Happy Halloween!

I hope your day is filled with TREATS and no TRICKS! This is the first year my kiddos will not be Trick-or-Treating...although my 16yo is still on the fence...free candy is quite the motivator.

Enjoy your day :)
Spooky Smiles, Diane

Sheep And Wool Festival

My DH and I had a fabulous time at the New York State Sheep And Wool Festival held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, NY. We had a relaxing day enjoying all the activities. I will let my pictures speak for themselves...

And, of course, there were innumerable vendors selling all sorts of fibers and yarns...I can't believe I didn't take any photos of them...trust me when I tell you their wares were exquisite.

We are already planning to return next year :)

Smiles, DianeM

Sugarloaf, NY

Last weekend my daughter and I traveled up to Sugarloaf, NY for their annual Fall Festival. What a glorious day for a drive through the countryside to visit this gem of a town.

The streets of the town are lined with quaint shops and little houses filled with crafts and handmade items.

This shop selling handcarved gourds was my favorite.

So many pumpkins....

These friendly girls were everyone's favorites...

Today, Hubby and I are driving up to Rhinebeck, NY for the annual Sheep To Wool Festival...be still my heart <3

I hope you are enjoying some Fall Festivities in your area as well :)

Smiles, DianeM

Garland of Fall

 My Autumn garland is finished and in place for the season. I have enough leftover flowers to make another one too. I added 25 chains in between each motif.

The early Fall weather here in the Northeast has just been beautiful. Yesterday I cleaned out our small tomato garden and also put up our outdoor decor of leaves and scarecrows. Today I have a roast in the crockpot and I'm enjoying the extra time it gives me relax with a hot cup of coffee and a little bit of knitting. I hope you are finding some time for crafting too :)

Smiles, DianeM

Not Much New....

Our computer is out of commission due to a bad electrical circuit which Hubby needs to troubleshoot & figure out...so for now I am using DD's laptop to keep up with all my favorite blogs. BUT I can't post any pics so my hexie quilt update will have to wait :(

I am soooo ready to start some Fall crafting so the hexie quilt will be put on hold for awhile...

Hopefully, I'll be back soon with some pics and a crafty update :)

Smiles, Diane

Hexie Quilt Update...

I couldn't wait to share with you my little hexie quilt top...almost finished now :)

It's quite small and will probably just be a decorative accent on my bed. Each hexie side measures 3/4". 

If you read my earlier post you might remember that all the pink fabrics came from an Ebay or Etsy purchase of 2" charm squares.

I did some research on how to finish the edges and have decided to add a border of hexies first to frame it. I just got back from Joann where I picked out a pretty pink and white fabric for those hexies. The new fabric lends a vintage feel, and I can't wait to get started adding them on. So I'm off to gather up my freezer paper templates and get to work...fun, fun, fun!

I hope you're having some crafty fun today too :) Thanks for stopping by.

Smiles, Diane

Crochet Flowers Continued...

I decided that I liked the Patons Grace yarn better for the crochet flower medallions. 

I created some of my own patterns for the flowers as well as using one of the patterns I found through Pinterest mentioned in my last post here

It's easy to create your own variations of the flowers once you get the feel of how the rounds are combined.

When finished, this garland will be for Fall. I have plans to make another one in shades of blue with a little bit of pink for my bedroom...and then I thought maybe a pretty vibrant one in reds & yellows for my kitchen...picture a daisy chain <3

The only drawback of using the Grace yarn, which I absolutely love, is that Patons keeps discontinuing colors and adding new ones and their palette of colors is somewhat limited too.

OK, so what did I decide to do with the new Bernat Cotton-ish yarn that I bought from Joann? I went back to Pinterest for more inspiration and found this beautiful pattern from BunnyMummy
here and here

For my garland I also made circles to go in between the hearts 

BunnyMummy sprayed her finished motifs with spray starch and luckily I had some "Stiffen Stuff" from Beacon so I sprayed mine with that. I've only done the circles so far. It really works well to make the medallions stiff so they'll make a nice garland with no curling.

Here's an idea of how the garland will look when it's completed. This will definitely be a Halloween decoration because of how all the colors combined.

I hope you enjoyed catching up with me and maybe I've inspired you to make up one of these garlands too :)

Smiles, Diane

Yarn Tales

I took a break from hexie making to work on a crochet garland. I found these Fall colored yarns at Joann and combined them with some Paton's Grace yarn that I already had in my stash...

I did a search on Pinterest for "crochet flowers" and chose the designs I liked.

I added a new board on my Pinterest account titled "crochet flowers" here...http://pinterest.com/dianemorici/crochet-flowers-and-garlands-from-them/
After many flowers made, these are the keepers so far...

The patterns came from My Rose Valley, 6ichthusfish and Yvestown blogs. Here are the direct links
http://myrosevalley.blogspot.ch/search?updated-max=2013-03-31T17:53:00%2B02:00&max-results=4&start=44&by-date=false

http://6ichthusfish.typepad.com/6ichthusfish/2010/05/maybelle-crochet-flower-free-pattern.html

http://www.yvestown.com/shop/pat-flowcoast.html

It's back to hexie work today...and more crochet flowers too 'cause who am I kidding, I'm addicted :)

I hope you are enjoying some crafty time today too.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Smiles, DianeM

New Hexie Tool

I found a new tool for cutting out hexagon templates for English paper piecing. From Fiskars, it's the Extra Large Easy Squeeze Punch in the Hexagon shape.

