Finish Fifty: DIY Tasseled Love Pillow

Making this pillow has been on my finish fifty project list since last year when I first started brainstorming fun finger knit projects. The long finger knit chain just asks to be turned into letters.  For some reason, I never got around to executing on it–I guess it was just waiting in my notebook for a Valentine's Day 2013 execution.


Frankly, I'm in love with this tasseled love pillow. I used basic duck canvas and some pretty cheap-o varigated yarn that Baillie had started finger knitting. He wasn't entirely happy that I co-opted it for this pillow, but I got him going on something new :). This pillow is 30 x16, nice and big.  It would be cute with any word, in any colors–your kiddo's name, peace, fun, happy, etc, etc. Even though, I finished the five fabulous finger-knit series here, I'm adding it as a bonus project–how could I not?

Literally, though, the tassels were my favorite part.  I'm so glad they have come raging back into prominence, because how much fun are they! The how-to for the tassels is below as well.

I might just have to add these tassels to more pillows around the house.

 

The pillow was a relatively quick and easy make, too.  Give it a whirl! Here's the diy:

Materials
finger knit yarn 
scissors
thread
needle
sewing machine (optional)
wire (20 guage)
1 yard duck cloth (canvas)
stuffing (I used two 16x16 pillow forms and a towel)
additional yarn for tassels
4" piece of cardboard for tassels

Fingerknit a length of yarn long enough to form the word you want.

Uncurl the finger knitting chain and thread the wire through the middle of it.  It doesn't really matter where you thread it, just keep it consistent.

Entwine one end of the wire in one end of the fingerknitting so you have a fixed starting point.

Form your letters. Leave a length of wire and finger knitting at the end of the word for now. 
Sew your letters with the wire to your canvas, stretching the finger knitting around the wire as you go, so as to hide the wire and twist the finger knitting so it has a nice appearance.
Once you get to the end of the word, you can trim the wire and the fingerknitting.  Simply cut the finger knitting an inch from where you want it to end. 

Pull out the extra bits and undo a couple rows until you get a few inches of remaining yarn, thread it through the finger knitting length and pull.

 I thought it looked knice to have the starting and ending bits of yarn sewn down as well.

 Here it is all sewn down on the duck cloth.

I measured the length of pillow I wanted (30 x16) and added 1/2 inch on each side for a seam allowance, keeping the word centered in the middle.

Cut another piece of duck cloth the same size.  Pin the two together right sides facing each other.  Your word should be sandwiched in the middle.

Pin and then sew around the entire pillow with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  You can use your machine, but you could also hand sew this if you wanted. Leave a 10" opening to turn it inside out.

 Trim the corners and iron the seams open.

Make the tassels: 
Cut a piece of yarn about six inches long first.

Wrap yarn around something approximately four inches long.  I wrapped the yarn 40 times around. Leave the ball of yarn attached.  Don't cut yet!

Tuck your six inch piece of yarn under your loops.

Still don't cut the ball of yarn away yet.  Pull the circle of yarn off your cardboard. Tie a knot in your 6" length of yarn around the top of the loops.

Now, take the yarn going to the ball and twist it around the top of your loops. Tighten it on to the loops about 3/4" down.  Repeat this process 10 times, pulling tightly each time.  Pull out your 6" length of yarn each time so it doesn't get caught down.

 It should look like this.

 Now cut the other end of the loops.

Yay!  Tassels.  These make me so happy.

Attach the tassels to the pillow by bringing the top ties on the tassel through the corner of each pillow separately.

 Tie them in a square knot on the inside of the pillow.

 Voila, almost there!

 Stuff the pillow and sew the remaining open seam closed, using a blind stitch. Take a little bite of the fabric under the fold, then go directly across to the other side, take a little bite of fabric and repeat.
Yipee!! You're done! Allie was over the moon about this one.  She put it on her bed immediately. 

Happy Valentines!  We're off to New Orleans this weekend for the Super Bowl.  I still can't believe its my husband's job to be on the Ravens Team!  Go RAVENS!

Valuing Friendship

from Elichkata and . . .am I more myself or less myself

I almost just lost a dear friendship. It was a stark reminder of how important it is to foster relationships that mean a lot to you . . . to me. I can give you all sorts of excuses, just like I tried to give her.  I just got super busy - the move, work, the kids, the house, the blog. It happened gradually, my emails got short, I stopped tweeting, her blog got lost in the 4,000 unread posts in my reader, our calls became non-existent, the planned visit got canceled. I completely lost touch. So when she courageously communicated that she wanted to focus on relationships that were more reciprocal, I felt physically sick at the thought I had let her down. Her friendship is so very dear to me.

Friendships aren't how they were in college when I had endless time to hang out, grow and adventure together with friends. Part of this change has come as I've gotten older, raised a family and moved around. I make and have more friends through business, through activities, through the kids, through  school, through Sandy's work, etc. With this new location in Baltimore, there is an entirely new round of folks to meet.  Still, there is only so much of 'me' to go around.

Add on to that, the whole blogging business, where making contacts and tweeting and pinning are essential for success, it's been easy to spread myself horribly thin. All of a sudden, I'm madly managing acquaintances, garnering followers, networking and making contacts, not to mention keeping up family obligations. The time for the important friendships, the ones that really mean a lot, slip away. I'm talking about the friendships where I've felt that I resonate harmoniously with the other person immediately–the kind of connection that makes me think I may have known that person in a past life. These are the big ones–the ones to not let go. 

These are the friendships that are easy to lose sight of because the friendship seems so natural and obvious and easy.  How much effort could be required? It feels as if nothing could affect that connection. But, the truth is, I still need to care and tend these relationships. They require love and fostering. Otherwise, they are simply the promise of a friendship, an empty shell.

