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

Post from: Blisstree

Need some last minute ideas for Valentine’s Day?

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 and crafts for the whole family.
• Want to make your own Valentine’s Day cards this year?  Play Library has found a bunch of free printables online.
• And don’t forget that I’ve got free Valentine’s Day crafts for kids, as well as free patterns for cross-stitch, hand-sewn and machine sewn Valentine’s crafts.

image: Stock.xchg

Post from: Blisstree

Valentine’s Day ideas from the Lifestyle channel

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

Post from: Blisstree

tutorial of the day: woven heart bag for Valentine’s Day

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 felt “Sweethearts” last year for Valentine’s Day, here’s part one, part two and part three of the tutorial.

♥ Here’s a pattern for a free heart cross stitch bookmark.

♥ This project is for my machine sewing friends – Heart Softies!  Here’s part one and part two.

Happy crafting!

image: Stock.xchg

Post from: Blisstree

free patterns for Valentine’s Day crafts

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 (the silk sheets are fused to paper and are treated so that you can run them through your printer).  I appliqued the photos onto fabric, stitched them onto the background (which was created by appliquing more strips of fabric onto a “sandwich” of fabric and quilt batting).  I then mounted it onto a stretcher frame and covered the back with more fabric.

I also enjoy giving home-made candy at Christmas.  I bought some yummy black organza that had been printed with silver snowflakes – which I thought would make a great way to wrap the candy:

image: C Findlay-Harder

I cut rectangles of the fabric, wrapped the cellophane-bagged candy in it and then topped it all off with a matching silver ribbon.  The organza tended to fray a little so I trimmed off the ends with my pinking sheers.

Voila!  Quick, easy and festive wrapping – just the way I like it

Post from: Blisstree

The final Christmas projects round-up

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 at least one men’s dress shirt:

I also made a couple of shirts using the “Soft N’ Stretchy” transfer paper – which were awfully popular!

My husband requested a pair of suspenders, so my mom, Noreen and I collaborated to make him this pair:

Noreen wove the fabric strips and I sewed them together.

He had requested a pair of trucker suspenders, which definitely took some detective work to get together…  I still need to shorten up the back straps though:

I’ve got a couple of more projects to share – but that’s for another day and another post!

images: © C Findlay-Harder

Post from: Blisstree

Want to see what I’ve been working on?

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

Post from: Blisstree

Christmas & holiday wreath inspirations

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 there.

Either that or take it to a copy shop and let them increase the size as needed.

I used a plain, polyester fiber-fill to stuff the ornament.  I didn’t stuff it too firmly, because I didn’t want to stuffing to poke out through the blanket stitching.

Any more questions?  Let me know!

image: © C Findlay-Harder

Post from: Blisstree

how-to of the day – free pattern tutorial sewing christmas ornaments with sequins – pattern sizing

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 ornament – I think I may make more now!

image: © C Findlay-Harder 

Post from: Blisstree

how-to of the day – sewing sequins onto Christmas ornaments – the finished ornament

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 fabric, lace, ribbon, buttons and even a yo-yo.  It’s all finished with blanket and straight stitches, but you can get as fancy as you’d like with it!

 all images: © C Findlay-Harder

Post from: Blisstree

More embroidered Christmas craft how-tos