I Heart Jaybird Quilts!

For those of you who haven't heard of or seen the patterns, rulers and all around goodness of Jaybird Quilts, stop everything you are doing and check her out! 

Here is where you can find her: www.jaybirdquilts.com 

I LOVE everything she puts out! You cannot go wrong with any of her patterns or rulers, they RULE! 

I've had my eye on the Seaside Runner and Rock Candy patterns for a bit now. And when we got the Roll-Ups of the new Tula Pink line, Fox Field.. Light Bulb! (I know you are all thinking about Despicable Me now!) 

So, here is what I set out to do.. Make as many Jaybird patterns as I can with ONE Tula Pink Roll-Up! Oh YES!!

Here is what I've done so far:

Seaside Table Runner: 

(using just the greens & grays from Fox Field)

Rock Candy Table Topper:

(using the purples & corals from Fox Field)

Now of course you can see in both projects I used solids for the backgrounds. I pulled both of those out of my stash! Aren't you proud of me?!

And, if you can believe it, this is what I have left still to make a few other patterns from Jaybird:

I think I may have enough green/gray diamonds left to make another Rock Candy!

The reflection you see there is off of the ruler that you use for both of these projects! Her rulers are seriously AWESOME! 

The one you use for Seaside & Rock Candy is called the Sidekick Ruler and you can cut triangles, diamonds, and half triangles with it, in four different sizes! 

Here are a few of her other projects I am planning/have in the works right now: 

So, Park Bench is actually a booklet and can be used as a Block of the Month (BOM). You get 8 different block patterns in this one! (Almost done with the blocks for that one!)

Night Sky has been one of her most popular patterns I think. There is a beautiful version of it floating around Pinterest done with Tula Pink fabrics.. I think it may have been in my "Pinterest" post a while back! :P  I am scheming it with the new Vanessa Christensen line "Color Me Happy", I may be stopping by Seams Like Home tomorrow to get my supplies!

You can also see the booklets that come with the Rulers. I have the Sidekick Ruler & the Hex N More Ruler. With the Hex N More you can cut hexagons, half hexagons, triangles and jewels. The possibilities are endless; think about all of the awesome triangle and hexagon quilts that are floating around on Pinterest.. (Ahhh .. lost in project-land!). 

Anywhoo.. in case you are wondering.. No she is not paying me to say nice things about her products.. I just really really like them! :) 

Go check her out if you haven't seen her stuff yet.. and if you have, well, head over to her site anyway because she has an awesome project going right now that you can be involved in!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli & Gertrude (who is very tired from whipping out the above projects!)

Operation "Make the Baskets" is (Almost) Complete

Hey All,

As I promised last week, I have a quick and easy basket pattern for you to make into Easter Baskets. This pattern is AWESOME! I absolutely love how it turned out. I did end up adding a little more interfacing and stabilizer to the bag, to help it keep its shape.

And of course, since Gertrude is such a rock-star, I added embroidered names to each of the girls baskets! (the Twins baskets are "coming soon" because I procrastinated tonight and worked on another project! shhh don't tell!) 

This basket pattern is very well written and has lots of great pictures to follow. I think I completed this basket in about 3 hours from start to finish (including embroidery) which is fairly quick.

Here is where you can get the pattern: Noodle-head (Divided Basket)

And, last but not least .. (drumroll)

Perfect size for her "Hoppy Floppy Bunny"

Big enough for lots of goodies

Peek-a-boo!

As you can see, I may be an overachiever with "making the Easter stuff", but I am not with the filling the basket part! I have yet to get items to fill the baskets with. I'm jumping on the band wagon with the whole "no-candy" basket idea this year! I mean really, who wants sugar high kids in the early morning hours?! Not me! 

I hope you all give it a try. Even if you don't get to making it an Easter Basket, it is a great Sewing Notions Basket, or Diaper Basket. It really is a versatile bag! 

I'm off to shop for basket goodies! 

Hope you all have a Happy Easter!

:) Enjoli & Gertrude

OH! P.S: I almost forgot ... here is my Army of Bunnies! 

They only look sweet and docile.. they're actually trained Ninja Bunnies! :P 

Hoppy Floppy Bunny

It's almost Easter! At our house that means Bunnies, baskets and ridiculous amounts of that easter grass that you find all over the house for weeks to follow!

This year, since the Twins are old enough for Easter Baskets, I decided that I should put my creative mom skills to work and make the Bunnies & the Baskets. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and blame the whole "make the bunnies" thing on my girlfriend who showed me this bunny pattern!

So, here is this super easy, very cute pattern called Sweet Floppy Bunny. You can find the pattern and template over at The Sewing Loft.

 

I feel like I am making an army of them.. one for each of the girls..and one for me of course! I spent about an hour the other night doing the embroidery on their faces. I used a Frixion pen to draw their faces on and then did a simple back stitch by hand to complete them. I used French knots to secure the tail to the body!

