Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and spooky holiday! 

(I've got a cute trick-or-treat bag to share, but no time to post....so check back later!)

Martha's Blueberry Scones

If my favorite thing to do is sew, then my next favorite is to eat cookies...which leads me to my third favorite thing to do, bake.

During my thesis year of college, my morning routine consisted of a stop at a small coffee shop on my way (slightly out of the way) to campus. That's where I fell in love with coffee and scones (and oat fudge bars and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. God, if they only shipped their goodies!)

All this sewing has really ramped up my appetite, and now that the leaves are falling, I'm reminded of heading back to class, and grabbing a scone on the way! So really, I have no other choice then to make some scones!

Being a mild fan of Martha Stewart, (and maybe a bigger fan of her daughter Alexis,) I tried her recipe for Blueberry Scones. I have never made scones before, but this recipe seemed simple, and I was intrigued by the addition of the lemon zest.



I bought frozen blueberries and gave the recipe a whirl.  Somewhere between steps 1 and 4, I made a rather large mess. Some triangular looking blobs made it onto the pan, and having gotten that far, I put them in the oven.

After twenty minutes, my first floor smelled sweetly of baking blueberries and some tasting looking treats came out of the oven.  Although they didn't look perfect, they tasted perfect! So perfect, I only ate three... The rest perfectly reheat in the toaster oven. Yum!

Also, check out Park Lane Design's blog!  Lisa featured one of my Etsy items today on her Fab 5 Friday Finds!

Wedding Rings

The rain continues here for a second day straight. Water overflows my gutters and the sump pump works steadily with no worries of a pink slip. I've decided it's the perfect time to share a bright and cheerful wedding quilt!

This quilt was a gift last August for my husband's co-worker and his bride. I found the pattern, Wedding Rings by Seams & Dreams, in my local quilt shop. The name surely caught my eye, and I think the double rings are perfect for a wedding quilt! (And of course, there's no curves...which I've been assured I will love, once I try them.)

As I recall, I spent many evenings that month cutting fabric squares! Once they were all cut, it was easy to lay everything out, rearrange where needed, and get that quilt top pieced.

I designed the quilting pattern and quilted the whole thing myself! Okay, after looking at my work, I'm more proud of the fact that it's my first finished quilt with free-motion quilting!

As a final touch, I slipped an embroidered tag with their names and wedding date into the binding.

I'm thinking about trying this one again as a wedding gift. This quilt seemed a little small for a couple to get cozy under together, so I would like to make the next a little bigger. I'm thinking it also needs more contrast between the fabric rings and the background. Though wouldn't it be beautiful in a neutral scheme? Oh yeah, and see if I can find someone who can die-cut squares!

Super Quick + Easy Baby Quilt

From Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, I made this "quick + easy" quilt as a baby gift. It only used 1 yard each of two different fabrics, and as I recall, the hardest part was squaring them both up. I tied it up with an adorable farm animal ribbon then slipped a card into the folded pocket. Too cute!

Dabbling in Handmade Jewelry

Last weekend, I went to a black tie wedding. Who has money for black tie weddings in this economy, right? I found a super deal on a gown at a great second hand store in Skippack, PA called Second Seitz. Then I borrowed some shoes from a friend and a mink stole from my mother-in-law.

Looking for some not too expensive costume jewelry proved a little more difficult. I searched through Etsy multiple times to see if I could find the perfect purpley-pink necklace to go with my amethyst colored dress. I bought a cute necklace with a pink rose, but when I tried it on with the dress, it wasn't dressy enough. (It looks great with jeans and a simple top, though!)

One evening, while walking through Michael's with my husband (past the jewelry aisle), he told me that I should try to make my own jewelry for the wedding. Just the invitation I needed! That night, I purchased some pink and purple glass beads and small pink pearls. While in college, I made some football inspired bracelets, so I found my old jewelry making supplies and went to work!

Well, making this necklace turned out to be a lot harder than I thought! The first necklace I made was mostly glass beads, and my husband said it looked like something made of plastic a child would wear. Yikes! I made several more trips to Michael's to get the right balance of glass beads to pearls, which I didn't accomplish until I went back again for more supplies to add another strand of beads. After stringing and restringing and restringing, here's what I finally came up with:



Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get any compliments on my necklace that evening...and after all those trips to Michael's, I don't think it turned out to be the bargain necklace I hoped for. However, making a necklace filled up that part of my heart that loves to be crafty, so it was worth it in my book!

