Over At Riley Blake Designs Today: Tutorial

Hey y'all! Betcha you're wondering where we've disappeared to, huh?

Julie's working madly on a GORGEOUS quilt pattern... more on that from her... and I've been neck deep in home repair. Huh? Yeah. Home repair. Like, hardcore home repair. Like, giant hole in the outside of the house, yanking out all the plumbing home repair. And we're nutty enough to DIY. Pictures to come... part of that home repair evidently involved my computer, and none of my files have been moved yet and I haven't figured out this Mac thing.

Anyway!

I'm over at Cutting Corners College again today with a pincushion tutorial.. the cutest little blowfish pincushion using Lila Tueller's newest line, Bohemian Festival!

Full tutorial is here.

WIP Wednesday: the one where I'm WAY behind!

I spent my whole weekend doing this:

instead of touching ANYTHING I needed to do. You guys, I have a ruffled bedcover that has to be done, like.. SATURDAY. As in, three days from now, and we have plans for Thursday evening. ACK!!!!!!

All I've done on the ruffled bedcover is cut the strips and sew a few together. I think the rule of 2 is going to come into play... but I've given up soda, so I'm going to need a 2 liter of water, I guess.

Ah, but they are pretty Warden's Cross blocks, right?! I'm feeling some white sashing, perhaps with some pinwheel stars in the cornerstone area? Then a white border. And maybe a scrappy border. And maybe another white border.

Linking up to Lee. Maybe someone will volunteer to come do my ruffled bedcover for me?

A Flippin' Brilliant Idea

So, you've heard of Chalk Cloth, no? I did a pillow for my sister's room not too long ago... the stuff is pretty rad.

Well, Fabric Donkey has taken the idea from rad to FLIPPIN' BRILLIANT.
For serious. She's got a kid about the same age as Kid and Bug, and knows that 3 year olds generally have the same attention span as a gnat, so she came up with this awesome activity booklet using chalk cloth and created a pattern... with TWO sizes!
I did the petite size for Kid, so it's easy to stick in my purse, but I think I'm going to make two of the full sized ones for my cousin's kids for Christmas. They're really great - I bet the big size would be fabulous for car trips. We use the petite size in restaurants and short car trips!

Here's the one I did, inside, backside, and front side...

I couldn't find a cool chalk pen like she has in the pattern - my Joann's was all out - so I just kept the pocket seams wide to accommodate regular chalk. Buy the pattern and you'll see what on earth I'm yapping about :)

(fabric is Chalk Cloth, Kona Lime, Get Together (pigs, squirrels, and bears) and some old jeans. Buttons are antler from the husband's stash.


and pattern is available here for only $5! These would be fabulous gifts, or just something to keep your own kid busy!