Buttons & Blogs

Look what I got this week!  Lots and lots of buttons!  And the best part is that they were all free!!!  Aren't they pretty? 

I realized after I put all the buttons away that even after I spent about fifteen minutes sorting them and setting them up all pretty for this picture, one of the buttons is upside down!  I didn't really feel like taking them all out again so I left it.  Can you spot the upside down button?  ;-)

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Okay, go read this post at My Milk Toof.  It's really cute!

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I finished a plushie last night and I can't wait to share it with you on Saturday.  I would post it earlier but I won't have time to photograph it before Friday.  I'm so excited to show you!  In the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow 365 Project.  :-)

Stay tuned!

Dear Sewing Machine,

We have had some really great times together. 

We’ve made lots of pretty things.  We make a great team!

 {First Quilt}

{One Yard Wonders - Collapsible Shopping Tote}

{Fun with Felt - Felt Notebook Cover}

{Fun with Felt - Funny Face Tissue Case}

{Fun with Felt - Gift Card Holders}

{Fun with Felt - Bunting}

You haven’t been working right for a couple of weeks now and I just want you to know that I won't give up on you.  I will do my best to take care of you until you feel better.  I will take you to the doctor as soon as I can.  I’m really sorry if I did something wrong.

I will continue on with our Craft Academy class and then our quilting class after that.  I will try not to get upset with you if you have a bad day and don’t feel like working.  We’ll just do what we can for now to learn the projects and then when you are feeling better we’ll try again.  We can do this, sewing machine!  I know we can! 

I hope you can remember the good times we've had and feel better soon.  I’ll do my best to treat you well and I promise to get you fixed as soon as our classes are over. 

Then we can have some good quality crafting fun together again!

Couture Creatures from Rob Francis on Vimeo.

Your Friend,

marci

It seems like every time I take a sewing class my machine picks that exact time to go all wonky on me.  Well, I decided to just work my way through and do the best I can to finish my classes and then I'll take my machine in to get it fixed.  It's better to have a sense of humor about it than to let it get me down.  :-)  

Oh yeah!  No, those are not pictures of me with my sewing machine.  Don't be silly!  That's Taffy!!  He's my crafting mascot and he helps me with all of my projects.  He really loves my sewing machine, too (as you can see from the pictures), and wants it to be fixed very soon.  :-)

Craft Adventure

Today I went craft supply shopping with Velma and her daughter.  It was really fun!  We met at Starbucks (we needed some fuel to get ready for our big adventure!).  Then we headed over to The Knitting Nest to see what kind of knitting supplies they had.  They just moved to their new location a couple of days ago so they weren't completely unpacked, but it was still pretty great!

The little bird houses were really cute for the decorations.

The lady at the store said they used easter egg dye to dye this yarn!

They had shelves and shelves of amazing yarn!  So pretty!

They had a few projects to sell, too.  I love these colors together!

After The Knitting Nest we went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a couple of things.  I got some yellow buttons there.  Velma is going to knit something for me to send to my Happy Mail partner!

After Hobby Lobby we went to Stitch Lab!  I was so excited to go because they were the only people I could find in Austin that sold wool felt.  That place was amazing!  I wish I could just live there.  So cute!

See??  CUTE!!!

I saw a picture of this in an article I read about Stitch Lab.  One of my goals in going today was to get a picture of it for my 365 project.  I'm happy to say that I met that goal!

Look at the cute artwork on the walls!

Those are patterns!!!  Such a great idea!  I love the wall color, too!  I think I'm going to have to paint my craft room this color...when I finally get around to working on it.

These curtains are fantastic!  This picture doesn't do them justice.  The lighting wasn't great in that room.  Another idea for my craft room, perhaps?

Look at all the pretties!!

I was already planning to make a felt monster before I saw these, but now I can't wait to start!

This is the felt I bought!  Isn't is lovely?  I got felt for three projects I have planned for the next few weeks.  I've been going a little felt crazy lately.  I realized when I got home that I forgot felt for one part of a project, but I think I will just use the cheaper felt they sell at Hobby Lobby.  It will work okay for what I need it for anyway.  I guess I will just have to make another trip to Stitch Lab if it doesn't work.  ;-)

This store is amazing!  I loved all of the fabric!  I hope to take a class there at some point. They have lots of great ideas for things to make with felt (and we all know how much I love felt!). 

After that I rested for a little while and watched Juno.  I love that movie!  I needed a little break after all the fun!  Then I headed back out on a mission for some turquoise double fold bias tape for a project I am going to work on  this week.  I went to Joann Fabrics and they only had it in single fold bias tape.  I thought I could make it work so I went ahead and bought it.  I got to my car and opened it up to make sure before I left.  Sadly, it wouldn't have worked.  Luckily the lady was super sweet and let me return it.

