I've always been intrigued by the mini charm packs I've seen in the quilting store.

They're so teeny! They're so cute! I must have them!

But I wondered what on earth you would do with them.

When two of my best friends' birthdays were on the horizon, inspiration struck and I decided to make each of them a mini charm pack pillow. Both pillow covers were made to fit a 14" form. Interestingly, the charm packs I had bought seemed to "fit" with their personalities, making the project even more fun.

For such a little project, it allowed me to call on a number of different quilting skills - something I haven't had the time (or energy!) to do in a while.

Here's how it went:

First, I admired the fabric and arranged a 5 x 5 grid in a pleasing design and then sewed each row together using quarter-inch seams.

Then, using my quilting smarts, I pressed the seams on each strip, alternating the direction of the press in each row. You can kinda see this below. See how the seam on the top left square is pressed away from itself, but in the row below, the same square has the seam pressed towards itself? This allows for the nesting of the seams, which helps to make perfect points.


To sew the strips together, I put right sides together and lined up the seams so that they fit snugly into one another. This should work if you've alternated the direction of the press on each row. Double check before pinning and sewing the strips together.


Once all of your strips are together, you can press the entire panel, again alternating the direction you press each seam so that it lays flat.


And voila! Your quilted panel is complete!


Next, I added borders to the quilted panel, ensuring that the front ended up measuring 14.5 x 14.5 to allow for a quarter-inch seam on all sides for a finished size of 14 x 14 inches. The border fabric I used was a vintage find from Village Green.


Sewing the piping in was quite the mental challenge for a sleep-deprived mom. Which meant that of course, I pinned and sewed it in the wrong way first.

Guess who is going to be using her seam ripper?

This was the right way to pin the piping in before placing the back of the pillow right side down on the top.

For the pillow using the marmalade mini charm pack, I opted to add pom-pom trim after it was sewn with a regular seam. A little more time-consuming, but it looks (and feels) so great!

I love pom pom trim!

 This pillow turned out super sweet, just like the person I made it for.


I hope that both pillows find a cozy corner in my besties homes! Is it fair to get this much joy out of making the gift?

How quickly a year passes.

Last year on this date, my family got together on my parents' deck for a barbeque on a hot summer afternoon; something we've always loved to do. What made August 18, 2012 special is that it was the only date we could all get together last summer: one sister was just arriving from out East, while the other was heading off camping the next day. As it turned out, it would be our last barbeque as a whole family with my Dad, who passed away in December.

I'm so glad that we took the time to mark the occasion by creating this family "fingerprint" tree that I saw in Chatelaine.

We made one for every family, so each person picked their stamp colour and made a thumb print on the individual sheets of watercolour paper. I then went back with water colour pencils and drew the trees around the fingerprints on each one.

Helping our littlest family member (at the time) with her fingerprint.

Almost as exciting as a new clothes closet!

I thought I had a lot of fabric until my Mom saw the finished shelving. She said "that's nothing," which I guess means I have permission to keep finding new and fabulous fabrics!


The built-ins are just beside the closet and house our much pared-down collection of books as well as some items that are special to me.


Here's the nerve centre of the sewing room. I got the spool holder at Village Green Thrift Store and the chair at Homesense (perfect for a girly crafting room!) The desk is our old computer desk, repurposed for all things crafty. The painting of hats above the desk was painted by my Aunty Lucy.


Another piece that found its new home in the sewing room was this transit print that I bought when I lived in New York over 10 years ago. There's just never been a good place to hang this piece - until now!


I also came across the idea awhile ago to use cork potholders as small bulletin boards, and had a few spares kickin' around. I simply glued some ribbon to the top and nailed them up. Perfect for keeping track of receipts and other little momentos.

Also hanging in the window is this fabulous sun catcher which I picked up a few weeks ago at Bazaart in Regina.


It was made by Heart Warmers Stained Glass Studio from Yorkton, SK. It is the perfect thing for a sewing room, don't ya think?

It is so wonderful to have everything I need for sewing, card making or other crafty exploits at my fingertips. There's also still enough space to roll out my yoga mat and enjoy some practice. Not every girl gets her own room with a husband, dog and a baby on the way, but if you can swing it I highly recommend it!

P.S. I had some fun with my new app A Beautiful Mess editing these photos.

I've already posted about bits and pieces of the nursery through my posts about the drawer liners, making a floor pouf, book slings, and a bunting, but there's a few other fun nursery tidbits to share as well.

My obsession with designing a nursery was fuelled by Pinterest. There's a billion great ideas, mostly DIY that piqued my interest, hence this other nine month project. But I am thrilled with the results - it is a little haven that I find very relaxing. Put a crying infant in it, and I'm not so sure, but I hope our son or daughter finds it calming as well.

I love this crib. And yes, I know that you're not supposed to have anything in it with the baby.

A pricey trip to the framer's later, all my prints were ready to hang. Luckily my husband is a math whiz and figured out how to hang these so that they would align properly.

Gallery wall above a vintage dresser, IKEA lamp, Aden + Anais change pad cover and crib sheet

Boolah Baguette for me or for the baby?

What I'm most happy about in the nursery was the chance to include things from many of my favourite local artists and businesses.

Like this wonderful little fella from Boolah Baguette aka Erin Weiss. She's brilliant and so are her creations which you can buy on Etsy or if you're lucky enough to be in Saskatoon, at the Flock and Gather Handmade Markets that are held twice a year.

