Anyone Can Quilt

A handmade gift.

I recently purchased this great book.  I love it.  It is great for beginners and has so many fabulous patterns.  There are clothes, tote bags, pillows, curtains, and even a dog coat.  I bought this one along with Sew U, because of my sudden and irrational (for me) urge to make clothes.  Go to Amazon and buy this book right now if you want a great sewing book with tons of helpful info.  

The pattern for this sweet elephant is in this book.  I'm so glad I bought this book when I did.  Just in time for me to make the perfect gift for our sweet little friend who had her 3rd birthday this weekend.  The instructions were clear and straightforward, and this little gal went together pretty quickly.  The elephant pattern comes in two sizes, this is the Mommy size.  My girls each want one in the Baby size.  I decided to add a nice fabric bow to finish her off.  But wasn't in love with it, so I changed it to a pink grosgrain ribbon with turquoise ric rac. 

I think she is going to be well loved.  x

making mama proud.

My Mother is a seamstress.  She can sew anything, and sew it beautifully.  When I decided that I wanted to learn to sew years ago she was so exited!  But I've never had an interest in sewing clothes.....whatsoever.  The thought has always given me hives.  But, I found a couple of wonderful books that make me actually exited about making clothes.  One of them is Sew U, by Wendy Mullin.  I know many of you have heard of it.  The book takes beginners step by step through making cute and simple skirts, shirts and pants.  Clothes patterns have always confused me and I thought were a bit vague for someone who was looking at them for the first time.  But this book explains it all.  I also discovered that pattern sizes are nowhere near ready to wear sizes that you get at clothes stores.  I wear an 8 in most of my clothes, (still hanging on to some 6's... damn it.)  But when I take my measurements and look at the size chart for a clothes pattern,  apparently I wear a size 400.  It's a real confidence booster.  But, after a bit of simple sewing, I made my first skirt!  And it fits!  Even though it's a size 410.  I even put in a zipper.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mom!  (just kidding, Mama doesn't smoke a pipe...she quit years ago....kidding again...)

Voila!  A simple a-line skirt.  Now, there are three things I'd like you to notice about this picture.

1.  The kitty feet.
2.  My pasty white legs. 
3.  My horrid flip flop tan lines on my feet.  I wear jeans and flip flops a lot.  Fancy.

I learned a neato tip in one of my new books, not sure which one at the moment.  But, it was great.  To make your fragile tissue paper pattern pieces more sturdy and longer lasting, you can iron fusible interfacing to the back of them!  Then you can hang them in a closet to save for next time.  Genius!

I am wearing this skirt today and it is so comfy, and it came together in an evening.  I see many more in my future.  x

 

We have 2 lucky winners!

Congratulations to Lynne in Hawaii and Cath in UT!  You are the winners!  I had so many nice comments from all of you lovely people, I decided to give away two Amy Butler stacks.  I went to the trusty Random Number Generator and Lynne and Cathe were chosen.  Thank you so much to all of you who commented, it was so fun reading all of your comments.  And I have lots of new blogs to visit!  And to all of you other lovely ladies who left such nice comments, so sorry.... I never win either. x

Summer sewing lesson

My almost 10 year old big girl wants to sew.  Today was her first lesson!  We decided a good first project would be a quilt for her American Girl doll Addy.  Addy grew up during the civil war and was a slave until she and her family gained their freedom.  My girls love reading American Girl books.  I highly recommend them for little girls from any country.  Their stories teach about what it was like to grow up during different times in our American history.  From the 1700's until now.  The stories are all fun and courageous, and have great illustrations.  So, I just happened to have this great printed tumbling blocks print, all civil war reproduction fabrics.  Perfect for Addy.  I quickly sewed the quilt layers together and L's job was the quilting.  She did every bit of it herself.  I'm so proud of her!

She stitched carefully on the trusty old 'Star Performer'.  My very first sewing machine.  I bought this machine from QVC when she was a baby.  I have since graduated to my fancy shmancy Bernina's.  Yes, that means more than one.  Hey, you've all seen my fabric, I have a problem.  Anyhoo, this machine brings back all of the fun and frustrating memories of learning how to sew.

Isn't Addy beautiful?  I love her cozy wool socks and flannel nightgown.

A little tip for you new quilting ladies:  To get the antique puckered look, I never prewash my fabrics and use 100% cotton fabric and batting.  That way, it all shrinks up a bit after washing, which creates great old fashioned puckers.  But it is very important to use high quality quilt shop fabrics and to switch to the dryer right away after washing.  This greatly reduces the risk of fabrics bleeding.  I only really worry about red fabrics bleeding, and since I wash in cold and switch to the dryer quickly, I've never had a problem.  This was a quick and fun project, my little quilter feels such a sense of accomplishment.  Sleep tight Addy.

Bunting and buffet....and more fabric...no kidding.

I finished something!  I started painting this buffet a few months ago.  I took off the doors, sanded it, and primed it.  Then it sat.  And sat.  Sat sat sat.  So this weekend I decided to put on my big girl panties and finish it! 

Now take a close gander and see what else I have to finish.  The wall is painted 3/4 of the way up.  The paint has been stripped from the window sill.  See at the bottom of the wall there?  Yup, the baseboard is missing.  We are in the slow 'do it yourself' process of renovating our little home.  It's a small craftsman cottage, built in 1934.  I love my house.  I don't love renovations.  But we are making slow and steady progress.  We have refinished all of the floors, my husband has replaced all of the electrical wiring and plumbing.  He also gutted and rebuilt the bathroom and kitchen.  They are now beautiful.  I really wish I could have seen the original kitchen.  When we moved in it was an unfortunate 1970's type remodel.  And not in a good way.  Anyhoo, this is a little nook inbetween the living room and the kitchen.  Mr. Precious has claimed his sunny spot. 

It's too bright!!  Look at his eyes.  Doesn't he look eeeeeevil? 

His kitty feet don't look evil.  I love kitty feet.  Except when they track kitty litter onto my couch. 

A view from the living room.  The blinds in the living room were closed so it looks super dark in there.  But the nook is shining!  Here is the bunting I made for my little K's birthday.  We decided to leave it up for the summer.

And now my dear friends.  I'm just going to lay it all out here for ya.  Prepare yourselves.

If you've made it this far without throwing up....I thank you.  I'm about to put you over the edge. 

Yes, these are bolts.  Please forgive me, I know not what I do.  Let's all stop what we're doing and have a moment of silence...... I feel better don't you!?  Now, I'd like to share the pain.  So I think a giveaway is in order!  Come on, everybody's doing it!  So please say hello in the comments section and I'll enter you to win a stack of lovely Amy Butler fat quarters from this stack of bolts.  I'll give you all a couple of days and choose a winner on Thursday morning.  Now go out and buy some more fabric for your stash, it'll make me feel better. x