WIP Wednesday {32}

okay, so I missed last week due to illness, but I'm still doing a little sewing here and there. Here's what's on my plate this week.


Finished: Pincushion Organizer

In progress:

Amy Butler Weekender bag. I finished the outside and need to do the lining. I brought it out to show Mr. Fabric Obsessed and my daughter came over to snag it. I made the mistake of saying it was so big she could fit in it and you can guess what happened next right??

We'll just call that product testing. You know I'll have lots to say about this bag when I'm done right? It's a doozy.


Habitat challenge: Nothing I can show yet, but I've got one block done. I'm doing a few more for the charity part so I'll photograph those when they are done.


do.Good Stitches July : This is my first month being a quilter! I chose to use Jaybird Quilts Hexagon Quilt along for our blocks this month with a yellow and gray color scheme. My colors are a bit wonky in these photos, not sure what happened!

 

Aviary Birdbath : 46 blocks done, 26 to go!

Double Wedding Ring Quilt Along (DWR): Got all my templates printed and cut.

Carnival baby quilt: Sorry for the bad photo, I don't know what my issue is with photos today! This one is all basted and hanging on my  ironing board for quilting. This baby will be arriving this weekend, however I still don't know if it's a boy or girl!! So they may not be getting this quilt - hee hee.

My first quilt: still being bound. I have about 1 foot to go, don't know why I'm dragging my feet on this one.

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Go see what everyone is up to!

Finally made one for me!

Hey guys, sorry I've been MIA.  I've been a little under the weather. I might be posting a  little sporadically the next couple weeks, but I'm here!

There hasn't been much sewing going on. But I did finally decided to make myself one of Elizabeth Hartman's Pincushion Organizers. I've been wanting one of these for a long time, so I finally just put it at the top of the list. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Although after I took this photo I realized my raindrop print on the cushion is upside down! I seriously wasn't paying attention.

One addition I will be making is to put that grippy stuff from Joann's on the bottom of the pincushion. I think it's meant for the bottoms of kids socks? My sewing/dining room table is very polished and slick and when I hang the bag on the organizer it slides off the table! So I'll be using it like this for a while.

And in other sewing news, I got the girl to wear her knit dress for Father's Day. Here she is modeling it with my shoes.

Jay McCarroll visit and a challenge

Jay McCarroll, fabric designer and 1st Season winner of Project Runway came to speak at our PMQG meeting last night. Let me tell you, it was a fun night. He's really quite funny and very easy going. It was great to hear him talk about his line Habitat and of course about his time on Project Runway.

He showed off a couple of projects like this quilt made at Spool.

And these fabulous pillows.

And a really great skirt made out of Habitat.


He was also there to announce the start of the Habitat Challenge. We all got our fabrics to make an original block.

I'm not really a designer, it seems everything I try to design has already been done! But I've got a few ideas going that I'm going to try out. And I just hope they aren't already done somewhere!

Joining a QAL and I had a lucky streak

I'm really excited about a new Quilt-along starting July 1 at The Plaid Scottie. She's going to help everyone do the Double Wedding Ring!!  This has been on my to-do list probably since before I started quilting. How so? My grandmother made one entirely out of embroidered squares and I loved it. I hope to get my hands on it to photograph it, but I don't know if she gave it away yet.  When she was making it she said she was going to let us all fight over it when she was gone. LOL - love my nana!! At any rate, I love this pattern and I'm excited to get some help doing it.

Kaelin has all the information here to get you started if you want to join us! And that above picture is her gorgeous version.

Here's my initial fabric pull. I need to thin this out a bit though, I have too many fabrics pulled.

I'm thinking maybe less green and more aqua.

I'm also debating how crazy to get. The frogs in this print would fit perfectly in the medallion section in between the rings. But that might just be a little too busy? Maybe I'll do one that way for a pillow? Otherwise I'm thinking a dark solid - maybe Kona Pepper or Charcoal? What do you think?

And on a different note, I have to give a shout out to Amanda at A Crafty Fox. She's been hosting a bunch of giveaways lately and I was lucky enough to win 2 of them!!

First I won this adorable petit-four of Circa 1934...

And then a few weeks later I won some of her LouLouThi scraps!

I haven't figured out what to do with either, for the moment I'm just drooling on them. ;)  In addition to the great giveaways, she has some cool projects like this pillow, this quilt,  and this bag. If you are looking for a cool new blog to follow, go check her out.

She finally wore the top

If you've been following my blog for a little while, you might remember that I participated in Kids Clothing Week Challenge in early May. I made this little top for my daughter and she wouldn't try it on for me. I think she just doesn't understand the idea of trying something on. I pulled it out to wear the other morning and she put it on without any question.

It fits perfectly! And what was really funny is those ties on her shoulders. She was pulling on them calling them her butterfly wings. She kept "flying" around the room with her wings!


And since we don't say "cheese" in our house we say "mickey", I just had to share the resulting photo. She had to go get her Mickey for the photoshoot.

I would definitely recommend this Sew Sensible pattern for anyone!


And on a similar note. We were shopping today and for the first time she picked out a pair of shorts. She never pays attention to the clothing stores. This time she pulled these out and told me they were 'so cute'. Cracked me up. (i know - not the greatest photo)

So I had to get her the shorts because she's never done that. And this...

The little top that goes with it totally reminds me of Robert Kaufman's Metro Living!  I think I'm creating a little fabric loving monster.

WIP Wednesday {31}

I forgot to take pictures Tuesday for this post so I don't have much to share. I'll keep this one short and sweet!


