Ann Marie's Quilt

My mom and sister's designed and made this quilt for my sister Ann Marie's wedding. She was married Nov. 13th. We did the quilt in her wedding colors. She and her husband really liked it.

This is the front. My sisters and mom did the blocks for it. I would have helped but I was in the process of moving across the country. We all helped with the layout of the blocks.

I pieced the back and my mom and I sandwiched, and basted it. Then I quilted it.

Here are the two block from the back up close so you can see the quilting.

The quilt turned out to be a king sized quilt 100 by 114 inches. I really like how it tuned out.

Small news

I'm working on a new pattern! Details later...

Life Happens...

So remember last post I said I had been on vacation? Well Before we had been back even a month my husband was laid off from work. It has been a roller coaster ride for us but here's the short version:

My husband was laid off Sept. 2. We don't live by any family. We decide now is the best time to go back to live by family and look for work there. So we do. We sold a bunch of stuff and gave a bunch of stuff to goodwill, dejunked, packed, fixed up the house and moved across the country from Houston to Salt Lake City in three weeks. For those that are wondering we drove our car with our kids the whole 24 hour drive.

So we are in Utah now living with family until our house sells and we can find a house for us here. Oh and my husband found work just this week.

I've been on vacation...

just in case you were wondering what happened to me. I got CRAZY busy the month before I left and then I've been gone from home with kids in tow for 6 weeks. But I'm happy o report I'm back and I have a thing or two to show you once I get the pictures off my camera...

Until then..

A mess of playing musical shelves

It all started about a week ago, but let me give a bit of back round first. For the last 5+ years I have been storing my fabric stash on some wire clip together shelves from target, which have held up well. They are now starting to bow and once in a while un-clip them selves from each other because of the weight of the books and fabric.

Before: wire clip together shelves

So I have been on the hunt for a sturdier shelf to use and last Tuesday I thought I had found one. Enter the white 6ft shelf from the thrift store. It was perfect until I had taken all my fabric out of the old ones and was ready to put it all back in the new white shelf. It had less space then those cheap clip together shelves!

I am now in a bit of a panic, this was just supposed to be a quick one day reorganization job and now its not. There is no way I'm putting all that fabric back on those clip together shelves that were starting to bow. So now I'm stuck. By the way I'm in the middle of sewing some curtains for a client, but with fabric taking up any and every flat surface, umm I can't really sew.

I call my husband and tell him all about how this new shelf is not going to work and I need something different now. We decide to build some from a really cool blog called Knock off wood
but then we discover while we are at Home Depot (2 days later) that it would be cheaper and less time consuming to just drive down town to Ikea and get some of their Expedit shelving units. So we drive 45 minutes down to Ikea at 8:15 at night with 3 tired kids. What were we thinking?

We get the shelves and get out of there at about 10:15pm to drive 45 minutes back to our house. We are never going with 3 kids at that time of night again. We were crazy. So anyways, I now have better shelves. I just had to play musical shelf to get there. My sewing room is getting organized again and I think I might get to sew tomorrow.

I should have taken pictures of the mess but didn't. But when I'm all done I will post before and afters.

What's black & white & red all over?

This room that I just finished making a few things for! I posted about it here. I will tell you right now that I did not make any of the bedding, but I could have. This first picture is so you get an idea of the whole room.

My friend Jana wanted several things made to help make the room more finished and pull in the bathroom that is attached. First I made the window valence.
Then I made the seat cushion out of an extra duvet cover that she had. The cushion is completely lined and finished on the inside and it has a zipper so you can remove and wash it if needed. I also made the piping that is on it.
Then I made a valence for above the shower curtain. It is the same style as the one for the window, but with piping added.
To finish, and tie in the bathroom with the bedroom I made this wall hanging. It is hanging on a curved wall. It has a piece of boning in the top so that it will curve with the wall.
I cut the flowers out of what was left of the duvet cover and appliqued them on to a red fabric that I got to match the red of the bedspreads. Jana just let me be creative with it. I love how it turned out.

Double sided Ruffle curtains

The other day while talking to a client I realized that I had never put up the pictures of these curtains that I made a few years ago before I started this blog. They are double sided with ruffles all the way around.
She wanted them for her play room so her kids could have a "stage."
Here is the top. There is a hidden sleeve for the rod to go threw.
Here you can get the whole effect.

