Stop staring and start sewing!

Off to Market, Yay!

Okay, the winner of the cute towel set is Jamie V.!  Congratulations Jamie!  I will ship these when I get back next week.

Meanwhile I'll be up late tonight packing for Quilt Market in Houston.  I might even be dumb enough to try to sew something.  Fortunately I made a new blouse last weekend and it'll be great for market.  I used Simplicity 4022 and I really love it.  I had to make a lot of adjustments and should have gone with a smaller size to start with but I'm happy with the fit now and next time it will go together much easier.  This fabric was perfect for the sleeveless version but I would definitely recommend something lighter like a voile or rayon for the version with sleeves.  I think the quilting weight fabric would just be too stiff for the sleeves.  I might play around with this pattern and turn it into a dress too (wouldn't that be cute?).

I was utterly shocked and thrilled to receive this AMAZING necklace in the mail today!  One of my favorite bloggy friends is Jemellia of JemJam.  She is so much fun and always so encouraging.  She's sewn quite a few things with my patterns and it's always a joy to see her beautiful little girl all dressed up in them.  I'm just humbled to have been gifted with something so thoughtful and beautiful (and I'm wearing it proudly at Quilt Market!).  The pendant on the left contains a vintage safety pin and the one on the right has my little blog logo.  Wow.  I will treasure this forever.  Thank you Jemellia!

 

Okay, time to pack it in (in to my suitcase, that is!).  I'll be back with lots of pictures and goodies next week!  Hopefully I'll have a lot less of my patterns here since my main goal this time is to pick up some more business (and maybe fabric)!  Have a wonderful rest of the week and thanks for all the great Christmas sewing ideas in the last commment section!

Here's a pumpkin from our garden if you need something cute to look at while I'm gone!

 

A book review, a give away, a sale... (oh, and puppies!)

Yay!  I received another book from those nice folks at F & W Media!  It's Made at Home by Lisa Stickley and I was oohing and aahing the whole way through it.  Honestly I'd never heard of Lisa Stickley so I went to her website and wow, I'm her newest fan.  If you want fresh and hip then this book is it!  It's loaded with projects that are both practical and pretty.  Well the egg cozy is pretty but I've never had a need for one (but maybe I'm the only one who doesn't find that to be practical).  But, the egg cozy is so cute I'm nearly tempted to make one.

The drawings are wonderful and whimsical and really make the instructions easy to understand.   It's got a lot of helpful hints and places for notes to write as you go along.  It has a very clean, Swedish vibe to it so if you like Katrin Cargill's style or even Carl Larsson's art then this is right up your alley.  I love this book and I'm keeping it (but I am having a give away, so keep reading!)

The new puppy is fitting right in but I think Freckles has lost her excitement at having a fellow dog in the house (this picture shows their typical interaction these days, yip yip snap!).  She'll adjust.

 

I'm having a Send a Gal to Quilt Market sale (3 more days!!) so all the Christmas quilt kits are marked down to their wholesale price (update: Sorry!  The quilt kits are sold out).  I figured I'd better move them now while folks are still crazy enough to start a Christmas quilt.  But since there are over 6 yards of fabric in it you could use it for a number of non-quilt projects at quite a steal!  And most of my sewn samples from this past years pattern designing are up for sale too (great prices and cute stuff).

And here's a fun give away (can you tell by these pictures that I'm still loving my pink chair?)!  I'm hoarding a sizable stash of these gorgeous Marth Stewart towels but I feel like sharing right now.  Just leave a comment and maybe share some easy ideas for Christmas sewing.  In the meantime, I'll be packing and prepping for market.  Back soon!



Have a wonderful week!

What I did on Fall Break

I never had "Fall Break" as a kid.  We had a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving but that was it.  Well, kids these days have a better break so we tried to make the most of it last week.  I took my 3 youngest to the Arizona Natural History Museum and it was really a lot of fun.  Arizona was home to a lot of dinosaurs back in the day (those crazy dinosaur days) so it was neat to see some of the creatures that roamed here.  I think this is a mammoth of some sort.

I believe this is a miniature T-Rex type of dinosaur.  Skate is doing a dramatic interpretation of this one.  This part of the museum has a lightening storm and flash flood every 20 minutes so it's lots of fun.

Outside they have a place to pan for "gold" and we spent a lot of time here (mostly to give Skate a chance to dry off in the sun since he managed to get himself totally soaked here).  The museum also houses the original Mesa jail which is kind of creepy and cool at the same time.  They also have a reproduction of an Indian village and a room dedicated to movies filmed in Arizona (Tombstone is my favorite of the bunch).  I really like this museum and feel like we get our money's worth when we visit.

