Modern Cozy

Tangerine Tango Quilts

2012-02-12T17:06:00.007-05:00

I managed to finish not one but TWO mini quilts this weekend - sweet! Thanks largely to Daddy being home and available to entertain the kiddo and some winter weather finally showing up and keeping us indoors, I was able to find a little extra time to sew.

So I decided to get my Tangerine Tango entries finished.

For both of these I used techniques inspired by Victoria Gertenbach over at the Silly Boodilly. She is one of my sewing/quilting heroes and I get loads of inspiration from her projects.

So both of these were cut with the rotary cutter "free hand" to create the slightly wonky look.

The first one has three different values of gray and I love the pop that adding the dark value brought. I did some quilting in the ditch on this one but I wanted to keep the quilting pretty minimal.

The second quilt is slightly larger and only used two gray values. On this one I added an applique from Lotta Jansdotter's Echo Line and then repeated the motif by embroidering one flower into a top section.

I absolutely LOVE how this one turned out.

I debated about adding hand quilting (and thank you to everyone I bothered about it) but in the end I didn't want it to get too complicated or fussy.

In order to keep the focus on the colors and the flowers I just added minimal top-stitching and some stitching in the ditch.

Love that little flower.

So now I just need to decide which one to enter in the Tangerine Tango contest on flickr since you can only have one entry per category.

I think I know my favorite but I'd love to hear which one you like...thanks and hope your weekend has been as good as mine :-)

TGIF and a little doodle project

2012-02-10T20:12:00.017-05:00

Happy Friday to you! I don't know about you but I am always so happy to have made it through the week to another Friday, it just feels like like life kind of lets it's breath out and relaxes a little bit as the day winds down.

I want to share a project that H and I worked on over several days this week, it has a lot of pictures but that's because I want you to see how simple it was and think about making one yourself - or with a favorite kiddo!

Kind of inspired by/for Valentine's day here is our doodle heart - oh so appropriate for my dear doodlebug :-)

And before you say I could never do that I am here to say yes, YOU CAN and show you how!

You can find all these supplies at Walmart or any craft supply store and YAY for Walmart putting the craft/fabric section back in! Just makes craft supply shopping with two year old so easy.

So, tray from warehouse club to keep your table clean (I also use a laminated tablecloth just in case). I used two shades of pink acrylic paint, a light and dark - just pick two you like. And if you don't like pink use a light and dark of any color. I used a sponge brush and squirted the color right on the canvas and spread it around, sides too. Let it dry.

Next up is clear contact paper - you can find it with the shelf paper. It has a nice grid already on it and it sticky on one side. Cut a piece slightly bigger than your canvas - you want to be able to wrap it around the sides (like wrapping a gift). Next cut out a heart of any scrap paper - you can lay it out going up and down or across if you'd rather - and trace it one the contact paper with a sharpie.

Cut out the heart - pinch the heart in the middle and cut a slit where you've pinched, this will give you an easy place to start cutting from the inside of the heart.

Once your heart is cut out center it over the canvas and peel the backing off. The backing is sticky enough to stick to itself and trust me, this is a pain. But you can gently unstick it if this happens and still use it.

You've just made a giant, custom stencil for your canvas. Did you know you were so crafty? I knew you could do it!

Center the sticky paper over the canvas and press to stick - you just want to make sure that it is tight enough to the canvas to keep the paint out.

Wrap it all the way around the edges, especially if you're working with a small, very enthusiastic painter like mine ;-)

Now just like you only used one color (light and dark) for the base color you're going to do the same thing for the heart color. Pick a color you like, we used teal, and then use a light and dark plus some white for blending.

You can see this was clearly the best part of the project for H! I just let her go to town because I knew the canvas was protected by the contact paper.

I stopped her when I could see that the heart was fully covered and there were still some streaks of paint that weren't totally mixed together - this will give it a nice painterly look.

Let it dry completely then peel the contact paper off gently and slowly.

Voila! Check out your awesome work!

Now for the fun part for me - the doodling that you saw in the first picture. I used a paint pen - fine tip sized - also from the craft section at Walmart. I started by tracing a thick line around the heart and then just added more and more doodles. There is no right or wrong way to do the doodling and no matter what you make I promise it will turn out cute. If you're nervous practice some doodles on paper first. Some artists whose drawing styles I love are: Geninne Zlatkis, Jennifer Judd-McGee and Alisa Burke. Another good resource is flickr - search doodle or zentangle for inspiration.

So I couldn't decide what it needed in the center and my husband suggested we let H draw her own initial since that is SO much a part of our life right now and I thought that was a perfect way to commemorate this phase. We traced where it would go with our fingers and then I put the pen where she needed to start on the canvas and then just let her do her thing - she's had plenty of practice.

I think my favorite thing is how happy and proud she is of these projects we've been doing - I know we're making great memories and cute art for our home but we're also building this foundation of success and pride for her to build on. All good. And you CAN do this too! Don't say I'm not crafty like that, say ooh that looks like something I can manage, because you can. YOU CAN! And your kid will think you are a rock star for even trying :-)

Finally a shot of the wall of art in progress in H's room - a little slice of life. She's also into closing EVERY door in the house ALL the time lately, making the poor cat completely nuts...I hope you have a lovely weekend, full of relaxation and maybe a little creativity :-)

Bunting

2012-02-08T15:20:00.005-05:00

Do you know Rachel over at Stitched In Color? If not you need to head over there and meet her as soon as you finish here. She rocks.

This is the first easy peasy project from her Curves class and I was able to get it done today people. TO-DAY.
Which is almost a miracle with a child as energetic as mine (not to mention no school today AND a nasty cold, hers not mine).

But thanks to Sesame Street and an extra long nap (poor little sicky) I was able to crank out this adorable bunting!

I originally wanted to hang it over our windows that run along the side of the living room but it's too short. Great reason to make another one in the near future.

But this one fit the mantle perfectly! I'm not going to leave it up with the Valentine's decorations it's a bit much - kind of like battle of the holidays - but as soon as the Valentine's stuff is down this will go up.

The rick rack wasn't in the original pattern but I saw some in the Stitched In Color flickr group that had it and I knew instantly that I needed it on mine too. Rick rack seems like one of those things like salt or chocolate or sleeping in that just makes everything better.

In related news all these supplies came from my stash - I'm trying very hard to use what I've got before buying anymore. The house is just so plug full of stuff. So I'm happy about that. I'm kind of doing the same thing with groceries - what can I make with what I have and how long can I go before I have to go back to the grocery store (ugh) but I think tomorrow will be the end of that streak.

Also, I've been trying to focus more and set more realistic goals for myself - smaller projects that I can actually get done in a reasonable time and reasonable for me these days might be a week of minutes stolen here and there but I'm trying to enjoy the process and stop judging myself for how much I do or don't get done (thanks Brene Brown for the help in that area). As for the focus part? I've found that when I step away from the computer the time I have to get things done in multiplies like magic. What a time suck this computer is! Definitely a love/hate relationship there. So other than checking email in the morning and maybe a blog post, I'm trying to save my surfing time for after the munchkin is in bed - seems to be helping. Hope your week is going well - we're halfway to the weekend! Yay!

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

2012-02-07T17:12:00.007-05:00

Want to know how to get these yummy looking treats? Easy peasy.

They started with these - the recipe really called for chopped up Skor or Heath bars but I had these leftover Toffee Bars from Trader Joe's so I just went with it

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars (adapted from 200 Cake Mix Creations by Stephanie Ashcroft)

1 cake mix (butter, golden, vanilla)
2 eggs
1/3 C. vegetable oil or melted butter (I, of course, went with the butter)
1/2 C. chopped Skor or Heath bars (I used more like a full cup)
1/2 C. chocolate chips

Mix the cake mix with the melted butter and eggs, I just stirred with a wooden spoon. Add in the chocolate goodies. Press into a lightly greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 14 - 20 minutes (until light golden brown). Cool, cut and enjoy!

Next time:
- I would chop the candy bar finer than I did, pea sized pieces would be better than my jumbo ones
- I'd add some almond extract, maybe 1 tsp. and some chopped or sliced almonds
- it also seemed like a little dusting of powdered sugar would look nice
- bake in an 11x7 pan to get them a bit thicker (might need to increase baking time).

I can already tell I'll be making these again, for the experimentation factor if nothing else. Overall these were quick, easy and made the house smell great all in about 30 minutes total with stuff I had on hand. Can't beat that! Enjoy!

Valentine's day mini quilt

2012-02-06T17:42:00.007-05:00

We have this built in cupboard next to our fireplace and it's been a great spot for me to change up the decorations from time to time. This year I'm thinking I might aim for monthly just for fun and when I saw Megan's Valentine's Day Mini Quilt Tutorial I knew it would be just the thing.

Now I will tell you that Half Square Triangles and I have had a rocky relationship at best in the past but I think we may have finally made our peace! Well except for the fact that when I laid out my initial squares I had two that were way to small. How had I cut them that small? I remeasured - the small ones were 3 inches EXACTLY. All the others? Trimmed to a perfect 3 and 1/4 inches. Doh. So rather than trim them all again I just sewed two more HST and trimmed them wrong to match and voila - I was good to go ;-)

I substituted a turquoise for the white in the original tutorial because it'll also look great with the colors in H's room later. It also goes with the fab valentine's heart I scored from Melissa over at Little Pink House a while back! I was so pleased with how my zigzags turned out - everything lined up so nicely and with only one seam ripped out, success! It was a little big for the space but I love it anyway. So nice to get something DONE and love it.

So I've included pictures of the things I put out in February and January (I don't think I showed it during January). I'm trying to use what I have to cute the place up, so when you say to yourself "are those beanie babies I see down there?" the answer is yes. And a big fat bowl of Christmas ornaments too! What can I say other than, they worked!

January I went with green and yellow and included a wonky log cabin potholder I bought from Ashley at Film in the Fridge - love it so so much (it'll NEVER touch a hot gooey casserole you can bet on that!).

The great BIG H

2012-02-03T21:28:00.007-05:00

H might as well be for HAPPY Friday today - daddy is coming back from his three week trip down under tomorrow and we are couldn't be happier (may be in part due to the fact that I am almost out of entertainment ideas!).

While I was holding down the fort I tried to find some artsy-crafty projects to do with the kiddo. She's genetically pre-programmed to love art and doesn't disappoint with her enthusiasm in this area. But I have to be honest and say that even with my background in art education it can be challenging to find projects she can enjoy while also ending up with something cute. Don't get me wrong, we do plenty of "art exploration" activities and we both have a great time with those as well - what two year old doesn't love a big plate full of gooey paint?! But I've been looking to expand our crafty horizons and this project turned out great, so I thought I'd share.

I bought this giant H at JoAnn's for about $4. The paint is acrylic and you can find at any craft store or Walmart.
I like using the sponge "brushes" for this project and they're good in general for little kids. Easy to use and good coverage! Since the acrylic paint is NOT water soluble once it's dry I did this part myself.

Painted the H yellow, let dry. Wiped on some white paint then wiped OFF with a damp paper towel - not completely off but about half way. I thought the yellow was a little bit brighter than I wanted and the white toned it down.

I like to use the cardboard trays you can find at Costco or Sam's Club for painting - easy to contain the mess. If you get ones big enough you can tape paper in the bottom for less sliding while painting - very handy!
Voila! A giant yellow H!

Now for the fun part - I bought a couple bags of mixed buttons at Hancock's (but any assortment of button would do - or even pompoms, ooh! fun!). These had a variety of sizes and colors, including some really big buttons.

Once the H was totally dry I spilled the beans, er, buttons out on the table and miss H could not have been more thrilled. Sorting anything is so much fun right now! If only she felt that way about the laundry...

So we played and we sorted. And we sorted and we played. All this in our PJ's no less, yup, just the way we roll around here when it's just us girls ;-)

H started arranging the buttons and telling me where to glue them - for the record she is shockingly good at directing me to do things. Does not bode well for my future I fear.

We ended up taking the buttons off and gluing them on one by one. I used E6000 glue which isn't one a toddler could use normally but I put a dab of glue and she put the button on. She's pretty careful and got no glue on her fingers (to my surprise and delight). I really did let her put the buttons where ever she wanted which was shamefully hard for my type A art teacher self. But I don't want her to remember being told what to do every step of the way, I want her to have some ownership too. I think that being two must be frustrating in so many ways, you're too small to do most of what you want, no one pays much attention to your opinion (even when you shout it) and no one thinks chocolate is an acceptable meal. *sigh* Life can be tough for the little and I think giving some control over now and then going a long way towards our general happiness around here.

So we let the H dry overnight in the garage (that glue is slightly smelly). The payoff? She is IN LOVE with her GIANT H (as she's calling it). I was worried about figuring out how to hang it - pffff. She's never going to stop carrying it around so no worries there :-)

One of hopefully many more fun projects! And to all your parents who say "oh I'm not the creative type, I could never do that" I'm here to say You ARE and You CAN and your kid will adore you for getting a little messy and having fun with them.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yesterday courage, today cookies.

2012-02-01T21:36:00.004-05:00

That's right, after all that courage and bravery yesterday I think we all deserve a cookie! Ok, I think we all deserve a cookie most of the time. I can't help it. Baking = love in my family. A tradition I am happy to keep alive.

So I know I sound like a broken record but I pinned this awesome looking recipe that came originally from Cookies and Cups and it looked so easy and yummy, I couldn't resist. Truth be told, I didn't try very hard. I mean Rolo Cake Mix Bars? You had me at Rolo.

The original recipe does NOT call for nuts but I thought they would add a nice crunch and I love that sweet salty thing, so rough chopped some fancy mixed nuts leftover from the holidays and put in with the rolo layer. Genius move. The recipe on the original blog has wonderful step-by-step photos too!

Rolo Cake Mix Bars

1 cake mix - vanilla, white, yellow, golden, butter, whatever you like BUT this is important, make sure you get an 18.25 ounce mix like Duncan Hines (some mixes are only 15.25 ounces and it makes a big difference)
1/4 C melted butter
1 - 5 ounce can evaporated milk

about 40 rolos chopped in half
chopped nuts - any kind, optional

Mix 1st three ingredients together. Spread HALF of dough in a greased (or foil lined and greased) 9x13 pan and bake 8 - 10 minutes - until just set.

Remove from oven and layer on rolos, nuts and remaining dough dropped from teaspoons (or from your fingers if you roll like I do). Bake an additional 23 - 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Mine got a little more brown and crunchy than I probably would have liked but nap time called and it waits for no one (no, sadly, not MY nap time). But even a little extra crunchy I immediately scarfed down two of them, the munchkin ate one and then we packed (almost) all the rest for Nanny to take to work. Oh and before you get all crazy jealous, nanny is what H calls her Gramma. Nanny - I WISH! So make and enjoy and if you were brave yesterday (about anything) give yourself a big old hug, you earned it.

And on that note a HUGE thanks to everyone who left a kind word here or on the facebook group, they are all wonderful and appreciated more than you know. Also, I was really struck by these words on Momastery today (if you haven't read her blog yet I would HIGHLY recommend it - a post of hers was used/reposted on the Huffington Post and it has brought her crazy amounts of traffic in a very short time - this is about her blog and it's growth and success):

The best part is that we let all of this magic happen organically. We always let it be what it was. New Monkees, you should know that we’ve never promoted this blog anywhere. We’ve done no marketing, no advertising, and I’ve never made a penny, still haven’t – except to help other mothers. We knew we had a beautiful thing going and we did our thing until the world took notice. We were not ambitious, except in caring for each other and in becoming more whole ourselves. During the past month, hundreds of women have written, asking me how to start a blog, how to grow an audience. I don’t have any magic for you, other than have a goal and start writing. My goal was to build bridges between people by showing up every day and telling the truth. So my advice is this: don’t worry about marketing or gimmicks or self promotion, just write. Everyday, write. Show up for yourself. That’s where the magic is. Your people will find you.

It seemed so relevant to all the things I've been thinking about lately, I especially love the part about showing up for YOURSELF because that's where the magic is. Love love love that to pieces.

Courage

2012-01-31T19:51:00.002-05:00

When I started blogging a little over a year ago it was after MUCH reading of other blogs and saying to myself "I could do THAT". I saw this community of people (mostly women) who seemed so together and so talented and I wanted so desperately to join in. So after a few years of thinking about it, I did.

A few weekends ago as part of my choosing the word Happiness as my word for 2012, I was thinking about why I'm blogging, what I want to get out of it and why I bother when it seems like no one is reading it but me most days (weeks, months) - is it really bringing me happiness? Then by chance I came across this class on building a blog you love, serendipitous to say the least. So I signed up, nervous but also excited.

Right from the first minute I was hooked. The teacher Liv Lane spoke with a voice that was authentic and powerful, honest but also uplifting. The lessons and questions excited and terrified me. WHY am I blogging, what AM I getting out of it and what does my blog give back? Instantly I'm at the brick wall..what does my blog give back? How could my blog, my plain-jane little blog without much focus or pizazz possibly give anyone anything?

I instantly started comparing my blog to others that I read daily and love: my blog isn't full of brilliant completed projects that inspire, my blog isn't full of gorgeous well-shot photography, my blog isn't telling the story of a particularly unusual or accomplished life...I was finding myself and my blog coming up lacking in every possible way. And I don't want to say I was having anxiety over finding my blogging purpose but I was waking up in the night thinking about it - why am I doing this? Why? WHY? Oh and I also felt like my blog needed about a million changes and improvements, immediately of course. Good times.

