Please go vote!

Remember this pillow?

Sew, Mama, Sew! actually chose my pillow as one of their Top 20 in the "Words to Live by" category!  {Can you believe it?}

Voting is open now... 

would you click on over here and vote for my pillow?  

It's the one that matches the picture above....

Will Sew For Food.

Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a pillow contest.  

And I've been really into pillows lately, 

(they're like tiny fluffy quilts!)

so I decided to give it a try.

Here's my entry.  It's going into the category of "Words to Live By"

These are, most definitely, words to live by, don't you think?

Here's a closeup of the quilting and piecing.

the letters came from a cut of fabric I've had for a while.  It's by Lakehouse fabrics, and it's just lowercase letters on cream.

I love how it turned out!

This is another pillow created recently, but I decided it doesn't really fit into the contest rules.

But maybe Sew, Mama, Sew! will see it, like it, and feature it somewhere? {hint, hint, wink, wink?}

I'm calling it "Regal P"

It's embroidery, done freehand, by me.  I love it!

Here's a closeup of the letter and the pebble quilting.

I used my quilting foot to draw in the design.  

It was time consuming, and I broke a few needles doing it, but I sure enjoyed it!

and here's both of my cool new pillows, sitting in my favorite green chair.

Linking up to

A functional project!

Now, let me warn you.  If you don't have small kids, you may not care for this.  

But I was trying to fix a problem at my house.

You see, whoever installed the towel bars put them really high.  Like eyebrow level.

And in my kids' bathroom, this is a problem.  The girls were pulling on the towel to reach it, 

and inevitably it wound up on the floor.  And they were too short to put it back.

I don't like towels on the floor, so I came up with this solution:

Towels that CANNOT fall off their bars...

Take a piece of fabric and cut a piece 9" wide, selvedge to selvedge.

In this picture, mine is folded in half.

Fold it up in half, remove the selvedges.  And cut off the corners so you have this shape.

So you will have 2 identical pieces, approximately football shaped.

Place them right sides together and sew around the edge, leaving a 3" opening for turning.

Clip the rounded edges.  Turn right side out.

Press.

Topstitch around the edges, being sure to catch the opening and sew it closed.

Lay your football on your towel.  Now, since I wanted the kids to be able to reach the towel, I put the middle of the football about 2/3 of the way down the towel.  And my towel is folded in half lengthwise in this picture.

Pin it in place.

And sew a rectangle in the middle, going through both layers of towel.

Tie the ends around the towel bar, and Poof! Presto!

no more towels on the floor!

I know it's not terribly attractive, but it works.

Stuff I've been working on....

Seems like it's been a lot of little projects around here.

First, I made this sign for my studio.  

It made me feel rather official.  And it's in the new banner.

what do you think of the new banner?  

I decided it was time for a change.

Also, some bee blocks!

i love my online bees because they give me a chance to do things that I wouldn't usually choose for myself.

This was a very fun project.  It's for Meredith for Sew Bee It, and I can't wait to see the finished quilt!

These houses were for Megan for Bee Improvisational, and they were quite fun.

These were for Deb for Bee Improvisational, and they were a great challenge to me, because I shy away from traditional blocks.  But I liked making them and I liked how they turned out.  

{the picture is rather awful though... sorry!}

These were so addictive!  I really got carried away..... I enjoyed these so much.  

They are for Jen for Bee Improvisational as well. 

 Here is the tutorial on how to make these kind of blocks.  They were so fun!

all 4 together

my favorite one

my nearly favorite one....