This cuts out perfect 1" templates. Each template measures 1" along each edge and 2 1/2" across the middle.

I purchased it from Joann's with my 40% coupon so it was around $11. I had to call 3 different Joann stores before I found one who had it in stock - so call before you go. Fiskars sells it on their website as well for full retail plus shipping. They make 4 different sizes from small to extra-large. 

I used it with my freezer paper and found that it will accommodate 3 layers of the paper. You can do 4 layers but it takes more muscle. 

This size template works perfectly with any 2 1/2" precut.

I hope you found this useful, I was so thrilled when I discovered this nifty new tool.

Smiles, Diane

Summer Fun

Pizza and mini golf...one of our family's summer traditions

Girls against the boys...we girls won, but only because my daughter had the lowest score!

Finished up the night with ice-cream cones

I love summer nights :)

I hope you are enjoying summer fun too

Smiles, Diane

A Prince Is Born!

Congratulations To William and Kate

Welcome to his Royal Highness the Prince of Cambridge

Best Wishes to the Royal Family

Hexie Update

Today I spent my time printing hexie templates and cutting them out. I chose the blue fabric for my connecting petals. It's sort of a periwinkle blue but when I saw it at the store I fell in love with polka dots and just knew it was the 'IT' fabric.

I used my traditional method of making hexie templates by printing them on freezer paper run through my printer using the grid supplied by http://moxyideas.com/ I only had 3 paper jams <insert sarcastic tone here> but I'll chalk that up to the high humidity here in NJ right now.

So while Audie Murphy battled in the Phillippines on the Fox Movie Channel I contentedly cut out my templates. Soon I'll be able to start stitching...
Hopefully, by Sunday I'll be able to move outdoors again but for now the temps are just too high with a heat index of 105! Yikes, can't drink hot coffee outside in that kind of weather...lol

In between my hexies I've been doing a little knitting and crocheting too. Ahhh, life is good :)

Thanks for sharing some crafty time with me. I hope you've been able to get some craft time in too :)

Smiles, Diane

P.S. - there's no sign of Mr. Fly anywhere

Fly Bys

Ack! There is a fly in my house! He (or she) shows up at the most inopportune times buzzing around my head...then disappears...where did it go and what is it up to? Makes me think of this book from my childhood...

 I promise to be back with some crafty goodness in a bit...right now I am on the hunt...

Smiles, Diane

The Hexies Are Finished...Almost

 I finished sewing all the pink fabrics together and now my little hexies are finished. All of them have different fabrics for each petal....except one! The very last one I made has 2 of the same fabrics...I was like "how did I let that happen?" Oh well, I was not ripping a hexie apart to fix my oversight . I've heard the Amish purposefully make a mistake in their work as only God is perfect...no worries here about that...I don't think I've ever made a project that doesn't have at least one "happy accident"!

Now to decide on the finish for these little hexies. When I started the project I planned on appliqueing them onto squares and alternating between hexie squares and plain squares - maybe using some of my vintage sheet fabrics. Now, after seeing them though and looking at some of the lovely pictures on Pinterest and Flickr I've decided to add more hexies in between using a mix of pale blues as a border. So now I'll have to see what I have in my stash...which is ALWAYS fun...or I'll have to purchase some new fabrics....which is even more fun...lol. Either way it's a win win for me. 

And now I get to sew more hexies, which I just love doing. First I need to make more freezer paper templates and I found a tute here that I think I may try
http://cadouri-din-inima.blogspot.ro/2013/01/tips-for-cutting-hexagon-templates.html

I'll let ya know how it goes. Let me know what you're working on and thanks for spending some time sharing crafts with me <3

Smiles, Diane 

...here's my recent purchase from Erica over at the Golden Egg Vintage blog...

She wrapped everything up so beautifully in the red polka dot paper and even included the flashcards and hankerchief as extra goodies...wasn't that sweet of her?

There's oodles of vintage lace for me to play with and an old school book and then of course the
beautiful tin bread box....

What a treat to open on a rainy day here in New Jersey :)

I'll use the lace for crafting and the book will be added to my collection of vintage readers...and the 
bread box will be used for storage or display...I haven't decided about that yet :)

Thanks again to Erica <3

Smiles, Diane

Pink Hexies

 ...it's been so hot and humid here in New Jersey so I've been sewing up little hexies while enjoying the air conditioning inside. These measure 3/4" along the edge and I'm making them using the English paper piecing method. Handstitching them is so enjoyable, I just relish each step of the process.

I like to use freezer paper templates that I print out using my inkjet printer. 
I even enjoy the busy work of cutting each individual template out before ironing them onto the fabric.

I purchased precut 2" squares from either Ebay or Etsy quite awhile ago and the 3/4" hexies work perfectly for this size. The fabrics are an assortment of different shades and patterns of pink. From my stash I found the blue ticking material that I'm using for the centers.

In total I had enough little squares to make 30 hexies. The fabric selection for each petal is completely random - I just reach into the bowl without looking and whatever comes out is what gets added to the flower :) I do make an exception if I pull out 2 of the same petals, then I mix them up and try again. While I'm working on these I have all sorts of other projects whirling through my head...different size hexies and different fabric combinations. I'm sure you know the feeling!

What are you working on during these early summer days?

I hope you are having as much fun as I am. Thanks so much for sharing some crafty moments with me <3

Smiles, Diane