Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my Etsy eye...
daylight savings time.
{more sunshine}

Clockwise, starting top left:
Buttercup Giant Spring Bunny
Luscious Lemon Cupcake
Felted Poppy Brooch
Lemon Yellow Jazz Shoes
Sailor Tote
Bunting Banner

Wishing you a sunny weekend!

Baby Boy Burpies...

We have a baby boy joining our family this summer, so I thought I would get busy and make some essentials. I love this pattern for a baby burp cloth. I made some of these a couple of months ago and the young mother said it is her favorite burpie for her new little one.

Here's the tutorial for these Baby Burpies {the easy way} that I created a couple of months ago to show you how to produce this easy project! Made from cloth diapers, they are absorbent, they wash well, and the fabric wrinkles less than most cotton fabrics...

Did you recognize the contrasting fabrics I used? Well, if you frequent the baby isle in Target they might look familiar. I was planning on making some burpies so I was at Target picking up a dozen cloth diapers, when I passed some receiving blankets. I'd never buy these items to use as receiving blankets because I consider them too small for the task, but the cute fabric caught my eye, and I decided to purchase the blankets to use as the contrasting fabric on these burpies. The cost of the fabric was about $2.30 a yard which is fabulous. I also liked the soft texture of the flannel and how the fabrics coordinated but not in a "matchy-matchy" way! I cut twenty 6"x21" pieces out of the contrasting fabric -- five out of each fabric -- to make a total of 20 burp cloths! 

Cost breakdown:

$17 for 12 pre-folded diapers = $1.41 per diaper

$8 for 4 receiving blankets = $.40 strip per burp cloth

$1.50 (50% off) Ric-rac @ Hobby Lobby (see below) = $.75 per burp cloth

thread

That's a total of $2.50 per burpie!

A couple of these burpies combined with a few other items would make a fabulous baby shower gift!

Linked to:
Friday Fun Finds @ kojo designs
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
All Things Domestic @ Crazy Domestic
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
Catch-as-Catch-Can @ My rePurposed Life
SAS @ Just a Girl

Second Pillow...

Last week I introduced a new pillow design when I showed you this creation...

A day later I whipped up another pillow. This time I used the strips of fabric in a horizontal manner...

The first pillow was a 16" square. This pillow's finished measurements are 13.5"x 17".

Go here to find out how to apply a quilting technique to get this pieced-together affect. It's an easy process!

I'm really happy with how these two pillows turned out. They give a fun pop of color to the room and the pieced-together quality in them looks tailored and crisp!

Have a great day!

Linked to:

20 Below @ Christina's Adventures
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies and Jellybeans
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Anything Related @ All Thingz Related

Sunflowers...

I love sunflowers. Every year my garden sports a variety or two. Like our morning glories, they are hardly ever planted. They volunteer from seeds dropped the previous fall and nestle themselves next to my fence for a splash of color. I absolutely love their bright, sunny faces.

I decided it was high time to create one of these favorite flowers in fabric form. I began by purchasing some fabric in different shades using a sunflower as my inspiration...

I also bought some brown wooden beads that one "might" construe as sunflower seeds...

I used my full, luscious pattern that I created a couple of years ago to created my sunflower, but I only used the three larger petals from the pattern. I cut about five of each of those pattern pieces -- alternating colors from the three "yellow" fabrics that I purchased.

 {To order the original pattern AND this one, 
just go to my Etsy shop!}

Then I cut about six rounds in descending sizes of the two brown fabrics that I bought to make the middle of the flower...

All the fabric edges were singed and the layers of petals were stacked together and tacked in place with a needle and thread...

Then I sewed on the small wooden beads to add a few "sunflower seeds."

I cannot fully describe how much pleasure this little flower gives me! 

Hope you find pleasure in making one too.

{Remember: To "order" this pattern and the original pattern , go to my Etsy!}

Linked to:

VIP @ Designer Garden
Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
All Things Domestic @ Crazy Domestic
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
20 Below @ Christina's Adventures
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
All Things Inspired @ All Things Heart & Home
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Ten Bucks Tuesday @ Young Nester
Upcycled Awesome @ T-Shirt Diaries
Anything Related @ All Thingz Related
I Made it without my Hubby @ Shanty 2 Chic
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings
Made with Love @  Sew Chatty
Meet-Up Monday @ The House Creative

Thankful Thoughts...

What inspired me this week?

It was one of those March days 
when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  

when it is summer in the light, 
and winter in the shade.

~Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens must have been thinking about March in Colorado when he wrote those lines.  Colorado is full of weather-related contradictions in the spring. They say if you don't like the weather in the Rocky Mountains just wait five minutes and it will change. That is never as true as it is in March. Last week I caught a glimpse of sun-filled days to come, and it was inspiring. It gave me the promise of crystal blue skies, puffy white clouds, green grass and budding trees. Inspiration manifested in organic form!

What moved me this week?

I had an epiphany this week that I'd like to share. The last few days I've been studying some chapters in the New Testament - Matthew 6 and 7 - commonly referred to as The Sermon on the Mount. Last week in my studies of earlier chapters in Matthew, I began to understand something I had never before realized --  that The Sermon on the Mount did not introduce quiet philosophical platitudes, but stark, attention-grabbing principles not previously known or understood among His people. As Jesus taught this sermon he proposed life-changing standards that if applied in the lives of his followers would alter their characters and draw them closer to God. 

