Tibetan inspired pillows

Made these great pillows from Tibetan aprons. Just folded in half and stuffed them. They are beautiful!

Babies, babies, babies - New project

Quite a few of my friends in Nepal were making babies while we were there. This is for another friend of mine who actually just had her baby but of course, I am behind.... Her hubby is a Navy man so I think this will be cute.

Finally....

I found this completed quilt top when I was unpacking my sewing room. I sewed the border on this evening and just ordered some backing fabric. Hope to get it mailed off this week to be quilted and binded. Nice little surprise - I totally forgot about this project :-).

DIY re-upholstered office chair

Look what I did today! This chair is in my kitchen and was disgustingly dirty. I bought this upholstery fabric at Joann's (took 2 yards) and covered it with no sewing. A little fabric glue, staple gun and a screw driver. I love it! Happy 4th of July to me. It only took me about an hour to complete this project. Good luck!

Joanna's Baby Stuff complete

I finished and mailed these about a month ago but I forgot to post pictures. I have 2 more friends having or that have had babies this year so I have 2 more little quilts on the way. I'm almost motivated.....

I tried out a different binding on this one and I love it! I think they will all look like this from now on :-).

I'm back at it.....

My craft room is finally organized and no longer the unpacking room for everyone in my house. I have bought shelves and baskets and attempted to throw away all the old stuff (dried up paints). I am not sure if I realized how much craft stuff I had - funny thing is, all of it went to Nepal and I probably sewed 3 times the whole 2 years we were there.

Well I'm back! Last weekend I spent about 3 hours wandering around Joann's looking at all the new stuff and trying to re-inspire myself to do something, anything..... I think I did it! I met a wonderful life long friend in Nepal that happens to be pregnant and she chose monkeys as here them - in luck, still have tons of left over yardage from my cousins baby quilt - and of course bought some more stuff last weekend too..... SO today I have cut out the whole top and I am slowly piecing it all together.

New Wine Bags

I created these bags with traditional Nepali fabrics. Love them!! I made both of these in about 10 minutes. Super Easy.

Wine Bag

We are headed to a friends tonight and I remembered we still don't have any wine bags. I made this in about 10 minutes and I love it. Super easy and I didn't measure anything just wrapped it around the bottle, made a few cuts and sewed it all together.

February Block Swap

Another completed block for my block swap group.
This is definitely not a pattern of choice, some swappers have special requests and this was one. Although it wasn't my preference it gives me a chance to use up some of my fabric stash and continue to perfect my skills.

My First Stained Glass Piece

This is my first stained glass piece! It took me all day long but was well worth the time. I forgot to take pictures during the entire process but here is one:

At this stage I had already cut and sanded all of my glass and was beginning to wrap the edges with the copper foil. Once all of the copper is on, you solder and it's pretty much done. The longest part was cutting and sanding the glass. I really enjoyed making this piece and plan to make a larger piece soon.

Sew Simple Blocks

These photos are so bad! I took them with my ipad because the battery on my camera wasn't charged. Ehhh, maybe I will take more later. I really like the orange block.I started this quilt in 2009. My mom asked about it last month and I was inspired to pull it back out. I forgot how much I liked these blocks, maybe I will finish it this year.

January Block of the Month

I have started the Block of the Month club once again. I love the idea of the club but I got to busy for it before so I had to quit. Now I don't have time to quilt much at all so the monthly block forces me into my sewing room. I hope to start incorporating Nepali fabrics into these blocks soon but I haven't found any that I just love yet. This block is going to Terry in San Larenzo, California who requested pinks, blacks and greys. I will share what I receive when it arrives :-).

I'm inspired

Yesterday, the kids and I went to AWON, Kathmandu's big Christmas bazaar. So many crafty things and beautiful scarves. I didn't feel the need to buy much but I did feel inspired to pull my creativity back out. It's amazing how creatively talented some Nepali's are.

So here is what I did buy. The baskets are made from old potato chip bags - how cool is that!
I think I will own 100 scarves by the time we leave. And I bought lots of ornaments for our Nepali Christmas :-).

