Fun Mail

As I mentioned I am participating in several sewing swaps.  Yesterday I came home to a wonderful package from Marysville Tennessee.

This is what I got....

It's a set of four coasters, an acorn stamp, a little canvas bag that was stamped, a hand woven fabric bowl and some buttons.  I love the fabrics Lora used.  I am looking forward to buying an African Violet to put in the woven fabric bowl and using the coasters.  Thank you Lora! 

Elf is Back

Our Elf is back.  Midas Carlos (Micaela named him) is back in town early.  He spent all of December with us last year.  Micaela has been asking about him for weeks, so he's on special assignment from Santa.  The elves in the North Pole (me) made him a special outfit for the month of October.  It's a cape and belt with Halloween candy all over. 

We've been finding him in the weirdest paces.  Here he is in the breakfast nook, hanging out in the soup tureen.   I expect this is the last year Micaela will BELIEVE, so we are embellishing as much as we can.  So fun to be parents.  Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Witch Zippered Pouch

I mentioned that I am participating in a Halloween Sewing Swap sponsored by Bonnie at Pink Stitches.  I've been dying to post pictures of my stuff but didn't want my partner to see them so had to hold off until she received her package.  Here is one of the items I made for her. 

The fabric is called Moon Dancer by Diane Knott and manufactured by Clothworks Textiles.  I bought the fabric two years ago.  The fabric has rows of witches, pumpkins, cats, and witch hats.  I fussy cut the witches and centered them on the front panel.  The inside lining has no exposed seams and I used an orange zipper and added a spider web charm to the pull.  This was so fun to make and my friend Ruthie loved it.  I plan to make more!  Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Ketch Up

Well, I didn't mean to be away for almost three weeks.  I've been crafting a bit, sewing up a storm for various swaps, working, doing my Master Gardener Class which is really time consuming, driving Micaela around to birthday parties and activities and then had a trip to San Antonio for my neice's wedding so it has been non stop!

I will do seperate entries for craft items but wanted to show a picture or two of my neice's beautiful wedding last weekend.  Micaela was responsible for distributing programs and took the job very seriously, here she is....

 Here is a picture of the beautiful couple Steve & Kristina, they look so happy together!

This was such a lovely wedding and we had so much fun.  Micaela danced the whole night and then passed out like a light as soon as we got to hotel. 

While in San Antonio we made a quick stop at The Alamo for a quick Texas History Lesson.  Micaela was very intrigued!

I'll be posting pictures of everything I have crafted the last few weeks in the next few days.  Thanks for checking in and I promise to get back to posting regularly.

Earthy Zippered Bag

Made yet another zippered bag.  This one is for my boss who is leaving. Her last day is next week-not by choice.  

This Timeless Treasures fabric called "Save the Planet" couldn't be more perfect for her and those of us who work in Environmental Sustainability.    The entire print throughout the fabric features great earthy quotes in bold fonts.  I fussy cut the fabric to feature "Respect the Planet" on the front of the bag and "Green is not just a color" on the back.  

I used an owl for the charm because 'owls give a hoot!'.  Corny I know but she'll appreciate the thought and humor. 

  In case your keeping count, we WERE a dept of 7. 4 interns left @ end of summer, 1 coworker left last month & boss leaves next week. Do the math & sadly that leaves me only! 

Zipper Organization

If you have been reading my blog lately, I am sure you have noticed my new love for zippered bags and pouches.  This love has resulted in a new obsession with zippers.  Nothing is more frustrating to me than wanting to start a sewing project and not have everything I need.  You all know I have plenty of fabric and thread but I really did not have a stock pile of zippers.  A few weeks ago I hurried to Wal-Mart at 10pm, crossing my fingers for a zipper.  Crazy I know!

So, no more running to the store at 10pm for plain white zipper for me.  I have decided to stock up on zippers in a rainbow of colors.  Luckily, I found a vendor that was going out of business so I bought a nice supply for a song. 

