The Polkadot Chair

Patchwork Pincushion Tutorial

2012-05-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

**this is a repost of a tutorial I did for Riley Blake fabrics. I'm posting it here incase you missed it** Hi! My name is Melissa Mortenson and I blog over at the Polkadot Chair. I'm so excited to be sharing a tutorial for a simple pincushion with you guys today. It features one of my favorite new Riley Blake Designs fabric lines, Go Fly a Kite! I loved all of the prints so much that I

Royal Design Studio Stencil giveaway!

2012-05-25T12:10:00.001-04:00

Would you like to win $50 gift certificate to Royal Design Studios?? It's the stencil I used in my dining room redo... you know the one in the post right under this one :) Enter 4 ways (leave a separate comment for each item you do). 1- Visit Royal Design studios and tell me what stencil you'd love to use and for what project. 2- Like Royal Design Studio of Facebook 3- Follow @

Dining Room redo using Stencils

2012-05-25T11:50:00.000-04:00

Four years ago when we moved into this house the dining room was red. In our house before that our dining room was red. After 8 years I was sick of the red. The problem with repainting it was choosing a color. I could not bring myself to paint it beige, I thought about blue. But nothing really sat right with me. To be honest I really wanted wallpaper, but was worried that a potential

Product Review: Easy Canvas Prints

2012-05-23T22:19:00.001-04:00

Last Summer when I was visiting Salt Lake City, my sister and I decided it was time to round up all the grandkids and "secretly" take some photos for our parents. I think wrangling the kids was harder than figuring out the exposure settings on my camera :)... We must have taken over 200 photos... most looked like this: yeah... not a happy baby... and camera focused on the grass not the

Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival

2012-05-22T17:04:00.004-04:00

Amy, over at Amy's Creative Side hosts quilt festival twice per year. I've participated a couple of times and thought I'd go ahead and share a quilt for this round. The quilt I'm sharing today is one I made for my oldest daughter for Christmas. I've blogged about it before but it got lost in the "crazy Christmas Quilt Post" so I thought I'd drag it out today and get some better

Teacher Gift Idea

2012-05-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

We are out of school here for the summer believe it or not! I'm still a little mixed up that it's still May since the kids are all home today. It's going to be a loooong summer break. For the last day of school I sent in appreciation gifts to my kids teachers. Being very girly I thought they would like a basket of "sparkly" stuff. Hobby Lobby had some adorable sparkly office supplies.

Sewing Patterns Winners

2012-05-21T14:57:00.001-04:00

Congrats to the winners of the PDF sewing patterns from fourteen may!! Liz said... I really hope I win! I love your patterns and style! Greg and Caroline said... Cute bags! I especially like the June bag. twelve30 said... Really love the June bag. And all of them, too. Thanks for the giveaway. Rhonda said... Cute bags, all of them! Rhonda S

fourteen may sewing patterns giveaway!

2012-05-15T14:09:00.002-04:00

As you know yesterday was the 14th of May! This is significant to me because I have this little sewing pattern company called: fourteen may Now I know what you're thinking, I should host this little giveaway on the 14th of May not the 15th- and you'd be right- but you may not know that I hit "save" instead of "publish" on this little blog post last weekend--- thus... we have a fourteen may

Tutorial: Summer Maxi Dress, t-shirt refashion

2012-05-09T13:42:00.000-04:00

Last Summer after I made my daughter this dress... she "requested" another one but this time with JUST fabric on the bottom... So to keep my little fashionista happy, I drew it up in my sketch book and promised to make her one this summer. I decided to make it from Voile this time. I love the light airy fabric and thought it would be perfect for summer. I saw that Lindsey at the

Baby Shower Idea: Decorate Onesie's

2012-05-07T17:45:00.002-04:00

Last month myself and some friends hosted a baby shower for a soon to be born baby girl. Since I always joke that if you come to my house I make you do crafts, I thought a baby shower sould be no exception. I got the idea from the Moda Fabrics blog. They have full instructions listed there. I changed just a couple of things: I pre cut out 8 stencils using my silhouette. Just simple

Win, Place & Show Ribbons

2012-05-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

I decided to add a bit to my Kentucky Derby Decorations this year by making some Prize Ribbons. I used the Number Junque, Spring Circus, Quaterfoil, & Chevron kits from Rhonna Designs. In Horse Racing, the first place horse Wins, the 2nd place horse Places, and the 3rd place horse Shows. Hence; Win, Place, Show are terms you hear a lot at the track. I just made simple

Retro Travel Bag Tutorial for Riley Blake

2012-05-02T11:57:00.001-04:00

Today I'm sharing the tutorial for this retro inspired travel bag over at the Riley Blake Designs blog as part of their design team. I guess all the time I've spent on airplanes the last 4 months has finally gotten to me, as I think I dream of retro airline travel bags. This bag was inspired by them. I love it... I'll admit I'm a bit smitten... as was my 16 year old daughter, since she

