New Quilt Top

I am back from vacation. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my family. I really enjoyed having some one on one sister to sister time. We had a nice time sitting on the deck with our morning tea and talking a couple of mornings. We also took a little trip to a nearby town and went to a little quilt shop there, browsed around an antique store where there were lots of old quilts and other fun things to drool over, and then had a nice little lunch, just the two of us. The trip also consisted of a visit to the zoo with my niece, my brother and my sister. All five of us kids were all home at once which has not happened in a long time. I think it meant a lot to my parents to have us all there together.

I had all of Friday after I got home to myself at home alone with my sewing machine. I love that! I got busy and put this quilt top together over the weekend. I am pretty excited about it. It went together really easily. It was a pattern from Easy Quilts magazine from earlier this spring. I am omitting the borders that it called for. It is made from 12 fat quarters and quarter yard cuts. ALL of it was from my stash except for one fat quarter. I miscut one of the fabrics I had originally picked out so I had to replace that one with something else, hence buying a fat quarter.

Cute as a Cupcake

I listed this earlier this week for The Divas Magical Celebration Launch on ebay.



Thanks sooo much to my friend Niki and her little cousin for the photography!

To answer another question...

Zarina asked me what books I have used that have been helpful with children's sewing, so I thought I'd take a post and answer that question.

First of all, let me say that I am mostly self taught. My mother gave me a good foundation to build on by teaching me how to follow a pattern and about grain and bias and that sort of thing. Most of what I have learned has come from experimentation, trial and error and reading tips in various places.

Two books that I found helpful are out of print these days, but can likely be found used or maybe in your library. They are both by Kitty Benton. One is called "Classic Designs for Today's Active Children" and the other is "Sewing Classic Clothes for Children". I also had a subscription to "Sew Beautiful" magazine for a while. There are a lot of good tips in there and they have wonderful instructions for the free patterns that are in each issue. There are soooo many beautiful things for children in the pages of that magazine.

I have recently happened upon a couple of internet sites that look quite promising, too. I have ordered one pattern from youcanmakethis.com and I have to say it was pretty slick. You pay for the pattern, download the PDF and print off whatever size you need. It does involve some taping, but I found that the pattern went together pretty easily. The one I ordered came with a boatload of variations and very easy to follow instructions.

I have also been looking at The Children's Fashion Workshop lately. I have not ordered from there as it doesn't seem that they have anything that I don't already have at home already, but it does look interesting. They have basic block patterns that they sell for a certain price and then you can purchase lessons for different modifications of those patterns. The disadvantage that I see as a designer is that each size must be purchased separately. As a designer, I would much rather see a set of sizes offered together.

I have purchased slopers (basic patterns without seam allowances) from this company and found them to be very accurate in size and a great company to work with. The prices are reasonable, especially if you buy several sizes at once. The shipping was fast, too. They also have junior and adult sizes and you can even have your sloper customized to your measurements if you wish.

There are also a ton of wonderful tutorials online at different places. There is no way I could link to all of them, but a Google search will turn up several for you.

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And now for something completely different....

Have you ever had those projects that SHOULD be simple and straightforward, but for some reason they just seem fraught with problems from the start? That has been what I have dealt with for the past week or so. So much so that I just feel like setting the whole thing ablaze! A simple skirt and peasant blouse have been the bane of my existence for the last week. UGGG It's probably because I set myself too short a deadline and I am trying to do it too fast. Maybe this will end up up for sale, and maybe it won't we shall see. I thought I had it done, but then it didn't fare the washing too well, so I had to figure out something different to fix that problem.

And I also wanted to let you all know that I will be out of town starting on Saturday for about the next 5 days. I am going to visit family in Illinois, so I probably won't be posting much while I am gone, if at all.
Hope you all have a great week!

Just to answer a few questions I have received lately...

For kristies: Thank you for your kind words. The pattern I used for this dress is a commercially available pattern from Farbenmix called "Feliz"
You can purchase it here or here. I'm sure it can also be found elsewhere on line, as well.
There is a wonderful "feliz sew-along" here if the instructions are a bit confusing. I didn't find them to be terribly bad, just a little lacking in detail since they were translated from German. The sew-along is in several parts. She used to have the links on the sides of the page but it looks like she removed them. If you start at the page I linked to and then just scoll to the bottom of each page and click on "newer post" it should lead you through the pages.
I made little A's dress from fabric that I purchased at my local Joann's Fabrics. There were two pink prints that I used for the overdress and the ruffles in the back and a solid pink for the body of the underdress and ruffle. I trimmed the overdress with a larger yellow rick rack and put a couple of decorative buttons on the pocket. The pocket pattern is not included, I just made that up myself. It's basically just a square with rounded off corners at the bottom. I made it with two pieces. I put them right sides together and went around the sides and bottom. Turned it, tucked the top edge in and pressed it and then topstitched it together. Then I just put it on the front like any other patch pocket. It does help, if you are putting a pocket in the front, to do it before you start sewing the overdress pieces together. Less fabric under your machine will make it easier to sew.
Have fun, and post pictures when you finish them for your twins!
And for the Anonymous person whose daughter is desperately in need of skirts with pockets :) I hope to plan a couple more skirt tutorials in the future and I promise to include pockets in at least one of them. I've been a little busy lately and have not had time to actually write the tutorials. I probably won't get them done for a little while, but please know they are in the works.
Hope you all have a great weekend!

What a wonderful world...

I took a walk with my camera this evening. I often think that I am going to do so, and rarely do. I have just been experimenting with the manual settings on it and seeing what happens. I am blessed to live near a small pond with a nice little walking path that encircles it. I was amazed at the variety of shapes and unexpected colors that I found within just a quarter mile of my house.
Who knew that grass seed could be such a vibrant purple? It truly is a wonderful world that our loving Creator has sculpted and painted for us. Here are a few of my favorites.