Spring is in the air and I got the “bug” to decorate a table…so I decided to have a family Sunday Brunch.

The centerpiece I chose was really sweet and a super easy one… soft lovely blue pansies in little tin buckets! Home Depot had a sale on 6 packs for 99 cents. Such a deal!

I decided to go with another easy peasy idea… and use paper plates. No dish washing involved. You can find some really darling ones at Tuesday Morning. I have found that most any paper plate looks great with a charger underneath. So that’s my tip of the day for ya! I got the quilted table runner and napkins there too.(it was awhile ago tho). If you have a Tuesday Morning in your area you have to check them out!

My color palate was robins egg blue and brown. If you have seen any of my other table scapes you know that I love to do layers, mixing fabrics and using different prints. It is just so fun for me! I love how the brown polka dot fabric just pops and adds contrast!

To finish off the table I used vintage napkins (I have collected them for years) and tied them to the back of my chairs with brown ribbon. It added just the right final flair to the table.

We all had a lovely day and our brunch menu consisted of: yummy Ham and bacon quiche, croissant chicken salad sandwiches, fruit salad, green salad and fruit juices. It was so fun to be all together and enjoy the company of family and friends. Good times for sure!

My new favorite fabrics are found at “BLEND FABRICS“!! They have such yummy, delightful prints, styles and colors!! You have got to take a look.

Blend fabrics is a division of “Anna Griffin”. “Blend is a collective of many artists work, a mixture of styles, and a celebration of talent,” said Anna Griffin, president of Anna Griffin, Inc.  “Blend Fabrics is a high-end textile design company that supplies fabrics and licensed designs to major retailers, independent retailers and e-commerce retailers worldwide.”

Sounds fantastic right!

CURBY’S CLOSET is promoting our baby shoe patterns using BLEND FABRICS. And let me tell you it is a great combo! We are even showcasing some of their amazing fabrics on 3 of our most popular pattern covers. Let’s just say… they look adorable!! See their blog for more details. Some of my favorite collections are: Babysaurus, Magic Garden and Homespun Chic.

If you are looking for new, bright, fun fabrics for your sewing or quilting projects take a look at Blend Fabrics! You will not be disappointed. Their fabrics are so lovely in person and were a joy for me to sew and create with. Quilt Shop owners will love these fabrics! They will look fabulous in your shop and your customers will love them too! Free patterns and projects are offered on their website also. Yay!! I LOVE FREE PATTERNS!! Don’t you?

Follow “Blend Fabrics” on facebook and Pinterest.

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Yep, you heard me right! I said you can “make your own quilted baby shoes”!! You don’t even have to be a quilter, but you do need to know how to sew.

These sweet baby shoes are so fun to make and  pretty easy too! With our Curbys Closet Quilted Baby Shoe kits you can whip up a pair in a couple of hours!! How COOL  is that!!

Here is an example of our Mary Jane Baby Shoe Kit. Everything you need is included.

Pre-quilted fabrics and easy to follow patterns are all ready to for you. Plus ribbon, buttons and even velcro are included.

Darling little shoes like these can easily be handmade by you. What a precious gift for a friend or family member.

You will be the ” hit”  of any baby shower with these little gems wrapped in a bow!!

Perfect for when you want a fun little project to do.

Curbys Closet Quilted Baby Shoe Kits can be purchased in our ETSY shop.  So stop on by soon. We have several little girl shoe kits and even a little boy cowboy boot kit also.

Let the holiday’s begin…

This year I decided to make a red ribbon wreath for the front door. I can’t remember where I saw this idea ( I would have definitely given the link) but i just knew I had to make one.

If you can tie a knot you can make this wreath. Trust me it’s really very easy.

I began with a 12″ strofoam wreath form and 2 1/2″ wide red satin ribbon. (Lots of it, got mine at Costco) I would say at least 25 yrds. Cut your ribbon into pieces measuring approx. 16″ inches long and tie each one around the stro wreath and make a knot.  Continue all the way around the wreath until it is all filled in. Afterwards trim the inside ribbon ends evenly and the outside ribbon ends also. It’s really just that fast and easy!!

