On a Roll

Well four post in two days. I am on a roll. I just had to share that the Sewing Expo is coming up in March. I took the time tonight to register. I usually take four days worth of classes but this year I need to conserve vacation as my kids are changing schools so I'll be home most of the days they are home once fall comes along. Anyway, it was hard to choose but here are the three classes I am taking at the Atlanta Expo. If you come let me know. I'd love to chat.

Peacock Pin Cushion

Coffee Filter Fans Quilt

Whirlgig Quilt

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Prettying it Up

So I took a little inspiration from the Nester and choose to put up a plate display on my sewing room wall. I'll admit the TV throws it off. But I can't decide if it looks good, if I should remove the blue plates all together or if I should make it symmetrical by place two above and two below or two blues on each side. For some reason the two blues on each side looked odd. I think because the wall is so small. Give me your opinion and if you can't visualize and need a demo of what I'm asking let me know and I'll send you a link to more photo of the options.

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Organization Part II

After a day and a half of assembling, sorting, and organizing I finally finished my sewing room. I realized shortly into the project that even with what I've done so far I still need more fabric storage or I need to craft more. My husband even comment that "I bet you haven't sewed as much fabric in your life as you own". I was a little a annoyed as some fabric is just to pretty to sew on any project and therefore one must wait for the perfect project. Regardless, I am satisfied with the progress so far. I still need to do the sewing room closet but that one will be another day and another plan.

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Organization Part I

How am I spending my one week off of work. Although, I'd love to start a quilt I need to get my house in order. So thanks to all the family and friends that gave us gift cards, I am organizing. And I must say I love Target's "itso" line. Here is the playroom I worked on last night. Today my sewing room. More to come.

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Two More Jackets

Okay, I know you're tired of these jackets and I am well burnt out on making them. Her is another two for my family. Yeah, I tend to try and give everyone around the same thing but personalized to their style. On both of these I modified them from their original pattern.

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Strip Quilt

Well it took me a whole month but mostly due to large amounts of procrastination. And well when I was finally motivated my machine decided it needed a tune up. Here it is all finished my gnome, fish and van strip quilt. Except for the few threads that still need trimming and tying off.The kit came from a Quilt is Nice.

I also managed to finish a jacket for my oldest niece. I hope she finds it super warm this Christmas.

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Where Am I

I been giving my self to my day job. Seems like all my free time is slowly dwindling with my new assignments at work. I've had very little time to craft these days with work and custom orders for items. So my blog may be a little empty over the next month. Bare with me. I'll try to slide in a project or two but don't expect much. Sorry.

Sew and Tell Soon

Amy

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Patchwork Dress

Another project for my sis. It's not quite finished. Yet. Constructed with 4 fat quarters and then 1/2 yard of lining fabric. A good use of my stash.

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Finished

Sorry it has been so long. Been way to busy with my day job. I finally finished this quilt.

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Elfin Magic

So I am kinda at a holding point with my quilt. I looked all over town and can't find the really fancy baby fleece that I want to use as my quilt's backing. You know the really super soft cost 17 dollars a yard stuff. I love it and I think it would be well worth it on this quilt. So instead of sulking over it I decided to test out and Elfin Magic Craft Idea tonight. Every year around the first weekend in December our church holds a little half day craft event for the kids to come and make crafts to give as gifts for Christmas. The kids love it and adults do to. So one of the main crafts we hope to have this year is some version of an Advent Calendar. We've been exploring ideas like this one and this one and this one. We had settled on the toilet tubes one ( my family calls them durdurs) then someone mentioned they had a bunch a burlap and could we made one similar to the crayon rolls. So I gave it a shot. The Key to these crafts is the kids must be able to complete it in 30 minutes to 1 hour. The shorter the better but we want them involved. So this is my version and for this craft we would pre-assemble the burlap bag and the kids would be responsible for numbering the pockets and adding any holiday motifs they want. I chose to use fabric crayons that you can heat set with the iron for mine. I think it is super cute. Oh and why just the 12 days well our event is always after the 1st of Dec so instead of 25 days we opted for 12 to prevent confusion and overall questions. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

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Painting

So a friend of mine took me to Ladies Craft night at her church tonight. The ladies all gather and came up with crafts a head of time. The craft must be completed in two hours and someone volunteers to teach there craft. You have a good number to choose from a head of time and along with crafting you have fellowship and always very good food. Our craft to night was to stencil a dry wall ceiling tile to hang as art work in our home. The stenciles the teach brought were super cute. But I reluctantly had difficulty deciding which to do, so I freelanced. The painting started off mimicking a Heather Baily Fresh Cut print but as I started it wasn't working so I turned it into hydrangeas in a vase. And well since I haven't painted in over 15 years I am okay with it. I am only disappointed from the stand point that in the summers when I was a child and would stay with my Grandmother (who was a painter) she would pay for all these art lesson for me and I loved them and did well at them but I think she would be a little disappointed at how off my proportions are and the layering of my colors. But at least she knows a little of it stuck. In the end though I wish I would have just stenciled the coffee cup my friend told me to do. It was super cute. April I promise to follow direction next time if you take me back.