The zippers arrived while my parents were visiting last week and Mom & Micaela helped me organize them.

I decided to group them by color and keep them together by pinning them with a safety pin.  Then we played with a place to put them... First we tried a wire basket, not enough space, then the fabric racks where I have my small pieces of fabric...nope did not look good... then we experimented with wire and how to hang it on the wall...  THEN my brilliant 7 year old daughter suggested nailing buttons to the wall and stringing wire between them!!!  OMG, not even me and my mother thought of that!!! 

Here is how we did it... Nailed Button to wall and then strung the wire between the nails under the buttons. 

Here is the rainbow of zippers...  I should not be running to the store anytime soon.  I love the way it looks.  What could be more perfect than nailing buttons to the wall.  Have I mentioned I think my daughter is BRILLIANT!!!

Here is the whole wall, rainbow of buttons on a wreath, rainbow of fabric on my racks and now a rainbow of zippers..... I love it!    Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Springtime Vintage Zippered Pouch

My parents visited over the weekend.  While they were here, Mom, Micaela and me escaped to the sewing room to hang out and "play".  I showed my Mom some of the zipper bags I have been making and asked her to pick out some fabric so I could make one for her.

This fabric is from Stampin Up! and is called Springtime Vintage.  I love this pattern, it is very much my Mom's traditional style.  We chatted while I worked on this, it was really fun.  In no time I was done and now she has the perfect zipper pouch for her rosary. 

Zippered Pouches like this one are available in my Etsy Store.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Cowboy Pillows

Made these cowboy pillows for the toddler sons of one of my high school girlfriends.   Aren't these great cowboy names?  The Daddy is a big fan of old western movies (obviously). 

These are 15x15 empty and made of real denim.  The fabric in the appliqued monogram letter has a rope pattern.  I love how these turned out, I hope Blaze & Weston enjoy them. 

These are available in my Etsy Store.  Thanks for stopping by!

An Apple for the Teacher

Eek, a week went by without me posting.  I made alot of stuff over the Labor Day weekend but most of it is gifts so I won't post until the recipients receive them. 

Here's one I can post because Micaela was delivering to her teacher today.  This is a little "Granny Smith" apple for her teacher.  The teacher's favorite color is green so I thought a Granny Smith version would be appropriate instead of the traditional red.  There is a battery operated flameless tea light at the base so it glows when you turn it on.   I hope this brightens up Ms. Roszel's day.

This is an in the hoop design from Embroidery Garden, Reen the designer is so talented and makes all of us with embroidery machines look talented as well.  Truthfully, it's all about the designs one buys and the machines we use to stitch them out.  All I did was press some buttons...lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pillow Door Hanger

Here is a little pillow door hanger I made for a friend at work.  "When Pigs Fly" is kind of an inside joke in our office. 

The Earth fabric is from Michael Miller and is called Eco Friendly, I just love it.  It coordinates with the Save Energy fabric I used on my boss's mousepad back in May.  The Green Leaf fabric is from Amy Schimler for Robert Kaufman Fabrics and its from the Animal Party Too collection.  Thanks for stopping by!

Zippered Weenie Dog Pouch

We are all set for the first day of school tomorrow.  Micaela is very excited to begin second grade. 
Earlier this week, hubby took her to the optometrist for an eye exam.  Long story short, she needs glasses.  She is very excited.  Yesterday, we went to pick out frames and do some shopping.  She picked out hot pink frames and loves them.

Here she is....

The first thing Daddy did when we got home was give her the 411 on taking care of her glasses.... things like always put them in the case, never clean them with anything except a special cleaning cloth, never lay them face down ect. 

The lens place gave her a hard case but it was kinda plain so I decided to make her a cute one with some of the left over weenie dog fabric from the pillowcases earlier in the week.

