July Challenge Day #8

I love sewing by hand! I made this little leaf from wool felt and embroidery floss; it is about 2" long. It will either go into my felt badge collection or become a patch on something.

July Challenge Day #7

After Thursday's post of a patriotic heart, I received a request for one of my hope hearts kits. Since this is an on-going project of mine (click on the tab above marked "Request a Hope Hearts Starter Kit" to learn more), you might think I have a big stockpile of hearts ready to send as soon as I get a request. Not so! I find myself lacking the motivation to work on the hearts if I don't have a request for them. Here are the hearts I just made, and will send out tomorrow.

July Challenge Day #6

With a "craft-a-day" challenge like this, there will certainly be days when I am short on time and the crafted thing I make will have to be small and quick--like today's wool felt badge. This happy cloud is finished on the back with a second piece of felt, so I can use it any way I want to--later I can sew it onto something, or add a pin back or a magnet. What I probably will do, though, is just leave it as it is and add it to my felt badge collection! (I had a badge similar to this one in my collection, but I gave it away, so this will take it's place.)

July Challenge Day #5

Continuing the "Life is good" theme from yesterday, today's item is a very scrappy fabric bracelet with that same sentiment.  You can find a tutorial to make one yourself HERE.

I went through my fabric scraps and chose colors that I adore--these remind me of candy and ice cream!

Crafting Challenge, Day #4

Happy Independence Day, America!

For today's challenge item, I made one of my Hope Hearts in patriotic fabrics. You can read more about these hearts by clicking on the tab at the top of the page labeled "Request a Hope Hearts Starter Kit".

Crafting Challenge Day #3

Today I made a scrappy bookmark. I love the look of scrappy projects, and they are a good way to use up small bits of special fabrics that you don't want to throw away.

This bookmark measures 6 1/2" x 2 1/2"; I would have made it narrower, but the width was dictated by the big rubber stamps I used to write the word "READ". I used iron-on interfacing to line both the front and back fabrics, so it's not floppy.

I don't have a lot of experience making bookmarks, so I wasn't sure exactly what to put at the top. I used some lengths of eyelash yarn and baker's twine, which looks okay...but it's not perfect. I'll keep thinking about it and try to come up with something better for my next bookmark.

Crafting Challenge Day #2

Today I made myself a cute little needle cushion, using the instructions that can be found at Shiny Happy World. It's just two pieces of fabric sewn together, with an old credit card and stuffing inside--so easy! I decided to make mine more fun by adding a scrappy little birdy, using all my favorite colors

I do a lot of hand-sewing, so I have a lot of needles with odd lengths of thread in them. What makes this needle cushion better than a pin cushion is the flat shape and the plastic card in the bottom. The needles can't get lost inside or poke through the bottom, as they can (and do!) with a regular pin cushion. This is really one of the most useful and practical items I've ever made!