Jellyroll Quilt Update

As promised, dear readers, I finally have an update for you with regards to the previously posted jellyroll quilt! Now, bear in mind, this is my first attempt ever at making anything of this magnitude — it’s usually just adorable reversible totes for me! — so… Be kind. (Winces) To be honest, I’m sort of … Making this up as I go along? (I believe it’s called “quilting by the seat of your pant,” but who knows?) 😉 With that said, I’ve done a simple basting stitch just to get a look at how it’ll all come together, so no binding yet. That’s a project for another day!!

Without further ado, I give you… My first quilt, tacky-jelly-style!! Wooo!!

Remember how originally I only had that cool blue-green-sea sort of theme going on? Well, we ran out of jelly strips, & couldn’t locate another matching set (I had already scrapped what matching cloth I had), so Boo picked out another set… For the life of me, I’m not sure why, but he chose the silver/purple combo. It actually turned out pretty neat… Well, interesting, at least.

We Boo also selected the backing — a lovely, soft, fuzzy number with “comfy bumps” on it. Here’s some shots of that fancy back:

Ooooo!! How exciting, no?! (Squee!) I’m so nervous about the binding, but the links that the fabulous Sevi left me were oh-so-helpful, so I’m sure it will turn out just fine. ^_^ Hooray for calming nerves!! (Though some amaretto helps with that, too! Haha!)

Wish me luck!
Cheers!!
— Elise M. Gross

Happy 4th of July!! — Part II

Good morning!! Happy 4th of July, folks!!!!

Alright comrades! I promised you a looksie at what I ended up doing to that rad button, so drumroll, please, & without further ado, I present to you all….!!

Ta-daaaaa!!!!!!!

Isn’t it just FAB.U.LOUS???? I adore how homey it looks/feels. I feel like I’m looking at one of those crafts you find at the state fair, haha!! And it’s so BIG! (Insert joke here.) Seriously, it’s almost gaudy (the button alone is about 2.5″ across!) But it is very patriotic, no? Looooove!!!! Look, you can even see the threads where it’s sewn together! (Honestly not intentional, but I just adore how kitschy it feels..!)

I took some ribbon I had from the mass of sewing notions given to me last year & created the ribbon circle & ribbon strand (the blue with stars). The red “ribbon” is actually some binding I had, also from previously mentioned sewing notion stash. The ruffled part was done by simply sewing (set to 4 width stitch) a straight line down the binding, no backtacking, then grabbing one of the strands & gently maneuvering it down the other thread to get it ruffled. Sew it all together & huzzah! Then I grabbed a sweet flag print wrapper that I have had in my scrap box for years & sewed it on top of the ribbon strands. For a final touch, I snipped all the ends of the ribbons to get that cute ribbon shape!

Now, in other news… I know I had stated I’d make cookies tonight, but I was so in to sewing that I totally got side tracked… You see, if you weren’t already aware, I own an adorable Rat Terrier who was bequeathed to me with a… {shudder} …really obnoxious purple “Princess” shirt. Seriously. I had never owned a dog who wears clothes before, let alone who enjoys wearing them!! Like, seriously, she tries to dress herself all the time — this usually results in her having a paw through the head-hole with her face, haha!! (It’s been a very strange thing to get adjusted to, admittedly, but I’ve embraced it now.) In fact, now that I’ve learned to sew, I’ve even toyed with the idea of making her some clothes (not that she doesn’t already have a mini closet full… -_-;; ), so I went ahead & tried my hand at making a double layered patriotic-like bandana for her. Nothing super special, but cute enough. (Most of her other clothes have skulls & such…not particularly patriotic like. Heh!) So, here’s my slap-dash attempt at making something cute for my pup:

And here’s our lovely model:

(Pardon the messy carpet…it needs a good vacuuming!)

A close up of the bow:

And all together now!!

Aaaah….a job well done. Probably worth not baking tonight, but I’ll try to bake in the morning. 😉
Good night, all!!

Cheers!!
— Elise M. Gross

Junk journal designs

While at lunch the other day I was inspired by a someone’s post about a quilting technique. (I’ll need to locate & post the link later..!) I’ve been wanting to create a junk journal for some time now, & have plenty of scraps to get started, but this neat idea for quilting a rose made me want to try out a junk journal with a fabric cover, so that I could sew on this style of rosé! Here’s the sketch I came up with using the Paper app on my iPad:

Using that same quilted rose idea, here are a few more (surprisingly girly/elegant for my own tastes) ideas I came up with — mostly just working out layout… It probably won’t turn out this…pink… If I were to create it.