This design is from Five Star Fonts and includes stipple quilting, lining and no exposed seams on the inside.  She told me she loves it and requested a different one for every season.  Oh my, the apple doesn't fall from the tree.  Another accessory to add to the many things we already keep track of.  Hope you had a great weekend, thanks for stopping by.

Monkey Bread

I've been baking lately.  This weekend I made a Monkey Bread.  I can't even remember how long it has been since I baked one of these... my husband estimates 5 years.  Once upon a time, I used to make this quite often, so often that I have a fleet of budnt pans so I can make several at once. 

I learned to make Monkey Bread from my Aunt Bettye when I was a little girl, I am thinking I was around 8.  Her recipe is identical to the one found on the Pillsbury bisquit can except she adds pecans or walnuts.  The recipe is a classic and can be found here on the Pillsbury website.

I posted this picture on my Facebook page and I was shocked that I had around 30 of my friends and family "like" the picture and another 10 or so make comments... people dating back 20 years that knew me back when I made Monkey Bread often... even my former boss from 1995!

Hopefully posting this here will bring back memories of a recipe you haven't made in a while too.  Thanks for stopping by  Hope you had a great weekend.   

Weenie Dog Pillowcases

Happy Friday!  Today Micaela gets to meet her second grade teacher and she is so excited.  We've been working on finishing up her new room (remember my deadline was by the time school started).  Well I've moved ALL of my craft stuff out, we painted and her stuff is in place.  Now we need to purchase a new desk and dresser. 

Her new color scheme is pinks, black and white, she wants nothing springy.  Well, that all went out the window when I came home from JoAnn with some springy weenie dog fabric.  I thought it was so cute, I could not resist. 

We decided to make pillowcases out of the fabric.  I probably should have monogramed or embroidered and used some contrasting fabric for the band but I didn't have any fabric that was exactly the same blend so I just did the whole thing out of the same fabric and passed on the embroidery 

She tried out the new pillowcases last night and she was excited to read her favorite weenie dog book for bedtime...   This Pretzel book is by Margaret Ray and was written in 1944, it's about Pretzel the longest dachshund in the world and oh so cute! 

Oreo got so excited he joined her in bed too. 

I have more of this fabric so expect to see more things for Micaela made out of it.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Monogrammed & Appliqued Hand Towel

Good Morning!  It's Monday and it's one more week before school starts....  Micaela can hardly wait for Friday when we go to "Meet the Teacher" at her school.

I got some sewing done over the weekend despite the two birthday parties and alot of back to school shopping.  One of the items I finished which had been on my table for too long was this hand towel.  My friend Kristi recently moved into a new house and she purchased these towels and fabric for me to make for her daughter's bathroom forever ago and I finally got to them this weekend. 

The buttery yellow towels and vintage rose fabric match her bathroom perfectly!   I am so pleased with how they turned out.   I use this font quite a bit because it stitches out so beautifully.

Hope you have a great week, thanks for stopping by!

Monkey Beach Towel

It was a busy weekend with two birthday parties in opposite DFW metroplex counties... one in Denton and another in Tarrant. 

The first party was in Bedford for my cousin's baby girl Mia who just turned one.  So hard to believe this baby is one and walking-running all over the place.  Little Mia is crazy about monkeys and by total chance I found the perfect beach towel to embroider for her.

This is a Jelly Beans beach towel from Kohl's.  Here is a scan of the tag so you can see what the whole towel looks like.




I debated about where to add the embroidery, I think it turned out pretty cute in purple on the leaf (luckily Mia is a short name and it fit just right).  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Zipper Bag Exchange

EEK, almost two weeks since my last post, sorry about that.  I've been sewing just haven't had all my ducks in a row to post.

I signed up for a zipper bag exchange at my LQS... The Quilt Asylum.  I hadn't set a zipper in well over 20 years, since my tailoring class in college when I had to make myself tailored slacks (those were the days).  Anyway, I thought signing up for the exchange would be a good push to try zippers again. 
I sorta cheated by using an "in the hoop" design to make my first bag.  This is the Chevron Circle Pouch from Embroidery Garden in the 5" size.  It was really super easy.

