Latest Project

Sorry, I haven't posted anything in the past 2 weeks. My daughter's birthday was last weekend, and that consumed a lot of my time.  I had finished this project before the party, but haven't had the time to blog about it.

I wanted to make this quilt for a wonderful person that I know who is going through a rough time. I wanted her to know how much I cared and I wanted it to be very feminine.

 Here it is. This quilt required a ton of cutting.  I made 12 of the individual blocks that were made up of triangles and squares. I absolutely love the bows that they make.  The tan fabric that I used for the sashing has tiny pink specks in it.  I repeated the same white border around the blocks, and then used this quite striped fabric for the back. 

 Here is a close-up of the individual squares.

 And again, how it might look folded up on your couch or chair.

After doing quite a few quilts, I have discovered that my favorite way to bind a quilt, is to use the fabric from the back and wrap it around the front.  I used to cheat and use my sewing machine to sew down that fabric in the front, but the results I will say look like you "cheated".  Instead, I plop down in front of the tv, and hand stitch the binding down, so the stitch is almost invisible. I used to be nervous that this would come loose in the laundry, but it never has.  It looks professional and clean.  I guess we have to give it up to all those quilters back in the day that did everything by hand; none of it done with a machine.  I also many years ago figured out how to miter the corners quite well.  I should have taken a photo of those corners.  Anyway, I will remember to take more details photos in the future.

I have some curtains to sew for my daughter's classroom, and someone else to make window treatments for. I hope to get some pics of those up soon.

Modern Quilt

I made my oldest sister a quilt for Christmas last year. Her family room has a very modern artwork piece above the couch and coordinating pillows on the couch.  So I wanted to go bold and modern with the quilt.  What I loved about this design was the design that the individual blocks made as they were pieced together.

 And here is a close up of the individual pieces.  I think some people have the idea that quilts are all flowers and very grandmother like.  Those are beautiful, but quilts can also be very modern and bold.   My personal belief is that quilts look even better with age and the more they are washed.  I have also found I love flatter quilts, so I usually pick the lowest loft batting I can find to put in the middle.  My kid's quilts are perfect now that they have been laundered so much.  Maybe someday I will make a quilt just for our family to take on picnics.  That was quite a tangent, but anyway those are some of my thoughts on quilts.

I have two more projects in the works.  One project I finished and gave to my son's teacher for her classroom last Friday, but I am waiting to see it up.  Then I will take some photos and post.  The next project I am working on now and am extremely excited about.

Know someone who is having a baby. . . I have the perfect gift.

 I was given a similar gift when my daughter was born.  This is now one of my standard baby gifts.  Who doesn't love a personalized hooded towel.  My kids still use them to this day.  Maybe I will add my kids to this post.

Cute Baby Gift

My cousin just reminded me of another fun personalized gift that I have made. I made a few of these for my daughter when she was little and they stopped including bloomers with some of her dresses. These are two that I made for my cousin's daughter.

A sweet nursery

Another great friend from college had her first child a few years ago(well more than 4). She is a very sentimental person, and memories and memorabilia mean a lot to her. When she and her sister were little, her grandmother sewed their bedding sets. They had the cutest matching twin bed sets with curtains. She wanted me to use some of the twin bed sets for her daughter's nursery. Since there were two twin bed sets, she could save one, and I could cut up the other. I have to tell you, I was extremely nervous about cutting up this set. Her grandmother was a great seemstress. The sets were very well made. We bought other fabric in addition, and I simply added a border onto the valance to incorporate all of the new fabrics. I don't think I have a picture of the finished window treatments. Maybe she will be awesome and will be able to find one. She did recently move, and have a new baby. So we might have to cut her some slack.This is not her nursery, but my daughter's second room. I was just trying out the set in my daughter's crib. The crib skirt was made out of the fabric from her childhood room. I love the big pink ribbons.Sorry about the quality of these photos; not sure what happened there. On this last photo notice the eyelet detail at the top of the bumper. This was my favorite part of it all. We were in love when we found this detail to put in it. I know there was a quilt as well. Maybe we will see photos of that also. I still have squares from it, in my sewing cabinet, where I got a little too excited and cut and sewed to many.

Matching Christmas Dresses

When my oldest was born, I decided I was going to sew all of her Easter and Christmas dresses. That has only happened a few times since I have a niece who hands all of her clothes down to my daughter. I did make my daughter and doll matching Christmas(casual) dresses.

and more animal prints

One of my best friends from college was having her first child a few years ago. She asked me to sew her nursery bedding set. She has wonderful style and wanted something fun and bold. What better than animal print? This was a long distance consult, so it was mostly done over the phone. I was able to deliver the set to her in person at her baby shower though.Aren't the animal touches she did in the room great? The artwork over the crib was an extremely creative idea. For her baby shower invitations, I got a set of animal stamps. We stamped them, and used watercolor pencils to color them in. She used these stamps to blow up and create large prints of the animals. I am forgetting some of the details, but she may have painted them in some more herself. She is quite crafty and artistic herself. These basket liners were an idea we had at the end using the leftover fabric we had. She had a book theme for her shower and as it turns out her daughter LOVES to read/look at books.So these were perfect. I am sure they held baby supplies as well.There was a quilt I made for her as well. I will see if we can find a photo of that one, and add it to the post later.
I might like the valance the best. I love the brown, pink, and zebra print all mixed together. I remember most working hard to line those zebra print stripes up in the pleats in the middle.