I want to prioritize the friendships that make me grow and expand, think in new ways, and become a better person.  The ones where I feel totally accepted and loved just how I am and vice versa. In the end, it's our relationships that mean something, that matter in life, not one more post, or one more row, or one more load of laundry.  I am relieved to have made up with my friend and had an honest and loving dialogue with her. I am glad she gave me that opportunity. But, don't delay, call that friend that you love so much and make sure you have a nice long chat. 

Discovery Girls: Pet Bandana

The Discovery Girls Magazine with my first craft column arrived.  I got asked to be the regular craft columnist for the Creative Corner pages of the magazine back in the fall and it's been so much fun to work on. Seeing my byline in a well-distributed, print magazine arriving by US mail to my doorstep was kind of thrilling. It especially hit me as I watched Allie, my 7 year old, flipping through the magazine looking carefully at every page, knowing she is one of many! She and I were both especially excited to see my project sharing the spotlight with One Direction (latest boy band) on the Table of Contents.  "Lucy's FAMOUS!," Allie cried.

Below is the first page of the Creative Corner spread–you'll have to buy the magazine for the how-to.  You can find Discovery Girls lots of places–Target, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, large newstands, etc or you can subscribe to magazine here. Discovery Girls is a wonderful magazine for pre-teens 8 to 12–full of hair, fashion, sports, social situation and of course, craft articles that are well-written and convey a good message. 

 

For their pet issue, I made these fun little pet bandanas for Lucy–but they look super cute on Allie's head, too. Each bandana has a little bit of bling, whether it's some sparkle trim, a chain monogram, or some lovely lace.

Making these bandanas also satisfied Allie's urge to dress up Lucy all the time. I have to regularly instruct her not to put a tutu on the dog! And, don't ask me to go into a big pet store chain with her. Do they have to put the costumes right up front? Allie insists that we're building Lucy's closet. Lucy now has a happy bandana, a dressy bandana, and then, her everyday bandana. I love that. And, doesn't Lucy look quite dashing and smart?This photo below shows Lucy's ears in my favorite position. Lucy brings a lot of joy and companionship to my life during the school hours. Lucy actually has a very important job as my assistant. She regularly gets asked her opinion of this or that–does she like the stripes thick or thinner? Should I go with teal or yellow? What about this floral fabric or the polka-dots? She tends to be very agreeable. What would I do without her?  Happy weekend to you all!

A Shortcut Quilt–A Finish Fifty Project

This is the project that started this madness of wanting to finish all my binned up, stashed and abandoned projects. I recently completed this short-cut quilt for my quarterly Petite Purls craft column: Get Crafty with Flax & Twine. Petite Purls is a fabulous knit and crochet magazine with adorable kids' patterns, projects and articles. The full tutorial for this super fast, short-cut quilt can be found here.

This quilt top has been in my pile of orphaned projects for over three years. That is a lot of looking at something and thinking, "I want to make that some day."  The joy of completion I received finishing it stunned me.  Such satisfaction.  Does the satisfaction increase exponentially with how long you've held on to an unfinished project?  I'm not sure, but I intend to find out!

It is a short-cut quilt because the top came pre-pieced. I discovered it one day at Joann's while looking for a basic boy print to make a pair of swaddling blankets. How sweet, I thought, hand-tied to a soft and cozy backing. I added a faux binding/piping which added just the right finishing touch without any of the binding fuss.

The short-cut quilt serves double duty because it also finishes one of my series from last year: Sew You've Always Wanted To Quilt.  If you have that quilting bug, but have been afraid to dive in to a full quilt, these projects and articles will certainly get you started. Visit the gallery by clicking below.

 

And, don't forget to pop on over to Petite Purls and give this quilt a try–an easy, looks-like-you-spent-more-time-on-it-than-you-did baby project! Happy finishing in your neck of the woods!

Fabric Photo Frames

I am eager to get this little blog up and pumping again with lots of new projects. This new year finally has me feeling like I have my feet under me again. I also want to share some of the things I've been working on behind the scenes.

In the last 6 months, I've been doing more work for print magazines, including a regular craft column in Discovery Girls magazine, a fun magazine for tweens ages 8 to 12. The other magazine is brand-new and I have a project featured in its second issue. Kids Crafts 1.2.3 is all about encouraging creativity without breaking the bank–love that! It is bi-monthly, and the current issue includes a tutorial for the adorable fabric frames above.

 

The magazine is chock-full of easy, inexpensive, crafty ideas. Allie ear-marked no fewer than TEN projects as "must-do"s. Uh-oh! I seem to have passed the creative-frenzy gene on to her.
These photo frames were inspired by Allie's desire for a series of dog photos, featuring our little Lucy, for her new room in Baltimore. A little modge-podge, some cute fabric and canvas frames, and ta-da–they did the trick.  These little square canvases are just the thing to feature those Instagrams you've been wanting to print up and display.

I also used this photo-frame technique when I helped throw a 4th-grade, photo-booth birthday party in November. We built a photo-booth with sheets and took a bunch of hysterical photos of the party guests (think mustaches, glasses, and lots of silly props). We printed those up (ah, today's technology) and made these frames as part of the party activity.  Each girl left with a cute 5x7 canvas, covered with fun fabric and photos of her friends.  We included stickers and giltter, too. It was a huge hit! If you want to make these, pick up a copy of the magazine in your local Wal-Mart, along with all the materials you might need, or you can order it online here.

 

I'm off to Denver this weekend to watch the Ravens win the next play-off game. It's supposed to be in the low-20s, so a'bundled-up I will go–oh, the things I do for hubby-love. Still, he surprises me regularly.  Just the other day I found a thank-you note in the mailbox from him.  Just the thing I needed now that he's never around.  Sweet man.