The button fabric is from Makower UK- The Henly Studio, it coordinates with the sewing machine cover I made for Micaela last year.  The fabric lining on the inside is a random fat quarter from my stash.  I am so pleased with how this turned out.

After making the Chevron bag it was only 2am, so I decided to make another zippered bag because Micaela usually goes with me to the "exchange" and wants to "exchange too.  This is the Butterfly Coin Pouch also from Embroidery Garden.  Micaela actually picked out these fabrics and of course I did the sewing.  It's just as easy as the Chevron Bag just smaller. 

Call me crazy but after those two, I got really ambitious and made a third bag for the exchange in the morning before going to work.  This one was a simple square,  I used the tutorial at So Sew Something and some of the new Keep Calm fabric from Timeless Treasures. 

Here are all the pouches that were exchanged, lots of the regular participants were on vacation so the group was small.  I labeled the bags received with a star. 

Hope you have a great weekend.

Flip Flop Beach Towel

I am back from a week in California.  I arrived on Friday night and quickly had to start sewing because we had a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. 

We had a dry spell of birthday parties the last month or two but we are back in full swing with 3 parties the next two weekends.

Here is a purchased beach towel with a birthday girl's name embroidered on it.  This is one of my favorite fonts for towels...

Love this flip flop beach towel design! {wish I had ironed the towel before taking the picture}.

 Hope you are staying cool in this summer heat, thanks for stopping by.

L'Amour de la vie Tote

For the last eleven and a half months we have had the most fabulous intern at our office.  K is a graduate of one of our high schools here in McKinney, went away and got her Bachelor's degree and came back home for a year while she applied for graduate schools.  Over the last year, she has shadowed me, helped me and the rest of our staff on countless projects, worked countless early mornings, late evenings and weekends over the last year all for no pay!  She's headed to St. Edward's University in Austin for a Professional Science Master's Environmental Management and Sustainability in a couple of weeks and I am going to miss her terribly. 

I've been brain storming about making her something over the last few weeks.  The other day while looking for fabric, I came across the most perfect fabric for her.  This is L'Amour De La Vie by Hoodie and manufactured by Timeless Treasures

This fabric is perfect in so many ways.... First this fabric has cats on it... K loves her kitty.  Second, there's trees... what else could represent represent the environment and sustainability more than trees.  Then third are the Eifle towers, Sara is headed to France for her second year of graduate school.

After showing her the fabric, she said she wanted a tote so this is what I came up with. 

I used fusible fleece and then used my "darning" sewing foot to do some free motion quilting (first time to do that). 

I used a olive green polka dot to line the inside of the bag, added a small pocket for keys or cell phone.  This was such a nice break from the room swap we have underway.

I plan to make her a few other things to coordinate but it will be a week before I can sew again.  I am headed out of town for family funeral and will be gone for most of the week. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Room Swap in Progress

Didn't do any sewing this weekend. We've been busy doing some rearranging.   Micaela and I started the monumental task of swapping the paper craft room and her bedroom.  My paper craft room is stuffed to the gills and her room isn't far behind.  Believe it or not this was my idea.  I've needed to deal with the paper craft room for a long time and Micaela was ready for a complete color scheme change so here we go. 

We are about 15% so far... one wall and some of the closet.  Her room is going to be in transition for several weeks because I only have the evenings to work on  it with so much going on during the weekends. 

Here is the east wall with out her dresser.  I've always loved the wood picket fence flower border... so now I get to have it in the craft room.  Micaela wants a new color scheme now that she is seven, hot pink, lime green, and black & white; in her words:  "nothing spring".

Here is the same wall with some of the craft stuff in place.  That triple dresser is full of stamp sets. 

After much thought, I decided it was time to get rid of my beloved paper rack that held 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  I posted a picture on Facebook and it was spoken for in 15 minutes. 

