then put them together . . .

Tah-dah! That was quick...luckily for me, these little cuties only needed five pages. But I still had to find some appropriate fabric! Luckily for me, there's a little shop *two*doors*down* from my place of work -- Barb's Sewing. I think I've got the perfect little print to hide a diaper and go with the smocked turtles . . .

Isn't that cute stuff??? Add that half-yard to my stash and out again.

I found a *GREAT* video tutorial for baby bloomers from Vintage to New.  

This tutorial is definitely worth checking out if sewing a pair of baby bloomers is in your future. LOL!  (insert another cheesy grin here)

So that's where I stand on Wednesday -- hoping to have bloomers finished on Friday and powering through letters "I" and "J"! Linking up today with Esther's Quilt Blog WOW (WIPs On Wednesday) post. Have a GREAT day!!

:)

picture this . . .

I've recently noticed a lot of bloggers who've encountered the annoying "sideways picture" problem and haven't been able to get their pics loaded into the posts properly.  Sometimes they just give up and use the picture in the awkward orientation or worse, they don't post the picture at all.  I have found a little trick that works (with Blogger) every time and I thought I'd share it here!

Most of the time, this happens when you've changed the orientation of your picture.  For some reason (and really, with no rhyme or reason) Blogger feels the need to arbitrarily change the orientation back to the original setting.

And you end up with pictures turned on their sides like the above, forcing readers to move their heads into unnatural positions to view your work correctly.

To get your pics righted, click on your 'insert image' icon and then when the 'select a file' window opens, click 'choose files'.  This will open up a directory on your computer.  

Once you've navigated to the location of the photos you want to upload, highlight the photo (or photos) you want to upload.

Once you've highlighted your photos, hover your mouse over one of them, and right click to bring up the pull down menu.  Click on "rotate clockwise".

This will rotate your pictures clockwise one turn.  Keeping your mouse hovering over one of the selected photos, again right click to bring up the pull down menu. This time click on "rotate counterclockwise".  

This will rotate your pictures back to their normal orientation and at this point, you will want to click "open" to upload your photos into the blogger screen:

And voila, they'll be uploaded correctly and, more importantly . . .

Will look far more superior in your blog post than the picture turned on its side!

As I've said, I've *never* had this method fail for me in Blogger (and generally speaking, I walk through these steps the FIRST time I try to upload).  I've made all the pictures in this post clickable so you can see them 'big' and feel free to comment or email if you have any questions about the process.

Happy blogging!

:)

two in a row . . .

Posts, that is.  Quite out of the norm for me these days, isn't it?!  But I couldn't resist showing off a bit!

I bustled out to the closest LQS yesterday morning, and spent an hour or so with the pieced top spread out over a couple of tables, interviewing fabrics for the border and binding.  The binding was an easy pick for me, but the binding took a couple of tries.  I finally ended up with this combination:

The black print for the border and the red for the binding. Many thanks to Sharon, at Patches & Stitches, for all her help (and putting away all those bolts)!

Like I could walk into a quilt shop and *just* get what I came for.  I spotted the Christmas fabrics and, with a very specific project in mind (more on that later in the month...no, definitely not tomorrow), I scooped up these lovelies:

I'd say my August stash report is blown, but since I've got a top finished, that'll take care of that!

And . . . because I just realized I didn't have an 8.5" square ruler . . .

I can't believe I made all those blocks way back when, without an 8.5" ruler! Was I mad???  I threw in a package of my favorite redwork/embroidery needles, too.

After a quick stop at the grocery store (Todd has to eat, even if I could quilt through dinner), I hurried home to get BUSY!

I'm so, so pleased with how this turned out!!!  Here's the original pattern and what we were going for (20 of us participated in this block swap):

She used jewel tone batiks, which are really pretty, but our group agreed to use Civil War prints and shirting for the blocks (this is when I realized how beautiful and rich CW prints were and how much I love them). Her pattern calls for 48 blocks.  Here's my finished top with 40 blocks:

Yup, I'm totally in love with this!  The four corner blocks make it, for me . . .

And I did something new-to-me . . . I mitered the corners of the border around the corner blocks!

You really can't see it, but I think that's part of the charm.  It really does make the block look like it's floating.  Mitering the corners wasn't too tough, once I figured out how to do it.  I will say that I was glad it was only happening in one corner!  LOL!  I used a video tutorial by Penny Halgren to help me figure it all out.

There are so many things I could name this ... but when I texted a picture of it to my son, he commented how striking it was to him -- that it reminded him of pixels of color, all coming together to make a picture.  Since he's a graphics design guy, that makes sense.  I think I may gift this to him and call it Pixelated!  :)

Now I just have to decide how to quilt it . . . but that can wait.  I just had to have the top pieced for Thursday's show & tell!!

:)

kanzashi flowers . . .

There was a lot of interest in my cute little Kanzashi flowers the other day, so I thought I'd take a post and lay out the specifics.

Mine were made using templates--similar to yo-yo templates--that are manufactured by Clover  There are actually quite a few different templates (see Clover's website for details), but I have these three. I currently have these three. I see additional templates in my future. Variety is the spice of life, after all!

Anyway, the process is incredibly simple.  The size of your template will dictate the size squares you will cut from your fabric.  I'm using the large round petal template, so it calls for 4.75" squares.  I'm actually using scraps I already had, so no cutting involved!

Fold your template in half, making sure the fold of your fabric is up against the fold of the template piece.

Next, cut out your fabric around the template.  No seam allowance is necessary.

The points for stitching are numbered, as is your starting point.  Thread your needle with a nice heavy thread or strand of floss (and I used a strand of about 27") and put a good knot in at the tail end, leaving a nice 2"-3" tail past the knot. Put your threaded needle in at the starting point (#1) and down at two, up at three, and so on . . .

