Canvas Purse

Hi everyone. This project has been a long time in coming, so I wanted to show someone the results.

I started out with a plain piece of canvas. I stretched it on a wooden board, and used gesso to prime it. Then, I painted a dutch landscape using oil paints. Once this dried, I used the sewing machine to stitch the sides up.

Fast foward a couple weeks while the sewing machine gets repaired.... I guess sewing oil paintings is hard on machines... who would have guessed?

Once the machine is working again, I sewed in a lining with pockets to finish things off.

Upside: this is a really pretty purse. The photos don't do the colors justice. Downside: the oils are beginning to flake off of the gesso. If I ever have free time (may have to wait a couple of years...) I think I would try this project again with acrylics on unprimed canvas. If any of you get to it first, let me know how it turns out!

For JJ

This is my absolute favorite gift bought/made this Christmas. It's an starter embroidery kit for J. She's been constantly asking to learn how to "stitch" and I saw the idea here.

I just bought one of those paper suitcases, super cute, super flimsy (hope it holds up)


And filled it with burlap, a hoop, some floss, small scissors, tapestry needles and a pin cushion.


I can't wait to have her open it on Christmas. I hope she wants to start right away! How nerdy am I?

Hannah's Christmas Present

I have Hannah's name this year and I took the easy way out and finished her quilt that she started for a YW project (with Sarah I think). Sarah said Hannah was trying to make it ugly by picking out fabrics that didn't match, but I think it turned out cute.

I used pink cotton for the border and a gray print for the binding. I backed it in the fake minkee (from JoAnns) so it'll be super soft. Not really practical for Thailand, but maybe it'll be nice to take to college in a couple years.

The thing was a pain though. I had to go through and mend all the holes from the piecing. I didn't even contemplate ripping the seams around the one strip that was wrong side up, so that will hopefully be a fun memory for her (if she notices) and I could not, for the life of me, get it to square up, so it's totally a lopsided quilt. But I still think it's cute. Sarah, you must have had the patience of Job to help her piece it.

This signifies the end of all the (homemade) Christmas gifts for extended family. I have one more gift to finish for Mark and one for Z. And if I have time I really want to make new stockings, but I probably won't. I wish I was totally and completely done because I'm running out of steam fast. :)

A few more things

Doll quilts and pillows are my standard go to gift for the girls friends. I use the tutorial here, although I generally do my own measurements for the quilt.

The doll is from the Wee Wonderfuls book. I don't know if it was worth it, I was finishing it as JJ was supposed to be at the party. :(



I made these traveling art cases for church from this tutorial, and they are fun. Pretty easy too, they'd make a good bday gift for a party.


This is the pillow I was working on in Utah. It's tiny yo-yos. I think it turned out super cute. I gave it to the girl who watched our house/watered our garden while we were gone all summer. I think she liked it.

Catch Up

So here's my attempt at crafty catch up. I can't share everything I've been working on until after Christmas, don't want to spoil any surprises.


J's has "naptime" everyday at kindergarten. They actually lay down on mats and "sleep" for 1 hour. Can you believe it? Evidently most of the kids actually sleep. J just says its really boring. So anyway, each kid has to have a mat and a blanket. They sell these polyester roll up mats, but I had this darling Ikea fabric already and so I just thought I'd make her one.

I put 4 layers of batting in it so it would be soft and that was the dumbest idea ever, 4 layers of batting + 2 layers ikea thick fabric=monster quilting. I just did simple vertical quilt lines every five inches but I broke at least 3 quilting needles and 5 sharp/microtex needles. It was a monster to quilt.

I used some extra fabric to make a removable cover for my camping pillow. Maybe now it'll get a little use.

Then added twill tape to one of the borders so it could be tied up for storage. It turned out really cute but J says it's too big and they have to fold it in half during naptime. Oh well. It'll be a great picnic quilt at the end of the school year.


I've also been working on a big stack of diaper clutches. I hope to be able to open my shop this week. Plus I want to have enough on hand for any baby showers in the next few months, I probably won't be sewing much after Christmas between the baby and *hopefully* moving.



Finally, a few mermaids from Wee Wonderful's new book. I'm not very patient with small soft toys and so the work is pretty sloppy but the girls really seem to love them.

baby quilt and table

I've done very little sewing lately. I've made a few baby quilts but most of my free time I have spent doing some furniture and painting and repainting my bathroom (pictures of this to come).
This is a quilt I made for my friend's baby.

It's just a moda cupcake pack ($8) with a border and backed in minke. About as simple as it can get. I'm basically doing the same thing for Abby right now. Surprise. (Not really, she picked out the fabric).

I found this table at a garage sale for $5. It was painted picnic red. I had wanted a high table for my front room. Because it was so bulky I wanted to antique it but didn't want to strip it down to the original wood mostly because I am lazy. So I bought some gray paint, decided I didn't like it, mixed in my some blue paint. Then I lightly wiped stain over. It goes on wet so it's easy to wipe it off or add more until you've found how you like it.

Projects to come: I bought an antique end table at a "name your price garage sale" for $2. I'm completely in love with it and I promise to post pictures soon.

Recent projects

I'm just starting a few new projects, but these are ones I finished recently.

This is a necklace I made for Emily's birthday. It has a key and a small bottle on a chain. I chose to put a little note in the bottle, but you could stick small flowers or other cute things in as well.

There are no windows in my bat-cave of a bedroom, so I put this terrarium together. It is made of dried mosses and paper flowers & butterflies. I like it so much I'm making another.

This is an earring holder made from a picture frame and screen.