feeling Merry & Bright

a little Christmas project I started last night.. Just need to pick up some brown and green wool for a Christmas tree, and print out some more countdown numbers... hopefully I can have it finished on Wednesday to hang up to start the Christmas countdown! Anyone else just starting Christmas projects?

Also, the holiday sale is still going on in my shop, with most items marked 50% off, and I am offering free shipping on all my quilts! (check out my FB page for an extra coupon code as well!)

pincushion progress..

I have finally been able to sit done at my sewing machine a few days this week.

Between getting the housework done, and going to work in the evenings I have been feeling very overwhelmed and left with no energy..

so this morning I went digging through my stash, cutting out these tiny squares for the pincushion swap. It feels nice to have all those tiny bits come together, and be close to actually finishing something.

Just a few more details to add - a tiny border, maybe a little handstiching detail and then just sew it together. I hope my partner is going to love it!

(Inspired by the pincushion from bijou lovely)

kids clothes week :: simple pants

Elsie Marley has a kids clothes week challenge this week -simply sew one hour each day and make something for your little ones

I made a pair of pajama pants for Kiki with some Thomas fabric he picked out.

I followed the pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby, and lengthened

the pants by using one of his own pairs as a guide..

The look a bit circus-y because they are so busy, but he likes them because of the Thomas characters..

I am still hoping to make 2 pairs of baby shoes for Big Boy, and another pair of pajama pants for each of them..

Spiderweb Quilt

I finally finished my spiderweb quilt.

I made this quilt with scraps and selvages from projects in 2009. I am a bit embarrassed that I made my first block for this quilt 7 months ago.. I was inspired by Katy's spiderweb quilt, then I picked up a Sew Hip! with a spiderweb quilt pattern.
My original plan was to make a block a week, but I simply became bored with this quilt!
(note to self: one big project at a time! start another big project only after the first is finished!)
I used Kona grass for the binding and backing. I still need to slap a label on the back too..

I followed the lines of the spiderweb block for the quilting, and some of the centers were sooo thick to quilt through! This was actually the first quilt that I have quilted myself that wasn't a mini!

Big boy has already dragged the quilt around the house, it has been used for a tent, and Kiki enjoys jumping on the circles like hopscotch..

I am already planning my next quilt too ^^

A little project

I made a hexagon sewing machine cover!

After I got my machine back from repairs and cleaned,

I thought this would be a nice welcome home. ^_^ I used Kona coal, and fussy cut some of my favorite fabrics for the hexagons. I made binding strips from the coal, and have those on the side to tie it on over my machine.

The front of the cover, laying flat. (see my fav little piggie?!)
The back of the cover, laying flat. I made sure to use as many sewing themed fabrics as I could squeeze in. I was inspired to make one after sewing a sewing machine cover in I Love Patchwork, but I didn't add grommets. The cover was fun and quite simple to make, and much better than the plastic one that came with it (and I never use).

a bit of sweetness..

My sewing machine broke yesterday afternoon. I had a pile of snugglers that I just needed to finish up with sewing the Velcro on. When I went into my sewing room that is how I found my machine. The plug where the foot pedal goes into broke off, and a piece of it fell into my machine.

my Superhero Chickenfoot met me late last night and is sweet enough to borrow me a back up machine until I get an estimate on mine sometime next week..
I felt as though odds were against me to finish the baby snugglers this morning. With the help of a full pot of coffee I sewed on the Velcro in time for my scheduled photo shoot.
all the tiny, precious, newborn sweetness made all the rushing and over stressing seems irrelevant.

these are just a few of my favorites from today.

I will start listing the baby snugglers in my shop on Monday.

I hope everyone has a relaxing rest of the weekend.

wip wednesday

I have been working on making some baby snugglers since the weekend. I picked up a bolt of Kona 'bone' to use for the lining, and can finally start sewing a few together.

