Fern Pillow

Things have still been pretty hectic around here as I try to get everything unpacked and back in order from our trip.  I just finished all of the unpacking and felt like I had whittled the dirty laundry and dishes down to a tolerable level yesterday evening.  I needed to churn out a quick-finish project to feel like I was getting back into the swing of my craft after my break.

Hence,  this simple fern pillow:

It's nothing terribly exciting, except that I have been holding onto the fabric to make this pillow for a while now, and it's nice to be able to move that fabric from stash to usable home good.

Finished dimensions are about 11" x 11" and it's stuffed with my teensy fabric scraps and thread ends from prior sewing projects.  It's a heavy little pillow.

Thanks for reading!

Home Safe

We made it back!  

My mom, sister, son, and I had a great trip.  We stayed in a really, really nice resort called the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort.  This place was gorgeous and had great amenities.  I would completely recommend it.

We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  Harry Potter World, in Islands of Adventure, was still just so cool.  My mom and sisters and I went right after it opened, and three years later it's still pretty awesome.

Owen was very brave and rode lots of rides.  He hasn't settled on a favorite, but he really liked the Spiderman 3-D ride, the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster  and the Popeye's Bilge Rat Barge water ride.  He also really enjoyed Seuss Landing, an area that is modeled after Dr. Seuss books.

He chose a Spinosaurus Tooth from the Jurassic Park section of Islands of Adventure to be his big souvenir of the trip.  He says that he has always wished for a giant dinosaur tooth, and that wish has come true.

I'm feeling refreshed from the vacation and ready to get back to sewing this week!

Goin' on a Trip

No late-night Thursday post this evening, because I'm busy packing.

My mom is giving me an awesome Mother's Day present... she's giving me the chance to take my 6-year-old to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure/Maybe we'll even go to Disney World.  If I saved every extra penny I could scrape up, I could maybe afford to take him by the time he's 25 years old; so it's just incredible that I'm getting to take him at a young enough age that he will still think everything is magical.  We're really looking forward to it!

I'm having a hard time packing because Pepper is pretty determined to stay smack dab in the middle of my suitcase.  Does he think he can stow away?

We'll be back Tuesday, so I'll probably share a couple of photos from our trip, then it will be back to the usual sewing posts.

Thanks for reading!

Frog Legs

Here's a quick little accomplishment I wanted to share.  This is a little frog block that my son played with as a baby.  When you pull the frog's leg, the whole block vibrates.  It's one of the few baby toys I have held on to...  I'm hoping one day my grandkids can use it!

Recently, my stepson came into my office (where the kids are not allowed - too much trouble to get into), found the frog block, and pulled the leg until it broke.  I was so heartbroken over something so little!

Knife Sheath Tutorial

Jeff cooks.  It's his job at work and at home.  He's really good at it.  Unfortunately, he has ended up with me, a woman who thinks it's really fun to call him "Cheffrey Jeffrey".  That poor man puts up with so much.

He has started carrying some of his nice knives to work with him, and requested that I make him a knife sheath to carry them, so that was my project for this evening.  Here is the finished result:

I thought this one-night project might make for a good tutorial.  You will need two pieces of fairly sturdy material at least 28" x 26" each, some large knives, and a strip of leather (or fabric) for the tie.

If you marry a creative person...

This is a real nothing of a post, but a friend shared this on Facebook and I wanted to share it with all of you!

Rainbow Madness - Top Complete!

My Rainbow Madness quilt top is complete.

It measures approximately 36" square, which seems like a nice even place to stop.  Besides, any more cutting to complete borders will only ADD to my stash, and the whole point was to cut down.  I made a nice little dent in my stash with this project, and I'll still probably pull a few more bits for the backing and binding.

For those of you who paid enough attention to my original plan to notice, I made a change in the outer border.  When I got to that point, I found that I had an excess of strippy scraps that were all almost the same width so I went with a border design that would best use up the scraps I had to work with.

Hope everyone has had an enjoyable and productive week!

Shared here, here, here and here.