I plan to buy some Tibetan fabric soon to make some wall hangings. Many more projects to come.....

Recent Projects

Somewhere along the way I picked up this book, no telling where or how long ago but I found it when I was unpacking my sewing room. It looked really interesting and since I have never taken an official sewing class I decided to do the projects in order and learn all of the little tricks to sewing that I never learned. It has been great. Sometimes in life we all should slow down and go back to the basics. I've learned things about my machine that I probably should have known long ago and I'm only on the 4th project.

So Project 1 was to create a stitch sampler. I won't bore you with that, it was a little tedious but I'm glad I finished it. Since I am mainly a quilter I have little use for special stitches. I was pretty surprised by all the stitches my machine produces. There was also an applique project.

Project #3 was a free hand stitch. The purpose is showing you how to release the foot and self guide. I never knew this was possible....

Project #4
A simple napkin with pretty corners. This is another thing I never would have thought to make, especially since they are so cheap these days but I enjoyed making it and plan to make many more since we are a place mat and napkin fam.

Next project is a placemat - not sure when I will get to that. But I will try to remember to post.

Almost settled.....

It's been forever again! I kind of forgot about my blog but I woke up this morning with that crafty bug and decided to finish organizing my craft room - and it's done! Finally! It took a minute, especially since our landlord had to repaint our entire house last month.

My craft room is no where near as fabulous as the one in Georgia, but I like it. It's on the third floor and has a ton of windows bringing in lots of natural light. Unfortunately I don't have Himalayan mountain views, but I can see the foothills. The room is very white - a little hospital-ish. Slowly I am adding color.

Greg decided this room needed a sitting area so we could enjoy the room together :-).

And of course Jojo is always close by.
The room is huge. Unfortunately, I won't be able to put up a design wall because Nepal has a monsoon season and the houses are made of concrete so they are moist half the year.

Jojo - almost 3!

I realized the other day that I have not updated my blog in months, well almost a year. Truthfully, I have been to busy to sew or even think about anything left brain. We have been planning our move to Kathmandu, Nepal for the last year and my sewing room has turned into our sorting room. Everything related to sewing isn't really visible and all of my tables have been moved to the garage to hold yard sale items. I hope to get crafty again once we get settled in Nepal next month and I hear they have amazing fabrics and threads so I am really excited!
So instead of updating with a new photo of my creative works I decided on a picture of my goofy boy Jojo. He will be 3 years old next month and if you have had the pleasure of meeting him this picture is perfect. Jojo has truly been the best addition to our family, he still entertains us daily. He ended up being a runt, but thank goodness because we are paying his fees to get to Nepal and it's by weight. He currently weighs 110lbs.

Soaps....

After getting this great Martha Stewart book I have been inspired by soap. I have been to busy to do anything to time consuming and this seems to be perfect. This morning I woke up and made 7 bars of soap while I drank my coffee. It is so easy and has endless creative possibilities. I am excited!!! The bottom bars are just clear glycerin with lavender flowers and honey almond scent. The orange bars are white glycerin with orange peel scrub. The gray bar (which was supposed to be brown) is a shea butter eucalyptus bar I made for my husband. And the green one is just a green glycerin bar from left over soap that I dyed to use later in something else (not sure what just yet...). This is a super easy craft and I plan to have a lot of fun with it.

Camera Bags

I made these cute little bags for my girls. They don't know it yet but they are getting cameras for having such a great school year. Happy summer!

Monkeys, monkeys, everywhere.....

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys :-)
These are all for my baby cousin - she is having a baby this month and chose monkeys. I had a little bit of fun, can you tell?

The ribbon is tied around 4 burb clothes I made with the extra fabric. Great and super easy idea!

Sewing Machine Cover

I can't believe I didn't post a picture of this. I made this sometime in December before I closed the door to my sewing room for a few months. My sewing room has glass doors so every time I walk past I can see the cups and it makes me smile :-).