This year, it was my 8 year-old son, Parker, who had a plan.  He decided to string empty soda cans around the perimeter of our little garden  and add little pebbles to the cans so, in case Hamlet decides to make a dash for our cantaloupes again, he’ll hit the cans, they’ll rattle and, hopefully, scare him off.  Now, it may be because Hamlet’s older but, so far, Parker’s plan seems to be working.  We’ve had one bird peck at a strawberry but so far, the rest of the garden has been safe.  I can’t tell you how many questions I get about our row of cans, though- everyone wants to know what they’re for.  I actually think they’re pretty in an artsy-recycled kind of way.

It is birthday time at the Daniels house.  Tabitha turns 6 today and we’ll be having her friends from the neighborhood over today for an art party with a fairy twist.  We’re making heart shaped fairy bubble wands from colorful floral wire and beads, little painted chalkboards and the kids will be decorating lunch bags that will serve as goodie bags to take home their art in and the kids will also be decorating brownie squares.  That will take care of the goodies for the goody bags, the goodie bags themselves AND the snack.  It’s never a bad idea to have your little guests do most of the work at a party themselves, I think- they love it and it saves you lots of work.  And the cutest element of our party so far?  The cake that my friend (and Tabby’s future mother-in-law, if we have any say in the future plans between her son and my daughter) made for her.  And the sweetest thing?  My little boy stayed up helping me get ready for her birthday this morning and he started crying last night that his sister would never be 5 again.  How sweet is that?  I had to agree with him a little but I did point out that we get a 6 year-old sister now and that’s something to look forward to.  I hope you all have as nice a day as Tabitha is having so far.

Amanda:  Having spent many hours in search of the perfect decor for my home, I am well versed in the annoyance of not finding the item that fits “just right”.  So follows the joy of home sewing, where you can decide yourself exactly which fabrics and design you want.

Some of my favorite home sewing projects are throw pillows.   They are a fast and simple way to change up the look of a room, and when you create an envelope back pillow, as we will do here, you can remove the cover to wash or switch the look, and use the same pillow form.

Here we will be making a 20″ envelope style pillow cover.

Materials needed:
*1/4 to 1/2 yard of three different fabrics for front of pillow (this is dependent on your design, one yard of most fabrics will be about 36×44 inches, so plan your pattern first and buy your fabric accordingly).
*1 yard of fabric for back of pillow
*cutting mat
*rotary cutter or scissors
*quilter’s straight edge ruler
*coordinating thread
*freezer paper for pattern (available at grocery stores)
*iron
*sewing pins
*pen and paper
*calculator, if needed
*embellishments such as buttons or trim, if desired

1.  Draft your design.   You can use any combination of shapes and sizes you like, the trick is to account for seam allowances to ensure all 4 sides have the same finished length.  I happened to be planning two pillows here, so you can see both designs drawn out.

We will be using a 20″ pillow form.   However, I prefer my pillows to have an overstuffed look, so the finished dimensions of the pillow will be 19″x19″.   I use a 1/2″ seam allowance.     To the the right, you will see the dimensions of each piece of the front pattern.   Each side has seam allowances accounted for.   When you subtract each seam allowances, all 4 sides are 19″ finished length.

2.  Create your pattern.  After you have calculated your pattern piece dimensions draw and label them on the freezer paper.   Freezer paper is an excellent material for creating patterns, as we will see in a moment.   I use my cutting mat and ruler to obtain perfect lines and dimensions.   Be sure and label each piece so they don’t get mixed up!

3.  Iron your pattern pieces onto your fabric.  Hey! How cool is that?  Freezer paper irons right onto your fabric, and peels off leaving no residue after you have cut your fabric.  It is completely reusable too!    Be sure you square your pieces up with the grain of the fabric, or you may end up with wonky pillows!

4.  Using your rotary cutter, mat, and ruler as a cutting guide, cut out your pieces.  Remember, always cut away from you.   I have a lovely scarred groove on one of my cuticles from a cutting mishap.

5.  Lay your pieces out to check for accuracy, as well as to approve the final design.   If you are unhappy with a fabric, now is the time to cut another piece!

6.  Pin your first pieces.  Notice how I will sew the two smaller pieces together first, then stitch the larger piece onto the other two.