This week as I studied chapters 6 and 7 I realized that Christ introduced another new principle: "It's not enough to do the right thing, but the Lord requires us to do the right thing for the right reason." (I'm sure that can be said more eloquently, but that's my simplified version.) Jesus gave examples of what it "looked like" to do good things for the right reasons and the wrong reasons. As I read the chapter I began to question and analyze my motivation for performing acts of service and kindness. It lead to some interesting self-examination. Unfortunately, sometimes I came up wanting. This realization moved me to want to improve and do better -- especially when I came to this promise at the end of chapter 7.

24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock:

25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house; and it fell not:for it was founded upon a rock.  

The promise states that if I implement the principles taught in The Sermon on the Mount, I will be strengthened so I can more easily withstand the trials, difficulties and heartaches of life, and in the end I will be found well-grounded in my faith in Jesus Christ. I am moved by that promise and assurance, which impels me to want to do better.

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

I spy with my Etsy eye...

a blush of pink.

Clockwise, starting top left:
Innocent Pink Mineral Lipstick
Fine Art Flower Print
Pink Veil Mineral Makeup
Hand Painted Yarn
Child's Piglet T-Shirt
Magnetic Board

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

New Pillow Design...

These last several weeks paint has been my medium of choice as I've worked on projects in the bathroom we are refinishing. I'm at a standstill in that project while I wait for the flooring to arrive, so the last few days I've been able to sew a few projects that I've had percolating in the back of my mind. I love making pillows. They are such a fun, simple way to add color and change to a room. I've needed a little pick-me-up in my family room, so I decided to create and add a couple of new pillows...

I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's start at the beginning. About a month ago I created an iPad Case...

I used a technique for the iPad Case from a fabulous tutorial I found on the blog Sew Mama Sew. I loved how that case turned out, so I decided to use that same piecing technique on a couple of pillows for my family room. Here's the first of two of those pillows...

My family room has lots of color -- bright orange, rusty red, moss green, golden hues, a pinch of turquoise and a lot of dark chocolate brown in the form of two leather sofas. You're probably wondering how all those colors could go together. It's easy when you have this 5'x8' rug nestled between the sofas...

I found some coordinating fabrics in my stash and went to work sewing alternating strips of colorful fabric and muslin. I then used my rotary cutter to cut across the sewn strips to produce a colorful band of fabric! 

Those bands of fabric were framed with a soft white flannel and more muslin. I love how the white flannel plays against the earthy muslin and bright colors of the cotton fabrics. Delicious!

I finished off the back of the pillows with more muslin and a zipper...

(Side note: If you've never been to Colorado, you've missed out on the bluest of blue skies. It's 60 degrees today. Gorgeous! The only thing missing is green leaves. Those will arrive in the next couple of months.)

Love this perky pillow and its counterpart that I'll be posting about next week...

Hope you're having a sun-filled day!

Linked to:

Meet Up Monday @ The House Creative
Show & Tell Saturday @ Be Different Act Normal
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
SAS @ Just a Girl
Friday Flair Party @ WhipperBerry
Friday Fun Finds @ kojo designs
Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
All Things Domestic Party @ Crazy Domestic
Living Life Crafty @ Sassy Sites!

Rabbit Pillow...

I've missed my machine of late. There is little that picks me up like the hum-drum of my sewing machine. Lately, I've been so involved in our bathroom redo, that I've neglected her and she's sat in my closet. Yesterday I dusted her off. Is it too early to introduce a Spring pillow? Please tell me it isn't. Yesterday I created an appliqued Bunny Pillow that could be used throughout spring and summer!

Here's how I began the process: First, I found a  rabbit silhouette on the internet. Isn't she adorable?

I screen saved the image and cropped it in Picassa3. Then I inserted the saved image into a Word file and enlarged it to size I desired...

Next, I printed the Word document and cut the image out...

I always applique by using Wonder-Under by Pellon. Wonder-Under is a double-sided adhesive web or interfacing. You cut out a piece of fabric big enough for your image and a piece of Wonder-Under the same size. Iron the Wonder-Under onto the wrong side of your fabric (paper side up), then trace your image onto the Wonder-Under. Cut out the image, then peel the paper off the Wonder-Under and fuse or iron the applique onto the fabric of your choice -- I used muslin. After adhering the applique to the fabric, I use a decorative machine stitch to better secure the image onto my fabric...

For this pillow I made a panel for the rabbit and surrounded it with a "fabric frame"...

I like how she turned out. She's springy, fun and has a hint of Easter in her!

I finished off the back a little differently this time. I cut a zipper the height of my pillow and capped the ends with some fabric, like this...

Then I just sewed the zipper to the two pieces of the pillow back. I love this finished look and it "holds" the pillow back together much better than the usual envelope closure.

I was thinking I might wait a couple of weeks before displaying this pillow, but then I thought better. Maybe it will encourage Spring to show up a little earlier!

Linked to:
Living Life Crafty @ Sassy Sites