Merry Christmas!!

I know I haven't blogged in forever. The truth is, I haven't finished moving all of my craft stuff to our new house yet so I haven't made anything at all. Kinda depressing. But I wanted to wish all of my friends and blog readers a Merry Christmas.

supplies: graphics from Crystal Wilkerson (letters and star on the tree)
"Christmas" font: Hipster Script
tree and lights
pup: Daisy + Target reindeer antlers + Build a Bear scarf + treat (as a bribe)

Vintage pyrex

I still can't make anything. I have no usable craft room right now, and everything is a mess. But I'm working on other non-crafty things. This week I used contact paper on the inside of this shelf unit, which my husband and I varnished a few weeks ago. I originally wanted to paint it but that's a big commitment on a solid oak cabinet, and I could tell hubby did not like the idea. So I covered the entire inside of it, including the shelves, with white contact paper. Not bad, eh?



I love vintage pyrex and jadeite. I can't afford a lot of jadeite-it's pretty expensive-so I have mostly pyrex and a little bit of other vintage stuff in here. I love the way the white sets off the colors of the dishes.





My mom gave me the egg cups on the top shelf. They were packed away for years before I found them and discovered how cute they are and how perfect they go with the rest of the dishes. I don't know how old they are, but I think they're pretty old. We had them when we were kids and I'm pretty old.


On the bottom shelf are some glasbake promo mugs I found at a shop. I think they were a pretty good find-I paid $6 for the three mugs and I've seen single ones go for over $10 on ebay and etsy. When I bought them I only knew that I liked them. I didn't have any idea what they were so I looked them up when I got home. I'd love to have the complete collection but I'm not paying ten bucks a mug.


Now I need to find room for all of my blue ball jars.

If you have or know about any blogs or blog posts that feature vintage glass, please share them in the comments. I'd love to take a look.

***linking to:
The 36th Avenue

retro kitchen stool makeover

I bought this old stool at an antique shop and my husband and I fixed it up. This model was not originally made with padding on the seat or seat back. The last owners apparently decided to put some on it, so they made wooden forms to staple the fabric to. When we took the fabric and padding off, it wasn't in terrible shape but since the wood was firmly attached I decided to recover it rather than trying to take all of the wood off. I sanded it down (when I bought it, it was painted with brush-on paint of some kind and it was very drippy) and then my husband spray painted it. Then I used some vinyl covered fabric to recover it. I'm really happy with how it turned out and it's the perfect height for our new kitchen island.

before:








and after:











****linking to: The 36th Avenue

My blog may go missing for a bit

I've had it with google hosting my domain name (variety of reasons) and have transferred it to another registrar. This means a lot of redirecting and repointing of addresses and general chaos. My blog may or may not still be available at http://stampsandstitches.blogspot.com during this time but my regular domains (www.stampsandstitches.com and www.stamps-and-stitches.com) will definitely not work for a few days. I've only done one so far (I think the one with the hyphens) but the other will be done soon as well.

In the meantime I am packing up my crafty stuff to move into a new room so for now, I can't even make anything. The whole room is a mess.

DIY wooden planter

My first 'real' wood project! I found plans on ana-white.com for this planter and thought it would look nice on our new front porch. Mine is a little different, because when I printed out the materials list I didn't have the part that said to cut the legs longer if you use 1 x 6 wood. I used 1 x 6 wood so my legs were a bit short. I still like it though. I used my Silhouette SD to cut out the W from some vinyl. After I finished building the planter, I stuck the vinyl letter on and painted the blue over it. After I finished the last coat of blue, I removed the letter. I let it dry and then stained over the whole thing. I'm not 100% happy with how the stain looks over the paint, so if I do a project like this again, I will stain first, then put on the stencil, then paint over it. That way there's no staining on the painted surface. Even so, I think it turned out nice and am hoping to fill it with some kind of plants soon. It's not on the porch here because our new porch hasn't been built yet. That will be next month (if you want to check out our modular house journey click here). Daisy was kind of enough to pretty up this picture for me since I had no plants or flowers in the planter. She had trouble sitting still long enough for me to take the picture though!



