Heart Brooch and Candy Molds!

For another gift, I made this felt brooch. I plan on making a bunch of these since they are simple but so stinkin' cute.

Just felt stitched together with a pin on the back.
Cute packaging doesn't hurt, either.

I also made a bunch of candy to give to all the January birthday ladies!

Being the super genius that I am, I remembered to take pictures of everything except the finished product. So for now I'll leave you with just the teaser pic of all my chocolate molds! I'll definitely be making more within the week, so I'll make sure to get pictures of those!

Birthday Gifts!

For my Mammaw's birthday I made her a couple of things. I made the bowl this past summer at the camp where I teach. I had intended to give it to her for Christmas but ended up making her a few other things instead.

I was really pleased with how to glaze turned out. It barely ran at all during firing, which was awesome because our kilns were crazy.

The big part of her gift was this pillow. Years and years and years ago, Mammaw made a quilt. We had it when I was little, and I remember studying it because of all the stitching, the different fabric patterns, everything. You could tell it wasn't from the store, and that's why I liked it. I moved away to college and kept thinking about this quilt. I wanted to take it to the park when I would go on picnics. Eventually I ended up just taking it from my parents house because I knew it was just sitting in the closet. I love this quilt. Then a couple of summers ago, Mammaw gave me a foot stool that doubled as a sewing box. She had it in the garage for a while, and thought that maybe I'd like it. Of course I did. I opened it up, and low and behold, there were some unused pieces from the quilt! They were already pieced together, you could tell it was just a portion that had been trimmed during the final construction. There were two full squares, one that I'll use for myself, and this one which I used for hers.

I trimmed it as little as possible, and framed it out in some coordinating fabrics that I had on hand.

The fabric I used on the corners is so similar to the original print in the middle, but its not exact. I'm still amazed I had something that close on hand. For the back, I used some fabric from my Aunt Dolores that happened to be the same color scheme. Old fabric is seriously one of my favorite things.

Now I can't wait to make an almost matching one for myself!

Needle Book

This is the next project for the kids' sewing class I teach. Simple, but now they'll be in charge of their own needles and have some to take home when they need to finish up their details.
Just two pieces of felt,

 

Fold in half and blanket stitch the spine, and add velcro as a closure.

Then fill the pages with needles, pins, and a needle threader.

Simple enough!

Small Project and Some Squirrels!

I've been wanting to make a sleep mask for a little while now, mainly for when I fly. So last night I finally did it!
Super simple, just 2 layers of fabric, some batting, elastic, and bias tape.
Of course I had to put Elvis on the outside,

And the other side is the same as the sheets on my bed.

I sewed it all in one go. It ended up a little wonky in some places since I was edging it as I fed it through the machine, but I can live with it. Now I can block out the light on my next flight, which is approaching really fast!

I made it kind of loose fitting because worse than waking up to light, is waking up with a headache from too-tight elastic!

Also, this morning on my way to work these guys stopped me:

I should point out right now that I love squirrels. A lot. They're so cute I can't hardly stand it.

Especially when they're fat!

And friendly! Yeah, that's my foot.

This guy was the best. I thought for sure he (she?) was going to climb up my boots!

Bye, friend! See you tomorrow!

Handmade Tags

I made a ton of bags for Christmas, and plan to make a ton more to put on Etsy, but what I lacked before were tags. Everything you buy has a tag on it for branding. That way you remember where you bought it, who made it, etc. The only problem is professional tags are a little pricey, and I'm broke. So, I made my own.
Thank goodness for fabric paint and rubber stamps.

 I brushed a thin layer of fabric paint onto the bottom of a yogurt cup for a stamp pad.

And stamped "Milly MEGA."

I stamped it a bunch of times, in different orientations, too.

Then hand painted all the little ampersands,

Cut them all apart,

 Then ironed them onto a backing piece of fabric with some fusible web to give them more strength.

 Now I can start branding my stuff. Woo!

Coffee Cozy

I pinned print outs of snowflakes onto some scrap fabric,

 Cut them out and pinned it all in place,

 Sewed the crap out of it,

 Added buttons and hair ties,

 Embellished a little,

 And made a cute sleeve for my coffee!

 Done!

Heartfelt... get it?

This is for sure going up for sale on Etsy. I'm trying to get my act together to open a new store since I've been out of that scene for a minute, but I'd like to get a bunch of stuff ready first instead of listing one at a time.

I'll get some better picture tomorrow when there's daylight. You can't see much of the detail in these ones.

Press Conference Day

Today was finally the day to use all the flowers I've been working on for the past week! One of the press photographers who came was taking pictures of my flowers before the thing actually started, so hopefully I'll get to see those eventually. But for now here's an overload of pictures from my camera.

 

Lastly, here are individual shots of just about all of them!

What an exhausting project! But they were a hit. I got tons of compliments. I should've held a tip jar.