Sally's Angelworks

{fun fridays - ohhhh such crafty goodness!}

Okay, I know it's late on Friday, but it's still fun!! Fun wonderful craftiness and finishes!

First, this past Monday, the Houston Modern Quilt Guild met for a sew-in. This was my first sew-in, and boy, did I have fun! I love getting together with my darling friends and creating!

Here's what I worked on the entire time I was there...

I'm doing the Granny Squares Quilt:

Soooo fun! I loved every minute of it!! And I got a good start on this scrappy quilt. I was inspired by this tutorial/sew-along at Blue Elephant Stitches!

Super excited about twenty of these blocks all put together! yummmmy sheep!!! ♥

Here's what else I finished this week:

I love how this came together! I started with a jelly roll and took half of the strips and sewed the short ends together and then folded it in half and sewed...Sew,Rinse, Repeat, like a jelly roll race. When I got it to the size I wanted it, I added a border made with a charm pack...

And then I knew I wanted to have a fun quote embroidered on it. I really wanted to be able to see the text, so I used white muslin and drew the text, embroidered, put a bird on it (because I'm a hipster!), quilted the whole thing, and Voila!!! a fun, gorgeous quilt with text to INSPIRE!

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."

Love it!! and I love the Honey Child fabric designed by Jennifer Paganelli of SisBoom! 

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You know how I was talking about loving getting together with friends to craft? Well, I've started doing this once a month with stamping/paper crafting friends! Here's what we created last night...

Our glittery creation for the night!! Everyone in the house has glitter on them today! (and we are all happy about it!! even Mr Gorgeous!)

We used these cool metallic water paints to paint these butterflies...This one above is my sample...

This one (above) my sweetie Lil painted for me! I stamped it and picked the paper, and she wrote in the inside to me! (she said I was her favorite teacher, even though we weren't doing school right now!! isn't she darling???)

This card is one of my faves!! You'll see it again next week when I'm blogging about Amanda's Apple of my Eye fabric!! Aren't those flowers wonderful????

We didn't do this one as a group, but it was one of my prototypes! I kinda like it!! (loving anything vintage right now!!)

Get ready for some fun blogging starting on Sunday, July 1st!! We are going have giveaways galore!!! And really fun projects and just all around inspiration on all of our blogs! Here is the schedule:

Sunday, July 1st: Amanda's Blog & Jana's Blog

Monday, July 2nd: Julie's Blog

Tuesday, July 3rd: Sally's Blog <<<------------you are here!

Wednesday, July 4th: Candice's Blog

Thursday, July 5th: Stephanie's Blog

Friday, July 6th: Johanna's Blog

Saturday, July 7th: Jackie's Blog

Sunday, July 8th: Brooke's Blog

Can't wait to see who wins all of the goodies that are being given away!! yipeeee!!

Have a wonderful weekend! I know I will! (yep, I'm holding up in the craft studio all weekend! LOVE!!)

{fun summer projects = JOY}

Are you filled with JOY today? 

It's okay if you naturally are not filled with joy right this minute! We actually are dealing with some issues right now, including one of our AC units that is out upstairs (in Houston's 105degree weather!! eeeep!!).

To be perfectly honest, I don't know how God is going to provide in this situation, BUT I do know that He IS going to provide!

...and that's the root of my JOY today!! I'm choosing it today!

Out of this attitude comes some fun creativity...like this little mini-quilt:

I couldn't help but smile the entire time I was stitching and sewing! 

The little woodland girlie design is from Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching, The Motif Collection. LOVE!! She is paired with this fabulous Apple of My Eye Fabric from The Quilted Fish! You'll be seeing a LOT of that in the next week, for sure, here on the blog as we start our BLOG tour on Sunday, July 1st! So FUN!!!

Here are some more pics:

the top before quilting...

 

Here's a sneaky peek at a project I'm doing...

love!

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So I'm really loving one word inspirations. Combine that with some really fun embroidery thread, and you have a winning project!

At Quilt Maket in May, my darling friend, Brooke, picked up some embroidery thread samples of Cosmo thread from Lecien for me. I contacted Lecien and am now expecting a wonderful package of threads to play around with and show you how cool and fun they are! 

Here's what Brooke sent me and what I did with it...

The blue thread is verigated! So fun!!! It goes perfectly with that blue fabric!

I beaded the little piece with beads from Club Scrap that I've been hoarding. I have such a fun craft room! eeep!!

Here are some other pics of it:

This is all my own design! Fun and contemporary!

 

 

 

 

I love it! It totally inspires me to dream!!!

Here's a quick fun little project I threw together so I could have a fun flower on a headband that I made:

 

 

I love lace!! and teal!! (and my stash of baubles and beads!!)

