Kitchen upgrade

My husband and I are renting a home until we decide where we want to end up living permanently. As many of you know rental properties can be drab. I love this house and am trying to figure out ways to add a splash of color without putting a lot of money into it. This week I created a matching  kitchen set to add some color. Our walls are a grey blue and cabinets are white. At first I was going to go with lime green accents. However, I remembered I had a jelly roll waiting for the perfect project and it would work out great for the kitchen. I ended up making a set of pot holders, a grocery bag holder, a dish towel and curtains. This is the first personal sewing I have done in months. I had an absolute blast. Now, back to regularly scheduled client work and new orders as well as gifts.

 For weeks now I have been staring at the bag of bags hanging in the stairway to the basement and thinking I need to fix that mess. Yesterday I was searching for new ideas and found a new to me blog that featured a grocery bag holder. I headed to my stash and 2 hours later this is what I made.

I am sure this could be made in less than 2 hours. However, me being me I decided I wanted a scrappy look and used 13 2.5 "  strips from my scrap pile. The holder is only 3/4 full in this picture.  If you would like more info on this holder you can visit Ashley at http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/01/grocery-bag-holder.html

 

Baby Quilt

I have been very lucky to have an amazing boss at the tutoring place I work for part time. I found out she was pregnant and knew what I had to do. It was time to make a baby quilt. Her colors were green and pink and I was limited on the time I had to make the quilt. I spent the weekend working on this and ended up with this quilt. I played with using two different color borders but think in the future I will stick to using 1 border all the way around.

It occurred to me tonight that I have been so busy I have not blogged in quite awhile. So I thought I would rectify that.  I am still working on getting the ideal set up for my sewing room and when I figure it out I plan to do a short video tour. Yes folks I am going to venture into shooting videos. O.K., so a little about what I have been up to.

My friend and fellow Etsy shop owner Brandy  commissioned me to make felties she could use in her hairbows. I had been wanting to create some of my own designs so I decided why not !  Now you may be asking what in the world is a feltie?  Felties are embroidered pieces of felt used for scrap booking or a variety  of other crafts. It has been about a month and I have created quite a few designs manually using my embroidery software. By no means do I claim to be an expert. However, I think these came out really cute.

The pictures above are uncut felties. Each design has an outline stitched around it so you can easily cut it to your desired size. I will be offering felties on my Etsy shop in the future depending on the demand for them. Also, be on the lookout for embroidery designs that I will create and sell. I am working on testing some now.  If you are interested in getting some custom designs created pleased contact me and we can work on your design.

I am also working on some new bib ideas. Here are two sports themed bibs I created recently. Both of these are for sale. Again I am open to hearing your ideas and I would love to answer any questions my future customers may have. You can message me for more info info@quilthandler.com or hit me up on facebook


 

 

New Space

My husband and I relocated in Feb 2012 from KY back home to NJ. After almost a year of staying with my in-laws we have ventured out to a home of our own again. I am lucky enough to have a sewing space again and it is probably three times the size of my room in Kentucky.  I am so excited just dreaming of all the sewing I will get done. Those of you that know me know I am a tad OCD and everything has to be in its place before I can sew. Therefore, I have spent the last 2 weeks just organizing and cleaning. The rest of the house is finally done and now I can focus on the sewing room. I thought I would share some pictures ( the before) and the work in progress(as of today). The when I have it all set up I will share more pictures.

 

[caption id="attachment_452" align="aligncenter" width="150"] My 10 X12 closet[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_450" align="aligncenter" width="150"] view from the closet[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_451" align="aligncenter" width="150"] From the staircase[/caption]

 

 

My new room measures 24 X14 with a 12 X10 closet. I have set up a mini fridge, computer, bed, printer , recliner and all my sewing stuff. I could live up here if only there was a bathroom !