Noodlehead: November 2012

wallet and pillow

After meeting up with Jeni and Megan a couple weeks ago at the Olive Juice midnight madness sewing, I came home with a few pieces cut for a cute wallet. I know, super productive, right?! ha.

I had scooped up Michelle's patterns Zip Pocket Pouch on sale and couldn't resist using some of my Suzy Ultman with some Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey. I think they make the perfect pair.

I'll be making more of these, no doubt.

On the flip side, I scored this lovely piece of roller skate fabric from Melody Miller herself after participating in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along. I knew straight out of the mailbox that it would have to be a pillow. Big pink and purple roller skates with silver accents = awesome pillow.

I forgot how much I missed making pillows. They're so awesome and quick and fun. And of course I love putting in an invisible zipper. I hadn't done one for so long that it took me a bit to get back into that mode. I even ruined a zip after shortening it, then trying to zip it closed I zipped the whole zipper pull off, duh! Secretly happy that I have a semi-good sized stash of invisible zippers hanging around.

You guys busy sewing Christmas presents? I'm getting sucked into that mode now, I have quite a few things I want to sew up. I'm excited about that because normally I try not to get too wrapped up in making things for Christmas.

joining in on the fun: cyber monday sale

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our turkey turned out kind of like Clark Griswold's, but we all had a fun time anyway!

~~Please stop by and enjoy $2 off any pattern of your choice!~~

all patterns | sidekick tote pattern | envelope clutch pattern | go anywhere bag pattern |

241 tote pattern | runaround bag pattern | gathered clutch pattern

~~Just use the discount code: holiday2012 at the checkout.~~

Thank you for your support! I appreciate you all so much. ♥

Soup of the Day

yum yum. eat it up. I'm over at Delia Creates today sharing my family's Cream of Wild Rice Soup recipe!

Be sure to check out all the soups featured in this series, they all look amazing!

Have a great weekend!

Liberty Scrap Challenge: Christmas Edition, DIY Tiny Tree Decorations

I'm happy to be sharing this tutorial today!. Thanks to Organic Stitch Co. for the liberty mini charm pack! Be sure to check out her shop! And also a thanks to Nova, for putting this fun event together!

I loved being challenged by the little charm pack of Liberty of London fabric. I don't think you could not make something beautiful with them. I decided some little mini Christmas trees were in order. And once I made one, I started thinking about all the different ways you could use them for your home and Christmas package decorating. They're fun quick and easy!

Materials:

1 sheet 12x18 wool felt, you could use acrylic too, but wool holds up much better
handful of fiberfill stuffing
Liberty mini charm pack
small scrap of fabric for tree trunk
thread
tree template download here!
fabric glue stick
embroidery floss (for garland)
leather string (for ornament)

Directions:

Cut two pieces of the large tree template from wool for each tree you'll be making.
Cut one tree from the Liberty scrap pack (or scraps of your choosing).
Cut one tree trunk (3/4" by 1/2" wide).

Using the fabric glue stick, apply and stick down the tree trunk and tree shape on top of one of the pieces of felt.

Sew close to the edges of tree and trunk, clip threads.

Place finished tree on top of remaining piece of felt. Sew around tree and trunk with 1/4" seam allowance. Before you stitch all around the tree, stop and lift your presser foot and stuff in a small amount of fiberfill, then continue stitching. Trim excess felt with sharp scissors.

To make the ornament: insert loop of leather lacing at top of tree before you sew around the tree. Carefully trim the last bit of felt around the loop so that you don't cut through the loop.
To make garland: make 7 trees (or number of your choice) and with a needle, thread on each tree and hang!
To make packaging decoration: Cut two small slits in back of tree (only through the back piece of felt) and thread a ribbon through, tie on package as desired.

coming up

Just thought I'd pop in today to tell you that I've got a few posts coming up at the end of the week. I'm going to keep it all secretive, but as a hint, one is festive and the other is yummy. So there.

There's been really good estate sale action going on around here lately. I may or may not have bought too much and then sold it on craigslist. Here's a couple Arabia Finel bowls my mom actually picked up for me at one of the sales. Love them! I think I might have almost all the more popular designs of these bowls, maybe I'll get a shot of them all together one of these days.

I've also gotten the decorating itch again and started work on my sewing room/play room. Here's a tiny preview, and I got those cute chairs for $5 a piece at an estate sale a couple months ago, the girls love them.

That's all for now, see you later this week. ♥

Ruby Star Wrap-Along

I'm so excited to be able to kick of the Ruby Star Wrap-Along. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a bunch of bloggers each trying out projects from the book Ruby Star Wrapping by Melody Miller and Allison Tannery. I was so happy to get a copy of this at Sewing Summit! As I paged through I loved the Chinese Takeout boxes project, I knew they looked like fun!

I totally has a blast picking out fabrics and using my hot glue gun (that thing doesn't get used enough!). It's a quick and easy project, so if you've got a half hour, give it a try!

One thing about the book is that I love that the authors give you so many different options and ideas to try. For me, I always like choosing from different suggestions, gives a project a whole different look depending on what you choose! And of course I couldn't stop making these little boxes, they're addicting. Plus now I have a nice selection of wrapping for when I need to give a last minute gift.

I wanted to try making a mini version, it would be easy enough to do, just scale down the template. By the way, in the book they give you a link to all the templates from the book so you can easily print them. No more fumbling around at the copy machine trying to make sure everything fits.

This week's prize is a octopurse handbag and a $20 gift certificate to Pink Chalk Fabrics. Just hop on over and link up your project to be entered.

Friday, Amanda of A Crafty Fox will be sharing her version of Jaimie's Casserole Cover!

Want to purchase a copy of Ruby Star Wrapping? Check out these shops! This book is a great gift for that special person who loves to give gifts. Christmas isn't far away you know, hint hint. ♥

Random House

And you can also add your project photos to the Flickr Group!

Join in the fun and follow along on your favorite blogs to see more projects from the Wrap-Along:

11.9.12 Amanda of A Crafty Fox

11.12.12 - Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson!

11.14.12 - Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch

11.16.12 - Erin of Two More Seconds

11.19.12 - Jennifer of BettyCrockerAss

11.21.12 - Rochelle of Lucky Lucille

11.23.12 - Sukie of Sukie - don't you know who I am?

11.26.12 - Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy

11.28.12 - Gina and crew of Bolt Neighborhood

11.30.12 - Ellen of the Long Thread

12.3.12 - Katie of Swim, Bike Quilt

12.5.12 Faith of Fresh Lemon Quilts

12.7.12 Lee of Freshly Pieced

12.10.12 Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade

12.12.12 Sara of Sew Sweetness

12.14.12 Colleen of The Busy Bean

12.17.12 Amy of Diary of a Quilter

12.19.12 Monica of Happy Zombie

ringo pie: house block

I'm embarrassingly far behind in Ringo Pie. If you're new here, you can check out my blocks from last year's round:

I'm pretty proud of all that I've made and really amazed by what the other ladies have produced. I decided to dip my toes back in and try Kerry's house block. Seemed like the perfect starting point. I still need to figure out the sashing to bring the block up to size, but I had fun making it! It doesn't take long. You can find Kerry's free template here. She gives great directions too.