I will be adding some embroideries to the bottom pouch of a few of the snugglers.
This is from the book 'Woolly Embroidery' and this design is the entire reason I own the book! I had so much fun stitching it, and combining so many different embroidery stitches!
I have a few more designs in mind- a whale, a little woodland girl, little birdies, an airplane..
Any suggestions for what you think would be cute?
(Here is an example of the snugglers I am making )

a bit of sewing

I didn't work on more spiderweb blocks like I should have today..

I am so close to having the quilt finished, and I just want to be done with it..

So typical for me, I like seeing results, and I don't like a big wip pile!So I worked on a few disappearing nine patch blocks. I am making a small lap quilt for my Grandma with my Aunt Susan, and my sister Rachel. We will each make 6 blocks, and it will be a small enough quilt that it wont trip under her walker, but still be enough to keep her warm. and it will be pretty :) Susan came up with this great idea.

I got frustrated after these 3 blocks, because one came out 1/4 smaller than the rest.. so I probably will have to scrap it..
so, in order to get some instant gratification (and check one items off my March sewing Olympics!) I made a pillow to match the elephant quilt.
The pillow is an envelope style, and was simple to make, and probably took about an hour.
I started to work on one more this afternoon, these pillows are just too fun :)

Weekender Tote

Finally made a new bag for me! (thanks to the sewing Olympics)

The bag is a pattern from this magazine. I wish, for once, when I bought a pattern that it would turn out just right, and I wouldn't have to tweak little things.
close up of the bag. It really is that big.
The only downsize is that the opening is smaller than the bottom, making it hard to shove items hastily into my bag..
I have more of that fun car print hoarded that i may have to make another bag with, or use some of that aqua wool in my stash to make myself a purse.

Has everyone seen the awesome fat quarter tutorial list put together by A bit of This and A Bit of That? amazing!

Sewing Olympics..

I thought it would be fun to get it on the sewing olympics I saw everyone tweeting about. There is a flickr group here.My list to get done.
I finished the binding on The Hungry Catepillar Quilt late saturday night..

I actually only sewed the binding on this quilt, the top was made by my Aunt Susan (chickenfoot) as a gift for my 3 1/2 year old. (but dont tell my 1 year old, he claims every quilt for himself)
Being a good little neice, I rescued it from her wip pile, and finished the binding for her. Becasue I am nice, not greedy and wanted my son to have the quilt, :)
My son now has to read The Hungry Catepillar every night, while he points out everything on the quilt.

The hungry catepillar, close up
a close up of the quilting
all folded up with the book.
*Edited to add that A quilt A Day linked to my Hungry Catepillar Quilt here.

Shop Update..

Just a small shop update this week..I listed a few Aunty Cookie baskets in my shop. I had so much fun making these, I just didn't want to stop! I think I will list a few more in some other fabrics too.. (And if you don't know who Aunty Cookie is, you can check out her shop here or the group here)
I have started to make some eco friendly dolls for my shop. They are stuffed with bamboo filling, which feels like I am filling them with billowy soft clouds :)
Above is Little Miss Emily

And Little Miss Addisen.

I have two more of their friends in my shop also :)

I will be making some little boys in the near future too.

Stitchin'

I finally finished my first embroidery peice for the Hoop Up! Swap.

I have had it almost finished and sitting on my table for close to two weeks now. All that was left was the tail and horns!

A close up.

*Edited to add that my monster embroidery is featured on Mr.X Stitch!

You can check it out here..

And I finished up a little tree and birdies embroidery to use in my quilt for DQS8.

So excited to get started on both of these swaps!

Grey+Orange Doll Quilt

I wanted to work on some new quilting techniques before making my DQS8.

I started to put this together last week, the same day that my computer crashed.

I got about 2 inches from the bottom of the quilt, when I ran out of thread. I guess i underestimated how much pebbling would take!
This was my first time doing applique circles, and free motion quilting a doll quilt.

A close up of the pebbling. This was so much fun to do, and my stitches turned out nice when I got into the motion of it.. (next time I wont do this when the kiddos are awake!) My bobbin kept giving me problems, and broke at least 4 times.. I just need to practice more with my tension and such..