Shauna Buck illustrations, Anthropologie hooks

Another Flock and Gatherer that made their way into the nursery is Shauna Buck, a talented artist from Saskatoon. Her little birdie prints grace the odd little diagonal wall that you see first thing on your way into baby land.

Shauna Buck illustrations

Carole Epp pottery, ultrasound pic, original watercolour by Ashley Spires

Also back in the corner are these two hooks from Anthropologie that I love. These were the first things that I bought for the nursery and the last to be hung up.





 I have a small obsession with the Flock and Gather vendors, so not to be left out of the nursery is pottery maker Carole Epp, who made the darling plate and cup on the shelf. I was given these as a baby shower gift, but I'm not sure I will ever let baby eat or drink from them - they are too precious!

Also on the shelf is an original watercolour by my good friend Ashley Spires, children's book author and illustrator extraordinaire. I was deeply touched by her thoughtfulness in creating this original piece of work for baby. Ashley's amazing books also fill the book slings. You can buy her book Binky the Space Cat and other titles here.

Vintage brass ducks from Hiddenstitch

I nabbed these sweet vintage brass ducks from local entrepreneur Ricki Skoretz, who runs Hiddenstitch, a new home store in Saskatoon from where she operates her upholstery and furniture design business.

I also dropped some dough at TheBetterGood, our local eco-friendly goods store. I love this screenprinted pillow by Ferm Living.

Tiny train pillow by Ferm Living (purchased at TheBetterGood)

A few months ago, I made a name bunting for my niece Everleigh for her first birthday. I loved making it and so when my niece Claire turned three back in April I decided to put my bunting chops to work once again and make her one as well.

Happy Birthday Claire!

But I was still in the mood to sew.

I love the look of these so much, I knew I also wanted to make one for nursery to stretch across the wall above the crib. This was going to take a lot of triangles. I made a template and hunkered down.


Once you've got your triangles sewn, I trim the tops to make sure they are even and then pin them between the fold of the bias. Then I let 'er rip on the 'ol Pfaff.


I overshot the measurements on the bunting (surprise, surprise), so I ended up with a few extra feet of bunting, but better too much than not enough. I tied a bow at each end and nailed it into the corner where the wall meets the ceiling.

Another nursery project complete!


Full nursery reveal coming soon... (hopefully before the baby!)

Here's another great Pinterest find that I couldn't wait to make for the nursery: book slings!

I've mentioned these to a lot of people and I always get asked the same thing: "What are book slings?" THESE are book slings:

Each sling is a piece of fabric literally "slung" between the two bars of a double curtain rod.

I followed these tutorials:

Brody's Book Slings
Penny Carnival


I chose this fun fabric from Periwinkle Quilting to match the curtain fabric. But, true to fashion, I didn't buy enough and had to improvise along the way by lining the slings with a complimentary teal fabric that I had kickin' around. Serves me right for trying to measure while I'm at the fabric store!


Other than that, these slings were pretty easy to make following the online tutorials and sewing straight lines.

The hardest part of this project was begging my husband to hang the double curtain rods - he loves freshly painted walls and doesn't want to hang ANYTHING up once the walls are painted if he can avoid it. But my persistent nagging does eventually pay off and now we have this nice little reading corner in the nursery, stocked with plenty of great books already!

I saw this pattern for a floor pouf on Design Sponge a long time ago and thought it would be a fun project. The nursery was a great excuse to try it out and I look forward to seeing baby use it as a little seat in the years to come.

Here's the pattern.

Like most projects, it was all about the prep work: procuring and choosing the fabrics, cutting, cutting, cutting, and making sure I had the right supplies for the job. Now that I own a 12" upholstery needle, watch out!

My colour palette

Mass-producing the muslin lining

I made a sturdy template for the pie pieces by gluing the Design Sponge template onto a piece of cardboard and then tracing and cutting out all 48 pieces.

Bring the wedges as close together as possible.

Also pay close attention to step #8, where you sew the mirror version of the top half. Check and double check that you are sewing the wedges together in the right configuration so that you will have a matching bottom!



Seeing the pieces come together was extremely satisfying!


Then it was time to feed this beast. I ended up needing slightly more fibre fill than the pattern called for, but 3lbs would be a good start.


I spent a long time trying to even out the stuffing so that the pouf wouldn't be lumpy, but I think that the Design Sponge pouf was photoshopped, as there is just NO WAY to get it that smooth. It could also be on account of the fact that my fabrics were a mixture of broadcloth, cotton and a kind of canvas, so the stretch and pull of the fabric throughout was a bit off.

Because I forget my basics all the time, once the pouf was full I had to re-learn how to sew a seam closed, so I'm including this video here so that I know where to look when I inevitably need it the next time.

How to sew a slip stitch video.


If you try this project, you might be thinking that you could use some regular upholstery needle that you have around the house to attach the washers to the top and bottom. You can't. Once the pouf is filled with stuffing, you need a really long needle to be able to get all the way through. In fact, it took both my husband and I to hold the washers in place and push the needle through the pouf in a straight line through the middle.

Sidenote: It was because of my need for this obscure needle that I discovered Century Textiles on this project. This is a little hole in the wall of a place, but now I know where to find some of the weird supplies I need (like boning for another project I was planning).

Once your washers are attached, all you need to do is attach some decorative buttons to cover them and you're done. Pouf! Just like that.

Just chillin' out in the baby's room.