wedding quilt 2

My other idea for a wedding quilt will be given to my older sister at her first anniversary.  She's getting married next june and my idea for her quilt is the following.  Take her favorite wedding photo and get it enlarged or shrunk depending on the original size, get it transferred to some fabric and put it in the middle of the quilt.  around that, take about 4 of her engagement photos and place them at each of the corner surrounding the middle wedding photo.  The rest of the quilt will be some different pattern, but I especially love the idea for the middle.  I think that she'll love it and it will be worth all the time and effort I put into it. 

Wedding Quilt

I have a friend thats getting married and I have chosen to do a rag quilt for a gift.  At first I was going to do a type of pinwheel and then a star pattern, but with only a month till the wedding, I don't have enough time to do anything extremely time consuming.  I was talking to my mom about it and we decided to make the centers of the blocks spell out their names and wedding date and do some other pattern for the rest of the blocks.  I think that it will be a good gift for them as they're going to need their own blankets and this one will be the perfect reminder of their special day!

Glass Blowing

If you've ever been to Silver Dollar City, then you've probably seen the glass blower's place.  I think that it is so amazing the work that they do.  The amount of patience they have is astounding.  I once watched as they made a duck out of liquid glass.  The glass was so hot that it was liquid and they took the liquid and with incredible precision, made a little bitty duck.  They also have places like that in Disney World and the people there make spectacular creations ranging from Cinderella's Castle to Pluto.  With such a wide variety of things that can be created, I just wonder. Where do they learn how to do it?

Pottery

It was in Kindergarden that I discovered that art was not the path for me.  I ruined everything I touched and it seemed like I would never create anything pretty. Now, almost 15 years later I find that I was right.  Especially in Pottery.  The best thing I ever created was a crown for my little 6 year old head.  It looks like crap and it doesn't even look anything like a crown, but to a 6 year old, the sky's the limit. 
I wish I was talented enough to make the vase's that look so beautiful and have such unique shapes, but i'll leave that to the professionals.

Embroidery

While most embroidery is done nowadays with a computer controlled sewing machine, there are still people that take the time to hand embroider.  To the side is a great example of someone doing hand embroidery.  It takes a firm, steady hand and a lot of patience to do something this large, but I think it's worth it. 

 I used to make different quilt blocks and was quite talented, but after summer ended, so did my summer projects.  When I started up again, I had to rip everything out because it just didn't look quite right.  I had lost my touch. As with most gifts, if you don't use them, you'll end up losing them.  I suggest that if you start a project and find that you're really good at it, keep with it and perfect your skills and show them off!

Cross Stitching

There is a wall hanging in my bedroom at home of a cross stitched Precious Moments figurine.  It was made by a relative of mine and I don't know how long it took them to finish it, but I think it is so beautiful.  I know that kits that come with patterns and the cloth do do it can be found anywhere, but taking the time to complete these works of art is priceless.  Cross stitching can be done on any surface to create wall hangings, pillows, blankets, and more.

Beadwork

While it may not be the most sophisticated project, the little beaded lizards are a great rainy day activity to do with the kids.  Simple and cheap, these projects can build in intensity and difficulty depending on the age of the person doing the project.  I took beads and some string to a sorority rush event and girls bonded over these tiny beaded pets.  Pony beads are the best to use with beginners because they're bigger and easier to see and keep track of.  I have seen people do beads as small as seed beads though.  How-to books can be bought at any hobby-lobby or michael's with different projects and what beads to use.

Sarah's Cordless Heating Pads

CORDLESS HEATING PAD
As legend has it, in an old rural Missouri farm house, the cold nights were made warmer with a Corn Sack. During the day, a large pan of shelled corn was warmed under the kitchen wood burning stove. Before be, mom would distribute the corn into sacks, one for each family member. That hot Cornsack warmed the bed feet or anything for quite a while. Every morning, before breakfast, the corn was returned to the pan under the stove to warm for the next evening's use.
My friend Sarah makes these corn sacks and sells them at fairs and it keeps the users warm.  I know that a lot of her friends have used them at home football games during the cold months to keep themselves warm. 

