New Camper Kits and Pattern

Hey, Hey! Lot's of folks are at Quilt Market this weekend, but I'm here chugging away in the studio instead. Wish I could see all of the fun and new stuff at market, but I will watch on Instagram this time.

Even though I won't be at market this spring, I do have new products debuting there without me. My Happy Camper Pin Cushion Kit is flying off the shelves, actually the kits never make it to the shelves, I fill them and they pretty much go out the door in orders. It's been busy here in the studio and I am not complaining one bit! I felt like Happy needed a few friends to glamp with so please meet Kitschy and Little Sunshine. 

 

Little Sunshine has felt wings

Kitschy has her own flamingoes out front

Here's Happy just in case you can't decide who you like best

You can make all three and have your own little trailer park next to your sewing machine. That's what I have done.

And while were talking campers, the Happy Camper Bag Sewing Pattern is now available as a paper pattern. You can find it here in my shop.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

                                   

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Vintage Camper Re Do, Take 2

Hi! If you've been following me on Instagram (Jennifer Jangles) or Facebook, you know that I got another Vintage Travel Trailer. A couple of years ago I re-habbed a 1969 Serro Scotty Hilander. I have lots of posts about it here on the blog.

We sold it after our big trip out west, our boys had grown so much that there was no way the four of us could camp in it again. I miss having it and I really missed having a weekend project. I really like the process of figuring out how to rebuild things. There are no rules and it's kind of like a puzzle.

Sooo long story short here, I have been looking for about a year for the perfect trailer and I found it a few weeks ago. It's definitely not as glamorous as my Scotty, but I have big plans to make it cute.

We won't be camping in this one, were going to park in the back yard and us it as a painting studio/guest room/hangout. It's all mine so this time around I do not have to take in to consideration that three boys will be living in it. That means I can have more flowers!

Yes, you're seeing things correctly, there is no floor. (But there will be!)

Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated on the progress.

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DIY Holiday Ornaments

I decided that it was time to have a Christmas tree in my studio again this year. It's been awhile and now that's it's up, I have been having loads of fun making ornaments for it. First up on my lists of ornaments are todays Holiday Project number 4. These ornaments are a great scrap and trim buster. They don't take much to make and as usual, I couldn't just make one. The tutorial is at the end of this post.

You might recognize Lil Okey from my PDF patterns. I spiffed her up for the holidays by adding a bow and a piece of felt holly. Make sure to add a ribbon hanging while your sewing her if she's going to be an ornament.

The next two ornaments I made are from my new line of boutique craft kits. When I originally designed these I didn't intend them to be tree ornaments, but I have to say they fit on the tree nicely. Above is Folksy Bird and below is Happy Camper.

I have a few more ornaments on the sewing table and I bet you see those in the next few days if you keep up with my blog.

Now here's how to make the round ornaments at the top.

You'll need:
5" x 10" of cotton quilting fabric
2" x 4" gray felt
3-4 trims 6" each
8" black ribbon for hanger

Instructions:

1. Cut out pieces according to the pattern sheet. You can find it and print it here. Start by arranging one of the trims across the center of the ornament. Sew in place. From there you can decide if you want trims on the top and bottom of the center trim as well as another one across the center. I ended up using four trims for each ornament.

2. Next, align the back side of the ornament to the front. You'll want to sew around it but leave approximately a 1.5" gap. This gap should be at the top of the ornament where the cap will eventually go. 

3. Clip the curves, turn right sides out and fill will fiberfill. I didn't stuff mine too much, just enough to give them shape.

4. Arrange the two felt caps so they cover the opening in the ornament. One of the pieces should be on the front of the ornament and one should be on the back. Pin them in place. Fold the black ribbon in half and slide between the two pieces of felt and pin to secure.

5. Top stitch around the outer edge of the felt to secure everything. You're finished!

Thanks for stopping by,

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Our Summer Vacation

It's been a month and a half since we've been back from our vacation but I haven't had a minute to upload any pictures. So better late than never right? I won't post all 1014 pictures but I will show you a few of the hilights.

We headed out in our Serro Scotty for a month long adventure out west. Nik and I have been planning this trip pretty much since we had the boys, so it was a retry big deal for us.

First we had to get out west so we drove the first couple of days through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and in to Colorado. We stayed at a campground one night and then a hotel. Yes, we had our little camper but we also knew we were going to need our space(and Internet) from time to time.

Our first park stop was Mesa Verde National Park. There are ancient cliff dwellings of the Pueblo here, they were pretty cool to explore.

We headed to Taos, NM next and spent a few days wondering around town.

This coffee shop had four kinds of mochas, I was in heaven.

