teacher gifts

I whipped these dishmats up the night before the last day of school.  I love a quick, easy and unique teacher gift. In another life when I taught school, the handmade heartfelt gifts were always my favorite.  I hoped my daughters PreK teachers would feel the same way. 

I reeeeeeeeeeaally wish I'd ordered some more of this Meadowsweet 2.  Sandi Henderson, if you ever read this, I love you for making such amazing fabric.

And thanks again Kim for the amazing chenille.    If fabric addiction were illegal we'd both be in jail. Kim is my 'supplier'.

This time I put some cotton batting in the middle to give it some heft and absorbency.  Then a little stippling and a super easy rustic serged edge.

And you don't really need any wrapping paper for presentation.

sew & tell - july 2011

Happy July!  I know it's a long weekend for those celebrating Independance Day!

I've been on a sewing binge lately and realized that if I'm sewing a lot, I'm not blogging very much.  And if I'm blogging a lot, I'm not sewing very much.  This is a tricky balance since I try to blog about what I sew... so I'll spread out some of the projects I've been working on and just share a few of my favorites today.

I blogged about this skirt I made a few weeks ago.  I AM in LOVE and would wear it every day if I could get away with it.  So the next best thing?  Make more!  Here's the finished product of skirt #2.

And I have another one cut out ready to sew!

And seriously, these skirts are so contagious! SO contagious in fact that the lovely Jessica, from diaper clutch and super sweet homecoming/reunion photo fame begged me to help her make some.  Okay, maybe she didn't beg, more like I insisted she could do it and she did!

I've said this before, one thing I love about sewing with other people is that I learn about fabric choices.  Everyone's vision is different and Jessica picked out some fabric that I never would have thought to use. AND WOW. I LOVE the final result.

We went to our LQS and she picked out some adorable pieces.  One Amy Butler (did you think she would be able to escape my influence?)

and Wonderland, anyone?

I worked with this fabric a couple of years ago and made a bag out of it.  I guess I had it pigeonholed into bag or quilt only fabric.  But I love it in a skirt.  In fact, I think we are going to trade skirts for a week or so.  :)

My mom and I get to spend some time together for the next couple of weeks.  I hope to have some more fun stuff to show you!  It's always fun to sew with her.

What did you finish this month? And of course - if you were able to help someone with a project,  do share!

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

NEW RULES FOR LINKING UP!  Please read carefully.  The delete monster will be eating non-compliant links.

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 tomorrow!

My serger has been getting a workout.

and my husband bought me a really nice dining room cutting table when we moved into this house.

He was out of town last week, so I took over the table.  ;0)
I've been busy so I have a few things to share. Hope you do too!
see you in the morning!

a very pink day

Did you know that today is National Pink Day?  Well if you follow pinksuedeshoe, you already know that.  Pink, as I like to call her, loves the aforementioned color.  So much so that each year on her blog she goes ALL out celebrating pink.  She's having a pink giveaway all week and then today will be filled with pink posts and all sorts of good fun.  Not to mention that if you live in Utah you can go The Pinkalicious Party she is throwing where you can partake in pink cupcakes, pink raspberry lemonade, and catch her with her newly dyed pink locks! (or click on that link and you can see a photo)

If you know Pink at all you know that in addition to the color pink she loves to thrift (pyrex and vintage sheets specifically).  Yesterday, I wore my new shirt that I made (in pink!) and went thrifting.  I found some pyrex, although faded, and some vintage sheets!  I couldn't stop thinking that I was having a very Pink day.

Here's a peek at my loot:

awesome green vase, hand stitched linen napkins, pink (faded) pyrex pie plate, sheets

The aqua sheet is so smooth and soft!  I can't wait to use it on the back of a quilt! And I'm pretty sure they are vintage - look at the labels.

I bought this pattern a few weeks back at that big blue box store (don't judge!). I've been looking for a replacement pattern for the Built by Wendy 3835 peasant type top (it's out of print).

And remember you can't judge a pattern by it's cover.  I was looking at the lines and this one looked the most like a shirt I had recently bought at Target.  I wanted to try some elastic thread for the sleeve gathering too.

