artsy-crafty babe

loose ends + big belly

I've suddenly gotten the urge to tie up loose ends, well, of the quilt variety.  I think  it has to do with my desire to start a new one, but the guilt over uncompleted *gift* quilts has been holding me back.

It's been kind of fun finishing these projects up because the majority of the work is already behind me.  All I have left to do on them are a few hours worth of work.  That makes me wonder why I never finished them in the first place.  On quilt #1 I'm at the hand stitched binding phase - my favorite.  There's nothing like curling up on the sofa with a quilt on my lap to stitch some binding!

My love for hand sewing quilt binding has been pushing me through to finish quilt #2.  The quilt top is done, but the back needs to be pieced, then there's the quilting.  I keep my quilting pretty simple, so I should get that done in no time. 

In other news, I've reached beached whale status.  I have to roll myself out of bed and my tops are getting too short.  And I still have 3 months to go!!  Yes, I'm starting to get strange looks when people ask when I'm due.  Yikes!!

 

instant gratification

It doesn't get any easier than this.  Ava has been asking for AGES for some skirts.  Poor girl, she sees her mama sew, but that mean old mama doesn't make anything for her (never mind the dress I just made her, it wasn't a SKIRT, so it didn't count). 

A few (or six) months ago while cleaning out her closet I found some sundresses that were way too short for her.  I put them aside with the intention of turning them into spring skirts. 

Well, it took until now, when I was digging around on my fabric shelves looking for something, to find them.  It was now or never. 

I cut off the top of each dress and planned to make a simple casing for elastic.  Cathy happened to be over when I was telling her about the project and she brought up fold over elastic.  Bingo!  Even easier!! 

Seriously, it took me less than a half hour to turn three dresses into skirts (I didn't think to document this until after I cut one up).  Easy peasy.  And now I have a happy skirt wearing camper :)

 

baby gowns

This weekend I did manage to spend a little time sewing for baby.  On my agenda - baby gowns!  I love love love to put my infants in long sack gowns.  The only problem is that my babies are big, so they grow out of them quickly.  I've always wanted to make some to fit larger sizes, but that never happened...until now.

I couldn't do just a plain gown, I wanted a kimono style gown in a knit.  My love affair with baby kimonos goes way back. I've been working on this pattern for a while now.  I've probably re-drafted it half a dozen times, but never sewed it up until now.  

I should have used my head and made a muslin!!  My first sewn version wasn't quite right. The neckline was too wide, the body was too narrow, and the sleeves were too long.  Shoot!!

After some slicing and dicing of my pattern, I came up with yet another version.  Again I took my chances sewing it up with good fabric, and thankfully it was a winner.

Aren't these knits sweet?  It wasn't too difficult re-familiarizing myself with sewing with knits, though it had been a while (I don't think I've sewn with knits on a sewing machine since I was making nursing tops after I had Alex!).  All these knits were purchased from Girl Charlee.  It was my first time buying there and was very impressed with the customer service.

After the first success I of course had to make another!  Instead of adding elastic at the bottom of this one, I bound the bottom with more trim knit.  I made all of these on my regular sewing machine with a zig-zag stitch and a ball point needle.

I'm not sure that this will fit an actual baby, but comparing it to a store bought gown, I think I'm okay.  I've never done the whole grading thing to make a larger version, but I'm up for the challenge!!  I foresee lots more sewing with knits for baby in my future!!

a few thrift finds

The other day I got the urge to hit the thrift stores.  Considering that my luck has been horrible lately, I decided to give it a go anyway.  My mojo must still be a bit off because I had not one, but two misses.  On my way into store #1, I spied a lady carrying out a pyrex dish like this one.   Hmm, I went to the housewares section anyway hoping that I'd find another, but there was nothing.  *sigh*  I did score some wooden hangers and a cute pillowcase, so it wasn't a lost cause.  Those hangers will be perfect for some crochet embellishment, like this. If you know of any other tutorials, please let me know. 

On to store #2...

As usual, I start out with the linens.  I sift my way through the sheets and came upon this retro shower curtain.  It was handmade from two widths of fabric.  The writing on the selvage is still clear, which it pretty neat.   I love this, I think it would make a cute skirt for Ava or maybe a tote for Lily.  A bit disappointed to have not found more, I'm moseying along towards the pillowcases when a lady with a buggy got in my way.  I stepped back to let her pass, but I was a bit perturbed.  She started going through the selection, I waited, she went ahead, then she spotted some embroidered lovelies.  I saw them too at about the same time, but she took them ALL.  She was snatching them off the hanger like a thief!!   I was hoping that she'd leave me at least one, but no (she may have even given me the skunk eye as I was watching her).  Oh well, I  guess it wasn't meant to be.  At least that cute shower curtain made it home with me.

