Stop staring and start sewing!

Anticipayayshun....it's making me wait...

Joey and I made a quick run to Barnes and Noble last night (I love having one nearby!) and I grabbed the Spring issue of Sew Simple magazine.  I flipped through a couple of pages and here's what I found:

That's me!!!  (I added the arrows)   So I'm praying for two things: 1. That my project makes the cover (yes, I'm truly like that, sorry), and 2. That they don't go out of business in the next 2 months (after that I'll be a little more flexible).  Not too much to ask.

Okay, you have to run over to Amy at Park City Girl because she's having on online Quilt Festival (the first, but hopefully not the last) and there are oodles of prizes.  Oodles I tell you (including one from me)!  I'm sorry to be so late about it because it ends tomorrow (Friday the 24th) so that's why you have to run over there!  If you love the idea of beautiful quilts and free fabric (the good stuff!) you will love this!

Joey's been very busy with his knitting endeavors.  His grandmother was an amazing knitress (is that a word?  It is now.) and when she passed away she left a treasure of knitting supplies.  Well his mom just sent them to him last month and it was like Christmas morning for him.  So he's been busy trying new things and using some of her wonderful yarns.  He made some red "bike socks" for himself but they were too thick so he gave them to me and I love them.  He finished Skate's dead fish hat but unfortunately it's much to big for his little noggin so Joey gets to keep that one.  He made a little red cap for Asher and you can tell he's really getting the hang of things (it has little purling rows and it fits!).

He's working on some longer grey socks for himself right now. I'm going to wait until he's done and tell him that they're actually mauve (which is really just a shade of purple) and hopefully I'll end up with those too.

And here's a little bit of eye candy for you!  It's the new Jennifer Paganelli wing of Fabritopia.  ;)  I don't know what I'm going to do when Dance With Me gets here in June.  I've knocked out every available wall all ready.  I just love all of these colors!  It's like being in a candy store (without the calories)!

I'm off to wait for that UPS guy (more Darla!).  Don't forget Amy's Quilt Festival!

Romper room

I took some pictures of my second try at Butterick 5439 today (the romper he peed in so bad that I couldn't take pictures the first time).  The fabric is from Paula Prass's Flights of Fancy and I'm so glad she included some "boy-able" prints in this line (although Skate did get called a girl while wearing it, sheesh).  This picture cracks me up!  It looks like he's going potty in the plants.  Oh!  And you have to run over to Paula's blog!  She has a sneak peek of her (totally fabulous!) next line (and be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday)!!

I made the legs shorter than my first try and I think this is a more practical length for a busy toddler.  I used snap tape again but I'm realizing I can't put off this potty training much longer.  Since he's my last one there will be much celebrating when it's done.  He was very happy that I used the Robots fabric for his pocket, he really loves that collection (he's a fine judge of fabric already).  I used my dollar store buttons again but flipped them over so the dark side shows.  Yes, he is scowling at you.  I apologize (you're not the first).

Here we are together in our new duds (I'm still trying to decide whether I like this blouse or love it).  But it's definitely still comfortable.

Here's our action shot for the day.  I trimmed his hair a couple of weeks ago and was heartbroken because his hair went straight in the back.  But it's sprung back up a little in the last week so I'm very happy and relieved.  I'll definitely make him a few more jumpers using this pattern. 

One of Sofia's little pals is moving away and some sweet friends had a scrapbooking going away party for her (brilliant idea!).  The scrap book is one of those 8 x 8 ones so I whipped up a little tote for her to carry it in using Paula's fabric for the outside and Jennifer's fabric for the inside.  I love the way these fabric look together!  So zesty!

I was short on time so I didn't add the usual pockets and such but it didn't take any extra time to add this little corner detail.  Cute!

And I made two big scrappy squares the other day (I'm suddenly realizing I've been pretty productive this week, haven't I?) to send to a friend who's doing a quilt for a charity auction.  Fun, fast and easy! 

