Emma's quilt is finished!

Hey, remember this? Probably not, but I certainly do. Some time ago, my sister-in-law and I started working on this quilt for this baby.


Her mother is a good friend of mine and I really wanted to throw her a big and beautiful baby shower like she did for me, but Emma was born three months after we moved to Missouri so I settled on making her a baby quilt. My first quilt ever. The top went together in no time thanks to my sister-in-law Jen- the real hold-up came next when I realized that hand-quilting is not for me. So over the course of the next THREE AND A HALF YEARS (!) I hand-quilted each of the patchwork squares. I can't believe it took me that long. Then a few weeks ago, I machine quilted lines through all of the sashing, attached the binding and finally stuffed the quilt in a package en route to "baby" Emma, who now looks like this.


Sigh. I wonder if I'll ever send a gift on time. Here's what the quilt looks like:

guilty as charged

I'm an Etsy thief! I know this is frowned upon, but I couldn't help myself after I saw these pillows at littlestitch.

My couches have been naked now for months and I've had some suede fabric folded and collecting dust, just waiting to be made into throw pillows. I just could not decide what to do with them, until I stumbled upon littlestitch's etsy shop. Here's what I came up with. My couches are so happy!

I just used felt and thick embroidery thread and sewed them all together! Really easy and fun. Just the sort of thing I was looking for.

The one on the left uses the same fabric I used for the curtains upstairs.

This one on the far right- lovingly referred to as the "apple tree pillow" by my girls- coordinates with the fabric I used for my downstairs curtains.

I've got a few more in the works. These babies are addictive.

Nona's Quilt

It feels so good to finish a quilt. I made this lap quilt as a "thank you" slash Mother's Day present for my mother-in-law, who came and spent a whole week with my kids so we could go on our cruise. I told my sister-in-law Jen about my plans for Louise's gift and she helped me find the pattern in one of her books late one night while we were visiting them in Kansas City. I need to find the instructions and type them here in case I ever want to make this one again. So, pattern will come later. Louise loves these small print reproduction fabrics and they always make me think of her. The kids loves having their Nona here and so did I! We're always so sad when she has to leave. This was my first attempt at machine-quilting- if you can call it that- I couldn't figure out the walking foot or the darning foot method on my Mom's sewing machine. (I need some serious help with that machine. I'm seriously worried I've ruined my mom's antique Bernina, commonly referred to as the '57 Chevy of sewing machines!) So I basically just pushed the quilt through my sewing machine with my regular foot. Kind of a mess, but I still like the way it looks.

Now, let's get down to the KNIT-ty gritty

Raise your hand if you think it's lame to give your Dad a knitted dishcloth for Father's Day? Yeah, me too. Don't worry, I sent him another perfectly respectable Father's Day present a couple weeks later. I choked. It happens.

So I really love to knit. I am crazy about it. What appears to be a scarf in the picture above is actually the start of a very big and cozy and blanket. I've been obsessed with the idea of a knitted blanket ever since Jena sold me on them at her house about four months ago. I found that pretty blue and thought it would be nice to do blocks of that brown and blue and alternate them to make a big blanket. Then I learned how to knit in a new color from my new favorite knitting book with a naughty title. And then I just started changing colors willy-nilly. So this blanket is going to be crazy and fun, and it's going to look like my first big project. And that is just fine with me!

And I was missing my best friend and worried about her because they just moved to a new town and their car broke down and their old house isn't selling and her husband's slavery to the hospital was reinstated just like my husband's, so I made her this dishcloth. That's bound to solve all her problems, right?

Secret Weapons Revealed- Red Vines and Diet Coke

I am going to start posting my craf-T endeavors on this blog again or so help me... I've got a fist full of red vines and some Diet Coke on standby. (After all it is only 7:30 in the morning.) Sheesh. How long has it been? Since I made that potholder for Ashley's birthday?

Yikes.

Well, I recently forgot my sister-in-law's birthday and hurriedly got to work on another potholder. I'm currently working on a matching dishcloth. I just love pink and red together.


I also made this cute little Mama owl. Next I want to make her a little baby owl.

Some new stockings!

Felt is so much fun!! I spent some time sewing this past week and I intend to do some more this week. Keep an eye out for more stockings and aprons. I should be posting more in the next day or two.

Stockings are $15 each or $12 if you order three or more.

Deck the Halls!

I'm so getting in the Christmas spirit. Which is great, since I have not purchased a single Christmas present yet. Yikes!

After having so much making this for Sophie, I've been experimenting with felt lately and decided to start selling Christmas stockings in my etsy store.

I hope you like them. Let me know what you think!

I think I like the poinsettia one the best. It reminds me of my Mom. She loved poinsettias.

I will accept custom orders if anyone is interested in ordering multiples.

I finished my quilt!

Last summer I posted when I finished this quilt top. I am very happy to show you the finished product!

Ta-da.



Look how pretty! I decided to decorate downstairs with pinks, reds, tans and browns. I am so fortunate that Melody came through town and I could accost her for decorating tips. She told me what to do and I wrote it all down. She's a genius. Anyway, so far we've stained the wood furniture we had dark, dark brown. We have and old dining set that we were just going to get rid of and then decided we'd spray-paint the chairs brown, re-upholster the chairs in fabric coordinating the curtains and quilt, and stain the table-top. It looks great. I'm going to have to search for a before picture and post it with the final outcome.


