Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Mug Rug Gift

My gift list sewing is shrinking!

I see a lot of mug rugs made for husbands and boyfriends and although I like them, I just don't envision my husband saying how cool that is and being anxious to use it.  So I had not made one for him ... yet.  And didn't really think I ever would, to be honest.

Sometimes I need to be banged up the side of my head to see what is right in front of my face!  Geezelouise how blind can I be!

My husband brought me a bag from the Harley shop and asked me if I could photocopy it in a different size so that he could trace the emblem shape.  All these years this HD icon has been laying around here and laying around there and staring at me in all the clothing and I've only just now woke up to it.

My husband's mug rug has been staring me in the face forever...now it's ready to be wrapped and tucked under the Christmas tree.



And, for once, I know for sure he is going to love it. 
Another gift crossed off the list!  Hooray again!

Happy holiday sewing to you all!
Annie

Saturday, November 5, 2011

I Just Can't Help It!

I just can't stop myself...please understand it's just my ghastlie personality...



Let It Snow,
Let It Snow,
Let It Snow!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I just can't help it, really!
Annie

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Ghastlie Blog Hop Week 2

It's the last ghastlie day of the
Ghastlie Blog Hop
I mean that in a fun way because it's been so ghastlie fun!

Final Day Line Up
ON Friday November 4th
Day 10
Ms Susan Ghastlie
Madame Ghastlie


This ghastlie idea of Madame Samm's was a really fun blog hop!  The ghastlies fabric is quite unique allowing our own ghastly minds to come out of the closet and create openly and to show our ghastlie concoctions for all of blogland to see!

Have a ghastlie good day all!
Annie

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Fabric Postcard Swap on Flickr

Last day to get in on the fun!

Sign-ups are now open for
the Fabric Postcard Swap group on Flickr!


Two themes are available to choose from or you can create a card for both themes:
Winter
and/or
Sewing Room Road Sign...
...meaning a road sign that could be found in your sewing space, related to sewing, of course.
Get your creative minds working and come join in the fun!
There are a variety of tutorials on this world wide web to help you...even I have one you can check out here.

We're going back to the swap being secret partners so it's always fun watching sneak peeks and whole cards being posted and making comments and wondering if they are the one that will come in your mailbox.

Sign-ups are open through October 30th
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fabricpostcard/

Wishing everyone a fun mail day!
Annie

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ghastlie Blog Hop Winners!

The lucky Ghastlie Blog Hop winner for Tuesday's grand prize is
Cherise
WOW Cherise, congratulations!

And the lucky winner of my Ghastlie mug rug and postcard is
tpott
Congratulations Toni!  Your winnings will be on their merry way to you this week!

Thank you to each and every one of you who visited and is visiting my blog on the blog hop.  I am having loads of trouble with Internet this morning, but you will hear from me personally to thank you for your kind and wonderful comments on my ghastlie projects.  I have almost 300 comments to respond to, I've been through about 100 of them so far.  They are so heartwarming!

Enjoy the remaining blogs with so many project ideas for these ghastlies and any other favorite fabric line you have.

Annie

Rubber Stamping on Fabric


This tutorial was created for Madame Samm's Sew We Quilt blog and I know of no other way to get this tutorial on my own blog other than re-posting it here.  So, please excuse my duplication of this post if you've already seen it.

 
 A Ghastlie Tea Party! 
Oh please, do come in...

The tea cups are paper pieced.  I fussy cut the images and fused them to the background fabric using Wonder Under. 


The images are not appliqued after the paper piecing is done...they were fused to the cup background fabric prior to the paper piecing process.  Positioning them to line up as I wanted them to was rather tricky and my seam ripper was a little busier than I liked.  But, where there's a will there's a way!...not to mention a sheer determination on my part to have my way!  My paper piecing tutorial and that fun stripe border tutorial are listed over there on the right under "Tutorials"
What I'd like to show you today is the rubber stamping on fabric.  This too was sheer determination on my part to come up with a permanent, washable solution for my desire to incorporate my rubber stamping with my sewing/quilting.

These are your supplies needed
Fabric or project you wish to stamp on
Ruler and air soluble pen (optional)
Small ruler that is thicker than standard
StazOn Ink Pad
StazOn Cleaner
Rubber Stamps
If you just plan to stamp an image, you won't need rulers.  The rulers are for stamping words in a straight line.
Draw your lines with a standard ruler and air soluble pen.


Place the small thicker ruler along your drawn line and be sure to hold it in place until your letters for that line are all stamped.  When stamping the letters, keep the wood against the ruler. 


Unless you have an absolutely perfectly spaced set of letter/number stamps, they will most likely look a bit wonky - which is exactly what I like about this process.  Although spacing of the letters takes practice and most likely will be wonkily spaced, at least they will all be lined up along the bottom edge.  
I normally wait until the purple lines disappear before I work with the stamped area with an iron.  Depending on your fabric, the heat from the iron can set your disappearing ink into the fabric which makes it harder to remove but not impossible...yes, I know this from experience.  But, if you're in a hurry to get to working with it, just dip a small paintbrush in water and hurry the disappearing along quickly.  Remember, the StazOn ink is permanent, it dries quickly and is washable so the water will not disturb your stamping...yes, I know this from experience as well.




