handwoven pillows

soon there will be so many pillows on the couch we won't have a place to sit! Ha!

I love how my stripes woven up on my rigid heddle loom go so nicely with the pillows I wove on Kathie's floor loom. I used the same yarns (8/2 cotton, literally from the same cones!) and added in a lime green and a lighter teal.

This one is 16" square.

And this one is a 12x16" rectangle. 

Ahhhh they make me happy!

Finish Along first quarter finishes

I'm so happy I have been playing along with the 2017 Finish-along! It really motivates me to get things done. This quarter I challenged myself to complete five specific items.

And I finished all five! Yay me! 

First up, my word of the year quilt (which still isn't hanging on the wall but it is FINISHED!)

My Liberty EPP Plus project became a beautiful pillow which I love to look at every day...

And another pillow finish! Our scrap swap project for the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild that now lives with Chris...

I love the way my Modern  Mystery Block of the Month quilt turned out!

And this shirt is too comfy! I'm almost sad it is quickly getting too warm to wear it here in Texas...

So that's it for the first quarter! I'm linking up at Rhonda's Ramblings.

Off I go to make a list for the second quarter!

Liberty EPP plus pillow

One of my first quarter goals for the finish-along was to take strips of this beautiful stack of Liberty:

make them into plus blocks:

And make it into "something" which quickly became a pillow:

there's something about Liberty prints that's just so yummy, isn't there? And English Paper Piecing with Liberty Lawn? Oh man! they stitch so beautifully. I really enjoyed this project.

I used a pretty pink grunge from my stash for the back, and bound the edges in one of the Liberty prints that was just too big for the EPP piecing:

This is my fourth finish for the first quarter in the Finish-along. One more to go!

pillows

Another finish for my third quarter finish-along goals!Six pillows for Ally's apartment done and happily hanging out on her couch.

Fabrics are all black/white/gold cotton prints from Hobby Lobby (with added kona black in the patchwork pillow). Two 18" pillows, one 16", one 14" and two 12"x16" rectangles. They look so good in her happy new home!

Just one more finish to go for this quarter for me.... and it's a doozy! I've been cranking away on My Small World quilt & hope to have the topper done very soon.... whew!

ellyn's place makeover

After 2 years in our "new" house I've been reevaluating some of our spaces. One side of my studio space had a table & large bookcase that had become a huge pile-up spot. No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep the clutter straightened up. The table was basically useless. I realized what I really needed was more storage space!

Ikea to the rescue! Two KALLAX units later, I had regained floor space and cleaned up the mess!

Not only that, I managed to eliminate the ironing board that always seemed to be in the way. After seeing the pressing station on Sew Katie Did I knew that was the right solution for me too.

IKEA sells the wheels to fit the KALLAX units too! I followed Katie's directions and I adore my new pressing station. It fits perfectly against the wall, but can be rolled out if I need to iron something large. Perfect!

I used the rest of a vintage sheet to cover it, so it matches my mini ironing station that stays next to my machine. I have to admit, stripes were probably not the best choice as it was impossible to get them straight! Ah well, the way I destroy covers, I'll be making a new one before you know it. I think I will make removable covers from here on out, and just put them over the existing board.

This smaller unit gave me the perfect space to store many of my weaving supplies as well! I had been struggling to find a home for them.

Fingers crossed I can keep this space tidy more effectively now!

English Paper Pieced Arrow Pillow

Please tell me I'm not the only person who lays awake in the middle of the night designing things in her head. One night, earlier this month, the design in my head was so insistent that I had to get out of bed at 3AM & sketch it up on graph paper so I could go back to sleep! After some tweaking along the way, the end result were this English paper pieced arrow and bonus heart...

When I showed it to Lynn at Stitched With Love where I teach, she asked if I would make it into a pillow for the shop and create a pattern. Of course I would!

Kits for the pillow, all made of grunge fabrics just like mine, are now available at the shop. The finished cover fits a 16 inch pillow form. Oh, and that little heart....

