A Dress for One of my Cuties

Hmmm...  This weekend was a crazy one.  I have been trying to get ready to sew together a dress for Genavieve all week.  It has been rough, since my husband has been working nights all week.  I managed to get the fabric washed, pressed, cut and marked by Friday night.  So Friday, I worked on it a little, getting to the point where I had to get a supply.  This time it was single fold bias tape.  When will I ever learn to read the supply list thoroughly? 
Well, after a trip for groceries with a side trip to JoAnn Fabrics, the project continued.  I was able to get the dress sewn together, the yoke on, and the hand sewing complete. 

I swear I read these directions about a thousand times, just to make sure I was doing it right.  There were still a few errors and some reverse sewing, but overall happy with the outcome so far. 

Notice that the pattern doesn't have the word EASY written on it.  I am kinda proud of myself because it actually looks like a dress.  I am not normally a clothing sewer, but I love to make things for my little ones.

Now I just have to figure out where my 3 year old put my tailor's ruler so I can hem the dress. 
Heather

Fun with Fabric Flowers

Just a few days ago, I saw a video tutorial showing how to make fabric rosettes.  After I watched it I just had to try it out.  Francis and I spent half a day just making flowers from scrap fabric.  What fun!  We started with the fabric rosettes from the video tutorial at Craftaholics Anonymous.  They were very simple to make and slightly addictive.

I can definitely see some headbands in our future. 

Next we made some yo-yos with our Clover Quick Yo-yo Maker.  Boy, where these ever easy. 

These are going to become some little girl clips, as soon as I can make it to the store for some buttons.

Both of these projects were no sew or barely sew, but they were super fun and I can't wait to put them to use in the hair of all the girls wandering around here.  Francis made 3 yo-yos, she was so proud she had to share them with everyone that came over.

What a great way to unwind after a long first week back to work.

Heather





Progress

It's that time of year again.  Back to school for the Teacher, that's me!  This week has been full of meetings, meetings and more meetings.  How exhausting. 

Before I returned to school, I worked on the Snake River Log Cabin quilt.  I set a goal of 10 blocks for the week.  I made it!  The goal will definitely have to be looked at, because this week I made 0. Busy week.

This is what my 10 blocks look like when they are arranged.  Isn't it gorgeous!  For the next several months, my goal will be much smaller, more like 10 a month.  At least I will be making progress!

Heather

I Must Be Crazy!

The last project I bought on my Anniversary trip was a kit for a Snake River Log Cabin.  This quilt has THOUSANDS of pieces.  For 2 months now, I have been thinking - "What was I thinking?"  Only to remind myself that I saw this the year before and have loved it each and every time I have seen it.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,...

So I started by figuring out how to organize my pieces.  Since I am frugal, I didn't want to spend money on silverware organizers or anything else.  I finally decided to take some empty cereal boxes from the cupboard and create my own organizers.

These are the organizers with the pieces that I cut out while trying to get ready for our Washington D.C. vacation.

Please notice the smallest pieces in the b compartment, they are only 3/4" by 1 1/2".  Again, what was I thinking? 

Yesterday my little girls spent the night with my mother-in-law.  Perfect time to dive into this project so that I would know what I was doing when everyone was around!  Thank you Meemaw.

Here is the one block that I finished yesterday.  It took about an hour and a half to put together.  Each block has 52 pieces and there are 64 of them. 

I also put these partially together.  Maybe I can finish these today. 

I can't wait to finish the quilt, but need to remember to enjoy the whole thing.  This is the kind of project that will make me a better and more confident quilter.  There will definitely be some smaller projects thrown in so that I don't loose interest in this quilt. 

I think I can, I think I can,...

Well I better get back to sewing.

Heather

Vacationing

It has been a few weeks since I posted, mainly because we were getting ready for our family vacation to Washington D.C.  The trip was fabulous and I found quilt inspiration all around me.

This is on the ceiling of the Lincoln Memorial.  I think it could be a simple quilt with some complicated quilting in the sashing.

This would be way beyond my quilting skill, but maybe something similar.

The fabulous floors in the Library of Congress also had many quilt worthy patterns.  This was my favorite. 

I must make some of these dresses that my little girls played with at Mount Vernon!  They were adorable and lucky for me, did not have a zipper in the back, just ties.

Our vacation was wonderful and much needed family bonding time.  There is so much to see there that even though we walked our legs off, we still had so much more to see.

Yesterday was spent cutting out the many pieces for a Snake River Log Cabin quilt, which I am sure I will be working on for many years.  There are finally enough pieces cut out that I can begin to sew it together.  I am so excited to turn my sewing machine on and finally get to sew something together again!

Time to get to it!

Heather

It's Fair Time

Last week was my local county fair.  My children are very involved in 4H and had many projects to get ready and take to the fair.  They raise goats and pigs for their animal projects.  They also take several static projects including decorated cakes and photography. 

This is my 8 year old walking in the parade.  She came home with half of her candy bucket so that she could have some of the candy.  I had to laugh at her logic, since I had already kept a stash in the camper.

This is my oldest daughter showing her market goat. 

My 16 year old showing her pig.

My youngest after a very long and exhausting day of fair!

Finally, these are the projects that I took to fair.  Some of them I have already shown, but some of them were made before I started talking about my sewing adventures.  There are three 1st, three 2nd and one 3rd place ribbons.  My children are always so nervous about getting their projects judged.  I never quite understood this until a few days before the projects were due. 

One thing I discovered when taking this picture is that I must really like orange and brown together.  Taking my projects to the fair to be judged has given me confidence in the quality of my workmanship. 

Heather



Grids and Grommets Bag

I have been drooling over all the bag patterns that use grommets for quite a while now.  Finally on my Anniversary trip, I bought a pattern and the fabric to make one of these wonderful bags.  When I saw the sample at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, Ohio, I knew that I had to make this one.  The bag is gigantic!

This is the finished bag on the outside. 

The inside has 2 pockets on each side.  I put my cell phone in one of the pockets to show the size, but it wasn't even visible.

This bag was alot of fun to work on.  There were a few products that I used in this project for the first time.  One of which was an iron on grid called Quilt Mate.  This made the 2" squares a breeze to quilt and have straight.  I must admit that the grommets were very frustrating.  This is probably because the pattern called for two layers of batting, which gives the bag great body, but doesn't let the grommets easily lock together.  I have spent the last two days trying to get all 8 of them in and locked.  With lots of finesse and maybe a little muttering, they are in and I am very happy with the results!

I think I will try another bag with grommets that only uses one layer of batting.  The pattern that I used for this bag is Grids and Grommets by Indygo Junction. 

This was the last of the small projects I bought on our trip, so maybe now I will have to tackle the mountain of a project I bought. 

Happy Sewing,

Heather