I wasn't sold on the fact that I was going to like this shirt, so I made up a muslin first.  I actually used the muslin from my ball gown skirt and made a mock up and decided it would work.  When I saw this swiss dot at Hancock's (I was shocked!) I knew I had to have it for this shirt.  It's easy and comfy like a t-shirt but looks a lot nicer.

The sleeves called for a casing but  I used elastic thread for the first time to gather the sleeves. I LOVE it!

That thread is SO smart!! It knows just the right amount to gather. Amazing.

I know I always like to see the clothing on people when they blog about it.  So here's a shot my 5 year old took (again) this time with my heavy camera.  She did pretty good, but cropped off part of my head,  so I had to fix it a bit. And by a bit, I mean I cut the rest of my head off.  I wasn't wearing any makeup, and who wants to see THAT anyway?

just a note about that awesome haze in the background - no that's not from some cool lens creating a great effect.  It's actually smoke from a local wildfire.  It smells like a campsite in my house, and not in a good way.

I held up the shirt to a couple of other shirts I like and made this one about the same length. After looking at this picture, I think I might lengthen the next one just a bit more.

I'm going to be honest here, I don't really like how I look in the shirt in the photo - but some random person told me they liked it while I was shopping at Goodwill. (is that a good thing?) It's comfy though and cuter than just another t-shirt.

If you are nervous about sewing clothing this would be a GREAT beginner pattern. I cut out the 3 pieces the other day with the intent to put them aside for later. Then I thought - hey! There's only like 6 seams to sew! So I whipped up the major part of the shirt in about 20 minutes. The neck, sleeves and hem did take a little bit longer.

Hope you have a pinkalicious day! 

the summer of no pants - i'm in!

Sara blogged about this summer of no pants thing a few weeks ago.  I already had it in my mind to make some easy breezy comfy skirts for the summer.  But once again, the fear of cutting into my fabric took hold and I couldn't bring myself to do it, worried that I might ruin the fabric and hate the skirt.  But then I finally decided even if the skirt wasn't just right, I loved the fabric enough to compensate.

And now that's it finished and I LOVE it, I wonder what took me so long!!

thanks to my 5 yo for taking this picture.  :)

I ended up using this pattern that I bought a few weeks ago. 

It doesn't look like anything exciting from the cover, but I've decided you have to just look at the lines and the construction and imagine it with better fabric.  This is how I address most pattern shopping lately.  In fact, my favorite thing to do is find patterns that are similar to things I already own and then adjust the pattern to match.

So for this skirt, I removed the bottom 2 tiers and adjusted the remaining 3 tiers to be the length I wanted.  My favorite thing? It has elastic in the waist so it's comfy and easy.  I just measured my hips to make sure the first tier was big enough.  I used my serger again to finish off the seams and it looks so great.  I love my serger!!

I've wanted to blog about it for a couple of weeks now. Part of the reason it took me so long is 1) I've been wearing it non-stop B) I had to figure out how to get a decent picture of it and lastly) I have lost my blogging mo-jo a bit.  Hoping to remedy that soon.

I also found this linen blend fabric at Joann's to make another skirt.

I just bought the batiste the other day for a lining. I've been toying with the idea of a different type of skirt, but the more I think about it, I love the drape of the first one so much, I think I'll just go with it!

don't judge me. i couldn't help myself!

So back at the beginning of the year, I opted out of continuing on into a 3rd year with my quilting bee.  I was feeling overwhelmed and under-productive.  And was always LATE.  Ugh.  I was beating myself up over it.

A few months ago Darci of Stitches and Scissors asked me if I wanted to be a part of a new bee she was starting up!  I was hesitant, knowing my weaknesses and time constraints, but the group of people looked so fun, I couldn't say no.

The bee was named after a discussion with a lot of the group members on Twitter.  Hence the bee's name: Bee Tweet.  I'm still clueless when it comes to Twitter.  I hesitate to get too involved as I feel like I've already got an IV line from the internet into my brain...

So here's my first block for the month of May.  Erin asked for a variation on the wonky log cabin.  It was nice to change it up a bit and I think her quilt is going to be scrapalicious!

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!  :)

NEW RULES FOR LINKING UP!  Please read carefully.  The delete monster will be eating non-compliant links.

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!