Fabric Art

Check out the slide show to see my fabric art.

Customized Quillows

All quillows are custom made. It is 45×60 with a matching shoulder strap. When you are going into the game, you can carry binoculars or water in the pocket. When the quillow is open, your feet can stay warm tucked into the pocket. This also makes a great picnic blanket. All quillows are completely washable.

Pillowcase Dresses

Vintage, hand-embroidered, pillowcase made into a dress. The drawstring neckline allows the dress to grow with the child. They can be worn by 2T to teens.

Nap Mat

The 22×50 bed roll is great for daycare or grandma’s house. It has a 1″ piece of washable foam inside one end to lie on and a poly fiberfill pillow on the other end. The 36″x36″ blanket is attached on one side. When not in use, the mat rolls up and buttons closed. The strap makes it easy for little ones to carry.

What else can I create?

Pretty in Pillowcase

Recently a friend gave me a stack of vintage, hand-embroidered pillowcases. I had no idea what to do with them, so I just put them in a basket in my shop in Pasadena. They are cute and somebody will be nostalgic and want to buy them, right? Well, there they sat and sat and sat.

I don’t have any little girls and my grandSON isn’t very  feminine. So, I didn’t know about the latest rage, pillowcase dresses.

 

My sweet young friend, Maria, came to our quilting, sewing, craft night with material to make a Halloween dress for Liliana. I went home,  searched the internet and started making pillowcase dresses.

They are so easy to make. The original pattern said to measure up from the bottom 20″, so that’s what I did. I then notched out a “J” for the armhole. I used the material that I had cut off to make a binding for the armholes. The last sewing step was the casing for the ribbon tie.

Last Sunday, I took the dress to church to check sizes and get some reactions. Everyone loved them. The suggestion was to make them a little longer. I tried it on a 2T and a teenager. The neck is a drawstring, so it can be tightened or loosened. As the sweetheart grows, she can wear leggings or pants under the dress. During the winter, she can add a t-shirt under it or a sweater over it.

Hopefully I can send more pictures later. This weekend I sent everything I had to the  Old Time Trade Days in Winnie, TX. Marcy from M’s Boutique and More in Orange, TX had a booth. I was so busy working, getting it all together, that I did not do a very good job of taking pictures.

Here are some of the things I sent:

quillows

Nap mats

Seashell art

Painted “Stained Glass” bib necklaces

and of course, pillowcase dresses.

I am also very excited about adding my creations to a really cute children’s resale/consignment store in Friendswood, TX. Funky Monkey first caught my eye because of the name. We called our grandson Monkey Boy when he was little. I went in there to find monkey stuff and ended up selling my creations.

I am really going to be busy between now and Christmas. Hopefully I will also be making some money.

Longhorn Etsy Treasury

Today Corky Crafts included one of my stained glass windows in Texas Longhorn Fans Treasury. She does a great job of highlighting Texas shops in these treasuries.

This listing is especially close to my heart. Our family has a long history with THE UNIVERSITY. My dad, known as POP, graduated from UT in 1943. He then left to serve our country in WWII. When he returned, he bought season tickets for the UT football games. I wonder how much they cost at that time. As I was growing up, we spent many weekends, or at least Saturday, in Austin. I did not get to go to many games because I had 2 older brothers. They always got to go to the games if Pop was not taking clients. I don’t think we ever has a real Thanksgiving day celebration until they changed the day of the UT/A&M game. I remember one Thanksgiving we had sandwiches outside Kyle Field in College Station. Pop passed away in 2006. My mother still gets the tickets and we still enjoy those games.

In 1975 my brother, Larry Speck, joined the faculty of the School of Architecture at University of Texas at Austin.

Larry helped to found the Center for American Architecture and Design in the School of Architecture at UT where he was Director from 1982-90. In 1990 Larry became associate dean of the School of Architecture at University of Texas, and in 1992 he became dean. He was in that position for 9 years. Over the last decade Larry has “expanded the range of his teaching in the School of Architecture and has been a potent agent for change in the larger University of Texas community”. In 2008 he received the UT Most Interesting Professor Award. Can you tell I am proud of the influence my brother has had on this great institution? He is also a great guy.

Our connection to UT continues. My son, Barry, and his wife, Emily, both received their master’s degrees in education from UT. Barry Bacom is the Assistant Principal and Director of New Tech High at Akins High School in Austin. He graduated from Abilene Christian University with a B.A. in Secondary Education and later from the University of Texas at Austin with an M.Ed. in Educational Administration. Emily earned her master’s in Language and Literacy and also works for Austin ISD as a literacy coach. They are the parents of the next great longhorn, our grandson.

I have created several things to go with this UT Longhorn theme.

Visit MMB Creations on etsy to see it all.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

If you’re not, then you must not be from Texas. In Texas, this time of year is all about sports and team activities. There is football which includes the players, the band, the drill team, the cheerleaders, the flag corps, the crazy kids in the stands. Then you have the little kids running around. There are the proud (and not so proud) parents of all of these kids. The big activity is Friday night, but it really goes an all week. My mother says that she had only gone to 1 football game before she got married. During her 63 years of marriage, she probably went to a million. The year that nearly killed her was when Larry played JV on Thursday night. Randy played varsity on Friday night. They drove to Austin on Saturday to see the Longhorns and returned to Houston on Sunday to watch the Oilers.

And football in not the only team activity. There is  soccer, volleyball, basketball, dance, karate. The list goes on and on. My children are grown and my grandson in too young, but my nephews (and their mother) are sports crazy. The boys have always been moving from one sport to another. Now Blake plays football for the University of Houston and Brandon plays football for Friendswood Junior High. Lisa went to her first football game when she was 6 weeks old and she has not missed a game since.

Several years ago, I started making gift items for students to give to each other during football season. Now I have become more specialized. If someone can give me a picture, I can make a stained glass window, a quillow, a necklace, or a painting. That is what I have done so far, but you know I am always open for new ideas.

In the blog today, I am going to just post lots of pictures of things that I have made.

Quillow: a quilt folded into a pillow.

Bib Necklaces:  hand-beaded on fabric base.

“Stained Glass”: Painted on vintage window or framed glass

Paintings: watercolor on paper and acrylic on canvas.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at my creations for team spirit. If you are interested, check out MMB Creations on etsy and The Antiques and Crafts Mall of Pasadena. I would love for you to become a follower of my blog and a friend on Facebook MMB Creations on Facebook.

Creations Central

This past weekend I opened our front room up for people to come see my work. All designs are more impressive in person. At this time of year the seashell crosses are very popular. I am working to make the photos more true to the design.

It is not too soon to be thinking of graduation and Mother’s Day gifts.

The seniors would enjoy a stained glass window from their favorite school.

  

The women in your life would really enjoy one of the statement necklaces found at www.etsy.com/shop/

As summer gets closer, families think about going on picnics or to the beach. The quillows will be great. Stick your lunch or your sunscreen in the pocket and then when you reach your destination, you have a nice quilt to sit on.

    

I would love to make a custom design for you. Just let me know at msbacom@comcast.net

Keira’s Quillow

I finished the quillow for my great-niece. My sis ter will take it to DC next week. I guess that I will have to wait until it is delivered until I can post pictures. I am going to get the quillows that I made for Lisa so that I can take pictures. She has team quillows for Friendswood Mustangs, Houston Cougars, and Friendswood Broncos. I can custom make for any individual or team. They range in price from $35 to $50, depending on size and complexity.