Sometimes you just need a little pick-me-up to remember that joy you are choosing! :) 

One last thing...

Don't forget the blog tour that starts on July 1st! I'll post here before that, but I just wanted to remind you!

{Happy Home - the blog tour!!}

Ohhhhh I'm sooooo excited to be a part of Jenny's Happy Home Blog Tour which features Jennifer Paganelli's fun book, Happy Home!

I first met Jennifer on Twitter when we were watching the Decorah Eaglets hatch together. She was so genuine and sweet on Twitter, and I found out a little later at Quilt Market in SLC spring 2011 that she was just as adorable in person!!

Not only is Jennifer a sweetheart, she is a wonderful designer as you can see in this fabulous second book of hers! And I'm excited to share what I've created from this book!!

I started with a fun hexagon pillow also known as the Playful Patterned Pillow (pg 42). One of the things I want to stress with this pattern is to follow it to the letter! She does a great job of explaining how to piece the hexagons in a fabulous, easy manner. I will say that I'm not a precision seamstress, and I conquered this pattern! yay!!

Here is my Playful Patterned Pillow amidst my other SisBoom projects!

When I decided to create this pillow, I found I only had half of a charm pack of  Honey Child to use. I have some West Indies fat quarters that I'm saving for a very cool project (think Anthropologie!!), so I decided to make a mini-version of the Playful Pillow!

I love how crafters take patterns and make them their own. And I am no different! To make this pillow my own, I cut another hexagon out of muslin, stamped a sketch, and using an alphabet I stamped the words "happy home". I then took acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium and painted my image! Love!!

The other thing I did with this pattern was I added a zipper. Because my pillow was a different size from the original  pattern, I made a little pillow to go inside (muslin + stuffing), and the zipper was the perfect way to make the cover easy to wash if it needs to be washed!

After making this pillow, I had a little pillow cover that I had made in the wrong size! (lemon!) So I created a complimentary pillow to go with my Playful Patterned Pillow. (lemonade!) Using my newfound love for painting on fabric, I created this fun pillow...

The flower on this pillow is a play on a flower pattern from Jennifer's Girl's World. Love!!! Everything else is stamped and painted. Love!!

The whole ensemble...

{the other pillow on the right is described HERE}

I'm still embroidering the quilt...but it is bound and quilted...here's what it looks like up close:

Love the swirly quilting! 

You will love the finished project! I promise!!

But wait!! There's more!!

I got some gorgeous Crazy Love fabric and decided to make the Mother/Daughter Prettiest Aprons for me and my darling 10yo, Lillian!

To make it my own, I added a ruffle on the bottom! I can't have an apron without the ruffle! (Can you say "addiction"???)

I adore matching aprons...

The pattern for this (pg 122) was delightful, easy, and very satisfying! I really, really love the way these came out!! Aren't we wonderful??? (thanks, Nathan, for taking these on the fly!!)

Thanks again to Jenny for adding me on to the fun blog hop! And thanks to Jennifer Paganelli for such a fun book chock full of awesome projects! 

Here is the entire blog tour to hop around:

 

June 11 Jenny Fish  www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 12 Cathy Caprio Peckiconis http://sewingstoryproject.blogspot.com/

June 13 Judy Buchanan  www.hickity-pickity.blogspot.com/ 

 June 14 Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Shannon Branscom Winters www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 15 Leah Kinghorn http://makinglifewonderful.blogspot.com   

June 16 Monique Reynolds  sewfunbymonique.blogspot.com/

June 17 Melissa Peda  100billionstars.com/

June 18 Jamie Harned http://theinsecurequilter.blogspot.com/

June 19 Courtney Watford Davis www.sweeterthancupcakes.blogspot.com/

June 20 Kristi Pernell Elston  burlapbutton.blogspot.com

June 21 Kathy Hennessey  http://handmadedresshaven.blogspot.com/

June 22 Stephanie Messer Danko www.tabbodesign.blogspot.com/
June 23  Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Jade Nocella Jenny Fish  www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 24 Sally Keller http://sallysangelworks.typepad.com

June 25 Goose http://www.goosiegirlboutique.com/blog

 

  
June 26 Tour Wrap Up www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com  

 

Be sure to hop to all of these blogs to see all of the different projects! Amazing!!!

And stay tuned! I have my summer projects in line cranking them out while I have a moment to focus on sewing!! :)

Blessings!!!

 

 

{a good day to be me!! some fabric lovin'...}

oh, I've had such a fun week creating!! and shopping!!! and just having such a great time being me!

On Sunday, I'll be posting my Happy Home post for the Happy Home Blog tour! I'm super excited about my projects. Really excited! But in order to have some really great projects completed, I had to get some bigger pieces of Jennifer's fabulous fabric!! So I ordered some of her Crazy Love from Hawthorne Threads.

