It all started when I decided to make a quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Since it was a secret, and some of the family check out this blog once in a while, so I couldn't post anything about it. And it consumed all my crafting time for about three months.
After that, I got serious about a book I'm writing. It's a children's middle-reader novel, and as of yesterday, I've FINALLY finished the structure of it all. Now I have to edit. I have since learned that crafting and free-writing are nearly mutually exclusive, so I really wasn't crafty at all for several months.
In the spring, I attended the AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah with my mother, and I was completely inspired and compelled to craft again. I bought patterns and more supplies, and by the summer, I was again in full crafting swing (I was also taking a lengthy break from book-writing at this point!).
I learned to make these, which I have since begun selling at a local market and have plans in the very near future to open an Etsy site. Stay tuned! In a six month span, I counted I've made over 40 of these fabric bowls for wedding presents, Christmas presents and custom orders. In the month of December, I was still making bowls on the eve of Christmas Eve. Whew!
In the process of making the bowls, I killed my first sewing machine (RIP Stanley the Singer) and wound up buying a nice Brother machine, which is named Desmond. (My husband and I had just finished watching all six seasons of LOST on Netflix, hence the name).
For my friend Jennifer's birthday in December, I made these pillows for her bedroom. Ask for throw pillows and someone might actually listen...
And notice the black stitch? Just one of the many functions of my new sewing machine - twin needle stitching! Love!
If you give a mouse a cookie....well, if you teach a girl to craft, she's going to nee a place to do it. My husband agreed to give up his dreams of a man cave in the spare bedroom to give me a craft space. It works out, because when I'm in the spare room, he gets the TV and the Playstation all to himself. :)
So it started like this before:
To this after:
And somewhere in the past couple months, we created a photo wall. If you haven't designed one of these, let me tell, you it is WORK. They look stunning in magazines and on Pinterest (my other new addiction!), but they are far from easy, and far from cheap. This one was done on a budget, using frames from Goodwill and on clearance at Michaels, many of which were spray-painted black. Then there was the trouble of picking out photos and getting them printed. And finding mats when needed. And having the right nails. In the end, this wall cost us about $100 with all the supplies.
We used a ton of painter's tape to mark and level, and still, everything isn't perfectly spaced. And word of advice: purchase a laser level . We actually use it all the time. It's wonderful.
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