Lighthouses anyone?

My sister came up with the cutest idea for her downstairs powder room. One summer vacation to the beach she brought 3 oval canvases and had herself and her two kids paint a famous lighthouse. She glued thick rope around the edges and used them in her powder room. Her new house had a window in the powder room, so I whipped up a window treatment for her. Not that my sister couldn't have done it herself(she is quite crafty and handy herself), but she has a full time job and two busy kids that she carts all over the place.It is a little hard to tell in these photos, but the valance is pleated in 2 spots, with a plain cream fabric peaking through.

Christmas Morning Pajamas

For the past three Christmases(if that is the correct way to spell that), I have had pajamas for the family to open on Christmas Eve. I found this idea some where in a magazine and thought it was great. After searching everywhere for reasonably priced Christmas pajamas. I decided to make them. These are my favorite Pj's to wear. I would wear them all year long if it was cold enough. My husband would probably tell you that on colder summer nights I wear them anyway. I take the imagine on the pajama bottoms and scan it into the computer and do some editing, and iron it with each person's name onto the shirt. The first year I embroidered and image and name on each shirt, but it was kind of scratchy. My son wouldn't wear that shirt without another underneath, and he sweats when he sleeps. So I have done iron-ons from then on.

I have tons of Christmas morning pictures with all 10 or 12 of us wearing them, but none of the adults(especially guys) would probably appreciate pajamas out there on the web. So here are my beautiful models wearing them.

Photo Quilt

For my Mom and Step Dad's first Christmas together I made them a photo quilt including pictures of both sides of the family. To this day, you can see it on the back of their couch in most family pictures. I also made one for my Mother-in-law the next Christmas.
This was my first quilt I ever made. This was definitely a learning experience.

Nursery Bedding Set (another)

My good friend who used to be my neighbor was having her first child. She loved the nursery rhyme toile fabric and was determined to use in her nursery bedding. So we coordinated some colorful fabrics that wouldn't be over the top pink. Here is the bumper and quilt with some cute children testing it out(mine, ha ha.)
Even though she helped design it all, I packaged it all up for her to open at her baby shower. I just love how striking the quilt turned out. I ended up making a window treatment, bench seat cushion, and reupholstered cushions for a glider( reupholstering is not my best skill.) I will stick to other sewing in the future.

Monogrammed shirts

My college friends(and another good friend) had a reunion of sorts a few years ago. Most of us had small children with us. So my friend and I decided to make cute matching shirts for all the kids. Monograms were the way to go. I am just sad my kids have outgrown their shirts now. They will remain in their closets though.

My latest Nursery Project

No, this is or was not a nursery for me. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, we are finished with nurseries in this house. This was for a sister of a friend of a friend. She knew exactly what she wanted. She found an inspirational bedding set, that was way to expensive for her. So we shopped together and designed hers. We bought to much fabric, so she got a pillow, diaper stacker, and quilt in addition to the curtains, skirt and bumper she ordered. I do not have photos of all of it. Here are the photos for most of the project.

Here is the bumper all stretched out in my messy kitchen(maybe I should practice my photography skills, ha ha)A close up of the really fun monogram, and you can see the ribbons we used to tie the bumper on.
The quilt that was made with the left-over fabric. I used to be of the belief that quilts were a waste because babies could not have them in their cribs. So I did not make nursery quilts for either of my children. Now I strongly believe in them. They are fun to use around the house for the baby to play on. More importantly they are an awesome keepsake for you to have when you pack up the nursery set. So my piece of advice on this subject is to include all pieces of fabric and all elements of the nursery in this keepsake.(oh look at that, you even get a cute foot of one of my puppies).

The diaper stacker. I saw basic instructions online for how to make one. I changed it up a bit, and made one that worked for me. Super easy to make, and I was able to use scraps and piece together different parts of the fabric. She really wanted to have one in the nursery. I hope she got a lot of use out of it. (It fits over a standard child/baby hanger)

Any glider would not be complete with out a little pillow to show off the fun fabric and help the small of your back during those nighttime feeding. This pillow could really go anywhere around the house though.

You can kind of see in the background of this picture all of the rest of the nursery set that is all packaged up and ready to give to the client. This was an awesome set and design. I really hope she liked it, and it looked cute in her house.

