return on creativity: new pillow cover ideas

I made some new pillows for my shop using black fabric paint.  The all is well pillow was inspired by three word sayings like "Life is good" or "Live Laugh Love".  I hand painted the words and then sewed red felt applique accents in the loops of the letters.

I used an eclectic grouping of my collection of foam stamps to create this alphabet pillow.  I bought most of my stamps years ago.  They are mostly from Making Memories and no longer sold, but I found a set on Amazon here.  I love my foam stamps.  I use them on paper and fabric.  If you find some snatch them up! 

This is my favorite tutorial for sewing pillow covers.  It doesn't win the prize for the prettiest pillow in my opinion, but the measurements seem to work really well for me.

Happy sewing and thanks for reading!

return on creativity: fabric napkin rings

Fabric napkin rings are a great idea for using up scraps of fabric that you love.

Here's how to make your own fabric napkin rings.

1.  Cut two rectangles of fabric measuring nine inches by three inches for each ring.

2.  Stitch two rectangles together.  I used my serger to stitch two wrong sides together.  If you don't have a serger you could turn down the edges of each rectangle a quarter inch and steam with an iron.  Then put wrong sides together and top stitch around all sides of the rectangle.

3.  Sew a button hole one inch in from the edge of the napkin ring.

4.  Sew a button six inches from the button hole.  (I learned how to sew buttons with my sewing machine for this project.  Holy cow!  So easy!  I followed my sewing machine manual, but here is a great tutorial.  Seriously...why did I ever sew a button by hand?)

That's it!  You are done.  Below are some of the napkin rings I made that are for sale in my shop.

Happy sewing and thanks for reading!

me: documentary + design = heaven

My husband and I both love to watch documentaries.  Last night I watched a documentary about Charles and Ray Eames for the second time.  I loved it again!

source

If you love documentaries and you love design I highly recommend this documentary (which you can watch online!  cool!):

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/charles-ray-eames-the-architect-and-the-painter/watch-the-full-documentary-film/1950/


If you get inspired to own a piece of Eames yourself there are lots of great selections on Etsy.


Some of my other favorite documentaries:

King of Kong -- a surprisingly entertaining documentary about the world of competitive classic video games.

Man on Wire -- I just watched this again a couple weeks ago.  Inspirational documentary about drive and destiny.

return on creativity: daffodil pillow

It's super snowy here today, but I am ready for spring.  I made this daffodil pillow this weekend.  Daffodils are by far my favorite flower.  I love the yellow color.  

I did some free motion embroidery on this pillow.  I first tried this technique on my shabby rose pillow.  I'm still honing my skills with this technique so my pillow is not perfect, but I still really like it and I want to get better at this technique.  Here is a great article on free motion embroidery that I found really informative.

Here's how I made my pillow:

1.  I sketched a daffodil and combined my sketch with a script font to create my template.  I printed both the sketch and the word bloom on white paper and cut them out.  Then I pasted each to piece of 12 by 12 paper.

Here's my sketch.

Here's my template.  I used the font The Only Exception.

2.  I then used scotch tape to tape my template to the back of my pillow to prepare for tracing my design.

3.  I traced my design onto the pillow front with a Disappearing Ink Marking Pen and a light box.

4.  I put the darning foot on my sewing machine, dropped the feed dogs, and set my stitch length to 0.  Then I started tracing my design with stitches by guiding the fabric under the needle.

5.  Finally I sewed everything together into a 18 X 18 pillow cover.

Give free motion embroidery a try.  I hope you like it as well as I do!

me: which do you like best?

Good morning lovely blog readers!  I am seeking your opinion.

I decided to embark on my first blog advertisement.  I will be advertising my shop on Elise Blaha Cripe's blog for the month of February.

I love Elise's style and posts.  Her blog is one of my guilty habits during my lunch hour (or lunch ten minutes between running to meetings) at work.

So....I need to design an ad.  I am so not a graphic designer.  Sometimes I create something and love it.  Other times I just can't seem to get it "right".  (I use GIMP free software to edit all my pictures and create graphics.)

Which is your favorite?

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4 (I don't like this one because I think the colors are kind of depressing, but I like adding the "handmade home accessories".)

Any winners?  Or do I need to go back to the drawing board?