Hexagon fabric and Moki!

I went out shopping today and treated myself. To me a treat is walking around the store and loving a million things but making excuses why I shouldn't buy it, lol. But I did find a material to go with my hexagons and on sale, love those sales. I wanted to go with a dark tan, but this color works with the fabrics I am using and will give a little more color for the holidays. What do you think? I can't wait to start adding this to the outer edge, but need to rest my poor fingers.



Then I found some nice basic tan floral, always need lights to mix in with the darks and on sale, who can say no to a few yards.
I found the black fabric and thought it would be perfect for a border on a mermaid piece for my bathroom. So now I need to come up with a new idea and make one.



And last but not least, there is Moki, gotta love him.
I think my rug needs a repair, I made it about 30 years ago, does that make it an antique, lol.
He seems to like the hole, great place to stick his head into.

And to answer a few questions. The mini quilt on the bench is one I made up with scraps. Just sew some squares together, hand stitch with black floss, add a border and an easy table or bench topper;) And for the scrap eggs becoming hearts, I made some last year with crazy quilting. Another easy and fun way to use up scraps. You can see them Here!

Primitive Easter Eggs!

I decided to finally take the rest of my Christmas items down and redecorate.
It has been a rough winter and still sore, but tired of my house, so cleaning a bit at a time and one way to make it fun, is to make new things to decorate with and as you can see, I am ready for spring and the first thing is Eggs to fill my baskets with.

I got an idea and it is something anyone can do, quick and easy and a great way to use up scraps.
I started by using card stock and drawing some egg shapes onto it. If you can't draw one, you can find them on the internet.

I used weavers cloth, I have a ton of primitive white that is no good for punching, but perfect for this.
Double your cloth and lay the egg shape on top. I used an art pen to trace around the egg, you can use anything, it won't show.
Then I marked the front and back, so that I used the right side which is important when you sew them together. My eggs are asymmetrical so I need to make sure that they fit when I sew the edges.

Next is the fun part. Get out your scraps and cut them into any shape you like and lay them over the fabric egg. Pin the pieces down and turn it over. Cut off the excess fabric around the egg, that helps when sewing. Now you can sew down your pieces. You can do a blanket stitch, whipstitch or make it fancy like a crazy quilt. You can tuck the edges of your fabric or sew over the raw edges. Once you have your pieces sewn, you can trim your eggs by following the white fabric.

Then you sew them, front sides together on your sewing machine, leaving an opening on the bottom. Stuff them and sew up the bottom and you have primitive eggs of your own. Another method I use is to sew scraps together until I have a size, large enough for the egg. Then I use a piece of batting and using black floss, stitch around the edges to give it a quilted look. Then sew them together. You can also use tea stained fabric or ticking and do a prim stitchery to make eggs. There are endless possibilities. I really think if you are adept with crazy quilting, this would be beautiful done with embellishments, as well. My method is the lazy way to do crazy quilting;)

I decided not to stain these eggs, they are darker in real life, but lighter in the picture. This is a dark area, so I like a little pop of color. The bunnies are ones I made last year, but I think some prim bunnies would look nice on the bench too. I am also adding a few more eggs to the pile.

New Pillows!

I love to experiment, some things work, some don't, but I learn about products and how I can change things to improve on them.
I wanted to use fabric markers and still get a prim folk art look. I started with marvy markers, then I added some watercolor pencil and art pens. I think I got carried away and turned my colors to mud. What I need to do is, have more markers in coordinating colors, so I can shade without overdoing it. I like the marvy markers, they go on nicely, they don't bleed and can be washed.

When I was done, I started by painting on distress ink, not a good idea. The watercolors started to bleed out. So, I tamped up some of the color and then tried a light spray and that worked without bleeding. I guess I should have heat set the colors first, then added the spray;) But it worked in the end, the cloth was pure white and the spray gave it a nice aged look and covered what little red that was showing.

The design is a freebie that I found at Mary Corbet's site. She has some nice embroideries and wonderful tutorials on stitches. To make the piece, I lay the white fabric onto the pattern with a light box. I taped the pattern and fabric, so it wouldn't move. Then I colored in the design with the markers. Once that was done, I took it off and added the shading. The original shading was nice, but then I added more and it a lot of it blended in. Once that was done, I outlined the design with two strands of floss and added little details. I forgot to do the big flower, duh to me;)

This would be fun to do with small hearts too and hang them on a prim, valentine tree.
I distressed this piece with Distress It, on the cloth, before I made the pillow, I think it stained nicely.