And now that the weekend is here, all is good :)  I'm in the mood for some craft therapy of the baby variety. Hopefully I'll get my chance!!

cleaning, rearranging, and gardening

I discovered something else that totally wipes me out – cleaning & rearranging my girls’ room. I don’t know what got into me, but Saturday I went into the girls room to find something, and before I knew it I was cleaning out their armoire of toys.

Two bags of trash later, I was rearranging their furniture.  Did I need to do this?  No.  Did I plan to do this?  Not at all, but something came over me.  Probably not the wisest decision considering my recent energy level.  Oh my, those girls and all their junkety junk treasures!!  I tried my best, but I'm sure their junky clutter lovelies will be back in no time.

On Sunday morning I could hardly move.  Geeze, I’m falling apart!  Needless to say, I spent most of the day horizontal.  No complaints, the down time gave me the chance to revisit some baby knitting I started months ago – finally tackling those dreaded sleeves (teeny tiny ones at that)!

It took me until Monday to get things hung back on the walls, but I think their room is just about done.  I’m on the lookout for a new rug (did I ever show you their lavender painted floors?), a kid size coat rack for hanging dress up clothes is on order, and I’m thinking a few framed quilt blocks to hang on either side of the bed might be nice, but that’s it.  Well, maybe that plain white armoire needs a little something and those stuffed animals need some serious editing!  With this project behind me (almost), it’s time to start planning for baby…think pink!

I certainly don't want to think about my poor vegetable garden. It is fried!!  Once the stink bugs started attacking my tomatoes, I gave up.  Stupid stink bugs.  My cucumbers started spazzing out, making weird ball-shaped cucumbers, so I gave up on those, too.  And then all my sunflowers fell over (and I let the last few eggplant I picked go bad in the fridge). *sigh*

The only thing left doing any sort of producing is the cantaloupe, which we planted on a whim.  We plan to try one tonight, I'll let you know how it goes!  

 

gratitude friday

I had plans of writing this post on Thursday night to post first thing Friday morning. That never happened.  It seems that my little sewing fest earlier in the week wiped me out.  Seriously. One night past my bedtime and it takes me days to recover.  Days.

Anyway, earlier this week I started a gratitude journal. It's true that having gratitude takes practice.  My gratitude friday posts in the past weren't regular or frequent, but they didn't take a lot of effort, mainly because I was in the habit of seeing all those good things in my life.  Now, not so much.  It takes effort, and I hate that.  I'm out of practice, bogged down by paying too much attention to those things that aren't so good.   I've decided to practice my gratitude every day with my journal, and on Friday I'll bring back my "gratitude friday" posts to share some of those with you.  I'm not promising every Friday, but some Fridays they'll be here.

On this dreary Friday afternoon I have so many things to be thankful for:

• feeling baby kicks inside my belly - such a bazaar feeling, but reassuring.
• hearing Matt play bingo with the kids while I soak in the tub
• enjoying a meal with friends
• Ruby's smooshy puppy dog lips (sometimes I like to just squeeze them between my fingers!)
• gently falling rain that relieves the scorching heat
• the things Ava says - last night she told me "your belly sure is big.  how much food you got in there?"
• zinnias from the garden to brighten my window sill
• this little blog of mine which turned 6 years old yesterday.  my life wouldn't be the same without it.
• people in my life who listen and encourage (you know who you are!!)

This is only a small sampling of those things that make it to my journal.  When you open your eyes and pay attention, there really is so much good around you!

**my gratitude fridays were started after seeing Autum's gratitude friday posts years ago.  I'm currently reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp which is bringing the idea gratitude home to me again.

Have a great weekend, friends!

ava rose tote for moi

Another pattern re-visited, this time the Ava Rose Tote.  And it's mine!!!  My lilly tote is looking a bit rough (I'm too tough on light colored bags!) so it was time for something new.

Oh man, I love this bag.  As you can see, it didn't take me long to fill it with all my stuff.  Not too big, not too small, I had forgotten how much I like this pattern.

I didn't follow my directions exactly on this one.  First off, I made 2 pockets (I know, crazy stuff), one on the inside (as written), one on the outside.  For that outside pocket I cut my pattern piece to give it a slight curve.  Nice touch, huh? 

