Creative Endeavors

I have been very busy lately with various retreats, working, creating all manner of items out of fabric, and capturing a dog that I haven't had much time to update the blog. The Christmas crunch is on, and I'm starting to panic, even though it's only October!
Here are some of the things I have been working on lately:

All of these are pins execept the hoopy one. That's either an earring or a wine glass marker. Could go either way. I couldn't believe how fast these came together. I whipped them all up in an evening, and not a solid one at that. I took a couple hours off for dinner and such. The orange flower has a vintage clip earring in the middle. I got the template for the holly and oak leaves out of a couple of applique books. I used pre-cut felt flowers and circles as well as the pre-made felt beads from Handbehg Felts that I got at Tammy Tadd Designs (needless to say, since I work there.) I free cut the leaves behind the flowers.
I was inspired by a couple of different blogs, Betz White and Felt-o-Rama. Both blogs have fabulous tutorials and links to wonderful other tutorials. And really, if I can hand sew these babies, anyone can. You can also use general Aleene's Tacky Glue and glue them together as well. Important Note: Only use the original gold bottle, not the silver quick dry, the quick dry left some schmootz on my felt, but the gold one didn't.
The turtle was the inspiration of my friend Debbie. We were playing with the flower parts at our quilting guild meeting and Debbie pointed out that if you folded two opposite flower petals under, it looked like a turtle. I handed her a needle and thread and told her to have at it! The shell is another of the vintage earrings I had.I thought the wine glass markers would be a great gift to have on hand. You can make a ton in an evening w/just a packet of beads and pre-formed earring hoops all from your local craft store. Display 6 or 8 of them on a nice piece of card stock, wrap in cellophane and keep on hand for that last minute party or hostess gift. Get yourself a nice bottle of wine and the glass markers and you have yourself a nice and thoughtful gift (for those that drink that is).The acorns were made w/two of the beads and small circles of felt glued to the top. I used a seed bead for the little doohicky on the bottom and larger beads for the top stems. It's a toss up between the acorns and the pea pod as to which I like better.
I also made this quilt top:

I put this together at my guild retreat in September. I wanted it to be a large sized throw to give as a gift. Even though I had added 2 rows to the side and 4 to the bottom, it ended up being almost square! I had not taken into account at the time that the cream in-between blocks were really rectangles. It also ended up being almost a queen sized quilt. Once I got the borders on, the ladies at the retreat convinced me that it was too large and way too excellent to give away. I must say that I was easily convinced.

The pattern is Pie Crust by Terry Atkinson, the colored fabrics are from the Moda Bistro line by Deb Strain, the cream is from Riley Blake's Just Dreamy line.

Sophie started playing with the corners that I cut off when mitering and noticed that you could make a pillow out of the corner remnants. Now that's a bonus, miter your corners and get 2 pillows to boot!