::Fabric Shopping::

I went fabric shopping with my ONE and ONLY local quilting friend, Maura!  It's my favorite thing to do, EVA!  We were literally giddy with excitement on the one hour drive there.  And giddy with sewing and quilt talk too.  The store is enormous and we spent 2 hours roaming the isles and filing our carts.  Fabulous.  Heaven, I tell ya!

full cart

As soon as we pull into the parking lot, my mind starts racing with ideas and in my head I'm thinking, "omgomgomgomgomgomgomg."  When we get inside, I usually elbow Maura out of the way, grab a cart and start yanking bolts of fabric off the shelves.

tone on tone chevron from Riley Blake

My heart literally races and I zip around aisles trying to catch my breath.  The announcer from Supermarket Sweep is in my head urging me on.






I lose sight of Maura for a long while as we are both off in our own worlds.  Tackling the store in our unique ways.  I start right inside the front door on the left with the precuts and zig zag the entire left side of the store.  Then I head to the sale section in the back on the right hand side of the store and work my way back to the front.  Maura starts in the sale section and is usually waiting for me by the registers.

Noteworthy by Sweetheart

Sometimes we pass each other and peek to see what the other has gathered.  Some oohing and aaahhhing occurs and 'oh, where'd you find that?'

Lucky Penny by Allison Glass

She's much more thoughtfull and deliberate and sticks with her list of what she needs for a particular project.  Sometimes she'll show me a fabric she loves ( like the ninjas) and then SHE PUTS IT BACK ON THE SHELF!!

How does she have such control??  Ack! If I love it, I have to have it.  Even if it just sits on my shelf.  (I am still thinking about those cute ninjas and wishing I'd bought them.)

Ahoy Matey by Michael Miller

After two hours of adrenaline pumping, we sit in her car eating lunch and thanking the Quilting Gods that not one school nurse called us to come pick up a sick child.

Don't Be Crabby by Laurie Wisborn

miscellaneous stash builders

stash builders

more stash

On the long ride home, we talk all about the projects we want to work on and how we wish we had more time to sew.

novelty prints that I couldn't live without

florals

And when she drops me off at home, it's all I can do to drag myself up the front steps with my bag of goodies.  I'm exhausted, but the second half of my day is about to start as the kids are getting off the bus.

my loot

And then we text one more time.

Thanks, Maura!

 

::American Girl Doll Headband::

Ruthie shouldn't be the only girl with a headband!  Kit wanted one too and one that matched her dress.

Follow Flannery's original tutorial without the step of making a fabric tube.  I used a small Goody hair band and 11 1/2" of decorative elastic lace .

The rubberband fits snuggly under the hair.

Kit is so happy to get her hair out of her face!

::American Girl 18" Doll Dress::

I've been wanting to make some doll dresses for my daughter's American Girl dolls.  I think we have about nine dolls and very few clothes.  It's hard for me to spend money on the pricey clothes so I've decided to make our own.  

I started with the easiest thing I could make~ a pillowcase dress~ just like I make for the older girls.  An applique and rick rack was added, of course!  I played around with the width of the fabric and really there's no perfect measurement, it's personal preference. This dress below was made with a rectangle that was 11" x 24 " and fits like a shift dress.  Super cute and not overly fancy.

This one has a bit more 'swing' to it.  The rectangle was cut 11"x 27" and is just as cute.  I'm definitely going to stick with the 11" length but I'll play around some more with the width staying between 24" and 27" inches.

I wanted to venture out beyond the pillowcase dress and bought a pattern at Joann's.  Bleh.  I don't know how to read a pattern and it seems like it would be easy to read, but it took my friend and I two days to figure it out.  We wanted to make it without the lining but that made the directions hard to follow.  The next day, my friend Suzanne, had an epiphany as to how to do it and we ran to my sewing room to get it made.  (Things have changed since high school! LOL.) Turns out, you have to use a lining or else it doesn't work.   Good thing Sue was in town for two days, otherwise I don't know how I'd figure it out.  Good thing I have a friend, "in real life" to sew with.

I love the fabric and I added the trim along the bottom.  The pattern called for just turning the hem under and sewing it but the dress needed a little something extra.  Honestly, the dress reminds me of a hospital gown.  I like it, but it's not my favorite.  The pattern is the A dress from Simplicity 0293 and you can get it here, on Etsy.

