SAHRR Prompt 3 (Stay at Home Round Robin 2026)

Prompt 3 came from Emily of The Darling Dogwood. Emily said, "This week, we’re taking inspiration from the animal kingdom!  Any animal counts, from the smallest ant to the biggest of sharks. There are lots of ways to interpret Animal Kingdom".  Here are some ideas:

• A block or unit named after an animal: Bear Paw, Monkey Wrench, Snail's Trail, Birds in the Air, Shoo Fly, Puss in the Corner...there are so many!  Looking for something simple?  There's always that classic quilt unit, Flying Geese.
• Appliqué of an animal
• Pieced block that looks like an animal
• Fabric that contains animals

I thought about this and had a hard deciding what to do, so I finally decided that I would make an appliqué, since I do appliqué much better than piecing 😉. Since this is Valentine's Day month, I thought I would add the die cut word, Love in the center and then add a sheep and some fussy cut butterflies from fabric. All of these appliqué pieces I had already cut out ( from years ago) and ready to add to a background. So this one was easy and I do like how it looks on top of the piece (so far). I decided not to sew it into the piece just yet, as I will wait and see what prompt 4 is and what I make for that prompt, in case I want to place this block elsewhere on the quilt top.

Love die cut, sheep appliqué and fussy cut butterflies from fabric.

I will wait to sew the top block in place until later, just in case I decide to rearrange where I want the block to be.

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Knitting (Book) Pillow

Thanks Carla (of Creatin' in the Sticks) for hosting this blog hop!

I knew what I wanted to make for this Tickled Pink blog hop, which is a Knitting Pillow. I am sure you have all seen a Reading Pillow before, which is the same idea that you place a book in the pocket of a pillow, usually this is for a child, but I wanted a place where I could place my knitting instructions while I knit. 

I wanted to add an appliqué on the pocket too, so I chose the Love appliqué word die cut from Crafter's Edge. I did make this before Valentine's Day, so it was a nice Valentine's Day project. 

The pillow not only can hold instructions in the pocket, but the pillow provides support of your hands as you knit or stitch with needle and thread by hand too.

I fused HeatnBond Lite fusible web onto the back of my fabric and then placed the Love die cut on the back side to cut it out (with my Crossover II die cut machine by Crafter's Edge). When using letters, numbers and words, you must cut from the back side so that it reads correctly from the front side.

I love the Crafter's Edge die cuts as they cut so nice and the edges are perfect!

I quilted the pocket to StitchnSew High Loft Sew-in Fleece from Therm-o-Web. You can't see the quilting that well from the front, but it makes for a sturdier pocket.

The back side of the quilting kind of looks like wood grain.

Next, I fused the appliqué to the front of the pocket and then stitched in blanket stitching all around the appliqué. My Mini Oliso Iron is perfect for fusing or ironing small pieces. I love the turquoise color, it goes with the yellow walls and turquoise trim of my sewing  cutting & ironing room. (I sew in the room across from this one, lol!)

I chose to use a blue thread for the blanket stitching so the word pops more. I think the fabric I used for the Love appliqué kind of looks a bit like knitting (stockinette stitch).

All done. I added a carry handle at the top. I stuffed in a pillow form that was a bit larger.

The back side is an overlapped style, so no zipper needed.

A small, thin booklet will fit in the pocket.

Knitting instructions placed in a clear sleeve protector fits into the pocket too.

The Die Cut used for this project from Crafter's Edge, is the Love die cut.

Please visit all the participating blogs on this hop:

Monday, February 14th

Just Let Me Quilt

VroomansQuilts

Beckys Adventures in Quilting and Travel 

DayBrook Designs

Creative Latitude

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Karen's Korner

Days Filled With Joy

Tuesday, February 15th

MooseStashQuilting

Stitch and Quilt

SameliasMum

Ms P Designs USA

lynns blog

Storied Quilts

Songbird Designs

Wednesday, February 16th

Selina Quilts

Quilt Schmilt

Quilting Gail

Scrapdash.com

Lianne Makes Stuff

Karrin's Crazy World

Dragon’s Heart Quilting

Bumbleberry Stitches

Thursday, February 17th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Beaquilter

Stitchin at Home

Happy Cottage Quilter

Patchouli Moon Studio (me)

Words & Stitches

Inflorescence

Quilted Delights 

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Love Purse for Sew Powerful Purse Project (purse #31 for 2022)

On the Sew Powerful Purse Project Facebook group, they have monthly challenges for fun. This month's challenge was Hearts. You could do a machine or hand  embroidered heart, use a heart fabric print, piece or appliqué a heart. I chose to use this Love die cut from Crafter's Edge. The Love word was too large to fit horizontally across the flap, so I angled it and I think it looks even better at an angle. I added a bit of lace, buttons and a trim on top of the lace. I wanted you to see the flap flat before it was sewn into the purse. Once sewn into the purse the top of the flap is on the back of the purse.

I used a variegated thread to blanket stitch the word love and the little cutout heart from the "O". I upcycled some denim jeans for flap and the rest of the purse. 

This is my first time sewing the intermediate purse that has a side gusset/bottom instead of boxing the corners (the beginner style). The intermediate purse has 2 choices of flaps, both that have pockets on the flap, but you can also mix and match with the beginner style, so I chose to use the plain beginner style flap. I prefer the beginner flap becuase I can get more creative making the flap, which is the part I love best. I think this will be my new way to make this purse from now on. I love the intermediate with the gusset much better than the boxed corners! I can't believe it has taken me more than a year to try one. Well of course last year I cut out kits of over 130 beginner style purses, so had to work my way through those first. I still have 24 of the beginner style left to sew, but wanted to participate in this challenge first, so I made this one.

Flap before it is sewn into the purse, so you can see the whole flap.

Completed purse with gusset made out of denim from jeans.

Love die cut, lace, trim and buttons for embellishments. I even topstitched the gusset on both sides in the red thread.

The front of the purse has a large slip pocket.

On the back of the purse I added a heart pocket.

I used the Crossover II Die Cut Machine and the Love die cut both from Crafter's Edge to create this purse flap.

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