ingredients:
pine wood
finials from Lowe's
paint: glidden
stain: minwax
clear finish: rustoleum water based spar varnish in satin
font: Samantha upright
vinyl: oracal 631
dog: Daisy

Manatee Love

I made this card for a friend that likes fish and manatees.



ingredients
digital stamp: mermaid with manatee by Paper Nest
white card stock: Paper Trey Ink
blue card stock: Stampin' Up
patterned paper: Stampin' Up
pearls: recollections (??) from Michaels
copic markers: E00, E11, E13, E21, E25, E27, E29,  G14, Y26, Y08, YG01, R30, BG45, BG49, BG45, BG000, V000, V15, V17, W000, W1, W3, W5, W7
punch: ek success
nestabilities

This is Pete

I know this isn't a crafty post but I wanted to share our story about Pete. Pete's mom is a Hereford cow that belongs to my father-in-law. A couple of months ago she had twins and decided that was just way too much work. She took care of the little heifer (girl) calf but pushed the little bull (boy) calf away. Poor thing. :( So since my husband also raises cattle, he brought him home so we could feed him with a bottle, and then a bucket. Hence the term "bucket calf". Pete took to the bottle well, despite some mess:


The bucket, not so much. At any rate we did manage to get some food into him and he grew. Now he is an old pro and even eats a little grain and grass. He's about 2.5 months old now. Here is a picture of him with my daughter, who is in charge of afternoon watering:



In the pasture, looking cute (this is his one and only talent):



And being a typical cow-nosy!

Baby Gear - Animal Style

A family member told us last year that she was expecting, so of course, a baby quilt and some baby gear were put on my project list. I found out through her pinterest page that she liked zebra stripes and black and pink, and eventually, it was revealed that they were expecting a little girl. So I made her a few zebra themed things. A quilt, a bib, some burp cloths, some tiny shoes, and of course, a card (not zebra themed). I've had these things done for a couple of weeks now but was waiting for the baby to arrive to post them. She had her Friday night! A perfect and beautiful little girl.

the quilt:


the back-very wild!


My usual curved corners-here's a close-up. I did my binding a little differently this time. Normally I sew it to the back, fold it to the front, and zig zag the edge-not really caring how it looks on the back. This time I accepted a challenge from my sister and sewed it to the front, folded it to the back, and sewed in the ditch on the front, catching the back. It was a little slower but I like how it turned out!


a close-up of the label, which I made on my new embroidery machine using EQ Stitch to trace my signature. You can also see the serpentine stitch I used for the quilting. I love this stitch and learned how to program it into my Janome 6600 on the Janome 6500/6600 yahoo group.


The shoes, made from a pattern by Lena's Patterns on Etsy


The bib, made from this tutorial


from the back-it has little armholes and gives pretty good coverage


Half a dozen burp cloths made from cloth diapers-using this tutorial (with a few changes):


And the card-another clothespin card.

ingredients:
kraft and pink card stock, patterned paper, clothespins, and cloud embossing folder: Stampin' Up
white card stock: Georgia Pacific
dies: nestabilities
twine: Divine twine
onesie shape: Lettering Delights Baby Simple Shapes set
font: Hipster Script

Sponsored Post - Craftsy Classes

I've been a Craftsy member and class-taker for a while now, so when the people at Craftsy asked me if I wanted to review a quilting class, I jumped on the opportunity! What's more, the class is one I probably would not have automatically picked so it was nice to be able to take it. The class they provided is called Precision Piecing. Since I generally go for quick and easy, I avoid anything requiring precision. The main reason is that the precision never happens. Well it turns out I wasn't doing all I could to get precise piecing. The class, which is led by Norah McMeeking, was pretty great. I learned several methods to get more precise in my piecing, some of which I never would have even thought about. Yes, some take a little more work but the end result is worth it.
There are three amazing quilts that are taught in this class. Two are, admittedly, way beyond my comfort level right now. But there is a beautiful paper pieced stained glass quilt that I am going to try.