But as is often the case if we're willing to be open and honest and continue to show up and try to do the work even when we're unsure things started to fall in place. One lesson held an eye-opening TED talk by Brene Brown. I watched it and cried. I realized I'd had her book The Gifts of Imperfection on my nightstand pile (literally) for months. I went and got it and stayed up late reading it and cried some more. These tears were the tears of recognition - seeing myself in her stories and hearing that I was far from alone. These words in particular resonated with me: Life-paralysis refers to all the opportunities we miss because we're too afraid to put anything out into the world that could be imperfect. It's also all the dreams we don't follow because of our deep fear of failing; making mistakes and disappointing others. It's terrifying to risk when you're a perfectionist; your self worth is on the line. I could instantly see all the fear that has been holding me back. The thought that I don't want to do something that isn't the quality I want it to be has kept me paralyzed for so long. Too long. Perfectionism is such a losing game. Fear of making things that are not good enough means mostly what I make are plans. I'd like to get busy actually making things (blog included) and start to learn that: Good enough is GOOD ENOUGH. Good enough might actually be great if means more things getting done!

So today I'm trying to have the courage to say that I am good enough. The things I write, photograph, bake, sew and make are good enough. My life is worthy of being put out into the world. I often think does the world really need another mom writing about the stuff she making, baking and her kid? In the past few weeks I've realized the answer is YES. I love reading about all those things, finding connections with other moms and makers and I would be truly sad if any of the women I follow and admire decided to stop blogging. I realized there is a place for us ALL and I am included. I don't totally know my purpose or how my blog is going to give and inspire but I also know that's okay. I am going to keep showing up, keep doing the work of learning and growing and sharing and I'll figure it out. I am going to keep telling myself that I am already enough until it sinks in. I have no doubt more things will be falling into place if I let them and I'm excited to see where this path will lead me!

Progress not perfection, right? Thanks for hanging with me through my wordiest post yet and if you're so inclined I'd love to hear how you deal with feelings of insecurity.

Thanks to Liv Lane for all the great lessons so far and for hosting this blog party on courage, a great kick in the mental pants :-)

One of my favorite pizza dough recipes

2012-01-30T17:25:00.003-05:00

This is just one of three favorite pizza doughs that come to mind and yes, we eat a lot of homemade pizza around here. It makes us happy. Well, most of us anyway. Apparently when you're two little appeals to your very limited palate. Said the mother who is trying EXTRA hard to not be the mom who cooks two dinner every night.

This pizza dough is pretty easy and I think could be made ahead and frozen if you're that ambitious.

The cool thing about this dough is that you bake it in a pizza pan on a heated pizza stone. You add a generous layer of oil to the pan and then the heat of the stone almost fries the dough right in the pan and it gets all brown and crispy and delicious.

This recipe was ever-so-slightly adapted from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3.

Pizza Hut Pan Pizza
(don't judge until you've tried please!)
(no wait, judge away, I already know how delicious it is ;-)

3 C. bread flour (yes, it needs to be bread flour)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (I use the instant yeast from the jar that says good for bread machines)
1 1/4 tsp salt

Mix all these ingredients in a large mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer) and then add:
1 1/3 C. warm water - NOT hot, directions on the yeast said 80 degrees was optimal

You can mix with the paddle and then switch to the dough hook or just go for it with the dough hook like I do. I mixed it for 3 -4 minutes after it came together in a ball. Then tuck into a ball and place into a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap, to rise. I actually set the covered bowl in the microwave with the door close to hold in the heat because our kitchen has proven chilly for rising dough.

Let rise 2-3 hours.

I use a large (14") deep dish pan from Kitchen Kapers or you could make two smaller pizza using 9" cake pans. (I think this pan from Sur La Table seems like mine). Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. GENEROUSLY grease your pan(s) and spread your dough in, then top with whatever floats your boat. This was BBQ sauce, mozzarella and grated smoked gouda. With one quarter left sauce-less for you-know-who. Bake for 10-12 minutes and if you've done it right (and I know you will!) the crust will slide around in the pan when it's done and be oh so easy to get out. Mmmmm.

Even sauce-less and called cheese bread instead of pizza she still didn't eat it. But you already knew that didn't you?

:-)

Two awesome recipes (NOT to eat)

2012-01-27T14:32:00.006-05:00

Because I know this looks really appetizing. Ha!

But seriously if you have little people at your house this is an amazing (cheap and easy) home made play doh recipe. We are in LOVE with play doh around here and this makes a monster sized ball big enough to thoroughly delight your little person.

I left this batch white (plain, it wasn't truly white-white but more of a beige floury color) and kneaded in plain old glitter as it cooled to make "snow play doh" for snowman day at school yesterday.

My tester hard at work at home.

The Most Awesome Play Dough

2 Tbsp oil (I used canola)
1 C water
(food coloring if desired)

1 C flour
1/2 tsp salt (not kosher)
2 tsp cream of tartar

Heat the oil in your pot until it's warm and shimmery. Remove from heat and add water (and food coloring if you want it).

Mix in all other ingredients. Return to low heat and cook until stirring constantly until mixture thickens/gets firm. Original recipe said 4-5 minutes I think mine took barely 3 so just watch it. Remove from heat and set on plate/waxed paper/cutting board to cool.

I kneaded the glitter in once it cooled (you could probably mix in food coloring the same way). This keeps in a ziploc bag (or other air tight container) indefinitely. Seriously, the first batch I made several weeks ago looks freakishly the exact same - smooth, no smell, no mold - weird but great. I made three batch for school it made 8 generous portions. I made them all at once which worked fine but my shoulder was sore from stirring that giant blob all at once. Just warning you.

Now on to the MIRACLE cream.

Seriously. I am not a gusher or a hugger really or a OOH THIS IS SOOO GREAT kind of girl. Was an art student not a cheerleader. You get the idea. So you can believe my honesty when I say, BEST LOTION EVER.

EVER people.

This comes from an art teacher who has tried many, many lotions for driest dry skin cracked from clay and constantly washing paint brushes. My feet also get cracked and sand-papery in the winter (sorry if that's TMI) and nothing seemed to help them either. Enter the miracle lotion (as it shall now be called).

You take the 3 ingredients you see in the first photo - 16oz (or 15.5 - whatever is close) bottle of baby lotion, 8oz (7.5 oz) vaseline and a 4oz tub of vitamin E cream and you whip (with an electric mixer) all of them together and you get 2 tubs about this size of the most good-smelling, best working lotion. My hands don't hurt, my feet are noticeably smoother and my art teacher BFF says her clay cracked hands are on the mend! I think you could use generic brands for all these and still get great results. I found the vitamin E cream in a 2-pack at Walmart with the lotions, I did have to try a couple of stores before I found it. LOVE THIS LOTION. Thanks to Pinterest (of course) for both these recipes.

We've made it through 2 whole weeks of daddy being gone, just 1 more to go - YAY! Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder and I don't know which of us will be happier to see him home next weekend :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and if you're in the Atlanta area please feel free to come join us tomorrow morning 9AM till noon at Whipstitch for the Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild meeting! Japanese craft books is our topic this month and I can't wait to get get my sew on - and a HUGE thanks to Nanny (Grandma) for the H sitting!

Oreo Brownies

2012-01-24T20:59:00.005-05:00

Pinterest is a funny thing because you pin things based on their appearances, literally judging the book by it's cover every time. So then when you go actually look at what you pinned sometimes you aren't getting exactly what you expected.

That was the case with the Oreo brownies I pinned a while back - they look delicious but they were a bit fussier than I was looking for on a day when the kid was politely refusing to nap (no THANK YOU mommy - as if that makes it better. geez.).

So before you think all I cook (ok, bake) around here is sweets, let me tell you that this was a baking request and when you've been invited to dinner on a school night by wonderful friends who know how hard it is to entertain a 2 year old by yourself for many days, you bake.

So this was the version of Oreo Brownies that I was looking for but couldn't find. Necessity is the mother of invention right?

So I lined my 9x13 pan with foil, greased it and layered 20 double stuff oreos in it.

Then I mixed up a box of brownie mix (that's right, I'm a dedicated baker like that) and poured right over those brownies. Actually I spooned it over them so they wouldn't slide all around. Then I baked them for about 30 minutes and cooled them.

Then, and this is where the magic happens folks, I made from scratch cream cheese frosting to put on top. You could put this frosting on almost anything and people would love it. LOVE. It.

BEST cream cheese frosting:
1 8oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix until smooth - if it's too thick add a little splash of milk to thin it out a little. That's it. I know it seems like not enough to be magical but trust me on this. It is magical. Spread on top of cooled brownies.

So then my pint sized helper sprinkled the chopped oreos on top and we headed off for dinner and playing.

I could have taken a better, more "professional" looking photo but honestly we were much too busy shoving these in our mouths while the kids weren't looking to do much of anything else ;-)

Good times!

Rain, rain...

2012-01-23T20:33:00.004-05:00

We've had a gray, rainy, stormy weekend around these parts but we would have been inside anyway, fighting off the colds we both caught last week.

Everyone said her first year at school she'd catch everything and boy they weren't kidding. Nothing serious (thankfully) but after a while the perpetual nose drip and cough gets old. This weekend we were a little punier than even a "normal" cold. And daddy is still gone for two more weeks.

I have a renewed respect for people who single parent all the time. I know how lucky I am to be able to stay home right now and on the hard days I'm extra thankful to not have to worry about getting her to daycare and being at work by 7AM. If that was what needed to happen in order for me to be a parent I would have done it without a second thought, she's worth it. But I'm glad we don't have to right now.

Especially on the rainy days.

Gourmet pretzel wannabes

2012-01-22T18:45:00.003-05:00

Don't be fooled by these unassuming looking pretzels - they are sassy and delicious! And if you make a batch while your husband is out of the country you may very well eat them all yourself -- be careful, you won't realize you're addicted until it's waaaaay too late.

My mom produced this recipe that I emailed her in oh 2005 (!) when apparently I was on a mission to reproduce those pricey gourmet pretzels at home. I mean those little bags can get REALLY expensive. For pretzels. So anyway, these are quite spicy but you can always cut back on the pepper if you don't like as much heat.

Spicy Gourmet-ish Pretzels

1 package ranch dressing mix
1 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt (you could also substitute onion or celery salt)
1 tsp. cayenne pepper (yep, a whole tsp. - but use less if you like. I've also substituted a tsp. of aleppo pepper and they were not as spicy but still tasty)
3/4 C. vegetable oil

Mix all this in a large ziploc bag. Then add a 15oz (ish) bag of pretzels. Smoosh the bag around to coat the pretzels. Turn it over a couple of times. I made mine at bedtime and let them sit over night - turning them over a few times before I went to sleep. In the morning - delicious, zippy pretzels. My bag had a layer of the coating stuck to it to I just scraped that off with a spatula when I took the pretzels out.

So. So. Good.

Happy Friday!

2012-01-20T08:32:00.006-05:00

Well we've survived our first full week of Daddy being gone, only two more to go (which feels like an eternity right about now). H has had some sad moments (mostly when she's already tired) but the miracle of facetime has made us feel MUCH better :-) Talking to someone via a live video still seems like Jetsons technology to me when I stop and think about it. I love it!

So I've been trying to squeeze in a few "fun for mom" moments this week - you know they come during nap time of after bedtime - but I have found some, that's the important thing. So check me out, I made a light box! Nutty looking right? But it took about 30 minutes and mostly stuff I already had around the house - easy, peasy.

Look at how much better those colors look - LOVE this project! The down side was that I made it from a too-small box - that's why it's too bright at the top. The good news is that it's pretty easy to find a bigger box and whip up another one. Oh and the first one can always be recycled - bonus points!

I think on the next one I'm also going to line it with white fabric - I just smacked some white paper in this one to see how it would look and I hate seeing the seem at the bottom corner - ugh. One continuous sheet of fabric or paper will take care of that! So I'm definitely going to make a bigger one and keep around for photographing small projects, I found the directions (via Pinterest) on the (never home) maker blog.

In other news I think I'm finally going to break down and learn to knit - I know how to crochet pretty well but I've resisted learning to knit for years. I figured the last thing I needed was another set of projects to distract me but I've been seeing so many lovely cowls around blogland lately that I think I'm going to give in. Knitting here I come!

I'll leave you with a peek at what Miss H is working on this morning: she grabbed a new pad of post-it notes from our "junk" drawer and a pencil (I've already learned that the scissors and permanent markers had to go live somewhere else) and is busy putting an H on each and every sheet of paper. Oh and she'll get to them all - she is nothing if not thorough.

Two seems to be all about making your mark :-)

Happy Friday!

Tasty Tuesday : Buckeye Bars

2012-01-17T07:48:00.004-05:00

If you're from the states you're probably familiar with those yummy little chocolate covered peanut butter balls that show up around the holidays - story has it that they originated in Ohio, the Buckeye state, hence the name. They're delicious but fairly time consuming to make and knowing Miss H's LOVE of play-doh and squishing it into a zillion teeny tiny pieces I haven't had the time or courage to make them lately. But then I came across this recipe in a cookbook around Christmas and the light bulb went off - these I could actually pull off! Sadly, as soon as my husband goes out of town my (already weak) will to cook dinner disappears almost entirely and I end up making and eating something like this for dinner. The worst part? I'm not even sorry!

Buckeye Bars

(from Better Homes and Gardens Very Merry Cookies)

one 19.5 ounce brownie mix
2 eggs
1/3 C. oil (I used Canola)
1 C. chopped peanuts (I used salted dry roasted)

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and lightly grease the foil (or spray with cooking oil like PAM or Baker's Joy).

Combine brownie mix, eggs and oil in a large bowl - mix well with electric mixer. Stir in peanuts. Spread 1/2 of the brownie mixture in your prepared pan. (I think I ended up using more like 2/3 of the mixture in the bottom of the pan because it was tricky to spread - still turned out fine).

In a separate bowl whisk together peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk. Pour over brownie mixture in pan.

Take spoonful (or pinches) of the remaining dough and flatten, then place on top of peanut butter mixture in pan.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes (top should be set and edges lightly brown). Cool in pan completely. Use foil to lift out and cut into bars. Store between layers of waxed paper in airtight container.

These are very rich, so small sized bars are probably your friend. They may also make a delicious breakfast a la Bill Cosby - chocolate cake? Cake has eggs, milk, flour..sure, have cake! And then I hear the song in my head, "Dad is great, give us the chocolate cake..." but I digress. Teehee. Hope your Tuesday treats you well!

The photos that inspired me to make a light box.

2012-01-15T14:01:00.004-05:00

This past week was mainly about getting my dear husband ready for his Australia trip - he left Friday for three weeks down under (working for almost all of the time, a little traveling for fun at the end). H and I would have loved to join him but it would have been about five THOUSAND dollars in plane tickets. Ouch. We're weren't really sure we wanted to spend that kind of $$ for a trip she wouldn't even remember (lets pretend we actually have that kind of $$ in our budget anyway), so we decided we'll go back as a family someday when we can all participate, enjoy and remember it. Keep me in your thoughts/prayers as I single parent for the next three weeks.

So I did manage to finish three more of these drawstring project bags from Jeni's Drawstring Bag Pattern - they go together so quickly they're kind of addictive! They're just the right size for holding art supplies, a knitting or crochet project or (if you're two) every puzzle piece in the house, a million matchbox cars or your entire magnet collection (good times). I can't decide which of these fabric combinations I love more but I can tell you what I love least - trying to get the exposure right so the colors are true. The top photo was with natural light and the bottom one was with the flash and neither is right. So I think I'm going to use one of the many DIY light box tutorials I've been seeing on Pinterest and build one for myself. Seems like a cheap and relatively easy project that my helper and I can tackle. I'll keep you posted :-) Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Bulletin Board - first finish of 2012

2012-01-07T21:12:00.002-05:00

You know what made me SUPER happy today? Recovering my old, faded bulletin board with woven burlap to make an awesome new spot to pin my little bits and pieces. Then my very helpful husband was kind enough to hang said bulletin board and some other art work that I've had sitting in the corner for oh, the past year.

I was looking for ideas to re-cover or paint bulletin boards this week and I came across this tutorial on Jones Design Company (which I had never seen before but is a really cool blog) showing how to use burlap strips to weave a new cover for an old bulletin board. I loved the texture and then was lucky enough to find this chocolate brown burlap at my local Hancock's. The only thing I did differently was to use hot glue instead of a staple gun and it worked out beautifully. The burlap didn't fray nearly as much as I feared it would (it did shed little "hairs" all over but they were easily wiped up) and the whole thing was done in ONE nap time - sweet.

I feel like I've already seen about two dozen quilts already finished in the new year and I'm not sure how people are getting so much done so quickly - no toddlers? More sleep? More caffeine? If anyone wants to share their tips for getting more accomplished I'm all ears! But for now I am thrilled with how my little sewing corner is shaping up and I'm looking forward to all the action this spot is going to see this year.

It is making me feel very happy indeed! Hope your weekend is finding you happy as well -

2012 Finish-a-Long

2012-01-06T15:42:00.007-05:00

And y'all I desperately need to get some things FINISHED! Talk about Happiness - few things would make me happier than getting that WIP progress list whittled down or dare I say, cleared out. THAT seems like such a dream to me that it almost makes me giggle! But I was thrilled to read Jan's post about the Finish-a-Long that Quilter in the Gap is hosting this year because it seems like just the kick I need to get moving. I know the other part is to not start anything new until some/all of these projects are done so I'm going to do my best to STOP planning new things for now. I doubt I'll be able to stop completely but maybe I can at least stem the tide. I'm also trying to take the long view and plan for the entire year and not just burn myself out trying to get it all done in the first month! I did take photos of ALL my WIP's just to motivate myself but here are the things I'm pretty sure I can (and want) to get done before the end of March. These aren't all quilting projects but they do all need to get finished!

First up: four Noodlehead Gathered Clutches - these were started last summer (late spring?) some time. The crazy thing is that these are so close to being done. What I learned from this project what that I don't like making things assembly line style. Or maybe I would if I hadn't tried to match the thread to each different fabric every step of the way. These were for fun and a couple of gifts and they'll still work (a year late).

