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.