Painting

While not the traditional paper, paint and pretty picture, its the roller, one color and a wall painting.  I am getting ready to paint my apartment and right now I am looking at a wall covered in little white spots from previous holes.  I love painting and doing little home repairs so I guess what better to blog about right now than what I am going to do with my apartment!  Since I am in an apartment, I had to get permission from my landlord to paint and then  get permission for the color.  I got really lucky in the fact that my landlord likes dark colors so I was able to paint a color other than white or ivory.  I think the color is a light brown and is going to look spectacular!
When painting, it is important to get some blue tape and tape whatever you don't want painted.  The last people to paint my apartment didn't care at all what happened and there is paint all over my baseboards.  It looks quite terrible and I spent a whole day using paint thinner to get it off. Its not perfect, but it looks so much better. Tape everything, especially if you aren't sure about it. You can never use too much tape unless you don't put it where it needs to go. Usually it goes around windows, doors, along the ceiling, and baseboards.  The rest of painting is simple, don't get too much paint on your brush because then it will drip, and always use a primer to cover the previous paint. The primer isn't needed if you're using a 2-in-1 primer and color.  Happy Painting!

Knitting

My first experience with knitting was a complete disaster.  My two sisters took to it like bees to honey. Me, I was all thumbs.  I kept dropping stitches and I was the only person they ever knew to get three rows into a project, snag on something and rip every stitch out.  That was a long time ago and since then, I have just stuck to quilting.  I do wish I could learn how to knit and make a scarf or some mittens, but its just not my thing. 

Knitting is actually quite easy to learn and after ten minutes of instruction, most people could learn to knit a simple scarf.  The general items you would need are knitting needles (the long stick looking things), and some yarn.  For scarfs, I love the feel of the yarn you would use for babies because it is so incredibly soft and very warm.  For people that learn it and are successful, more power to you! As for me and my fingers, I'll stick to something like embroidery or quilting. :)

Wood burning

The art of wood burning is a very delicate process.  Just one mess up and the entire project qualifies for a life long trip to the wood stove. :)  I personally have never done this, but I know that it takes a lot of patience to create something like the horse above.  I have family out in Kansas and in the town where they live, there is a restaurant that has each of the ranch logo's burnt into their own piece of wood.  It's quite neat to see all the different farm names on one wall.  Shops like Hobby Lobby and Michaels sell wood burning kits and anyone that has the patience to do it has my respect.

Stained glass, minus the glass

A couple years ago, I was at a camp and we did work with the stained glass paint.  It looks beautiful and is a simple gift idea for anyone.  I made one for a gift exchange in my sorority and used my schools logo as the central idea.  Using liquid lead and various paints and toothpicks, I was able to create a beautiful piece of art that was relatively cheap. 

Any picture can be turned into a stained glass piece by placing it under a piece of glass or plastic and tracing the outlines with liquid lead.  You must let the lead completely dry before filling it in with colors otherwise the lead will get in the area you want to fill with color.  After the lead is dry, color can be added.  a little goes a long way and can be spread with different paint brushes to create different effects. A toothpick can also be used to blend more than one color together.  The finished effect will look very professional and can be hung in a window to create a beautiful stained glass piece.

Wedding

I am the Maid of Honor in my friends upcoming wedding and all her talk of weddings got me to thinking about do it yourself weddings.  I am going to be married in around 2 years ish so I have a lot of time to think about such things.  The things I like most are the table centerpieces and favors.  My friend has a really good idea for favors where instead of buying Hershey's kisses with the premaid stickers on the bottom, using the dots you get for garage sales and writing or printing on them what you wanted them to say.  I also saw rolls of mints that had ribbons tied around them with the bride and grooms name on them. 

Centerpieces are really easy to do. Candles in a vase with pebbles around them is very classy.  I have seen many people that use flower petals with floating tealights.  Basically you fill a vase up with petals and water then put a tealight on top to float.  It looks very nice.