And I just received my next "assignment" for our online quilting bee (I'm going to go over there and post something, honest).  This is from Kathryn over at handmadekate and she wants a 9 patch.  I had to google "9-patch" (I told you this is making my brain sweat!).  Oh and Kathryn has posted her version of the Summer Blouse from Heather Ross's book so take a look at it.  It's so sweet and breezy (how long can you put off getting that book?  Really.).  Oh, and there's a flickr group if you need more convincing.

I read an article this week that claims that due to the economy people are returning to the basics like growing their own food (animal and vegetable), canning, and sewing.  See!  Some good news!  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Time for Weekend Sewing (during the week!) and friendship

Well I finally had a chance to dig into Heather Ross's new book (and play with Jennifer Paganelli's new fabric!).  I made the Summer Blouse and it was pretty simple and straight forward.  One of the things I really like about it is it's so basic that it leaves plenty of room for improvising and tweaking.

The patterns are all in there but must be traced and I discovered I'm completely out of pattern paper.  After some semi-panicked scrambling I dug some blue tissue paper out of my closet and it worked out just fine.  I have an old folder with all of my Dritz tracing paper in it and I recently figured out that it's smart to leave the tracing wheel in the folder pocket (because for some reason kids think they're cool so they disappear).  It always thrills me to find something in the place it's supposed to be!

The blouse has a little button loop so I used my loop turner and it worked out nicely (after a couple of tries).  But it's a good tool to have if you're making really tiny tubes like spaghetti straps.  That green accent fabric is from one of Tracy Porter's lines at Jo-Ann's and I wish she would get herself hooked up with another fabric manufacturer and start producing lots of fabric because she's one of my all time favorite designers.

So here is how it turned out. It's not my usual style so it's taking some getting used to. I shortened the sleeves because they looked pretty long in the book. I'm really happy the the neckline folded out because otherwise it was touching my neck and I really hate having clothing touch my neck (Joey hates the fact that I use the word "hate" but I mean it!). It's kind of wide at the bottom for my so I'll take it in next time and I think the style is better suited for a linen or something less stiff (she addresses this in the book so I knew what I was in for). The length is fine but I might add a little to it next time.  It's a very comfortable blouse!

Here's the back.  I really like Ashley's version of the blouse here (especially the neckline) and I'll try some of her ideas next (great blog too!).  So I will definitely use this pattern again and I'm sure I'll be thrilled beyond measure with the next one!

I took my new blouse out for some fun when I joined Bari J. and her girls for lunch last week. Bari was in town visiting her parents and I'm so glad we were able to get together and chat for awhile! I brought 2 of my girls and after they all warmed up to each other there was a lot of giggling going on. Bari has a lot of great things on the horizon (her fabric, Full Bloom, is coming out in 4 weeks!).  She's got such a natural gift for design I loved hearing about her "fabric journey".   And I found out we'll be staying at the same hotel in Pittsburgh! It will be like Fabric Camp for Mommies!!

Here we are at Coldstone Creamery.  We were good though.  Bari had yogurt and I had an iced latte.

Here are our girls together.  Bari's girls struck a perfectly cute pose so naturally.  I told my girls we needed to go home and work on that together.  Girls are so much fun!

I know a lot of people bought the Edith Twirl Skirt pattern last month for Easter (thank you!).  If you have made one and haven't added it to the flickr group, please share a picture with us (I'm dying to see what everyone did)!

I'm having a sale on Pop Garden, Good Folks and Robots until next week. I haven't sent out a newsletter yet (these dumb allergies are really slowing me down, argh) so you get first grab!  Oh and I'm totally re-stocking Darla and Flower Power (it should all be here by Friday).  Have a great week (in spite of tomorrow being tax day, ack)!!

No sew mojo

I just don't have the desire to sew anything for Easter this year.  Maybe it's because it snuck up on me too fast.  Last year I did a pretty good job pulling it together so maybe I should just plan on it being an every other year thing.  When my girls were little I seriously went all out in my Easter sewing and usually ended up staying up until 3 in the morning hand stitching their hems (which they would promptly snag under their cute little white shoes and pull out, ugh).  Now I machine stitch all my hems (so they don't count as heirloom but I don't care).

