Crafty Inspiration

People ask me where I find my inspiration from. The simple answer is everywhere.
I grew up with the most creative Grandmother and Mother anywhere. Their church also taught them how to make just about anything. Much of the time, I am re-creating things from my childhood. Other times I am making something I came up in my day to day life. All the time, I am making things I’ve thought about and worked out in my mind ahead of time, years, weeks or days before I ever start anything.
The rest of the time, I make things from the amazing tutorials out there. There is a great community of extremely talented people that share their knowledge with the rest of us. I love that about the internet. I can look anything up and find it or something close to it. It has all been done before. I don’t pretend to be inventor extraordinaire of everything.
I have to confess my obsession with sewing. I love it. I consider myself a collector of Hobbies with sewing right at the top;) I know all of you don’t love sewing, but I adore it. I dream in fabric.
I thought I would share some fabulous blogs that have inspired me this month, to recreate something from their tutorial.
This is a wonderfully talented lady Kim of Bitty Bits and Pieces. I actually found her Charm Pack Quilt Tutorial sometime earlier this year. I thought it was just adorable. Then her blog popped up on my horizon again when she was on Moda Bakeshop. I love Moda Bakeshop. I bookmarked her Charm Pack Quilt Tutorial to come back to when I had some time. She also has an adorable Pumpkin Tissue Holder Tutorial that I have on my to-do list. I also found out that aside from having an awesome blog, Kim is a very nice person! Yay nice!
I finally got around to making something with her Charm Pack tutorial. I did not buy designer fabric. But after cutting all my Joanne’s fabric into squares, I decided that next time I will indeed buy designer fabric already cut into beautiful squares. I am already crazy about Jelly Rolls and Honey Buns. I have never purchased Charm Packs yet. But I will now;)
Of course I don’t always follow the tutorials exactly. I made mine into a table runner. I have already had compliments on it! (Ok it was from family, but that totally counts!) I am going to make another one just like it for the other little half wall in that room. It worked up so quickly that I’m almost done with that one too! Yay!

I LOVE IT!! Thank you so much Kim for your awesome blog and inspiration!
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I have boys and don’t have much need for skirt patterns for girls or bright flowery fabric. My girlfriend’s daughter had a birthday. I hunted down a tutorial for an adorable skirt! How fun this one was. I found this Twirly Skirt Tutorial on Shelley Detton's blog. I discovered I love Heather Bailey's fabric. How can one not love it? (And Heather is a local!)

I pinned it up and found a model;) I just had to see it on. My son is 3. He asked me if it was pants. I told him it was *like pants, but not really*. He held still for this snap and then wanted it off.

My girlfriend told me her daughter liked it! Thank you Shelley for your awesome tutorial. (I need enough of this fabric to make one for me!)
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I always put my own twist on tutorials and templates. This was actually for a paper garland. Last year, we printed out this Paper Crave Halloween Template. My son had a play date where we cut out the template and strung the images on orange yarn. I thought about the adorable Halloween images all year long. This year I stitched it up into a felt garland. Rebecca had us over one evening about two weeks ago. My BIL confessed that no-one in their right mind would take the time to make these. Of course I thought that was funny because I whipped these up fairly easily using my favorite method of sewing directly through printed paper patterns onto layered felt. And really, the person that designed these specific Halloween images is delightfully talented.

Felt is amazing and you can make anything with it. I actually gave the garland away at the Service Auction Rebecca mentioned in her post where she made this awesome etched piece. I have a *Spooky* garland I made last year. How many garlands does one need…don’t answer that. I’m pretty sure the lady that got the garland needed one more. I also am pretty sure that there is a two garland per event quota that I’m trying to fill. I just may succeed this year in filling that quota;)

So this is my confession that I actually make things from other people’s tutorials all the time. Someone has sat down and worked out the kinks for me. Seriously, I LOVE that!!
My current obsession is quilting techniques like the Cathedral Window, Orange Peel etc. I’m also thinking about using a ‘one seam flying geese method’ to make something specific. I’m still rolling these two things in particular around in my head.
Anjeanette
We are joining the following amazing parties, Blue Cricket Design