It's all about the Red, White and Blue

I've had quite a trend going with my crafting just recently, and it's all about red, white and blue!

I think the abundance of patriotic colours in the stores here, and my eagerness to make some stuff that will remind me of my American adventure, has lead me down this path!

My current crafting obsession is quilting. I love the feel of fabric, and I like the idea of making things that have a purpose.

This is the first of 2 Wiggly Whimsy quilts I made, using a pattern from the Moda BakeShop by Rebecca Silbaugh. I used up scraps of Patriotic fabrics from another quilt (still in progress) that I bought at Jo-Anns, and used natural muslin fabric which I purchased at Walmart. Yes, Walmart ;)
I bought a cream coloured fleece and a striped cotton for the binding, also from Jo-Anns. I quilted it simply, with a stitch-in-the-ditch pattern, without batting, as I thought it would be too thick for the Florida climate. I made another quilt, using the same scraps and background fabric, with a red gingham binding. The striped one is Tom's, the gingham is Jemma's. The kids love them, and like nothing better to snuggle under them whilst watching a DVD at night. Even in July.

Armed with the scraps leftover from the backing to my Work in Progress quilt, I searched the web for a Union Jack pattern, and found a great foundation paper piecing pattern here courtesy of Susanne Klemm. Even though I had never done any foundation paper piecing before, I quickly worked it out, and ran up this flag in an evening. I then put a navy border round it, sandwiched and quilted it, and used up the leftover binding from Tom's quilt to finish it off. I was so chuffed with how it turned out, and I am itching to make another one. I may use some patterned fabric in the next one, to make a more Cath Kidston-esque flag. It will even up my USA vs UK projects as well!

The weather has turned positively monsoon like this weekend - whilst the sun is out and shining back in the UK. The remnants of the Tropical weather system Chantal is to blame for the rain, although we haven't had as much rain as we did last summer. The kids are one month away from returning to school, and I must say, these holidays haven't been as tortuous as previous years. Jemma takes herself to the pool most days, and Tom has been at day camp this last week, evening up the days he prefers to sit indoors on his laptop ;)  I have this years school supply list now, so will now start getting the things they need, ready for the start of term :)

It's homemade pizza night tonight, so I'm off to roll out the dough...

Sarah xxx

Skirts, bath bombs and a flower...

So, while I may not be crafting with paper just now, I am certainly not short of crafty things to do...

I have toyed for a while with trying to make some clothes. I have done so in the past, but not since I was at university. I tend to be lazy, and not finish my seams properly, and literally make do and mend ;)
But, inspired by some blog posts, I have bit the bullet and made something. A skirt. A maxi skirt. With ruffles :) I found an excellent tutorial here and went to JoAnns to get some fabric. And this is what I ended up with...

I love it. It's not perfect - a bit wonky in places, but I am blaming my sewing machine which took great umbrage at sewing jersey fabric ;) I have fabric for another one, but will wait for the walking foot to arrive for my sewing machine, as maybe I will have better results.

One of the other Brit wives out here on exchange found an awesome deal on our local Groupon, to take classes at an organic studio - making cheese, candles, soap and other such things. A few of us decided it would actually be quite good fun, so we signed up. I took a bath bomb making class on Monday night, and it was brilliant :)

We came home with a tray full of bathbombs that we had made ourselves, and a small tub of jello based soap. It was really interesting, we made 3 different types of bath bombs, and came home with a booklet with all the instructions and recipes. The next class I'm taking is a soapmaking class, and we come home with a big slab of soap!

Finally the flower. Tomorrow is ANZAC day, and the Australian Air Force guys here are having a remembrance service on the squadron. I asked my Aussie friend, if it was appropriate for me to wear a poppy - in the UK on Remembrance Day the British Legion sell little paper poppies and we are encouraged to "Wear your Poppy with Pride". As this is a day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand forces who have fought and died in World Wars, and other conflicts. Having a Great Grandfather who fought in WW1 and a Grandfather who fought in WW2, and being a military spouse, I always try to wear a poppy. Unfortunately, the Americans don't seem to have them, so I missed out wearing one in November. Today, I had a bit of a brain wave and decided to make my own out of felt.

I found a tutorial here, got some red and black felt, and a few seed beads, and set to work. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and will definitely be wearing this poppy with pride tomorrow.

Today has been a very pleasant day, blue skies and a slight breeze, so I took the opportunity to go down to our community pool to swim a few laps and soak up some rays :) Sometimes it's hard work being me... :P

Sarah xxx

Work in progress...

I like to dabble in different crafts. I always have. I think I have a bit of ADD when it comes to projects - since being in the US I have scrapbooked, made cards, knit, crocheted, made jewellery and sewn. I think just walking into JoAnn's gave me so many ideas of things I wanted to make. And it's slightly cheaper to get the materials over here, so that is a bonus!!
Anyway, on one of my visits to JoAnn's I spied some American themed fabrics - red, white and blues, stars, stripes etc - and I had a brainwave. I decided to make a quilt. Yep. A quilt. Hmmm. So, I bought a transformer for my UK sewing machine (with winnings from a Super Bowl sweepstake no less) and found a pattern I liked. Actually I found a ton of patterns I liked. I think I am going to be making a few quilts...I digress...  I finished off some other projects, waited patiently for visitors to vacate the guest/craft room, and this past week I finally got the courage to cut the fabrics, and start to sew up the blocks...

