What Rhymes With Orange?

The second Rainbow Monster is here!  He's a bit of a daydreamer and always has his head in the clouds... meet Orango, the quiet and thoughtful monster.

The pattern for Orango is available right here on Craftsy.  His little brother Plurp is there too!

Orango was originally drawn by Elliot Mosher, whose graphic design work can be found here.

Lacey Love

I had a friend in college who absolutely loved anything pink, frilly, and vintage.  She was a wonderful designer, and I always admired her sense of style even though it was very different from my own.  Well, this friend of mine just recently tied the knot, so I decided to take a dive into eyelet and lace in order to design something special for her.

I used mostly vintage lace and tatting to add layers of texture to this heart pillow.  The pink background was then paper-pieced around the lace.  Finally, I hand-quilted around the heart and embroidered their wedding date on the side.

Working with all of the lace was rather enjoyable and I quite like how it adds so much visual interest through texture!

Rochester Lilacs

I grew up in Rochester, New York, which is known for Kodak camera film, long winters and flowers.  It used to be known as the "Flour City" back when flour mills harnessed the power of the Genessee river and ground grain, but now it is known as the "Flower City" because of the beautiful flowers that bloom every year in Highland Park... the lilacs.

That is little me, at age 2, smelling the blossoms!

I decided to give a nod to these flowers in my latest paper-pieced pattern, Rochester Lilacs.

Believe it or not, this is the simplest pattern I have ever designed!  I decided to keep it simple by using a purple floral fabric for the lilac flowers.  It's available for sale on Craftsy here!

Pinterest Project: L_O_V_E

I've been wanting to try this project since I first saw it on Pinterest nearly a year ago!  "Yarn Love," from the Family Chic blog by Camilla (find it here), puts a new twist on word decor.  Using pliers, we bent old wire coat hangers into the cursive word "love" and then wrapped the word with colorful yarn.

The coat hangers were rather difficult to bend, so if I were to do this project again I would probably use craft or floral wire instead.  But it was quite fun to wrap!  I've been thinking about other words that could work... and the trick is avoiding words with "i," "j," "t," "f," or other letters that require more than one stroke in cursive.  I'm thinking my next attempt will be "hello" or "happy."

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Not All Who Wander Are Lost, Part 6

I'm a little behind on my Fandom in Stitches "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" block-of-the-month quilt!  The blocks for month seven were revealed last week...

But here is my finished block for month six:

"Isengard" designed by Lilja Björk Sigurdórsóttir

We're already halfway through the year, and halfway done with these quilt blocks!

Where Dwell the Brave at Heart

I had so much fun making the Ravenclaw messenger bag for my sister, that I decided to make another bag for my cousin, who is also a Harry Potter fan!  I used the same tutorial by Jennifer over on Fandom in Stitches, but I changed the dimensions to make a smaller purse.

And since my cousin enjoys more of the daring qualities of Gryffindor, I paper-pieced a Gryffindor crest for the front.

And again, I had fun using some specialty stitches on my machine to embellish the straps and front of the purse.  It used up all of my red thread, but it turned out really nice!