Boxed Book Set To Be Auctioned

 
This boxed book set will soon find a new home with the highest bidder! It will be up for auction this Saturday at Our Lady of the Lake in Seattle. OLL is where my mom teaches Kindergarten. The pictured set will be bundled with a set of my handmade cards as well as a little pair of miniature book earrings. The fine Seattle Stationer, Silberman / Brown, donated an elegant boxed pen that fits into the side pen compartment.

 
The box is covered with green and blue Asahi bookcloth while the inside trays are lined with the decorative Japanese paper that also accents the covers of both the box and the coptic book.

  
www.ollauction.org is the very thorough website dedicated to the auction. Last night I spent quite a bit of time drooling over the many items and packages that will be there this weekend! If you're in the Seattle area, head on over to the Yellow Section to bid on item 1091!

Oreo Button Book

 
This was my Sunday morning project. I had my jar of buttons open, along with all of my tiny supplies for making book earrings, and my fingers just went to work making this tiny coptic with button covers.

  
The pages are a thick cotton paper. After tracing the button size onto the paper I cut them out with my olfa blade, stacked them together, and then sanded the edges.

  
The covers are about 28 mm in diameter, so they're a bit bigger than a quarter.

  
I used one piece of thread and two needles for the binding. Aside from being used as the closure, the brown thread is also used to cinch the threads together where the covers meet the spine, otherwise they were sort of free-floating.

 
Now what do I do with it? Maybe I'll use it as a button sketchbook. I'll pull my favorites out of the jar and capture them in graphite!

Carnival of Love: Stationery Box

On Wednesday I joined Sarah of Orange Blossom Ink at the Carnival of Love at planIT! boutique. I got to see some great friends, like Grace Edmands, and also meet a lot of neat new people. It was a themed bridal event for local brides and grooms so they could get an idea of what area vendors have to offer. I didn't get a chance to visit with everyone, but one of my favorite vendors was Big City Catering, because they had carnival themed food stations set up all over the lovely boutique.  A popcorn station, where guests had their choice of toppings from garlic to chocolate powder, a hot dog station, again with a wide array of toppings, and my favorite, the snow cone station! I lingered for a while with the snow cones because I had a great time talking to the Big City Intern who was manning the station. She is actually preparing for her own wedding!

The box in these photos was my contribution for a joint take-home prize! Lisa and Sarah designed and printed some cute cards that matched the decorative paper on the box. I didn't stay for the whole evening so I'm not sure who ended up with it,  but I might request some of the cards myself,  because they were so cute!

 
Here is a list of all of the great vendors who were present:
Lori Barbely Photography, Big City Catering, planIT! boutique, Peddles Florist,  Kismet’s Arrow, Funfactory Entertainment, Orange Blossom Ink, Harpist Christine MacPhail, Grace Edmands Calligraphy, Cut the Cake, and Anavi Ink

Sixth and Final Handmade Winner: Yarn Box

 
Here is my final giveaway project! I made this yarn box for a friend I met at North Bennet Street. We were there for the same two years, she was down the hall from me studying Piano Technology while I was in the Bookbinding department.

  
From time to time I noticed Emily working on lovely knitting projects and discovered that she is an avid knitter. I found a little bit of inspiration while browsing Etsy one day and immediately thought of making something for my knitting piano tech friend! I found a shop called Darrielles Clay Art filled with beautiful stoneware pottery. Something that caught my eye was this yarn holder. It intrigued me and I ended up searching the web and finding other yarn holders here and there.

  
I thought it would be fun to transform this idea into my own craft. So I wrote to Emily to find out about what size a yarn ball would be at it's largest and got to work.

  
The ball of yarn fits into the box with the end of the yarn threaded through the opening slot. The lid fits snugly into the top of the box if you want the yarn to stay put, or it can pop off if you'd like to take the yarn out!

By the way, if you live in Texas and are looking for an excellent piano technician, Townsend Piano Service is the place to go!

Fifth Handmade Winner: Trinket Box

This little trinket box was made for my friend Hannah, who was the 5th winner of my handmade giveaway. She loves pink, so when I saw this bookcloth at Sam Flax a couple months ago, I bought it knowing I'd use it to make something for her!

