new

I just started adding the new lovey/security blanket line from Kunklebaby to the shop. There is one in almost every color to start with. These make great new baby gifts when paired with a bib, or bib & quilt for the perfect luxury gift. They are soft & snuggly with lots of color, prints and texture to explore. Perfect for travel too. So much easier to grab a little lovey, than drag a large blanket to the park, grocery store and doctors office. They can be purchased at the Kunklebaby shop.

{ Many thanks to out little sleeping model}

Mermaid Pillow #2

Here's the sister to the mermaid pillow I posted recently. Blue has been my favorite color for years, but I've also been into orange lately. I used some more Heather Ross fabric here...yes, they really are my favorites I love these pillows! The pillow inserts are from old pillows we had purchased for the couch. They covers were never comfy, with scratchy material and stitching, but the new pillows are awesome. Now they are soft and comfy inside & out!

Color!

We are getting snowed in again here in Ohio. Lots of snow falling since yesterday afternoon. All the city schools are closed for a snow day, so we are too. My husband thinks it's silly that we have snow days when the kids are homeschooled, but snow days are fun for everyone!! A little break from the expected!

With the total lack of color going on outside, I needed a color fix inside! I made these new curtains and a rug for our kitchen last Friday. I love how they brighten up the space and make me feel more cheerful and warm!

The curtains are made with a sunny, Heather Ross print. I've been saving this one for over a year and finally cut into it. Heather Ross announced on her blog she will be doing a new line of some of her retired fabric prints with Spoonflower! I CAN'T wait!

-Please ignore my sink full of dihes and messy counters!!-

Placemats

Yesterday afternoon, I decided I needed another "gift" idea for Valentine's Day. Typically as a family we aren't really into the "holiday". This year, I really want to make it special for the kids. They have been so understanding and helpful lately, to a pregnant mama too tired to do very much! We don't travel out the house often these days and I am physically unable to do some of the fun stuff they are used to.
They never complain about it and actually have shown me so much compassion it's breaking my heart! I want them to have a fabulous day where they understand just how much we love them!

I am suddenly super into using up my scraps. I am a HUGE scrap hoarder!! I save every little bit of everything. These place mats were made using up some of my saved treasures. I really love that they encompass many of my favorite prints that are long used up!

I wanted each one to be unique, as each of my children have their very own special personalities. The pink is for Miss {M}, who no matter how much I try loves pink more than any other color! She is the epitome of girlie! The blue is for Mr{D}. He likes blue and is a fan of several of the fabrics used in his. Little {L} gets the orange place mat. The little blond boy with the cat reminds me of him...except in real life, he's be pulling her tail.

-Back view-

My favorite Space

With a large-ish family with young children [and homeschooling], we spent a lot of time in our home-A LOT! There are areas of the house that I fantasize about remodelling and re-doing and well, just changing. The kitchen is one of those places. While I am in there, I am always thinking about how great it will be when we get around to adding more counter space and storage. It's actually kind of annoying because it's what I think of the WHOLE time!

One room that makes me smile from the inside out as soon as I look at it, is my daughters room. It used to be my studio and I painstakingly picked out the perfect shade of blue for the walls. It looks warm and bright in the sunlight and also cheerful at night with the lamps lit. She has a collection of things that Mama made her scattered throughout the room too. The corner that houses her bed is my favorite place to sit in the entire house! She has a nice comfy bed surrounded by happy, colorful things.

The baby will be joining her in the room [no matter if it's a boy or girl-it's the last space left]. With the large amounts of pink she has accumulated for the room, lets hope it's a girl...or a boy who loves pink. haha. I'm really happy with the room. It's a small space, but I don't think it feels to crammed or claustrophobic. I'll be adding some fun embroidered art pieces for the baby over the next few months as I finish it.

Idea's...

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I've been feeling a little under the weather. All the gloomy, rainy days don't seem to be helping either-blah!

So, I was pretty surprised that I had A LOT of people ask me, "What are these?", about my scarves at my last show. I had my mannequin set up right next to them, displaying an adult scarf. They were separated into adult size and child sizes. Here's my question to you, "What can I do to display them and get less questions?". Craftin Outlaws is coming up quick and I won't be able to bring along my mannequin. I will only have a table, so space will be tight. I do plan on bringing my hanging rack.


