September 20, 2008

Cushions, Quilts, & Books, oh my!

I've been trying to limit my crafting to things we can use around the house... mainly so I can justify spending the money on supplies :) In all honesty... the most expensive thing I purchase on a somewhat regular basis isn't fabric -- it's books. I've been trying to find as many as possible at the library, but our library system doesn't seem to have many crafting books... and those that they do have often have 20-30 holds on them already, so it takes several months to get the book in hand... and patience isn't one of my strong points!! :)

So... I've purchased a few books on my own and gotten a few others as gifs. I have a whole "wish list" on Amazon of books that I hope to get in the future as well... we'll see! :) Here's the start of my collection:



Any suggestions of other craft books I "need" to get?

In addition to getting inspiration from books, I love finding tutorials on craft blogs. After going to find cushions for our patio furniture and realizing that since it's the end of summer... there aren't any left in stores... I decided to make my own :) Found this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and learned a lot of new sewing skills in the process of making these cushions! I put a zipper in for the first time, learned how to make my own piping, and sewed rounded corners. If you look closely (or... not so closely) at the black cushion, you can see that it's a bit more round than square. Better luck next time I suppose :) But they ARE very comfortable and have already gotten a lot of use!





And for Adrienne... a few pictures of my quilt :)




you can find more pictures of the quilt on flickr.

until next time... :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did the piping go - any tips? I started making a cover for my stand mixer that needed piping, but then I moved and had to stop working on it. Now I'm thinking of making a pillow with piping, but I had a hard time keeping the fabric over the cording without twisting and getting too loose or wavy.

mary grace said...

the piping was probably the hardest part, but the tutorial that i linked to had a great part about making piping as well as how to stitch it. i do know that it's imperative to use a zipper foot when making piping, so you can get as close to the edge of the cording as possible. i pinned the first few spots and then went from there, going slowly and carefully and adjusting where needed. it had its mistakes but overall it went well and i was happy with it when i was done! good luck with your pillow! :)