Not one but TWO Christmas table runners. I think I might want to lengthen one to better fit our current table. These were started which Christmas, 2008? Yeah, time to get them done. They'll be really cute for next Christmas and I'll pretend I'm ahead of the game.

Another pair of pajama pants. I loved the first pair so much and wear them all the time, so I know I need at least one more pair. Cut these out at Thanksgiving so these are a relatively new addition to the WIP game.

Finally a birthday quilt for my Gram who is turning 80(!) on February 29th. I'd love to have something lovely to give her and I know she'll use this during those upstate NY winters (and springs and summers ;-). I have a layer cake and a couple extra fabrics that I thought would look good in her living room. I just need to pick a pattern and get to it.

I'm excited to get busy and cross some things off the list! Check back with me at the end of the first quarter and see how I did. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

My word for 2012 is...

2012-01-05T15:57:00.004-05:00

Happiness! I was struggling with this choice and I kept thinking about words like progress, accomplishment and success, trying them on and shrugging them off one by one. None of them felt quite right. I was actually making myself a little crazy about it, making a huge list of possible words, thinking, considering, debating. Let me just tell you it wasn't good.

But then I saw the quote above on Pinterest and it just hit me - that's what I want. I want to do more of what makes me happy. Real, authentic happiness, that makes you feel all warm and tingly - that's what I need in my days and my year. When I'm sitting in this same seat a year from now I want to look back with satisfaction on all I accomplished, all my successes and my growth. But what I most want to do is look back and feel the glow from all the happiness I created and experienced in 2012. I think especially when you work inside the home it's easy to let the need to do's and the should do's take precedence over the do because it makes you happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up doing the dishes or the laundry or the vacuuming and I'm still a 24/7/365 Mom but I'd like to include more of the things big and small that connect me to myself and make me feel happy about getting done. I also like the word and concept of happiness because it's something I have control over and when you stop to really notice it you suddenly become so aware and grateful for all the places you find it in your life. So my word for 2012 is happiness, it fits, it feels right and I'm excited about it!

So as I thought about what would bring more happiness into my life, the answer came, space. I would feel thrilled to have less clutter and more space. So my first happiness project is to let go of some (hopefully a LOT) of the clutter in our home. I feel like that would help open the creative gates and create a space for work to happen. I'd also love to clear out some of my many works-in-progress!

If you're at all interested in the idea of a word of the year you can find more info from the One Little Word series over at Ali Edwards - the post where she asked people to share their 2012 words had 850+ responses and made for inspiring reading. So here's to intention rather than resolutions, I'm ready to see where it takes me :-)

Tasty Tuesday

2012-01-03T15:24:00.003-05:00

What to make friends and influence people in 2012? Maybe just keep the friends you've got extra happy? I have just the ticket!

To be completely honest with you this brownie is nothing special, but the frosting, the frosting is the kind of frosting I imagine they put on brownies in heaven. You could could slather it on an old shoe and people would proclaim you the best and most innovative baker ever and beg for more. Seriously.

Chocolate Pan Frosting
(from The Cake Doctor Returns)

1/2 C butter (1 stick)
1/3 C milk
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3 1/2 C powdered sugar, sifted (unless you don't mind the possibility of a few tiny lumps and I can say we really don't care around here, but if you do by all means sift away)

Melt butter over low heat, then add milk and cocoa powder stirring until mixture thickens and just comes to a boil. Boil one minute. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar. Mix well and don't take too long because it sets up fairly quickly. This will cover anything in a 9"x13" pan generously, with a little left over to scrape out of the bowl as your little treat for all that hard work you just did!

I'm linking up with Debbie's Tuesday at the Table over at A Quilter's Table - go check out her fun combination of food and sewing or sewing and food or whatever you want to call her yummy goodness!

Hello 2012!

2012-01-02T09:49:00.003-05:00

Hi there! How are you? As ready to get back to your "normal"life and routine as I am? It turns out a little celebrating and vacationing actually goes a L-O-N-G way and I'm ready to get to my regular day-to-day life. My holidays were lovely but it's kind of like wanting a little salt to balance out all the sweet.

I've been thinking a lot about my goals for this year, what I want to accomplish and learn, how I want to grow as a person and what I want to be able to look back on with happiness and satisfaction at the end of the year.

I've been inspired by Ali Edwards' "One Little Word" blog posts and class. The idea is to choose one word to focus on, meditate on and basically let influence your life for the next year. I think it'll be interesting to see how that one word could influence your 2012 journey. I've really wanted a word that spoke to me so I'm still thinking about it(or over-thinking as the case may be). But I'm getting it narrowed down and I'll write more about that later this week. My husband chose "focus" as his word instantly and it seems like a great fit for him. I think my challenge is that I have many areas/habits I would like to change this year, so picking one word has been hard. But I think that's also the point, to challenge yourself and push through the indecision and difficulty. I know that 'm also trying to get past my notion of the "perfect" word. Very often my idea of the "perfect" anything just gets me stuck and frustrated, another thing I'm working on. How about you, what would your word for 2012 be?

I'm delighted to be able to say that this is my 100th blog post! Yay! I'm planning on some changes and upgrades around here this year that I'm excited to share. I think I've come a long way in a year and hope to make even more progress in 2012! I'm looking forward to more sewing, crafting and cooking than ever before and I hope you'll join me :-)

Image on my January banner and this post were found through my Pinterest love - banner photo came from this awesome post over at Wave Avenue and that great resolutions poster was from this post at A Spoonful of Sugar (originally from Idea Obscura).

Holiday Making

2011-12-30T17:12:00.007-05:00

Here are the last of my holiday making photo's - I'm happy to finally be able to share and thrilled to report that all gifts were extremely well received! Is there any bigger bummer than a lukewarm reception to something you've hand made? Not for me.

So this first bag is the Simple and Chic Tote Pattern from Sweet Pea Patterns made up in an Echino print that says (screams really) my sister's name - she said the same thing when she opened it. I lined it in some hot pink Kona and added a fussy cut Echino pocket on the inside.

All the Sweet Pea patterns I've made have been incredibly well written that following them has been a breeze.

What was supposed to be a new camera bag for the hubs with Aboriginal fabric for his upcoming Australia trip - this was bag version C from Elizabeth Hartman's Perfect Zip Bags Pattern. It turned out a little tall for a camera bag, next time I would probably cut the height in half if I was making (attempting) another camera bag. When I first made this pattern I though the way she designed the zipper tabs was incredibly fussy but since the bags have the best looking corners I've ever made I am a complete convert.

Finally, a pin tuck clutch for my sister-in-law. The lining on this is a really pretty deep red Koan and I found a cozy scarf in the exact same color, so it made a nice set. This project came from the book 1,2,3 Sew by Ellen Baker - a book full of well designed projects.

Hopefully your thoughtfully made gifts went over as well as mine :-)

Post Holiday Baking

2011-12-27T16:35:00.003-05:00

Hey there! I hope everyone's holidays were merry and bright. Ours were slightly marred by a nasty cold and cough that kept H lying low - the pediatrician's office wasn't really where we wanted to be Christmas Eve morning but we were thrilled they were there. On the plus side H is on the mend and we're enjoying some post-holiday relaxation and baking. Crazy, right? After just passing the most baking-est holiday of the year too! But today has been a cold, gray winter day with a strong wind "blowin" as H says and it just felt right to do some baking.

I got some non-stick donut pans for my birthday back in October and hadn't tried them out yet. But there are these amazing baked donuts that we get at our local farmer's market that I've been wanting to replicate. This was the first batch - there will definitely be others. The recipe I used was the one that came with the pans:

Spiced Cake Donuts

2 C flour
3 3/4 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, mix, then add:

3/4 C milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp butter, softened

Add the wet ingredients and mix until well blended. We poured the batter into a large ziploc and cut the corner off one edge to pour into the pans. Recipe said 8 - 10 minutes at 325 degrees but they took about 14 minutes in my oven.

Glaze recipe

1 C powdered sugar
2 Tbsp HOT water

Our review was mixed - I think next time I'd up the oven temp to 350 to get the donuts a little more brown. They also seemed a little dry which I think came from the teeny tiny little bit of shortening in them. I added some vanilla to the glaze but it was still super sweet. So like I said, this was the first batch of what will probably several as we try to get the delicious donuts we want. I've seen several recipes for baked donuts on Pinterest that look great and if you have one I'd love a link to it as I keep on testing. Tough research work but someone's got to do it! ;-)

Check back this week as I share some of the holiday making I got done!

Tea Wallet stocking stuffer

2011-12-23T18:33:00.003-05:00

I know the person getting this little cutie doesn't read the blog, so I'm safe sharing it.

This was one of those great projects that comes together in about a half hour if you have all the pieces (no worries there, my craft room is like a craft warehouse, ahem). It also looks as good as I hoped it would - so satisfying when something comes out the way you hope it will.

I found this tea wallet tutorial over at Handmade Therapy and it was quick, easy and cute. Love that.

Just in case you need a last last minute gift to sew - I can highly recommend this one.

I have just a teensy bit more to sew tonight and then it's on to the family festivities tomorrow and Sunday. So enjoying spending this time with my sweet family and lovely friends - hope you are too!

Modified "Madras" Tote

2011-12-20T08:05:00.003-05:00

OK it's not madras fabric but it IS the Madras Tote pattern from Anna over at Noodlehead - it was the free pattern she posted as part of Grosgrain's fabulous free pattern month. I loved this bag the minute I saw and knew I needed to make one - I know I say that about a lot of bags but this one just looked so easy and fun. Plus it only takes a half yard each for the exterior and lining fabrics - bonus! Using webbing for the straps also cuts down on construction time.

Some little people are getting art supplies to go with a crayon maker (shhh - don't tell them) and I thought it would be fun to make them each a small tote bag to carry their supplies in. My dream is also that they might clean their stuff up into the bags at some point and thrill their mother - it's the season of dreams right? ;-)

I used Anna's directions but scaled the size down a bit - now it seems a bit more proportionate for a 4/5 year.

The measurements I used were:

exterior, lining and canvas interfacing: 14"x14"
pocket pieces: 14"x8"
bias tape: 2.5"x14"
handles: 2 - 20" pieces of cotton webbing (the original pattern tutorial says 14" for straps but the correct size is 24")

The only other change I made was to shorten the length of the gusset (boxed bottom corner) from 2" to 1 1/2". This came together really quickly and easily - Anna always writes and photographs her pattern with exceptional clarity - so I got it done in one very short nap and some extra time the the craft room yelling play suggestions from behind the sewing machine :-) It fits a 9x12 sketchbook in it perfectly and has the two front pockets for other goodies. I think we have a winner!

Now to whip up two more which might be slightly more challenging as the inevitable holiday illness seems to have just shown up in the form of a hot, coughing, puny two-year-old. It's my fault really for tempting fate by thinking just yesterday morning that we were going to all be well for Christmas. At least Daddy's here to help!

Hope your family is all healthy and that they stay that way!

Home Stretch

2011-12-19T08:22:00.003-05:00

December is always the hardest month to be a blogger if you're making things to gift - I want to share it all here but what if the person I'm making for actually checks the blog? I don't want the surprise ruined and it seems like that's just bound to happen, thanks to Murphy's Law. So I'm holding off on showing all the gifts I'm making and I'll do a show and tell about those next week. I figure that'll also be a good post-holiday soft landing.

So I finally jumped on the Lined Drawstring Tutorial from Jeni over at In Color Order - I've seen a zillion of these made and just hadn't had the time to make one but I'm thinking about making a couple to "wrap" gifts so I whipped on up yesterday. It is a great pattern, easy to read and use. This is the free "project size" bag from the FREE tutorial she has on her cute blog and I liked it so much I went ahead and bought her pattern. You won't be sorry if you spend the money on it, not only does she include measurements for a TON of different sizes, she also includes the formula to make your own custom size. So this bag was just the right size to hold a small sketchbook and supplies - love it. Can't decide whether to make a couple more of these in the next size up or make Anna Madras Bag to hold gifts for my niece/nephews...but since we're in the home stretch for holiday crafting I guess I'd better figure it out. :-)

About one nano second after I took the picture above the pens were snatched! We have an "H" artist at our house who is loving the ability to "sign" things with her first initial. So we're finding H's big and small on most any and every scrap of paper. Lucky for her I still think it's adorable (note - this feeling will last exactly until I find one on the wall or anywhere is permanent marker).

Hope your week is getting off to a good start and that you have your crafting plan well in hand!

Wheeee winners!

2011-12-17T15:18:00.002-05:00

Thanks so much to EVERYONE who stopped by and left a comment - I've had so much fun this week reading your comments and looking at your blogs! I wish everyone could be a winner but I am really excited to share the FIVE winners from this week's posts. I used the Random Number Generator to pick winners but I am not nearly technology savvy enough to copy and paste those images here (maybe next year) so you'll have to trust me, and here they are:

Day 5 - Sarah B., Day 4 - Judi, Day 3 - fenna, Day 2 - javadiva and Day 1 - Jezibel from sproutbaby. Congrats to all of you! I'm getting ready to send you an email asking for your address so if you don't see it leave me a comment or email me. I'll be getting your goodies in the mail to you next week! Thanks again!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day FIVE 2011

2011-12-16T07:21:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday everyone - we made it! I don't know about you but this has been such a fun week - I've loved looking through all the great giveaways posted over on the Sew Mama Sew giveaway page. Now I'm just keeping my lucky fingers crossed! I think I've been equally excited about giving fun things away - thanks so much to everyone who has stopped by and commented this week. It's been so fun to read the comments each evening and feel like I'm getting to "know" some new bloggy friends. For me blogging has been all about sharing inspiration and meeting new people and so seeing all these new faces around here this week has been exciting!

On to the last giveaway of the week! I thought this would be a thoughtful book to start the new year with, The Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder by Jill Badonsky. I'm also including a fun new notebook and one of my favorite Sharpie writing pens (I'm almost as in love with pens and notebooks as I am with fabric). This book provides fun and light-hearted facts, quotes and prompts to inspire you each day. If you want to work on your creativity next year (or are just the journal-ing type) this book is for you!

For today's comment let me know if you excited or terrified that we have basically a week of holiday crafting time left. Personally I just kind of shocked myself by writing that and now feel the need to RUN to my sewing machine, or maybe I should finally bake those cookies from the dough resting in the fridge. I'm sure whichever I choose my two year old will have other ideas about how to spend our day :-)

Good luck on the giveaways and thanks so much for stopping by this week! I'll choose and post the winners with the random number generator some time tomorrow. Stop back by anytime for a visit :-)

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day FOUR 2011

2011-12-15T13:44:00.004-05:00

A little late on the giveaway post today, sorry about that, but it was Christmas party day at pre-school so we had a few other things going on this morning. But back to the giving and festivity around here! I've been giving books away all week as part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - I'm sure you've been checking out all the other amazing giveaways going on too, if not you still have until tomorrow (Friday) at 8pm EST so get going!

Here are the books you can leave a comment to win today: The Artistic Mother, A Practical Guide for Fitting Creativity into Your Life by Shona Cole and Making A Family Home by Shannon Honeybloom.

These books are all about being a creative mom, from finding the time and project to creating a welcoming environment for growth and beauty.

For today's comment I would love when you do your crafting/sewing/creating. I am always trying to fit in more time for my own creativity while I balance the needs of my child and husband and just life in general. Finding that balance seems very challenging some days but I love hearing about how others deal with the same issues.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, good luck and please come back tomorrow for the last day of Giveaway Day (week)!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day THREE 2011

2011-12-14T07:38:00.005-05:00

Hey Folks and Happy Wednesday - we're halfway to the weekend, yay! If you're here from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway thanks for stopping by. I'm giving a book away each day this week so make sure you've left a comment in each day to have a chance to win. I'll pick winners sometime after 8pm EST and post them all on Saturday 12/17. Make sure you leave me an email address (if it's not available otherwise) so I can let you know if you win!

Today's sewing book is a sewing for KIDS book. Sewing Clothes Kids Love by Nancy J. Langdon and Sabine Pollehn. This book includes 10 full size patterns and has projects for both girls AND boys! These projects are all hip, bright and colorful.

If you're looking to spice up your kid's wardrobe this is the book for you! Sizes in this book start at 18 months and go all the way up to size 12 - a great variety. As for me and my small person, she seems to be a t-shirt and comfy pants kind of girl and she has NO problem letting me know EXACTLY which pants are comfy enough. Who knew two would be such an opinionated age?

For today's comment please tell me what is your favorite holiday treat to bake or eat! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow and Friday for two more great giveaways!

This is the other thing going on around here (as of yesterday anyway), baking for my husband to take to work. It's a biscotti fest! I love baking biscotti - they aren't hard at all (just a couple different steps)' they always impress and coffe drinkers love them. I made (in order clock-wise starting at the) chocolate chocolate-chip, lemon pistachio with a lemon glaze, triple ginger with an orange ginger glaze and my personal favorite, nutty toffee coffee.

Here's the recipe for my favorite, which I might need to make another batch of TODAY:
(From the Ultimate Sortcut Cookie Book by Camilla V. Saulsbury)

Nutty Toffee Coffee Biscotti

1 18.25oz. pkg vanilla cake (I use French Vanilla)
1 C all purpose flour
1 T instant coffee
1/2 C (1 stick) butter melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/2 t. almond extract
1 C English Toffee baking bits (plain NOT chocolate covered)
1 1/2 C coarsely chopped almonds (I use sliced and they work fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray or use a pan liner like a sil-pat or parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix with mixer on low speed for 2-3 minutes until blended well. Dough will be very stiff. I sometimes finish mixing with my hands to make sure everything is incorporated. Divide dough in half and shape dough into 2 12"x3" long rectangles. Shape the dough to that is it higher in the middle than at the edges. I usually put them diagonally on the baking sheet so there is room between them.

Bake 30-35 minutes until firm to the touch. Leave oven ON. Let cool on baking sheet 10 minutes. The slice on the diagonal in about 1" slices (move to a cutting board to slice - you can do it - they won't be THAT hot).

