New Door Hanging Pillows

Although getting to stitch is pretty much what gets me out of my bed everyday, I do try to keep up with finishing my pieces into useable items.  The finishing is not my favorite part of the process but if we don't finish what we make into something useful, it doesn't do us or anyone else any good! 

I usually wait until I have 3 or 4 projects all ready to sew together and then I take a day and do them all at once. Here are 2 of my latest crazy patchwork quilt door hanging pillows:

I love both of these but that pink and yellow one is so bright and cheerful!  Just looking at it boosts my mood!

ORTS And Birds Nests

I spent my day yesterday finishing up on my latest projects.  Here is my Bunny Pillow all finished:

I'm so pleased with this!  The little basket was a pin that I had in my stash.  I don't know where I got it.  Maybe at a flea market in a bag of bits and pieces!

My other projects are all sewed up too.  I stuffed them last night after dinner and just have to sew the little butts shut on them.  I'll have photos of those soon!

In the meantime, my ORTS jar was full!  If you're not familiar with ORTS, it stands for "Old Raggedy Threads".  Basically, I toss my short pieces of thread into a jar rather than just throwing them away. 

I actually save all sorts of my cutoffs in my ORTS jar.  Bits of satin ribbon, silk ribbon, tiny pieces of lace and some of the scraps of sheer and fancy fabrics that are too small to do anything else with.

So what do I do with these little scraps? 

Well, this time of year, I put them out for the Robin's to use in their nests!  Using my cutting board and my rotary cutter, I chop them up into teeny, tiny pieces:

I do mean teeny, tiny!  I don't want the birds feet to get all tangled up in threads and fabrics that are too long.  I try to cut them so that everything is 1 inch or less.  It's a lot of chopping! 

I put everything back in the jar when I'm done:

And then I sprinkle it around the lawn in my backyard and I wait for the Robin's to come and take it for their nests!

In previous years, I've seen the Robin's take my little scraps.  Imagine baby birds, all soft and warm in their nests made with these tiny throw away pieces of fabrics and threads!

I think I'll use my next jarful to make some fabric sheets for my crazy quilts.

Helpful Hint:  to clean your cutting board, use a lint roller or some making tape.  That'll take those "left behind" pieces right off!

Pink and Yellow Embroidery

I didn't have much on my "to do" list for yesterday.  Yes, I have a list a mile long but other than updating a few things on my computer, I pretty much took it easy and stitched most of the day.  Here is my latest crazy quilt piece:

Pink and yellow embroidery is so cheerful, isn't it?  Very happy looking!

This piece started with the embroidered motif from a vintage hankie.  Then I had an "s" shaped beaded applique that I took off of a flea market wedding dress I bought last Summer.  (A wedding dress loaded with beaded appliques for only $5.00!)   I cut it in half and used it to create a heart shape around the floral hankie piece.

There was a little flat area on the top right of the heart.  The perfect space for a little bird.  Using my waste canvas technique, I cross stitched one of my own little bird designs on to fill that space.  I used 8.5 count waste canvas and DMC #5 Perle Cotton. 

Yes, this will be another little hanging pillow.

In other news, Betty Pillsbury, an absolutely incredible crazy quilter and herbalist, has put together several YouTube Videos on working with embroidery floss and how to avoid knots and kanoodles!  Please hop over to Betty's YouTube page for these "working with embroidery floss helpful hints"!

Easter Pillow

Yesterday was not as warm as it has been.  But that's okay.  I sat on my deck for a little while but the wind was quite chilly so I focused on getting my Easter Pillow finished:

A very Springy garden, isn't it?

I have 4 projects now that need finishing so I'm planning on doing some sewing either later today or tomorrow.

Whenever I finish a crazy quilt project, Scott always asks me if it reached "weight requirements".  LOL!!!  Yes, I use a lot of embellishments so my cq pieces are quite heavy!

Bunny Pillow

I did a lot yesterday despite not feeling particularly well.  I made some muffins, took my garden window apart and cleaned it, washed my kitchen valences and rehung those and walked a mile and 1/2 with my neighbor Peggy.  Then I took easy and did some stitching.  This is an update on my crazy quilt bunny pillow:

I'll probably finish this up today.

A final note on sharing content.  In regards to my recent discussions on Pinterest and copyright infringement, I would like to let everyone know that it's absolutely okay to share content on social networks.  But there's a right way and wrong to do it.

Sharing cool websites and articles is what the internet is all about.  Without sharing, bloggers wouldn't have readers, shop owners wouldn't have much in the way of customers, so on and so forth!  It's an important part having fun online.

The best way to share content to social networks is to use the "share" button.  Here on my blog, you can find it at the top of the page.  If you use Facebook, Twitter or Stumbleupon, just click that share button and when it's posted to the chosen social network, a link back to the source site is always included.  That's the key to legal and proper sharing of content.  Always be sure that there is a clickable link back to the source.  That was part problem with Pinterest.  With the sharing and re-sharing of photos, the link to the source was quite often lost.

Personally, I encourage legal sharing of content.  Feel free to share the links to my tutorials and blog posts!  How can anyone else find the information useful of people don't share?  Most sites have those share buttons on them.  Just use those and you're okay!

Oh, and then there's my shops.  Maybe people get tired of me constantly plugging my shops. It's my income.  It's how I make my money.  At this time in my life, it's the only way I can make money.  Again, I'm okay with anyone who wants to share links to items in my shops.  I need all the help I can get!  There is a share button in the sidebar on my Kitty & Me website and Etsy provides share buttons for Twitter and Facebook as well.  Please feel free to share using those share buttons!

The internet is a lot of fun and it's supposed to be.  But as with anything else, there has to be a few rules or guidelines.  Without those, it's a free for all and that takes the fun out of it.  Let's have fun and let's share.  Let's just do it the fair and proper way!

Here is the link for the Add This Share Button in case you would like to put it on your blog or website.