Friday, April 29, 2011

It was a fight to the finish!





























My beautiful and "Oh-so-ready-to-have-her-baby-at-any-moment" daughter in law asked me to re-do the car seat cover she already had, to something more "girly" for little miss Sofia. So last night I proceeded to disassemble the old cover. That part was easy. Just me and my trusty seam ripper :)  I used the old fabric pieces as patterns to cut the new uber cute Carolyn Gavin "Wild Thyme" fabric that April picked out. As I started to re-assemble the cover - a fight ensued! Have you ever had a project that just refused to be sewn? I had to really wrestle with this to force it into submission under my sewing machine needle. Luckily I only broke one needle! It's so wanky and bulky and it felt like it was alive. As usual, I forgot to take the "before" picture, but the gray with light green circles is the original fabric. I still have the little seat belt covers and the sunshade to make tomorrow. I don't foresee any problems with those parts, but who knows? I need to run out and get some more orange double fold bias to finish all the details. I'll post pics of the completed seat cover as soon as it's all done. This is one of those times when it was all done for love, because I definitely won't be doing another one of these any time soon. But I know for sure that as soon as I see little Sofia sitting safely buckled up in her very stylish car seat, it will all have been worth it!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Two More Weeks!


I can hardly believe that little Ms. Sofia Mae is due in just 2 more weeks! Her Mommy is ready for her come any day now and seeing how this is her 4th child, I doubt that she will have to wait much longer. I can't wait to see her little face! Will she look like her brothers? Will she be blond and have curly hair like her Mommy? The waiting is killing me! Today I made this little outfit for our newest addition :) I used Simplicity 2388. I have to say it is totally cute, but NFTS (not fun to sew). Unless I am specifically asked to make one of these again by either of my daughters, I won't do it. I wrestled with the seam binding on this teeny tiny outfit. It's just like sewing doll clothes. And my seam ripper saw lots of action today. Overall I do love the fabrics (Riley Blake Summer Song and Michael Miller Meadowsweet) and all I need now is a tiny little grand-daughter to put in it :)

Hurry up Sofia....we're waiting..................

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Thar be Pirates!


 Last week I went "thrifting" with my friend Amy. I was showing her around my favorite Thrift store and there were a bunch of pirate telescopes, new in the packages for .45 cents each. So naturally I had to grab 4 of them for my boys :) And how can you really have a good time with pirate telescopes without pirate hats? I bought a yard of black fleece for $4.98 and got busy making them. I used interfacing to give them some stiffness and cut the scull and crossbones out of felt and then stitched then on. I wanted to have them finished by last night because my daughter and I had an outing planned for today to take my Mom and all the boys
 to Crystal Cove in Laguna Beach.










It's awesome there and the boys had so much fun exploring the tide pools. So for about 7 bucks we had ourselves 4 little pirates! It was a wonderful day! 


Monday, April 25, 2011

Live long and prosper.....

The week before last I made a set of felt Star Trek Peeps for a giveaway that ended this weekend.  My secret was that I made another set, a more personal set, for my dear friend Regena :) All week long she was telling me how much she loved the Peeps and how she wanted to win them. I was just hoping that the Random number picker didn't  pick her number because this set of 3 was made especially for her. She had mentioned before that she wanted an Evil Spock (with the goatee) and I even added a bit of "augmentation" to Uhura :)

 Let me tell you what kind of woman she is........if you mention that your church is going to make pillowcases for an orphanage.....she whips up some pillowcases and sends extra fabric as well.
If you mention that you are having a bad day.....she insists that you come over for bacon and biscuits that she is making from scratch.
If you have a question about sewing....she will whip up a tutorial for you to help you understand it.
If you are in need of prayer.....she is the go-to girl.
If you find yourself in a knife fight...she's got your back!....OK...maybe that last one was a stretch....but you get the idea!
She finally got them in today's mail so I can show them to you! It's nice to know that Kathy, the winner of the actual giveaway and Regena will take good care of my little creations! Live long and prosper in your new homes my Peeps!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

and the winner is........

Lucky number 13!

