just a quick post to say there are some felt stones in my shop.

I never did say that I sold one of my diggers, but I did! And on my birthday to boot! My little floral digger was sent off to Jen at scissorspaperglue and I sent the polka dot digger off to New York yesterday morning. I knew I wanted to make the packaging for my toys and after a little brainstorming I came up with this simple drawstring bag. It’s made of muslin and I figured out how to do french seams just so I wouldn’t have to line it (they’re not really hard at all you just have to get over putting wrong sides together, but corners I had trouble with–anyone out there have any advice?). I also get to use my automatic button holer (holer, really? hole maker maybe?) which makes me feel like I know what I’m doing–always a treat. At first I wanted to embroider “my digger,” but found some passable stamps at Joann’s instead. It gives me a place to put the name of my shop as well. And I finally got my felt rocks up in the shop and made a small linen drawstring bag for them too.

The rocks turned out nice, I think, but they are less for the diggers and more for decoration really. I really like the moss covered ones and I may just do a couple set of those. But back to the drawstring bags. For a while now I’ve had the idea to make simple drawstring bags for toys. There are just so many damn toys and our toys are getting smaller and more complicated now–they need to be contained! The bags would be made of linen or a linen/cotton blend or even just muslin, and maybe lined or not lined, and with trains or blocks or dinosaurs or animals on the front either stitched or appliqued. And the reason they aren’t made yet is because I can’t decide on anything. Is linen too precious for a toy bag? Is muslin too cheap? Would embroidery get snagged or does applique look too slapped together? Would you even buy a toy bag? I need some feedback from the mamas (and papas) out there. I have a little craft fair coming up in march (!) and I think this would be something I could make a bunch of and that would go over well (the craft fair is also a children’s clothes and toys consignment sale–it’s called half pint resale and my very talented and energetic friend put it all together!). So leave a comment and help me decide, because I’ve been thinking about these silly little bags for too long now.

This is a half assed craft.  But I’m not a knitter or crocheter, but I have seen a few pot cozies around the internets and I wanted some myself.  So I cut off the sleeve of a felted sweater and voila!  A little blanket stitch action on the top of one and damn if it doesn’t make those crappy plastic pots looks good.

that’s all I got. have a good day everyone!

Thank you everyone who is visiting from Sew Mama Sew. And thank you to Sew Mama Sew for featuring me a few times (!) this week. It’s an honor to have my things on such a fantastic blog. If you’d like to know who’s writing this blog (me) you can click on the about link on the right. Thank you for all your kind comments. I try to reply to most, but I’m a little behind because of the holidays. Starting a blog was on my to do list for most of this (2007) year and I’m so glad to have finally crossed it off. I never would have believed that a few kind words from strangers could inspire me so much. Many of you are no longer strangers, but people I look to often for advice.  Thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts with me. It’s a pleasure to be a part of such a creative and supportive community. I’ll need even more of that support next year because one of my resolutions is to start an etsy shop.  And sew myself some clothes that don’t suck.  Do you have any crafty resolutions for the new year?

The picture is a present I made for another sister.  I showed you the needlebook and pincushion already, but I made the sewing machine cover to match after seeing the sorry looking toaster cozy she was using to cover up her sewing machine. Just a simple lined piece of patchwork with ribbon ties on each end.  And an embroidered sewing machine so she knows where it goes (not on the toaster).

Hope you all have a happy new year!

This was the very last gift I made and just barely done in time. It was for my brother in law and it’s the name of his band. And a large band it is. So I drew all the instruments in the band and embroidered them, then did the name in cross stitch free hand.  I got a little nervous that I wouldn’t finish in time toward the end of “flatpickers” and I think  it shows.  I’ve learned that cross stitch requires actual planning (this was my first attempt) so maybe next time I won’t just wing it.  On the whole I like how homemade it looks.  Folksy and modern–just like the band it’s for.  I wanted the hoop to be the frame, but a quick look around the internets didn’t turn up much, so I put another piece of fabric behind the embroidered bit and just cut them both to fit.  It’s pretty slippy, does anyone know how to do this properly? The gift is still within my grasp and I could fix it if need be.

Hope everyone had a very merry christmas and got at least something you wanted.