A Folk Plaid Pillow : :

Thanks for all the Scrappy Bear Paw love here, on facebook, and on my Instagram, I'm really hoping to squeeze in one more block today! Since that particular quilt plan may take a little while for me to finish, I decided it was okay to jump projects to a quick finish. Don't you love how making a quick pillow cover can give you that sense of gratification and quilty fulfillment? I do!



This one began with a square cut of my Folk Plaid print, simply quilted following the 1" grid of my buffalo check pattern to two layers of cozy batting!



The combination of all those happy reds with that little pop of Folk Plaid blue in my bear paw block reminded me of the extra long roll of Denyse Schmidt's Complex Plaid in Maple binding I had made for my You & Me Quilt.





I pulled what was left of it and a half yard of AGF's Squared Elements in Red from my stash for my pillow back. I love how these plaids look together and how this pillow matches my quilt block!





I'm planning to pop this new pillow in my etsy shop to offer soon, along with many other Wild & Free makes I hope to create this year. But for now, I better get back to working on that matching quilt, Lily's waiting for me!



♡ Maureen      

Busy Days : :

This time of year is so busy for all of us preparing for the holidays. For my family December is a month overloaded with the extra celebration of two Cracknell kid birthdays, as an etsy shop owner who receives a much needed high volume of custom handmade orders, and I'm unfortunately adding many doctors appointments and tests to my schedule these days. With each December that passes I promise myself to do better. To not take on so much, to be more prepared and organized. This year, for once, somehow I actually feel like I'm succeeding in that. At the end of each long day spent cutting, ironing, sewing, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, mailing, parenting, etc.. my only feelings of falling short comes from this blog and missing out on my plans for it.Typically I'd simply save all my unfulfilled goals for the slow Winter days of January. But after these holidays I'll be undergoing a Thyroidectomy and possibly a Tonsillectomy, still thinking about that one. While there's so much stress and exhaustion that comes with the crummy health stuff, I'm hopeful that all with be okay and in the end I'll feel much better. I'm grateful to be able to wait until after the holidays and to have all that I mentioned above to focus on and plan for. For once I'm finding these extra busy times extremely helpful for keeping me from worrying about the scary, unknown stuff. Today I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos from these December days of crown creating, birthday celebrating, and merry making!

















♡  Maureen

Options : :

Yesterday morning, just after I finished up blogging and the day's Esty orders, I grabbed my stack of NouvElle Friendship Diamond Quilt blocks from my wip table and laid them out onto the floor.



Is there another quilter in all of Blogland more in need of a quilt wall than me?!



It was getting dark, about to storm, so I snapped a few quick photos, then the phone rang, it was the school nurse telling me that Jacob had come down with the flu. The bad flu. The kind that required me to stay right by his side, watching an American Pickers marathon, interrupted only by trips to the bathroom, popsicles, and little naps. He's still in bed this morning as I write this, I'm hoping after some rest he'll be on the mend today! Having all those little chances to glance into my sewing room, at the floor, to look at this quilt wip ended up being a good thing, as I'm quite liking all the pink happening in the center now!



I had originally planned & shared that I would be doing some chopping at this point, adding in diamonds of the NouvElle blues to break up all the pink.



But, now I'm not sure? After sleeping on it, I'm loving the ripple of pinks framed by the watery blues again this morning! Here's another, brighter photo that I recently shared on my Instagram.



Penny's clearly bored with my indecision!

What do you think?

Tuquoise and Lily : :

After literally being buried under the heap of felt and fabric scraps I've created these past two weeks, yesterday in between etsy orders galore, I promised in it's recovery at least an hour of work to this Minimalista quilt project of mine!



It's a fairly quick quilt as you go. I was able to sew up and quilt the Watermelon and Honeycomb panels in just a few hours of work, and finished assembling this new Turquoise panel in a little more than an hour yesterday. All that's left now is the Noir, some quilting, flannel backing, and binding!



It's a simple design that I'm calling my Diamond Zig Zag quilt! I think this Turquoise is my favorite of the four colors!



I love this shot with Lily's little paw peeking in on the left!





I guess she wanted to say Hello!  ♥ Maureen 

Quilting As I Go : :

Yesterday I had planned to share some lucky finds I thrifted over this past weekend, but right away I got so into working on my ABC quilt, I couldn't pull myself away! My crazy goal is to have it finished Friday night, to be gifted on Saturday, and I actually think I'm going to make it!!



All thirty blocks are pieced, quilted, and trimmed to 10.5" squares!



I'm really glad I spent most of yesterday sewing, only stopping to take care of Penelope and to take & share some photos of our last full school-day as a threesome...





Here the kids are this morning, humoring me just before they headed out the door for their last day, a half day, of school!



This school year certainly flew by, faster than any year in my life! So much has happened and so many things have changed. It was nice to take a moment this morning to look back at that first day photo, and compare. Wow!!



And now, I have just a few short hours to get going on this quilt before our Summer vacation officially starts! I'm using HeatnBond Feather Lite for the first time and so far I'm loving it! I can definitelty feel a difference once the pieces are pressed to my quilt blocks, you can't even tell!



There's so much to be excited about today, wish me luck!!    ♥,  Maureen 

And, thanks for all the sweet comments on my latest "stitched sketch" project! I can't wait to share more!!

