lil' gifties for some "niecies"

We had the privilege of being invited to Las Vegas for our nephew's graduation from high school. My sister is throwing a bash & hosting quite a few of us. Can't go empty handed, so I made a couple of little 12" throw pillows for the girls.


I started with a fantastic design from Reen, and built the pillows from there.

The base of the petals is satin from a dress the girls' mother wore years ago.

The beads used in the centers of the flowers were left-overs from our sister Beth.

I made the piping using another hand-me-down satin and utilizing this tute for creating bias tape. 

Couldn't decide which of the plaids to use for the pillow back. 

Ultimately chose the one with "sparkle" in it.

I made envelope closure for the backs of my pillows. (If you need a tute, here's a basic one from eHow.)

Did not realize 12" pillow forms were a rarity these days (Found some at JoAnn's for $9 each & refused to pay that for fluff!)  Soooooo -- ended up going to Anna's Linens and bought a standard pillow (for less than $5!) & cut it in half. I'm so cheap red-neck stingy thrifty!

A "Little" Project

Can you tell the boys weren't online schooling today? Three posts in one day! (Pretty sure that equals the total posts of a couple months...)

Sooooooooo...  Wanted to show my Christmas project for my dear friend Ceekay @ Thinkin' of Home & her ovarian cancer blog My Journey With Teal.

It started with this:

(Yes, I covered the shoe with vintage teal velvet, made it into a pincushion & made the hat pin.

The sequined flower is from some vintage sheer fabric which I also used for the ruffle on the tag & scavenged the beads for various aspects of the project.)

In November I embroidered the tag for Eileen's Blog for a Designs in Machine Embroidery give-away.

Tree of Life with antique beads

(...it says "To Carolyn With Love"...)

While rummaging browsing through the Graphics Fairy's incredible images, I found so many with teal tones to use on the "shoe box".

the lid

(more of the sheer teal...)

All the shoes, of course, are symbolic of her journey. 

The dress forms hark back several years to a church dinner theatre production of "Four Tickets to Christmas" when I helped costume her for the starring role of a 1905 diva!

 She's an incredible woman & a great friend.

Well then, I guess I'm going to link this up to Karen ~ the incredible Graphics Fairy...

♪♫ Happy birthday ♥ ANNA ♥ ♫♪

My niece's favorite color is orange. The only "orange-y" fabrics I have in my stash would be felt and an old t-shirt I'm saving for a boy's quilt.
But, I had acquired from my mom a bit of vintage fabric:

Somewhere, I believe, there is a mid-'60's snapshot of my sisters & me in matching short/top outfits from this fabric made by our grandma. She must have gotten quite a bit of it, because I remember cushion covers & quilt squares from it.

I found pink "fur" to make a phone pouch & beaded a yellow/orange handle,

embroidered her name,

and even "singed" up a flower to match...