You should finish with your threaded needle coming up through point #8 ... on the FINISH side.  If you haven't, you know you've gotten something mixed up! Note how the thread between points 3 and 4 and points 5 and 6 is OUTSIDE the template. That's why it's oh-so-important to cut before starting to stitch! I learned this the hard way when I was going too fast and not paying attention. (Which is typical for me.)

Once you've put your needle through # 8, open up your template . . . 

Now you're going to carefully draw your thread and gather the fabric . . .

You may have to do a little shaping to keep the top of the petal rounded, but I found I had to do very little.  The placement of the thread does a very good job of producing the exact desired shape!

Now, without doing anything other than pushing your finished petal to the end of the thread, repeat the process.

The same strand of thread is used continuously through all the petals.  The instructions call for six, which is what I used for the first flowers I made.  But I felt like they weren't full enough, so for this flower, I'm making seven petals.

Once you have your desired number of petals made, pull them together tightly -- but be careful not to break your thread!  This is why a heavy duty thread or floss is handy!  Once I had mine pulled together the way I liked it, I ran tacking stitches through the back of the flower.  For the center, I used a shanked button -- but you can use whatever delights you!  Beading would be pretty ... or felt ... or piping!

I attached a snippet of felt onto the back for a leaf and voila!  C'est tres jolie!  It took me less than 25 minutes from start to finish -- including the button and leaf. SUPER easy and cute! The instructions are included in the packaging (and are very thorough and easy to understand), but sometimes seeing how simple something really is on the front end is helpful!

I found the templates in three of the five quilt shops we visited on Saturday, and I imagine that JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's (etc.) will have them too. Oddly enough, these fun, free project sheets were in one of the shops that didn't have the templates (they'd sold out, I guess).

Yup.  I see lots of uses for these darling flowers!  Like I said, these project sheets were freebies, but if you can't find them in a shop near you and you'd like a copy, just let me know!

Oh ... what's the cute little polka dot fabric laid out in my sample shots, you ask?

Binding fabric.  For a quilt that's ready to be BOUND!

:)

more reminiscing . . .

Before I'd headed off to retreat, I spent time with both Sawyer (at the camp) and Ellie (in her home).  Sawyer and James came out late in the afternoon for a spontaneous golf cart ride . . .

It was a *cold* day, but a couple of extra blankets made the ride fun!  That and the berry-red drink Sawyer had before we took off!

For all that Sawyer is "all boy" (as evidenced here by the bigger-than-Sawyer stick he's trying to fish with) 

(no dads were harmed in the making of this picture), he's also truly one of the sweetest, most sensitive little guys.  Last night I watched him and June while their folks went out on a date night.  June had gone to bed and Sawyer and I were watching Toy Story 3 and I was working on some hand quilting.  Sawyer was *very* curious about what I was doing and told me how pretty it was.  He also offered to help and then asked if it was for him.  I told him no, this one wasn't for him -- that I'd made the Dinosaur Quilt for him.  The following conversation ensued:

Sawyer:  My Dinosaur Quilt?

Me:  Yes.

Sawyer:  You made my Dinosaur Quilt for me?

Me:  Yes, just for you!

Sawyer:  Neesey, that was so sweet of you!

LOL!!  He just melts my heart, he's such a dear little darling!

Speaking of which, Ellie is just as adorable.  I had such fun playing blocks and dolls with her, not to mention going through her closet and dressing her and playing with her hair (which is growing so quickly)!

Recognize the bow, per chance?  LOL!  Ellie got tired of it very quickly.  Which is how it ended up here . . .

Someone had to wear a bow, right?  (Looking ridiculous -- but cute and fluffy nonetheless.)

And yes, you'll notice the bow didn't make it back to the head of its rightful owner.  And she doesn't appear too upset about it, either.  Of course not!  And she's totally pleased with herself here because she's made it around the barrier I put up to keep her from going up the step.  Because even with a little broken leg she moves faster than I do!

On to retreat ... thought I'd share a few of my fun moments.  We each got to take home a sweet little pin cushion chick.  

Plus we got to make one, too! I couldn't believe how EASY these were! We used the tutorial over on Riley Blake Designs by Deonn from Quiltscapes. I already have plans to make more. 

We also made these darling little draw strings bags . . .

It was super easy and quick to put together and totally darling!  I see these for granddaughters--they could be matchy-matchy on the outside, with different prints on the inside!  This isn't the greatest photo of it ... sorry about that!  The quilter who shared this project didn't have a sheet of instructions and I searched high and low for a similar bag online, but couldn't find one.  It's so easy, I may try to do a up a little tute for it in the next week or so . . . or if someone knows where there's already something posted, let me know!

I also picked up two tee-shirts to commemorate my stay ... one in lilac and this one in blue:

And of course, a Grand Oak Retreat cookbook!  

The food is always SO good -- and Cindy cooks all her menus from the current cookbook, which is fun because it means I can come home and recreate our meals for Todd. My sweet friend and fellow Stitcher, Jackie, found the Afternoon Tea quilt pattern in one of her magazines, and thought of me! Wasn't that sweet of her??

And I won this darling thread catcher/pin cushion, too . . .

I always wanted one of these!

Here's our Stitchers' Crew - Grand Oak Retreat 2013:

I'm missing three ... two had already left and one (my darling pal, Sarah) got cut out of this pic.  Whoops!  This is the fifth year the group has gone!  My third year -- I hadn't joined the group their first year and I missed one of the years.  But I'm already on the list for next year!

And today I'm off to Ellie's.  (And Jocelyn's).  Have a GREAT Wednesday!

:)