When we first moved to Arizona I was determined to learn to smock.  Looking back I realize I must've been very determined because I had to arrange babysitting for my two toddlers (my mom I'm sure) and drive up to parts unknown where I found an embroidery shop that had lessons (30.00 for two lessons).  And after that I would drive clear up there to drop off my fabric so they could machine pleat it until I finally scraped together 125.00 for my own pleater (I don't even know how I managed to do that since we were so painfully poor!).

In 1997 I had three beautiful little girls (which I always wanted.  These boys really threw me off!) and I decided to go all out for Easter.  I smocked for 5 weeks!!!!  Silly me, when the Vogue pattern envelope said "Advanced/Difficult" I thought "no problem!  I'm sure I qualify as advanced! I've taken smocking lessons!"

Here are the finished dresses and I have to say, they were really beautiful.  Olivia's (on the right) took the most work because it has dozen of bullion roses smocked on it (ugh).  Peety's just has lazy daisies and was so much faster.  I can still remember ironing those sleeves.

Here's a tip for ironing puff sleeves:  Put a blow dryer up the sleeve hole and turn to high/hot.  Spray the sleeve with starch and wait for it to dry (just a few seconds).  Perfectly poofy!

I used this little pattern for Sofia (she was 4 months old) and it was sooo much faster.  I did a darling bonnet using one of Kitty Benton's patterns and it was so sweet but I'm not sure where it is anymore.

She was one of the happiest babies I had and yet I have so many pictures where she's crying.  I don't get it.  And I can't believe I let them sit on the dirt!

I still have her jumper.  Here's a closeup of my handi-work. 

And here's the whole fam!  I don't like too many pictures of myself in my 30's and now I realize it's because I was so darn exhausted.

Have a beautiful Easter Sunday!

A quasi-wasted day sort of

Well, I packed up and headed across Phoenix to check out the Phoenix Textile Show this morning.  It's about an hour's drive and I very rarely have a reason to go to that part of town.  If I had to give it a fabric rating it would be lame' (without the accent).  My rep didn't even know about some of the fabrics coming out (the ones I've already told you about) and most of the fabric samples he had were fabrics that have been in my store awhile.  I normally wouldn't snark about a fabric rep on my blog but since he doesn't even look at their own website I doubt he'll be lurking around these parts.

I did go ahead and order Tanya Whelan's new French Hat Box and Jennifer Paganelli's upcoming Shall We Dance lines (coming in June).  I ordered Jennifer's Pretty Please line last week and expected it would be here next month-ish but I found out today it's already shipped out and will be here by Wednesday!

I picked up a couple of great magazines this week.  Look at the cover of Studios!  That's Melissa Averinos' studio/store and it's oh-so-great (and Melissa has an great announcement)!  And yes, she is working on more fabric.  Whew!

And I had to have Quilter's Home because Mark Lipinski (that handsome guy on the cover) is from Pittsburgh and the Spring Quilt Market (next month!!!) is in Pittsburgh.  Mark has a great article on 10 places you must go when in Pittsburgh.  It's a fun article and I'll be happy if we can hit a couple of the places.  Joey and I sat in on Mark's schoolhouse series class in Houston and we both agreed it was, by far, the best presentation there for a store owner.  We laughed our heads off (one offended lady got up and walked out!) and left with some incredibly helpful ideas.

Oh, and look at who's studio is also in the Studios magazine!  It's Monica, the Happy Zombie!  I adore Monica.  She lives in Astoria, Oregon (my homestate!) and loves Lewis and Clark, whom I adore to the point of tears sometimes (although they would've been up a creek without the woman).  I love her studio and it needs to be in a magazine (so there it is! and there she is!).