Kentucky Derby Party Ideas

2012-05-01T14:05:00.000-04:00

The Kentucky Oaks race, the race the day before the Derby, and the one we try to attend. Living in Louisville, Kentucky one thing is for sure, you celebrate the Kentucky Derby every year like it's a national holiday :) Even though I didn't grow up here I feel like I've embraced Kentucky as my home and find myself every year looking forward to the Derby and all of the great festivities

Easter Duds

2012-04-27T19:46:00.000-04:00

It seems to now be a tradition for me to sew dresses late into the night on Easter Eve. This year turned out to be no exception. I chose an Oliver+S pattern (Jump Rope dress, that I WISH went up to a size 12) that was new to me, I've always had great success with their patterns in the past and this one turned out to be just as detailed as the ones I've used before. I decided it

Tutorial: Vintage Hankie Burp Cloths

2012-04-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Oh how I love vintage hankies!!! Last year I made a quilt with them and had a few left over. I like to throw them into projects when I get the chance.... One day while I was thinking about what else I could make with a vintage hankie... it dawned on me... "a burp cloth"... I mean they are designed for cleaning up messy faces right??? To make them a bit more absorbent I backed them

Thanks where thanks is due

2012-04-23T15:40:00.001-04:00

I just returned from the SNAP Conference in Utah. I had a wonderful time. I learned sooo much that my head is spinning today.... One of the key things I picked up on was how important it is to be a part of the blogging community and show appreciation to others. So I'd like to just get a bit mushy and thank a few people: I know what you're thinking... I'm not thanking Diet Coke First- ALL

Doll Sleeping Bag & Pillow Tutorial

2012-04-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

This is a project that I did for the Riley Blake Design Team blog. I thought I'd post it here in case you missed it. Make sure you check out their blog they have lots of fantastic sewing tutorials! Today I'm going to show you how to make this fun and easy sleeping bag, that is the perfect size for an American Girl doll! Just a note--- this project has a zipper in it!! But do NOT be afraid!

Teacher appreciation ideas

2012-04-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

With teacher appreciation week and the end of the school year coming up I thought I'd share some ideas for teacher gifts that I've featured here in the past 1. Ruler Wreath you can also make it without the flowers, or add a mirror to the center! 2. Teacher's Door Pennant Tutorial 3. Summer Survival Basket 4. Popcorn Bucket with treats, add a gift

Day Four: Amsterdam Museums

2012-04-16T14:28:00.000-04:00

Thank you for indulging me as I share my thoughts about my recent trip to the Netherlands. It made a big impact on me in many ways, including creatively. Since I felt so inspired while I was there I thought it might be nice to share some of that inspiration with you also. By our 4th full day in the Netherlands, I'll admit I was falling in love with the Dutch way of life. A little voice in

Tulip Wreath how to

2012-04-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

Before I finish blogging about my trip to the Netherlands, I thought I'd pop in here quickly with a little Spring "how to" project. Feeling inspired by all of the tulips I saw on my trip, I decided to create a wreath for my front door for Spring. Sadly I had to settle for fake tulips as real ones would not last more than a day, but it made for a quick and fun project. To begin you

Day Three: The Flowers

2012-04-09T15:44:00.005-04:00

Okay, now on to day 3 of our adventure in Amsterdam, if you're new here you can see my other posts by clicking the label Amsterdam... you can also subscribe to this blog over here -----> to get the rest of the story.... after that I'll go back to posting about crafty stuff :) We had 3 big things on our agenda for this day: 1- Keukenhof 2- Van Gogh Museum 3- Eat at Rijsttafel We managed

Day Two: To Delft and back

2012-04-06T07:43:00.000-04:00

tiny car in Amsterdam Note to self: Always, always, always set an alarm when your on vacation. Day 2 started later than we would have liked. We remembered to open the drapes before we went to bed so the light would wake us up in the morning, however we forgot to also set the alarm. We ended up sleeping in until 9. Which for me is not a surprise but for my husband is. He's the type to

Day One: The City

2012-04-05T13:30:00.000-04:00

I loved Amsterdam. I'll admit before we left I was a bit worried. Every travel book I'd read and every travel show I'd watched in preparation all focused on Amsterdam's "seedier" components. Being someone not interested in those components, I was concerned. After traveling there, I've decided many of those assumptions about Amsterdam are not only untrue but quite unfair and borderline

A little Dutch Inspiration

2012-04-03T11:36:00.000-04:00

Got "the" photo in front of the sign Last week was our trip to the Netherlands. We got home safe and sound Sunday night. I'm still trying to process it all little bit, but know that I want to share my experience there with you guys. Tulips in Keukenhof I found the trip to be incredibly inspiring from a creative point of view. There is nothing quite like stepping out of your "comfort

Travel Journal

2012-03-30T08:06:00.000-04:00

For our upcoming trip to Amsterdam, I decided to create a little Travel Journal. I like to sit down each night and write about what we did that day when I'm on vacation. I'll also staple some receipts/memorabilia into it as we go, then when I come home I'll add in a few photos. It's 6" x 12" and is made using a combination of digital scrapbook elements and traditional supplies.