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Chics and Apples

This quilt is made primarily with the Metro Market Line in Red by Monaluna for Robert Kaufman. I threw in a few Walmart clearance bin fabrics and some gingham to complete the look.

Materials: 12 coordinating fabrics.
Cut into the following
60 -3.5" squares
42 - 3.5" by 6.5" rectangles
18 - 6.5" squares
Adjust the number of each size to cut by the size quilt you plan to make and over all layout. This will be a baby quilt around 54" by 54" without boarders.

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Starting Something New

A new quilt is on the way. I have 11 days to attempt to complete this before I see the new little chic-a-dee.

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Lions & Birds Oh My!

I made a new reversible jacket to sell on Etsy. I just love this pattern by Kitschy Choo. And I hate to see this jacket go.

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Quilt Update

My Christmas quilt went from okay to disaster. Too many ideas and new techniques lead to disaster!!!!. I should have known this would be the case from the beginning. When we find oyourself starting and restarting at the beginning of a project and constantly readjusting it just spells trouble. I should have saved it for next year and given it time to forgive me. But as for now, it has now been cut to pieces and in the process of becoming a doll quilt, coasters and hot pads. So frustrating. It was just too bad to even photograph as a what not to do. I don't want to even think about. Sorry there will be no finale.

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Working on Christmas

Working on a small quilt for my niece Sara for Christmas. It's in the earlier stages. I am adding some pre-quilting before the main quilting. I want to front and back to have a different quilted look. We'll see how it turns out. Here is first little glimpse.

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Back to Classics

I am stuck at home with the flu this week. Not sure I am going to be much up to crafting. But over the weekend I worked on an outfit for my cousin-in-law's son Cole. It is classic jon-jon. I made it fully reversible with ties at the neck and snaps on bottom. I extended the legs slightly to give it few extra months of wear by just rolling up the legs into a cuff. I even made him a personalized Clemson pin. Can't wait to see him wear it. And for those of you Carolina fans out there. I am a gamecock and it pains me to have to sew Clemson attire. Hopefully, we'll pull off any win this week.

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Circa 50 Prints

I just pre-ordered me some Circa 50 prints from fabricworm. I love that shop.

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Back & Busy

Well it was an eventful weekend. My oldest son turned 4 and we painted pottery for his birthday.












I got my sewing room semi-clean in anticipation of my new machine and my parents visit.



















And I managed to finish a new purse of my own design for my friend's up coming birthday this Sat.










































A busy and eventful weekend. As for the machine I chose. I went with a Babylock Quest Plus machine.
It is wonderful. It came with 15 feet, 383 stitches and is so very quite. Perfect for a sewer with young children. And since I already own two other Babylocks I benefit from an easy foot exchange. I still love the Pfaffs but this was a better value for the money and Oh I completely forgot to mention. My wonderful loving husband offered to buy it for me. We aren't a couple that is big on gift giving and in fact we rarely buy each other anything as we have just never found that to be important. So aside from my engagement ring this is the only real gift he has ever given me. And I have to say it is the best and I love it. Not getting gifts at every occasion really makes the surprise ones very special indeed.

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Another Hits the Dust

Okay, I am going to finally admit this to myself. I am very hard on sewing machines especially lower end models. I have a very nice high end embroidery/sewing machine, a nice serger and really cheap everyday sewing machine that I use about 80% of the time on my projects and well it seems that about every two years the cheap one totally dies on me. One year I paid 175 dollars twice to fix this Janome that I loved and then after it died for the third time, I bought a Singer from Walmart. Well after battling for months with the Singer it died or not really, but I am giving up on it. I am just tired of dealing with the jamming bobbin and I don't think it is worth fixing. So I am in the market for a new cheap machine. I think I am upping my budget from 200 dollars to a max of 600 dollars. Hoping price buys a little more years of life. If you have any suggestion please let me know. Until then I probably won't be crafting to much. Just finishing up a few embroidery projects. Here is my final project on my singer. Some burp cloths that I will be monogramming for a friend. Got the idea from Digistitches.com.

Oh and if you're asking yourself why does she not just sew on her really nice machine. Well I am just terrified of messing it up. So I really only use it for embroidery and sometimes quilting. I am just too afraid of hurting it.

And on a final note as for my Fat for Fat update. I am down 5.6lbs in 5 weeks. So 1 lb a week. Not bad especially since the business trip I took two weeks ago set me back a few. I am going to wait until 6 lbs to reward myself. So I am on the look out for some great fabrics.

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Alexander Henry Animal Wizard Rain Coat

Another new jacket this one for my son. It still needs buttons and top stitching. I am not so sure about the pointy hood. I may change that part. I am hoping to sell a few different jacket styles this fall so I am in test drive mode currently.