Next was Grand Canyon National Park where we watched hiked down partway into the canyon. Birk and I about cried on the way back up as Fletcher skipped his way out yelling "this is fun". That was annoying. :)

Zion National Park was next on our list. We knew nothing about it when I choose it but it actually became our favorite park. There's a river that runs through the middle, you can hike in iron a trail called the narrows, it was cool. We also did some tubing and lounging in that river as well.

Moab and Arches National Park was our second Utah park of the trip. Then we headed to Salt Lake City for a night in a hotel with watermark to celebrate Fletcher's 13th birthday. Aaaa! I know have a teenager.

After Salt Lake we spent a week in Yellowstone. I LOVED seeing all of the wildlife. It was right up there with hiking the narrows for my favorite art of the trip. We saw 7 grizzly bears, 4 black bear, too many bison to count, a fox, elk, beavers, and more. It was beautiful and amazing.

Last we headed to Fort Collins Colorado to see some old friends, had a great weekend with them and then headed home.

We could not of asked for a better trip. The camper was awesome as well as the weather. We all decided that we want to do more trips like that one and we surprisingly really liked RVing, if you can call it that in a camper so small as ours.

This leads me to our decision.... we decided to sell Lucy...and we have. We all agreed we'd like something bigger and we didn't have any trips on the horizon for her so instead of letting her sit in our driveway we decided that she needed to go to a new home. Lots of people looked at her but the right family got her, they have kids just a little younger than us and had similar plans to go to west and travel in her. We were sad to see her go, but we know we did the right thing.

Have a great day,
Jennifer

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My Craft Suitcase

I posted a picture of my craft suitcase over on my Facebook page and some folks got excited. So here is my really long picture loaded post on my craft suitcase. I always take some kind of box filled with my craft supplies when we travel. 

I had seen a few craft suitcases on Pinterest, and knew I needed my own. Because I LOVE to shop on Etsy that's where I went to start my search. I came across this little suitcase and scooped it up.

It's got room for all sorts of fabrics, ribbons, trims, beads, and more. I decided on a cork board for the top of the case that way I could pin things I was working on or ideas and sketches.

I made push pins by taking little tie tack pins and gluing buttons onto the pins.

They work really well and now I think I need more for cork boards at home.

It's all ready to take along on a camping trip in Lucy.

Here are some details of what I did on the inside. The case was in really good shape and I didn't really need to do anything. It was just a little boring so I had to spruce it up.

I cut a paper template of the bottom of the suitcase for my pattern. I ironed Therm-o-web's iron on vinyl onto the fabric to make it a surface that would stay clean.

To attach the fabric to the bottom of the suitcase I used double sided craft adhesive tape.

I went around the edges by hot gluing a cording to make it neat. I decided not to worry about the sides and leave them as is.

For the top section I glued fabric around the edge so it came partially into the center. 

I glued trims around the outer edge and then used double sided craft adhesive to attach the cork board. 

Last I glued some trim around the cork board. Then it was already to pack up. 

Have a great day,

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Spring Break Camping and Studio Organizing

Congrats to Julie Agler for winning the glamping week Give-A-Way. Thanks for all of your great comments and enthusiasm about the whole week as well, it was super fun.

We were able to get away for a few days this week in the camper. It was a test run to Florida, we have never pulled a trailer before, never hooked anything up....you know, we needed to learn some basics. We ended up at a great RV/campground that had a lot of retirees. A lot of our neighbors had started out in a camper just like ours. They enjoyed seeing ours and some even took pictures to send to other family members. They had loads of great advice and I'm sure they got some good laughs from us not knowing how to work a sewer hose.

I have to say the awning is still may favorite part of the whole camper, followed by my favorite glamping accessories to make my morning mochas.

Yep, I have found a camping espresso maker and a frothed for my mochas. I can't imagine a month out west without my mocha this summer. I was going to bring my big machine but Nik found these alternatives that work pretty darn well.

While I was in Florida I got to have lunch with Caroline from Sew Can She, it was fun to catch up with a friend and talk sewing and quilting. She's got a fun looking retreat planned in October in Key West for the release of her book. I really want to go.

We arrived home on Thursday and I walked in to my studio. It was an absolute disaster from all of the chaos before we left. I couldn't stand to be in there so I took Friday and Saturday to clean and rearrange some things. It's looking much better now. While I was at it, I called a contractor to come look at options for a window. I'm not sure if it can be done, but I have my fingers crossed.

Now that the studio is clean, I am working on some new sewing patterns that will be out in May just in time for Quilt Market and I'm sewing up a new project for you that will be in my newsletter later this week.

Talk to you soon,

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