 
I decided on a little box because we've always shared a love for little containers, and I was reminded of that when she visited last year and purchased some little dishes to use for her jewelry. I thought I could make something that would be a nice addition to her current collection.

 
These book earrings weren't included, but they give a good idea of how big the box is.

It took me nearly a year, but all of my winners have received their goodies! I'll share the final winner later this week!

Secret Quilting Part Three

 
Now here we have fitting scenery for a quilt! I took photos of this quilt the day after Christmas at my in-laws' house. I finished the binding during our car ride up there, so that's why this one didn't get the volleyball court and pool glamor shots!

  
This quilt had a pretty different look from the other two since I used a darker background fabric. The alternating border strips stood out quite a bit more than the others, since the flowers were such contrasting fabrics.

  
I was so pleased with the binding fabric I found at Quilter's Cove. My favorite part about this blue was how it was a bit more bold and framed the quilt so nicely.

  
Above is a close up of my stitching in the ditch. This is something I first learned a couple years ago from my Aunt Joyce. When I started the quilts I put my aunt in the position of secret keeper! She's an amazing quilter and I thought it would be helpful to have such a guru in the know, in case I needed help! It was especially fun, because I got a sneak peek of the lovely quilted table toppers she made for her sisters (my mom included) for the holiday!

 
 How great is that porch? It wraps around almost three sides of the house!

Secret Quilting Part Two

Here is the quilt that I made for my brother and soon to be sister-in-law! I wanted it to have color in it, but be neutral enough that it could find a place in any room of their new house.

The example quilt used bold colors in floral prints, which is part of what attracted me to it. Even though I love that type of color combination, I settled on a fairly monochromatic scheme for each of mine.

Each of the quilts has a paisley theme. On the quilt I posted yesterday, every other rosy square was a paisley print and the tan backing fabric was also a faint paisley. On this quilt the centers and cornerstones of each square are a bold and more modern paisley, while the backing fabric has a faint traditional print in green. Paisley, paisley, paisley! That gets a little bit tricky when you say it three times fast!

While I was taking these photos, one of our apartment complex maintenance workers let me know that I'm not allowed to dry blankets on the volleyball court. Good to know!

Secret Quilting

On this too gray and rainy day in Florida, I thought it would be good to look back at these photos I took in December, yes sunny December!

Back in September, as I was thinking about what I might like to make for our families for Christmas, I thought of the sewing machine that my husband gave me for our first Christmas. I had been using it here and there throughout the year for small projects, but I thought it deserved a good work out!

My mom has shown me the ropes on her sewing machine, and I also took a sewing class in middle school home economics. (A project I remember was making a pair of long elastic waisted shorts out of a blue plaid flannel material) As far as quilting? When I was in 5th grade or so, I took a quilting course, where I learned some basic quilting skills. I am a saver, so I still have some of the worksheets from the classes. Armed with all of that and thoughts of snuggling in a winter wonderland I went on a Jo-Anns date with Lisa! We found a quilting book full of lovely photos (Material Obsession: Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots), I chose a pattern from it, and we got busy picking materials for the fronts of three quilts! I wanted to make one for both of our parents and for my brother and his soon to be wife. We magically chose a day when the quilting department was boasting a 40% off sale!

The quilt in these pictures is the one I made for my parents. The pattern is called "Smuggling Letters" and it's by Kathy Doughty. It's a pretty big one! The book calls it a large twin and it completely covered our full bed. When it came time for the batting, backing, and binding fabrics I went to Quilter's Cove here in Orlando, again with Lisa! The ladies who work there are so sweet and helpful. I'm looking forward to my next trip to the Cove.

The binding fabric ended up being one of my favorites. Possibly because I saw the least of it! I shouldn't say that, because I never got tired of any of it! I loved my nights of quilting during those last months of the year. Although it was hard to talk to my mom on the phone without letting the cat out of the bag!  I'll share the other two quilts with you soon, and then I can share the quilt I'm working on right now. I've been using scraps from my Christmas projects with a few bits and pieces that I've saved throughout the years.