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Purple Madness

I call this my Purple Madness Jacket. One of five I am working on for Christmas gifts. Each will be in a different fabric combo. Turned out pretty well for my first shot at it. Need to work on my top stitching though. Any suggestions on how to top stitch around little sleeves that won't fit on your machine? Maybe by hand....

and finally I was able to talk my reluctant 2 yr son into trying it on.

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Tip # 1: Post-its

Since I work for 3M and seem to have an abundance of Post-it notes around thanks to employee sales, I finally found a use for them. Quilt Layouts.

I am not lucky enough to own a felt board and even if I had one I have no space for it. So these post-it have come in handy for trying out various quilt layouts before I even sew a block.

I am currently trying out layouts for my Funky Christmas Quilt.

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Basic Bag

Using up my upholstery stash for a birthday surprise. I love quick projects.

One more from my quilting stash.

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Poky Little Puppy

I grew up on Golden Books and loved the Poky Little Puppy as well as the Saggy Baggy Elephant. I can't wait to make these into a quilt for my boys.

Check out the Fat Quarter Shop for your own set.

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Fat for Fat...Fat Quarter That Is

Well for those of you that read my blog but aren't a follower you know my overall appearance. For those that don't know me. I am mom of two boys ages 2 and 4 and I recently turned 30. While having kids I gained a lot of weight and over the course of those two boys I've lost 50% of that weight all on my own but still have some to go. So this past Monday after a weekend of my son asking me very innocently if I had a baby in my bell followed by a no and then an "are you fat mommy". I decided (after his stern lecture on not discussing peoples looks and how our size doesn't reflect on who we are) that for his healthy habits I need to make a change and quit trying to do it on my own. So I headed back to Weight Watchers this week.

For those of you that have done WW you know the first week you need to pick a goal and reward for obtaining that goal. So I can't say I finalized my goal but after a few days I finalized my reward. For every pound I lose I am going to allow myself to purchase 1 fat quarter. I can choose to save the pounds up and purchase my fat quarters all at once or even purchase them one at a time. It will just depend on my mood.

Don't worry I won't be blogging weekly about my weight loss. But I will make a progress report hear and there with a photo of my celebration. Wish me luck and help me think of some great projects for utilizing my reward.

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Funky Christmas

My new project thanks to a little inspiration from Golden Gate Quilts.

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Cleanout and Create

So I was in a mood this weekend to clean out and rearrange all in a effort to void what I really should be doing. It started with our playroom and then moved into my sewing room. I got a crazy notion to trade the armiore in the sewing room for a low book shelve in the playroom in hopes of gaining better storage and viewing of the fabrics I have on hand. The results was a realization that I have way too much fabrics, not enough space and I clearly need to use some of it up or sell. So a few not great items are on ebay and well the rest went to storage except for a brown toile upholstery piece and green and brown upholstery piece that I bought several years ago. Together I turned these into a new tote for myself.

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Fabric Viewer for Etsy Users

I am probably late in the game on this one but for those of you that love fabric and love finding easy solutions for designing quilts, finding the perfect color and designs check out this site: http://www.morecloth.com/

It allows you to select a color and easily view those fabric available on Etsy in that color. You then select the fabric you want and it takes you to Etsy sellers site. Very useful and I can definitely see some creative quilts coming out this one.

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Far Far Away Bubble Dress

I managed to get a quickie in this week...... A new bubble dress made on a request from a friend. It finally gave me the opportunity to use a piece of my Heather Ross Far Far Away fabric collection. I think it turned out perfect.

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Oldie Jon-Jon

It has been a few weeks and we have been vacationing, wedding and visiting family so there hasn't been a whole lot of time to sew. So here is a photo of my boys on fathers day. The three crab Jon-Jon on my youngest son was an outfit I made 3 years ago for my oldest and it has held up well. It makes me sad though that my boys are too big for those sorts of things. So I am looking for ideas for little boys if you have any.

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Apples & Pears Bubble Dress

I finished it. my Oliver & S Bubble Dress. I know... I was going to do it in some of my Heather Ross Far Far Away stash but I just couldn't decide and came up with too many ideas so I went with a simple but modern Alexander Henry Print. I loved the way it turned out and can't wait for my niece Addy Lynn to wear it.

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Christmas in June/July?

Well yes. It is getting to be that time of year when I start to think about Christmas and what I will give and what I need to make. All in effort to not feel the wallet pinch come November and December. This year for my family I am make us the Figgy Stars Christmas Quilt. I purchased a kit from the Fat Quarter shop and can't wait to get started. It was a splurge but I think it will be well worth it. I've got to get started now so that I can finish it in time to be professionally quilted this year.

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It's Finished

I finally finished my ragged squares quilt. It was love hate relationship with this quilt but now that it is completely finished. I am loving it. So much so that I hate to give it away. But those always make the best gifts. I no it will be cherished by Cole over the years.

See Crazy Mom Quilts for a tutorial.

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