Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, I've already broken a NY resolution... 

but I've been busy making things while I've been off-line. 

headbands, bags, quilts to name a few things.

Meanwhile, we are surrounded by babies on our street! 

Just this year, two new arrivals one boy and one girl.  

Both super cute and healthy.

To celebrate we are making some quilts.  

 We'll have a few tutorials and show the finished projects soon.

 

For Joey... a sweet baby, new this week!    He was born Monday.  I attended my monthly quilt guild meeting and we had a guest speaker, Kathy Loomis.  She has some AMAZING art quilts.  I came home inspired and when I found out Joey was born that evening I just had to get started on a quilt with Kathy's quilts as inspiration.  Here's the fabric we selected for the back...

 With the fabrics for the top.

 I cut a strips in various widths and sewed them together randomly.

 I am still tring to decide exactly how I want this to look.  But this is as far as I got Monday night.

 Also, Allie created an adorable giraffe... from start to nearly finished!  

Here's the initial muslin she sewed together using her pattern.  This looks a little more like a horse.  That's why you should always sew a muslin first, I explained to her!

 

I helped her expand her pattern to lengthen the neck using the same principles of lengthening any clothing pattern.  I am recreating it in this photo as I didn't stop to snap the photos while she was working.

And voila, a super cute, one-of-a kind giraffe stuffed animal.  She embellished this cutie with some vintage buttons for the spots and the eyes.  I think she was inspired by Robbie Porter, a fellow guild member and participant in Arts Alive a few weeks ago.  The giraffe isn't quite finished... but it's close.

 I love fabric flowers... I search on-line for ideas all of the time... love them.  I have tried my hand a few recently... here's a few of my attempts.

Muslin

ribbon and button

cut off from upcycled shirt 

home dec fabrics

 I just received a box of vintage buttons in the mail today.  Perfect for a gray, rainy day.  I have some sorting to do to put into the jars... Can wait to get started!

 

Enjoy!

copyright salmonalley 2011

Arts Alive

I just finished the most amazing week at my daughter's school.  Every two years they have a celebration of the arts.  (The alternate year is all about science.)  As I am an art consultant by day, I felt I could take on the challenge of finding artists for the week.

For some it is their first real introduction to art.

 Beautiful dancing by the Cincinnati Ballet... really beautiful!

Allie and the dancers... she had her pointe shoes with her and they gave her a signed pair! 

I hired dancers, musicians and singers as well as fine artists.  Everyday during the lunch, we had entertainment on the stage and artists in the lobby demonstrating their art. 

In addition, early in January, the art teachers had the students complete the Chuck Close project I envisioned.  The principal was a good sport to agree to be the subject of the painting.  A talented photographer on staff took the photo which I had enlarged to accommodate the 800 squares.  

We wanted the painted to be large enough for the Close impression.  I had calculated that 25 columns and 32 rows would maintain a nice proportion to the photo and allow for 800 individual squares.

Next how to make it happen:

After consulting with a co-worker, I decided to make this painting more like a quilt. 

- cut muslin into 4 1/2" squares and gesso-ed the center 3 1/2"

- enlarge photo to the full size and cut it into 3 12" squares

- label each square with a letter and number (row and column) to be able to reassemble

The teachers helped the kids paint their respective squares.  

Once I received all of the painted squares, 

I assembled the quilt one row at a time, 

similar to the way I taught my daughter to quilt.

The finished result is better than I had anticipated.  

The painting resembles the principle 

and is very impressive as a school project at nearly 10' tall. 

Enjoy!

salmonalley 2011

New Year's

It's a new year.  Time for reflections and resolutions.

2010 was great... I managed to publish posts several more times than 2009!  I finished quite a number of projects and participated in a craft show.  2011 will be even better.  

For starters, I've completely renovated my craft room.  New tables and storage -  I am ready to create lots of quilts, bags and other items.  I'll have photos later... I need to change the lighting first.

And, I finished a couple of lampshades for Christmas gifts.  They are really cute.  One in shades of purple fabrics for a little girl who loves purple and the other in the same fabrics as my shade.

Reflections of previous work...

A custom pillow for a friend who moved away.   A little trapunto on the bird and the nest & some applique on a beautiful russet linen fabric.

 And a pillow with a script T with vintage buttons for a friend's birthday. 

 

My goals for 2011...

Stay organized

Create something everyday - large or small

Finish uncompleted projects

Participate in craft show again

and share my creations more often on my blog.

I wish you a wonderful and Happy New Year.

© salmonalley  2011

First Craft Show - Success!

I have completed my first craft show!  It was an awesome experience.  I can say I have truly learned a lot about my products and what people will buy.    

What I sold: unique, one-of-a-kind, handcrafted totes and zipper pouches... and fleece Elf Hats.  Wearing the elf hat all day really made people smile and helped me begin to feel a little holiday spirit.  

Here we are at the very beginning... still setting up and getting things perfect.  Pictured with me are the namesakes for the blog, my kids Sam and Allie.  They were huge sports to get up so early to help out.  I very much appreciate all they did (set up, pricing, labeling, arranging, putting up with me!) - I am so lucky.