Finished this week:
Baby Bike Quilt
Zipper Pouch
Sew Modern - June
do.Good Stitches - June


In progress:
Weekender bag - my seam ripper and I have been getting very close this week. I've got a couple pieces done for the bag, but I'm definitely take a lot of breaks on this one.


Baby Carnival Quilt - Got all my blocks for this one done. It's up on the design wall now waiting for the final tweeking before getting sewn together.

Birdbath blocks:  I've reached halfway (I think) in making these blocks! I've got 35 of 70 done. Had to put in another order of solids, I didn't order enough! I might take a rest from posting photos of them. Otherwise you guys will be sick of seeing them when I finally finish the top!


Waiting for attention:
Binding on my first quilt
Beach bag for my other sister.
Never ending curtain projects


Total WIPS: 6

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Problem solved with a pouch

I have a confession. I have a George Costanza wallet.  Don't know what that is? That's the wallet that is too fat to sit on. In my case, it's too fat to close. No, not because it's loaded with cash - I wish! Because it's loaded with all those stupid reward cards. And I also shove insurance and gift cards in there. It's awful.

The other day I took my daughter to the doctor and when my cards went spilling all over the floor I decided it was time to deal with this. I had heard so many good things about Keyka Lou patterns that I went and checked her site out. I found this adorable Zippered Clutch and knew it would solve my problems! Bonus - it comes in 3 sizes!! I made the small one.

It's about 6" wide and 3.5" tall. Don't you just want to eat it up?! I'm so in love with those hounds tooth prints too. I may have to get more even though I haven't used up all I have!

The directions and details are so great on this. I think this is the best zipper I've ever done and it's because of the way she puts these together.

I used some Tula Pink Plume for the lining. That's my wallet behind it holding it up. That gives you a sense of scale.

 I loaded it up with my cards and lo and behold, my wallet now closes! I took a photo of that, but for some reason it came out totally blurry. At any rate, I'm so excited to have this adorable pouch in my purse! Now I need a sleeker bag to put it in....

A little boy quilt finished

I have 2 girlfriends and once sister all having babies in July! One of my friends knows that she is having a little boy so I've made this quilt for her. She's not really a cutesy or preppy type so I tried to pick fabrics that were a little "cool" and hip!

The pattern is "Little Man" from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify.  And the fabrics are Michael Miller.

I totally stole was inspired by the way by-a-thread quilted her "Little Man" quilt. I love the alternated wavy and straight lines.

So back when I was trying to decide on the gray I had forgotten about that blue polka dot border. I'm glad I went with the gray, it stands out much more than the blue would have I think.

Gray polka dots for the binding!

And of course I pieced my label in the back. Once the little guy is born I'll add his name and info onto it! I don't have much else to say about this one. The pattern was well written and easy to follow! It was a fun quick quilt!

Quilt stats:

Size: 41" x52" 

Pattern: Little Man - Camille Roskelley

Fabrics: Michael Miller and Kona Med. Gray

Quilted: by me!

Finished: 6/11/11

Sewing Room - under construction

Okay, so I got a little flack for not showing "before" pictures of my sewing room. So how about some "during" pictures. Maybe you all can give me some feedback and ideas and inspiration. Do you have any favorite home dec blogs that you read?


I've decided to keep my sewing room in the dining room in this house despite the fact that we have a guest room I could share with the queen bed. These are my reasons:

1. This is a big room!
2. We use the dining room 1x a year at Christmas. And we may not do that anymore now that we have a big kitchen. So I like knowing the space is used.
3. I worry about waking a napping child if I'm in the guest room since they share walls.
4. I like having my stuff on the first floor so I can run in there when I have 2 minutes.

The challenge of course is not having the room look like a mess. Everyone has to walk through it to use our powder room. And of course if we do use the dining room I don't want it to look like we are sitting in fabric! So this is where I can use your help. Here's what I've got in mind so far.

This is the current chaos. This wall is pretty much useless because of the two doorways (with steps) and the fireplace. Currently in front of the steps is my Ikea Expedit shelf (because every crafter has these shelves right?). It's laying flat instead of upright. I've got my fabric drawers and then the cardboard boxes are full of china and miscellanea for the china cabinet.

There's a weird little hook (like a Shepherds Hook) hanging from the brick. I have the little dress I made Samantha hanging on it in this photo. What would you hang on something like that indoors?

Moving to the right a bit, here's the room. You can see where I'm thinking of hanging my design wall. I don't think it will totally fit, but maybe if I fold it in half I can put it there. Also not sure what to do about that chandelier. It's very country chic. But then again, so are the exposed beams and the brick fireplace. I'm afraid a mod chandelier which is more my taste, will look funny in here.

All of the furniture in here is hand me down. Eventually I'd like to update it. So what's going on under that window?

The black shelves are just in here temporarily. They have no home at the moment. The server stays and I think will be used for sewing storage. I need to line the shelves though, they are a little rough. Got any good tutorials??

Moving further to the right...

Right now we have the china cabinet centered. I'm thinking of moving it to the right more and then putting my Expedit shelves upright on the left side. I'd like to get some shelves that have doors on them eventually. And in a dream world I'd like to get this corner desk.

Which brings me to the china cabinet.

I really want to do something with this. I'd like to replace the hardware and paint it. But I can't decide on a color. It can't be white because the walls are white! Maybe blue? I've selected this blue fabric for the curtains. So maybe a deeper country blue?

And the final shot, from the other side of the house.

Yeah, that wall is kind of useless too. Between the sliding door and the fact that it's a high traffic area (leading to power room and garage from the rest of the house) you can't really put anything there.

So - I really wish HGTV would come help me with this! But since that's a far cry, I'd love any ideas you have! And please, don't judge me by my mess.