I thought it would be fun to photograph my 2 year old cuddling up with the quilt. It didn't work out quite like I'd hoped. She was in the middle of watching Backyardigans, you see.

Sophie, please do not wipe your booger on my quilt.

Here she looked at the camera long enough to say, "Go away." Nice.

I couldn't have finished this quilt without my mother-in-law's help. She helped me figure out measurements for the backing, the batting, and the ruffle, and she even paid her good friend Connie to machine-quilt it for me. I love you Louise! I had fun working on this with you and I can't wait to show you now that it's all finished. See you on Thanksgiving!

Sweet and sassy pink floral half apron

A new apron! With pink ric-rac above the hem. I just fell in love with this fabric when I found it.

Black Damask Curtains

Ooh, it's been a LONG time since I've posted on here. Slacker!

I've been sewing curtains for my house and working on a quilt for myself and not spending a lot of time adding to my inventory. I thought I'd post a picture of my latest curtain endeavor as well as the book I've been using to help me do it. I'm really happy with the way these turned out. We painted the office this pretty light blue a few weekends ago and I finished these curtains last week.

Baby Crook

I have had my eye on this fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line for a while. When I saw it in that fun quilt shop in Idaho, I thought immediately of Jayne's new baby and the pink and brown she's using to decorate her and Kennedy's room. I just love it!

I made a blanket with a brown flannel lining. I sewed it envelope-style and then used a decorative top-stitch on the edges and a big "X" through the middle.
I cut one of the little flowers and appliqued it onto a little onesie.
And of course baby Crook needs a matching burp cloth. I think it turned out pretty cute!
I can't wait to meet her!

Lemon Fresh Half Apron

Fresh squeezed lemonade, anyone?

Lemon Apron: $21.95

I've been loving Heather Bailey's blog lately. She has a free pattern on there for her "fresh cut quilt." Once I saw the picture, I knew I had to have it. I've been hunting for coordinating fabrics in the following colors ever since: red, pink, tan, and brown. You may recognize a couple from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market line that just came out. I love them.

I finished the quilt top last night and the next part is the ruffle edging. Ruffling is such a pain!

Here's a picture of her finished quilt:

Tea cup Apron

Retro Kitchen Apron

I found this fabric on ebay and I had to have it. I was hoping it would make for a good pocket so I can make the one yard of fabric I bought stretch for a few projects. I'm happy with the way it turned out!

Retro Kitchen Apron: $21.95

Mariposa apron

Mariposa apron with jumbo red ric rac and giant ruffle.

Princess Pillow

My little girl Franny is the best shopping partner. Last week when we were in St. Louis I took her to H&M with me and she was actually picking out clothes for me. Love her! So when we're shopping for fabric and she picks something out, I have to buy it and make something for her. She loved this princess fabric from walmart- she grabbed the bolts herself and walked them over to the counter so we could have them cut. I followed the ruffle pillow pattern from Sandi Henderson's blog. (I love Sandi Henderson!!) I changed the measurements, though. The pillow pieces are 13" square, and I cut two pieces for the ruffle- each piece approx. 45" by 4.5". I also did not bother with the buttons. I would if they were going to be throw pillows for my couch, but I thought since it was for Franny I would just keep it simple.

Bedside Organizer- Amy Butler Pattern

It's been forever since I've posted anything! We're finally getting settled in our new place and I've put a hold on the painting and I'm back to sewing when I get a chance. I actually finished this little number right before we moved. I LOVE it! If you've never seen this book before, check it out. There are some really fun projects in there. And if my library has it, yours probably does too!

This bedside organizer is perfect for keeping the surface of your night stand clear and free of all the stuff that is usually piled on mine: books, glasses, journal, remote controls, ipod, magazines, etc. It has one very deep pocket for magazines, two large miscellaneous pockets, a pocket for a book, an ipod pocket, 2 pen pockets, and a pocket lined with felt for your eye-glasses. It's pretty cool! There is an organizer for each side of the bed so Bobby gets his, too, and they are connected by a sturdy platform made of duck cloth which lays below the mattress. Nice. And yes, my bed sheets are blue. I don't know why. I'm going to replace our bedding as soon as I can! :)

LMYR bag

I made this for my Dad for father's day. I bought some of this transparent stuff (I don't know what it's called), and I zigzag-stitched in onto the top of the bag. Then I put these letters on. (I used a font and printed it out REALLY BIG and used those as my patterns for the letters and then top-stitched those on to the black fabric.)

The picture of my parents is actually one I had to manipulate in photoshop. Franny was in between them in the picture and she's making a weird face, but my parents look really good in the picture. I thought it would be fun to take Franny out and have a cute picture of my mom and dad that was recent and that he had never seen, at least like this.

Truth is, I stink at photoshop. But I'll let you be the judge. This is the original:


LMYR is from the song "Long May You Run" by Neil Young. My Dad signs all his cards to me with LMYR at the end. We're both big Neil Young fans.

KORITF