After a manic match of mayhem on the roller derby track, it's nice to come home to some awesome pain and stress relief. As a gift, I made these therapeutic rice bags for my boyfriend's sister, Mistress Miter Saw, a sassy and spunky member of the Fox Cityz Foxz and reigning British World Champion of Pillow Fights. When she's not kicking butt, she's kicking back and using these punkified rice bags to relax those derby-inspired aches and pains away.

Using the same modified pattern I borrowed from Sew, Mama, Sew for the October 2nd, 2009 post Crafting for a Cause: Cool Rice Therapy Bags, I opted rocker chic fabric for this rocker chick and incorporated punk princess pink accents. (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Alert: Notice the scraps from the quilt I made last summer!) I also made a matching soothing eye mask using a soft pink fleece liner whip-stitched with pink embroidery floss. You can find a template pattern for such an eye mask here.

Whether you're recovering from a day of body slams and elbow jabs on the fierce derby track, or you're just struggling with the everyday aches and pains of a life on the go, these therapeutic rice bags offer soothing comfort and make a great gift for the roller derby princess in your life!

Check out the Women's Flat Track Derby Association on how you can locate, join, or support a local derby in your area!

Serging Ahead!

As if I didn't have a long enough list of craft projects and new ideas waiting to be explored, I had to stumble upon a new toy!

Purchased from Goodwill for only $39.99, I knew it was a gamble. But with Goodwill's 10 Day return policy for electronics, I knew it was a sure bet to pick up this Simplicity Easy Lock Serger and give it a whirl. After finding a PDF of the owner's manual online, I knew I was in great shape! All of the original accessories were included (rare!), plus four full cones of black thread - that's $15 in savings right there! After 45 minutes of using the manual to learn how to thread the darn thing, and another 15 minutes adjusting the various thread tensions and stitch lengths, I was finally in business!

Now, I was under the impression machines were invented to make life easier for humans. My new Simplicity Easy Lock Serger does just that - it enhances simple projects and simplifies certain tasks. But on the other hand, a whole mew world of crafting and sewing possibilities open up for me, making my life anything but easier!

I'm eager to try some of the fab ideas in "Ready, Set, Serge!" by Georgie Melot. Check back to see just how I put my new toy to use!

Crafting for a Cause: Cool Rice Therapy Bags

Back in May, I formed a unique collaboration with Heartland Hospice Care. I'm now a volunteer with their organization who gets to spend all of her volunteer time sewing and crafting! What great luck for a craft-a-holic! It's a wonderful way for me to focus my creative energies and as a bonus, patients and volunteers of Heartland Hospice Care benefit from my creativity.

My goal as a "crafter with a cause" is to work with the volunteer coordinator to discover the needs of the hospice patients and volunteers and design a craft project to both fulfill those needs and quench my creative thirst. Thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew, I was able to create these amazing Cool Rice Therapy Bags. I altered the size of the pattern provided by Sew, Mama, Sew and used a medley of fabric scraps and remnants. I tried to achieve a balance of both masculine and feminine color and pattern schemes.

Each Cool Rice Therapy Bag includes a decorative sleeve, a muslin rice-filled pouch, and a tag of directions. The muslin-filled rice pouch contains approximately 1 cup of rice and is to be stored in the freezer. When you're in need of some cool, soothing relief, just slip over the decorative sleeve and rest the therapy bag on your forehead, neck, over your eyes, etc. The flexible rice bag conforms to the shape of your body, providing targeted relief.

For the patients of Heartland Hospice Care I made 10 Cool Rice Therapy Bags, 2 each of 5 designs. Now I can't wait to try my hand at other shapes, sizes, and fabric choices for some Cool Rice Therapy Bags of my very own!

Funky Fabric Project Portfolio & Blog Journal

(Click on Photo to Enlarge Image)

Dissatisfied with some of the craft and office supplies available on the market, I seized the opportunity to design my very own, functional Project Portfolio & Blog Journal. I needed an organized space to store ideas, jot down brainstorms, and keep my blog running on schedule (or try to at least). And ever the design diva, this scheme needed to be a stylish one as well!