I made another romper for my little guy and I wanted to share it with you but he had 5 juice boxes after church yesterday and soaked clear through his romper and even soaked his shoes (and then he soaked through has replacement outfit too!).  It was gross (it wasn't just pee and that's all I'm saying).  But I did get this cute picture last night.  Joey grabbed the pink bear/bunny in one of those claw machines at Walmart the other day and was quite the hero (Skate adores it).  The bear/bunny says "Happy Easter 2008" on it!  That cracks me up. 

Asher's determined to find that sneaky Waldo.  What did he do that he needs to keep hiding from everybody?  It's like he's in the witness protection program or something (ditch the hat dude, you'll be safer).  You have to stop and wonder sometimes.

Oh and I finally figure out Twitter!  Heather (who's working on some very fun stuff right now) gave me over the phone lessons and I now understand it so if you want to follow me I'm @jonag over there (I'll try to get one of those sidebar things).  I want to follow you too (don't I sound like a stalker?)!

Oh and look up next to my url!!  I have a favicon.  What's a favicon you ask?  Well it's that little box with a "J" in it (it's kind of a robin's egg blue).  I replaced the little Typepad lily pad with my own thing!  You can go to this site and make one for your blog (free!).   I got the "J" off of 1001 free fonts (which I love!).  I wanted something a little more exciting (like a spool of thread which is thrilling) but since it's only 16 x 16 pixels I had to keep it simple.  Try it!

And it's pattern week here at my place!  First Anna Maria Horner's patterns showed up, then today I received some new apron patterns from Megan of Brassy Apple (gorgeous apron, great price!).  I met Megan in person at last Spring's Quilt Market in Portland but I already knew her from the ebay boutique world and I'm so glad she's sharing her talent with us.  Another one of my ebay boutique friends is Patty Young and her patterns are shipping out now too (should be here Wednesday).  It's going to be a great week and actually I'm so overwhelmed by everything I'm sitting here at my computer blogging (when I really want to curl up in a corner and suck my thumb).

Love this packaging!  Have a great week!!  (Oh, and I want to apologize for having an Easter sale so late.  I had NO idea Easter was coming up this soon.  I thought it was near the end of the month!)

And sometimes I actually sew.

I finally took some time for a little sewing therapy today and I feel better.  I have a couple more projects stuck in my brain so hopefully I can work on those soon, although I have a feeling my girls are going to start pestering me for Easter outfits so I may have to wait.

Anna Griffin's Fiona fabric showed up yesterday afternoon and it's a soft and pretty as I had hoped.  One thing I really, really appreciate about this collection is there are some definite "boy-appropriate" prints in it and I'm always thrilled when a designer throws in at least a couple of prints like that.  I started on this romper first thing this morning and finished in a couple of hours.  I used Romper A from Butterick 5439 but made a couple of adjustments.  Skate is at least 3 inches taller than the maximum height so I added an extra inch in the body and it worked out perfectly.

I also decided to add 3 inches in the length of the legs and then added a little trim using Jennifer Paganelli's Claire Blocks in brown. I'm really happy with the fabric accent but I think the legs are a couple of inches longer than I anticipated and next time I'll just add maybe 1.5 inches. His sisters said it looked like a dress but he was happy with it.  Oh, and I closed the legs with snap tape because I'm too lazy to potty train him right now.

I added the pocket (because boys need pockets!) but I'll place it a wee bit higher next time. And if you look at the under-arm you can see I added a 2" piece of elastic to cinch it up a little. He cried when I took the romper off of him to add the elastic so I took that as a sign that he liked it!  The elastic did the trick.  Oh and I got to use some of those great buttons I got at Dollar Tree way back when.

I'm sure I'll use this pattern a few more times this year since it was fast and gives him room to grow. And I think I'll do the hat pattern too since anything will be cuter than this brown corduroy thing I couldn't get him to remove today.

So, it's been a good day so far. I got to sew. I played with some new fabric. And my cute little guy has a new outfit that should last him through summer. Nice!

Oh, and if you haven't started your Easter outfits yet you might be glad! All of the Darla, Ava Rose and Flower Power fabrics are now on sale for 7.00 a yard through April 7th and they are perfectly perfect for Easter dresses!

Tomorrow's Friday!!!!