What is Chuck Norris' favorite cut of meat?

A very sweet friend of mine

 asked me to make an apron for her hubby.

I asked her if she had a color or theme in mind.

She said 

"is Chuck Norris a theme?"

Totally!!!!

I immediately started searching the internet

 for Chuck Norris fabric.

 Sadly......I found none.

Then I searched ebay for Chuck Norris t-shirts

and found this one that was food related.

I thought it was perfect, but it was used

and had a stain VERY close to the "roundhouse".

I had her look at it.

She loved it, bought it and sent it to me.

Here is what I came up with.

I used Wonder Under to make an applique

out of the t-shirt graphic.

I used brown twill tape to make a frame around

the graphic that allowed me to get 

close to the lettering, covering the stain.

I used heavy brown cotton canvas for the apron.

I added a large pocket that is divided into 3.

She asked for a "belt loop" to thread a dish towel through

like they do on Top Chef :)

I'm happy with the way it came out.

I hope she'll be happy too.

Who wouldn't love a little bit of Chuck Norris for Christmas?

I mean.....seriously?

Happy Election Day!

Elijah - the birthday boy :)

Elijah - "Mom.....I think YOU should be the President......

Nana can watch us."

I love this boy!

Hope you all got a chance to go out and vote!!!

For my Junior Artist :)

A while back I showed you the fabric

that I had made at Spoonflower 

from a drawing that my oldest grandson made.

Well today is his birthday 

and I wanted to give him an art caddy 

so that he could create some more special things.

I had a remnant of Lightning McQueen fabric

that I knew would come in handy one day.

Well yesterday Cherise from Sewingly Along

and I had a play date :)

(why should children have all the fun?????)

We spent the evening cross stitching and chatting.

But before that, we decided to check out  

the new Hobby Lobby in Huntington Beach.

Holy Cow that place is HUGE!

 Cherise found the cutest gingerbread couple

salt & pepper shakers (at 50% off) 

who doesn't love a great deal????

and I bought some colored pencils,

 a drawing pad, a pencil sharpener and a gum eraser.

I used Peltex to give the caddy some strength

 and I used clear vinyl and  velcro to make a flap

 to keep the pencils in place.

The drawing pad slides into a sleeve that I made

to keep it in place as well.

I made a zippered pouch on the front 

to hold the eraser and sharpener.

The birthday boy is spending the day today

 with his parents and siblings at Disneyland. 

He won't get this until tomorrow.

Hope he likes it :)

8 more Saturdays.......

Can you believe it's November 1st?

I know you may not want to hear this 

but that means only 8 Saturdays left before Christmas!

I know....right?

I still have lots to do.

My crazy dream is to be done with all my Christmas projects

by the end of November (for the first time ever)

and just spend the month of December

enjoying all the wonders of the season

with my fantastic grandchildren.

We'll see how that all works out...ha!

When my friend died last month

it made me realize (again) that each day is a gift from God

and only He knows the number of our days.

It also made me think about the fact

that there are a couple of things that I would 

really like to change in my life.

Which reminds me of a movie quote from

 Grumpy Old Men

when Burgess Meredith says

"You can wish in one hand, 

and crap in the other......

which one do you think will fill up first?"

I can wish all day long 

that things will change,

but in the end I have to make those changes.

Some people have a lengthy "bucket list".

I'm a simple girl. 

I don't want to sky dive,

or zip line through the canopy of the Rain Forrest.

I feel so incredibly blessed in this life.

Right now there are only 2 things on my list.

First, I'd like to be physically fit.

I have spent the past year changing my eating habits

and that has been so incredibly hard,

but so incredibly rewarding at the same time.

But now I need to get the whole exercise thing down.

So I joined the 24hr Fitness

and I've proceeded to destroy myself on a regular basis :)

Also I really want to get our financial house in order.

I've been reading Debt Proof Living by Mary Hunt

and I'm working towards living our lives by

10 - 10- 80.

Which means from each paycheck

you first give 10% to God, then 10% to savings

and learn to live on 80% of your income.

We've been on the 10 - 90 team for a long time.

Savings hasn't been an option.

It's amazing where you can cut expenses

when you really look at where your money goes.

I'm learning the difference between

needs vs wants.

That's a hard one for me......

(especially when fabric is on sale)

I really want to be able to look back

at the end of each day

and say to myself that I took one step forward

towards reaching my goals.

(And who knows,

if I get fit and have money in savings......

I just might decide to try that zip line after all :)

FNSI results

Sometimes I don't really feel like sewing.

So on those days I usually do some cutting instead.

It's always nice to have projects

cut and ready to sew when time allows :)

A few weeks ago I spent a few hours

cutting some scraps into 2 1/2" squares.

For the Friday Night Sew In

I planned on using this tutorial

to make Great Granny Blocks.

I love the look of these 

and I have been wanting to try it out.

These blocks are totally FTS!

I just can't stop making them!

I would have made more, 

but I ran out of white for the backing

and I was pretty tired on Friday night.

I love love love these blocks

but I have absolutely no idea what I'm going 

to do with them.

Right now they are orphans.

These blocks finish out at 12" square.

Maybe when I'm finally done making the

rest of them, inspiration will hit me?

For now I'll just look at them

and smile :)

You gotta love scrap buster projects!

The Winners for Week #4 are........

The winners for Week #4 are:

Sewing: suddenly sandra 

Crochet: thecraftersaprentice

Cross stitch: blessedangie

Congratulations ladies!!!

Please email me with your full names 

and address info to claim your prizes.

A big THANK YOU

to all our generous sponsors

and shops that were offering discounts

during our Sew & Stitch along.

I hope you all took advantage of the discounts

and found some new places to shop in the process.

Thanks so much to everyone who played along.

I hope you all had a good time :)

I'm sorry that I wasn't posting daily 

as I would have liked to be

during the entire month.

A very dear friend of mine 

drowned on Oct 9th

and I'll be honest,

it's been a tough few weeks.

Life is a gift.

Squeeze someone you love :)

Altered states.......

(you may be wondering what happened to my head....

well with wet hair and no make-up

there is NO WAY I'm posting that picture :)

Back in the day 

before I started shopping in the plus sized dept,

I used to sew all my own clothes.

Everything fit and I was always so proud of myself.

I made all my children's clothing as well.

But the thrill was gone

when I started sewing in the larger sizes.

I hate altering patterns.

My Mom is a now retired professional seamstress.

It was just always easier to give her the pattern

and the fabric and let her do her magic :)

Today I decided to jump back into the 

"sew your own clothes" pool.

Luckily for me the pattern I chose

had previously been altered by my Mom.

She made a dress like this for me years ago.

I used this wonderful cotton pique fabric

that I've had in my stash for-ev-er.....

I used McCall's 8788 view C.

I don't know if you can see what she did with the pattern.

She measured from the top of my shoulder 

to the point of my breast.

(nipple is just a weird word)

Then she measured that same distance on the pattern.

Sadly my breasts were about 3" lower :(

She cut out the bust line darts 

and moved them down about 3 inches,

then she moved the long torso darts down 

the same distance.

Can you see the red dots?

My "girls" would have to live directly under my chin

for this pattern to fit the way it is drawn.

So thanks to my Mom

I now have a new dress

and who doesn't need a classic little black dress?