Bits of Fabric and Paper

Yesterday got away from me and I didn’t even have a few minutes to add a post, so I thought I would share a few projects today.

First up is the “Dish Rug”.  This project is designed and shared by Connie over at her blog called “Quilting by the River“.  She has quite a few tutorials on her blog, but I chose this particular one because of its practicality, minimal supplies and ease in assembly.  Sometimes a quick and easy project is just the ticket to get that sewing machine humming along.

I love the idea of a “Dish Rug”.  I often sit a dish towel on the counter to air dry dishes that I’ve hand washed.  Light bulb moment here and a great idea from Connie….   Why not enjoy a quilt on the countertop that is both practical and pretty while doing the dishes?  I certainly have never thought to make a little quilt to air dry dishes, have you?  It’s quite clever and practical and one I just had to share with you today.

Next up are 2 cutting files for those who enjoy their Silhouettes and other cutting machines.  The talented artist behind these beautiful designs is Monica Bjork from “Monica’s Creative Room“.  Monica is certainly creative as her website says, but she is also an incredibly talented gal.  I just can’t seem to find the words to describe how amazing these paper creations are.  So, wordless as I am, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking and introduce you to Monica’s Creative Room.

A relatively short post today in words, but one that certainly packs a punch as far as creativity is concerned.  I want to thank both Monica and Connie for their wonderful blogs and for these amazing projects.

Until tomorrow, have a Blessed Day.

Linda

Something Sew Special

Oh my goodness, I’m certain you are going to love the quilty goodness I’m sharing today.  Geta Grama has the most unbelievable blog on quilting I have ever seen!!!  Her quilts, shadow trapunto, quilted boxes and ideas are out of this world.  Geta is from Romania and her story about quilting is simply amazing.  Rather than me trying to re-tell what she has so eloquently written herself, I direct you to Geta’s blog to read the story about her love of quilting and shadow trapunto for yourself.  I believe you will enjoy reading about her quilting journey as much as I have.

But wait until you see the project she shares on her blog which she simply calls a “Quilted Bowl”.  Now I have seen a variety of stitched bowls in the past.  Some of those bowls were quite unique and lovely, yet none have measured up to this amazing trapunto bowl made by Geta.  Not only has Geta shared pictures of the finished bowl, but she also has an in-depth picture tutorial along with a pattern download for this incredible project.  No, in my opinion this isn’t just a quilted bowl, but rather a beautiful piece of artwork made by the hands of a talented artisan.

I have never tried trapunto but who knows, maybe Geta has placed a bug in my ear to try a new technique that I never thought I would.  Even in my wildest dreams I could never do this bowl justice when making one myself, but I’d love to give this technique a try to see the results.  I may make one panel using the trapunto shadow technique to get a feel for making the intricate design then I can move forward from that point.

In my humble opinion, Geta’s blog is one you want to spend some time with and enjoy.  There is so much to learn, including a unique method of holding a quilt while Free Motion Quilting.  She shares this technique with an excellent pictorial which I wholeheartedly recommend reading.

I just can’t say enough about Geta, so if you are a beginning quilter and just starting the adventure of quilting or a seasoned professional, I feel certain Geta’s blog will inspire and teach you much as it has me.  Thank you, Geta, for sharing your beautiful quilted creations, tutorials, inspiration and of course your quilted bowl with us.

Just one more thing, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the beautiful quilt the bowl is sitting upon.  The quilting is absolutely stunning and I can’t imagine the hours and hours it took to create such a beautiful quilt.  You can see more of this beautiful quilt as it is featured at the bottom of the free motion quilting tutorial.

Well that’s it for today, I hope you enjoy the beautiful project, tutorials and story of an inspirational artist.

Thanks for visiting and have a Blessed Day!

Linda

Another Marvelous Monday

Hello and welcome to another Marvelous Monday here at the Cue.  Last Monday I shared a digital image that was quite popular with readers and I understand why.  I want to carry on this new tradition of featuring an artist along with a digital stamp or two each monday.   Today’s artist is Angelique Kramer.  Angelique is from the Netherlands and her love of drawing and artistic ability just radiates in the digital designs that she shares on her popular blog called Sliekje digi Stamps. But please, don’t stop there or you will miss out on some beautiful artwork that Angelique shares on her other blog called Sliekje’s Scribbles.  Angelique’s artistic talent is quite evident on both of her blogs, but particularly on Sliekje’s Scribbles .  I invite you to take a minute or two and take in the beauty of her work on both of her sites.