Spring Things : :

 






This morning I had Birthday Crown orders to finish up and an appointment, and to tell the truth I am completely out of my regular old routine. I need to figure out a new one now that the puppy is here and I'm getting up several times during the night. After just one week, I went from someone who stays up to on average 1am, to someone who can't keep their eyes open after 10pm! After sharing my wip evaluation post and reading all your comments and encouragement, I've deciding to let the pressure I was feeling go, to enjoy everything including this new pace, which just so happens to be a slow pace right now. Besides, there really is no point in rushing quickly into a new routine anyways. The kids finish up school in a little over a week, and then we'll all find a new groove together!

I can't believe how quickly May is going by! How about you? I love Spring and really wish it was a longer season here. I'm trying to freshen up the living room a little before Summer. I brought in some Forsythia for the mantel, I love the bright yellow! But when the temperature dropped and I was completely exhausted early last week, my living room sewing plans were delayed when I decided to make myself some gluten free cookies, recipe here, for breakfast. I'm sharing because they really were the best GF cookies I've made and everyone loved them! Now I'm planning to make an ottoman slipcover for Lily's new favorite corner of the living room. Penelope doesn't love the hardwood, she just slips all over the place, so Lily has taken retreat there. I picked out this gorgeous Portfolio Capparis print in Sunshine. I love it so much!! Once I finish my little home decor diy project, I plan to host a special giveaway sponsored by OFS right here!

Penelope is doing great! We had just a couple accidents last week, which were contained to her kennel, which kind of threw us, especially since she made them shortly after coming in from outside?  I keep referring to the comments you all left for us in my post introducing Penny for guidance! You guys really are the best!!

This week I'm having a sale in my etsy for 20% off any crown or felt purchase. Just use coupon code Spring20 at checkout.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! And a BIG thanks in advance to those of you who stop by my shop this week!  ♥,  Maureen

Just Because : :

The morning I took the photos of my newest pillow, the sun was shining bright, so I also took lots of the kiddos, and of Lily. Her pretty blue eyes are amazing! She's definitely comfortable here in our new home, and has become so lazy and rather large in the belly, especially these last few months. She cries as soon as her food dish is empty, and even wakes me up if that happens in the middle of night. It's completely ridiculous and a bit out of control! I'll need to approach this carefully, I don't want to hurt any feelings! So, although this has nothing to do with sewing, if you happen to have any tips on kitty diets, please do share!!

Well, you know you've made a lot of things when you see a glimpse of something on Pinterest and don't realize until several moments later that you're the person who made it? That happened to me yesterday, with this forgotten pillow from May 2011!



For as much as I love making these stitch-y applique pillows, I don't do it very often? I've decided to make some new ones, in new colors, in this same design, just as soon as I can!



This week, I'll mostly be working on and packaging up crown orders. These are a couple of new Garden Princess Crowns. I love seeing these Spring colors!



I took some time to update my felt inventory with new color card photos. Making one for all the Wool Blend Felt colors I have available, forty-five colorful shades!



And, one for the dozen of the Neutral color options I have, as well.



I'm hoping these make choosing felt for both crown orders and crafting/sewing projects easy! If your looking for ideas for using felt to incorporate into your own sewing/crafting, I have a Pinterest board "Just For Felt," which includes many of my own felt projects and a growing list of great felt-y inspiration!!

I'll be running a little Etsy Shop sale for 20% off any purchase of felt with coupon code : FELT20OFF beginning now! Last time I ran right out of some colors, so I can't specify how many days I can have the sale. But, if you happen to order and are interested in receiving some fabric scraps, please let me know that "You love scraps!" in the comment section of your order, and I'll be so happy to share!

Happy Sewing!!   ♥,  Maureen

Today's Plan : :

Back before we moved into our home, I shared a little post with some ideas we had for our daughter's room. Since then, with the help of Santa, some of the items on her wishlist have been crossed off, others just wouldn't work, and some things are just waiting to be made -- yay for me!



The Canopy Play Home has ended up being the biggest hit! Along with a high stack of pretty floor cushions. It is rather large and pretty dreamy with the addition of some twinkling lights, and she has even slept in it twice now!



The Enchanted Forest Mural totally wouldn't work, the dimensions were all wrong for the wall we had in mind. That's the thing about making plans for a home you don't own or live in yet -- measuring before planning is key! So, that was a bit of a bummer, but leaves an opportunity for some fun sewing!

First on my list -- a new curtain!



Her room is pretty little in size and is so super girly, with a bit of a Princess & the Pea theme happening, just like her recent party.



There's lots of color, mostly brights, but really anything goes!



For the curtains I would personally love to add in some applique and maybe some scalloping, similar to the that on this sham and her canopy?

We looked through my stash last night for some fabrics and she chose this LillyBelle print, which would work perfectly. So, I'm planning to use it on one side of the curtain, but want to have some fun, improv sewing time while stitching up the other!



I think our own Lily agrees, just as long as I get a move on it! This happens to be her most favorite room, as well, and I'm pretty sure that all the light coming through this curtain-less window is a problem for her.



Plus, I need to get busy crossing some much needed things off of my list before I'm busy making my crowns full-time! The orders have been really coming in this week and I wasn't expecting it at all.  My felt won't be here for a few days yet, yikes!



I'll be back soon with a finished curtain to share and some handmade holiday gifts that I've been meaning to share, as well! Until then -- Happy Sewing! ♥, Maureen