I also made some more little pillows from Tiffany's designs. I am in a rabbit and easter mood, so the bunny if going to go into a new project I will be trying out. The pillows are made with tea stained fabric from moda, a light and a dark shade. I used distress on them, after I made them into pillows, and they didn't stain, seems the stain goes into the stuffing. So, if you use distress it to antique a piece, it works best on flat fabrics.

Lazy day and warped dies!

I had a lazy day today, I did some cleaning and some baking, and then some stitching, but nothing big.
I am working on a stitchery heart and experimenting with fabric and ink markers, so that should be done tomorrow.

I am cleaning my sewing room, so I can work more efficiently and find things.
Over the year, I have been creating and throwing things around, now it is a total mess.
With my ribs, I can only do so much at a time, but getting there. I am using plastic boxes and pull outs drawers, so I can store, but get easy access, without making more clutter.

I can't blame the cats, they are not allowed in there. They do want to come in though, lots of things to get into and knock over;)
When I just had Dora, she was allowed in to help me sew, but now she is too obnoxious and the others would get jealous.
This is what happens when Dora helps, she has a fixation with eating things. She has also chewed off all the tips, on one of my fake plants. She will chew on anything, including needles, so I have to keep everything in tight boxes.



On the Accuquilt go front, I am still having problems. I had more free money, so I got the apple core die. It came and I noticed it was warped, so told the company I ordered from and they sent me a new one. The new one is warped, does to happen to others or is it just me? I got a replacement for the hexagon die and was cutting my new ones with the middle size and it bent?
So now I have two warped apple cores and two hexagons, each with a bent blade. Accuquilt's response to the warped die was, try it and if it works, use it. It makes it tough, since i ordered from Amazon and from different companies, otherwise I would send it all back at this point. Time to write a letter to accuquilt;)

Giveaway Winner!

Well, as you can see, Moki wanted to help with the drawing, so he got the paper ready to write the numbers down.
I didn't have the heart to tell him, that I use the number generator;)



All that paper unrolling sure makes Moki thirsty, so he had to take a drink before we picked a number.



And now for the winner, I know I am being mean, making you read and look at photos, lol.
The lucky winner of the CNS, wall art and decor giveaway is.......... Lucky Number 2...Amy of Cottageprims. Congratulations to Amy and look for a freebie later this week. Please email me and I will send you, your gift code. Have fun shopping!

And now that it is over, Moki has gone back to do another of his favorite things, water polo!

New Hexagons and Last night of Contest!

Tonight is the last night to enter into the contest. You don't want to miss out, who wouldn't like free money to spend on anything you want;) You can still sign up tonight, the drawing will be tomorrow.

I started my christmas hexagons. I was going to go with colonial florals, but found I have a lot of the darker red and black shades, so hoping I have enough of these three to do them all this way. I will mix the greens up, using what I have. I want it to be uniform in some ways, but scrappy in other. I will be adding a border of a dark cream shade so that the diamonds will be sitting on a cream background. It all depends on what I can find to match, I may change my mind;) The sizes are all the same, it is the angle that makes them look off.

Bunnies and Moki!

I finished a little piece today. I wanted to do something with felting, so I made the bunnies with wool roving.
I cut out the wool shapes and felted onto those first, then I clipped off the excess to get the pieces into shapes.
I like how some roving sticks out, it looks like bunny fur.

For the lettering, I used the wash n go. I learned one thing, do not use sharpies to write with, it bleeds when you rinse off the paper. I had to use soap and wash it to get the light letters back.

I am thinking of adding small embroidered flowers into the background, something that isn't too bold, just blends in with the background. The design is from Primitive Blessings.



And for the Moki fans! This is what I have to put up with, when I am working around the kitchen. Moki thinks it is fun to grab, bite and dig his claws in, he tends to get a bit rough. When I cook, he hops up and tries to help, and one day he even pulled a piece of squash out of the sink and ate it, he has a strange appetite.

And don't forget to sign up for the giveaway below. It ends friday at midnight. The winner gets a gift code to buy anything they like.