As you may tell from my postings, I don’t want to be a blogger who just shares a link here and there.  My goal is to introduce you to the people behind the art and to ultimately enjoy the wonder of their talents.

I have always enjoyed the arts and learned to sew and embroider at an early age.  I read books on the masters in high school.  I’m also surrounded by many talented people, yet sadly I have very little, if no, artistic ability myself.  I dabble at drawing and painting and certainly enjoy doing so.  I have tried my hand at designing a few quilts and totes over the years, but nothing too dramatic or spectacular for sure.  I am like many other people who rely on those talented people who have ability and the vision for help and inspiration. I am a world champ at following directions, and absolutely love to sew, quilt, color and play with paper and fabric, but alas I couldn’t do those things without the help of others.  For that reason I say thank you!

Now onto a few digi stamp links I would like to share with you today.  These are from our featured artist Angelique over at Sliekje’s Designs.

You may remember this first digital stamp as one I used on a birthday card for our granddaughter, Morgan, a few years ago.  This design is timeless and oh so cute and certainly appropriate for a variety of occasions.

Digital stamps are so versatile, you can resize and flip the image to fit your design as I did below.

Now going in a totally different direction and with the cold and flu season in full swing, I thought this second image would be quite appropriate to make a card for those that are feeling under the weather of late.  I love this image with the little puppy standing guard by the little boy, don’t you?

On one other quick note, many digital stamps designed for card making and papercrafts work beautifully for an embroidery project and visa versa.  I am currently working on one of those projects and will share it as soon as it is finished.

Well that’s it for today.  I’ll see you tomorrow with a segment about quilts & sewing along with a pattern.

Be safe and God Bless!

Linda

Friday’s Are For Sharing

Lots of projects to share on this beautiful sunny day in the Midwest.  In addition to my projects, I’ll also be sharing information on a new quilting tool and creative idea later in this post.

But first things first.  Here are the 7 Valentine cards I made for our grandchildren this week.  All of these cards were made using my Silhouette Cameo and all of those images were purchased at the Silhouette Online Store.  Not a lot of creativity on my part, since all of the cards were premade images.  All I did was download the designs, choose the appropriate papers, cut the pieces and put the cards together.  Still, they were made by me with love and care and at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?

The second project is a baby quilt I’ve been working on.  I received a fabulous array of Riley Blake Sugar & Spice fat quarters last May in a blog contest I won over at the The DIY Dish.   When our good friend’s daughter and hubby announced the birth of their daughter, I knew this Sugar & Spice fabric would be the crowning touch for a special baby quilt.  To my surprise, when I showed the fabric to several family members they didn’t think it would work for a baby girl’s quilt.  Without hesitation, I continued on the journey of making the quilt with this Riley Blake fabric because in my mind’s eye I thought it would be pretty.  My stash held a Charm Pack of  Bella White Solids by Moda  that was begging to be used with these colorful Sugar and Spice fabrics, so I paired the two up and got to work.  First I cut the fabric squares and pieced them all together.  Several borders were needed and Fabric.com came to the rescue since they were the only source where I could find the fabric I needed for the backing, border and binding.  However, my quest for fabric wasn’t over, so after a short jaunt to Blessings Quilt Shop I was able to purchase the Moda White Bella Solids for the border.  Now, I had everything on hand to finish the quilt.

Personalizing the quilt was definitely needed, so I pulled out my trusty Bernina embroidery module and added the pretty pink lettering that would adorn the top of the quilt.  After sewing on the borders, stippling and spending a few more hours adding the binding, the quilt was finished.  It is now ready to be wrapped and sent to Baby Kennedy tomorrow.

In the end I think the quilt turned out quite nice, and to my astonishment my family loves it too, bright colors and all.  Hopefully Kennedy and her proud parents will enjoy the quilt for many years to come.