Lay slices on their edges back on the baking sheet and return to oven for 10 minutes.

Then turn the oven OFF and leave the biscotti in another 30-40 minutes. I flip mine over (using tongs) once during this time to one side doesn't get more toasted - totally optional. Remove from oven and cool completely.

TA-DA! You're an amazing biscotti maker! Impress your friends and enjoy your tasty treats!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day TWO 2011

2011-12-13T07:40:00.003-05:00

Good morning and thanks for joining me for day TWO of my Sew Mama Sew giveaways this week! I don't know about you but I am ridiculously excited about all the amazing things being given away - make sure you take time to check out all the other great giveaways - I think people will be continuing to add them add week. I know I'm crossing fingers AND toes on a couple of them!

So the book I'm giving away today is Flirt Skirts : Learn how to sew, customize and style your very own skirts by Patti Gilstrap and Seryn Potter.

This book gives you 3 basic templates you can enlarge and print and then 20 different ways to change and design those basic skirts. If you're feeling adventurous and have the time to print the patterns this is the book for you!

I realized that I'm pretty happy with my Versatile Wrap Skirts from Toni Coward over at Make it Perfect and now that I'm staying at home with the kiddo I don't have the need or opportunity to wear fancier stuff. But those wrap skirts, man do I LOVE THOSE! You can find that pattern on etsy or at Pink Chalk Fabrics.

So for today's comment if you have a favorite skirt pattern please share it! Good luck and please join me again tomorrow for another great sewing book giveaway :-)

Comments on all giveaways will be open until Friday night at 8pm EST - International commenters always welcome.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day 2011

2011-12-12T07:33:00.006-05:00

Hiya! If you're here from the Sew Mama Sew GIVEAWAY DAY (wheeee) then welcome to my little corner of the super webs!

I'm thrilled to be participating in Giveaway day this year but I'm doing my giveaway just a little bit differently. I'm giving away a different sewing or crafting book my extensive library each day this week, today through Friday. So check back each day for a new book to be given away! All you have to do is leave a comment on the days you want to be entered, one comment per person please. I'll choose a random winner from all the comments on each post on Friday night (12/16) after 8pm EST and post the winners on Saturday 12/17. International commenters always welcome :-)

Check out all these great goodies! I have clothes sewing, as well as kids clothes, mama projects and creative inspiration. These are all great books but I have so many I figured this would be the perfect time to share some of the love! It's also a nice way to justify adding a couple new books because with the holidays here it could happen.

So here is today's giveaway: Chic and Simple Sewing by Christine Haynes. This book has projects for skirts, dresses, tops and jackets and includes new, un-cut pattern pieces. There are over 20 cute projects in this book! Want to work on your wardrobe for 2012? This book could help you out! I personally have realized that I enjoy making bags and quilts more than clothes - I'm sure it's me but they never seem to turn out quite right. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up, but for right now I'm planning on sticking with things I really love and know will work out (like pajama pants - no pressure to wear in public! Sweet!).

So for today's comment please share what your favorite thing to sew is!

Again, thanks for stopping by and please join me each day this week as I give away another book!

A few of my favorite things

2011-12-11T08:58:00.016-05:00

Yesterday was cookie day at our house and some of my favorite people came over and helped make some yummy holiday treats.

Nana, Aunt Sara, Auntie Jenn and all the Atlanta cousins came. We are really lucky to have fun people close!

I made some cute reindeer cookie (Pinterest inspiration) and Linzer bars, we also had "the dip" for the grown-ups to snack on - mmmm. I had pre-made sugar cookie and gingerbread dough for the kids to roll (read play with) and cut out.

H had lots of helpers and loved every minute of her day - eating chocolate, playing with dough, eating more chocolate - it was totally working out for her!

N and Q were like junior bakers - I think they could easily start their own cookie shop for the holidays next year.

After the baking and lunching came the best part - the decorating!
Frosting and zillions of sprinkles!

"Can I lick this knife? Can I lick it now? Now?"

Look at the concentration!

Look at the beautiful curled hair!

H was a serious sprinkler - she really meant business. I think she completely emptied two or three little jars of sprinkles on to her cookies.

What can I say, she is rather enthusiastic about most everything she does.

Check out these glorious creations - you're not going to see cookies like these in any fancy bakeshop.

No one was accused of being chintzy with the sprinkles.

Such a fun day - our sugar high lasted right up until nap time :-)

Hopefully this'll be the start of a new holiday tradition! I think next year I might just bake a bunch of cookies ahead of time because the decorating was clearly the best part of the day.

Gratuitous twilight tree shot from my lesson on how to photograph a lit tree at night - I have clearly forgotten every tiny thing I learned in photo 101 all those years ago. Thanks to the hubs for the refresher lesson :-) And thanks to all our great family who make the holidays fun!

Welcome December!

2011-12-05T16:23:00.014-05:00

Today I'm doing a little catching up around here, with a new banner for December (finally) and so I thought I'd share some of the sights of the season around our house.

We took the time yesterday to get our tree and switch the Thanksgiving decorations for the Christmas ones.

I have a whole collection of German smokers that I started way back in the...late 80's? early 90's? I know it was before the wall fell because some of them have DDR stickers on them. Since I ended up marrying into a German family it worked out pretty nicely.

I know my husband will tell me that the color temperature of these photos is all wrong but it was either bright yellow or a little too cool. I let the auto white balance pick and this is what I ended up with. Oh and look at that sleepy, burp-cloth-bearded Santa baby - that photo of her still cracks me up.

This is my new decoration from Jennifer over at Ellison Lane Quilts - how adorable is that? I made the stockings last year from felt. They turned out super tiny but I like them that way!

The little felt houses I bought in years past from an etsy seller who doesn't have anything listed currently, but I LOVE the three of them that I have too.

An overall shot of our built-in bookcases, the main place I get to spiff up the house. Clearly I may need to edit a little more next year but I have a hard time choosing - it's all so fun!

The tree! Look for a night time shot later this month...(all non-breaky ornaments that the doodle bug can re-arrange to her heart's content and she is).

And just to keep it real, here's where the season has spread all over the coffee table - play doh station located just to the left of this shot :-)

Hope you're all getting in the spirit at your place too.

Now on to that lengthy holiday to-sew list!

My own lovely Goodie Bag!

2011-11-26T13:10:00.003-05:00

It has been kind of quiet around the blog this week since it was Thanksgiving, but trust me, we were plenty busy in real life.

We had about 10 people over for dinner on Thursday including some lovely out-of-town guests (one from as far away as California! Aren't we lucky?!). We had a lovely meal with too much food as normal but we've been making short work of the leftovers (pie for breakfast? Absolutely!).

Almost no Black Friday shopping for me except for a quick stop by the fabric shop - what can I say, they had great coupons! The other thing going on at our house right now is teething, great big back molars, so we have a very sad/grumpy two year old and staying home seems like the best plan. So that's what we've mostly been doing.

I did get some VERY fun mail yesterday - my Goodie Bag came!! Corrie in NC was my partner and she used some of my favorite fabric (those viewfinder reels from Melody Miller) with a pattern I absolutely love and keep planning in my head with various fabrics (the Go Anywhere Bag Pattern from Anna over at Noodlehead). She included great scraps, a cute notebook and some yummy hot chocolate sticks (which said 2 year old promptly tried to claim as her own!). It was a great package! She did an awesome job on the bag and now that I've seen it made up I feel compelled to go make one (or two or three or...) more! Hope everyone is having a nice weekend after getting to relax and enjoy some time with family and/or friends this week. See you next week!

Goodie Bag Swap Kismet

2011-11-21T18:15:00.003-05:00

I was so excited to sign up for this round of the Goodie Bag Swap on flickr - this group has such an amazing collection of bags - I couldn't wait to participate. I've made many bags for myself but it's always a bit nerve-wracking to make something for a stranger, will the fabric and pattern you choose suit them, will they like it, will it be good enough...but I felt much better after looking at my partner's inspiration mosaic.

I had ordered this Amy Butler fabric over the summer with plans of whipping up a summer tote but then the fabric just didn't really feel like me. But it was still lovely fabric so I put it aside until inspiration struck and that hit just as I was viewing my partner's bag choices - this was one of her inspiration choices! Bingo!

This is a bag pattern from Sweet Pea Totes - I wasn't familiar with these patterns but loved most of them, promptly bought three of them and have already made two. This is the Hobo Bag with an adjustable strap - love it and will probably make another one for myself at some point. Making the adjustable strap was a my new skill and it turned out great, which I credit largely to the well-written (and well photographed) pattern. I was really proud of how well this bag turned out and am absolutely happy to be sending it off. I didn't get a shot of the inside but I went with a mango orange that went really well with the flowers and the warmth of the outer fabric. My partner said she liked bright, vibrant colors so I hope she meant it and that she likes her new bag! I did include some "goodies" inside the bag but I figure I'll leave something to be a surprise (I'm putting this same picture on flickr).

I'm not sure how much sewing I'll be getting the done with all the cooking that will be going on around here the rest of the week but you know I still have a want-to-sew list going in my head (another pair of pajama pants, maybe a holiday pillowcase top for the doodlebug, some new purse organizers/pouches and oh and holiday sewing!).

Oh and next Saturday (11/26) is an open sewing day for the AMSG at Whipstitch, from 10am till noon - bring your project and enjoy some fun sewing company! Hope to see you there!

Finish It Up Friday #2

2011-11-18T07:33:00.004-05:00

It makes me so happy to have something actually finished on Friday to post about!

While I was supposed to be working on my bag for the Goodie Bag Swap I took a little detour and whipped up this mini messenger bag for the doodlebug.

I knew as soon as I saw the free tutorial from Zaaberry (as part of Sew, Mama, Sew's month of sewing projects and tutorials) that I needed to make one. This fabric has been a favorite of ours since it came home from our LQS but we only had a FQ of it so I knew I needed to find just the right project for it and this was IT.

This little bag is a super quick sew - I think it took an hour total from cutting to finishing, perfect for a nap time project.

I lined it in an aqua Kona since blue is still a favorite color and used some black twill I had for the outside and strap.

The strap is folded on itself to enclose the raw edges and the twill was thick enough that by the time I had four layers of it, I decided to use use any fleece or interfacing on the strap and it worked great.

I personally love how this bag turned out but you know what the kid said right? No mommy, no. She promptly removed the m&m bribe I had placed inside and handed the bag right back. Sigh. Maybe she'll warm up to it :-) I think it would make a great holiday (or birthday gift) and the FQ I had was enough to make 2 flaps front and back so it's a great project for little bits of fabric. One tip - if your fabric is directional for the flap do one side up and reverse the other side so when you open the flap the print is still right side up, I didn't think about that until the bag was done and I saw the upside down print on the flap when it's opened. No biggie but I'll make it different on the next one.

Even though the bag was rejected, she whole-heartedly endorsed my next offering: paint!

What two year doesn't love some messy, gooey PAINT? Good times and new masterpieces for the fridge (or holiday cards or tree ornaments or...).

TGIF everyone :-)

PJ LOVE!

2011-11-16T17:21:00.002-05:00

I am IN LOVE with my new pajama pants - I decided to get rid of all my old, mismatched pj's and make some new ones that are both comfy and stylish. Bingo!

This was some of AMH's Innocent Crush line that I originally bought last summer to make a skirt out of. The skirt never happened so I used this fabric and some Kona denim blue(navy blue? not sure) for the contrast and I'm so happy that I used the "good" fabric instead of saving it any longer. It sometimes seems like clothing never works out for me but these turned out great, which is a thrill (silly but true).

And thanks to my *very* patient husband who made dinner and entertained our child while I finished these up last Thursday mere moments before we left for the airport. If you're going to be visiting and seen in your pj's you need nice ones, right?!

This is the pattern I used - Kwik Sew 3882 - bought from Pink Chalk Fabrics. It was fairly easy, I think from ironing and cutting to finishing up it took about 2 hours total.

I did leave off the pockets as I don't usually carry much around with me while I'm getting ready for bed or sleeping :-)

And now I'm thinking about which fabric I have that I can make another pair from...

Tasty Tuesday

2011-11-15T17:11:00.002-05:00

I've been pinning and actually cooking a lot of new recipes from Pintrest lately, so I thought I'd start keeping track of some of them here. The "tasty" part comes from what my 2 year old has been saying and generally cracking me up with lately - as in "tasty pancake mom". Too funny!

This recipe came from originally came from Cooking Light via My Recipe (you know how these things go) but I of course made the full fat version :-) I also used mild enchilada sauce and left out the chili's because I was trying to get said 2 year to eat it. No luck on that front but her dad and I thought it was tasty!

Chicken Tamale Casserole:
1 8.5 oz corn muffin/bread mix (I used Jiffy)
1 14.75 oz can creamed corn
1/3 C. Milk
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C shredded cheese
1 tsp chicken taco seasoning (Penzey's)

Combine all ingredients and bake in a greased 9x13 pan for 20 - 25 minutes (until golden brown) at 400 degrees. Remove from oven and top with:

2 C. cooked, shredded chicken
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce (I used mild)
1/2 - 3/4 shredded cheese

I mixed the enchilada sauce and chicken and then topped with the cheese. Bake an additional 15 minutes (until cheese is melted). Let stand 5 - 10 minutes and serve with sour cream on top.

I'm wondering about adding some black beans next time, either with chicken or in cornbread but it was great (and easy) just like this. You could spice it up by adding some cayenne to the cornbread and/or spicy enchilada sauce. Oh and I used Ina's Roast Chicken recipe and had the shredded chicken in the freezer which made it even easier.

I heart Pink Chalk Fabrics

2011-11-14T17:47:00.003-05:00

You know who won this fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics? ME! Whoo hooo! Pink Chalk is one of my absolute favorite online fabric shops - they carry a great selection and their customer service is beyond great. They've also been working through the One Yard Wonders Book on the Pink Chalk blog and I have had a great time following along and I really appreciated all the corrections and tips they've provided through the year.

They are NOT a sponsor of my blog, I just wanted to say THANKS for the free fabric and remind you that if you haven't signed up for their email newsletter, you should, and you too might be a winner. If you're looking for any of the Amy Butler Lark collection I know Pink Chalk has it in stock in both FQ sets and yardage.

I have a lot on the sewing table this week, working on getting my bag for the Goodie Bag Swap sewn (I did manage to get all the pieces and all the fusible fleece cut out today, tomorrow on to fusing and sewing :-). I'm also behind and itching to get caught up on my First (Modern) Quilt blocks. I did manage to get my new pajama pants finished before my quick weekend away and I'll share them this week too - I LOVE love love them and am planning on whipping up another pair pronto, more on that later.

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start :-)

Log Cabin and Courthouse Stairs blocks

2011-11-09T07:51:00.004-05:00

So I'm taking the online Your First (Modern) Quilt class from Whipstitch and I am LOVING it! I find myself so looking forward to Deborah's posts each day, the videos are very informative, the history and background she provides is super interesting for a sewing nerd like me and then there are the block patterns. What's not to love? I worried that it would all be stuff I knew since I've been quilting for a while but I've really be learning things and even though it's online I feel like we have a pretty vocal and active group of people participating which has made it feel like a "real" class. A win all the way around!

So these are my fist couple of blocks. Of the fabric I showed (and you know I was looking at even MORE combinations that I posted ;-) the clear winner was the autumn fabric mix. I love those fabrics but I hesitated because, well, autumn is almost over and will I want an autumn looking quilt in say January? And shouldn't I be making a holiday gift instead of something for myself at this point in the year? So I realized that I just LOVE those fabrics and I'll love this quilt no matter what time of the year it is. And there's still plenty of time for gift making (just let me tell myself that please!). So jumped in and started cutting!

Have you heard me mention how math impaired I am? No? Well you're about to! Deborah gives us the measurements for either 18" or 12" (finished) blocks - the math is all done - awesome! Did I manage to mess it up anyway? Sure did! I was using the strip size for the larger block but planning on making the smaller one - doh! In the Courthouse Stairs (Steps? Stairs?) one you can see where I realized it was going to be too big and cut the wood fabric smaller before I sewed it on and then realized I'd cut it too small! AARGH! So I added some dark brown Kona around the edges to get it up to 12.5 (unfinished). I actually like how it looks and I'm planning on doing the same thing, same color with some blocks from the 3x6 Bee that are too small to get them up to size. I have a few blocks that I'm hoping to be able to work into the mix by the end, we'll see. Oh and I learned my lesson on the traditional Log Cabin and just trimmed it AFTER it was all sewn. I'm really happy wit both these blocks and very excited that I decided to go with these fabrics!

Next up is the Rail Fence block - I have all my strips cut (the right size this time) and ready to sew during nap time. Hopefully they'll go together pretty quickly and I'll have more blocks to show you tomorrow - yay!

Anna Maria Horner LOVE

2011-11-06T16:19:00.004-05:00

This is another quilt that I started a shamefully long time ago (around the same time as the Heather Bailey Quilt, maybe even before...) and I am so ridiculously happy to see it DONE!

Long arm quilting by Brenda Garrison. Binding in a solid Kona brown (no idea which exact one).

I kept the focus on the gorgeous fabrics by just using BIG (18") squares and I'm so glad that I did. I may have also been a bit intimidated by doing anything else as a I was a serious quilting newbie that long ago. But I'm still happy with my choice to let the fabrics stand on their own. (And the more I think about this I think my inspiration was Erin's free picnic blanket tutorial but without the corner pockets).

My only problem with this quilt is deciding which side I love more because I love the back absolutely as much as I love the front. In fact I'm not even sure I would call them "back" and "front", because the "front" seems somehow more important or better than the back and you can see that is absolutely NOT the case here. I used a heavier home dec weight fabric mix on the back because I anticipated this being used as a picnic quilt. No matter where we use it, it just gives it a nice heft. Right now it is currently on the back of the couch just waiting for me to snuggle up under it, which I am planning on doing the absolute FIRST minute I can after wrestling Miss H into bed tonight. Said with love.

