A New Houseful of Handmade

Hello everyone, it's Kati.  I know it has been a while since we have posted anything new.  We all got too busy and things got a little left behind, but the projects have not stopped.  I have decided to continue with documenting my own journey of DIY and creating.  I am telling my stories about remodeling my house, including building some more furniture, sewing, crafts, and my newest love of creating surface pattern designs.  You can find my new adventures here.  We will leave all the great tutorials here so you can still find them, but if you want to see what I am doing now come follow along.  You can also follow me on Facebook.  Hope to see you soon!

Watermelon Wreath

Apparently I have recently decided that I really like wreaths.  I saw a really cute heart wreath on a blog somewhere made with burlap and got the idea to tweak it and create a watermelon for my front door.   

As I was buying the burlap Trudi gave me a hard time because it’s almost fall.  I would like to point out that it’s only August, and as much as I like fall, winter follows it and I HATE winter.  Winter means snow and cold, which I could live without.  So I’ll drag out summer as much as I possibly can, even if it's only in my head.  To help me drag out summer, here is my watermelon wreath.

Embellished Shirts

I haven’t had much time to craft since my little guy was born but this past weekend me and my kids made the trip to my parents house and my mom and I played with her sillouette and some shirts we found on clearance.  I am wanting a sillouette more now then before and love the things you can do with it!  My daughter loves her new shirts we made and I am sure my son will look adorable in his when it fits him!  The white on the butterfly and the body of the sheep are flocked and gives it just a little extra texture that makes it that much more fun! 

Star Wreath

My sister came across this really cute star wreath that we decided to make while I was visiting her.  The stars were made out of paper and so we headed out looking for some fun cardstock in patriotic colors and prints.  We never thought it would be so hard to find printed cardstock and didn’t want plain stars, so we bought fabric instead and worked on the star pillow that she posted earlier.  Yeah, mine isn't done yet, but it will be for next year.

I still wanted a star wreath and really liked the idea of the fun patterns that you can find on paper, so I decided to reinvent my own.  This was complete in time for July, I had it finished and hanging on my door with a couple of hours left on the first.  It was pretty dark by then, so I took a picture of it in the house.  I was pretty pleased with myself, usually they will get started and I end up finishing and using them the next year, or the next.

Happy 4th of July!

I did it, I got my second pillow done.  It was at 8pm last night, but it was in time.  Now they can both sit on my couch for the month of July while I come up with something to replace them with.

I found a tutorial on pinwheels that looked easy and wanted to try, so I designed this pillow around those.  It evolved a little as things went (mostly cause I realized my measurements were off and things weren't lining up) but I like the way it turned out.  I opted for red binding to contrast the blue on the other pillow.

I reused pebbles to coordinate with the star, then accented the pinwheels.  This was kind of dual purpose, as it's a similar design to one I plan to use on my daughters quilt (I'll share the completed top to that soon).  I really like pillows as they go together quick and easy and give you a chance to try out new techniques and quilting designs without lots of commitment.  I see many many more pillow adventures in my future.

Both of them sitting on my couch all ready for fireworks and fun.

We hope you are having a great weekend.  Happy 4th of July!

Linked to

It must be a pillow week…

I came across a “Create with me challenge” on Ucreate, and just had to play along.  Recently we bought a new couch and it is screaming for throw pillows.  After a quick trip to IKEA for pillow forms (down 20” pillow forms are only $7.00, what a steal!) I had to then figure out what I really wanted to do.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money either, so I just went through my fabric “stash” and found a couple of things I really liked.  Left over canvas from one project, and some light blue jersey knit that was given to me.  PERFECT! 

I followed the tutorial found here and went to work… It ended up taking a bit more time than I had planned, but the lack of sleep last night was worth it.  My 4 year old came to me this morning and said “Mom, I sat on the couch this morning to watch cartoons and saw a new pillow, it is SO CUTE!”  What a compliment :)

Happy Crafting!!!

4th of July Pillow

I came across an army star pattern at Lily's quilts and instantly fell in love.  I knew I had to make it, and in time for the 4th of July.  Luckily Missy was coming to visit for a crafting/girly fun weekend, and it was the perfect time.