Halloween Swap completed!

It took me forever, but I finally finished up and mailed my Halloween Swap items!  I am pretty pleased with how everything turned out and I really really wish I had thought to take more pictures of everything individually, but I didn't so here is what I have.

So, I did a pillow cover, a cute little applique witch hat hoop, a QAYG open wide zipper pouch, 2 berry boxes, and then I added in some little Halloween goodies I picked up at Joann's.  I hope my partner likes it!

Here is a close up look at the hoop.

So, anyway...I am waiting for a package from my partner so as soon as I get that I will post a picture of it here!  I have been really busy with PTO and work so my posting will probably be pretty sporadic.  I do have a mini quilt swap that I am doing and I am going to do this quilt-a-long so I will post progress with those as I have a chance.

I am not a beginning quilter, but I am going to be making a lot of baby quilts for friends in the next few months and I LOVE this pattern so I am going to give it a go!

xoxo, Shelly

Sherbet Pips Quilt Completed

I started this quilt quite a long time ago.  I want to say it was in the fall last year even though I bought the fabric for it just after the fabric was released.  I managed to get 2 rows of the blocks done before I put it all away, but I was determined that it was going to be my first big project to complete when I got my sewing area all set up. 

Here is the full view.  It's actually a pretty big quilt.  Before I washed it up it was about 68" x 90".  I am sure it shrunk up a bit, but it's still a good size!

I had just a fun time making this one.  The top actually went together pretty quickly, it was the quilting that was very time consuming.  I decided the best way to quilt it would be a free motion, meandering design.  I ended spending about 7 hours over the course of 3 days quilting it on my Janome.  My hands were killing me and I have to say that I am very thankful for the cheap gardening gloves I found.  They have little rubber nubs on the fingers and they are perfect for machine quilting!  Actually, I think my sister gave them to me a couple years ago at my niece's garden themed birthday party. 

 Anywho...I love how it turned out and I am now no longer afraid of free motion so I am going to start practicing some different quilting designs to use on future projects.  This is the first one I am stoked to try out.  I just love the final look of the petals. I am sure I will have to use it on a small project before I have the nerve to test it out on something big.

I got pretty lucky that my backing fabric ended up matching the top perfectly.  I wanted a backing that I didn't have to piece so I looked at the wide backing fabric on Fabric.com and I ended up loving this one.  It's a swirly paisley print that also has houndstooth.  The pinks match perfectly so I was a happy quilter.  

I am a sucker for a pin dot binding and this pink is the perfect match as well as being just the right thing to offset how much of the Kona Ash that I used.  I love the pop of brighter pink around the edges.  I think it was just the perfect touch to finish it all up.  I did a wider binding than I usually do and I ended up really liking it more than the thinner so this may be my go-to binding size from now on.

Now that this project is completed I am working on a swap!  I haven't done a swap in a couple years now and I am excited to be taking part in this one.  It's a secret partner swap and it's for Halloween.  I will post more about that soon...

xoxo, Shelly

Etsy Shop is back up and running!

I worked on some new things today and I decided to go ahead and get them in my Etsy shop now so that I don't have to spend time listing a lot of stuff at one time! 

I spent some time sewing today and I whipped up these journal covers.  I just love these things, they are so fun to make and I love how each one is different.  It's fun to come up with new color/fabric combinations for each one.  My favorite of these from today, though, is the Neptune one.  I found this section of strips already sewn together so I had to use it.  It was left over from the pillow I made that's featured on the front cover of Heather's Pillow Pop book.  How fun is that?!!

So, here they are...

I really do love them all though...I have made 8 of these in the past 4 days or so and that was just in 2 days of actual sewing!  This is the one I made for myself...

And these are the ones I made for this kids.  Bailey designed the heart for hers and she helped with the piecing also.

I am working on some other things for the store.  I want to make some big picnic type blankets that you can roll up and put in your car for those outings when you need a blanket to sit on.  I will probably be doing some pot holders and coasters, maybe some place mat sets for the kitchen.  I want to do some little zip bags and possibly things like sunglasses cases.  I have lots of ideas!!

If you are interested in any of the 4 journal covers posted there at the top, go check them out in my Etsy Shop, Pink Punk Threads.  I think you will find that they are very reasonably priced!

If you have any ideas for things you would like to see in my shop leave me a comment, I am always open for suggestions!

xoxo, Shelly

New Sewing Space

Ok....so I know I have been absent for a long time!

 I have been working and focusing on my blog with Heather. I have recently started sewing again after a pretty long break and I have decided that I want to re-open my Etsy store and start selling some pre-made stuff in there again.

The first thing I wanted to do was to get rid of the Boutique part of my name. As you can see I am now Pink Punk Threads.  I wanted something that was a little different, but I wanted to keep the Pink Punk since I have used that for so long.  I am working on some new things to stock up my store right now.  It will all be ready to ship items.  I will no longer do any custom work.  I just don't have the time and frankly, after a pretty bad experience where I was taken advantage of by a customer I just don't want to do custom work.  I will also only be shipping in the US.

So, my sewing stuff has been packed away for almost a year now and I wanted to have a space where I can get to it whenever the urge to sew hits me.  I have spent the last week setting up my new sewing space and I just love it so far!

I love having my own desk!  I have my Janome set up and I keep my laptop there so I can listen to music or check pinterest, etc...  I also love that I have drawers to put all my thread and stuff  in.  I will have to take pictures of those soon.  The shelves came from my sister in exchange for a quilt that I made her.  It was a kit from Moda and it turned out really nice. As soon as she takes  a picture of the finished quilt I will post it.  I decided to go with plastic shoe boxes from Home Depot for all my smaller cuts of fabric. I organized according to color and I like that they won't get dusty and I don't have to worry about the stacks falling over!  On the top shelf I have my bigger cuts wrapped on comic book boards, then I have even bigger cuts just folded and stacked. The little basket on the 3rd shelf has a couple of quilt kits and a table runner kit.  The big apothecary jars on top are from Walmart and they are full of zippers and ribbon spools.

This smaller shelf is just next to my back door.  On it I have some jelly rolls and FQ sets in the shelf on top.  The top shelves have more FG sets, my home made magazine holders and a cute zipper bag that Heather made for me.  It's filled with all my hexie making supplies and finished hexies from swaps.  The 2nd shelf hold my WIP's and a couple of kraft bags with bit's of interfacing and odds and ends.  The bottom shelf hold my box for scraps, boxes of ribbon (left from my scrapbooking days) and big cuts of flannel for backings.

The box on the bottom and the magazine holder boxes I made with USPS priority boxes.I covered them with kraft wrapping paper that I picked up at Dollar Tree for $1 a roll.  I also made a big "magazine holder" style box to set at the end of my desk to hold my big ruler, peltex and  rolls of interfacing.  I did make quite a mess with the spray glue though!  It's lovely to make things that are useful out of things I have around the house and I have an overabundance of USPS boxes to use for things like this. Pinterest is a wonderful tool for these types of projects.

Now that I have my space all set up I am going to start working on things to fill up my store.  I am open for suggestions as to the types of items you would like to see me list.  I am also going to be venturing wider than just bags and little accessories.  I am thinking quilted wall hangings, Pillow covers, kitchen accessories, etc... Maybe even some patterns for some of my smaller Pink Punk Bags. 

Let me know what you would like to see in my store!

xoxo, Shelly