This room transition is going to take us quite some time.  My goal is to get it done by the time school starts the 3rd week in August.   Thanks for stopping by....

Born to Deer Hunt Baby Sets

A couple weeks ago I was asked to make a baby set for a pair of twin baby boys... the theme I was given was camoflage & hunter orange because the Dad is an avid deer hunter.  Whis is what I came up with.

Here's the set for Micah, with the deer and turkey-- notice the scene on the burp cloth matches the scene on the bib.  I debated about embroidering the bibs but thought it might be to fru fru for deer hunting boys.

 Weston's set has the deer and a raccoon.

This was a challenge to say the least. The standard white burp clothes I use were too white for this so I slip covered them in a natural colored flannel then top stitched to make it look like a regular burp cloth.   The bibs I usually use were also too white so I made these using a premade one as a pattern.  The back is lined in the same natural flannel.  I found the fabric pretty quickly and then by chance stumbled across the Born to Hunt deer design when I was looking for something else.   Overall, I am pleased with how these turned out.  I hope the receiving family likes them as much as I do.  Thanks for stopping by! 



Finished Halloween Quilt

Ta Da... My first quilt. I started this on Saturday and worked on it several nights this week. It's not giant, about 45" square. Kinda did this lazy girl style, meaning it's not exactly quilted or bound the traditional way but most importantly it's DONE.

Troy suggested I add some buttons-- imagine that! I plan to just drape it over a table when we have our halloween party. Feeling inspired to make more of these-- perhaps one for each of my favorite themes!  Hope you are staying cool in this summer heat.  Thanks for stopping by!

First Quilt- Step 2

Here are the squares all stitched together.  This came together pretty quickly. 

Somehow between the floor and the sewing machine a few of the squares got moved but oh well. I am going to add a black & white dot border around this, then the binding.  I am so ready for Halloween, it's been between 105-110 here in Texas and I am really looking forward to cool October weather. 

Hope you are staying cool, thanks for stopping by!

First Quilt- Step 1

I've been bit by the quilting bug!  I've said that quilting something like a blanket was not for me for a long time but after going to the fabric & quilt stores on a weekly basis-- I think the quilt bug got me.  
Saturday Micaela and I were out and about.  She said, "Mommy you can do it!" when we spotted the Moda H"owl"oween line by Deb Strain and I thought well, I should try a small project.
So that is what we did, I purchased my first charm pack and Micaela and I spent well over an hour arranging the blocks on the carpet in her playroom during the evening.  It was fun listening to her reasoning for moving blocks around... "Mommy: spiders can be next to owls because they are friends and cats can be next to witch hats because they go together". 

Here's what we came up with.  In the next couple of days I will show you all the squares pieced together.  We'll see how all this comes together.  I don't usually embark on long projects that take more than a day or two to complete, thanks for joining me on this ride....

Another Pop Monkey Set

This has got to be my most popular item in my Etsy store.  I think I have made about 10 of these Pop Monkey Burp Cloth & Bib Sets.  It all started with one set I made for Micaela's preschool teacher 3+ years ago and I have been making these ever since.  I am glad this fabric is still available. 

This order was headed to California, not sure of the ethnicity of the family receiving it but this was the exact spelling they specified. 

I did something a little different this time on the raw edge, instead of a rolled edge with zigzag stitching, I  added binding made from the same fabric.  I like this look even though it's a little more time consuming. 

This set was a piece of cake, but last week I got a challenging request for a burp and bib set for twin baby boys with a deer hunting theme...  I am almost finished with that set and I will be posting it later on this week.  Hope you have a great Monday!  Stay cool in this summer heat.   

Double Rainbow

Yesterday was pretty hot.  By late afternoon a storm blew in with lots of wind and rain, then quickly after the sun was shining again.  We had a gorgeous double rainbow.  Here's a quick snapshot of Micaela and Oreo in the back yard, you can see the rainbows in the background.  Hope you have a great weekend!