 

So, I drove to Hancock Fabrics.  They were sold out of turquoise double fold bias tape, too!!  Grr..argh!!  There was another lady looking at the bias tape and I made a comment about her beautiful fabric (I totally geek out over fabric!).  She had the last package of Mediterranean double bias tape in her hand.  It's basically dark turquiose.  After we talked for a minute about our projects she said that she thought her project might work better with a different color anyway and gave me the mediterranean bias tape.  I insisted that she should take it and I would just order it.  She wouldn't take no for an answer!  Crafty people are so sweet!  That made my day!  Now I have everything I need for the craft I'm going to make for my Happy Mail partner!

 

I had a really great Saturday!  It was busy and I am exhausted, but I enjoyed every bit of it.  I was so busy running around doing all this wonderful stuff that I ran out of time to work on any projects, but that's okay.  I will start tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted on how it all comes out.

How was your Saturday?  Did you do anything fun?

I love this scene so much!  I had to share it!  :-)

Mission Accomplished

The un-findable ponytail holders have been found!!!  Well, sort of.  The other day when I was babysitting, Elissa insisted on putting my hair in a ponytail (She's three).  So she went and got the huge box of ponytail holders and a brush.  While she was brushing my hair I looked through the big box to see what cute little ponytail holders they had.  There were a ton of them!!!  I searched through all kinds of cute little clips and headbands and ponytail holders while she brushed my hair.  It was very relaxing...until she tried to put it in a ponytail.  Then it was painful!!!

Then I saw them.  They had ponytail holders like the ones I saw at Justice for Girls!  So I decided I would compromise and use those for my ponytail holder project since I was giving them to the girls anyway.  They aren't exactly what I was looking for but they're pretty close.

I went to the store to get them today and had a mini panic attack when I didn't see them where they were the last time I was there.  I wandered around praying that they would be somewhere else.  I was so sad when I couldn't find and started to leave without my ponytail holders.  Then on my way out I saw them hanging on one of the clothes racks.  There were only two sets left.  Exactly the number I needed!  YAY!!!

They don't have the variety of colors I was hoping for but I'll make it work.

I ended up paying more than I wanted to but that's okay.  Two packs of these cost almost as much as the six packs from Amazon but it was worth it because I know for sure that these will work and I won't have a ton of extras.  So, I'm calling it a win.  :-)

I have a few projects in the works that are time sensitive right now so these will probably be a project I work on some time in May.

I'm still on the hunt for the Goody Pony-O's for future projects so I would appreciate it if everyone would continue to look around when you are in stores that sell hair accessories.  Let me know if you find them!  :o)

Just for funsies, here are some pretty hair accessories I found on Etsy...

Owl Hair Clip

Jumpin Jilli Bean Baby

Turquoise Flower Head Band

Be Something New

Crochet Cupcake Head Band

Purdy Things

Fabric Head Band

Lovey Duds

Flower Clip

Beautiful Blossoms

Felt Blossom Bobby Pins

Itz Fitz

Okay, that's all for now.

Mission Impossible: My Quest to Find the Un-Findable Ponytail Holder

~Ponytails Everywhere~

When I started this blog I set an unofficial goal for myself to complete at least one craft project a week.  So far that hasn't happened.  I'm making progress.  I have to figure out how to manage my time better.  I will get there eventually.  I just have come up with a good schedule for posting. 

This week I was all ready for my project.  I planned everything ahead of time so that I could get it done and hopefully still have time to get another one started.  I wanted to make these cute little felt ponytail holders from the Aranzi Cute Stuff Book.

I went and bought all of the supplies I needed last week so I could work on them over the weekend.  I just needed to check a couple of stores for ponytail holders and I was set.  Everything was going great! 

Until...

I could not find the ponytail holders anywhere!!!  They are the little colorful terry ponytail holders that pretty much every store on the planet sells.  Well, not anymore...apparently!!  Now everyone only sells the little elastic ones. 

I went to 9 (yes, I did say 9) stores and couldn't find them anywhere!

1. Target
2. Walmart
3. HEB
4. Justice for Girls
5. Claire's 
6. Ulta
7. Sally's Beauty Supply
8. Beauty Store and Salon
9. I even went to Bed, Bath & Beyond because I thought it was the one with that weird health and beauty section...it wasn't!

At this point I was too frustrated to look anywhere else so I gave up and went home feeling extremely bummed out that I couldn't do that project.  I was going to give them to the girls I babysit next week when I stay with them and now I can't.  Frustrating!!!

I went home and looked on the internet.  I found a couple of options but none of them are exactly what I was looking for.

