Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Sneak Peek

Sometimes things just happen.

For example, I decided to console myself after the "can't-get-a-decent-picture" debacle and surfed my feedly for inspiration.

AND BOY, WAS I INSPIRED!!

THEN...I got a Quiltmaker magazine in the mail.  I thought my subscription was up because it seems like forever ago that I got one.  So I promptly sat down to drool over stuff I would probably never attempt to make.  HOWEVER, an advertisement caught my eye.


I have been salivating over this software for some time. It is for quilters who want to design their own quilts.  I guess you can plug in fabric swatches and spin blocks this way and that...but unfortunately I have a dinosaur of a computer and more than likely would never be able to run it on here.  PLUS, it's a tad expensive and we are very short on cash these days.

HOWEVER

When I went to the site there is a FREE EQ Boutique that offers some free (and others not so free) quilt blocks.  Most of which are applique.  So I took one of the free ones to play with.

It was birdies.  CUTE birdies.

I have already made some gifts for each of my moms... There is a pillow cover coming down the pike that is FANTASTICALLY FETCHING and I cannot wait to show it to you.  Until then, here is a sneak peek at the cute lil' birdies!

Lil Birdie
 Depending upon the project, I may give her feet but for this particular one, it wasn't really worth the bother.  I also will probably reverse a couple of the pieces so they work out better, but only if I remember to do it next time I sew one.  :-)  This particular one I resized to 6 inches instead of the standard 9.  Because of that, I was unable to use one of the pieces because it was just too small.  I will probably print out another one a little bigger and slap that together in the future.  She is so cute!  I am feeling the urge to name each and every one.  She is Eve and the next one is Adam, because they were my firsts.  lol.

Too Far?  Okay then...

Then there is my very first attempt:
Mr. Owly
Don't look too closely because this was my "test piece" to see how difficult it was going to be to machine embroider the edges...and to fiddle with the numbers to get it to my liking.  So his eyes are a little scary if you look at them.  Also, I will cry when I run out of the material I used for the eyes because those "pupils" are really just how I cut the material.  So when I am done with it, I am going to need to either make my own pupils or go boring because the pattern doesn't actually call for pupils.  This particular one is done on a burlap body which I am truly loving and will most likely make more like this - and also get darker brown burlap.  The one for the pillow cover does have cute little orange feet, which I totally forgot to put on this one.  Oops.  Thank God Mom loves it no matter how many mistakes I make.  ;-)  The one I put on the pillow cover is on a really cute brown body that I will also use again.  Did I mention the pillow cover?  Navy with white polka dots.  Mr. Owly in the corner glancing up...drool-worthy, I am telling you.

SO?  Do you just love these quaint lil birdies as much as I do?  I am really digging the blue and green together on Mr. Owly.  Any more ideas on what I can do with them?  So far I am thinking pillow covers, bags, and onesies...maybe I will try a book cover?  T-shirts?  Toddler skirts?  Comment me what you want to see Lil Birdie or Mr. Owly on!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Technology is fabulous. Until it isn't.

WELL.

I took bunches of pictures of bunches of items to list in my shop...but I hate each and every picture.  Instead of using my trusty phone (which for some reason takes pretty decent pictures), I thought I would get FANCY schmancy and use a "real" camera.  We have a couple.

One is a dinosaur...Cannon Rebel FILM camera.  I do love it so and pet it once in awhile.  I wasn't going to mess with that one.  I need to see what I'm working with immediately.  No time to DILLY-DALLY.

Then we have a Cool Pix camera.

I HATE IT.  HATE. It.

I just can't seem to get a decent picture with it.  Sometimes I can, but it requires a lot of work on my part and I just got done slaving over pillow covers.  I do not want to slave for another hour over a picture to make them look at least a tiny bit as cute as they are in real life.  I want to point. Shoot.  Fiddle on Aviary or Picasa to bring out coolness and be done.

DONE!

The Cool Pix just doesn't work for me.  I want a digital Cannon Rebel.  End of story.  I want the ability to take a picture, wirelessly send it somewhere, and be done...  but also I want the manual focus and F-stops for when I feel artsy-fartsy.  Which is seldom when I am talking cameras, but I still want the ability to do weird stuff with a camera if I want to do weird stuff with a camera.

So I just used all those complaining words to say:

I don't have any listings to show you because I need to go take all the photos AGAIN.  

*sigh*

Thanks for reading even though you were sorely disappointed.

OH WAIT!  Snap!  I forgot I have a new logo for my etsy shop to show you.  My wonderful cousin did one up for me because she is all things digital and I am all things NOT.  Check it out:

Ain't she a beut!?  This is what I am using as my avatar for my shop.   LOVE IT!  Can't wait to see the banner she comes up with!