Textile | Mother Crafter

Last Minute Cinco de Mayo Decoration

May 4, 2012 at 22:29 | Posted in Crafts - DIY, Stimulus | Leave a comment
Tags: aprons, Cinco de Mayo, Craft Shows, Crafts, diy, framed fabric, frames, Frida Kahlo, last minute decor, Textile

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow! Here is a very last minute decoration idea you can whip up in half an hour or less using frames and fabric scraps.

This weekend I will be participating at a Spring Craft Sale for the home selling my fun, unique and creative aprons. I am very excited to be back doing craft shows! I stopped when Paloma was born, so it is nice to be back. I have been sewing them all week, and while cutting one out of a beautiful Frida Kahlo print, an idea for using some frames I have laying around came to me. Use them to frame fabric!

You just need to cut the fabric to the size of the frame. You can exchange them for different holidays or seasons (flowers prints for spring, patriotic prints for 4th of July, etc).

Wish me luck at the craft show! Do you sell at Craft Shows/Bazaars?

Aprons, aprons, aprons

Bold and Colorful Curtains

April 23, 2012 at 22:52 | Posted in Crafts - DIY, Stimulus | 7 Comments
Tags: Bold Fabrics, Crafts, Decorating, diy, DIY Curtains, Draperies and Curtains, Home, Sewing, Textile

Happy (belated) Earth Day! and Happy National Dance week! We had a great weekend, full of activities. I took a Vertical Dance Class, it was so much fun! but boy, I was sore all weekend (yes! that is me!). And then we went to the Poi Fire Dance Expo in SF.

I hope you had a good weekend too!

Now back to business One of the projects in my never-ending list of house projects are curtains. Curtains for the kitchen, the laundry room, the bedrooms… see… never-ending! I only made the ones for the kitchen and laundry room so far, from fabric I got at IKEA. Very colorful fun print and budget friendly.

I hung a beautiful batik cloth Michael bought a long time ago in the office, and I really like how you can see it both from the street and inside, so I think I will keep it like that (one less to do!).

I made these when we lived in the apartment, we chose a rich red color burnt-out fabric that paired really nice with the yellow walls (and with Bob the Super Cat too).

Curtains are relatively easy to make, depending on the style you choose. You can find some guidance about choosing the perfect curtain, calculating the yardage and more here, here, and here. Also, check out these tutorials.

Personally, I prefer the curtains to be bold, graphic and colorful, so here are more ideas I absolutely adore.

Do you make your own curtains? Do you prefer graphic or solids? Tell me!

Bay Area Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival

February 27, 2012 at 11:37 | Posted in Crafts - DIY, Stimulus | 1 Comment
Tags: amy bradley designs, craft, Fiber art, Quilt, quilting expo, sew, sewing festival, Textile, thread work

I’ve been feeling the quilting itch for a while now, and quilting definitely intrigues me and scares me at the same time. Do I have the skills and patience required for it? Other than the quilt I made for Paloma when I was pregnant, I haven’t really got into it. Sometimes it take me a while to fully get into new things, but I am sure I would get around to it eventually. Maybe I could take a class this Spring.

When I saw that the Bay Area Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival was happening this weekend, I decided to go to check it out and find some new stimulus. I wore this purse my Aunt Melissa sent me to honor the occasion ;) The details on it are crazy, and it is truly a piece of work. I got compliments from the attendees, it was definitely a conversation piece.

The festival was bigger than I thought it would be, with exhibitors of all kinds and from places all around the country. There where hundreds of quilts. And they were all AMAZING. I rummaged through all the booths soaking in all the patterns, colors, textures and techniques. Beautiful, beautiful handiwork. One of my favorites quilts were in a booth featuring Amy Bradley Designs. I think her quilts are non-traditional and the majority of them are fresh and funny. She has a pattern called Fabric Addict that I think is pretty hilarious. It consist of four blocks, each one saying: Find the fabric. Hug the fabric. Buy the fabric. Stash the fabric (this one with the husband freaking out in the background). And the Quilt Diva Quilt is funny too. I love her quilts!

Here are more pictures of the day. From vegetables and flowers cats to army theme and everything in between, quilting has tons of possibilities.

Husqvarna, Janone and Bernina had booths as well, with all the I-can-only-afford-this-machine-if-I-win-the-lottery embroidery and quilting machines doing crazy thread work like this Art-Noveau lady in metallic thread.

I really enjoyed it. Maybe going there and seeing all the wonderful things you can quilt was the final push I needed to start my quilting journey. What about you? Do you quilt? How did you start?

I craft all night and party everyday at these Craft Parties. Check them out and party with us!