Quick and Easy Baby Quilt:

Supplies:

18 – White 5″ squares (Charm pack or cut by hand)
18 – Variety of 5″ squares (great for charm pack or cut by hand)
2 1/2″ Border Strip (choose compatible color)
4 1/4″ Border Strip (white)
Backing Fabric
Binding Fabric (I used a double binding, but since it’s a small quilt I didn’t cut it on the bias.  However, I did sew the seams on a diagonal to avoid a bulky seam)
Batting
The Binding Tool (Love, love, love this tool for making the perfect binding)  I purchased mine at Missouri Star Quilt Company

Directions:

Sew 6 rows of 6 – 5″ blocks together to form a square (alternating white with the colored squares)
Sew the upper and lower 2 1/2 border strip first, then sew left and right side border strip
Sew the upper and lower 4 1/4″ border strip, then sew left and right border strip
Layer quilt
Quilt as you wish
Bind the quilt (I always use The Binding Tool to finish the binding on my quilt)

That’s it, easy peasy.

***As a side note, here is a tutorial from Jenny at Missouri Star Quilt Company using The Binding Tool.  I’m telling you, if you make quilts then you’re going to love this tool!

Now onto my Friday’s are for Sharing Segment.  I ran across a quick, easy and unbelievably cute and clever bookmark over at the Attic Window Quilt Shop (how is that for a few adjectives?).  After searching for the source of the tool used to make the bookmarks I not only found the manufacturer but also an informative tutorial to create this beautiful effect on fabric.  I couldn’t resist sharing this tutorial and one of the projects you can make using this tool.  So without further ado, here are some bookmarks that I’ve re-posted from the Attic Window Quilt Shop Blog that were made with the Double Diamond Ruler.

Well that’s about it for today.  A long post for sure, but it just seems I had a lot to chat about today.

Enjoy your weekend, be safe and God Bless!!!

Linda

Tags for Today

If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know that my new favorite tool in my craft room is my Silhouette Cameo.  I must say there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t used my Cameo to make a project or two.  Of course, the fact that we have had Christmas and then Valentine’s Day made it easy to find a reason to make those projects.  Finding great images to cut has been a snap, first I subscribed to the Silhouette Online Store and have enjoyed making many projects using those designs.

In addition, if you are an owner of the Silhouette, you probably already know a free image is offered at the store each Tuesday.  Plus, a selection of images are available on clearance each week and most of those are a mere 50 cents.  Regular price of most images in the Silhouette store are only 99 cents which I think is also a bargain.

But wait, that’s not all.  If you are an owner of a cutting machine you probably know there are many, many talented designers that have individual websites and offer designs in a variety of formats to meet the specifications of most cutting machines.  Wow, talk about creativity unleashed.  At any rate, I recently ran across some amazing designs by an incredibly talented artist over at Shery K Designs.  Her shop’s offerings  are many and she generously shared one of those images for free on her blog.  The following set of tags is simply gorgeous so I just had to share this link with you today.

I want to thank Shery K for sharing her time and talents and hope that everyone reading this post will jump over to Shery K’s blog, peruse her shop, leave a thank you comment for her free download, and see what all my excitement is about.

I want to thank you for visiting and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Until then, Blessings to you and your family!

Linda

Floral and Frilly Birthday Card

Our daughter’s birthday is tomorrow.  For a change I wanted to be prepared and not work frantically at the last-minute to get a card finished for an occasion.

The first step in choosing a direction for this card was to find just the right paper.  For some reason green rang out loud and clear today, so after auditioning many options, I turned to two colors of solid green for the base and matte.  I knew in my mind’s eye that I wanted a floral theme.  I decided to use the 3D flower I had downloaded a few weeks ago from the Silhouette Online Store as the centerpiece.  A sheet of vellum-like paper I had in my stash cried out to be used on this card, so that was my choice for the flower.  My Silhouette cut out the 3 layers lickity split, then I sponged the petals with pink ink to add just the right amount of color.  After a few rhinestones were added the centerpiece was complete.

Still I couldn’t get the layout just right until I found inspiration from Linda’s Stampin Loft.  Linda is masterful at layout designs and I knew she would have a design that would help me on my quest.  I really liked the doily backdrop on her card, yet none of the doilies I had seemed to work.  My solution, I went to my trusted resource the Silhouette Online Store and found the perfect doily shape for my project.

Linda’s card was my inspiration, but I always want to use another’s card as inspiration and not entirely copy the card, so I chose to dry emboss the background, use a rhinestone swirl for the stem of the flower and omit the ribbon.  I can’t even believe I’m saying “omit the ribbon” since I’m such a ribbon lover, but nonetheless not a ribbon is to be found on my card.  I also chose to include one layer under the floral centerpiece rather than 2 as Linda’s card had.  The final result is what you see here.  I hope our daughter will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together for her.