Kathy said "They are so cute!!. Would love to give them a home. Thank you for sharing."

Congrats Kathy! Please email me with your address so that I can beam them to you!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Friday nights = Crafty goodness!

I picked up a bunch  few new fabrics today at M & L. (shocker I know, right?) And tonight is cigar night for the men, so that means I get to sew the night away :) I wonder what I'll make..... Perhaps another handmade item for one of my 5 random winners. One of the ladies already received her giftie from me and so I have 4 more to make and mail :) I've got a few ideas.......

I so totally love M & L yardage!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Make Life Sweet!




I know what you're thinking....."Not again with the labels! Enough with the labels already!" But I just can't help myself. I think they are so stinking cool! They add a really fun design element! So here is the fruit of yesterday's labor :) This apron has one of labels I bought on Sweetwater's Etsy shop on the bib pocket. They have several different ones and they are only $2.50 each :) I had originally thought of using it on a fabric bucket, but when I started sewing this apron, I realized that the "Make Life Sweet" label would be perfect with it! I love this apron pattern too. It's one of my personal favs! Its view C from McCalls M5551. It's a chef's apron and by using co-ordinating fabrics for the pockets, it gives the apron a totally different look. I also doubled the length of the ties because I love aprons that tie in front.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tuck-in Time!


 The Spring Apron Swap is wrapping up and I need to mail my package off to my swap partner next week. The apron is finished and now we have to include 3 tuck-ins that correspond with the recipient's initials. This is the first of my 3 tuck-ins. I used the same fabric as the apron and I added some purple ric rack. I love these little mug organizers! They even have little compartments inside the mug! They will fit on most mugs. (unless you are like my husband who takes his coffee VERY seriously and needs to have more of a bucket than a mug really..but that's a totally different subject...) It wraps around the outside of the mug and stays on with Velcro straps. The pattern is Simplicity 2450. This is the second one I've made. The other one went to a swap partner too. I guess it's time to make one for me :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Let's hear it for the boys.....:)

Days like these make my Nana heart happy!

What could be better than riding skitters and water pistols?

Or how about catching a ride in the back of your cousin's car?
 It would seem that everything is all about the boys...




 But that's all about to change :)
Sofia (due May 12th) and Evie (due June 20th) and their beautiful Mommies :)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Red just makes me happy!













Ok.....so I joined Weight Watchers.....again. I'm not going to say how many times I've joined before. I'm not going to post weight loss updates. I'm not going to discuss weight or dieting at all. I went on my first diet at age 13. It's been a long struggle and I'm so over dieting. I just want to find a healthy balance for myself.
The reason for today's post is about cuteness....not weight. You can be cute and have cute things in your life that make you smile no matter what you weigh. Being thin doesn't equal happiness.

 When I went to WW this afternoon, I needed all the new stuff for the new program and I purchased this blue binder for my tracker. First of all it's blue.......that's the only color it comes in....AND.....it's blue.....nuf said.
I came home and decided that the blue binder just wasn't going to work for me, so I dug up some cute scraps of fabric and canvas. I grabbed some peltex for stability and some iron on interfacing and went to work duplicating the binder in red (my signature color :) It took me about 1 1/2 hours to finish it but I love it! Red just makes me happy!

This binder cover is part of Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory this week. Hop on over there and check out all the wonderful craftiness!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Results of the Friday Night Sew In

 I finally made my first real quilting project! I used most of the Mary Engelbreit charm pack for this table runner. I took out the 8 pink 5" squares to use at another time. With 2 baby girls making their arrival very soon, I know I'll think of something to do with them :) I had originally planned on making pin wheels, but while I was ironing my pieces, another pattern emerged that I like better for this fabric. I used muslin between my squares, for the border and for the backing. With the leftover charm squares I made the binding by sewing them together.  I ended up with a piece of patchwork fabric that was 5" wide and 65" long. I cut that down the middle lengthwise and did some pressing to form a binding. After I attached the binding I only had 6" left over so it worked out pretty good. This runner was made without a pattern. I just decided to "wing it". All in all a very fun night sewing and chatting with friends online and now I have a lovely spring table runner! I can hardly wait to wake up tomorrow morning to see these beautiful daffodils fully open :)

A Giveaway for my Star Trek Peeps!