And in case you think I don't suffer for my craft, I do. Some days more than others.

Yesterday when I accidentally stitched through my finger (yes, you read that right) was definitely one of those days. I was honestly just thrilled it missed my nail.

You know what I did then, right? Yup, kept on sewing. Does that earn me the Sewing Scout Badge of Honor?

Finish It Up Friday

2011-11-04T09:00:00.004-04:00

This post is inspired by Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts - I've been looking forward to having something to post all week!

I FINALLY finished a quilted I started, ummm (should I really admit this?), several years ago and had it quilted by a local long-arm quilter (Brenda Garrison of Brookhaven Quilt Studio) almost two years ago. Quilted TWO YEARS PEOPLE! Beyond ridiculous I know. But we moved and I was a little busy with the kid and you know how it goes, right? Please tell me I'm not the only one who does stuff like this...

But I realized with this project that there is always one key thing that's stopping me and if I can get over THAT then it's usually a quick finish. Initially with this quilt it was the quilting - this is way bigger than anything I've quilted. After looking at the quilt sandwich being moved from spot to spot in my sewing room I realized that the actual quilting is my least favorite part of making a quilt. So I paid to have it quilted - wonderful decision! Brenda does beautiful and reasonable work and I'll be using her services again. Then it was the bias binding and curved edges. I used a June Tailor curved ruler to draw the curves on the edges and I've already posted a link to the continuous bias tape tutorial that I used. Once I decided to get over my fears and just get on with it, the quilt that I started almost three years ago was done in less than a week. A lesson to be learned for sure - get over myself and get busy. These are all Heather Bailey fabrics and the Big Print Pattern I purchased on etsy. This has been washed and dried and is now laying on the back of the couch waiting to be snuggled under and I could not love it anymore. LOVE! I think the colors might also be nice on H's bed or for a picnic quilt...now that it's done there are so many possible uses for it :-)

I also finished this table runner that I started back in January. The hold up on this one? My fear of free motion quilting. I decided to just do some straight line quilting on this and get it DONE for crying out loud. I'm planning on practicing my FMQ on some small doll quilts for H (she won't notice or care hoe wonky they are, right?). I had been wanting to try this Bento pattern so I used a jelly roll of fabric that I wasn't in love with but I think it goes pretty well with the color of our dining room. It looks kind of small on our giant table, another thing to think about next time I make a runner (a little wider would look better). But still TWO finishes in one week?! I am on fire people, on fire!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

ok, ok, I'll tell you...

2011-11-03T14:44:00.002-04:00

It was Anna Griffin that I made quilts for! Anna is a local designer who started with fabulous paper products (scrapbooking, party and wedding invitations and many more lovely things) and has now moved into fabric design.

At the last minute they needed a couple extra quilts for their booth and I was happily able to help them out. My samples are the ones hanging on the right in both photos - much thanks to Kate Murray at Blend Fabrics for the photos and the fun opportunity!

These quilts were fairly simple due to the time constraints but I think the simplicity of the designs showed off the super cute fabrics.

Both lines I worked with were baby/children's fabrics and they were lovely - I would happily use these fabrics for baby baby quilts I make. The designs were colorful and fun and the fabric itself was incredibly soft for quilting fabric and would be perfect for little people.

Like I said before I know I'm a fabric nerd because A) I thought the challenge of getting two quilts done in two days was fun (and when I was done, you know what I felt like doing? That's right, more sewing!) and B) it was thrilling to me to have quilts I made at Quilt Market!

Go have a look at Anna Griffin's website and check out all the lovely fabric she offers - I saw more than one line that made me sit up and take notice (both holiday collections - adorable!) :-)

Choices, choices, choices...

2011-11-01T14:58:00.006-04:00

Pretend that you're looking at fabric to start a modern quilt and you look at your stash (your abundant stash) and you start pulling things that would look good together. And then you pull some more. And some MORE. And then you realize that you need to take a deep breath and just decide before you pull out who knows how many more combinations that could work. So, dear reader, any of these appeal to you? Because they ALL appeal to me and I need to choose just ONE for this project. Just one...

Photo 1: a whole lot of Sandy Henderson and Joel Dewberry with a few other choices thrown in as well. This was based on a similar set of fabrics I saw in a lovely quilt on Pinterest. Really seems to fit the season.

Photo 2: The easy way out, a FQ set of Loulouthi that I know looks great. I'm thinking going dark for the sashing and borders with a charcoal gray.

Photo 3: Some fabric I stashed away a long time ago because I loved the name - the Darcey Collection by Windham Hill. I've thrown in some solids to balance out all that pattern.

So, um, HELP! Thanks :-)

Quilt-a-thon and Continuous Bias Tape

2011-10-31T08:33:00.006-04:00

I started out last week with an email from Deborah at Whipstitch who was looking to help out a local designer who needed a couple of "emergency quilts" made to display at Quilt Market this past weekend. I'll share more details after the show is over and I get a couple photos of the booth but I ended up making two baby quilts (about 40x60) with some very cute baby fabric in about 48 hours. Yes, you read that right, 2 complete quilts from start to finish in 48 hours. Now they weren't fancy but I was really pleased that I could get them done and help out an artist/designer in need. Plus there was the added benefit of knowing that something I MADE was hanging at Quilt Market. My dream is to get there in person one of these years so this seemed like an awesome opportunity to get at least one tiny toe in the door.

Pushing myself to get those quilts done that quickly made me realize how absolutely ridiculous it is that I have so many things on my UFO (unfinished objects) pile *this close* to being completed. So it's given me a push to get that pile moving! I was a bit nervous about trying to make the continuous bias tape that I needed for my Heather Bailey quilt but with the directions in Deborah's book, the fact that the very kind Diana at Whipstitch walked me through the process one Saturday at Whipstitch and using the photos in Make it Modern's continuous bias tape tutorial I bit the bullet and went for it. I used one yard of a tomato-y Kona red and ended up with SIXTEEN yards of bias tape! SWEET! More than enough for my quilt binding with some left over. It's already pinned on and just waiting for nap time to get sewn.

Up this week: finish the Heather Bailey quilt, bind the Anna Maria Horner quilt and new pajama pants for our lovely fall weather that finally arrived! I'll be posting pictures of what I get finished on Friday and linking them to Crazy Mom Quilts new Finish It Up Friday feature. Have a great week!

SEW excited to sew on Saturday!

2011-10-19T08:20:00.002-04:00

Sorry, I couldn't resist ;-) The Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild's sewing day is THIS Saturday at Whipstitch from 8am till noon - we're going to be making Anna Maria Horner's Figuring the Eight Scarf - just in time for this weekend's cool weather!

You can find the FREE pattern on Anna Maria's blog under the Make section. I made this scarf last winter and loved it - it goes together super quickly and looks amazing. You can use heavier fabric like velveteen for winter months or use a lighter fabric like voile for longer wearing options. This would also make an amazing gift for the holidays! Whipstitch has a ton of gorgeous fabric to choose from or you can always bring your own and sew with us!

Also at Whipstitch TONIGHT 6:30 - 9pm - Book Signing with Kelly McCants for her Sewing With Oilcloth book. I'm planning on going and I'm looking forward to picking up same laminated cotton to make the doodlebug an apron to wear when crafting - because you know when you're two you really put your heart and soul into your art...teehee!

Pretty Little Pouch Swap

2011-10-15T15:56:00.005-04:00

This is the pouch I made for my partner in the Pretty Little Pouch Swap this round - she asked for a pouch large enough to hold a sewing project she's working on. I saw one of these on My Sewcial Hour and loved it - I want to make one for myself now too! I used the hoop bag pattern from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and kind of made mine the same patch-worky way as the original one I saw. I used a charm pack of Sophie by Moda - I just think it's got a lot of pretty, fresh colors that hopefully my partner will like. I also enclosed a new charm pack of the same fabric for her to play with!

This is the fantastic pouch I received from Ella (shimmyblister) and I could not love it more! She nailed it on the colors and the AMH fabric, I loved the extra fabric she sent and there was even a yummy chocolate bar that went missing (ahem) before I could photograph it. This has been a great swap and I would love to participate in it again - quick and fun, the best kind! Of course it helped that I got something so wonderful too :-)

Oh and NEXT SATURDAY is our Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild Project Day, where we all get together and work on a great project together, at Whipstitch Fabrics from 8AM - noon. Our project is the Anna Maria Horner Figure 8 (or Infinity) Scarf - super easy, CUTE and FREE (pattern anyway) for the cold weather I'm hoping we'll be getting soon :-) Come join us!

3x6 Blocks DONE

2011-10-13T14:52:00.003-04:00

FINALLY! And with barely a day to spare (the deadline is the 15th). I don't know what it was this round but I had a hard time. I thought I knew what block I wanted to do. No, not that block, a different one. Then AAARGH the math. Could NOT make the math work out. Back to the drawing board. Fabrics picked and ironed. Test block done and it works - hooray. Then these blocks (which I know are fairly easy blocks) went together as s l o w as molasses. A bit here, a bit there, sew it together wrong, rip, re-sew, realize it's wrong AGAIN. Bang head on sewing table, rip, sew....you get the idea. So I am thrilled that these blocks are done and in the mail. I really love the pattern, it's the Greek Cross Block from the lovely Summer Sampler Series and now I think I may have had enough practice to try them again without fear...maybe ;-)

Hate and Love

2011-10-07T16:09:00.003-04:00

Another 3x6 test block - to try to get it big enough, so this one? Yeah, 13 inches. The most beautiful block that I HATE. Why in the world did I think I could make a 4x4 square block end up at 12 1/2 inches?

Dear Quilting Math,

I hate you.

Blech! :-P

Enter the Greek Cross Block from the Summer Sampler Series - math already figured out so each and every block ends up a blissful 12 1/2 inches! Big sigh of happiness. And a HUGE THANK YOU to all those who figured out the math already. Thankfully I didn't cut any of the fabric I chose for my first choice blocks so now I can TRULY get to work on my 3x6 blocks (which are due in one short week). But this block went together very quickly I'm thrilled to say, so they'll be in the mail by the deadline!

This weekend: dinner and a movie sans Doodlebug thanks to Nana and a birthday on Sunday, for ME :-) Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Test Block and Apple Butter

2011-10-02T13:26:00.004-04:00

Test block for my 3x6 blocks - looks great right? Right, except that it's barely 12". *sigh* Back to the calculator. At least I only cut the squares for my test one - I've obviously learned something having been around this block before (HAhaha). Ahem, anyway, I'm upping the size of my blocks and trying again. My fabrics are all picked out and ironed, ready to go. As soon as I get the math right I'll have those blocks sewn in no time! That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

So I have to confess I am a wee bit grumpy today - perhaps it's my child who has had a cold/runny nose/cough/ attitude problem for the past week and a half - I mean there is only SO MUCH arguing I can do about putting your shoes on or not squeezing all the juice out of the box onto the couch or getting your hair combed or or or. You get the idea right? I know it's just part of being two but geez, it's making me tired. And grumpy.

So I have spent this precious naptime not cleaning or working on maddening quilt blocks but on listening to music I like and making some crock pot apple butter. I'm using this recipe I found on Pinterest (which I LOVE love love but that's another story). I'm also using my fabulous apple slicer/peeler that I got as a birthday gift. I admit this was an impulse add to my amazon wish list after reading Erin's post about her's but I SO so love it. Look at that long skinny peel in one continuous ribbon and the apple cored and sliced? How could it not be love? So I'm pretending that this cold snap really IS Fall here at last and I'm throwing myself into the spirit of the season, which is my favorite. I know I need a new October banner too but it'll have to wait till later in the week when I can get a good PUMPKIN shot! Wheee! I'm feeling better already :-)

Modified Daphne Tote

2011-09-27T16:47:00.004-04:00

Do I say that every bag I make is my favorite? I think I might but this one, well, let's just say it really is LOVE. This is the Daphne Tote from Rebeka Lambert over at Artsy-Crafty Babe. I modified it slightly by adding a large pocket on the front. To make the pocket I just made an additional pattern piece by tracing the bag body that was about 2/3 as tall as the body. Then I cut an exterior and lining piece and used the same darts as on the main bag body. I sewed the pocket pieces together, turned them right side out and top-stitched along the upper edge before adding it to the bag body when I sewed the exterior pieces together.

The exterior is from Moda's new Prairie Cloth line - it feels heavier than regular quilting cotton but not quite as heavy as canvas and it has a LOT more movement than canvas. I used fusible fleece on the back of the exterior pieces to give the bag some body and stabilize the Prairie Cloth. My machine didn't love sewing through all those darts covered in fleece but we got through it :-) I did NOT use any fleece on the straps and they seem fine - no way I would have been able to turn them with that thickness. I haven't used this type of cloth before so I'll be curious to see how it wears and I'll probably carry this bag for a while to test the durability before I use it to make another - I do love how it looks and feels though. I made the front pocket a slightly lighter shade of gray than the bag body and the interior is from Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2 line - I adore this print in this color and probably need to stash some more of it while I can.

This ridiculously cute flower button pin? A great free tutorial from Artsy-Crafty Babe that I made more than a couple of years ago - funny how things like that work out sometimes, huh? And now of course I want to make a bunch more of them because they're so darn cute!

Zero progress on the garage today but oh well, there's always tomorrow right? TOOOOmorrow, tomorrow, I LOOOOOOve you tomorrow...teehee!

Sew happy!

2011-09-26T22:15:00.003-04:00

I just love getting to hang out at Whipstitch with cool people and SEW for four uninterrupted hours (all you moms know exactly what I mean!). We had a lovely morning of sewing on Saturday, Melissa worked on a sweet little quilt, Theresa started a Schoolhouse Tunic (and inspired me to finally give one a try) and the rest of us made pillows. I made the front part for this pillow at home and quilted and assembled it on Saturday (including the invisible zipper).

The piecing of the front panel came from this quilt block tutorial on Two More Seconds and the invisible zipper tutorial came from Stitched in Color.

A few more great pillow tutorials:

pillow month round up from Sew Mama, Sew

How to make and insert piping in pillows from Sew Mama, Sew

Basic pillow construction (includes envelope closure guidelines) from Sew Mama, Sew

Are you getting the idea that Sew Mama, Sew rocks? Because yes, that is correct :-)

This week I'm working on a Daphne Tote from Artsy-Crafty Babe, I seriously need to get my 3x6 Blocks done AND the great garage clean-out NEEDS to get done...*sigh*. Less cleaning, more sewing, always my dream!

On an unrelated note, I just discovered that the broiler in our "new" oven works REALLY well...teehee.

Quilty love

2011-09-21T21:29:00.005-04:00

Doesn't it look great?

Don't you just love it?

The newest member of the mini quilt family fits right in! Thanks again to Jessica from SewCraftyJess.

And I LOVE it!

The quilt on the left is from the amazing Silly BooDilly.

The quilt on right I made :-)

Thank you for ignoring the pile of stuff on the couch.

Back from the beach...

2011-09-20T13:54:00.005-04:00

and it was GREAT, so relaxing and lovely - kind of makes me sad to jump back into the laundry/what's-for-dinner game but here I am ;-) What I'm REALLY excited about is the start of the Pretty Little Pouch round 3 Swap - here's my mosaic, clearly I like patchwork and color! I added the green and gray quilt at the bottom because I just love that color combination right now. Making a 241 bag in that colorway is near the top of my somewhat lengthy list of sewing to-do's! Btu I really want it to carry THIS fall (which starts on FRIDAY! Side note - where has the year gone?!) so it's going to stay up there at the top. I also need to get some pillow fronts made for our sewing day at Whipstitch on Saturday (more on that tomorrow) and my blocks done for the 3x6 Bee. I've picked my block design I just need to get sewing!

And THIS is the package I received in the For The Love Of Solids Swap from SewCraftyJess - I seriously could not LOVE it anymore if I tried! She totally nailed it - from the colors to the design, everything! Best swap I have ever participated in hands-down! Yay! I love the gray binding she added and the little pouch is adorable.

Look at the gorgeous quilting, which you can see so clearly on the back - lovely! And it's like she had ESP with the Terrain charm pack, as I had just been drooling over that collection last week - perfect choices for me and I LOVE them all! Thanks again to my partner for being such a fantastic swapper! Go check out her fantastic blog if you have a minute - you'll enjoy it.

No word yet from my partner about her package - hope she received it ok (also going to check my delivery confirmation because, you know, the USPS isn't perfect ;-).

I'll be posting some info tomorrow for our sewing day at Whipstitch this Saturday (8AM till Noon) and will be focused on pillow techniques. I'm am SO looking forward to it after missing last month!

For the Love of Solids Swap - DONE!

2011-09-11T21:59:00.006-04:00

I'm not uploading these photos to flickr until my partner gets her package, which is going in the mail tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with how the pillow turned out - it was a warm/cool HST design based on one I saw on Stitches and Scissors. I knew I was going to use a 20" pillow from IKEA (down! less than $10! sweet!) which made the math pretty easy to do (and you know I need the easy math). My partner likes aqua and the look of hand embroidery. My color inspiration came from thinking about Van Gogh's Iris paintings and all those blues, blue violets, aquas and how they pop when paired with yellow, yellow-orange and golds. My partner said she likes bright colors - I hope she meant it!

There is one sad little spot (to me anyway) where my triangles don't quite line up and looking at it is making me INSANE, so I put my little hoop over it! Brilliant solution! So the swap was one big item and one small item. My partner actually has a hexagon block tutorial on her blog (I'll share a link after she gets it) and I thought it would be fun to use that tutorial to make her a hoop for her sewing room.

So I made a hexagon block (kind of) with a linen center and I embroidered her initial in the center with roughly a million french knots.

