sew & tell v4.4 ~ a nursery

Oh my.

Did you notice I didn't post sew & tell last week? Or earlier today?

I'm a mess!

I do have a good excuse for last week, we were out of town and I'm clearly not on top of everything enough to have written a post early and schedule it to magically appear Friday morning.

And yep, didn't do that again for this week.  The only difference is I wasn't out of town!! I'm just mourning the fact that my mom had to go home after a lovely 5 week visit!! And now my kitchen is a mess because she's not here to do the dishes for me.

So, you'll have to forgive me and I won't blame you if no one wants to link up this week.  But you'd better link up next week to distract me from the fact that I won't be at sewing summit!!!

And now to a short and sweet finish.

And by short and sweet, I mean once I buckled down and did it, it didn't take long at all.

I have three words for you:  ORANGE CHEVRON CURTAINS

photo courtesy Kristen Hassell

My super stylish (and talented) friend Kristen took some photos of babylouwho for me a few months ago. And by a few I mean 18. (You are going to want to click on that link. And if you want to cry you should check out the rest of her blog and look at all the military homecoming shoots!!)

We swapped services, she took photos and sewed some curtains.  Hmmmm, I think I might need to make her some more stuff.  In fairness I have hemmed 2 pairs of pants for her hubs too.  And I helped Brynn with that cute quilt there on the crib. I still think I got the better end of the deal!

Anyway, the nursery is all her and I'm so pleased the curtains turned out so well!

What have you finished recently?




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sew & tell - june 2011

Hello sew & tellers!

First off, I would like to sincerely apologize for slacking last week and not getting the post up.  I'm hoping you'll forgive me and just link up your stuff you had planned (and maybe even posted already) today!

Do you remember the challenge I gave you in April? To find someone who needs a little encouragement to start sewing? Or a buddy to help motivate you? Someone you can bond with over fabric and creating with it? And then to get together with them and sew? I hope you took the opportunity to do that!

My friend (and luckily neighbor) Sara has been sewing most of her life. When she gets a project on the mind, she's very focused and super productive! I would have half my to-do list crossed off if I was 1/2 as efficient as her!

Anyway, she is having a baby in the next week or so and had some fabrics picked out with which she wanted to make an easy and quick baby quilt. She asked if I would help her figure out what to do and teach her how to put on a binding and stitch it down by hand.

This was the beautiful mess we made the day we got together. She was working on her quilt and I finally got my living room curtains started.

messes always look better in black and white.

We went for an easy strip quilt.  She just started cutting strips to sew together of different widths.  There is regular cotton, flannel and minky in there.  I think it turned out quite adorable!

front and back

She took it home and machine quilted (also a first! and without a walking foot - brave girl) about 1/4 inch on either side of each horizontal seam.  And was ready to bind it that same night!

close ups

I roughly showed her how to do the binding and she went home.  The next day I dropped off some thread for her to stitch down the binding.  When I talked to her the the day after that to see if she needed any help, she had already finished it! Barely 2 days from start to finish!  See what I mean? Focused.

extreme close-up!

and look at how even her stitches are! She did such a great job.

love a folded quilt.

So, it took me a while, but I did finally finish up 2 of my curtain panels last week.  I have 4 more to make, and only enough fabric for one more..... But I think I like them.

I'll take a picture of the whole room once I get the rest of them made.  If I spent as much time working on these as I've spent thinking about them, I'd be way ahead of myself!

Thanks Sara for coming over and making me work on these! I'm glad to be this much closer to this project being finished.  We had fun chatting and sewing together.  I can't wait to meet her new little baby and see her wrapped up in her quilt.

Who did you sew with? What's your story?  Did someone motivate you?  Did you have an challenge with a blogging friend to get something finished?  Tell us!!

PLEASE READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE NEW TO LINKING UP!  :)

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1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button.

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

sew & tell - on a roll

If you are new or need a refresher for Sew & Tell guidelines you can click on the tab above for details on linking up!

I don't know what's happened the last few weeks!  I feel like a sewing maniac!  You might be surprised to see two things that I have never made before.  And only one diaper clutch.  :)

I owe all of you a big thanks for keeping me going.  Part of getting these things finished is so that I have something to post each week too!  Otherwise, I'd have a ton of UFOs laying around. (Like the bumpers that I have cut out for my almost 5 year old daughter when she was a baby...)  I wasn't feeling too great yesterday (darn pollen) and I wasn't feeling like finishing up the big thing for today - but I went ahead and kept plugging away and it really only took about 15 minutes.  And I'm so glad I did!  So thank YOU!