7.  Stitch pieces together using 1/2″ seam allowance.   After each seam, press the raw edges to the darker fabric, so they will not be seen.

I like to “stitch in the ditch”, or topstitch just outside my seams on the right side of the fabric, on top of where the raw edges have been pressed.  It adds a decorative finish, and holds the seam allowance down on the inside on the pillow.  I stitch mine approximately 1/8″ from the actual seam.

8.  Now is the time to add embellishments if you like.  I added some decorative buttons and stitching to my pillow front.

9.  Create the pattern for the back of the pillow.   My pattern is 20″x14.5″.  Cut two pieces with this pattern to create the envelope.  This pattern allows for a double-fold finished edge of 1″, as well as several inches overlap for the envelope.

10.  Cut both back pieces.

11.  Fold one raw edge of each back piece over 1″ and press.  Fold over 1″ again and press.

12.  Stitch folded over edge 1/8″ from edge of fold on wrong side of fabric.  I used linen here, which looks the same on both sides, but I stitch on the side that will be facing into the fold.

12.  Press both back pieces.

14.  With right sides together, lay first pillow back on top of pillow front.   The finished envelope edge should lay in the middle of the pillow, with the raw edges aligning with 3 sides of the pillow front.    Pin in place.

15.  Using 1/2″ seam allowance, stitch around perimeter of pillow back.  Overlap pillow back edges slightly, and backstitch for stability.

16.  Using cutting mat and ruler, square off sides.

17.  Lay second pillow back piece on opposite side, right sides together.  The middle of each back pieces will overlap by several inches.  Pin in place.

18.  Following stitching from first piece, stitch second back piece to the pillow front as with the first.

19.  Clip all 4 corners of your pillow.  This will make it easier to turn right side out.  Don’t clip into your stitching!

20.  Turn pillow inside out.  Use a chopstick or dull pencil to poke the corners out nicely.    Press seams flat.  I also like to add another decorative topstitch 1/8″ in around the perimeter of the pillow.  This is totally optional though.

21.  Insert pillow form, fluff and enjoy!

I’m also excited to announce that after researching a good place to hold a Fiskateer crop during this paper chase, Fiskateer #5489, “Lisa Pizza” who works for C & T Publishing offered to let us use the warehouse space at C&T Publishing in Concord, California.  We will be able to hold at least 50 Fiskateers and Lisa and I are working on creating a Stay & Play Café for this event.  We’ll be stretching your creativity by having mini Stay & Play projects with C & T Publishing’s products and Fiskars tools.  This will be much more than “just” a crop.  Here are some of the details we are working on:

*Stretching your creativity by trying new materials that we might not usually associate with papercrafting (think felting, mixed media, fiber arts, etc.)
*C & T will be hosting a mini warehouse sale where Fiskateers will be able to buy their products at a discount
*A Fiskars tool demo table where you’ll be able to use some of the most up-to-date Fiskars tools on the projects you are working on during the crop
*A swap-a-rama where we can bring our extra papers and embellishments to swap with each other.
*And plenty of snacks.

If you don’t have time to join the day-long crop, please feel free to stop by and say hello, check out the stay & play projects and browse the C&T Publishing mini-warehouse sale (but still email me and let me know you’re planning on stopping by so we have enough supplies for you!).  You can check out some of C&T’s family of products here:  www.createandtreasure.com.  You might also want to check out joining their Creative Troupe- I speak from experience when I tell you it’s a great way to put all your Fiskars tools to good use!   http://www.ctpub.com/client/client_pages/creative_troupe.cfm

…which led to us making friends with the nice people from StoneCreek Creations and us telling them all about the Fiskateers and how we just KNEW one of us would LOVE to win a Fiskateer lime green KomfyCush to use as a comfy seat pad/organizer at an upcoming Fiskateer event.  When we heard you could embroider the KomfyCushes too (we were thinking someone’s name and Fiskateer number in orange, of course) then we REALLY knew we had found something fun to give away on the blog.  We have to admit, though, we bragged a little bit about how creative all our Fiskateer friends are so you’ll have to back us up by completing a challenge to be entered into a drawing to win this KomfyCush.  Here’s what we’re asking you to do:

1)  Complete a beautiful layout about a special chair in your life- wow us.

or

2)  Create a beautiful CHAIR.  Yes, you read that right, a chair.  Rebecca is the inspiration for that challenge.  She created this amazing altered art chair last year for a charity event and will be making another one this summer:

Enter a photo of your layout into the gallery and your name will get entered into our drawing once, enter a work of art chair and your name goes in twice.  All entries to be uploaded to the Fiskateer gallery by July 25th.  Once you have uploaded to the gallery, leave a comment here with a link to your upload- we want to share your work with the KomfyCush folks. Randomly drawn winner receives the lime green KomfyCush and a surprise collection of Fiskars goodies to get you started filling it up. 2 runner-ups of our choice (we are going to choose our favorites for this one- and we’re hoping to see lots of chairs to choose from!) get a collection of Fiskars goodies.

P.S.  If you’ve never seen a KomfyCush, they are seat cushions/organizers  that have an extra thick padded seat, adjustable (and fully removable) side panels. Each side panel has pockets to keep your idea books and tools/supplies handy while you’re working on your favorite craft. They’re pretty handy if you travel to crops that have less than cushy chairs.  You can read all about the details on the StoneCreek Creations blog HERE.

Here are some good things about unexpected rain:

1)  Rainy, gloomy weather can be a great time to pull out a long forgotten craft project to work on.

2)  Getting that opportunity to use a much neglected raincoat.

3)  Gloomy weather often provides some of the best indirect lightening for outdoor photos that you’ll get all year.

Combine all three points by putting on a fun raincoat and running outside (shoes optional) and having someone take a lot of pictures of you singing in the rain and you’ll have great photos to add to your scrapbook pages later.  There’s a silver lining for you!

How’s that for a title to catch your attention?  Looks like Wendy Jo and I are both in the mood for some summer reading this month.  I’ve invited author Joanna Slan Campbell back to the Fiskateer Chatroom to talk about her 2nd scrapping/mystery novel that was just released on Amazon.com this month.  Joanna Campbell Slan  is an international authority in the scrapbooking community. She is the author of over ten books on the subject, and her work has appeared in all of the industry’s top magazines. In 2004, Slan founded a contest for scrapbookers in the U.K called “The Best of British Scrapbooking,” which still runs today. Additionally, Joanna is one of the early Chicken Soup for the Soul authors, and in 2007, she co-founded Sisters in Crime’s Forensic University of St. Louis.

Many of you joined us in the fall for our chat with Ms. Campbell to talk about her first scrapbooking/mystery novel in the Kiki Lowenstein series.  So grab a copy of her new book (HERE) and join us for a lively discussion in the chat room on June 18th at 7 pm PST (10 pm EST).  And you know me, I’m planning to have some fun prizes on hand during the chat to inspire the Kiki Lowenstein in all of us!

How do I instant chat?
1. Go to http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/prechat.aspx or click the ‘Fiskateers Chatroom’ button at the bottom of the page in the ‘Links’ section.
2. Read the rules and click “I agree” (if you do agree, that is)
3. Now add a user name (Your first name and Fisk-a-teer # is best so we know who we are chatting with.
4. Now- jump in and chat (you can see who is in the “room” with you by reading the names in the left hand column) 

What about you?  Are you an apronologist or would you like to be one?  Was there a woman in your family who was known for wearing aprons all the time?  Share your story, add a photo of your favorite apron, a photo of your favorite apron-wearing mentor, make an apron inspired craft and post it in the gallery or make your own apron to share.  If you post a comment and/or post a link to something worthy of an apronologist (something like what Wendy Jo posted HERE after she read Apronology:  http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2009/03/21/my-favorite-aprons/, I’ll put your name into a drawing for a copy of Apronology signed by Jenny Doh for you to have as inspiration (and in the interest of full-disclosure, I’ll admit to thumbing through this magazine dozens of times before I actually part with it and send it to the winning Fiskateer!).  I’ll also include a Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch because it’s so appropriate for a papercrafting apronologist, don’t you think?

Post by this Thursday Sunday at 9 pm PST and I’ll add you to the drawing.  This gives me a few more days to look through your magazine…