• Amazon had some like what I wanted but you have to buy six packs of them.  There are 24 to a pack!  That's a lot of ponytail holders!
• Then I found these at Southern Distributors, Inc..  I can buy one pack of 21 but they are a little too wide.   

I saw a picture on a blog where someone used the the little elastic hair bands and it looks okay, but it's not quite what I had in mind.  I may have to just suck it up and go with those. 

I know I'm being too picky.  They don't have to be the exact same thing but I know what I want and I don't want to sacrifice making what I want if I don't have to.  I'm going to keep looking for a little while longer.  I have plenty of other projects to work on until I find what I'm looking for.

In the meantime, I chose another project from the Aranzi Cute Stuff book for this week.  It may be delayed until the end of the week because everything was closed on Sunday so I couldn't get my fabric until Monday.  I'm just happy to be working on something!  :o)  It seems like a pretty simple project and I cut the fabric last night so hopefully I will get all the sewing done today and Thursday so I can have it up no later than Friday.

And the hunt for the elusive ponytail holder continues...

p.s. If anyone can tell me where to find Goody Pony-O's ponytail holders I will love you forever!!!

Tools of the Trade - Cutting Tools

When I told my friend Noemi that I started a blog and was working on some sewing projects she asked me if I would write a few posts about the tools I use. I really don't have any idea what I'm talking about but I thought it could be interesting to take a look at some of the options out there. I will be talking mainly about the tools I use personally, but I'll throw in a little bit from some sources who actually know what they're talking about, too.  ;-)

I'll start with the cutting tools since that's the starting point of any sewing project...once you've picked the pattern and fabric, of course.

There are so many options out there for cutting tools - scissors, rulers, cutting mats, rotary cutters...The list of supplies is endless!!!  This quilting site has a quick overview of some of the basic tools you will need for cutting fabric.

Cutting Mat

Let's start with the cutting mat.  I have a big 18" x 24" mat for cutting out my fabric and a small 6" x 8" mat for trimming edges and small things at the sewing machine.

They all seem to have different measurement markings but they serve the same purpose.

Rotary Cutter

Rotary cutters come in many sizes.  The most common sizes are 28 mm, 45 mm and 60 mm.

My favorite is the one is the 45 mm Olfa on the left.  It's the perfect size for cutting out fabric and it's a comfortable shape.  It's reversible, too!  This is important for me because I'm a lefty!  The Fiskars is for the left or right hand, too, and it's a little easier because you don't have to worry about switching the blade for either hand. 

We bought the 18 mm by mistake.  We bought it for a curvy ruler but we needed to buy the 28 mm.  Oh well.  Now we have a tiny one if we ever need it.  For what?  I have  no idea!

The Purl Bee has a great tutorial on how to use a rotary cutter for a beginner who doesn't really know how to start.

Here is a short video on how to use a rotary cutter for all of you out there who are visual learners like me.

Scissors

Sometimes a rotary cutter isn't really the appropriate tool to use and you have to use your trusty old scissors.  Well, there's a ton of those, too!!!

These are my scissors.  The green pair is a cheap pair I bought at the grocery store for cutting out paper and patterns.  The large Gingher scissors are called dressmaker shears and they are only used for cutting fabric.  If you use them to cut paper it will dull the blades quickly.  The smaller embroidery scissors are used for small things like trimming threads.

Rulers

I can't believe how many different rulers there are!!!  They come in every shape and size you can imagine.  And it seems that every project I do requires a special ruler.

And now, boys and girls, it's time to learn our shapes...

Rectangle

Square

Triangle

I don't know what this shape is.  I just call it evil!

Extras

These are some helpful tools that make cutting fabric a little easier.

This handle and these little sandpaper dots help to keep the ruler from moving while you are cutting with the rotary cutter.

These vinyl strips are reusable and can be used a couple of different ways.  You can put them on your ruler on the line you are measuring and bump your fabric up against it.  Then just cut it with the rotary cutter.  It gives you a little added security that your fabric won't move while you're cutting it.  You can also use them on your sewing machine to mark your seam (like a scant 1/4"...if you can ever figure out what that means.). 

If you are interested in sewing (quilting in particular) I highly recommend buying the book Complete Guide to Quilting (Bettter Homes and Gardens).  I think it is a great book for beginners.  It gives an overview of everything from choosing supplies and fabric to actually completing the project.  It has been extremely helpful when I have had questions while working on projects.  I think this is the second time I have mentioned this book.  This should give you an idea of how good I think it is. 

So, this is what I have so far.  If you have any other tips or tools that I haven't mentioned, please feel free to list them in the comments.  Helpful hints are always welcome here!  :-)