The thing is, I love french knots. They relax me. I could make them and make them and make them. So now I'm going to make Miss H one for her room too! Love how it turned out - hope my partner does too :-)

And one last shot of the french knots - don't you just love all that texture? There's more purple in the mix than you can see in this shot but my photo expert is still out of town so this was as good as it was getting for me :-) Still love it!

Birthday Preparations

2011-09-09T21:39:00.005-04:00

So what do you do on oh say Tuesday before you're having people over on Saturday for said daughter's birthday party? Do you finish sorting the piles of clothes from all the closets you drug out and put all over the house? Nah. Do you clean the bathrooms, mop the floors? Nope. Do you start making table runners in the colors of Curious George because you don't like the cheap (but expensive) Curious George decorations from the party supply store? Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

I bought a few Curious George things but the thought of spending much more on stuff that would ultimately go in the trash didn't sit well with me. So I went to my stash - hear that - stash ONLY, bought nothing! And pulled out some primary colored fat quarters and got to work, sewing after bedtime and during naps and l-a-t-e into the night on Friday night. But hey, the wise words of Larissa kept me going, "sleep is for quitters". Teehee. The runners were done, the house did get cleaned up (the only reason I ever really invite people over? Because it forces me to clean the house!) and we had some REALLY yummy cupcakes.

Not the most beautifully styled shot but oh were they YUMmy! These are the peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes from Our Best Bites. The only thing I did differently was to double the chocolate frosting and use just it instead of swirling the chocolate and peanut butter like they did - lovely but would a 2 year old really appreciate it? Mine was just happy to find the peanut butter cup hidden in the middle!

Next up - my For the Love of Solids Swap project - hope everyone has a great weekend :-)

How Time Flies!

2011-09-05T22:08:00.001-04:00

Two years ago tonight I was laying in a hospital bed hearing that I was about to have my daughter by emergency c-section, 9 weeks early. I was terrified. What would our future hold? Those first few months were rough but look at that beautiful, strong, healthy girl today. I feel lucky, blessed and so happy that this girl came into my life. Happy second birthday sweet girl!

Block-in-block baby quilt

2011-08-28T13:51:00.005-04:00

Some good friends of my sister and her husband are expecting a baby girl at the end of September and what could be more perfect for a new baby than a new baby quilt? Ahem, I know, I know - I may be a bit biased there but still, it makes a great gift! I used 9" blocks from the measurements in Judy Hopkin's 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks. I love this book because it shows you each block in color (solids not fabrics) AND it gives you measurements to make 6 different sizes of each block. Not all blocks have the same 6 finished measurements which actually gives you even more variety if you're planning a quilt.

I used the Mod Doily Fat Quarter Bundle from Fabricworm - it came with 12 different FQ's so I just used once each for an inner and outer block and it worked out perfectly. The finished size ended up being about 27x36 - a good size for a newborn or tummy time but not big enough for a crib quilt.

I quilted it on the diagonal so that the lines were just outside each of the inner blocks (not going through the middle). I liked out it framed them. The binding was some dark brown Kona from my stash and when I realized that I had cut it too small I decided to try Rachel's zigzag binding technique - kind of a variety of what Rita does - and it worked out great! I loved the texture it added and the fact that the binding was very securely attached. Hopefully they like it as much as I do :-)

Up this week: maybe another attempt to make my daughter some clothing that she'll wear, I have a couple bag patterns I'm itching to try out with my Purl fabric AND I need to get my For the Love of Solids Swap items done. Plenty of fun stuff to keep me busy!

Stinker!

2011-08-25T15:56:00.002-04:00

The kid, not the dress that is. The dress is adorable! It's a Babes of Sweet pattern that you can buy as a pdf. I stayed up a little late last night to get this done but I can honestly say start to finish (and that means starting with ironing a piece of fabric) it took a little less than 2 hours and I'm sure the next one will go faster. It also probably took a bit longer because I finished the hem and sleeves with the ribbon method Liesl Gibson uses in her Lazy Days skirt. I like that it encloses the raw fabric edge and to me it seems more even than ironing and turning, which I never seem to do evenly. And when I decided, half way through sewing, that I needed some ribbon I felt like it was a minor miracle that I could find some in the closet that was the exact color and width I needed - blue isn't a color I normally sew with a lot. I had this thought that maybe, maybe if I made something with the doodlebug's favorite color "boo" that she would wear it. Wrong, wrong, wrong silly mama. She did try it on briefly before starting her normal refrain of "no, no, NO". *sigh* Why is she killing my dream of dressing her in cute mama-made attire?! I expected it around age 11 - not 2! And I'm starting to get a little nervous about just how opinionated this kid is.

On a totally unrelated note we have renters for our other house! YAY! I knew that as soon as Patrick was gone it would rent. How did I know that? Murphy's Law - the basement was still full of all my work (classroom) stuff and the house needed a good cleaning. So I was thrilled but not surprised when the rental agent called me yesterday. So this was my day today (after making a bunch of phone calls yesterday):
9 - 9:15: drop H off at school (and she was NOT happy today - of course on the day I have so much to get done, sad mama sigh. But she lived!)
9:30: rent storage space
10:45: take first car load of stuff to storage space
11:15: race back to house to meet people picking up washer and dryer that renters didn't want (I know, crazy, right? but they went to a great new home - Petport Kennel)
12:15: realize car is empty, fill up, get water and snacks for doodlebug pick-up
12:20: unload several dozen HEAVY xerox boxes into the storage space (did I mention the temperature today? the humidity? the smog alert? no? ok, I won't then)
12:35: head to school to pick up Miss H - the smile I get when she see that I've come back always melts my heart into a little puddle
1:00: head back to rental house to meet cleaning crew and finish putting last load of boxes into car, bribe doodle with snacks :-)
1:45: finally head home to get you-know-who down for nap

whew. I'm tired. Now I just have to go lock up the house after the cleaners leave and take those last few boxes to the storage space. Then on Saturday cut a very few bushes back and empty the cabinet of deck stuff (bug spray, candles, etc) and we're really, truly DONE and ready for renters!

Oh Purl, how I love you...

2011-08-24T13:53:00.005-04:00

It's US Open time again, which means my dear husband is in NYC for a month (he will get a brief reprieve for a little birthday celebration going on Labor Day weekend) and while I hate it that he's gone for so long I do LOVE the chance to go spend a weekend with him. Thanks to Nana providing babysitting and Aunt Sara helping out, I got to fly up and spend last Saturday on my own in NYC. Uhm, heaven. I walked almost everywhere, meandered into any shop I felt like, including Strand Books and it is amazing. Huge, new and used books and no toddler to chase - delightful. And no visit to the Big Apple would be complete without a visit to Purl. It's just such a lovely bright space with such fun people and supplies - it makes me happy just being there. So here are my purchases, made with Anna Graham's 241 bag in mind - I'm thinking gray and green for the fall. Which I hope is coming SOON ;-)

Making pintuck pleats

2011-08-10T12:12:00.012-04:00

I'll warn you right now that there are going to be a LOT of pictures in this post but hopefully they'll help you if you decide to make the Pintuck Clutch from 1,2,3 Sew or use these type pleats on any other project.

I think Ellen's book is awesome but I needed more info about how to get these pleats right. Thankfully I was sewing at Whipstitch on AMSG's project day and there were real live people to set me straight. But what if there hadn't been? I promise you I would still be sitting there scratching my head and sewing it all wrong. SO wrong. But once Theresa (yay Theresa!) showed me how to make them they really were a snap, as evidenced by this second clutch I made in ONE nap time people! ONE! Amazing I tell you. So on to the pleats...

This will work the same way for any size rectangle or square that you're using. First you mark your lines on the front of your fabric, so you know where to fold. I used a fabric marking pen and just marked the edges of my fabric because I was worried that ironing the lines would set them. So mark your lines and then fold along the first line - this photo shows the back.

Iron along that line.

Now flip your fabric over and sew along the edge of the fabric - I just used my presser foot as a guide.

Look, your first little pleat! You're on your way!

Now you flip your fabric back over, so that you can line up your second pleat according to the marks you made, and you iron it down on the BACK.

The first pleat will get ironed again as well.

Now flip your fabric back over to the front side and sew along the folded and ironed edge, all the way across.

Your first pleat will still be on the back (or underneath) of the fabric.

Two pleats done - whoo-hoo!

Fold both pleats to the back and line up your next pleat, then iron.

This will be the pattern for all the remaining pleats, finished pleats ironed to the back along with the new pleat being ironed.

Then sew along the front of the pleat you just lined up and ironed.

Iron to the back, sew along the front, easy-peasy right? I mean, it only took me like 829 photos to demonstrate! Teehee... But seriously, I hope this helps make the pleats go a little easier for you than they did for the me the first time I tried them!

And look, before you know it, you'll be putting pintuck pleats on all kinds of things! I thought they really dressed up your basic zipper pouch and I think they would be great on pillows and maybe a tote...did I mention that once you get the hang of them they're kind of addictive? Consider yourself warned! :-)

3x6 Fall Blocks mosiac

2011-08-09T10:47:00.001-04:00

The next round of the 3x6 sampler bee is kicking off and I'm excited for another round of sewing and swapping! To be honest, I'm also happy to be daydreaming about Fall weather as I sit here hiding from the sweltering heat of August in my A/C. *sigh* Enough already summer - come on cooler weather! I'm sure it'll get here around October. Until then I guess I'll just have to be happy with sewing in those gorgeous fall colors and dreaming.

Off topic entirely: today is our first day of pre-school and my house feels unnaturally quiet and empty. I'm sure I'll reacquaint myself with the concept of child free time but today it is making me a little sad. Hope the dear doodlebug is enjoying herself! Looking forward to collecting her this afternoon and smooshing her with love :-)

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming!

2011-08-08T08:36:00.005-04:00

We had a wonderful break last week in our dear little hamlet and it was lovely! Harper enjoyed time with her Great Gram (Na-NAH) and Aunt Cindy and Bob-ah - she was delighted to be the center of such a wide universe. She was also thrilled to continuously give the puppies "one more" treat until their little tummies were probably ready to burst! Now we're back to the real world and I'll be back with some fun sewing stuff this week!

And hopefully a new August banner once I get my Flash situation sorted out :-) (check it - I figured it out ON MY OWN - which is an accomplishment without my tech savvy husband around! Yay me!)

Pintuck Clutch

2011-07-25T15:16:00.003-04:00

Saturday was our project/techniques sewing day at Whipstitch and we made the Pintuck clutch from 1,2,3 Sew. I LOVE how neat these little pleats look and I'm planning on making more of these for sure. I will say that the directions didn't make sense to me (I needed more pictures or a diagram for creating the pleat) but once the talented Theresa actually put her hands on my fabric and showed me how to do it I caught on. They really are super easy to do and I'm thinking my next post might be one showing some pictures in case others are visual learners like myself and so I can remember how I did it when I want to sew another one two months from now. I figure if I make one more AND take pictures along the way, surely that will cement in my brain...right? Hopefully! This was some lovely home dec weight Anna Maria Horner fabric and instead of using the same fabric for the lining I chose a Kona solid that matches the orange leaves on the front. I also added fusible fleece to the lining panels - I know some find it too padded but I like the structure it gave this bag. I might try canvas on the next one just to see what the difference would be.

This was the other project I made from the book - the easy-peasy Change Your Mind reversible skirt for my child who has a thing for hedgehog fabrics. This went together so quickly, if you had a child who would actually wear a skirt you could easily crank them out for school. I think it would work just as well in cooler weather with some tights, it's a little heavier since it has two layers of fabric and I LOVE the rick-rack detail between the two layers. Oh and when I put it on her, did she love it or did she yell "NO NO NO" and rip it right off and return to running around in her diaper? I'll let you wonder... ;-)

AMSG at Whipstitch tomorrow!

2011-07-22T19:48:00.003-04:00

No, we're not making cute patchwork zipper pouches - the tutorial can be found here and it's a different way of assembling the pouch with the zipper and I LOVE it - you can do it without a zipper foot! That's a little going away gift for one of our favorite Whipstitch girls - we'll miss you Clare!

Tomorrow we're working on the Pintuck Clutch from Ellen Baker's 1,2,3 Sew book and I am excited. It looks like a great skill to learn (pintuck pleats) and a serious contender for holiday gift giving this year. Hope to see you there any time between 8AM and Noon! Oh and Happy Weekend everyone :-)

For the Love of Solids Swap

2011-07-21T07:00:00.004-04:00

Just a *few* of my favorites put into a mosaic on Flickr - it was tough to pick just 16 since I have literally hundreds in my faves. Elizabeth from Don't Call me Betsy and Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations have come up with a swap for all us solids lovers and I am SO excited!

I've been hesitant to join so many of the great swaps going on over at Flickr because I want to make sure I have the time and resources to really do it right but I just couldn't resist this one! My solids stash is quite fat and I'm inspired to make something great! Looking forward to seeing who my partner is and getting to work :-)

Happy Thursday!

PS - I'm on Flickr as darcydivine if you want to check out all my faves that I couldn't fit in the mosaic ;-)

Shearwater Kaftan - finally!

2011-07-20T08:03:00.006-04:00

First - it is really not that easy to get a good picture of yourself while standing in the mirror, trying to show what you've made without looking ridiculous. Oh well! You can see the shirt, right? So I know this pattern for Toni Coward's Shearwater Kaftan was making the rounds in the blogs last year but I just got around to making mine this year - better late than never right?

I've learned to not use my favorite (or most expensive) fabric to make the first of anything. Got to get through that learning curve first! So when I saw this fabric at IKEA (I know, go ahead and laugh) for $6 a yard and it seemed reminiscent of VERY expensive Japanese gauze I thought it would be perfect to try this pattern with. It also seemed summery and fun, not my normal colors or patterns but good for this time of year.

So it went like this - one nap to make the bias tape, one to cut everything out and two to sew - not bad for my current work-during-nap schedule! I like it except it's kind of tight through the shoulders, which I hate in any shirt. So on the next one I'll use the XL for the shoulders and the L for the body of the shirt (it fit fine through the hips). It also could have been affected by the lack of stretch this fabric had but I'm going to size it up anyway. The other thing I didn't get was how Toni used the bias tape to finish the neckline - it just seemed too complicated for me (sorry Toni - it's really a lovely pattern!) so I did it the way that made sense to me and also finished the sleeve edges and bottom hem the same way. Oh and did I mention that I shortened the sleeves to be 3/4 length? Yup, sure did. Measured 18" down from the top middle of the sleeve and drew a straight line across. Worked out fine!

So for my bias tape finishing I cut my strips 1 1/2" to start and then folded them in half and ironed them to make 3/4" single fold bias tape.

Then I pinned and sewed the tape to the RIGHT side of the shirt fabric - this shows one of the sleeves. I tucked one end back inside itself and then inserted the unfinished end of the tape into the folded end and sewed the whole thing down with a scant 1/4" hem.

Next I fold the bias tape INSIDE the shirt, so that it's flat against the wrong side of the shirt fabric. Then I iron it all nice and flat.

Then I sew around the edge of the bias tape (sewing on the inside so you can see the bias tape) just catching the outer edge of the folded bias tape. You can see the stitch line on the sleeve here - I did use to 2 different color threads so that the white wouldn't show up on that nice dark bias tape.

So used this method to finish my neckline, sleeves and the bottom hem - it's easy and makes a nice clean finished edge - nothing to fray in the wash. Nice if you don't have a serger.

I also like the design element it adds! This is a great way to hem skirts too - way easier than trying to turn and fold and iron AND keep the hem the same size all the way around.

Next one a little bigger on top and nicer fabric - but I'm definitely planning on wearing this one by the pool in the very near future :-)

Now maybe something for my poor, neglected (HA!) child...

Harry Potter Bags

2011-07-16T20:46:00.002-04:00

It was the end of an era, so naturally we needed new bags. My BFF and I have seen every movie together in the theater, since the first one was released 10 years ago. How can it possibly have been TEN years? And on the other hand it seems like truly a lifetime ago. There have been weddings, divorces, new homes, babies, illness and health, joy and despair. Change on every level of our lives. Just as you would expect in 10 years. And through it all has been Harry, the books first and then the movies as an added bonus. I never, ever like the movie as well as the book and I've been known to skip the movie altogether if I truly loved the book but these movies were a delightful exception. True to the books so unerringly that I, we, couldn't help but love them. I remember tearing up at seeing Hogwarts for the first time on the screen, so perfect. I teared up today watching it for the last time. But if I've learned anything from Jo Rowling, it's that the people we love are always with us in our hearts. Plus those books will always be just an arm's length away and there's real comfort for me in that. It was a bittersweet showing and I loved every minute of it.

So, the bags. I woke up thinking "we need Harry Potter bags". Just something fun to mark the occasion. I used Kaffe Fassett fabrics from my stash, the print is called "Targets" and the lining is a gorgeous shot cotton. The pattern is Ali Foster's Pleated Shoulder bag. It was a little smaller than I expected but a nice shape. These bags went together super quick - as evidenced by my sewing two of them in one day while my toddler was at home! I lined them with canvas instead of fusible interfacing and I really like how they turned out. The only thing I would do differently next time is add something to the strap - some interfacing or a layer of canvas - I didn't on these and the strap just felt a little flimsy to me. I could fix it or I could just remember to change that next time :-)

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

mini-vaca

2011-07-14T07:58:00.003-04:00

Thanks to a gracious invitation from the Hill people to come and share their mountain retreat for the day, we took a mini-vaca to the mountains with Nana on Wednesday. We had a GREAT day! My child took to the lovely salt-water pool like the proverbial fish to water and we all enjoyed the swimming, playing, snacking and just generally relaxing. Thanks for the invitation Hill people - I'm seriously looking into how much a rental of our own would be next summer.

Oh and those decadent brownies I made can be found here - I did sub pecans for the chocolate chips though - I like the crunch! And then of course I forgot the leftovers - DANG!