I decided to embellish my wreath with 3 white felt rosettes that I just learned how to make. You can find the tutorial for the rosettes here at Inspirations by D.  (Take a look around on her blog she has lots of great ideas and neat things!) These roses are very easy to do also. Then I added quilted leaves (from scrap quilt fabric) and a red and white checked bow! And WHALA!! I’m good to go!

This wreath would look lovely in green ribbon or even white. Whip one up in an afternoon and add a splash of RED to your holiday decor.

I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit!!

This Thanksgiving was kind of a last minute thing pulled together at my house. (We weren’t exactly sure where we were going to have it this year, either my house or my Mom’s.) So since I wasn’t totally prepared I threw some things together last minute. I borrowed china and table ware from my mom and clipped most of the flowers in my backyard.

Thank heavens it turned out ok!

I just adore the “Old English Roses” pattern of china that my Mom has. She always uses it on special occasions. It totally reminds me of her. I had gold chargers and gold flatware so it worked great!

Thank goodness I still had several roses and the loveliest hydrangeas I’ve seen in years in my back yard. So I just clipped away!! My hubby bought me this pumpkin for Halloween, we didn’t carve it, so he hallowed it out and it became our instant container. Perched on a wire urn with a little Spanish moss did the trick!

A sample of one of the individual place settings.

These are glasses that my Mom got as a wedding gift in 1946. They are a pretty vintage pink and I totally LOVE them!!

As you can see I also borrowed many of her serving pieces too! Thanks Mom!

The cutest little favor I found to make this year were these acorns. I had  a cluster of them for each person. They are really quite yummy and super easy to make.

Here’s all you need to do:

Acorn Treats

Doughnut holes ( either from the grocery store or doughnut shop)

Melted Chocolate  (I used milk chocolate chips)

Chopped nuts or sprinkles

Pretzel sticks

Melt your chocolate in the microwave.

Roll the top of the doughnut hole in the chocolate.

Then roll the top in either nuts or sprinkles.

Snap pretzels in half.

Insert pretzel piece into the top of the doughnut hole.

Repeat

And there you go you’re done! How great is that? So fast and so easy!! I can actually say that they were really fun too!

Make a batch and enjoy……

Today I was sent this email from Maxine Ramey from “A Stitch in Time” quilt shop in  Franklin, North Carolina:

Hi Chris,
We have all fallen in love with your shoe designs! We have a free weekly demo at our shop called “Tuesday Technique” and yesterday we featured your shoes. I had advertised that it would be the cutest demo ever and we had a good turnout. (I keep the topic a secret until the moment the class starts so everyone gets so excited!). We made a video and I wanted to share that with you.

This video was such a nice surprise and I would love to share it with you. It runs about 10 min. It was a huge compliment and so fun for a designer to get this kind of feedback. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. (And I’m not kidding!)

I got to thinking what a great idea this is for the ladies that frequent this quilt shop. Every Tuesday they get a fun surprise! The quilt shop has all the patterns, notions and supplies that are needed for these Tuesday Technique days.

In this video Maxine not only gives a great demo on my Curbys Closet quilted baby shoes, ( and she made some very cute ones to boot!) but she also shows a new kind of batting she carries for craft projects, different scissors for different projects and the most amazing fabric pens I’ve ever seen!! They are awesome!

You have to watch the video just for the pen demo. if for nothing else.  If you already know about these pens and use them, please leave a comment and tell me how you like them.

Wasn’t that fun? And was I right about the pens? I had never seen ones that could be removed with heat. And so easily too. Very Cool!!

Now may I give a big, sincere THANK YOU to Maxine and  “A stitch in Time” quilt shop for this  wonderful video!

A reminder: if you live or visit,  in or around the Franklin, North Carolina area be sure to drop by and see all the wonderful fabrics, patterns and notions at “A Stitch in Time” quilt shop and tell Maxine that Chris at Curbys Closet sent ya!