I appliqued it onto the back of the pillow.

happy mail from down under

A couple of weeks ago I got a wonderful package in the mail from my blogging friend Maria. She always spoils me at the holidays. This beautiful Christmas table runner fits perfectly on my front hall table and I love it there! The Anni Downs fabrics are perfect. Maria knows how much I love her designs.

Maria also made me a fantastic Christmas bunting. I tried to get a picture of the whole thing but

for some reason it won't load to my blog post. Here are two up-close photos of each end of the bunting. They showcase my favorite fabrics in the whole thing.... koalas & kangaroos of course!

I love it so much! Thank you Maria! You're so special to me!

Tree skirt

In my never ending quest to turn all things aqua, I have finished up a new tree skirt for our Christmas tree!

I used this fantastic pattern,  which my friend Melissa, from My Fabric Relish offers for FREE in her Craftsy shop. It just so happened that the day I was searching for a pattern (perfectly willing to pay!) Melissa posted a  link to hers on her instagram account. Fate? Maybe so!

In my usual fashion, I followed the instructions loosely! Ha! I will tell you, I do not have a dresden ruler, but Melissa's instructions for measuring and cutting the wedges are PERFECT! My friend Sandy quilted it for me (I briefly considered just stitching in the ditch but when Sandy said she had time to do an overall motif on it for me I was thrilled!). Most of the changes I made were in the way I did my binding and the fact that I only included one tie in the back...

So now my aqua and red tree is fully dressed and I'm so happy! Last year I pulled the ornaments together but time ran out on me and I bunched some sparkly stuff up underneath as a poor excuse for a tree skirt. This is so much nicer, don't you think?

Are you decorating for the holidays yet?

Intrepid thread challenge

In September I signed up for a fabric challenge over at Intrepid Thread. By the time the fabric came I had forgotten all about it! Ha. The fabric sat on my table for quite a long time waiting for me to be inspired. Suddenly, yesterday, I knew what I wanted to do! 

I worked all day and this little pillow came to life! I made a patchwork background from the mini charm pack we received, then used the other 2 fabrics to appliqué some orange peels. I had cut enough orange peels to do every square, but when I started to edit, and remove some, I liked it better! Sometimes less is more. 

I had enough cotton and steel fabric to do the back, with a little binding of the arrow fabric and a touch of ricrac peeking out, because, RICRAC! duh!

I wasn't sure where I'd put it, I mean, aqua goes ANYWHERE, right? But the pink was throwing me off. Then I put it on the living room chair for a photo op and it looked so awesome there with my Spice of Life afghan! So, I do believe that's where it will stay. For now....

Perfect spot to curl up with a good book I think!

Christmas circle quilt

About a month ago, my pal Mahriam over at Three Owls Handmade finished up her "tiny scrappy circle mini quilt" and I absolutely fell in love with it! In fact, I tried to steal it when she brought it to our last Crafty Tuesday gathering but she didn't fall for it. darn. So, I set out to make my own. And, because I never do anything according to the directions, I made a few revisions. First off, my circles are a tad bigger than hers (about 1 1/4" diameter). I traced the circles onto heat & bond lite, fused them onto my fabrics and then cut them out....

that aqua snowman makes me giggle. 

I cut 144 in total. Also, I decided to make mine a Christmas circle quilt. I selected all fabrics in reds, greens & aquas (I later added in some gray). Many of the fabrics are holiday fabrics, others are just fun fabrics that fit in with the colors I wanted.

I had a light gray solid on hand and I liked the way it looked as a background. I squared it up and pressed it well. Then I began laying out and fusing my circles. I used a ruler to keep them straight(ish).  I laid them out in a 12 x12 grid and fused them well. I must confess, a few began to lift away from the fabric when I started to quilt. I did go back and glue some of them down with fabric glue. Most of the circles did fuse and stay well attached.

Mahriams circles were tinier than mine. Also she had way more of them than I do! But I am quite happy with my layout...

Goldilocks is making an appearance in all of my projects lately!

I began quilting in a organic (that's code for "not perfectly straight and I don't care") grid with light gray thread. Bound it up with a gray herringbone print and I love it! Is it too early to begin hanging Christmas decor? Because this baby is going on the wall very soon.