One thing I love about the classes at Craftsy is that you can take notes during the class. This way if there's something you want to be sure to remember, you don't have to go through the video and try to find it again. There is a section in each class to find class notes you've taken. Another great thing is that they have a chat type feature where you can ask questions right during the video lesson, and usually, the class instructor will answer. Sometimes other people will also answer, which is helpful if the instructor is busy, or if there are different ways of solving a problem or answering a question. When you click on a question or the replies, the video will pause and then restart when you click back to the list of questions.

Other handy features are a small message board for each class, a section for finished project photos, user reviews, and a list of materials. Often, there are templates or other printables you can download. And the best part-Craftsy classes you've bought are available forever. If you take a year to get one watched (guilty as charged!) or need to refer back in the future, your materials are still there.

So that's the good. Now the bad. I've noticed this about a lot of their classes. Sometimes they could take a lot less time to show something. They might do the same block or seam several times and I feel like they could speed that up or even cut to the next step. I get distracted easily and this is usually when it happens with these classes. Luckily I can rewatch any time in case I miss something important.

Also, while they have an iPhone and iPad app, I have an Android phone and Android tablet with no plans to ever switch, so I wish they would release an Android version. 

And now, something for you! Craftsy has provided me with a special link for 50% off the Precision Piecing class. If you'd like to try this class, just click here to get it at a great discount! Also, be sure to sign up for their newsletter-they have sales often and you can be notified of new classes. And it's not just for quilters. Craftsy has lots of non-sewing classes too. Cooking and cake decorating, home and garden, paper crafts, knitting, crocheting and more. I've only taken quilting classes but I'd like to try some of the others someday.

So here's that link again: click here to get the Precision Piecing class 50% off!!

Thanks, Girlfriend!

A few weeks ago my friend Jin sent me the most amazing Hello Kitty care package. If you didn't know this, I do love me some Hello Kitty. I asked her to pick up the Hello Kitty date stamp at Michaels for me, since I have no Michaels nearby, and she picked up a bunch more! Journals, tapes, embellishments, bookmarks and MORE. I'm a grown-up for the most part, but it's still fun to get a surprise in the mail! So I wanted to make her something special to show my appreciation. Since Jin isn't a quilter, I felt somewhat confident making her a quilted pillow. I had my doubts through the whole thing, like I do with pretty much every project, but I sent it anyway and she loves it! Here's the pillow I made using simple 4-patches and a heart patch from EQ, plus some white sashing. Fabrics are all from my stash and some were leftovers from other quilts.



and I made this super simple card for her too. I always want to use these cute mini clothespins from SU but they don't fit well in an envelope so this was the perfect opportunity.



ingredients:
white card stock: neenah
blue card stock: stampin' up
baker's twine: martha stewart
clothespins: stampin' up
stamp and ink: stampin' up
cloud embossing folder: stampin' up

Happy Easter!

Here is the obligatory Easter egg basket I made this year. I should have made more than one but I didn't. This is it. One egg fits perfectly but 2 will probably end up being crammed in there.


ingredients:
white cardstock: neenah
peach cardstock: bazzill
basket cut file: For Peep's Sake Baskets cut project
eggs and chicken in nest image: For Peep's Sake graphic set (colors altered using photoshop)

See ya later, Google reader

I'm sure everyone has heard the devastating news about Google reader. I actually am devastated, sort of. I use it daily to surf blogs using the next button. I don't like reading blogs IN reader though so a lot of the alternatives aren't working for me. I finally decided to try out bloglovin and it's as close as I can find so far (they have a newer/older button instead of next). Until the last possible minute I'm going to stick with Google reader-all the while I'll be hoping they change their mind about discontinuing it-but if anyone is interested in following my blog in bloglovin here's a link-just click on the little button below (or the big one in my sidebar):

thank you :)

Paper pieced utensils-a test block

Kristy from the Quiet Play blog let me test this cute paper pieced block for her. She has the sweetest retro (and other) paper piecing patterns in her Craftsy store. I had a lot of fun making this, and actually made two, but this one turned out the best. Paper piecing is fun and there are so many cute designs available. I love how it turned out, and I may have to get a few of the companion blocks and make something for my kitchen wall. These fabrics are all from my stash (which is one thing I love about paper piecing-I can use up scraps on them)