 This is how the layout of the quilt will be, and I am pondering whether to add some applique stars to some of the blocks, or to just leave them plain. And it's a bit bigger than I thought it would be...

So, now I had a pile of leftover material. I spent an evening cutting it all into 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares. I went and bought some muslin material for the background, and cut that into squares and rectangles.
This is how that quilt is coming along... I am using the Wiggly Whimsy pattern that I found at the Moda Bakeshop.

I am liking doing all this sewing. Next step is to find a even feed/walking foot for my machine so I can actually quilt them LOL.

In other news... Mark's parents came to visit, and we went to the St Augustine gator farm on Anastasia Island. We saw the gators being fed, and they are really fearsome creatures... I am really hoping one doesn't decide to take up residence in our back pond...

Mark and the kids decided to play about with my camera, and try a spot of Hadouken-ing. In their PJ's. In the front yard. Mind you, not as bad as my other half deciding that the driveway is a great place to do a spot of sunbathing...

 

 

My gardening exploits seem to have taken off spectacularly. I wanted to try and grow some herbs and try some tomatoes and chilli pepper plants... Well, just about every. single. seed has germinated, so I think I will be providing some herbs for my friends and neighbours...

 

 

I think that'll do for now ;) I'm off to get myself some lunch - egg mayonnaise in fresh baked rolls. Yep, I think I am turning into Barbara from the Good Life...

 

 

Sarah x

Today, this blog is brought to you by the colour teal...

Once upon a time, my favourite colour was purple. Then I went through a brown phase. As I neared 40, I had a green fetish - even my kids told me not to buy another green top...  But just recently, it has been all about teal. And turquoise. And aqua. And still a bit of green.

My iPhone Otterbox case is turquoise and teal. I was elated to find out that the Jacksonville Jaguars colour was teal - Go Team Teal!! Even if the team isn't that great, their uniforms are ;) The plethora of goodness inside the large craft shops here have lured me away from paper, and enticed me into dabbling into other crafts - knitting, crochet and even sewing. And a lot of it has included the colour teal.... Erika, I hope you are ready for this....

It all started with this knitted throw. I bought the beautifully soft wool just before Christmas, and knit up a storm over the festive period. It is so soft and warm. And soft. And goes perfectly with the cushions I brought over from the UK - my finds of the century in TK Maxx ;) The wool is Caron Simply Soft (see I told you it was soft) and the pattern is from their website and is FREE!!!

So, I had some wool left over. Not one to waste my scraps, I found a pattern on Ravelry to make a wee coffee cozy...

My wee owl coffee cozy :) Although I did do a double take when I saw this photo, as I thought the button eyes resembled, erm, cough cough, breasts.... Buswams, as my Nan used to call them... But I think that was just me, and to make sure that I don't make the mistake again, I bought some buttons with 4 holes ;)

Continuing with the knitting theme, I found a really pretty felted bag pattern, again via Ravelry.  I made some felted bags a few years ago, using a pattern I found on Cathy Zielske's blog, but I couldn't find where I have saved it, and it is no longer available.  So, I went out and bought a couple of balls of Patons Classic Wool, in teal (of course) and made this gorgeous specimen...

 

I crocheted a flower using this pattern, and a couple of spirals from this pattern to add to the flap, as I didn't fancy doing embroidery on it.

 

Next on my to-do list was a tartan sash for the Burn's Night Supper the VP-30 Brits arranged in the Officer's Club at NAS Jacksonville for the Squadron. I ordered a couple of yards of US Navy tartan material from Atlanta Kilts, and they were kind enough to over night it to me so I had plenty of time to run up my sash. Imagine, if you will, the squeals of delight when I opened the box to find the tartan was navy and TEAL!!! Um, yeah. I was pretty much like a kid on Christmas Day, opening the best present ever....

 

 

And it was perfect with my bargain Calvin Klein dress I found at Ross....

 

So after hemming up a sash, I had the realisation that I didn't have a brooch to pin my sash. I had saved this tutorial for making a flower out of felt, and thought I would try using the tartan fabric to make a flower brooch. I fused 2 layers of material together, to make it thicker like felt, and used a glue gun to stick the petals in place.

 

 

And I was pretty darned chuffed with the result! The centre of the flower is an old button that came from a denim shirt I adored when I was at college. I found it in the small collection of buttons I brought across with me. Kinda makes the brooch more unique ;)

 

 

Knowing that my sewing machine was working well with the transformer, my crafty fingers were itching to do some more sewing. I picked up some fabric remnants in Walmart, along with some bias binding and thread, and a Simplicity sewing pattern, and managed to produce this....

 

 

 

A cute apron. In aqua and teal.  It probably looks better on that chair than it does on me, and both my husband and my son both asked why it had so many pockets.... But I think it looks cute. I have plans to make one for a friend who has just started up a little baking business... It'll definitely look super cute on her ;)

 

So, that's my teal-tastic crafting spree! This week has mainly been about the colour red, but that's another blog entry...

 

 

TTFN

 

 

Sarah x