Catching up on things I've made.......

The time has sped by so fast since February it seems, and I wanted to do separate posts on each of the things I've made since then, but today I think I'll just combine a few things I've made in the last few months. I've been so busy in our yard and garden and attending a wedding 4 hours away, and making gifts, that I've kind of fallen behind in my tutorials and crafty blog posts!

I love sharing what I've made, so here goes:

1.  My attempts at Zentangle:
I copied pictures from a coloring book my sister had when I went to the coast in March (Florence, Oregon) and had so much fun! I ran across an art supply store that had Gelly Roll pens by Sakura and I bought a bunch of the metalic colors and they are so smooth and go on thick and creamy. Look at the 3rd photo down to see how well they cover.

My attempt at an alpaca - I think there was one in the coloring book, and I added the different zentangles from various other pages in the book.

This was a freehand square, and I used the different zentangle designs in the coloring book. It's alot of fun doodling, but zentangle really does have specific named designs for each type of doodle. I should have written down the name of the coloring book but I didn't.

Colored in using the Gelly Roll metalic (Sakura) pens. So pretty! I could sit and do this for hours.

Trying out the white Gelly Roll pen on black paper. Such fun.

2.  Quilted pillows for my nephew's wedding gift:
I am so rusty on my quilting! Papercrafting has taken over I'm afraid. It took me forever to make these... some ripping out, some cutting over again, some cutting the wrong size (how can I measure to cut a 15x20 rectangle and end up with an 11x 20 rectangle?), some scrounging for different fabric since I cut a piece the wrong size, and spending 2 hours looking for my "walking foot", and then not needing it! But in the end, they turned out pretty nice.

I tried an "easy method" that I saw on YouTube, where you make two 4 patches for each pillow, and the center 4 patch is smaller, and then you just iron it on with steam a seam, and zig zag around the edges. There is really hardly any piecing. But even though it's supposed to be "easy", it really still took alot of time.

I made these to match a gorgeous king sized quilt that my sister made for my nephew and his bride. They were married on May 15th. She sent me the fabric scraps so I could make matching pillows. Here is the quilt still on her quilting frame:

I loved these fabrics and she did such a gorgeous job on the quilting design. They are so rich and warm and yummy. I thought the square 4 patches would kind of match the theme of her quilt, and as an afterthought, added in the cream colored sashing (strips) around the center 4 patch in my pillows (see below).

Above is my attempt at "stippling" which is a random meandering line of stitching.. but it scares me to do this because it's so "final"!!!! and I couldn't find my quilting foot (but finally did) and I couldn't see the stitches very well because the thread matched too well!

I used a plain zig zag stitch around the edges of each 4 patch (above).

Here is the back of the pillow (above). I had cut the original linen beige backing the wrong size... so had to dig through my fabrics to see what else I had to match! I live 25 miles from the nearest fabric store and it was a day before I was supposed to get these done, so opted to try to use what I already had! I found this kind of westerny fabric, and surprisingly, it matched really well. (So long vest that I had planned to make! but have had this fabric for probably 20 years so I doubt the vest was ever going to get done). I had to piece one of the pillow backs, but it's hardly noticeable. I overlapped the pieces in the back so that the cover can be taken off and washed (and of course I had to prewash and iron all the fabrics!)

I was pretty happy how these turned out and the bride and groom loved them!

Well, I think that's about all I'll show today. More to come!
Stay cool!