Braided bead, button and charm jewelry

2012-02-06 17:22:35 +0000, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

My button box has never had so much attention. While looking through some photos on the net I found a charming (pun intended!) necklace made of beads and buttons. From there I jumped around until I stumbled upon easy instructions to make button and bead bracelets and necklaces.

This photo is of a button and waxed thread bracelet and a wrap bracelet of waxed thread, beads, and charms. I love them both. Quick to make and fun to wear. Get out your button box and see what is waiting for you there!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today at work we exchanged Valentine's. I made a sheet of paper with circles and hearts and used watercolors and ink to make a messy design. When it dried I used a heart cookie cutter to cut out enough hearts for my team, wrote their name in block letters on the back and distributed them.  But the best Valentine idea I have seen today is this:

Take a small jigsaw puzzle that has a great theme (Snow White and Prince Charming!), divide up the pieces so everyone you are giving a Valentine card to gets a few. Put the puzzle pieces in the card that might say "Working Together is a Sweet Treat" and place the puzzle box and a few pieces on a table in the center of the office. As each person opens their card they can add their puzzle pieces to the table and work together to complete the puzzle. Really sweet and our Snow White is almost finished!

Give someone you love a piece of your heart today. I bet it will be returned twice as big!

We love to design pillows and wall hangings based on vintage Valentines.  Our Valentine's Girl has been one of our most popular patterns for years.

Women of the family unite!

DSC01294, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

We had the "sprinkle" shower for our little newborn Ollie on Saturday. Yes, great auntie Janell DID finish the baby quilt. However, I neglected to take a picture of it. But I heard it is already at the hospital with Ollie! That makes me feel great.

There were 15 women of all ages gathered to celebrate the one month birthday of our newest family member. We had great treats (especially cupcakes decorated so cute!) including fantastic hot appetizers made by Great Auntie Mary, dips and chip, sausage/cheese/crackers and much more. Stories were shared and the laughter rolled up to the heavens with good thoughts for health and growth.

Anytime this many women unite good things can and will happen!

(Pictured here are some of the women of the family, from left to right-Heather, Lauren, Jo, Molly and Emily)!

Ollie's first quilt

2012-01-31 18:52:13 +0000, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

Time to get my fingers flying and put together a quilt for our little Ollie. He is doing pretty well in the NIC unit as he continues to grow. I think he last weighed in at 4 pounds/3 oz. Still just a little guy with a long journey ahead but he's holding his own and growing.

It was so much fun picking out the brightest colors I could find-with a monkey or two thrown in-of course. The plan is to do a simple 5" charm layout with one border. Estimated final measurement should be 32" X 45"=or close. My measurements are always a bit funky.

I plan to bind the quilt with left over strips of the charm fabrics and then tie it. Or, depending on how fast it goes together, I may just do some very simple grid machine quilting lines. We'll see!

Circles of color

Circles of color, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

I was playing around with different paints on a piece of watercolor paper and ended up with this. I like it a lot-. But now I want to print it in color on regular 11 x 14 paper and  cut it up and use it in a collage. AND-being the technically challenged person that I am-I can't figure out how to print the darn thing so it is bigger than 1 inch by 1 inch. You know-I used my Iphone and uploaded it to Flickr and now can't get a 'real' size to print. GRRRR>>>>>

Lately it seems that I get going on a project and feel excited and caught up in the fun and color and whatever and then....WHAM...I hit a roadblock and slam to a stop.

That's what I'm going through now. When I quilt it usually helps to step away from the machine or ask a good friend (you know who you are!) to check my seams, or check my math, or re-read the pattern with me and my problem gets worked out. Of course, there is usually a bit of swearing as well as laughing involved before there is sucess... but that's ok. It's all between friends!

However, the more I move into mixed media experiments the less I think I know and the more I need to learn. Right now I will plan tonight to ask my ace computer geek at home to help me figure out how to print this! I'll keep you posted on my success!

Surprise fabric gift!

2012-01-26 12:47:26 +0000, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

An 8 am dentist appointment usually doesn't make me smile-even if I don't have any cavities! But yesterday I was met at the door by one of the friendly dental hygienists who carefully handed me a big Tupperware box full of fabric! Over the course of 10 years of dentist visits we have shared updates about our mutual quilting obsession.

Even though I haven't seen her for a while, she remembered that I love making postage stamp quilts. This is just a quick pic of the contents of that lovely box. Besides being lots of little scraps that will be perfect for my postage stamp projects, there were also larger pieces that really intrigued me. How about the batik turtle???? Turtles are a favorite at our house so I am already thinking about what to do with this.

Unexpected quilting/fabric surprises are the best!!!

Easy pattern with left over fabric

Placemats 55, a photo by janellcl on Flickr.

This easy peasy placemat pattern is ideal for using up some of the strips of fabric I found in the Studio. Seems that I am either saving 1 1/2" squares for my postage stamp madness or 2" any length strips. Our little snow buddy seemed to be perfect when added to this simple set pieced placemat. Add hand or machine embroidery and binding and I'm ready for a cup of tea.

Must keep digging through the drawers and shelves. I know there are more strips of fabric just waiting to be discovered!