I do love the fabric though.

I'm looking around for easy doll patterns~ if you have one to suggest~ leave it in the comments!

 

::Work in Progress::

Happy New Year Friends!

What a great feeling to start fresh

in a New Year.

I am ready for 2012 to start.

I look forward to each and every day

and being the best person I can be.

This will be my last year

before I turn the big 4-0

and I'm going to leave my thirties better than

I came in!

and...

I'm gonna be finishing this project soon.

sewing the back of the binding is all that's left.

just in time for Christmas 2012.

-sigh-

Craft Challenge: Watermelon-themed Pillow

So we've made bloggity-blog-blog-blog friends with another set of sisters! The Wayward Girls! The thing I love about blogland, and you'll read other blogger's comments on this, is that you make penpals, almost. You connect with other bloggers, talk about blogging, crafting, sewing, whatever. I personally don't have a lot of friends who craft, sew or blog. Luckily I have my sisters to enjoy that with, but it's also nice to make friends who do it, too. (Come on, everybody's doin' it....)

Anyhoo, our new friends the Wayward Girls decided to give us a creative CHALLENGE. They gave us a theme and all three of us had to come up with a project reflective of that theme and then blog it.

Our theme?! WATERMELON. Perfect for summer!

My project came to me almost immediately.

Uh, obviously I'd do a pillow! My obsession with pillows runs far and wide.

Except for this pillow, I did red and white stripes with a black button.

No green, I know, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't shake the idea.

The problem I had with this mission was finding the exact fabric I wanted. See, I knew I wanted pretty wide stripes--3 inches or more. But I couldn't find the fabric at my usual haunts. Enter: Online Fabric Store. I knew I could count on them to have the right stuff.

This fabric is screen printed, not the sailcloth-type that I originally wanted. So it was pretty hard to get ironed flat. I'm still workin' on it.
I did a pretty good job lining up the stripes, though, non?

Okay, so that's my WATERMELON project, Wayward Girls. What do you think? Does it remind you of a watermelon?!


Next up........Mols! Look for her fabulous project tomorrow!

What Kind of a Sewing Machine Do You Have?

I got a new machine!  Yippee!!!  I'd love to say I did the research, found the perfect model of machine I wanted and then went out and made the purchase.  It began that way and I got 100% mired down in indecision: What brand was best?  What features did I have to have?  What features would I eventually want once I was a more experienced sewer?    (Not to mention that with our big move I was too scared to spend that kind of money.  eek.)  So, when my Aunt called and said her friend was selling her Bernina which was ten years old but closet kept all these years, I thought, okay, this is it.   At least this will get me sewing on a better machine then what I have now and in a few years, I can make the leap to fancier doo dah.  


Now if only I wasn't on the road and I had this little baby up and running in my house already......

Nothing a little Fantastik and dust busting can't fix.

It's an Activa 130.  Anybody else have one?

The feet alone made this a good buy--walking foot, free motion quilting foot, pintucking foot (will I really ever use that?!).

That's Mimi reading the manual and Eleanor looking on--she wants to get her hands on my old machine. I told her I'd set it up for her--mommy and me sewing tables?!

Alright, so let's fastforward five years and I'm ready to buy new--what do I buy?  What do YOU have and why do you LOVE it?

Tales of a Beginner Sewer

Yes, it's true. I don't know how to sew. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this. Why?! Probably because every other woman in my family knows how to sew & quilt. Me? I can't even hem a pair of pants. But things are about to change because...

I bought THIS last weekend:

Janome DC2011

I headed to Joann's yesterday for some sewing "staples." If any of you have favorite sewing products or gadgets, please let me know (I need all the help I can get...I didn't even know what a bobbin was until today!).

THE GOOD NEWS: Last night, I mastered winding the bobbin & threading the machine! WINNING! ;)

THE BAD NEWS: I can't get the reverse stitch button to work. Hmmmmm. So, tonight I'm going to curl up in bed with my new friend, the Janome Instruction Manual AND a old friend, a glass of vino. :)

I hope you'll join me on my journey as I learn how to sew. My first project will be this necklace from See Kate Sew (I love her tutorials!). And then maybe this tie for baby C. What else should I try!?