Today, back to the real world and waiting for Shane, our friendly A/C repair man to come. The fact that we're on a first name basis should tell you something.

Skirts! Yay!

2011-07-13T07:53:00.003-04:00

It was tough to get a good photo of these while they were flat (not on my body) but I am SO thrilled that they are done and with how cute they turned out! I'm still trying to work my way through my *many* UFO's but what a fantastic feeling to get a couple done - yay me! Teehee...anyway, I won't tell you how embarrassingly long ago I cut these out but I will tell you that I used the Versatile Wrap Skirt Pattern from Toni Coward over at Make It Perfect (love love love her, sad sad sad she lives so far away). I love how easy this pattern is - except for turning the waist band ties but I get why that's the way to do it. The only change I made was this - I attached the bottom band on the assembled skirt pieces and then folded over and topstitched the skirt and bottom band all together (on the short ends of the skirt). If you read through the pattern this will make more sense - Toni has you finishing them separately and I tried it that way but I didn't like how the stitching didn't match up once they were joined. Doing it my way makes for one continuous line of stitching, which makes my OCD sew-er oh so happy!

We're off to Big Canoe today to visit some friends for the day and enjoy some time away from our sweltering courtyard - kiddie pool here we come! Hope you fine something sweet and cool in your day too!

New fun

2011-07-12T08:06:00.002-04:00

This was a joint Mom and Dad project (with also a little help from Uncle Paul - what can I say, sometimes even a simple project takes a village!). This little tent was actually pretty easy to make with wood from our local Lowe's and a fabric panel from IKEA - found in the children's section flat-folded for about $8 - a steal! I saw this on Grosgrain's 30 Days of Free Patterns (I think it was day 11) and knew my little munchkin would love it and she does! It's a great place for hiding, rolling balls through and just general hanging out. I like that we can fold it flat when we're done playing with it and slide it under the bed or lean it again a wall.

Oh and see that blur in the left of the photo? That's no super hero, faster than a speeding train, that's just my kid's normal speed.

Nothing cuter!

2011-07-07T18:44:00.005-04:00

Than your own little cutie wearing something you made just for her!

This is the elastic shirred top/dress (it's almost long enough to be a dress but she'll wear some little knit shorts or bloomers under it) that I made at the last AMSG meeting. When I got it home I added some rick rack on the inside at the bottom and white straps that I made from some some white Kona cotton.

I know I'm biased but come on, SO cute!

And this is the bribe it took to get her to put said dress on and sit for a photo.

Just keepin it real folks!
;-)

Pattern Review: Market Bag

2011-07-05T14:01:00.003-04:00

I'm thrilled to report that I actually got some sewing done over the long weekend! This bag is the Market Bag pattern from Rebeka Lambert over at Artsy-Crafty Babe. I had been saving this piece of AMH's sketchbook fabric for a long time, just looking for a bag pattern that was big enough to showcase the large print. When Beki did her sample make-over post I realized that this was the bag! This bag is fantastic because it's BIG, I mean big enough for a magazine and your lunch and your planner OR your towel and sunscreen and water and book OR (as is usually the case around these parts) your blankie, snacks, sippy cup and a few hundred matchbox cars. The size is just so practical and great! And yes, it would make a wonderful bag for the farmer's market (not that a dirty vegetable will ever touch that AMH fabric). The lining is a print from City Weekend and I added a layer of canvas between the lining and exterior fabric as Beki suggests in her post - the only thing I would do differently is that I made the canvas lining the exact same as the front and back fabric panels and next time I would leave the pleats off the canvas. It just made doing the top stitching around those pleated areas super hard because all those layers were so bulky. No biggie - just a little change for next time. I also added a pocket on the inside because otherwise I'd never see my phone again :-) I loved this bag and I can see myself making more of them! It's available in pdf form from Beki's etsy shop and it is one of the easiest pdf files I've ever printed and taped together - this girl knows her stuff when it comes to pattern design. It's also an easy enough bag for a beginning sew-er to make and feel successful!

And here's a little tip I picked up at one of our AMSG meetings: cut out the piece that shows where the dart goes, then you can trace around it exactly with your marking pen or chalk. I laid mine on the pattern to trace the outside edge too so I got the shape right when cutting around the edge of the bag. This made getting the shape for the darts incredibly easy!

well, hello again!

2011-07-04T08:12:00.004-04:00

Hey there! June passed in a blur but I'm thrilled to report that we made progress in some of our, ahem, problem areas. Our other house is finally really and truly cleaned out and listed for rent - whoo hoo! Then I used a chunk of the almost two weeks that my husband was gone for work to attack our garage that has looked like a Hoarder's episode since we moved in and it looks WAY better! So I was able to go our Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild feeling great about taking a few hours for myself. The lovely Theresa from Whipstitch taught us all how to use elastic thread and folks, it was just as easy as everyone said it would be! In fact, it's my new favorite thing! The tips I can share are 1) don't pull your thread while you are winding your bobbin and 2) make sure you keep your stitch lengths short, around 2, longer stitches just don't give you enough elastic for the stretch you'll need. I printed out the pattern from Heather Ross and then just made my first version with just a large rectangle. I'm going to make the next one with her pattern to compare. I got a little top made for H which she of course took one look at and said "NO, NO, NO!" in perfect almost-two-year old fashion :-) But I'm sure she'll come around sooner or later.

Here's my finished dress, with straps and everything - LOVE it! So comfy and I like the fact that I won't see 12 other people wearing it! The fabric is Momo's Freebird from Whipstitch, and I know they don't have anymore (because I bought the last of it) but you could probably find some on etsy. The colors were so perfect for me, I just couldn't resist!

Our next sewing days for AMSG at Whipstitch are July 9th, 8AM - noon (open sewing, bring whatever project you like) and July 23rd, also 8AM - noon. We picked our project for the 23rd which is going to be the Pintuck Clutch from Ellen Luckett Baker's Sew 1,2,3 book. Several of the girls have already made one and it is adorable - think possible holiday or birthday gifts. You will need a copy of Ellen's book which you can find at Whipstitch or amazon or where ever you like to buy books. I can tell you it has a ton of great projects that will help you build your sewing skills and give you adorable finished products. Plus I like supporting our local sewing peeps! If you haven't made it to a meeting yet we would love to have you come join us! We're on facebook now as well (thanks to Melissa) or you can contact me to be added to our email list if you'd like to be added to our email list.

Hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!

3x6 Blocks all here!

2011-06-10T13:31:00.002-04:00

So this was the first Bee I've participated in and I have all my blocks from my partners. It was fun and interesting to see how people interpret the colors and theme you've given. I know it was a bit nerve-wracking for me, trying to decide on colors and fabrics that I thought my partners would like! I also have a new appreciation for the MATH (go ahead and laugh but if you aren't a math person it can be daunting) that goes into making a block fit together properly and turn out the right size. My theme was fall and I asked for "fall" colors - I saw lots of people posting fabrics/colors they liked on flickr and I'll probably do that next go round just to help out my partners. Thanks to everyone for all the hard work! Looking forward to participating in this Bee again!

Oh and my progress on all my UFO's? Well you know how you DECLARE something as in "I am going to get so many things finished this month!" and then God, Fate, Life, the Universe...whatever... just kind of laughs quietly? Yeah, that's been my month since my dear sweet 21-month old daughter has decided that sleep isn't really her thing. And therefore shouldn't be her mama's thing either. For no apparent reason (other than she wants to - which I'm suddenly learning is a bigger part of toddler hood than I realized) my lovely bug is getting up three, four, five times a night. And screaming and staying up and just general mayhem and chaos. So I'm trying to hang in there and cut myself some slack and realize that July is just as good a month as June for getting things done. *sigh*

The way we roll

2011-06-04T08:50:00.003-04:00

(teehee) I found this recipe for cheesy bacon rolls in the appetizer section on Picky Palate and thought they would make a yummy weekend breakfast treat - let me assure you, they did! I used a tube of the "junior" size buttermilk biscuits from kroger and cheese that I had on had (shredded italian blend on the bottom and mexi blend on the top) and a jar of real bacon pieces. And the pie plate instead of the cast iron skillet worked out just fine - don't you love recipes that are flexible?

Guess who else approved?

We have a ceiling fan getting installed in the craft room today to hopefully help combat the gross 100-degree weather we're having (ugh) and what I'm sure will be a very fun birthday party tomorrow for our favorite almost-four year olds.

Happy weekend peeps!

The ugly, unfinished truth

2011-06-01T14:20:00.003-04:00

June 1st - I kind of can't believe it. At the end of this month the year will be HALF OVER. I'm not a half-empty kind of girl but that seems shocking to me. It also seems shocking to me that I counted 19, yes, you read that right, nineteen, unfinished projects in my crafting room. So I've decided that before I move on to any more exciting new projects I need to finish some of these. I really need to finish ALL of these but we'll see. My husband is going to be out of town for 12 long days and I figure I can use my time at night after the doodlebug is in bed to get some things done. When I look at these piles I feel completely overwhelmed so I'm going to start with some of the smaller projects first. Hopefully at the end of the month I can look at a clear crafting table and feel great about what I accomplished in the first half of the year. Think good thoughts for me and I'll keep you posted on my progress!

(The cat IS a piece of work but she considers herself completely and utterly finished ;-)

Darn and YAY!

2011-05-31T21:00:00.005-04:00

So last Saturday was our techniques or project sewing day at Whipstitch and even though we had a house full of company coming I was bound and determined to get there and get this adorable bag sewn. BUT my machine had not been right since I had it "serviced", the topstitching was completely loose no matter how I set the tension and it was making me want to cry. Especially after dragging it back (along with my toddler) only to be told that it "worked fine for them". Grrrrrrrrr. So on Saturday after I got all my pieces cut out and my interfacing ironed on and set down to sew I realized that I just couldn't do it. It was so not right. I kind of wanted to cry. Thankfully one of the girls (Meaghan) told me about the place she uses to have her machine serviced and it was open and close so I left early and headed over there, fully prepared to leave my machine and spend whatever it took to get it back to working (the way it was before it was "serviced"). So I went to Southeast Sewing Products (also known as sewingmachine.com) on Ottley Dr. in Atlanta (near Sweetwater for those of you familiar with that area). It took the technician literally 2 minutes and a teeny tiny screwdriver and my machine was working as good as new - YAAAAAAY! Again I could have cried but this time with JOY! All this to say that having to leave early was such a bummer, the Whipstitch girls and everyone who comes to sew are so fun to hang out and chat with that I hated to miss any of that grown-up, creative time with my people (you know, the people who can name all the fabric designers and know when their new lines are coming out and think it is perfectly reasonable to own a machine to cover buttons or set snaps in) but I had to and it paid off. Thankfully. And I can tell you where I'll be getting my machine serviced from now on!!!

So after the company was gone and the doodlebug went down for her nap I pretty much raced to my sewing machine. This bag came together so quickly and easily - I was going for a zakka look and I think I nailed it. Not to brag, just love how it turned out! This is the Jennifer clutch from ithinksew.com and I would highly recommend it. I used a rough linen for the outside and a black and white gingham for the interior. And that little felt and embroidery ladybug? Just for fun.

We are trying to decide which pattern to use for next month's project day so check back. the AMSG meetings for June will be Saturday the 11th (open sew day, bring whatever you're working on) and Saturday June 25th (project day, project tba) both days the shop is kindly opened early for us, from 8AM till noon. If you haven't come yet you really should stop by one Saturday!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled crafting...

2011-05-26T12:32:00.005-04:00

To bring you new flowers for the front corner bed. The pansies were more than done and I was feeling sad watching the hostas we'd planted there march toward their slow, seemingly inevitable death-by-sunburn so I decided it was time for some new faces out there. Hopefully some faces that will thrive in the absolutely ALL DAY full sun that corner gets. I did not get the green thumb in my family and I'm okay with that - the watering, weeding, pruning - UGH. Don't get me wrong, I love how a nicely landscaped yard or garden or park looks, I just can't ever seem to make it happen for myself. So this is a bit of a departure for me and I hope it works out. I just went with "full sun" on the labels, hoping for the best. As for those poor sad hostas? They got a new, shadier home.

In our courtyard. The doodlebug "helped" me dig the holes and plant and especially water everything. And then water everything some more ;-) I trimmed the bushes which seemed way overgrown and I'm hoping my little green friends like this spot a bit better. I did put one hole in a spot on the other side of the house that gets more sun than I realized as I'm looking at it today and may have to be moved again. But I am tired so that move might happen next week. After our company is gone. Oh yeah, company for the long weekend, and so much still on my to-do list it isn't even funny. But isn't that always how it is when company's coming? You suddenly see all the things that aren't that bad as awful and urgently needing to be fixed/changed/cleaned and end up with new flower beds all around.

Too sunny? I think a few 90 degree days will let me know sooner rather than later.

6/1/11 - Moved those poor plants again yesterday. It's supposed to be in the mid to UPPER 90's all week and those poor babies were still getting too much sun. Hopefully their new shady spot will be their home for longer than a week :-)

3x6 Mini Sampler Bee Blocks

2011-05-21T19:02:00.002-04:00

Hey there! Back from our graduation trip to lovely Geneva, NY and back to the sewing machine ;-) All my bee blocks are done and ready to go in the mail and I am SO HAPPY with how they turned out! I kind of wanted to keep them all - I'm thinking this would make an awesome scrappy quilt. This was the Antique Tile block from the Modify Tradition blog - I found many blocks here that I love, love, love.

This was the first bee I've participated in and it was easier than I thought. The hardest parts were finding just the right block and choosing the fabrics (I hope my partners like my choices). Some of these color combinations weren't ones I would have chosen but I ended up loving how they looked together.It's fun to have "new eyes" once in a while! I'm excited to get my squares in the mail and turn them in to something fun - keep an eye out and I'll post a photo once all my squares have arrived.

The next thing on the sewing table is a sample Jennifer clutch from ithinksew.com for our techniques (or project) sewing day at Whipstitch NEXT Saturday from 8AM - Noon . And can someone please tell me where in the world May went??? I blinked and it's gone!

Very nice, thank you.

2011-05-10T20:58:00.006-04:00

You know what being a mother is? Some days it seems like it's all getting up at 6AM, dirty diapers, spit out food, grumpiness and worse. But not on Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was all about sleeping in, breakfast in bed, flowers, gifts and cupcakes. I have a lovely husband who treated me like I hung the moon and a sweet daughter who reminded me why being a mom is pretty great most days.

We had a nice relaxing kind of day with breakfast and lazing about and a leisurely walk to the park in the afternoon. There was even some sewing during naptime! What a treat of a day - I felt like one lucky mom indeed.

Butter cake cupcakes topped with a salted caramel pecan frosting - I made these for my mom (and ok, myself - luckily we both love caramel!). My dear husband claimed that these were the best cupcakes I'd ever made and I have to say I might just agree. That caramel frosting was almost like caramel fudge and I could have (and might have) eaten it with a spoon. Dangerous and delicious!

And the last slouch bag - probably not really the last but the last for now (quilt blocks! Jennifer clutch! table runner...) and it was a gift for my mom. The interior fabric is Alexander Henry's Griffith Park and I could not love it any more than I do. I'm trying to think about whether or not it could be a shirt or a skirt...but I digress. This bag was a plain black twill on the outside and the lovely leaf print on the interior. I so wanted to keep this one for myself, ah, the high road. But no, no, I can always make another! I added a silver and marcasite brooch on the front to dress it up a little and I was really pleased with the overall effect.

Detail of the pin - I settled on something mom can change is she doesn't love it. I hope she likes it enough to actually carry it!

Now back to reality. Waiting on the plumber who may or may not show up tomorrow. Trying to get the garage emptied out of our move-overflow. Interviewing management companies to rent our other house. Oh and a trip to NY next weekend - oh wait, in three short days, to see my favorite baby cousin (*sniff, sniff*) graduate...from COLLEGE! Never a dull moment around here!

If I catch a few moments to sew I may have some more blocks for my 3x6 partners to show and if not this week, then certainly by next. Oh and have I mentioned our next Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild project day at Whipstitch on Saturday May 28th, 8AM till Noon? ;-) We're making the Jennifer clutch from ithinksew.com and it's a cutie (and on sale now for $2.75 - you can't beat that)! Check back for a sample of that coming soon too. Hope everyone has a great week started!

3x6 Test Block

2011-05-07T08:33:00.005-04:00

All I can say here is "OOPS". I'd like to say I'd been drinking or something that would give me a reason (excuse) for sewing half my block together exactly backwards but I have none. This WILL be getting ripped and re-sewn later today. But that's why a practice block is a good thing, right? ;-)

Oh and it was only 12.25" - BLERG. Why is it that when I use the foot for my machine that is supposed to be exactly a quarter inch, nothing ends up measuring right in the end? I've actually started sewing LESS than the marked quarter inch to get the right seam allowance - which is crazy to me but seems to work.

TA-DA! Of course after the oops block I was determined to sew a correct one and this time I PAID ATTENTION while I was sewing - oh, what a difference. I LOVE it! I already have all the fabrics cut for my block mates and I can't wait to see how great these are all going to look when they're done. (And this block measured a happy 12.5" - yay!)

This block (Antique Tile) came from an awesome blog that even though apparently quite popular was utterly unknown to me - the Modify Tradition Blog. If you're looking for fantastic block ideas and tutorials I highly recommend it! I am so not a math person and this blog has so many great blocks with very clear and well photographed instructions that it was EASY to understand the block process. Love that.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy Mother's Day! I'll be back with my Mother's Day gift next week after it's been gifted :-)

Crib quilt that actually fits the crib!

2011-05-02T12:46:00.005-04:00

I know this is a crazy thought but when I think of a CRIB quilt, I think of one that actually covers the mattress and fits the crib! Clearly not everyone thinks this way because you can find crib quilts and patterns for them that come in literally all sizes. My BFF said when she hears "crib quilt" she thinks of any quilt that you would put over your baby/kid in their crib, so maybe that explains it. BUT what about not using blankets or quilts or any coverings when they're really little? This is where the quilt that fits the bottom snugly comes in! The baby can sleep on TOP of it and you can still cute up your nursery.