Any idea's? I was thinking of bring a few pictures to hang near them of them being modelled, but otherwise, I have no idea to make them look more....well, quickly recognized as a scarf!

Mini Houses

Over the long weekend, I was able to get a bunch of stuff completed, and spend time with the family. I finally got the studio tidied up. Some furniture was moved around, some went to the garage and my favorite thrifted find came back in, a cool old table [I'll show you pictures later this week].

With the new table added to the studio, I now have a computer space and a sewing space separate from each other. I used to have to move the sewing stuff, while on the laptop and clear away all my papers and files when I wanted to sew. Sometimes it was just too much energy and I decided against sewing. Often I only had a few minutes anyways and didn't want to spend it shifting materials. It's so AWESOME to have a nice clear desk to sew whenever my work calls to me!

So, with all this new found space I had to work on a couple things! I've been making these mini houses for a few weeks now. Each one is stitched by hand, with lots of love. I've found that I can handsewn while schooling the kids, so when I finish one of these, I feel like I accomplished two things in the time of one-yay. As a mom of three young kids, this is rarely a feeling I have. I love the texture and little bits of other things sewn in. I hate throwing away fabric, even tiny bits, so these houses make me happy to see my little pieces made into something cool.

They can be hung on a wall [I recommend three in a row], used as an ornament or added to a shelf that needs a little fun. These few still needs their sides stitched up, but I wanted to show them off. I will have a small batch of them at the Independence Day show.

I have more "new goodies" to show off later this week. I've been working hard at a few new products and I'm really excited to show them off!

Quilts are done!

I finished up two more quilts yesterday. Hooray!! The brown one has hand sewn binding. It was able to stitch the binding while teaching the kids about adding with the number one yesterday. My favorite squares feature the dancing foxes. It's a Heather Ross Kokka import fabric. You can't tell from the picture, but it also has dancing frogs and bunnies.

The blue/green one has some cool binding also. After making this bias tape, I wanted to sew it onto everything!

I like that both of these quilts could be for a baby of either gender. I am in love with blue for girls-really, any color besides pink. Don't get me wrong, I like pink too, but overall, baby girl stuff has an overwhelming amount of it! Of course this means, my daughter has declared pink is her favorite color. Isn't that the way it always goes? Lucky for me, my boys like blue!

Today's plan are not too exciting. Mr. {D} has a doctors appointment with an ENT. Hopefully that goes well. The color of the week is red, and we are still working on T's and the numbers zero and one. {L} the littlest giant, is running through the house causing havoc and so happy about it.

What does your week hold for you?

Quilt tops

Here's a peek at some of the work I've been doing. I'm getting ready for Craftin Outlaws with lots of colorful, fun new quilts. These few have been dancing around in my head for awhile, so it's exciting to see them start to come together. Blue is my favorite color [big surprise, eh?], so I'm slightly partial to the one above. I love knowing that the creations I am making, will someday make a child smile. It makes me feel connected to the world in ways, I would never have imagined. Pretty cool!

Also the show will have a new "kunklebaby item" debut!! I can't tell you what it is yet, shhhh...but I'll drop a few hints closer to the show. What I can say is it's something awesome for the older kunklebaby fans-the kids can't have all the fun!

This quilt features some awesome rocker prints and a few great Japanese imports mixed in too. Love the little pirates above.

This is my neutral blanket. Mostly shades of brown, with a few punches of color.

Dancing Dolls Quilt Finished

Some of you might remember when I was working on this quilt a few weeks back. I had finished sewing all the pieces together[using Momo Wonderland fabric] to make the front when I realized it needed....something. I left it in the studio for about 2 weeks unfinished, as I didn't know what to do to finish it. I really liked what I had so far, but I knew it wasn't complete. After setting it aside, I started working on t-shirts, and came across the last few blocks of this great Alexander Henry print with girls from different cultures and/or time periods. PERFECT!

I added 3 blocks to the quilt with different stitches. So happy with the final result! I can't wait until this little creation finds a special girl. It also looks really great hung on the wall as a 3 dimensional art piece.

My dancing dolls quilt is currently available in the Kunklebaby shop.