 Thank you to all of my family and friends for their support today.  It was awesome to have all of my sisters helping out... too bad I didn't think to get a photo. Next year?!

The biggest hit turned out to be my Lampshade sign - which was meant to be a banner.   But it was too tall, no where to hang it in the booth.   I cut it and pieced it horizontally and it fit perfectly on the lampshade... very cool!  This is a photo in the booth and another at home.  

I'm taking orders!   Great addition to a kids room, family room etc. 

The big bag!   It's a beautiful bag, sold!  I know it's going to a good home with someone who will love it. And I am designing a cosmetic bag to go with it! I'll put a photo of the new design on the blog soon. 

If you stopped by the booth, give me a shout, I'd love to hear from you.  If you purchased something from me, thank you! I hope it brings you joy. 

September's over!

 Here's one of my latest creations.
A large tote with some very fun fabric. 

My labels were designed by mommiemadeit (etsy).

I really love this fabric.

  

We make pizza most Friday nights (thanks to our friends Kevin and Jenny).  We make a full batch of dough and have more than enough for pizza and other treats.  We've made stromboli, pepperoni rolls, bread sticks, cheesy bread sticks and garlic knots.  I decided it was time to add Monkey Bread to the Friday Night/Saturday Morning Routine.

  I took about 12 ozs of dough (enough for a small pizza) cut it into to small bits and rolled into 4" long rolls.  After letting them rest for a few minutes, (they get back some of their elasticity) I tied them into knots and set them aside while I prepared the sauce.

Recipe for Sauce:

3/4 c brown sugar

1/2 stick butter

pinch salt

Cook over low heat until brown sugar has dissolved into the butter, 
stirring occasionally.  

Pour into a well greased baking dish. I used a 2.5 liter corningware dish.

Mix 1/2 c granulated sugar  & 1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon  (to taste)

dip knots in the cinnamon sugar and put on top of sauce.  
The knots will expand while baking.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  

I will make these again soon and test my own recipe!!   They really were delicious! 

If you are ever in Chapel Hill you must go to Sugarland.  

www.sugarlandchapelhill.com

The gelato is out-of-this-world good.  

The cupcakes looked divine but I went for the gelato 

after having seen their show on Food Network

I didn't try their signature gelato martinis (it was morning) 

but went straight for a chocolate & coconut combo.  

Sigh.  I wish we lived closer.

 So many tempting flavors.  They were patient with me and the kids as we decided and they offer samples.

 My dish was clear... that's all chocolate on the bottom. 

I added a new app to my phone, a very fun Retro Camera 

(thanks to Kristen) and took a few cool shots.  

Last week, this train was in front of the office.   

The plant was growing in the garden beside the roses... about to drop all of its seeds. I thought it was very pretty though I don't recall seeing it in bloom.  The leaves remind me of a sunflower but the seed pod looks more like a poppy.  

I may have a bunch of them next year, if anyone is interested.

 And Molly, the long awaited pillow is complete.
Now the hardest part, getting it mailed.  

This was a fun project that I started in earnest - way back in April.  

I think it will look right at home on her couch.

The weather has turned chilly and I have more time to work on my projects without feeling guilty for missing all of the perfect weather of the last few weeks of September.  

I look forward to a productive October.

Enjoy.

Something different

I've been distracted by other blogs lately and inspired...

so I'm going to try something different for a time. I'm going to share some of my favorite recipes, garden shots and other events going on in my live since I don't have a lot of time to sew or craft these days.

I hope you enjoy the new change to the blog.


I've stumbled on a recipe for Belgium Waffles. The recipe seemed fairly simple (it is!) and all you need is patience to let the yeast rise. My kids prefer these waffles to the Local Belgium Waffles which are fantastic! So give them a try... they are so tasty! and they reheat well in the toaster.


http://whippedtheblog.com/2010/03/15/liege-sugar-waffles-perfected/

I actually made this plateful... yummy!

This year, the garden got a little BIG. The Crepe Myrtle isn't supposed to thrive way up here in Zone 6 yet mine is 10 feet and growing. The Russian Sage and other perennials are crowded in their plots... looks like dividing time this fall or next spring.

Poor Trudy, she works so hard protecting our house & family... nice to see her relax every once in awhile. (Technically, she's not allowed on the furniture but the kids keep telling me she sleeps in the chair when I'm not home and I finally caught her in the act.)

Now that school's back in session for the kids, I hope to find a bit more time to put down my thoughts and hopefully get crafting again.

Crafty Chica Challenge: Garden Glam

Sweet plant marker... soon to be a complete set. I recently planted herbs in the kitchen garden and wanted a way to tag them... without keeping the plastic tags. (Very important when sending kids or husbands to garden for thyme and they bring back sage.)

I used some burlap from a recent purchase of garlic. Folded it into rectangle, slip stitched it closed and free hand embroidered a design and THYME. I plan to make others with simple designs of leaves or flowers for each plant in the kitchen garden. For the moment, I used a wire coat hanger for the hook and stand. I will work on improving this... maybe bamboo stakes.

I'll post the others when I've finished them. In the meantime, I've entered in the Crafty Chica Challenge: Garden Glam contest... at the last possible minute!

Enjoy!

copyright salmonalley 2010