Beads and Bugs

I just finished a wall hanging that I designed. I started out using my new tumbler template.

Then I cut out flowers, stems and leaves from wool and placed them.

 Added beads & buttons to 1st flower.

 Made 2nd flower a little fancy.

3rd flower I kept simple.

Added some bugs.

Ready for binding and hanging sleeve.

Something Wooly

Last year I joined a Block of the Month offered by one of my local quit shops. It took me 3 trips back to the booth to make the leap to join. My first thought was "it's made of wool, i have never worked with it except for a small wall hanging i got for Christmas" but the kicker was the Thistle that is in the center of the wall hanging. Now that it is finished I can tell you that I am hooked. I love working with wool and using Valdani Threads. Now I have to hand quilt and bind it.

A Sisters Request

My very talented sister asked me if I could make her something to hold her crochet hooks in. I did a little digging on the web and found this great blog by littlebirdiesecrets which had a great tutorial for what I wanted. With a little modifications I added velcro, a yo-yo with a button and a little metal lable from Joann Fabrics.
By the way: she loved it.
Bad news: I have to make her more because she has a ton of hooks.

Getting Scrappy Again

So I am still on my mission to use up my ever growing mound of scraps and I came up with a few ideas.
I came across a pattern for pin cushions and make a few for Christmas gifts and they went over very well for my sewing buddies. So I decided to pull out some of my scraps and make a few more. I added some buttons, ribbon and some rick rack.
I used bedding for lizards that you find at the pet shops (ground English walnut shells) which keeps your needles sharp.
Made the top by either sewing the top and layering it with muslin and a very thin batting. The bottom is felt to keep the shells in and also to keep it from slipping off your table.
Give it a try, they are easy, quick and now you have something to store your pins in.
Hint: I divided the big bag of shells into small sandwich bags so if the bag gets a hole in it I dont' lose the whole bag, just a little one.