Is it creepy just looking at floating faces?!

Legs & Arms

I have bodies and body parts everywhere! 

I have to say, this really is a fun pattern. It is quick to cut and even faster to sew! Once you've got your bunny all together, you just turn him and stuff him and Ta-Da, you have yourself a cute Easter Bunny! 

I'd better get back to it, have to finish up these three and get started on the baskets. 

Check back next week to see the baskets (also a very quick project)!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli & Gertrude!

Lazy Days are for Pinterest Favorites

This afternoon was one of those rare occasions when I have a few hours to myself at home! The twins are with my in-laws and Alia is with GG (Arlene as most of you know her). When I find these rare moments I tend to try and cram in a hundred things to make the most of my time. 

Today I decided that instead of trying to finish ALL of the projects in my sewing area, I would do the next best thing: Plan More! And where better to plan more projects than Pinterest! OH Pinterest, how I love thee and how I hate thee! 

I discovered Pinterest after I had the twins and was up all hours of the night feeding them. Some nights I would realize that whichever baby I was feeding had fallen asleep, yet I was still up perusing Pinterest! 

So I figured, since I was taking a break from all the sewing action, I'd give you all a break too and share with you a couple favorites from my Pinterest "To-Do" list! 

(I'm not going to lie, I have like 14 "boards" and probably half of them are sewing/quilting/crafting related! In fact my biggest board is called "Quilty Crap"!) 

Ok, so here you go: 

1) Rainbow Hexie Quilt - uses the Hex 'N More Ruler from Jaybird Quilts

OH MY! I just love it so much. It reminds me of summer and sun and warmth! :) Can you tell I'm ready for Summer?! Plus it is just a happy project! 

And seriously, it is made with half hexies (that means none of that crazy hexagon piecing.. blehh!)

Check it out!

2) Aurifil Spool Quilt  - Who doesn't love Auriful Thread?!

Ok, you can't tell me that this is not one of the coolest quilts you've ever seen! I love this project so much! Plus the story behind the project is pretty cool! I think one of these should hang in my dream studio one day!

Check it out! 

3) Night Sky in Tula Pink Fabrics - Need I say more?

I feel like the picture is self explanatory. I mean who wouldn't want to make this project with this fabric?! Ahhhh I LOVE IT!! This one is pretty close to the top of my list! Maybe only second to the next project! 

Check it out!

4) Fire Island Hosta- NEW Judy Neimeyer

OMG OMG OMG!! This one is pretty darn close to being #1 on my To-do list! Want to know a secret? We have this background fabric at the shop! Yep I bought what I needed for this project already! 

Check it out! 

5) Anything Zen Chic - Love it All 

Nope, not going to lie... I love it all! I want to make everything she does! Part of the appeal is that she does a great job picking colors! I think just by changing the colors of some of her quilts, you could easily make them baby quilts, grad gifts, etc. 

P.S: As I type, I'm also adding her patterns to an upcoming order! :P 

Check it out! 

Okay, so now that I've sucked you in .. 

I know you have another browser window open and are procrastinating your housework!

It's okay me too!

For those of you who have tried to stay away from Pinterest or have genuinely not heard of it .. I am going to apologize now and beg forgiveness for the huge amount of time you will spend looking, pinning and wondering where your time went! 

Grab a cup of coffee, sit on the couch and of course send me some of your ideas you've found on Pinterest! As you can tell, I'm always looking for more projects! 

Happy (Not) Sewing,

Enjoli 

(and a begrudging Gertrude.. I think she is afraid of all the work I will be making her do with my long list of projects)

Happy Shamrock-ing Applique

HAPPY (LATE) ST. PATRICKS DAY! 

This is one of my favorite holidays! 

Why you ask, well.. as my four year old will tell you, "Mommy loves Green!" It is true. I do! 

So, what better way to celebrate a happy day filled with everything green then to create something Green I can enjoy year round. The technique used for this project is found on Urban Threads (Big Surprise, huh?!) under Tutorials, or click this link to check it out! 

We will be using a low density embriodery design to create an appliqué embroidery design. I feel like I should've known about this technique before now, but oh well, I'll make up for lost time and start stitching! 

Here is the design I stitched. I just couldn't help myself! 

Find it here. 

Cute little shamrocks! 

What a great design, such nice detail! 

I had so much fun stitching these guys out. 

I ended up using a nice Kona Cotton for the base and some scraps of silk dupioni for the "appliqué" base on the shamrocks. The coolest thing about how these stitch out is that it looks variegated. To get this look you will want to make sure you have three thread colors that go from light to dark. I did my lightest in the middle but you could get a cool effect by doing it in the reverse. If you look closely at the silver background shamrock you can see I actually used a variegated thread, which I think came out pretty cool looking too. 

Once you read through the tutorial you will probably be surprised that you didn't think of doing this earlier too! I love how easy it is, though I do have to say that a nice pair of small embroidery scissors makes a huge difference when you go to cut around the edge of your design. 

