Ladybug Pincushion

My friend, Linda likes ladybugs, so for part of her birthday present I made her a ladybug pincushion.

Last fall, I found a black wool jacket and a red wool blazer at Goodwill.  I took them apart and washed the pieces in very hot water in the washing machine.  I ended up with felted wool at a reasonable price :)

 

I used hand stitching and trims in the stash to complete the bug.

 

Yesterday, I saw a huge butterfly in my flowers.  I tried to catch a photo of him but his wings were moving way too fast.  I realized I should have set the camera at the sports or action setting.  When he came back, I went out and was able to get some nice shots of him.  

 

 

Hungry Caterpillar Shirt

My great niece, Audrey, just turned two.  For part of her birthday present, I bought her one of my favorite children's book, THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR.
 

 

I found an applique at a shop on Etsy and appliqued it on a purchased shirt.

Below is a photo of Audrey, with her dad, opening her birthday presents.

 

This is a better picture of  cute Audrey playing with another of her presents.

 

Fresh Produce

I haven't been getting much sewing done this summer, but have been doing some gardening. We have quite a few pickles in our garden so I made three kinds of pickles. The middle jar is my mother-in-law's recipe for refrigerator green tomatoes using pickles. The first jar is the same recipe with green tomatoes, yellow banana peppers and pickles. The third jar is my mom's recipe for refrigerator bread and butter pickles.

 

Blueberries are in season, so we bought five pounds.  I used some

to make a blueberry crisp.

Also made some blueberry muffins.

 

Cat Themed Present

My friend, Amy, likes cats. For her birthday, I made her pincushion using Laurel Burch fabric scraps from my stash.   I based the pincushion on this tutorial

This is a top view.

 

Bottom View

 

Side View

The present also included a pair of hot pads and a  towel decorated to match. 

Wine Tote

Last weekend we went to Milwaukee for our nephew's wedding. Our son-in-law is from Milwaukee.  His mother invited our family to her condo for brunch. I decide to take her a bottle of Michigan wine as a hostess gift. Rather than putting the wine in a gift bag, I made a quilted wine tote.

I found this tutorial on Pinterest.   My tote is a taller and a little wider.  I wanted the handle to be above the top of the wine bottle.

 

The tote is insulated, I used two layers of Insul Bright for batting.  The batting also helped the tote stand up nicely.

Where Are My Tulips?

I've been noticing a lot of my tulips didn't bloom this spring. I think I've found the cause.   The bunny likes to spend his early morning in the flower bed just outside our bay window.  He eats the seeds dropped from the bird feeder.

Not only has he eaten the tips of the tulip leaves, he also has been munching on the leaves on the tree.

 

We've gotten to watch for him each morning, well, the other morning.......we could have a lot of bunnies in our future!

 

 

Thanks to Jenny, I have something new in my sewing room.

 

 

Jenny made me the owl picture for Mother's Day.

 

The picture is all hand sewn beads!

 

Hungry Animal Alphabet Quilt

Last fall, while visiting Jenny in Boulder, we went to Quilt A Fair in Longmont. One of the booths sells odds and ends, perhaps the booth is organized by a group of quilters and they clean out their stashes. Usually Jenny is able to find some vintage fabric at this booth. This fall, I found a set of 4 Hungry Animal Alphabet panels for $2. I used one of the panels to make a baby quilt for charity. I used scraps from my stash and only purchased a yard of fabric for the backing and borders.

I loved the squares in the panel.  Each section had so many things associated with the letter.  For example, S is for sheep, sunflowers, sink, snow, suitcase, shutter, salt and pepper shakers, perhaps that's a scoop or shoe horn near the sunflower?

The panel sections were not the same size but I made the blocks the same size.

Even thought the yard of fabric I purchased was 60 inches wide it wasn't quite enough for borders and backing.  I ended up piecing the back with some of the fabrics used in the blocks on the front.