That second one is NOT something I’m fond of…that layout bugs me to no end. However, in the interest of sharing my process, I’ve decided to share even the ones deserving of the bin. 😉 Perhaps it’ll be suitable if I played with that arrangement more…it’s just too….(shudder) centered. Where’s the rule of thirds in it?!?? Oh, well. I do like the last one, however.

I then got a bit side-tracked coming up with journal ideas… -_-;; (If you haven’t noticed by now, it’s difficult for me to stay on just one task..!) So, without further ado, here are more (Nintendork) sketches of journal ideas:

This Chomp Chomp one could use some more tweaking, as well…

I love the quilted look here. I’ll have to make this one cloth cover as well. 😉

Lastly, someone mentioned to me today that I should continue to use my full name for all of my work, even my blog, since I use it for everything else, so from here on out, I’ll sign off as I do for everything else! 😀

Cheers!!
— Elise M. Gross

P.S. Ehh…not sure…what do y’all think?

My first jelly roll quilt

My apologies for the lack of updates, folks! This week has been a very busy week! Above you’ll see some posters I put up in my craft room for more colour. 😉 They came from a poster book pack I got from a friend.

While perusing the many blogs I read, I came across this lovely post about the Heirloom Creations regarding a jellyroll quilt. Fascinating! I went ahead & grabbed the leftover jellyroll pieces from making my beau’s dice bag & went to work! In less than an hour, this is what I had!!

Since I had used some of the jellyroll for other projects, I ended up having to cut up some cloth pieces to make strips that coordinated with the roll, but it still look great all together!!

Now I just need to figure out what to use for the back…! My darling loves fuzzy blankets most, & I discovered that I had some faux fur left over …

…but alas! Although it matches quite well, there is not enough to use for the back. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do. 😦

Another problem I have is that this is my very first quilt I’ve ever made, so now I’ll need to make sure I bind the edges perfectly!! Eee!

Does anyone have any suggestions on these issues?

Cheers!!
–EL

Cross stitching QR code

This week has been pretty slow, so I’ve been thinking about something I can make for my sweetie pie! I’ve been pretty fascinated with both cross stitching & QR codes lately, so I thought I’d make a cute little lovey-dovey post card with a secret message! I went to a free QR code generator site & made a little message in QR code. I then printed it off, attached it to a nice bit of card stock & am just cross stitching right over it! I’m planning on tearing the paper right off after — we’ll see how that works…

Here’s a preview of it so far:

I had to create a grid over the QR code image using a ruler & pen.

I carefully remove the paper…

Voila! A beautiful QR code cross stitch! 😀

I think that next time I’ll try printing on something that doesn’t leave anything behind once removed, like tissue paper. There are still little bits of paper poking out from beneath the threads. I can get most of them, but it’ll take some time. Gah!

Time to go work on the rest!!!

Cheers!!
–EL

Wanna’ make a bet..?

Are you a gambling sort of gal (or man)?? Wanna make a bet with me? ;D If I win, you owe me a cooookieeee…!!
How many of you thought Bowser wasn’t real??? If you say he is merely fiction….then bust out the bakeware, fools!

BAM! Myrtle the Turtle, AKA Bowser, King of Koopa.

This abso-freakin-loutely adorable Bowser themed sweater was made by the amazingly talented Jennifer over at Squirrel Picnic. (To see how she did it, go here!)

This got me to thinking, though…what other super-amazing-awesome-Nintendork items have been created?? Being a die-hard Nintendo fanatic, I decided to take to the interwebs to discover what possibilities floated about the place!! I not only found some awe-inspiring art works, I also found some kick@$$ bloggers to follow!!
Here’s just a few of the retro-love goodies that I found:

Ooooooh, yeeesss….these stuffed toys of awesome are creations of the amazing human being, Steph, AKA: nerdJERK. Not only does she have some pretty stellar items — (she also has an Etsy shop! Yay!) — but she is, & I quote, “a genuine Human Awesomeness Advocate!” What amazing creations from such an amazing person!

Um…Mario themed sweater vest? Yes, please!

Not only is this sweater vest TOTALLY RAD, but it’s available as a FREE pattern!! I’m not one for knitting, so maybe one of you fine folk could make me one instead of a cookie (that you totally owe me!) ;D Hehe! I found this gem down at the blog of Happy Seamstress, a group of very talented (& quite amusing) ladies! They’ve hosted Nintendo themed craft contests before — I look forward to possibly entering in the future!! xD

DUCK. HUNT. LAMP.

Quite possibly one of the absolute coolest up-cycles I have ever come across, this duck Hunt lamp made from an old Duck Hunt cartridge & Nintendo Zapper is SO AMAZING I want to go out & make one of my very own right now!!! The artist is ___ of Estranged Illusions, & you can find their post about this lamp on their DeviantArt page.
I have loads of cartidges, most still usable, but a few not working….at the very least I’ll hit up the flea market (Trader’s Village, y’all!) & grab some extra cartridges & a zapper to do this myself. Just think of the many possibilities!! [dies of joy]

I’m going to go back to drooling over all these super finds, now..! Do any of you know of any other awesome Nintendo themed crafts I should check out??

