My brother's Christmas gift.

For Christmas, my family and I decided to make each other's gifts this year. I was very excited, because I love making things. Even more so, I enjoy receiving handmade gifts.

Every Christmas my brother is the most difficult person to buy for. However, since we were making gifts, this Christmas I knew exactly what I wanted to make him - A papercut!

For the background paper I used Amazing Grace music sheet paper. First, I glued the music sheet to a square piece of scrap wood and then painted a coat of white paint on top of it. Once the coat was dry, I antiqued it with an antiquing medium. After I applied the medium, I glued the papercut to the music sheet paper. Lastly, I applied hot wax to the top of the papercut. Here's a pic of the papercut with wax...

You can see some of the brush strokes from the wax. I don't have a heating gun, which would have helped blend the wax a little bit better. Here's a close up...

On the back of the art work, I wrote the bible verses Psalm 107:28-30. The experienced sea captain reminiscing of a moment of turmoil in his life, reminded me of this verse, because it describes the help received by the Lord in the many storms of life.

I really enjoyed making it for my brother, and I can't wait to show you what my brother made me!

Cheers,

Jamie

Hello and Happy New Year!

Happy 10 or is it 0-10? How am I supposed to say it? Crazy to think that 10 years ago I was kid-less and slightly worried that the world was going to malfunction because of the whole Y2K thing. Now it's all about the Mayan calendar and 2012. Are there any tutorials on underground bomb shelters out there???

My husband and I started a new tradition a few years ago. Each New Year's Eve, we spend the night in a hotel near a beach. We talk about the past year's pros and cons, and then we discuss future goals and ambitions. I like it.

This year we stayed in La Jolla. Very pleasant, refreshing, and rejuvenating. That is until our hotel neighbors, college kids, came back from a long night of partying and decided to keep on partying. We could here everything. EVERYTHING! At one point they were trying to decide which one of them could afford a DUI on their driving record. "I already have a DUI. How would you feel about one? Do you think you can afford one?" Finally, one of them came to the brilliant idea of calling a cab to take them to a Denny's restaurant. Phew! So off they went, however they soon returned and one young man, feeling home sick, decided to call his relatives in India. Apparently the phone connection wasn't very clear so HE HAD TO YELL! Just as I was about to pound on the wall, my calm husband picked up the phone, called their room and politely asked them to be quiet. It sort of worked. He did speak a little softer, but the walls were just too thin. After the young man hung up the phone he and his lady friend then ended ringing in the new year with a bada bing bada boom. *sigh* At about 5:30 am all was quiet and we got a few hours of sleep.

I love the colors of the green algae mixed with red seaweed on the rocks.

A painter's bliss.

16 years ago, right where that couple is walking, my husband proposed to me. My bliss.

Happy New Year!

Jamie

Merry and Rudolf

This is little Merry and her friend Rudolf. At the North pole, Merry doesn't have many friends of the human sort. Yes, there are the elves, but they're always busy working. When they do find time to play with Merry, they always want to play hide and seek. Which is totally unfair, because they have really good hearing and can always hear where she's hiding.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

and

Happy Festivus to the rest of us!

Jamie

New fabric and end of year fabric sale!

Finally my shipment of Micheal Miller fabric is up in the shop. Above are a few fabrics from Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet fabric line. I've already cut into the Paper Snowflake fabric for a Christmas gift I made. Click here to preview the rest of the Meadowsweet fabrics in stock.

More Micheal Miller fabric ...

Birds, huevos, and a damask print... they all work so well together! Here's the link.

And a sweet corduroy floral print fabric called Mod Blooms (link).


Lastly, Phat Fabric is having an end of the year fabric sale. The sale includes Tanya Whelan fabrics at 30% off, all Alexander Henry fabric 15% off, sewing patterns, and more. Also, more fabrics have been added to the 40% off clearance section. Here is the link.

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season thus far. I believe I'm all caught up with my handmade gifts and managed to make a Christmas peg doll (I'll show you soon). However, I have this funny feeling that I've forgotten someone. I keep going over my list and it all looks good, but I just can't shake that... feeling... intuition, or is it premonition? Yes, it's premonition and I should listen to it and make a couple of extra gender neutral gifts. Maybe I'll just buy them. That's what I'll do! Buy a couple of what nots and all will be good. Thanks for letting me work that out.

Blessings,

Jamie

A twiggy star tute

I had some bundled twigs/sticks lying around from my fall decorations, so I decided to try to turn them into a Christmas star type of decoration. To my surprise it worked!

Below is a tutorial for how to make the twiggy star.

Materials

• Bundled twigs/sticks. I purchased mine at Michaels. I believe they are available at Joanns too. You could bundle twigs yourself; however, I imagine this would be quite time consuming. Though, on the other hand, you may be an amazing twig bundler and in this case my imagining would be wrong.
• Berry garland - also at Michaels, or any craft store.
• Floral wire that looks like brown rope. (What is the correct title of that stuff anyways???)
• Wire cutters
• Bird - My mom gave me that sweet little woodland bird. However, any bird will work.

Instructions
I recommend uncoiling the bundled twigs and let them relax for a couple of hours before you begin. I didn't let mine relax and I felt as though I was wrestling with an anaconda. It just wanted to coil up on me, thus making this crafting experience quite intense. Anyways, you get the point.

Also, the instruction pics were taken after the star was made. I think we all know why... anaconda and all. So, just ignore the berries that are already woven into the star, because that's what you will do last.

1. Form a triangle. Notice the direction of the arrows and where to begin. Be sure to leave enough twig tail for the bottom right portion of the star.

2. With the rope wire, tie the first intersection together .



3. Tie the second intersection together. Make sure your twigs have formed the right side of the star.
4. Bring the twigs across the top and tie the next two intersections together just as you did the first two. The left side of the star should now be formed.

5. Angle the twigs diagonally down towards the bottom and tie together. Bottom left side of star should now be formed.

6. Now take the twig tail and curve it up to form the bottom right side of the star. Tie it off.
7. Cut off any excess twigs.

8. Cut off berries from the garland and weave them into the star.

9. Nestle your sweet little bird into the star.

Lastly, find that perfect place for it in your home.


Enjoy!

Jamie

New Little Folks fabric and more...

It's like butter! The new voile fabric by Anna Maria Horner is lovely indeed. To be quite honest, I'm not that familiar with voile fabric. However judging by the drape of the fabric, it is going to be wonderful to sew with. I already have a project in mind for the fabric. You can click here to view the fabrics. There are a couple of voile solids too!

Another new addition to the Phat Fabric family is Paintbrush Studio.

Above is a 36 pc fat quarter bundle. All of the fabrics are 1920's - 1930's reproduction prints on 100% cotton fabric. The prints were reproduced from an antique quilt. Click here to view the Paintbrush Studio fabrics.

Lastly, there are two new Mingle fabrics in stock by Monaluna.

Tangerine

and Aqua.
A taste of Spring colors to keep us warm and motivated =)

That concludes today's fabric update. I should have another fabric update any day now for Sandi Henderson's new line. So stay tuned!

Cheers,

Jamie

Songbird apron

One Christmas gift down, many more to go.

pattern - Pretty Ditty apron pattern
fabric - Echino Songbird in blue and Echino Dot Dot Dot in raspberry

Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's off to sew I go...

Jamie