Ohhhhh, it is amazing!!! I can't wait to show you these phenomenal projects!! so yummmmy!

But that's not all I shopped for...

I can't go fabric shopping without heading over to Julie's store, the Intrepid Thread. OMGosh!! Can you say, "TOTAL EYE CANDY in the whole store!!"

I have to tell you when I was taking these pictures and setting up the fabrics, I kept saying "Ohhhhh MYYYY Goooodnessssss!!" and "What??? Are you kidding me??? Each and every piece is amazing!!"

Without further ado...here is what showed up in my mailbox yesterday...

Some Bonnie & Camille Vintage Modern by Moda!

Some of BariJ's LillyBelle from Art Gallery!

A solid bundle for my Quilt Con block for the challenge...beyond yummmmmmy!!

and starting the second week in July, I'll be focusing on CHRISTMAS!!!

so I got these lines:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Marisa from Creative Thursday from Andover

Sherry Berry's Alpine Wonderland from Riley Blake

in every colorway...

and of course, these awesome advent calendars from Riley Blake! Can't wait to make them!

I love love love this new line from Tina Givens and Free Spirit called Starflakes and Glitter! 

She has the coolest funky figures in her designs!

love!

So be sure and check back here on Sunday! I'll have a fun post for you with LOTS of inspiration!

Here are a few more sneaky peeks!

What is faith to you?????

"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  Heb 11:1

♥♥♥See you Sunday! ♥♥♥

{may finishes + sneaky peeks!!}

So I've been busy...busy crafting, having a wonderful time creating...

It's time for Show and Tell...

In the month of May, I finished four quilts in four weeks...

I showed you Mom's quilt already...

Here are some fun pictures that Cora and Nathan took of Cora's quilt...

and Nathan's quilt...

I love that picture!

And here's a pic of Susanna's graduation quilt (Cora's bff):

I still have to get Susanna to take a big pic of the whole thing, but I still love this pic!!

Then two weeks ago, I finished this baby quilt for a darling friend of mine:

We put two lions on there because the new baby's name is Leo!!

Of course, I had to embroider on it...

My friend and I designed this quilt (simply!) together for her stepdaughter's baby. And I love how it came out!

This week, I've created several projects for my fun Happy Home blog post this Sunday! And I'm going to give you some sneaky peeks...

swirly quilting...

You know how I love text...

and embroidery, of course!

love me some stamping, fabric paint, and a good hexagon!!!

Yep, I am loving my summer of creativity! I hope you are being creative, too!!! Ohhhh, and I can't wait to show you some really great fabric purchases I made this week, too!! wooohoooooo!!!!

Happy Thursday!! and happy creating!!

 

{my home is a HAPPY HOME-book love at sally's angelworks}

Ohhhh yes! I'm super excited to be included on the Happy Home Craft/Sew Along!! My friend, Jenny, who I met in line for Sample Spree in Houston last fall, posted all about it on her blog, Sew Pretty Dresses. I followed a link to her blog and immediately emailed her that I wanted to participate! There are so many fun projects to show you...but I'm going to surprise you on the 24th!! :)

Be sure and check out everyone's projects as they post them. They are so gorgeous!!!

Here are the list of blog participants:

June 11 Jenny Fish www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 12 Cathy Caprio Peckiconis http://sewingstoryproject.blogspot.com/

June 13 Judy Buchanan  www.hickity-pickity.blogspot.com/ 

 June 14 Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Shannon Branscom Winters www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 15 Leah Kinghorn  http://makinglifewonderful.blogspot.com 
June 16 Monique Reynolds  sewfunbymonique.blogspot.com/

June 17 Melissa Peda  100billionstars.com/

June 18 Jamie Harned http://theinsecurequilter.blogspot.com/

June 19 Stephanie Messer Danko www.tabbodesign.blogspot.com/

June 20 Kristi Pernell Elston  burlapbutton.blogspot.com

June 21 Kathy Hennessey  http://handmadedresshaven.blogspot.com/

June 22 Courtney Watford Davis www.sweeterthancupcakes.blogspot.com/

June 23  Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Jade Nocella Jenny Fish  www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 24 Sally Keller http://sallysangelworks.typepad.com

June 25 Tour Wrap Up www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

 

It's going to be SEW fun!!!!

And you can pick up the book at Amazon HERE!! 

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that's not the only book that you will see promoted here, though...

Super excited about Amanda's book, An Apple a Day!!

See my pic in the middle?? proof that I really did contribute!! (Aren't these girlies gorgeous??? i love them!) LOL!!!

Stay tuned to this blog to WIN one (or two or three) of these books SOON!!!  We are putting together quite the book tour...and you are going to LOVE the projects that we show. :)

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and while you wait for me to post new projects, here's one I finished today!

