A bit of Christmas Cheer :)

Last year in November, one of my customers asked me about

making cup cozies with removable scarf pins.

What a great idea!

So these little guys are back in my shop today :)

The gingerbread man and the snowman

are designed and hand stitched by me. 

These next 4 feature hand drawn pen & ink original artwork

by the artist Michelle Palmer.

(you can find her work at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MichellePalmer)

I only have 1 of each of these.

Aren't they amazing?

Stocking Stuffers!

I just added these fun cup cozy/ scarf pin sets to the shop :)

Are they not the cutest?

I'm thankful to my clever customer

that asked me about making these for her a while back!

When I was finished with the artwork

by the incredible Michelle Palmer,

I had to keep going,

so I decided to make some pins 

out of wool felt.

I have to admit,

I'm a bit obsessed with this gingerbread man.

Sometimes things just turn out even cuter

than I imagined.

I'm in love.......

I love felt....yes I do...I love felt...how bout you?

I've been playing with felt.

What have YOU been up to?

A lot to be thankful for!

Hard to believe it's already November!

It's a time to think about all the blessings in our lives.

There is so much to be thankful for.

I am especially thankful for my November boys/men.

My firstborn, Brandon was born Nov 7, 1980.

Brandon's firstborn, Elijah was born Nov 3, 2003.

My daughter's firstborn, David was born Nov 22, 2007. (on Thanksgiving :)

That's a lot of happy to fit into one month !

I thought I'd share my progress on the DMC "Red Crockery" kit.

I'm almost done.

Just the finishing touches

and then I can add it to the stack of projects 

waiting to be finished/framed at some later date :)

Today I'm working on Christmas items for the shop.

These little felt owls are going to get added

later in the week.

The larger owl is a pin  

and the smaller owls are necklaces.

Here's a peek at another gift set in progress.

I'm loving the scissor fob that was made to match

by my friend Cherise!

So what are you thankful for today?

Do you see what I see???

Yesterday I took some time out

for a bit of retail therapy :)

Do you see new Aprons?

Cuz I do! 

Fabric just makes me happy.

Is it just me? 

Do you see new project bags?

Cuz I do! 

How about a few stash builders? 

And today I received my wool felt order in the mail...

Do you see new pincushions?

Cuz I do! 

Looks like it's going to be a colorful day :)

A Quick Tip.....

Since I've been busy making project bags

that means I've also been cutting out 

lots of wool felt hearts.

I use them for the zipper pulls.

I like to add a bit of fun to them.

So this is a quick little tip I learned

from the awesome website WeeFolkArt.com

Talk about a plethora of wool felt info

and cool free patterns!!!

Anyhoo......I learned that when 

you need to cut small items out of felt

you don't' want to use pins.

It distorts the felt and with some tiny pieces

it would be impossible to do anyways.

You just tape your pattern down with packing tape!

It's seriously genius!

The tape holds the pattern piece down

and when you are done cutting,

your felt just falls away because the pattern 

shielded it from the sticky tape.

AND the more you use your patterns

the sturdier they become 

from all the layers of tape.

Cool right?

So here is a peek at yesterday's sewing :)

Annie is holding a spool of thread.

How cute is that?

Sweet Treats

I thought a few donut pincushions would be a fun 

addition to my boutique this coming Sunday.

I found the donut pattern a while ago

 in "Quilts and More" magazine Winter 2010.

They are made from wool felt 

with beads added for the "sprinkles".

I found these treat boxes at Michaels

that are the perfect size!

I mean seriously....

how cute is that?

I'm sure I'll have some left

for my etsy shop :)

And talking about sweet treats,

one of my little granddaughters 

was wearing her new Nana outfit yesterday!

How sweet is that????

FNSI and IHSW results :)

First - my FNSI results:

 I know I showed you pictures of Sweetwater fabric

and I said I was going to sew curtains.......but......

I didn't have enough fabric to make the style

of curtains that my daughter in law wanted :(

I did, however, 

have a project that needed my attention.

2 of my grandsons needed me to replace

some of their little felt dinosaurs 

that had been loved to death :)

You can read more about the dinos here.

So I cut and stitched these little guys for them.

They were super happy to have 

their "Kung Fu Dino Posse" complete again!

Now for my International Hermit & Stitch Weekend result:

I finished my "America" by Little House Needleworks

It is stitched on 32ct evenweave over 1 thread.

I love to stitch super tiny crosses over 1.

It looks so compact and bold.

I changed out all the colors to what I liked

that I had on hand.

And last, but not least

some of the Father's Day fun

that I was working on:

Every year I made a special Father's Day card

for my hubby.

It's his favorite thing 

and he looks forward to it more than Christmas!

You can see some of his previous cards here.

This year I went with Despicable Me :)

(I love me some Minions!!!)

Took me an entire day

to cut out  those tiny blue overalls

and those goggles were tricky too!

Those are our 4 grandsons and 2 granddaughters.

He loved his card!

Now I have another year to start

planning his next card :)

I also made some mug rugs for my hubby

and our son and son in law.

I used fabrics to match their offices

and phrases that they each use

that would make them smile :)

I baked up some chocolate chip cookies for the Dad's at church.

I found these great free printable labels on the net.

Gotta love the Internet!

All in all it was a busy weekend.

We had a fabulous Father's Day with all our children

and grandchildren :)

Hope yours was lovely too!

Hello Agent P

I finished making the 4 Perry the Platypus (Agent P)

for my 4 grandsons just in time for Easter :)

Other than searing my flesh (repeatedly) with the hot glue gun,

this was a fun little project :)

*ouch*

According to the pattern directions

the entire project is glued together

but I want these little guys to last longer than a day

so I used wool felt and stitched them together instead.

I only used the glue gun

 to attach the pipe cleaners

and glue the hats on.

If you are planning on making a Perry of your own

I would suggest that you attatch the eyes and beaks

before you assemble the body.

It's so much easier to work with that way.

I can never understand why patterns

have you add the details after stuffing.

I also added heavy duty interfacing

to the tail to help Perry stand up.

I ended up tacking the tale to the body

with a few stitches as well

or the poor guy just kept falling over.

In case you missed it yesterday

the link to the free pattern is HERE.

Looks like I'll be making one more of these....

turns out the hubby wants one too :)

Felt madness!!!

I feel like I haven't been very productive

 in the sewing department lately,

but I've been playing with felt.

Does anyone remember felt boards from Sunday school?

We bought them a few years back

 for our children's ministry

but we never got around to cutting them all out.

My sweet friend Marcia started the project

but she has had crazy pain in her hands and couldn't continue.

I finally got around to bringing this home and once I started

I was addicted!

I spent every free moment of the past 2 weeks

cutting out thousands of tiny shapes.

All those animal legs were not my favorite part....just sayin :)

Now all 12 boards are complete along with all the backgrounds.

Can I get an AMEN?????

I actually have a bruise on my finger from my

precision scissors...ha!

Apparently I didn't get enough of playing with felt.

For Easter I wanted to give the boys something fun

for their Easter baskets.

With all our dietary restrictions

there isn't a lot of sweets the boys can have.

I came across this free pattern at Disney.com

and you can find it HERE.

This is Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb!

I'll be making 4 of these today :)

Luckily I have wool felt in all the right colors

so I didn't have to spend anything extra to make these!

The best way I have found to cut out felt patterns

is a technique I learned over at WeeFolkArt.com.

They have tons of free patterns and tips on working with felt!

You use packing tape

 to hold the pattern pieces to the felt.

No need for pins

and there is no distortion of the tiny pieces!

So clever!

Man I love the Internet!

Have a blessed Easter everyone!!!