Here's a short summary of how the "Funky Fabric Project Portfolio & Blog Journal" was created. Check out the corresponding photos too!

1. 1" x 12" strips of coordinating fabrics are sewn together in a random, alternating pattern to fit the length of the anticipated binder.
2. Cut thick corrugated cardboard or corrugated plastic as firm center for the binder. Using a bright hued duct tape, adhere two 8 1/2" x 11" corrugated sheets with a 1" x 11" corrugated strip running down the center.
3. Sew two 6 1/2" x 11" solid colored panels to the ends of the sewn strips. Add velcro closures if desired.
4. Add coordinating pockets in contrasting fabrics to the left side panel.
5. Pound two grommets near the top of the binder. Lace with ribbon or embroidery floss and secure a small calender or "To Do List".
6. Finish off by adding a composition notebook and commence with project planning and blog scheduling!
   

Crafty Quick Fix: Fabric Storage

Anyone who claims the title of "craft-a-holic", finds themselves casually scouring the remnant bins and clearance racks of craft stores, looking for amazing deals and items to inspire future projects. While its lucky to save money and always be looking ahead to your next project, you still have to find room to store all of those fabric remnants and leftovers from past projects. Storage is a difficult premise for any craft-a-holic, but especially so for an apartment-dwelling one! (For a real challenge, try it in a single bedroom apartment with a roommate and a cat like I do!)

Solution: Purchase a shoe organizer to hang in a closet. Inexpensive yet sturdy, this organizer cost less than $10 and really serves it purpose well. I utilize the bottom boot-size cubby spaces as a colorized miscellaneous fabric catch-all. The upper portion, with shoe-size cubby holes, is the perfect spot to store specific materials for specific projects, like dyes to make custom curtains or fabric & supplies to make plastic bag organizers for a non-profit group.

A Gift for Grandma

To celebrate my Grandmother's blessed 80th Birthday, I embarked on a grand adventure, fraught with frustrations, perilous pin pokes, and broken sewing machine needles - but ultimately made of love and filled with joy and fond memories. I made my grandma a memory quilt - my very first attempt at quilt making EVER!You can see the charming results above. I collected baby pictures of her children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, and great grand child. After scanning the photos into the computer, I chose to colorize all of the photos in a black and white scheme to compliment the fabrics I chose. White Pima Cotton and Black Cona Cotton accent the white-on-black & black-on-white Moda filigree fabrics bordering each of the family photos.

Over 50 years of my Grandmother's greatest treasures and accomplishments (her family!) are pictured on this memory quilt. And in memory of my late Grandfather, I hand-made appliques of baby red cardinals for family members I didn't have photos for. Crafted from felt, I hand stitched embroidery floss accents and outlines on each gentle birdy. To amplify the black, white, and red color scheme, I added a red satin border on the outer edge of the photograph panels to complement the cardinals.

After 4 months of sewing, ironing, and embroidering, the results may not have been sheer perfection, but sure joy was created in celebrating the wonderful life of my grandmother!

My New Toy!

I needed a short break from blogging and from crafting to recharge those creative batteries and reclaim those lost spaces of my home that occasionally get swamped in crafting mayhem. Those die-hard craft-a-holics out there know exactly what I'm referring to! While on that craft-less leave of absence, I made one of my first, real adult-like purchases - my first sewing machine! :)

After scouring customer reviews online, checking out Consumer's Reports, and getting helpful tips from a seasoned sewer in the aisles of Jo-Ann Fabrics, I finally settled on this Kenmore 15343 Model. At an affordable price (under $90!) and with many beginner and experienced crafters singing its praises in customer reviews, I couldn't resist the allure of this sleek machine. When you ease your foot onto its pedal, you can just hear this baby purr!

With summer finally here, I won't be posting as often as I did in June. But do check back often to see how I put my new toy to use! I'll also continue to post random recipes, sources of inspiration, and photos of my finished projects.

Keep this site bookmarked so you too can see just What A Joy you can have when you too let creativity take over!