I'm sure you are wondering what this beautiful design will be made into.. well, you'll just have to check back next month to find out! Stay tuned because it is a great little project from another of my favorite online sources! 

Here's hoping to seeing a bit more green outside! 

Until then Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude) 

The Giving Bunny Project

Hey Gang,

This project is not only cute, but also has a great story behind it! 

Click here to read the story 

Check it out and then download the design to make a few of your own! 

Here are a few step-by-step (ok, maybe every other step) of photos to help you along; though Urban Threads does have a great tutorial for the project. Click HERE if you would like their instructions! 

I decided that my little bunny needed to be pink! Partly because I didn't have any white when I was sitting down to make her! :P 

You'll want some cut away/tear away stabilizer (I used Cut-Away), some white fluffy material (flannel, minkee or felt), thread for the eyes and nose and of course an awesome embroidery machine helps. Love my Gertrude!

Step 1: Gather Supplies

Step 2: Let your awesome embroidery machine trace your pieces out for you!

Step 3: Cut your pieces out on the stitch line and then let your machine stitch down the front of your sweet little bunny.

Step 4: Admire how cute your Bunny is turning out!

Step 5: Lay your second Bunny piece right side down on your "face" piece and let the second stitch line work its magic.

Step 6: Release your little Bunny from the stabilizer, turn, stuff & embellish her!

There are really only a few steps to this awesome little project, you could whip up a bunch in no time! I know I will be making a few more of these cuties to leave places. Maybe even a few will make it to Pittsburgh (for Market) and Nashville (for Bernina University) this summer! 

So, I'm thinking that to encourage you all to share your Bunnies with us, I'll give you a two weeks to whip up some of these cuties and post a picture of them to the Seams Like Home Facebook Page! After the two weeks anyone who has posted a picture to our page will receive a $10 gift card to the store! 

The Rules:  

1) You must put a tag on your bunny so that the person who finds it knows what the heck it's about.

2) You must post the location of your bunny along with their photo.

3) This one is not necessarily a rule, but would be fun. Go to Urban Threads and open their Google Map to add your bunnies location!

(Contest will close on Friday, April 4th, 2014 at 11:59pm; Gift cards for participants will be at SLH in our hold box and will be available on Saturday, April 5th; one gift card per participant)

It will be fun to see if any other SLH customers find them! They also make great gifts for any kiddos in your life. (My oldest has asked when she can have this cute little pink bunny!)

I'm looking forward to seeing these bunnies multiply! (Like Bunnies do!)

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude) 

Embroidery and the Enabler

So here's the thing about Gertrude... she is an enabler.

She makes so many things easier and therefore so much more fun! She calls to me while I am cleaning or doing laundry. She says, "Forget those ridiculous household trivialties and come have some fun with me!".

And let me tell you, she is quite convincing. So, I put down the sponge and push the laundry pile further into the corner and run away to hide in Gertrude's company.

Right now we are in an Embroidery phase. There are just so many things you can do with Machine Embroidery. And of course with sites out there like Urban Threads (www.urbanthreads.com), I cannot stay away.

Gertrude and I have decided that this month we will play with some new embroidery projects. There are so many things I've not done yet with embroidery. So of course I headed over to Urban Threads and found a few things that looked like fun!

Today, I'll show you some fun Embroidered Tags, because who doesn't love putting a sweet little label onto a quilted gift. With the design pack chosen, you can also create a gift tag or ribbon tag! So much fun!

Then, we'll try an In-the-Hoop project. If you've never done one of these, OH MY OH MY, you must give it a try. So easy and so fast! This awesome project is called the Giving Bunny Project, and is such a cool idea! You'll want to make hundreds of these little guys!

And last, in celebration of St. Patricks day, we will play with turning any lighlyt stitched design into an appliqué design! A great excuse for me to use LOTS of green!

Fun with Embroidered Tags

One of my all time favorite embroidery websites is Urban Threads. They have machine embroidery and hand embroidery and LOTS of them! So, conveniently they have a "tutorial" on different tags you can make with the design pack, "Made with Love". This really is such a cute design pack, you'll want to start putting labels on everything!

The first tag I made was a stand alone tag. I decided to finish mine off by sewing a back on it so that you cannot see the stitching on the back of the tag. This one is great for putting on a package when giving a hand made gift! 

This one is perfect for sewing onto the back of a gift quilt.

Here is another label that I made, stitched onto a baby quilt for a friends little girl!

There is a third type of label you can make with the designs from this pack, but I never did get a chance to pick up some ribbon to give it a try. Maybe this weekend some time will magically appear! 

If you love these labels and want them for yourself, head over to Urban Threads and check them out. The pack is called, "Made with Love".  Oh and you can find the tutorial for all the tags HERE. They also come in hand embroidery format for those of you who prefer that embroidery method! 

Hope you get a chance to play with some machine embroidery this weekend!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli & Gertrude