Work in Progress: Pink Cotton Candy Stripe Quilt

I have three crib sized patchwork quilts I have been working on for some time, in various stages of completion. All three are of my own design.

The first one is my Pink Cotton Candy Stripe baby quilt, which is the closest to completion. I loved choosing and using these sweet fabrics from my fabric stash (I think they all came from a Joann's shopping extravaganza with Brie a long time ago). This would be so perfect for a gift for a new baby girl! The back of the quilt is a blue and white cloud print that reduces the girliness factor just a tiny bit.

I opted for no binding, because I currently (from past experiences) have a fear/hatred of binding my quilts, which I'm hoping to eventually get over when I find the right binding method. And it looks pretty without it anyway. I used Warm and Natural batting because it's thin and flat enough to be easy to work with while still providing some warmth. I pin-basted my quilt sandwich together right sides facing, stitched around the edges, and turned it inside out. Then I pin-basted it again...I don't like using a thimble so I did stab myself a few times :P

If you look closely you can see my big quilter's pins still in there because I haven't done the quilting yet...the only other thing I have to do is add my Picky Chicky labels to it (I made my own using some iron-on transfer paper and satin ribbons, thanks to the magic of Pinterest).

More pictures to come once it's finished. Next time: my English paper piecing hexie quilt made from recycled men's dress shirts!

Owl watercolors for special occasions!

This weekend I celebrated both Brie's birthday and Mark & Rachel's baby shower...and I painted a sweet little owl for both. Edy helped by sitting on my knee and trying to eat the paintbrush.

 

I painted Brie's owl in the colors she has in her house, so she could put him in any room.

 

For Mark & Rachel, I wanted to make the colors of the owl gender-neutral since it will be a surprise whether they are having a boy or girl.
 

 

Didn't they come out cute? I'm surprised I hadn't painted owls sooner since I made like 8000 of them out of felt :P

 

materials: pencil, Prang semi-moist watercolors on Canson Montval Watercolor Block, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (brush) in #177.

Even more tiny bird paintings

I made a little bird watercolor painting for my friend Amy for her baby shower (she's having a girl)...and it turned out so cute I made a few more similar ones. Which colors do you like better?

 

 

I really love painting these, they are so much fun. What other animals should I do?

 

materials: pencil, Prang semi-moist watercolors on Canson Montval Watercolor Block, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (brush) in #177.

Owl Be Seeing You!

I got a request for more owl pins in bright colors from Love & Glitter in Ellicott City, so I spent some time cutting and sewing 35 new hoot owls!

It was fun to come up with all of the color combinations. It had been a while since I made a batch of owls (partly because I tend to make 50-100 at a time) and I actually had forgotten some of the shortcuts to sewing the pieces together.

In honor of my 35 new hoot owls, here's a bad joke:

Q: What kind of books do owls like to read?
A:  Whooo-dunnits!

:)

Not-so-simple Simplicity Christening gown

On Monday, Kate and I decided we should attempt to make our own christening gown for her newborn, Isaac. We had searched a bunch of thrift stores and consignment shops with no luck, and most of the gowns were ridiculously frilly (not to mention overpriced).

Neither of us has ever made a christening gown, but we figured it couldn't be too complicated, right? Kate found a Simplicity pattern and we used the sleeveless "slip" part of the pattern to make a simple gown.

I was NOT a fan of the instructions in the pattern. Lots of ambiguity and confusion. I ended up doing my own thing about halfway because there was so much cursing about the directions.

We did find some cute lace and other trim in my ribbon stash so I hand-stitched those on as an accent. Overall, it came out pretty decent. If I had to do this again, I'd use a simpler cotton fabric for the gown though...the stuff we used was stretchy and somewhat annoying.

And here's baby Isaac, tired from all the crafting...

aww...

May Craft Blog Giveaway: Pink Leaf Cuff Bracelet!

Happy Friday everyone!

I know it's been a while since I did a giveaway so here it is! My May giveaway is for one of my new felt cuffs--this one with lovely pink leaves. I made this piece while at a craft fair last week in an attempt to brighten the dreary gray day.

I hand-stitched this bracelet out of two layers of recycled felt, with a bright pink ribbon sandwiched in between. This cuff will fit most size wrists and is quite sturdy.

It's super easy...just leave a comment on this post below including your email address. So enter below and get yourself a free piece of my hand-stitched felt jewelry!

You can leave your email address in this format if you like: pickychickybird AT gmail DOT com, just to avoid spam.

Last day to enter is Monday, May 16th...I'll announce the winner here on my blog the following day, so stay posted!

A few more pics of the prize:

Good luck to all my giveaway enthusiasts!

Decoupage frenzy! Baskets, plaques, and boxes

I spent most of the day yesterday working on additional decoupage projects. Here are the ones I finished!

Close ups of some of the pieces...

Small ship tins--I have about 100 of these cute little circle tins lying around so I thought I might as well decoupage a few.

Castle wall art--love the fairy tale look!
 

Ship wall art--I never get tired of this image.

The backs of the nesting ship boxes are painted with a palm tree on a beach.

I'm so excited to be using up a big chunk of my stash of wooden and other boxes, frames, trays, drawers, etc. More coming soon!

What else should I paint on these? Flowers, octopi, leaves, Sean Connery?