My favorites

Babies and Blue Bonnets are some of my favorite things.

I've been busy

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last posted. Time flies when your busy with life. Aside from taking care of my three boys I have found some time to get some sewing done, I have actually been sewing fairly consistently two to three days a week for a few hours.

I wish I had more pictures to show you all the things I've been sewing but you will have to just wait or live without.

These first few pictures are of a wall hanging that I made to complement some other pieces that I have been making for a client. This wall hanging is the last piece to complete a guest room and bathroom.
I cut out the flowers from a different fabric, laid them out and sewed them on to the back round.
The check is like the picture frame. I love how this is turning out. The picture below is sideways (sorry). I'm considering putting a bird in the corner that doesn't have any flowers in it. What do you think?

My friend was having a girls night PJ party a few weeks ago so I decided to make myself some new pajamas. I picked up the fabric at Joanne's. It's knit fabric, the cream is rib knit.
I haven't worked with knits a whole lot, but they are in hot competition to become one of my favorite fabrics to work with. I know pajama pants are so easy, a little trickier with a knit but still easy. I wanted to make it a bit more of a challenge so I decided to make a shirt too.
I think they turned out great! I didn't have any puckering or stretching as I sewed and I haven't had any popped seams since I've been wearing them either. Oh and they are SOOO comfy!

What kinds of things have you been making lately?

Slow and not so steady

Sewing and crafting time has been a little harder to find lately. I can't seem to get my two younger boys to nap at the same time in the afternoon long enough to get much of anything creative done. But I have managed to do a few things.

This pencil holder is made from a frozen concentrate juice can. I just modge podged on the paper and ribbon. With my oldest in school now it seems like we have started collecting lots of pencils lately.
I also made another coloring book and marker carrier. This one is for my 3 year old who loves anything trucks. The first one I made is the snail one.
Here is the front above and the inside below.


He loves it.

I have also been working on making some things for a friend of mine. I'm helping her with her guest room, but I don't have pictures yet. Soon.

Cookie sheet Calenders

I have been meaning to post this for a while. I made these for two of my sisters for Christmas. They are cookie sheet calenders. All the pieces have magnets on the back. Here is what I did to make them.
I got some basswood at Hobby Lobby (love that place), and some number stencils and stickers. I also got a pack of 3 cookie sheets for about $4 at Walmart. I took the wood and drew how big I wanted the pieces for the days, months and week on it. Then I used an exacto knife to cut them all out. My hands hurt after that. It was over 100 pieces of wood to cut out!
Then I cut scrapbook paper to the same size as the wood pieces and modge podged it on. Next I put on the number, day or month and sealed them with modge podge.
When they were all dry, I put magnet strips on the back of all of them. Above is the one I made for Lynette and below is the one for AnnMarie.
I thought these were so fun. Every month you just change the month sign at the top and then move the days to where they are supposed to be and add any holidays or birthdays in. Below are the months.
Here are the holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. I made them generic so you could use them for more then once a year and so the calender can grow with them (they won't have to add more for each addition to the family).
Here is a close up of the calender. When the pieces were done all I had to do was drill two holes in the cookie sheet and tie the ribbon on it.

Dreams

I have dreams, big dreams. With the beginning of the new year I have been thinking about dreams that I want to have become reality some day. So for today I think I will share a few here. I think that will help me get one small step closer to achieving those dreams.

Here it goes:

* I want to design fabric that people love! I don't really know where to start but some day I want to do it.

*I want to develop, produce and sell sewing patterns. When I go to make a garment from a pattern some times I get frustrated because they add in steps that you don't need or they want you to do something the hard way. My patterns will be strait forward and none of the stuff that takes extra time. I like seeing the finished product as soon as I can. It is exciting!

*I want to finish decorating my house sometime in this decade, hopefully sooner then later. I have two bedrooms done. I still have everything else.

I think that is good for today. Those three will take some time to achieve. I'm not saying that I am planning on getting these all accomplished this year but I want to start in that direction.

What are some of your dreams for someday?