Finally, a picture of me all dolled-up with my handmade necklace!

Cupcakes!

It's been a busy Saturday! It's time to take a quick break and enjoy some cupcakes!

On a weekend quilt retreat at the beach with my mom and a couple friends, we pieced together these cute and simple cupcake pincushions.

The pattern was designed by Cindy Taylor Oates, and my local quilt store had some kits cut and ready to go. They're very simple to make and only take two small pieces of fabric and some interfacing. My favorite part was, that once we finished piecing them together, we went down to the beach with funnels and measuring cups in hand, and filled them with beach sand! They were great mementos of the weekend!

Cupcake break is over! Back to work!

Fabric Business Card Holder

I finally ordered official SewBeans business cards, maybe a month ago, and I, of course, made a business card holder for them right away! I did a google search for a pattern, and found a free one on Amy Butler's website.

I used fabric scraps from my studio and embellished the business card case with some ribbon. I love Amy's fabric, but I'm not as big of a fan of her patterns. This one called from some heavy interfacing, that I didn't have, and I manged to put the substitute in the wrong place. The folds in the case were very bulky, and my finished case buckled out a lot. Though, since I've been toting it around, it has flattened out.

The great things is that it still holds my business cards, so I'm happy!

Cat Bowl Love

After an insane amount of cutting, ironing, and sewing, I made an extra large bowl for my cat. I always refused to buy or make a cat bed.  Those animals are too finicky; I figured they'd never go for it. Too bad they love this bowl! I have two cats and one bowl, and they've been pretty good sports about sharing it...so far. I always giggle when I see a little head poking out of the top!

"Where the Wild Things Are" Hat

With Halloween right around the corner, I couldn't help but spoil my nephew by making him this cute hat inspired by the book Where the Wild Things Are. Designed by Jessy, the pattern and some detailed instructions are available on the always cool, Instructables website.

I followed Jessy's instructions and made the hat 1" smaller to hopefully fit my nephew's head. Using some grey fleece I had in my stash, I only deviated from her directions once. I reversed steps 14 and 15 and sewed the ears on before closing up the hat. That way, I cut and sewed through only one layer of fleece and was able to keep my mess from sewing hidden inside. I also used pipe cleaners in the ears and for the whiskers, hoping they were a little more "kid-friendly."

I special shout-out to Elmo, who was good enough to sit still and not break into the Hokie Pokey while he modeled the hat!

Fabric Pottery Vase

Alas, I found my camera! Just in time to snap some shots of my most recently finished project!

My current crafting obsession is fabric pottery. I've been turning this stuff on my sewing machine like crazy. I just love it! If you want to check out some of these creations, I'm selling various fabric pottery bowls at my shop. This time, however, I've created something a little different. Ever since I finished my first bowl, I've been dreaming up fabulous ideas with my new pottery talents. This is one of them finally brought to fruition: the vase.

Making a vase proved to be much more difficult than creating a bowl. Very carefully, I had to consistently sew a uniform diameter down the shaft of the vase. When the diameter would get too narrow, I had a lot of un-sewing to do. By the end, I sewed and un-sewed my way through two spools of thread!

The fabric cording is wrapped around a standard glass vase that I bought at Michael's so it will hold real flowers, fake flowers, or even a candle. A lot of sweat and thread went into this project, so I'm not sure how quickly I will jump into making a second...

Ugh!

I was actually going to post to my blog, but I can't find my camera cable!! This is the last boring post without pictures. The search is on!

Feature and Giveaway!

Today, Kayla of the Eclectic Element posted a great feature about me on her blog! Kayla is so super sweet for taking the time to get to know me and adding me to her blog!

http://theeclecticelement.blogspot.com/2009/10/sewbeans-featuregiveaway.html

Sew-in Labels

I've decided to try and make my own sew-in labels for my baby onesies. I found this great blog post: Making Your Own Labels and I can't wait to try them!  I'm printing out my coupon for Joann Fabrics as I type.  Anyone else given these a try?

Treasury West

Yay! I'm in a treasury! Thank you, NeemasPlace!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=70926&show_panel=true

Happy October!

It's definitely fall! It's starting to get chilly in the house, and I'm sure we'll be turning on the pellet stove soon!