And look!  I've been playing with Elizabeth Scott's gorgeous new fabric!  It's Red Rose Farm and dang! it's just perfect in every way.  Roses, dots, vibrant colors...wonderful!  I'm making a few things for Quilt Market (which I've been sort of quiet about but it's coming in only 10 days!).

And we have a new baby in the family!  Meet "Cupcake"!  She's a chiweenie (chihuahua/dachsund) and she's Peety's birthday present (which we told her covers her last birthday and upcoming birthday and she'd better be happy).  Isn't she darling?  She's really spunky (much to the dismay of our other dog) and already whines at the back door to go potty.  Good girl!

And I had a truly uplifting experience this weekend while out to dinner with Jamie and family.  I looked across from California Pizza Kitchen and saw this glorious sight....a chorus of angels began to sing and I had tears in my eyes.  The Old Spaghetti Factory!!!!  15 minutes from MY HOUSE!!!  Joey and I nearly did a jig right there.  God loves me and wants me to be happy and this is all the proof I need (Joey says BEER is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy but I think this is better proof).

In calmer news...we had our first gathering of the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild and it was so much fun.  Our blog is up and I'm sure it will be humming soon so run over there and meet the gals (so far it's just gals but guys are welcome).  If you're in the Phoenix area please join our group (even if you're like me and have only completed one quilt).  And now we can meet at the Spaghetti Factory like those Modern Quilt Guilders in Portland do!  Lucky us!

The cat wishes these were his pajamas

Okay, so I want to tell you about my cute new pajamas!  Back in my eBay Boutique days I started looking for fabric in non-bolt places and realized Pottery Barn Kids had the cutest sheets in the world and you get a sizable chunk of yardage with each set.  Fortunately we have a PB Kids store at a nearby mall so it was easy to go grab a set and get to work sewing.  Here's a cute little dress I made using the Anna pattern from Farbenmix. The straps and ruffle are from a Rachel Ashwell sheet set I got at Target.

Fast forward a few years and my pajamas have a rip in the rump.  That did not stop me from wearing them because I loved them (and the kids were mortified seeing me walk around like that which was even better, ha!).  Joey bought these for me about 10 years ago at Victoria's Secret and I remember they were expensive (around 40.00) and they were perfect.  Perfect for Arizona and perfectly pink (before the kids started doing the laundry).

Well, when I was cleaning through my stash the other week I came upon some left over PB Kids sheet fabric that I'd been holding onto and the idea hit me.  Is there anything more perfect for sleeping in than crisp cotton sheets?  Heck no.  So I took a big breath and cut into my favorite PJs.  I used the pant leg piece as my pattern and simply omitted the side seam.  The top was a little trickier to trace because I didn't want to rip it apart but I fudged my way through it and it turned out fine.  I'll make a couple of adjustments next time but nothing major.

So here they are and these are now my favorite pajamas (maybe ever!).  I've been wearing these just about non-stop and finally put them in the wash today.  They are nice and roomy (I despise tight jammies, they make me claustrophobic), and perfect for the Arizona climate.  I'm pretty sure I'll have a whole collection of these pajama sets by the time winter hits.

Oodles of projects this week so stay tuned!  Huge sale in the store so if you need to get started on Christmas sewing run over and take a look!

Tickled Pink (with scottie dogs!)

Done!  My chair cover is finished and it's 20 shades of cute!!  I worked on it over the course of about 5 days and I'm glad I took my time.  When I got frustrated I just walked away for awhile instead of pulling my hair out and usually the solution came to me when I gave my mind a break.

I love this striped ruffle.  It's a polyester or something shiny-ish but I couldn't pass it up at my favorite rumage-y fabric store.  What a great, crisp candy cane stripe and it actually has a nicer flow for this purpose than cotton.  The lower part of the arms were the trickiest part because of the curves on top and in the front.  I just worked a little bit at a time and pinned and un-pinned (and ripped out more than a few seams).  I kept the chair right next to the sewing machine while I was working (I've learned that running up and down the stairs can be tiresome with these sorts of projects although I guess the exercise is nice).

I really like the way the back turned out but I might have an overwhelming urge to applique a big scotty dog with a striped bow around it's neck right there in the middle (I'll let you know if I do it).  I really want to do more big projects like this because I always learn something new and feel such a sense of accomplishment when it's finished.  I went totally pink and frothy with my slipcover (weeee!) but if you want something clean and finished (and gorgeous) looking then you'll be completely inspired by Marie's cover here (and an ottoman!) and you can download instructions here (it's 10.00 but judging by every other gorgeous thing on her blog it's a very small price to pay). 

So, here's where I'll be this weekend.  In my happy place, wearing my happy pajamas (post on those soon), reading this very happy book (filled with projects by a gal who's blog always makes me happy!).

Have a happy weekend!