Cheers!!
–EL

So many blogs, so little time!!

I made this & added it to the Goodies section ❤

So I’ve been looking for a way to follow all of these amazing blogs I keep coming across that aren’t on wordpress, & I really dislike RSS (it’s a personal thing. 😛 ) Luckily, I’ve come across an amazing site that lets me follow ANY BLOG EVER!! It’s bloglovin.com, & if you haven’t heard of it & you blog, go sign up!! I did, & I can now happily peruse my favourite bloggers all in one space. Huzzah!

Oh!! & if you have a blog of your own, you can even add your blog to your profile & link it — for example, you can follow my blog on bloglovin by going here!

Now, bear in mind that you can follow any blog, even if they’re not signed up to bloglovin, & you can use bloglovin to discover new blogs.

I just figured I’d share this since it’s so fun!! Do you guys know any other awesome blogs I should follow??

Cheers!!
–EL

Episode VI: Return of the Geeky Soap

Luke Soapwalker has returned to his home planet of Earth in an attempt to rescue his friend Hand Soap from the clutches of the vile gangster Rubba the Dirt.
Little does Luke know that the GERMACTIC EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a new foul dirt station even more dirty than the first dreaded Dirt Star.
When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of rebels struggling to restore cleanliness to the galaxy…

[queue maniacal laughter] Yes, my pretties…they have returned!! In this episode, I have gone beyond mere R0b0t soaps..! In a galaxy far, far away…wait, no, I mean right here, I have created a whole new concoction of delicious smelling, luxurious feeling soaps!

I’m actually quite excited, as I got to use activated charcoal & hibiscus flower powder in this batch. After a bit of trial & error, I am pleased to say they turned out pretty nifty, & we’ve been using them like Lady Macbeth up in here!! Har-har!

Here’s what I created this time:

Let’s have some close-ups, shall we? 😉

This Vader Soap is made up of SLS-free glycerin soap base with hibiscus flower powder added to it, & his head is made entirely from activated charcoal in mango butter base. I have scented him using a clean scent that makes me think of fresh laundry, but with a bit of a smokey smell, like a man’s cologne.

And my absolute favourite one thus far is the Millennium Falcon soap made from activated charcoal, scented with my own concoction of various natural herbs &c…. I call the smell “Sexy Cyborg” ;D
Unfortunately, in my excitement I forgot to photograph that one, but rest assured it was super cool… Until we started using it!! Now it looks reminiscent of a space ship, haha!

I’ll continue making soaps hopefully we can get some up in our Etsy shop soon. We’ve been thinking about renaming the shop to something shorter, like Cheeky Geeks, but we haven’t decided… What do you guys think? Should we stay 2 Geeks & a Grandma?

Also, what cool geek soaps would you like to see next??

Until later!
Cheers!!
–EL

Once Upon A Father’s Day

Father’s Day is coming!! Today I decided to put together a Father’s Day card for my Papa! I was inspired by a set of free graphics from somewhere online… (I honestly searched everywhere, but as I looked these up on another computer, I couldn’t even check my search history! I don’t know where these came from– if you know, please let me know! I had to sign up for their newsletter to download them, but I’ve yet to receive a newsletter, too…. )

Here’s a quick rundown of how this episode went: I started with my supplies…

There’s the cute graphics, which I printed on regular computer paper & then cut out (I wish I’d had something thicker, like card stock, but alas…) Then there’s the scrapbook paper (theme: The Once Upon A Time Stack), glue, & a pair of scissors/rotary cutter.

I had made some sketches earlier & put together the front based on those:

After the base, I added the final layers (I love stacking layers…such an effect..!)

I kept the little ribbons separated when I glued them to the back of that mustache graphic, & then curled the ends upward a bit for a 3 dimensional effect. I accidentally made the front a separate piece from the back of the card, but don’t fret!– I fixed it up so it looks intentional! ;D Here’s the inside before my message:

I added a bit of string to the tag graphic to make it look more like, well, a tag!

After message:

And the back of the card:

Gah! I forgot to take an image after I wrote on the back of the card! (I always draw a cute heart & write “MADE WITH LOVE” plus the date. Oh, well..)

Here’s the envelope I made using another piece of scrap booking paper from the Once Upon A Time Stack (I basically free handed & built the envelope around the card itself! Haha!)

And the front of the envelope:

Overall, I’m very pleased! :3 I hope he loves it!!

Until tomorrow,
Cheers!!
–EL