A Simple Thanks

These are the cards I made for Christmas thank-yous. I wanted to keep it simple but still kinda nice, know what I mean? So I decided an embossing folder and a cut out shape would be perfect.



ingredients:
cardstock: Bazzill (blue) and Neenah (white)
embossing folder: unknown
"thanks" shape: Silhouette store

Hogs and Kisses

Happy Valentine's Day! These are the treats that my daughter and I made for her dance classmates. Easy peasy this year-I waited until the last minute, as usual, so I needed something quick. These were quick. I just used Jin's idea for bag toppers and this tutorial. This graphic is great to use with Hershey Kisses, and since we are farmers, it couldn't be more perfect!



Ingredients:
Hogs and Kisses Paper Pack
Hogs and Kisses Graphic Set
Neenah white card stock
Clear envelopes trimmed to about 5" long
Silhouette

Happy Birthday, Girlfriend

***I wanted to answer a couple of the questions in the comments. I definitely used a pattern for the pillow. The signature is my actual signature though. I wrote it and scanned it and had a stamp made of it. So for this, I stamped it and then stitched over the stamping. The pillow didn't take long. I probably worked on it for about 5 days but only a couple hours a day. This includes starting it and changing my mind on the colors and starting over. It took me longer to find all of the fabrics I wanted to use. The original pattern was in the July/August 2007 issue of Quiltmaker magazine. They don't sell that issue anymore, but a very helpful commenter left a link to this site which is selling the pattern: Silver Linings Quilting. Thanks, Regina!! And thanks for everyone else's comments too. I appreciate each and every one. :) ***

I have a friend from high school who recently had a birthday. When we were in HS we were close but had a falling out (we laugh about it now). Shortly after HS we made up and became practically inseparable. Now we live 2000 miles apart and thanks to facebook, can keep in touch easily. She recently lost her dog so I decided to make her this cute paper pieced puppy pillow that I saw in a magazine a while back. She has had a rough time of it lately, so I was happy to send her something to lift her spirits. Here's the pillow:



Here is the back. I used this tutorial to put the zipper on it. When you use a full pillow form like I did, the front seems like it looks better with a zipped back and I liked the look of a hidden zipper. The tutorial was very easy to follow.



I decided to embroider my name on the back. I used my usual name stamp to stamp the image, and then just did a simple backstitch to embroider it.



Here is a simple card I made for her. I knew she would probably get it late (although she got it later than I was hoping) so the inside says "oops! It's a hare past your birthday". I didn't think to take a picture of the inside.


ingredients:
Stampin' Up Birthday Banter stamp set
Stampin' Up Cloud embossing folder
Copic Markers
EK Success border punch
Kraft cardstock: Stampin' Up
White cardstock: Neenah Paper
Green Cardstock: Bazzill

Winter runner

This started out as a Christmas runner. But I didn't get it done in time and Christmas has come and gone, so I'm calling it a winter runner. It's not super Christmassy anyway. I used the Emerson Street Table Topper tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop, only I substituted a couple of plain blocks on each long side and I also shortened it some, since my table isn't all that long. Warning-if you ever try this tutorial, there have been corrections made on the blog post that were NOT made on the pdf file. Therefore, mine is also a slightly different width. The fabric is Colorful Christmas from Riley Blake.





Pictured below is the back, which is pieced from the leftovers. The binding is also pieced from leftovers. I did use bias binding, but because of the corner pinwheel blocks I decided to make mitered corners instead of my usual rounded ones. But even with mitering, I think it is so much easier with bias binding.
 

For the label, I decided to use a tutorial from Jaybird Quilts to incorporate my label into the back. It was much easier and since I was already piecing the back anyway, it was not any extra work. I didn't have to worry about remembering to sew the label on while binding or after finishing it. I loved this method. It's hard to see it, but on the picture above, the label is right by the top left corner of the green fabric. Here is a close-up.