Alright, first up.
I totally get the bunting thing now!  I keep seeing people make them and I've wanted to make on too.  I  just hadn't had a reason to until I helped my gorgeously talented (and gorgeous) friend throw a baby shower last weekend.  Here it is hanging up in my sunroom/sewing room/home office/workout room (I told you I was a multi-tasker!).

And here it is after the party had been staged.  I LOVE it so much and now I want to make one for every room in my house.  And I hope you noticed the Amy Butler Wallflower in there!

I just made a template out of a cereal box and used it as a guide to cut with my rotary cutter.  Then I sewed it to some hem tape, because that's what I had.  These aren't lined and may fray a bit, but then they'll be *vintage*.  Right? 

If you like gratuitous food and decor shots go here to see more of Heidi's magic!

Next up.
The gift for that shower.

Shocker, I know. I can't get enough of these!  And Amy Butler in Daisy Chain is always nice.

Lastly. (But not leastly.)
Are you ready?  Are you sure?  I finally got to the bedskirt with my newest fabric crush in my favorite colors.

And I love the way it turned out!  I'll admit, it was a little bit of a bugger to figure out.  I wanted to match up the large print and make sure it wouldn't look totally ridiculous.  I needed more than one width of fabric to make the long section, so I had to work that into the equation.  I really did do some algebra to figure some stuff out!  (My teachers were right after all... you may just need it some day!)

I ended up using a different dot for the inset pleat, but I thought it matched better.  And after all was said and done, I still screwed it up, but I'm not saying where and I don't want to know if you can figure it out.

I also have the mattress high right now, since she's still pretty little, so it will look a lot nicer when it's hanging to the floor.  And even better when this becomes her toddler bed.  The quilt is doubled up here, so it should get a lot of good use too!

The best part is I just used an old crib skirt for measurements and THEN instead of sewing it to a big piece of fabric, I JUST TAPED IT TO THE PLATFORM.  YEAH!  I felt like such a rebel/cheater!  I think it will actually work better and not get all wonky all the time.  I had read of several other people doing this too.  I may have to go back and tweak it a bit, but I'm happy with the tape method.

And thank you Target, for making awesome matching sheets (I bought 2) and cute-as-all-get-out Owl pillows!

oh, and can I tell you again how much I love my serger?  Especially for hems?

So if you made it all the way down here, THANKS! This was a long one.  Remember, next Friday is the big day!  I can't wait to see what you guys have been working on and I'm super excited about the giveaways!  I'm adding a few handmade things to the pot as well!    Leave me a comment today and tell me what you are working on for the Amy Butler Challenge (or for you over-achievers what you have already finished!)!


P.S. I'm not going to be around much this weekend - so if there are any questions or problems I will get back to you - it just might take a little longer.

What sewing project did you finish this week?

Please show good bloggy manners and follow the linky rules.  Refer to the sew & tell page   if you have any questions or wonder why your link may have been  deleted.

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3.  Pat each other on the backs in the comments! Please, don't just link up and leave, we all want to hear from you!

the nursery reveal!

I've been busy getting this bedding set together for Maggie. Who in fact is probably having that baby as I type this! I finally finished the binding on the blanket.

I was really kind of
VERY sad to see this go. I ♥ it so much! I really am going to make another one of those pillows. I also think I need pom pom fringe in every color!

I got to her house and set to work on tying 6 bumpers on the crib. The ribbon worked out well, although it was a bit short to tie bows. But I think I like this better anyway.

I'm definitely not a baby bedding stylist, but I tried to get some pictures to show how cute it all looked in it's new home.

I love the rocking chair corner. We couldn't decide which side of the pillow we liked better, I'm sure it will be flip-flopping a lot. I covet that pink damask lamp - I eyed it at Target every time I went and didn't pick it up. Silly me.

And what a fun cute little elephant nightlight!

The bed decided it liked this side of the pillow.

I love the wainscotting with the pale yellow walls. And HELLO gorgeous chandelier!

Is it weird that I'm so attached to this bedding? The room is very sweet and calm. I told her I'm coming over to hold the baby and sit in there when I need a break! And Maggie, good luck today!

This is by far the biggest custom order I've taken on. Well, besides the bags I've done, it's the only one. But I'm so glad I did it. I learned to use my serger better as well as how to sew with minky (pin it A LOT!). I discovered how much I like collaborating with someone to create something beautiful which will be well-loved . And it was a huge confidence builder for me. Perhaps I have it in me to take on more challenging projects.

What challenging projects have you been working on lately?