We'd been using the same quilt since we brought the "baby" (who is now almost 20 months old) home! So it was time for an update! I used 8 different prints from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and 8 solids I picked to compliment them. I cut the front pieces 7.5 x 14.5 and used the scraps to make a pieced strip along the back. The room is a kind of light aqua blue so I used pink for the back, knowing it would pop against the walls. I think next time I might up the sizes to 8x15.5 just for a little extra coverage on the sides. Bit overall I LOVE how it turned out! I just did some straight line quilting to echo the fabric shapes and bound it in another print from that same line (Mixed Signals I think) and used Rita's awesome machine sewn binding technique - which I'm getting better at (I do still use 2.5 inch binding though). So this was my weekend project and I'm so happy that it's done! Also so happy that the doodlebug approved and is happily napping on it right now :-)

The other project I've been working on are my first 3x6 Bee blocks - so excited to have my block picked out and all my fabrics cut! More on that later this week!

Great sewing day!

2011-05-01T21:57:00.002-04:00

Are they slouch bags? Well, nooooo BUT there were several cute slouch bags sewn (mine did get cut out and about half done). But since we had FOUR hours to sew (when you have a toddler at home four whole hours to sew uninterrupted seems like such a luxury!) and these babies needed to be done for Easter morning I went ahead and snuck them in. Cute right? And once filled with eggs and chocolate goodies they were very well received!

We had a lovely day sewing, some regulars and one completely new person, which was awesome! I think most everyone enjoyed making the slouch bag and I heard plans for a couple more! We even picked our project for next month: the Jennifer clutch from ithinksew.com - go check it out, another cute and easy pattern that will make a cute bag for summer! Put it on your calendar, Saturday May 28th from 8am till noon at Whipstitch. Hope to see you there!

Hope everyone had as relaxing and productive a weekend as we did, new ceiling fan put up in the guest room ( thanks to my lovely husband) and tomorrow I'll show you the new crib quilt I whipped up!

Yummy lunch!

2011-04-22T12:42:00.005-04:00

Maybe you guys already know about this site but I was completely clueless until my BFF turned me on to it earlier this week - The Picky Palate. Uh, how have I missed this awesome site for this long? Let me just say, YUM! This is the Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Quick Bread and it was our delicious lunch today. The recipe calls for only 1 cup of flour and I used a cup and a half of flour (and I used turkey pepperoni) but other than that I didn't change a thing and it was GREAT. She puts up a new yummy recipe every day and has a great index of things I can't wait to try. Go, look, I'm pretty sure you'll find something that makes you say "ooh - I could make/eat that RIGHT NOW!".

Happy Weekend, Happy Easter if you're celebrating it and I hope so see some of your smiling faces at Whipstitch tomorrow from 8AM till Noon for our first project sew-along day!

Oh Denyse...

2011-04-19T21:05:00.004-04:00

how I LOOOOOVE you! But what to do with you? Quilt? Yes, of course, but what pattern? Maybe a dress for the doodlebug? Again yes!

I think a big part of sewing fun for me is the anticipation and dreaming of what might be...all those delicious possibilities!

The danger is that I tend to hang on to fabrics and treat them too preciously, never actually using them for fear of making the wrong thing. Or having something turn out poorly. I've made it a goal for myself this year to get over that kind of fear and just dive in and create!

Last slouch bag (this week anyway)

2011-04-16T09:29:00.004-04:00

Sick of these yet? I hope not because I've been having fun getting them done and the truth is I've thought up way more fabric combinations than I have time (or need) to make! The thing is, that this bag goes together so fast that before you know it you suddenly have three or four of them made - which may lead to me re-opening my etsy shop next week :-)

Anyway by now I'm sure you know this is the Slouch Bag from Ali Foster and it's the bag we're going to be working on together at our sew-along at Whipstitch next Staurday, April 23rd from 8 - noon. You need your pattern ahead of time and you can either bring your supplies or buy them from the many cute offerings at the shop (you also need to bring your own sewing machine but I'm guessing you already figured that out). This bag is great because you can make it really quickly, it doesn't take a ton of fabric and you can customize it. For this version I used Linen for the exterior fabric and a Kaffe Fausett print for the interior (Verbena I think) and then I added a grosgrain ribbon and bow detail on the front. I sewed the ribbon on after the exterior was completed and I think there may be a better way to attach the bow itself but I'm still tinkering with that. I also put the interior pocket on the front of this bag because I liked looking in and seeing that print - I considered trying to match the pocket to the print so that they lined up for oh about a millisecond and then went with a contrasting pale pink solid for the pocket.

Pretty cute if I do say so myself! So I hope you're considering coming to our group project sew-along next weekend and if you can't make it next weekend the dates for May are: open sew day on Saturday May 14th and the group sew-along day on Saturday May 28th (both meetings go from 8AM till noon). Check back here for the group project for May after next weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend - see you next week!

Slouch Bag number 2

2011-04-14T20:48:00.005-04:00

This time I used the Echino airplane print I got at Whipstitch, Kona Berry for the lining and the same Waterford linen as the first bag for the handle. I thought about using the Echino print for the handle but it just seemed like too much if you know what I mean and the linen matches the airplane color perfectly. I used fusible fleece again for the support element, fused to the outer fabric. I know some people shudder at the thought but I just really like the structure it gives and it doesn't bother me at all to fuse it right on to the Echino, especially when it turns out so dang great!

This time I really kept track and it took me an hour and a half to whip this up! Granted I've made several now so the pattern steps are pretty familiar to me but you gotta love something that turns so cute in such a little bit of time!

I decided that I like making the pocket with a contrasting fabric so I went with the grass green that matched the airplane background - the colors here aren't the best but it really pops and I love how it came together. I was going to use that green for the whole lining originally but it was too matchy-matchy withe the outer fabric and it looked way better with the contrast of the red-violet fabric against that yellow-green outside.

On an-un-craft-related note Great Gram went home today and someone is very sad that her playmate disappeared. Thankfully their mutual admiration society will be meeting again in one short month for our favorite cousin's college graduation (I'll save "How can my baby cousin be graduating from college" for it's own separate post). Here's to grandmothers - they pretty much rock around here and we feel so lucky to have them! xoxo

New plants!

2011-04-11T17:16:00.006-04:00

Two posts in one day? Crazy, I know. This one is mostly for my husband who is out of town at a convention - I just wanted to show off the new plants that have shown up in his absence. My mom came down yesterday and helped me (or really truth be told, I helped her) put in 19 hostas in the beds out front. Yes, NINETEEN! And on the hottest day of the year so far, smart I know.

And then today we took Gram to Pike's and bought some ferns and other plants to dress up the front porch. The big pots came from IKEA, a steal at 5.99 each and the red maples in them are also from my mom. We added several different kinds of ferns and sweet potato plants.

I can honestly say I love how these turned out! I can also assure you that the green thumb that runs so rampant in our family completely skipped me so I am praying that I can keep these gorgeous plants alive. Seriously.

Oh well, I guess I need to make an effort to enjoy them TODAY! Which I did :-) Now for chairs...stay tuned.

In which I FINALLY finish something I start - a new spring-ish bag!

2011-04-11T16:28:00.003-04:00

First let me say two things - one, I am having a hard time getting good pictures of this bag (I probably need another lesson from my husband about my fancy camera. I could also read the manual but who are we kidding?!) and two HALLELUJAH for getting something DONE! Wheeee! I was seriously starting to think I might never get anything sewn ever again. Wrong! Yay!

So this bag, which is MUCH cuter in real life, is the bag we are making for our themed sewing day at Whipstitch on Saturday the 23rd (8am - noon). All you need is the pattern for the Ali Foster Slouch bag and your fabric (bring or buy the day of, your choice). I LOVE love love this bag for so many reasons. It's EASY, it's FAST and you can change it up so many ways. It's also a great size - and it even has a pocket for my phone! This version was made with a nice linen from Whipstitch, lined with a Kona solid (grass green?) and then it has a band from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms on the front and back. I improvised the strip on the front, it's not part of the pattern but I can show you how I did it when I see you on the 23rd :-)

My really, truly favorite part about THIS bag? That peony on the pocket! LOVE!

This bag took a little big longer to make because of the cutting and piecing of that strip on the front but it was still only about a nap and a half worth's of sewing time. The pattern also calls for a layer of canvas between the inner and outer fabrics to stiffen it but I like using a fusible fleece on the outer fabric. It gives the bag some form and isn't a pain to sew on (like I think canvas is - just one girls' opinion).

My other confession? I have a few more of these bags to show you this week, hoping to entice you to come play, I mean SEW with us at Whipstitch on the 23rd! Go get your Slouch Bag pattern now from Ali Foster on etsy! (And no, I am not getting paid by either, I just like 'em).

And we're back...

2011-03-31T21:07:00.004-04:00

We had a pretty busy weekend around here last weekend - Uncle J (my brother) got married! I offered to make the lovely couple cupcakes instead of a wedding cake, it seemed to go well with the fun, cocktail reception they had planned. I loved getting to contribute something and my contribution was about 200 cupcakes, seen here on the awesome stand I got at Cupcake Tower (medium size). We had Almond Pound cake with Vanilla Buttercream, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting and Cappuccino Chocolate Chip with Mocha Buttercream. The bride and groom enjoyed cutting their cupcake and the stand was instantly emptied as soon as they walked away from the table - a hit, yay! I had been debating with my husband and BFF about whether people would eat more than one and I thought (against everyone else's opinion) that people WOULD in fact eat more than one because there were a variety of flavors. I'm happy to report that I spoke to more than one guest who sampled ALL THREE flavors. Sweet. If you're interested I can tell you that I allowed a cupcake and a half per person and that seemed to work out well.

Check out the post-ceremony shoe and jacket change - that flower girl already has a mind of her own when it comes to fashion! She LOVED the flowers petal filled basket and took the job of emptying and refilling it very seriously. All night and on into this week. Give that girl a job and she will get it done!

So now that our big event has been successfully crossed off our list I'm hoping life will be settling down a little bit. I took my sewing machine to get serviced and learned that I'd been using the wrong bobbin for oh, the entire time I've owned it! Whoops! But that's a story for another day. So anyway, back to sewing, baking for fun and life as normal as possible!

Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild NEWS!

2011-03-15T13:10:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone! The Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild has some exciting news - we are now going to be having TWO sewing days a month at Whipstitch! Not familiar with AMSG? It's just a group of like-minded ladies who meet at Whipstitch to share a love of sewing, meet some new people and get help and/or inspiration - think of a modern sewing circle. Deborah has been gracious enough to support our group with free space to sew and a great atmosphere filled with lovely fabrics and people!

So our NEW schedule is going to be an open sewing day on the second Saturday of every month, from 8AM till noon. The fourth Saturday (also 8 - 12) we're going to have be a project based day, meaning we'll all be working through the same project/pattern together. This day will be perfect for new sewers and anyone who has a fun project they'd like to share or work on together with the group. This will NOT be a class but there will be one person choosing and facilitating that day's project, so anyone who needs some support will have it.

So the dates for April's meeting are the 9th (open sew) and the 23rd will be the project day. I've volunteered to lead the first project and I'm really excited to share this pattern - it's the Ali Foster Slouch Hobo bag. You can find Ali Foster patterns HERE in her etsy shop.

This is a GREAT pattern for you novice bag makers out there, it goes together quickly enough that you'll be able to finish it in one session no problem! The bag in the top photos was done with two IKEA home decorator weight fabrics.

You can use lighter weight quilting cottons as well, you'll just want to add a layer of canvas, fusible fleece or other interfacing to give it a little structure. For my next bag I'm thinking that I'm going to use this Echino for my exterior and a Kona cotton for the lining. Whipstitch has loads of great fabric choices if you'll be shopping on the sewing day. This pattern also includes a magnetic snap closure which is truly very easy and a great thing to learn if you haven't tried one yet. This bag is such a great simple shape and could be changed and customized so easily, I promise once you make it one time, you'll be ready to make another and another.

For the sewing day on April 23rd you will need to purchase your own copy of the pattern and bring it with you - you can bring your own supplies OR find everything you need and more at Whipstitch. If I can answer any questions beforehand please don't hesitate to email me - moderncozy@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!

Tiny things for a tiny person

2011-03-13T20:31:00.004-04:00

The thing about making tiny little things for your tiny little person is that it's addictive because
they go together so quickly and suddenly you can see so many possibilities. Oh and because they're so stinkin cute.

Then you have a realization that you're making these tiny things as much for yourself and the fun that you have just in the making of them. It's nice when something makes everyone happy. Especially when it comes in such a tiny package!

These little bags were just basically two rectangles for the outside and two for the lining and a couple of tiny straps. I used fusible fleece on the outer fabrics to give them some structure and boxed the corners. Easy peasy tiny totes!

Happy Birthday!

2011-03-02T21:25:00.005-05:00

There are *many* things I am not good at: algebra, giving directions, eating vegetables. I tell you this so that you won't think I'm being all braggy when I say that one of the things I AM good at is baking, cupcakes in particular. Someone around here has a birthday coming right up and these are the cupcakes the office will be celebrating with - Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and a few dark chocolate shavings - recipe courtesy of Dave Lieberman. Remember him, his show on Food Network? Wonder whatever happened to him? Ah well, I digress. I used the Left Handed Brewing Company's Milk Stout, because that's what we had in the fridge and even though the batter was extremely runny they seemed to bake up just fine. I haven't tasted one yet so the true test will come tomorrow. Oh and that adorable cupcake stand? Vessels and Wares on etsy - local ceramic artist Jeanette Zeis, whose work I love. If you're local and you ask her nicely, she'll even let you come by the studio and pick things up to save on the shipping costs - how great is that?

Life has been pretty busy around here lately and doesn't look to slow down until the beginning of April (come on April, and yes, I know it's only the very beginning of March). I'm trying to get things done in little pockets here and there but honestly it doesn't feel like I'm getting much done at all these days - too many things in progress if you know what I mean. Thank goodness for cupcakes, usually a project that can be started and savored the same day!

Works in progress

2011-02-23T21:26:00.002-05:00

You know how some weeks you just get an amazing amount of stuff accomplished? Yeah, that hasn't been my week, last week or this week. But I've been trying to get started FINISHING a bunch of works in progress, starting with my noodlehead clutches. Wish me luck and a good nap for/from the doodlebug tomorrow and something might actually get done!

Valentine's Day in COLOR!

2011-02-14T18:29:00.003-05:00

Shot cotton LOVE - thank you Kaffe! Seriously, I just drool over all these rich, gorgeous colors. I just love looking at them stacked in the late afternoon sun, aaaahhhh, happiness.

Of course, not everyone feels the same way. Teehee...sorry baby!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love love love it!

2011-02-11T18:50:00.004-05:00

Yup, it's sideways, but you get the idea :-) This is the gathered clutch pattern from Anna over at Noodlehead and I LOVE it! I had some really pretty scraps left over from a scarf and decided to try one of these and I seriously love it. Next time I would change the orientation of either the zipper or the handle - right now if you were carrying this on your wrist and it was zipped, the zipper would be closed at the bottom, which makes me worry that things might fall out, so that's one tiny change but otherwise this is a great pattern, very easy to follow. I also made the strap a little differently - I hate turning something that long and skinny, but again, personal preference.

Lined in the same pretty green at the strap AND I even made the card- holders for the inside - fancy-schmancy, right? Anyway, I bought the longer pattern which I think was really worth it and I got the hardward for the strap and handle here (sets with 3/4 inch D ring). I can see making a bunch of these to use for gifts - who wouldn't like getting a cutie like this? Well, not exactly like this, because this one is all mine!

Modern Sewing Guild meeting at Whipstitch in Atlanta tomorrow, 9AM to noon - we'd sew love to see you there (oh yes I did)! Just a bunch of girls who like to talk to other girls about sewing and fabric and stuff - how can you beat that? Have a great weekend!

More zipper pouches

2011-02-10T10:00:00.007-05:00

These are made with the same tutorial as in my first post (find it at Toni Coward's Make it Perfect blog).

I used some fat quarters I already had for the front with patchwork and some rikrak for contrast and fun.

I think they're better but still not SQUARE in those corners up by the zipper end. I don't want to see like a perfectionist but it is making me INSANE.

Nice close up of the interior - I love how the red really pops on this one!

I think I might need to make the seam along the zipper edge a little farther away from the zipper, so that the edges have a little more room to lay down on the ends. I'm just guessing here, trying to figure out what to try on the next batch of pouches to get those NICE SQUARE CORNERS. Aaargh.

Remember those stripes-into-squares blocks I made? A couple of the attempts turned into these pouches - cute, no?

Just don't look at the corners.

And the lining colors - yes, all from my extensive stash. The only thing I had to buy was zippers and I HIGHLY recommend buying them here instead of from a store, if you have the time. The difference in price is a little shocking. Now, I could go sweep or scrub something but I think I might just sew...see you later!

Working it out...

2011-02-06T16:33:00.006-05:00

I recently became obsessed with the In a Spin quilt that Rita over at Red Pepper Quilts made, obsessed with making some of those blocks!

So here is the WRONG way to do it - with the stripes of your fabric going perpendicular to the base of your triangle.

Nice squares, interesting, but not AT ALL what I wanted. Back to the cutting board.

This time I tried the stripes PARALLEL to the base of the triangle and VOILA!

SUCCESS! Wheeee! I know, it's the little things, right? So the only other tip I can give is to cut some strips of your striped fabric first, in the height you want your triangles and make sure all the repeats in your stripes line up. Also a triangle template made cutting these easy peasy. Now I have a couple of these ready to be made into zipper pouches even as we speak...