This particular alphabet set of rubber stamps I found at Michael's in their $1 bins. What a bargain! I like the mix of upper and lower case letters.
There's no limit to what and where you can stamp on your projects.  It's a wonderful alternative to the times you are limited to where an image or words are placed on your project when you have to use an ink jet printer.
I'll be watching for your projects using this technique. 
Happy stamping everyone!
   

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ghastlie Inspiration Projects

Welcome to this Ghastlie Blog Hop

Madame Samm one day said, "let's have a Ghastlie Blog Hop" (or something like that), so here we are, doing just that!  How fun!
My project ideas started with this Ghastlie Tea Party


Which is right now currently serving up a tutorial over at Sew We Quilt.  I'm over there giving away all my little secrets for rubber stamping on fabric.  It's quite easy and extremely fun...check it out when you're finished here.  You can find my paper piecing tutorial and this fun border stripe tutorial over there on the right side of my blog listed under Tutorials.

I can't really even take credit for this next project.  In my tutorial  for that fun stripe border I showed how I use one of my mug rugs as an ironing pad while I do small paper pieced projects using my "iron on a stick" for pressing the seams.  Madame Samm honed right in on that!  So this ghastlie ironing pad (larger than a mug rug) is for right next to your sewing machine for those mini pressing jobs...well, soon it will be right next to Samm's machine for her mini pressing jobs.

Next, is a mug rug for your mug and snack.  Somehow I've ended up with an extra mug rug so, when you make comments here today and you mention you'd like to have this mug rug,

you will have a chance to win this ghastlie mug rug...and I doubt that it will travel alone.  In fact, it will travel with this ghastlie postcard of the Ghastlie Knitters.
And here is finally my quite involved Ghastlie project that is still a work in progress.  I've no clue what possessed me to create this tedious applique monster.  Yes, every letter is individually cut and raw edge appliqued to the background.  It had to be done, I'd already decided.  All the while stitching I kept wondering what I was punishing myself for.


Each character was cut from the orange background fabric and fused to that fun thin line black and white fabric and again, raw edge appliqued. 
It's a 36" circle and intended as a table mat.  I suppose it could be placed on the floor as well, but I don't at the moment have a floor that nobody walks on.  This is not the design that I started out with.  That one didn't work out.  So, this one is still evolving...there will yet be some bats and pumpkins for color and maybe another bird, and after that...well, who knows at this point.  I just keep plugging along with it.

The ghastlies are not necessarily a Halloween themed fabric, but that's how they always play out in my mind.  They live amongst us every day, but they really fit in during our Halloween fun.
Now don't forget if you leave a comment here for me, I will draw one name to send over to Madame Samm to enter in today's grand prize drawing on her blog and I'll draw another name as the winner of my Ghastlie mug rug and postcard.

I'd love it if you'd add yourself to my collage of followers at the top of my blog...you'd look so cool up there!

Here is today's ghastlie line up of blogs to hop:

                          Mrs. Annie Ghastlie (You are here) 

Have a ghastlie good time on this Ghastlie Blog Hop!
Thank you so much for visiting today.


Monday, October 24, 2011

Welcome to our Ghastlie Blog HOP

Ghastlie Blog Hop now going on!

Line up of Ghastlie Bloggers
ON Tuesday October 25th
This would be me!  Hey, I'm also a guest blogger this same day over at  Sew We Quilt. 





Each and every single day at the end of each day
there will be a grand prize winner at
Madame Samm's blog.  There will also be giveaway
winners on some of the individual blogs as well.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Fabric Postcard Swap - Sign Up Now!


Sign-ups are now open for
the Fabric Postcard Swap group on Flickr!


Two themes are available to choose from or you can create a card for both themes:
Winter
and/or
Sewing Room Road Sign...
...meaning a road sign that could be found in your sewing space, related to sewing, of course.
Get your creative minds working and come join in the fun!
There are a variety of tutorials on this world wide web to help you...even I have one you can check out here.

We're going back to the swap being secret partners so it's always fun watching sneak peeks and whole cards being posted and making comments and wondering if they are the one that will come in your mailbox.

Sign-ups are open through October 30th
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fabricpostcard/

Wishing everyone a fun mail day!
Annie

Friday, October 21, 2011

Get Ready!...

The Ghastlie Blog Hop is coming!

Starting Monday!
October 24th

So grab your favorite blog hopping beverage,
settle into your favorite blog hopping seat and click around to see what I and 50-some others have come up with to inspire you with this ghastlie gang.  Guaranteed fun!

Be there or be square!
 hahaha...I had to say it!