paper piecing

This is my Stars Around Town quilt. The reason why I'm bringing this up again is because I'm thinking about participating in this quilt along:

 

Have you ever tried paper piecing? It is a lot of fun. My grandmother taught me how to do it.

Here is another post about it.

 

Look at the details  you are allowed to do...Those Pinwheels are tiny!

Now I just need to quilt and bind it.  So...I will keep you posted on my new Paper Piecing Adventure!

craft room progress

i love how it is turning out! 

I love the color of this shelf! It was a walnut color wood shelf that I had in my kitchen and recently took it down so I decided to repaint it and hang it in my sewing room. I decided to hang it above my cutting board so I could put my pin cushions and rulers and scissors on it.

So this is what my sewing room looked like last week...

There is no shelf and I did some rearranging of my quilts

 

And this is what I did this weekend! I added the shelf

and also added the wire hanging system that I got from ikea. 

I have always wanted to display my creations but without putting a bunch of holes in the walls. It also had to be easy to hang up. Well these are hanging up by clips.

This system was around $14 for the clips and the wire set up at Ikea

Now, if you have ever bought things from IKEA then you will know there directions are quite unique...they don't have words, only pictures.

They also don't come with screws so I always have a jar of screws handy for all my projects.

So once I got the wire system hung I was able to hang up all my mini quilts

and here is where I keep all my McCall & Simplicity patterns.

I really love how in the after picture all my projects really stand out. in the before picture they were kinda lost in all the clutter.  Now I just need to get sewing!

For more inspiration click on this button:

They are mulitplying!

 K- so when I made the gray one I thought he was really cute but I didn't like my selection of fabric as much

Here is a detailed post on how I made these guys.

So here is my newest guy! Isn't he so cute! I love the fabrics I chose...and you can never go wrong with Heather Bailey Fabrics!

 

Here he is chillin' on my new shelf with his new friend!

One things I love about these guys is even though I had the same pattern they all turned out different.

They are all cute in there own unique ways! (just like us)  

The red one on the right has really short legs and his body is more wide. I think I placed the eyes too high on the one in the middle and the gray one on the left has really really long legs! lol...but I love them all the same!

Ok guys....i will stop with the owls for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Photography thoughts

This is my thought: I suck!
You should see the behind the scenes of each post I do. I take a million and one pictures and then I pick one or two that are not as horrible as the rest.
example:

 I'm always looking at tips from others but I don't seem to get it...or I don't let it sink in. I feel like I need to attend a photography class...The only reason why I have resisted is because everything else I have done I have never had to take a class, I'm always able to figure it out on my own. I never took a class for crocheting or sewing but I'm thinking I need one for photography :(  I have yet to grasp the concept... But the cost is alot! Some of the Online classes can be around $200!!
So until I get great I have to apologize, I have been looking thru my photos and I'm so sorry If I have blinded you!  And here I am posting them again:

I'm posting these as my "what you don't want your photos to look like"

K-so I am done beating myself up and have acknowledged that I'm a horrible photography...now all I can do is go up right? 

I have found these links from some very generous bloggers ( i couldn't find there blog buttons)  And I hope they can help me get better photo's.
http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/12/better-brighter-blog-photos/

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/12/tips-for-magazine-quality-photography/

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/12/ten-basics-for-better-home-photography/

http://phototips.alexismiller.com/2010/01/tips-for-using-window-light.html

Hope I have helped some of you with rounding up some tips!

Owl Pin Cushion

Meet my new friend!

This pattern can be found on www.diydish.com   And it is very easy to make.

They provide you with this pattern and then they actually have a video on how they did it.  I just cut out the pieces and used the applique stitch to finish it off.\

I used felt for the eyes and I applogize for these photos (the flash) I'm sewing and night and the lighting in my sewing room is awful.

And I attached cute little buttons for the eyeballs.

Then on the back I attached my cute label.

After you have finished the front side then just sew them right sides together then turn it right side out.

And then start stuffing it. I used stuffing at first so that I could get it in the pointing ears part then I used walnut shells for the majority of it.

The reason why I also used walnut shells is so the owl will sit up. It gives it some weight.

Now, in the video on DIYDISH they recommend using wonder under tape to seal the bottom but I didn't have any so I used a hot glue gun.

Now the legs are really tricky. They want you to place the paper pattern of the legs over your fabric and sew then rip the paper off and cut off the excess fabric. (you may want to watch the video)  but what I found is it was impossible for me to get the batting down in the feet if it is sewn all the way up to the top. so if you look closely you can see where I sewed it with the red thread then left a gap so I could fit the batting down into the feet.

 I actually put a little bit of batting going all the way up the leg then sewing it shut.

Anyway, here are how the legs turned out...pretty stiff. I didn't make his thigh area long enough. As you can see, his knees (the knots) are pretty high.  Make sure when you make it that the knots are down lower so they can hang properly.

And here he is chillin' he difinitely needs a friend (one with longer legs)

So I whipped up another

This one is much better, she can sit up on her own and her knees are down lower.

see how they compare to one another

And here is a pix of what the bottom looks like.

Here she is just sitting on my machine.  I want to make a couple more, the hardest part is trying to find what fabrics should go together.

Thanks so much for looking. Hope I have inspired you to make one!

UPDATE:  Meet the other owl friend!

Check out these links for more projects and inspiration:

organizing my sewing room

I took a trip to Ikea (it is 50 mins away) and bought this system, It was $87 for the frame and the bins.

So much cheaper then lowes or the rubbermaid bins. If you have a rubbermaid closet system you would know the wire bins are $30, I have also seen them as low as $15 but guess how much the wire baskets are at IKEA? .... $2.50!!! And the solid bins were $10 So yeah, it was $87 total.

So I figured I could put my fabric in 3 of the bins then have enough room for my beading, paints, tools, etc.

WRONG!

I could not believe that My fabric took up every single bin.

While cleaning my sewing room I kept finding fabric EVERYWHERE!

But I finally finished cleaning and putting everything back together.

 

Ok, so if you look really hard at the pix on the left you will see my black leather chair...and do you notice my armoire in the first picture as well? I cannot believe what a mess it was!

Here is the inside of my armoire...this is my scrap book section.

Now I can start sewing again~yah!

My yarn bin was a bit out of control. the bin it was in was too big and I didn't even know what colors I had, also the more I tried to look thru it the more tangle it got so I decided to but it in a bin that fits under the bed.

This is perfect, the yarn will not get tangled and I can easily see what I have. (this is not all the yarn I have) i actually ended up using 2 bins like this but need to get another one. And its nice because I can store it under my bed.

Ahhh, its a relief, i can breath again.

I will be sharing with this party that is just right for my post. The party is called "a round tuit"

I finally got around to cleaning my sewing room! Thanks everyone!