Thanks to Linda for her inspiration and thanks to you for visiting.  I hope you have a very blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow with a free cutting file.

Linda

Supplies Used

Card Stock from Stampin Up
Vellum – Club Scrap
Rhinestone swirl from Me and My Big Ideas
Rhinestones in the center of the flower – Hobby Lobby
Sentiment stamp from Stampin Up
Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug
3D Flower & Doily shapes from Silhouette Online Store
1 3/8″ circle punch from Stampin Up
Green Circle – Made the shape in my Silhouette Designer Series software
Regal Rose, Certainly Celery Classic Ink from Stampin Up
Dimensionals from Michael’s
Scor Tape
Glossy Accents to adhere rhinestone centers

Wonderful Day for Digital Stamps

Cre8tive Hands blogger, Michelle, is an artist and her talents are evident everywhere on her blog.  Michelle has created this adorable angel that she is generously offering for free to use as a digital stamp on your cards and paper projects.  In addition to the plethora of digital stamp ideas, I envision this image also being used as an embroidery design on a pillow, framed on the wall, or even used as an applique on a variety of projects.  The sky is the limit on this design.

I’d love to see, and I’m sure Michelle would as well, what projects you make using this special angel.

So without further ado, here is today’s featured digital stamp…

Until next time, have a Blessed Day!

Linda

Sew, It’s Tuesday

What a better way to start your day than with this cute and oh so practical “Vintage Rose Frame Purse” designed by Tanya over at Craft Couture by TC.  Tanya offers her free pattern along with easy to follow directions & pictorial for making this adorable purse.

These purses would make terrific gifts for girls of all ages, and while you’re at it, whip up one for yourself as well.

Blessings,

Linda

Marvelous Monday Free Valentine Printable

A quick post today.  In the spirit of sharing, here is a cute printable  for Valentines Day that is offered by Paper Glitter.  While visiting Paper Glitter, don’t forget to check out all of the other adorable printable designs.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a Blessed Day!!!

Linda

Love Birds Valentine Card

I enjoy using my Silhouette Cameo so much that I can’t stop raving about it.  The Silhouette replaces so many products in my craft room including most of my punches and in some cases stamps.  As you can tell from this card, the words are cut out rather than being stamped which gave it another layer of dimension.  In any case, I enjoy making projects with my Cameo so it made total sense to use cut images for this year’s Valentine Card to my sweet hubby.   Shhhhh, he hasn’t seen this yet:-)

In addition to the cut images that I either purchased or received as a free download, I decided to jump in with both feet and design the scalloped edge card base myself.  It took much trial and error but I’m quite happy with the final result.  I know I could have purchased a scalloped edge card base from the Silhouette store, but I just felt the need to create something from start to finish myself.  Albeit, a simple, simple design, it’s my own efforts that put it together and that was the goal.  As I learn more I hope to try my hand at designing files that are more detailed and intricate.  Once I get a bit more proficient at designing, I’ll be sharing those file for free here on this blog.

Now onto the card.  The “Love Birds” image was designed by Samantha Walker and can be purchased at the Silhouette Online Store.  I think the image is quite beautiful and appropriate for this occasion.  The inside “love” pop up is a free download from Under a Cherry Tree.  Jin is an incredibly talented artist and has a wealth of information that she shares on her blog.  Jin also offers tutorials on You Tube that have been quite helpful to me as a new Silhouette owner.  I can’t thank Jin enough for sharing her time, talent and inspiration to those of us needing the extra help!

Even though this card is for my hubby, I couldn’t resist adding the pearls & ribbon.  I also tried my hand at making a stick pin to add just a bit more interest to the card.  Our granddaughter, Morgan, chose all of the beads for the pin and I think she did a super job.

I couldn’t be more pleased with how this card turned out and hope he enjoys it on Tuesday.

Thank you for visiting and stay tuned for my next post which will be a new baby quilt that should be finished by this evening.

Supplies used in this project

Red card stock – SU
White card stock – Papertrey Ink
Organdy ribbon – SU
Pearls from either Hobby Lobby or Michaels (I can’t recall)
Beads – ?
Love Birds image from Samantha Walker through the Silhouette Online Store
Love pop up inside card design from Jin at Under the Cherry Tree
Scalloped edge card base designed by me
Silhouette Cameo Designer Edition Software to design the card base