Spice of Life CAL - Finished!

Well hello there! Remember me? Sorry I disappeared yet again. I'm full of excuses. First there was the torrential rain last weekend that totally prevented decent photo shoots for several posts I had planned. Then, on Monday, just when the sunshine returned, my gall bladder decided it was time to come out! Whoa. That laid me up for a few days (while the sun continued to shine.) Yesterday I finally began to feel human again! And, you guessed it, I woke up to gray skies and buckets of rain! Sigh..... So, indoor, gloomy photos it is! Sorry they will have to do!

Several days on the couch was just the excuse I needed to finish up my Spice of Life crochet along afghan. The only way to show you how enormous mine ended up is to spread it on my queen sized bed.....

58 X 88 way bigger than it's supposed to be!

Why did it end up so big, you ask? Great question. Did I add extra stitches to the rows? No. Did I add extra rows? No. Did I use US stitches instead of the required UK stitches? Indeed I did not. It's a mystery! But the fact of the matter is, the tension is even, it's gigantic and I love it.

It has found a happy landing spot on the back of one of our pretty chairs in the front room. I suspect it will wander into the family room on chilly evenings this winter. Seriously, it's big enough to keep hubby and I both warm!

I love the pretty soft green border (I had to buy another skein of light green yarn to complete it!) In fact, I love everything about this beautiful blanket. I'm so thankful to Sandra of Cherry Heart Crochet who created the lovely pattern, for her easy to follow directions, and the fabulous community of women she created on Facebook, Instagram and Ravelry to share our fun with. If you want to see more of these, check out #spiceoflifecal. It's wonderful how each afghan has a personality of it's own! I would love to make another someday soon.

And then there are the balls of leftover yarn from my blanket. What to do? I decided a simple double crochet (US) striped blanket would be the perfect way to use it up. And so I have begun....

ellyn's tidy place

I have a confession to make. I'm a slob. Seriously, I work so hard at being neat and tidy but most of the time it just doesn't happen. But today, for at least one day, my studio space is clean and tidy! I thought it was a good time to take a few pictures to share. I love this little corner behind the door....

 Check out my new scrap cart! I got it at Walmart and it's perfect for scraps. I have them all sorted by colors and type (solids, low volume, etc)

 My new mini from Mahriam is hung and looks awesome above my cutting table...

 And my fabric is all neat and tidy too! I bought some additional baskets to match my new cart for the rest of the scraps. Fabric pieces fat quarter and larger are all folded and sorted....

It may never look like this again! I think I'll just go sit in there and not touch anything. Maybe. For a minute....

empty nesters

Ally is happily moved into her college dorm & hubby and I find ourselves with time alone together. Our first stop after dropping her off on Saturday? Buc-cee's....

If you're not a Texan (we're not but we've lived here long enough I guess some people consider us Texans) you may not be familiar with Buc-cee's... an enormous gas station/gift shop/snack bar. If we're being honest here, we mostly stopped because they have large, clean restrooms & after an hour or so in the car and large diet pepsis, we were in need of those! We also took advantage of one of the 40 gazillion gas pumps.

But that wasn't the most exciting stop of the day (nor was it a planned stop! ha!). Halfway home is Waco, TX, home of Chip & Joanna Gaines of HGTV/Fixer Upper fame. I had been dying to stop at their home store, Magnolia Market.

Truthfully it's a teeny tiny shop, but there was a nice assortment of home dec goodies & the staff was friendly & helpful. Hubby & I wanted to buy one of their well known metal quote signs and spent a few minutes mulling them over. In the end we chose this one, because it defines our marriage to a tee...

I love it propped up on our mantel!

After we visited the shop we set out to find "the Silos" which Chip & Joanna are renovating. Soon it will be the new location for their shop and their business (I'm already plotting a return visit!). It's under construction now, but I got some pretty good pictures (with my phone, from the car!)

 The white building with the four high windows is the renovated building.

I just love the rustic silos!

It was a fun first day for us empty nesters for sure!