More Birthday Cards

February is a busy birthday month for me.


I used my fabulous "Happy Birthday" paper for these cards. I love the floral paper.

Birthday Cards

In preparation for several spring birthdays, I got on a bit of a birthday card roll, combining paper from my wedding album and my favorite "Happy Birthday" paper. Since I can't find "Happy Birthday" stickers, the paper is a good substitute because it has several fonts.

Butterfly Card

Admittedly, this card did not require much skill or creative effort on my part, but I just love the look of it!

Christmas Card

This is a special edition Christmas card. The box of cards I bought said 20, but I only ended up with 19, so Mom and Dad were the recipients of a home-made card. The tree is from a scrapbook spread I did in 2005, the last time I was home for Christmas, and the "Merry Christmas" sticker is from my 2004 tree cards.

Mini Mailbox Ornament

This is the ornament I made for my pen pal. The mailbox is made out of two soda cans, and the flag actually moves! I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but it has miraculously stayed glued together. Originally it wasn't going to be sparkly, but I had to camouflage my super glue fingerprints in a few spots. I was thrilled with it until I decided to make mail for it, then I was even more pleased! I love the little postcard! I scanned a real postcard, re-sized it, printed it out on sticker paper, and attached it to some poster board. The stamp for the envelope is also printed out on sticker paper, so it is like a real stamp, not just printed directly on the envelope.

Snowflake Ornaments

This blue fabric was originally purchased for Amanda's quilt and I loved it so much, I bought more for myself. I knew I wanted to make snowflake-themed ornaments with it, so I searched and searched until I found this sparkly white fabric that was just perfect. I had already purchased this snowflake brads thinking I might use them for Christmas cards. They worked perfectly since you can poke the prongs easily into the styrofoam. I decided they needed a little glitz so I coated them in glitter paint. There's also a snowflake on the top securing the ribbon.

Try one yourself using this tutorial.

Pumpkin Cards

These are my Thanksgiving cards for this year. I know the pumpkins might be more appropriate for Halloween, but they were just too cute to pass up. They're not as intricate as last year's, since I used stickers instead of cutting out paper leaves. As you can see, I couldn't decided whether I liked the orange or green background better. When it came down to actually reading what I had written in them, I decided the orange was a better choice.

Clemson Hat

This was the extent of my weekend crafting. It took me about half an hour. I am always wearing Zack's Clemson hat, so, rather than spending an unreasonable amount on a hat because it has a tiger paw on it, I decided to make my own. (These patches are so handy!) He says this fleece is not Clemson orange, but it's not like I was going to find fleece in several shades of orange. Plus, it was on sale for 60% off and it has a cute tiger paw patch on it now and that makes me happy. I can wear it with the Clemson fleece jacket I made. Being orange, it probably won't get as much use as the one I made last year though.

Bento Box

This top was finished in June, but I just got around to quilting it.


I put it off hoping inspiration would strike and I would come up with a brilliant design for the back. Alas, I gave up on that idea and the back is just plain. I ran out of the paisley fabric (it was a clearance rack purchase and had already been used for a couple other projects), and I just wasn't enthused about any of the designs I came up with using just the green, pink, and blue fabrics.

I am, however, very pleased with the quilted design, even if it required turning the quilt a zillion times.


Finished size: 36"x47"

Yo-Yo Pumpkin

One of my co-workers had these adorable yo-yo pumpkins on her desk so I just had to make one! It's about 3" tall. They are super easy to make.

Try making one yourself using this tutorial.

Sequin Trees

These little trees are about 3" tall. They are decorated with sequins and seed beads and stuffed with a little quilt batting. The edges are finished with a slightly off-kilter blanket stitch. I realized it was wrong after the first one, but I decided it looked better that way.

Pink and Orange

It feels like I've been working on this quilt forever. I think that's due in part to the fact that it took me forever to decide how I was going to quilt it; or rather, I knew it needed a lot more quilting than other quilts if I wanted it to look decent, so I kept putting it off, hoping to come up with an alternate idea. I quilted the pink sashing twice, a quarter inch from each edge, using pink thread. Then I quilted all the stars twice, a quarter inch inside and outside of each, using orange thread. It did produce a lovely effect, and it wasn't that much work, once I got started.

For the half squares, I drew out half the star design and pinned the paper to the quilt as a guide. The squares on the back didn't quite line up the squares on the front, but fortunately both thread colors look nice on either fabric.

It's going to New Zealand, to one of my sister's friends who's having a little girl in January. It's a bit big for a baby quilt, but I didn't know where it would end up when I started it.

Finished size: 41"x56"

Holly Ornaments

My mom requested 5 of these ornaments as gifts for her friends this year, so I thought I'd better get started early. Since the styrofoam balls come in packages of 6, she gets one for herself too!

Try making one yourself with this tutorial.

Almost Finished

All 172 inside squares are complete! Only 40 squares for the border to go. It is not quite a charm quilt, but the squares are very unique nonetheless. For the ones where I cut multiple squares from the same fabric, I used fabrics with different designs.

For instance, these two are from the same fabric:




Finished size: 36"x54"

Closing Windows

This is what the Cathedral Window quilt looked like last weekend:


This is what it looks like this weekend:


Only 15 more squares for the main part of the quilt, and 40 for the border! I made so much more progress than I thought I'd be able to make at one time! I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do about the border yet though, so I'm going to set it aside while I collect the last squares and work on Christmas ornaments for awhile.

Stocking Up on Cards

I haven't been sewing, but I haven't been completely abandoning crafts. I made a batch of cards for some upcoming birthdays, a few thank you notes, and some other "hello" cards. This one is a first birthday card and it is my favorite of the bunch. I love the colors.

Butterflies

This was a mini-project for my aunt. I had some leftover fabric from the pot holders I made for her, so I wanted to make something else. I had used this design for one of my QBP blocks and I really liked it; however, I thought it would look better on a smaller scale, and I do like them better this size. Since they're only about 4.5", I only quilted the wings.

Cathedral Windows 8

The last set! I finished these the night before we left for vacation. Joann's was having a 4th of July sale that started that day, so I ran over right after work to get the sale price on fat quarters, threw them in with the last load of laundry, and had just enough enough time to stitch in the last two new fabrics!


The blue and the green blocks were already ready to be sewn.


I added the blue and green fabrics to this one to finish it.


Now I can start joining them. I just have to determine how "charming" I want it to be. There are already a few duplicates (two of my favorite fabrics and some of the pieced squares), so the fabrics won't all be different. I don't want to duplicate all the fabrics, but I know I'm not patient enough to wait for that many new fabrics!

Green Owl

I started this project last year, when I made an orange owl as a Christmas ornament for my sister. Then I ended up using the rest of my paisley scraps on another project for her, so I didn't have any left for my owl. I finally cut into the rest of the paisley fabric for my bento box quilt, and fortunately I had a few squares left to finish this owl.

Cathedral Windows 7

This weekend I finally decided to cut up some previously uncut fabric so I'd have some more pieces for the cathedral windows.

These are the fabrics I'm using for my bento box quilt:


This one features a second square of my favorite fabric, the only duplicate so far:


I'm tempted to pair this black and white print with the colorful stripes for a future project:


Only 3 more blocks to go, and I only need 3 more squares of fabric!