This years Halloween table scape is all about the layers. I began with black and white plaid fabric, next black and orange big dot fabric and then an pumpkin orange floral fabric trimmed in lace.

My centerpiece was a black crow in a “guilded pumpkin carriage” sitting on a bed of spanish moss and accented with little faux pumpkins.

Of course I couldn’t forget the famous Anderson skull candles!

Or my favorite Debbie Mumm Halloween plates. I use them every year. This year I did add the silver chargers, they were only a dollar each at Walmart.  Such a deal!

What did you do to decorate your table for Halloween?? Shabby or Shrieky or both??

Many customers and quilt shops buy our patterns every day and sometimes they send me pictures or post them on their blogs. I thought it might be fun and you might get a kick out of seeing their finished creations made with our one of a kind quilted baby shoe patterns.

Let’s begin with two sweet pairs made using our Loafer #105 and Baby Shoe patterns #101. Made by Main Street Quilt Cottage

And such cute Mary Jane’s from pattern #110! Seen on Jelly Roll Girl

How about this fun, fun pair of shoes! Our Baby shoe pattern #101. From the French Seam

And who can resist these classic black and white Mary Jane’s! #110 (Not sure where I saw these)

Any baby girl will love these bright and fun Cowboy boots #115! Sent to us from Donna Demby. Made by Theresa.

And lets not forget a pair of sweet, precious Ballet shoes for baby! Pattern #125 From Crafts Direct

Or a  Rootin Tootin pair of Cowboy Boots Pattern #115 From Lickety Stitch Quilts

Such cute fabrics and embellishments and oh so easy to make!

Try making a pair and send me your photos, so  I can see your wonderful creations!

I’ll post more again soon!

I have been doing a lot of cleaning and going through my old clothes and shoes and throwing them away or giving away items that are no longer in style, don’t fit me or that I don’t really like anymore.

I am kind of a “pack rat” normally, but when I get going on cleaning and sorting, I really get the “donate or toss out bug!”

But what do you do when you come across a dress and top that you hand embellished in the 90′s with tender loving care, that either does not fit any more (and the chances of it ever fitting again are extremely slim) or has holes and damage to severe to fix?

Do you toss or donate? Or do you keep them around for sentimental reasons? Do you take pictures to remember them by?

Well, I decided to do it all!

The light blue top is the one that has the fabric damage. I always wanted to remember this design, so first I took some pictures of it just in case I wanted to ever replicate it again.

It’s a soft muted basket design with raw edge applique flowers, hearts, leaves and yoyos.

All hand quilted to the top.

If I recall the yoyo’s were found at a antique shop and are made from sweet vintage calico prints.

I also did a similar design on the front of a denim dress.

This raw edge applique basket design began with a tea stained battenburg doily. (Remember how we used to tea stain every thing?) More of the same vintage yoyo’s but this time with vintage button accents.

I even embellished the pockets with more lace, fabric and buttons!

And then here’s the killer… I even embellished matching shoes!! I found these burgandy suede shoes at TJ Max and glued on a fabric bow a tea stained lace rosette and a vintage button in the middle.

Let’s just say that at the time I thought that I was very cool and super original!

Now I will just have to rely on this blog post and my pics to remember them by.

I am still debating whether or not to pick every thing off and make them both over again.

Hmmm, come to think of it, that would be a lot of picking out!

Second thought I think the pics will do just fine!

Our 8th Quilted Baby shoe pattern the High Top is here! They are really fun and easy to make. Great gifts for babies, baby showers, or mother to be gift.

I remember putting my baby boys in shoes similar to these, except they were hard and difficult at times to get on their feet. These quilted baby High Tops are soft and warm and easy to put on.

They are  perfect little shoes for:

Rough and tumble Little boys!!

Or sweet and precious little girls !

Buy a pattern or our handmade baby shoes on our website www.curbyscloset.com/boutique/ or our patterns are also available in our etsy shop  http://www.etsy.com/shop/christeve92886

Thanks for stopping by…