Here it is all finished up.

Made with orange cotton scraps and upcycled grey linen. It measures 13x17.

I already want to make some more for 'practice'..My sewing room wall looks bare with only one doll quilt hanging up!

DQS8 ideas

Got some of my ideas finally drawn out for Doll Quilt Swap 8 onto paper this morning! (you can see the photo better over on flickr)

Colors I will be using for this quilt are -lime green/chartreuse, red/pink, and aqua/teal.

1) white stripes with wavy fm quilting, with two rows of tiny hexagons. Ignore how the left row looks, I will be using tiny 1/2 hexagons.
2) log cabin block with a birdie embroidery in the center
3) off center. left will be flying geese, right will be appliques circles of various sizes on a white background. This one is my favorite, and I like that I could do a half-sie kinda quilt and combine two ideas.
4) right side is appliqued circles of various sizes on a white background. left will be made up of three log cabins, each in the different colors I am using - chartreuse/lime green, pink/red, and aqua/teal.
5) top right will be an embroidered bird, or the tree/bird embroidery from little dear. Surrounding it will be strips with varying colors and sizes of squares/rectangles.

Let me know what you think! I am going to go out this weekend to start looking for fabric.

Sunday Spiderwebs..

I was committed to get some sewing done today. I grabbed a piece of dove chocolate before I started sewing, and the inside message was 'Make peace for yourself'

I told hubby I was 'punching out' for an hour, and went to make a few spiderweb blocks.

Finished up 4 more blocks, bringing the total to 8 of 99 needed. I am going to make a queen size quilt, 90x110, and am planning to have it ready to be quilted by the end of June.
I cut up all of my scraps into strips when I made my first blocks, and I actually have another full bag of scraps I need to cut up already!

Once I got going, it was hard to want to stop, lets see if I can limit myself to 4 a week!

Sweet linen..

Baby Boots Giveaway still going on over at 30days! Enter here!

My SIL Amanda is just so sweet, she destash this big bag of linen (and a bit of corduroy) to me.The top linen is actually a greyish blue, and so gorgeous. There is also some plum, a buttery yellow, black, and some robin eggs blue.

And do you see that wee bit of cord sticking out on the bottom left?

Yes, that would be aqua corduroy. *oh, swoon*

Now what to do with all this gorgeus linen? Well, I just bought a pattern to make myself some mary janes. :)

Bot Camp Quilt- finished!!

I got my Bot Camp quilt back from the quilters!

I actually got it back a week and a half ago, but the weather has been so cloudy it was hard to get a picture.

I was so giddy to get this back, I sewed the binding on right away, and had it done the next night.

Back view of the quilt.

( I still need to add a label, but that is hard to do when someone is sleeping on it..)

I love Michael Millers neighborhood-y prints like this, and the one from Tot Town.

Quilt all folded up.

Quilt measures 38"x40"

Here is a close up of the quilting. This was my first time having something professionally quilted, and I am truly amazed at how it looks, and how it highlights the quilt.

It is quilted with a variegated thread, and it works so well with the quilt.

The quilter even trimmed and topstitched the top for me :)

Chiqutin and his quilt.

When I layed out the quilt top on the floor,

he crawled all over it, then looked up at me, and came over and wrapped his arms around me neck and squeezed.

so cute. It was if he was telling me 'thanks mom! I really like it!'

Perfect size to nap on.

Been making..

I have been sewing making more baby shoes. I forgot how fun it is to make little wee things :)

Baby Shoes, Airplanes . I also made Chiquitin a pair and I love how it goes with so many outfits.

Baby Shoes, Sweet Polka Dots
Baby Shoes, Little Sweet Pea

Baby Shoes, Little Doggies
And trying to figure out a pattern to make baby boots. This is all wrong. I think I am going to try to figure out how to do an opening on the top 'boot' part. And the sole needs to be longer and skinnier. Ah well.