Do you need to make a last minute for Valentine’s Day?
Why not check out some of the free vintage Valentine’s Day printables that are available online?
Print them onto inkjet fabric (cotton, silk or organza will all work).  Cut them out and sew a backing fabric onto the front.  Stuff it with lavender to make a sachet, or just plain old poly-fil stuffing to make a softie.
Add a piece of ribbon as a hanger and you’re good to go!
Of course, you could always personalize it by writing on the back with a permanent marker…
image: Stock.xchg

b5media’s Lifestyle channel bloggers are a crafty – and romantic bunch!  Check out some of these great ideas for Valentine’s Day crafts for the whole family!

Junk Creation has 10 different ideas for Valentine’s Day crafts and activities.
Junk Creation also has an awesome tutorial for make-your-own candy message hearts!
Layers Upon Layers has pretty mixed-media art ideas to give as gifts for your special someone.
These heart-themed pieces of jewelry are sure to make some smile on Valentine’s Day from Jewelry & Beading.
Tree Hugging Family has some great eco-friendly Valentine’s Day ideas for your kids.
Tree Hugging Family also has some fun recipes, activities …read more

I’ve been a busy crafter in my studio this morning and have created a new free tutorial for you all!
I’ve been making these woven heart bags since I was child and wanted to share them.  They’re a fun way to package up little gifts and trinkets – and of course, if you change the colors, it will work for any season.  To see the whole tutorial, just click on the photo

image: © C Findlay-Harder

Are you making crafts for Valentine’s Day?
Did you know that there are lots of free patterns and tutorials for Valentine’s Day crafts, sewing projects and even cross stitch charts in the Tangled Thread archives?  I decided to make things easier for you and have got a bunch of the patterns for you here:
♥ Three patterns for hearts & roses cross stitch.
♥ Try sewing your own lingerie for Valentine’s Day.
♥ Here are two of my easy hand-embroidered felt “Heart Felt” cards.
♥ This is another Heart Felt card – this time it’s accented with French knots.
♥ I made these cute little embroidered …read more

I’ve finally got my last couple of photos done from the great Christmas craft-a-thon
While Tangled Thread isn’t a quilting blog (go to Quilting & Patchwork for that one!) making art quilts is one of my great passions.  I seem to create at least one art quilt as a Christmas gift for someone in my family every year.
Last year it was my brother & sister-in-law’s turn – this year it was my parents:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay
My brother took the photos of my parent’s pets and I Photoshopped them.  The photots were then printed directly onto specially treated silk sheets …read more

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally share what’s been keeping me so busy in the past couple of weeks!  Unfortunately, I ran out of time and wasn’t able to finish everything that I wanted – but I got most of my projects done.  I need to write a reminder on my 2009 calendar… start sewing more projects earlier!
I made three “Origami” needlework bags using this fantastic pattern from Quilting Arts TV.  I sewed the bags, wove the handles and my DH made little metal tags to go on the front and back flaps:

It’s just not Christmas without making …read more

I love having Christmas wreaths on my door during the holiday (don’t forget that it’s to make this wreath into a Christmas wreath by changing the colors to festive ones) .  Here are some great ideas for making your own Christmas or holiday wreath:
Got a big button stash?  How about a button wreath?

image: Really Bad Kitty 
Use festive fabrics to create this braided wreath:

image: Craftown
This would be the perfect project for the beginning quilter:

image: Sewing.About.com
If you change the ribbon color, this would make a gorgeous Christmas wreath:

image: The Long Thread

 I just wanted to post a quick clarification of yesterday’s post for creating a bird Christmas ornament with sequins.
I printed the pattern out so that the body of the bird is approximately four and a half inches long:

If you want to adjust the size of the pattern, use the “print screen” button on your keyboard.  Open up your photo editing software (The Gimp is totally free and available online) and open up a new project or page.  Hit “Ctrl” “V” at the same time – that should paste the pattern into the document.  You can then adjust the size from …read more

Hand-made Christmas ornaments make charming little gifts – perfect for tucking into gift baskets or hanging on a package for a friend.  I try and create at least one hand-made Christmas ornament for my tree every year – this year, it’s a little felt bird:

This year, I’m using felt and Bettsi McCombs’ lovely “Folk Bird” pattern to make my ornaments.   I sewed three sequins onto each wing (using my free tutorial from last week) and sewed each seam using blanket stitch.  The eyes are the same beads I used to sew the sequins on.
In one evening I sewed the complete …read more

 I’ve been going through my archives to find my favorite Christmas craft patterns from last year for my lovely readers
As always, these are my own original patterns & designs and are not to be copied or reposted elsewhere without my permission.
Here are two more fun embroidered patterns – the first is a machine-embroidered gift card holder.  It’s a great way to play around with different stitches on your sewing machine, and make a cute Christmas gift for someone special!

 This one is for my hand-embroidery fans!  It’s a crazy quilt Christmas card that I created using little pieces of …read more