Today I am a guest blogger over at PunkProjects.blogspot.com. Don't let the name fool you. Jump on over there and check out Katie's crafty goodness! All this month she is featuring different bloggers and their amazing skills. So very cool! So in honor of my very first guest blogging "gig" (Thanks Regena for hooking me up!) I'll be giving away this set of 3 felt Star Trek "Peeps" that I made.

Some of my very favorite "peeps" in the entire Universe just happen to be Star Trek fans ( and you know who you are) so because of them, I often find myself coming up with silly things to make them smile :) For a chance to have these little guys beam over to your Galaxy, just leave me a comment. You only need to comment once. The winner will be announced on April 23rd and will be chosen at random.

Friday, April 15, 2011

TGI-FNSI :)


Thank Goodness it's Friday Night Sew In!!!! I've been looking forward to this all week long! Let's see what this Mary Engelbreit charm pack turns into by the end of the night! I found it on etsy. The seller had multiples and was selling them for 2 for 12.00! (so I had to buy 2....right?)

So what are you working on tonight?????

Thursday, April 14, 2011

My latest obsession....


I've been sewing for a long long time. So you can imagine that I have quite a stash of sewing goodies including fabric, buttons, zippers and such. But my latest obsession is sewing books and fun bag patterns. I'm not even going to embarrass myself and try to show you how many patterns I have "acquired" in recent months, but lets just say that if I made them all I probably wouldn't have to buy another bag for the rest of my life. I keep finding patterns I like better than the ones I haven't even made yet. What is up with that? When people would say that the Internet can be dangerous, I had no idea that this was what they were talking about. Makes me think about the line from the movie Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal asks Agent Starley, "How is it that we first come to covet?" and she answers "By what we see".

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

OK....so I lied





 I know I said I wasn't going to post any more of the Sweetwater aprons with the labels.....but I just couldn't help myself.....kinda cute, no?

Here's a little sneak peek of the Star Trek giveaway. You can see the entire photo on Saturday the 16th when the giveaway details will be posted....so stay tuned!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Here comes the sun!


 
I know that for some people it's still pretty cold, but here in Southern California it's already warming up. I personally think it's very wrong that I can walk into Target and shop for Reece's peanut butter and chocolate bunnies and at the same time I'm taunted by swimwear! Speaking of Target, I realized that when I go to the beach or the pool I tend to grab a Target bag to carry towels and such but NO MORE! I needed to make myself a fun summer bag! A few months back I bought this pattern, "Ella, Carry-All" by Grand Revival and fell in love with it. It's a nice large size (17" x 14") that is perfect for carrying towels and sunblock to the pool or the beach. It has pockets on the outside for your water bottle as well as a covered pocket in the center with a Velcro closure. Inside there is a key strap with Velcro so that you don't have to dig deep to find your keys. I read on someones blog (and I can't remember where) that it's a good idea to line bags in a light color because it's easier to find things, so I used a bright yellow to match the sunflowers. The pattern calls for iron-on interfacing, but since I used denim and home decor cotton canvas I omitted the interfacing. I had to fussy cut the sunflower fabric (fussy what?) I just learned what that term means about a month ago. I've been doing it for years, but I've never heard that term before. So for all those who don't speak "quilter" it means to line up your pattern pieces in a way that makes the most of the fabric design. For instance, I centered the large sunflower on each piece instead of just laying the pattern out and letting the sunflowers land where they may. Isn't this exciting to learn a new language? Now go on and try to use it in a sentence today! I used red top stitching on the denim to add a bit of color. This pattern is very easy to follow and don't let the grommets hold you back. They are very simple to do and the grommet tools come with the grommets. There are simple to follow instructions on the package. I only paid $3.49 for a pack of 12. All you need is a hammer. When you're done you'll have a great summer tote bag and you will have worked out some pent up agression with a hammer.....win win :)    I'll be posting this project over at Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory. Hop on over there and grab some inspiration!