 

I also added the extra touch of top-stitching around the bag front and back - I didn't bother on the lining.  I like this look.  To do this I pressed the seam allowance toward the bag body, then sewed.  It's easy when you only have one side of the bag made, but gets a little tricky when you're sewing around that second side.

I interlined this one with my new favorite interfacing material, canvas/duck cloth.  It was just enough to give the bag some body without making it too stiff - perfect.  I'm pretty sure the darker color will help me carry this one a little longer than the last, I hope.

Apparently I was in the mood to sew last night!  A quilt top, a quilt back, AND a bag all in one night?  Watch out!!

 

progress

Today is  my lucky day!  After supper I sat down with a stack of blocks (made 2+ years ago) and now I have a quilt top (it's a bonus when your blocks match your sewing machine :-)).  It's been a while since I tackled anything quilt-y...I made a trip to the store today for more off-white fabric to finish off the top, but it never occurred to me to think about batting or a back.  Oops.

Once I finished the top there was still daylight out.  Did it really ONLY take me an hour to  get that done??  I decided to search my stash for some backing  fabrics and managed to find a few that would work nicely, but then my brain began to work and I remembered that I saved the scraps from the blocks in a box for the purpose of making a back.  Bingo!  Too bad I don't have any batting on hand.

Wait, what am I doing blogging?  While I'm in the mood, I had better start working on that back...wahoo for progress!!

 

the erica bag revisited + some other sewing

After a totally lazy Saturday, including sleeping late, movie watching, and naps, I got busy with a little sewing.  I finally sewed up the Erica Bag I cut out weeks ago.  

I tried something a little different while sewing this bag - I moved my sewing machine into the living room so that I could sew and watch the USA play in the World Cup quarter finals, what a game!  I don't know why I never thought to move my sewing machine in there before...it sure beats sewing by my lonesome upstairs or in the usually-too-hot kitchen.

Okay, back to the bag.  I didn't make any mods to the pattern, just made it as is.   The only fancy thing I added was some flat piping along the gusset made from my lining fabric.  The little extras like piping and trim really make a bag, don't you think?  I'm usually too lazy to add such details, but I'm usually pleased with the results when I do.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I think I've *finally* figured gussetted bags out. The key is to pin the heck out of them!!! In the past, my gussets never lined up right. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried, they ended up shifting resulting in crooked gussets that don't line up right.  So frustrating!  But with a bajillion pins, a straight gusset is possible. 

There was also a little sewing that took place last week.  Last weekend I was in the mood to make something quick and easy, so I made a few zippered pouches.  I was in a lace mood.

One of these went to Cathy, to hold a little gift I made for her birthday a few weeks ago. I had plans to blog about the gift back then, but it took until this weekend before I gave it to her.  Darned busy schedules!

Miss Ava also got a new dress.  You can read all about it on Sew Mama Sew.  I wrote a book review for them for Jennifer Paganelli's new book, Girls World, which I loved.  I think the review should be up on Monday.

I thought I'd get around to sewing up another bag, but cutting it out was as far as I got.  Hey, better than nothing!  Once I get finished revisiting all my patterns (only 2 more left), I'm moving on to my too many quilts in progress, some of which I haven't touched in years.  I'd love to make this baby a quilt, but there's too much unfinished business hanging over my head.  I'll get there, slowly but surely!!! 

pool time + winners

Whew, I made it back! How was your holiday weekend?  Ours was full.  I didn't plan on it being a full weekend, but it was.  Basically, it was full of a whole lot of pool time, family time and friend time.  Pretty good, huh? 

I had grand plans of spending some time with my sewing machine on Saturday, but an invite to go swimming trumped my sewing machine.  I even squeezed myself into a bathing suit and joined in the fun (I spared your eyes and did not appear in any photos). What I thought would be just a few hours turned into an all day event then a kid swap sleep over.  

Sunday brought more kids to my house (at one point we had 7 kids in the house - shouldn't I get a medal for that?), then a family birthday party. 

Monday was a duplicate of Saturday plus more people and boiled crawfish.  Boy, those were some good crawfish, I should have gotten a photo of those.  Much to my surprise, all those crawish didn't make me swell up like a balloon - that's pretty much a miracle!

All these photos were from Saturday, but like I said, Monday was pretty much a repeat. Needless to say, I was one tired Mama on Tuesday! It went a bit downhill from there when two kiddos started running fever.  Oh boy.  

Thankfully the kids' viruses are running their course and I think I've caught up on my rest. Thank goodness this is a short work week because I'm ready for the weekend!

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The winners of the Creativity for Kids Fashion Headbands  are

 & 


Yay Sarah and Alicia!!

Thanks to all of you who played along :)