Tattered Florals Challenge

I decided to create an entry for Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Challenge. I love Tim Holtz and his Tattered Florals Die is really cool, so I knew I had to at least give it a try. I debated about what to make, and almost chose a floral cuff bracelet, but then I remembered a wooden owl shaped die cut I bought at Mike's. I I decided I could use the the Tattered Florals die to embellish the owl. Here it is: I used the die to cut flowers out of some natural and synthetic fabrics...I cut a TON of flowers and then cut a TON more!! The die cuts layers of fabric beautifully, thank goodness. After the flowers were cut I used my distress inks to add just the right amount of color and shading. I used the wooden owl for my base and sketched the basic design for my feathers. I used grunge board for the wings, I think the wings are my favorite part, so soft and fluffy! I used Tim's vintage knobs for the eyes and a silver crown I also bought at Mike's. Other than that the owl is full of flowers and petals! I couldn't tell you how many flowers I used, but it was A LOT!!!

Bright Blooms

Just completed my Mini Art Quilt for Round 4 on Craftster, and I was sorry to see it go! But I am really hoping my swap partner will love it too. :) She wanted something in the tree theme so this is what I cam up with:

My partner is also an owl fan so I added a little owl nestled in the leaves.

I sewed each leaf individually, then turned them right side out, tacked them on the tree and then added a button. It meant for a lot of hand sewing, but I wanted the tree to have that texture.

This is the back side:

The quilt measured about 18x25 when it was done I think.

And speaking of being a fan of owls....
Looky what my Mommie found for me at Goodwill for $6! A beautiful ceramic owl lamp:


Now I know this might not be for everyone, but I just love her!!! I named her Olivette and she perches in my entryway. She makes me happy :) it's the little things right?

Trying to find my MOJO ;)

There have been some big changes in my life over the last few months...the biggest being my family moving from sunny Florida to the Northern Virginia/D.C. area. I could go on and on about it but I am trying to move onward and upward, so no pity parties here!
But, with all the change I feel like I have lost my creative, crafting, sewing mojo...
In an effort to get it back I headed to a good source of inspiration: CRAFTSTER.ORG and joined in their mug rug swap. In case you are unfamiliar with a "mug rug" it is basically a small quilted place mat used to put your coffee or tea cup on. AKA a mini quilt. I figured this was something I could handle and it would get me sewing again.
I signed up for 2 partners and got to work!

Mug rug #1





This partner is a nature/owl fan, loved using my wood grained fabric! I also sent both partners a little goodie bag of tea bags and Starbuck's Via and made a matching tag.

Mug Rug #2





This partner likes kawaii, and I have had this cute fabric in my stash for a while and knew it was too perfect!

Here is a shot of the backs:



Luckily both partners loved their mug rugs, woot woot!

Did my plan work?? I think it did! I had a lot of fun planning and sewing these mug rugs. And it has motivated me to finally get my sewing closet organized and orderly...more on that later, yes I typed "sewing closet". I am not quite ready to photograph yet. ;)

I hope to keep my rear in gear, I appreciate everyone who reads my blog, thanks for sticking with me! xo

Sweet Fall Owl Wreath

My Mom sent me a link a few weeks back of an owl wreath she saw on the web. She knew I would love it, and she was right!! I saved a copy of the picture because I was soooo inspired to make my own. This is the inspiration wreath:

Look at that adorable owl!!
I cannot find the website it came from, my Mom thinks it was HGTV.com but I have been over that site with no luck. I thought it was from CountryLiving.com, no luck there either. Well, it's out there somewhere...sorry I can tell you where.
I hunted at Michael's for a sweet little owl, not much to choose from. But I found one I liked enough so off I went!
Here is my wreath:

Now for a closeup of my sweet little owl.

I love looking at this wreath everyday, sure makes me smile!

It's a Hoot!

This is my new fall t-shirt, yay! And I'll tell ya how I did it:

First I found this adorable owl Halloween t-shirt at Target for $5. What caught my eye was the yummy chocolate color and the fact it had a lovely owl on the front. His feathers say Trick or Treat which is cute, but then I could only wear it for Halloween, so I needed to find a way to hide that.

Enter yoyos in beautiful falls colors. I used a 3 inch circle to make my pattern and cut out 11.

The yoyo for this shirt is a finished yoyo, where the top edge is folded under before sewing. You use as gathering stitch and sew all the way around the circle. Oh yeah end of thread is knotted. Once around pull your thread to gather it up and knot it off. If you need more info on sewing yoyos visit HERE

Once gathered I knotted the thread on the back of the yoyo.

Next, I decided where to place each yoyo, and started sewing them on at the bottom row. I sewed on the 2 outside yoyos and filled in the centers. Then I moved up to the next row, and then the top row.

The best way to sew on yoyos is to use little stitches in the creases that way they aren't visible. I made little stitches all the way around each yoyo so that with wear and laundering they won't pull away from t-shirt and reveal the text below.

This is what the back side looks like. You can see I stitched around the perimeter and I knotted on the back.

Then of course, some lovely button eyes. They are not an exact match but that is okay, adds to the whimsy right??

And voila! You are done HOO-La-La!!