Awesome idea. . . 3 generation Quilt

This quilt was for a good friend of mine. She knew exactly what she wanted, and came to me with this awesome idea. She had saved her father-in-law's pajamas and favorite button down shirts, her husband's shirts, and some of her sons as well. So she asked me to cut them up, and piece them together in a quilt. This was not the easiest project because the pieces of fabric were well laundered and not real straight. However, it was fun to see this come together. We decided to back it with corduroy, so it is very masculine. I believe she still uses this as her winter time quilt on her bed. It is more of a decoration on the bottom of her bed, I think.





This really does make me happy just looking at this picture.

Quilts in the kid's rooms

I love creating things for my children; unfortunately I don't think I create enough. I do think it is really sweet when the kids ask me to sew something for them. Hannah asks for new dresses all the time, and Hunter has asked for things on occasion. I loved decorating/sewing things for their rooms especially. Creating quilts is one of the most rewarding sewing endeavors I can think of. You start out with scraps(or large pieces you painstakingly cut) and you end up with this beautiful durable quilt.

Hannah's quilt was designed and finished before we moved into our current house, and before she had even came out of her crib. I fell in love with a swatch of fabric I wanted to make her window treatments out of. It was full of so many colors. I brought the swatch with me to the fabric store and picked out the fabrics in the quilt. This is one of my mother's pieces of advice. Choose a piece of fabric that you love all the colors in. You don't even have to use it in the room, but if you match all fabrics and accessories to it, you will have a pulled together room. I had an amazing time putting this quilt together on the floor of our old tiny house. This was before she was old enough to have an opinion. About a month ago, my almost 7 year old just figured out that I actually made the quilt that has resided on her bed for the past 4 years. That small pillow in a funny position, is made from the fabric of her window treatments, with that cute bally trim around it.

Hunter's quilt is totally boyish. I originally decorated his room with a fireman theme. His window treatments even have embroidered fire trucks driving along the bottom of them(sadly they are now covered up by his bed). He has kind of grown out of the firemen now. I wanted a quilt that wasn't a theme, but had different boy colors that could last him a while. I think blues, reds and tans are classic colors that will last him forever. We can always change out the other accessories in his room, but I would love for this to stay as long as possible. His quilt was done in less than a day, since it is really just large chunks of fabric sewn together, and I quilted it more to give it some interest. It was exactly the look I was going for. It totally matches these painted stripes that are below a chair rail on one wall of his room.

I have sewn many more quilts, but they will come in a separate post. Teaser: baby quilts, photo quilts, throw quilts, even a quilt made out of 3 generations of men's shirts.

kitchen window treatments

My kitchen has gone through two different looks since we have been in our current home. This first one here is the more recent look. I have always loved the look of roman shades. I researched and learned how to make and install them. The look is even more different currently because we have painted august and actually installed a new back door. Notice the picture with them up and then notice the picture with them down. I love me some roman shades. This fabric is really the perfect fabric for our current wall colors and kitchen. Here is one place that I did use a monogram in our house. I love this treatment.

These window treatments are the first ones I did when we moved into the house. I didn't fully think about the look I wanted in the kitchen. These just match the ones in the family room. So I just have these treatments folded up in a drawer. I loved making them and enjoyed them while they were up.

The cutest towels ever... the perfect gift

For teacher gifts this past Holiday season, I made these super cute towels. The fabric ruffles are tiny abstract Christmas trees. What person wouldn't want these hanging in their home. I made teacher appreciation week towels as well. My daughter changed schools, so I had all new teachers to make gifts for. This time, I used the cutest tea cup fabric ruffles(sadly I forgot to take pics).

Maybe it is becoming obvious that I have my own embroidery machine. Everyone loves personalized gifts. This has been one of my favorite investments. I love to personalize everything. Sadly, I rarely personalize things in our own home, however, I do personalize all kinds of gifts.

Matching American Girl Dresses

For my daughter's birthday one year, we bought her an American Girl doll knock off. She loved this one so much, we bought her another real American Girl doll for Christmas. I always thought the matching girl and doll dresses were so cute, but expensive. I decided hey, I can definately make these myself. These are two of the matching dresses I have made so far.

I loved this cute summery dress for the girls. Check out this close up of the monogram on my daughter's dress.
The next year for her birthday, I made a new dress for my daughter and her doll Haley.

Another shot of the 2 of them together "wearing" their dresses. This is by far my favorite dress pattern. I have made a ton of dresses out of this particular pattern. Sometimes in the same fabric. It twirls really nicely, which you must admit is a bonus for any little girl.

A new Blog

For those of you that know anything about me, you know I love to do crafty things. My mother sewed many things for us when we were growing up. When I became an adult and got married, I decided to try my hand. Once I started, I never stopped. I began by making purses to recreate something I saw at a home party. It has continued to window treatments, pillows, nursery sets, quilts, matching Christmas pajamas, etc. I am going to try to go back and show pictures of things I have already created. I hope you enjoy.