Spring is a time for Change!

Well my friends, the time has come!  My little business is taking off.  I am as busy as ever and love every minute of it!  This will be my last post to 'My Life as a Craftaholic'. 

While that may seem sad, and a little dramatic...it's not!  I am SO EXCITED to announce my new blog; one that actually relates to my business!  You can find me at www.allthetrend.wordpress.com.  I sincerely hope that you'll check it out. 

I am excited to post all abut the fun things I am making, and you might even find a special coupon code for my shop every once in a while! 

Thanks so much for your support.  Hopefully my new blog won't disappoint. 

This is Tami, signing off!  ;)

Simple Dish Towel Apron

I thought I'd share a few pictures of a recent quick project.I love turning something ordinary into something extraordinary! What started as a dish towel and a 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric turned into this cute and simple apron.I basically cut a triangle out of each side of the top (measuring in 4" and down 10"), then made my own double-fold binding. Honestly, you could make it even quicker and easier if you only 'bound' the arm cut-outs (since they are the only raw edges), but I liked the look of sewing the coordinating fabric around the whole perimeter. I added a quick applique with her initial, and voila!A friend of mine recently moved into a new home (new to her!) and did a full kitchen make-over. This was her little 'kitchen-warming' gift!

Argyle Hearts

One of my son's best friends is a sweet and sassy little girl named Hannah. She is full of energy and as cute as they come. AND...luckily for me, in dress, she is ALL GIRL! I say lucky for me, because her birthday gives me an excuse each year to put together something super girly. (With two little boys, its something I look forward to!)

I am sad that I didn't take a picture of the complete outfit, but this is the top I came up with for her.I love argyle. I love the 'preppy' look and clean lines. Being able to girlify by adding hearts is fun!
We paired the top with a super cute brown and pink polka dot petti-skirt. It'll be a fun outfit for her to wear this week for Valentines, but versatile enough to wear any time.

Recent 'Custom' Birthday Shirts

I LOVE when people contact me and ask me to make fun stuff for their kids. I've recently had two separate customers ask for custom birthday shirts for their boys.

Order number one...

I was told that her soon-to-be 7 and 4 year old boys were having a reptile themed (combined) birthday party. She asked me to come up with number shirts to go with the theme.
Aren't these snakes just adorable?! I did a google search for 'cartoon snakes' for ideas, then combined a few and came up with my own original designs.My boys loved them and asked if I would make shirts like that for their next birthday's, so I guess we can call that a success!

Order number two...

The request was pretty simple. A birthday shirt for a FIRST birthday! She asked for primary colors and his name 'nice and big'. Mom was happy...and that's what matters!

I love getting to make a variety of things. It what makes my 'job' so great! Thank you SO much too all my customers who give me their business and trust me to come up with fun creative tops for their children.

The cutest Pachyderm around!

I've made a whole herd of these cuties over the past two months.
Lots of color combinations.Lots of fiber fill.
Lots of smiles!

I found the original pattern and tutorial here, on the Riley Blake Designs Blog. I instantly fell in love. Of course, in my haste to make so many and get them in the mail as gifts I managed to only get a picture of one of them.

Not all of them came with a story, but I was 'on one' the day 'Punja' found her new home. She was made for an adorable neighbor of mine who saw the first elephant I made and had the guts to ask me to make one for her too. The elephant was left on the doorstep of her house with this note attached about her 'journey' to Abbey's house. It was fun. Abbey loves her elephant and takes it to school in her backpack almost every day to school!

{Excited}

Do you ever have a project that you are just so excited to start that you can hardly stand it?

I have one of those projects on the horizon!

Not that I don't still have plenty of other posts and photos to share of my past projects, but I have to share my excitement some where. I figure since this is my blog than it is okay to ramble a bit, right?

I am patiently (okay, not so patiently) waiting for a package in the mail from the Fat Quarter Shop. (Side note: totally not being paid to say this, but I LOVE shopping online at the Fat Quarter Shop! I'm a regular!) I'm making my first quilt from this book...

(The Modern Quilting Bee - block party)

You have seen this book before, right? If not, you are missing out! I am in love with the improv trend in quilting, it's kind of my thing right now. This book gives lots of great examples of 'improv' quilts with easy to follow directions to get the look your going for. There are 12 'patterns' to jump start your creativity. Awesome.

I'm making this quilt for my friend, in trade for her awesome photography skilz! I think what I am most excited about is the color pallet... Greys, blacks, creams, whites, and yellows. I think it's going to be divine!

Enough rambling...off to go clear off my sewing 'to-do' list and clean up my cutting table so that I can get to work as soon as the package arrives!

Chenille

One of my favorite projects of 2011? I'd say yes. This was definitely in the top 10!

A very good friend of mine had a baby girl, and I knew I wanted to make her something special. I wanted to do something different than I've ever done, so that I could learn a new technique. I came across a great tutorial on Pinterest (here) for making 'Heirloom Cheenille Baby Blankets.' It was just the 'cool & unique' that I was looking for!Whew! It was a labor of love, but the outcome was fabulous. I honestly can't wait to make another! I was prepared, yet still shocked at how much thread it took to sew so many lines. This quilt took me as long to make (actually even a little longer) than most of my pieced infant quilts.
Once all finished and given it's first wash and dry, the texture of this blanket is DELICIOUS! No other word can describe it's yumminess!Making one of these quilts is not difficult, just time consuming. If you can sew somewhat of a straight line, than whipping one up is easy as pie. I'd give it a 'Beginner Sewer' rating, as long as said beginner can be patient and avoid going cross-eyed from sewing line after line!