I went from this...

to this...

This valance is for my mom's window at her work. I can't wait to see it up there...

Here are some other shots...

 

 

 

Yay!! A finish!!

I still have several other projects in the works...wanna see?

I finished tracing the all 12 of the blocks for my Cowboy Days quilts...now, to embroider...

A quilted panel to bind for a darling friend...

A fun sheep quilt just for me...yes!!! LOVE!!! I'm still toying with what pattern I'm going to use...but it's going to have a lot of off-white in it...

You know you can always find art inspiration here...

I can't wait to continue to share that inspiration with you!! (aka...tune in tomorrow for more!!)

{i still love mondays: the monday life of a creative}

So yesterday was Monday...

it was a good day!

a day full of family, rest, and creativity!!

My sister-in-law let me and my girlies come and play with her baby girlies in the morning while she went for a regular checkup for her! Love these girlies...

My sweet Emma loved reading to them! ♥

Afterwards, I took my girlies to the grocery store...(a victory...although it totally wore me out! eeeep!)...and then we went home and rested! Yep, me...wild Monday girlie laid down on my bed for about 25 minutes. It was the best 25 minute rest (no sleep! I'd never sleep tonight!)  I've had in a while!

It gave me the energy to get into that craft studio and create...

{acrylics on a canvas - the chick is a clear stamp...love!}

We had been talking about resting in the Lord in our ladies' group. We even had a spa night all together. Ohhhhh, don't get me started on how awesome that was!

The verse above was inspired from that spa night! I love it!

I also created this yesterday...

I'm experimenting with mixed media! So fun. This is in my front entryway now (hence the mustard colored background! Yep, I was thinking of where I was going to mount it before I began!)

I used a bunch of fun tools and supplies to create it. I did stamp on it, but I didn't like the way it came out, so I just painted over and decoupaged paper over where I didn't like it! :)

I love my stash of lace and buttons!

gotta love the scrabble tiles! Text is my fave to add for sure!

And my reminder to myself..."Consider it all joy..." from James 1 in the Bible! 

I've actually recently been through some "stinkin' thinkin'" and been worried (gasp!!) about random things. The reminder of gratefulness and joy always realigns me back to the right way of thinking!! :) This is the greatest part of creating art...creating art that inspires (even if it's only inspiring me! that's okay, too!!)

Yesterday, I also finished tracing all of the patterns for my Cowboy Days quilt embroidery blocks...

Like I said...this one'll take a while! 

Last night, I finished up on the couch with the computer. It's a little fritzy right now, so I was backing things up onto an EHD. And I found a fun old pic from 5 years ago of my youngest...I immediately had to digitally scrapbook it!

I used Sue Cummings' One Perfect Day kit from OScraps! (You can click on it to see it bigger to read the journaling!)

I'm going to leave you with a card I created last week...

I'm still in love with paper...and fabric! Ohhh, it's good to be me!!

Stay tuned this week...lots of fun creativity! Hopefully I'll have time to post about it! I seem to be living wildly away from the computer these days!

{time of rest...getting ready for a summer of creativity!}

Yes, contrary to how I seem outloud, I am a big proponent of rest!

So a few weeks ago, when I got a call from a music director from a church asking if I would play a gig in Galveston this week, I said yes!! And then I proceeded to convince my whole family that we needed to spend a day and a half down there just playing!! With me playing a gig in the middle of it for some extra "pay for the vacation" money! Love that!

there was a little (okay, a LOT) of pillow fighting...

a little putt-putt...

...in which we discovered that cream sunscreen was much better than spray...just check out my back and Cora's back...'nuf said!

some seafood outside on the patio with the people you love! 

(okay, I don't eat seafood, but I was with people I love!!)

some kite flying...

and much needed time on the beach...

It was the best to have Mr Gorgeous take the day off and relax with us!! 

These times of respite are well worth the work they take to pull off...and the result is having that extra umph to start your new projects, to inspire you to a new level of creativity, to give you hope that you, too, can conquer your next mountain!!

♥♥♥

Here are  few of my next projects...So excited!!!

Sweet Lion Baby quilt for a new baby boy names Leo due any day now!! (yes, this will be done by Sunday!!)

Seaside Rose quilt that has been on the back burner for years!! It's perfect for the guest room! I may steal it for my room, though. Still in love with this fabric!!

I rearranged a bunch of stuff last week in my closet, and I found these two quilt kits. They are exactly what I LOVE!! So I'm going to make them this summer! The Cowboy Days quilt will take a while, but I think it's going to be awesome when done!! 

btw, stay tuned for a big announcement tomorrow here on the BLOG!  :) you will love all of the quilty fun!

I pray your summer is filled with rest, relaxation, and creative excitement!!