C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
House of Inspired! Creativity Cards
During my latest lunchtime dash through a local thrift store, I found a complete Card-Works card building set. It had never been opened – all the little parts were still neatly contained in plastic bags. It had 5 different types of connectors, lots of playing cards with building instructions. All good!
Wasn’t sure at the time what I was going to do with it, but a little voice kept telling me it needed to be mine!
I set the box in my (Continue Reading...)
Junk to Jewel: Gift Basket
I needed a hostess gift this weekend and I needed it fast. So I headed to my studio to see what was in my stash. I found this purse and thought I could quickly turn it into a great treat and still make it to the party on time!
The Junk
I used the liner as the pattern for the new fabric I selected and then swapped out the ribbon for a larger plain black one. I added a few (Continue Reading...)
Holiday gift wrap using the fast2fuse craft pack
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The challenge: To decorate some holiday gift packages using only fast2fuse® craft packs, some brown paper wrapping, and what was on hand in my studio.
Being someone who is known for my over-the-top gift wrapping, I was a little worried. I like tailoring my gift wrap to the person receiving the package—finding just the right ribbon, the perfect paper (sometimes even painting my own), or tying on a special accessory. Would I still be able to do that with just what (Continue Reading...)
Junk to Jewel: Heirloom tomato pincushions
I’m sure every one of you readers recognizes this image: The classic tomato pincushion. I have had a love affair with the little tomato pincushion for some time now. In fact, I have a canister full of vintage pincushions in my studio. There is just something about them that makes me smile. So when it came time to start making Christmas presents, I thought it would be fun to use my thrifted velvet cloth and fabric scraps, (Continue Reading...)
Meet Grendel, the cloth Halloween witch doll
I love Halloween! Pumpkins, brooms, ghosts and goblins, I love it all. So when a friend said “why don’t you make one of the dolls from our Make Cloth Dolls book by Terese Cato,” followed by, “you could make a witch,” that was all she had to say. I was hooked!
Before the day was out, I had collected my fabric, and read through the instructions several times so I had a good understanding of how the doll was to be (Continue Reading...)
Junk to Jewel: Vintage Skirt Hem Marker to Inspiration Display
Lesley Riley is one of my favorite artists—her art always makes me smile. I think it is her use of all those great vintage photos. But whatever the reason I think her work and her projects are just plain fun!
How lucky was I to find that one of her quilts is featured on one of the cards in our new Inspired! Creativity Cards deck. I thought this month it might be fun to incorporate the card into a little (Continue Reading...)
Quilt for Mom
I recently visited my Mom and came across a project I finished in 1990. Thought you might like to see it…
I purchased the top the first time I attended Quilt Market back in 1988. I bought it, with the idea I would finish it as a thank you gift for Mom as she was the one that footed the bill for the trip. I wished I knew more about the quilt pattern and the person that made it.
When in doubt (Continue Reading...)
Ruffled Lutradur Embellishments
When I was working on the over-the-top top hat project last Halloween, I played with some Lutradur® to see if I could make some embellishments. I had heard about the material before, but never had the chance to “play” with any.
I checked out Lesley Riley’s book Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur and was amazed at what she created using the flexible material. Wow—it really was easy to cut, and even more fun to melt! I had a vision of something (Continue Reading...)
Junk to Jewel: Old Candlestick to Elevated Felted Pincushion
The Junk
The Jewel
Supplies
12” tall candlestick – (mine was about 4.5” diameter for pillar candles)
One men’s large sweater – felted. (You may need additional felted yardage to give you the pincushion size that you are after)
2 – 2.5oz roving – color doesn’t matter as it will be covered up
Large felting needle
Paper for tracing pattern
Decorative pins (mine came from the scrapbook store)
Carpet/button thread
Tapestry needle
Decorative ribbons
Instructions
With roving and a felting needle, create a half ball shape a little wider than the diameter (Continue Reading...)
Fabric and fast2fuse Heart Ornaments
I came up with these heart ornaments as thank you gifts for all the wonderful women that helped me make projects for the Super-Simple Creative Costumes book. They were fun, easy to make, and used up some scraps from other book projects I had hanging around. Soon I had more than I needed for my thank you’s so they became Christmas ornaments, gift card holders and even package tags. I hope you have as much fun with them as I (Continue Reading...)
