Treats and Flowers

I came across some wonderful flower tutorials lately, and I decided to try this one first.

It was an easy pattern to make, and it only took about an hour to cut out the pieces, gather them and assemble into a corsage. I can see making a big pile of these flowers, not just for corsage pins, but for garlands, and embellishments on gifts, notebooks, bags, and more. I used the scraps I had leftover from this project-

… and from this project.

I decided to use this little drawstring bag as a gift bag for some treats to send to my sister, the queen of chocolate!

There are a lot of great tutorials popping up in blogland lately. Check out these sites for some of my favorites:

Boutique NutMeg Designs - Meg has done some cute butterfly appliques, butterfly pin heads, and fabric flowers.

Sew Mama Sew - Check out the fabulous summer sewing series including the portable cushion and the picnic blanket. (I just finished making one of these awesome cushions and have the second one almost finished. I will post pictures when they are both finished and ready to show off!)

Heather Bailey - Heather has a cute yo-yo tutorial and a binding tutorial that are great for beginning quilters. She also offers suggestions on what to do with those fabric yo-yos.

Portobellopixie - Sandi Henderson has added a couple new tutorials just recently on making bias tape or piping, as well as gathering a ruffle, which works great for her free ruffle edged pillow pattern. Also check out her rolled roses and shirring tutorials.

Anna Maria Horner has a quick and easy tutorial for making bookmarks from scrap pieces of fabric. Of course, her examples in her new Garden Party fabrics look gorgeous!

If you have a new tutorial you want to share, post a comment here with a link.

The Best News

My husband Dave has been working as an IT contractor for about three years, getting good experience and trying to find a place that would hire him permanently. His last contract ended a couple months ago, so he’s been home most of the summer, looking for jobs and keeping the house clean and the yard thriving. (which has been great for me!)

After sending out resumes and sitting through a couple rounds of interviews, he made a lasting impression, and this arrived a couple days ago - his offer letter!

We are celebrating - He starts his new job August 4 - hooray for Dave!

(I’m happy too because I have actually missed doing some of those chores around the house and the cooking.)

Getting Ready

We are having a family reunion this weekend for everyone to see my sister and her family before they move to China for three years for a job promotion. So we decided to get the yard ready for guests. Here’s what we have going so far:

We couldn’t find any annuals left at the garden center, so we picked up this pre-planted container to brighten up the front porch.

We planted two new trees in the back. They are hydrangea trees - aren’t they cute?!

Our basil plant is growing like crazy, so I have to make pesto before the party. My sister loves homemade pesto, and I doubt she’s had time to make any this summer.

We found this HUGE zucchini in the vegetable garden already! Can you see it in there? If not, here’s a shot of it before I shredded it for zucchini carrot bread. YUM! (notice the jalapeno peppers we have already too)

The best colors going on in our yard now are these:

I hope they continue to bloom through next week’s party. Now I have to make a shopping list and make some calls for the potluck treats. Hope you are enjoy this last week of July!

My New Lunch Bag

I finished making an adorable new lunch bag, which is based on the Simple Tote pattern from the Bend-the-Rules-Sewing book, using the Chocolate Lollipop fabrics designed by Anna Maria Horner.

I have made several other projects from this book, and now this lunch bag completes the set. This was another classic case of having this fabric sit on my sewing table for awhile, not wanting to cut into it because it’s so pretty to look at.

One of my favorite parts about this lunch bag is the lining, which is iron-on vinyl, ironed over the lining fabric.

Yes, iron-on vinyl! Isn’t that cool?! It was much easier to use than I anticipated. I was afraid of melting the vinyl and ruining my iron (which isn’t that great anyway so it would have been a good way to get a new one!). The directions that came with the vinyl were very clear and easy. I bought a yard of this vinyl from JoAnns, not knowing how much I would need, or how much I would like it.

The verdict is I like the vinyl very much and would definitely make more projects with it. I also love this pattern, with the clever idea of making one handle very short to wrap over the longer one, keeping the bag closed.

Thanks for these cool ideas, all you designers and inventors out there! I just wish someone at work would ask me about this awesome bag (so I could show it off in person a little more).

Curtain Call

I have been on a home decorating kick lately. This past spring, we finished painting our kitchen and living room. Since then I have been looking forward to making a valance, tablecloth and napkins using Heather Bailey’s Freshcut fabrics.

Finally, I had a free weekend! Here’s how the valance turned out:

First, I measured the width of the window and the length I wanted the valance to be (long enough to cover the blinds when they are open). That measurement came to 49″ wide x 13″ long. I added 2″ to the width for the side seams and then doubled the width to get more fullness. I added 2″ to the length for the lower hem, and 3″ to the length for the rod casing. My final measurement came to 102″ wide x 18.5″ long.

To hem the side edges, I hemmed the sides by turning under 1/2″ and turning under another 1/2″. Then I sewed close to the inner fold, repeating for the other side.

For the lower hem, I turned the lower edge under 1/2″ and then another 1-1/2″. Then I sewed close to the inner fold.

For the casing, I turned the top under 1/2″ and then another 2-1/4″. The top of the casing is formed by sewing 1″ in from the fold. The bottom of the casing is formed by sewing 1-1/4″ from the first line of stitching, or 1/4″ from the inner fold.

Finally, I finished off the hem with this cool ruffle trim, which added more length and a stylish accent.

I made a coordinating tablecloth from the Freshcut collection too. My table measured 41″ x 58″, and I had 2-yard piece of fabric, so I had to make that work for me.

I added a 2-1/2″ border to frame the main fabric.

Last winter, I found this cool tool - the EZY-hem by Dritz - which works great for ironing small hems, very handy when making handmade napkins.

I made the mixy-matchy napkins from Amy Karol’s Bend-the-Rules-Sewing book and some cocktail napkins from the Purl Bee to go with the new tablecloth.

I love how everything coordinates yet it’s not too matchy. Our kitchen has become the best room in the house! Wish I could have you over for coffee in the newly decorated kitchen.

Wait… I’m not quite done yet! I was on a roll Sunday afternoon, so I decided to make the valance for my sewing room, which has been on the sidelines for a couple months too. I used the Gothic Rose fabric from Amy Butler’s Belle collection.

I followed the same method as described above, and added a piece of lace trim for the ruffle. Isn’t that sweet?!

Wow, what a productive weekend!

Giant Flower Pincushions

This springy set of cotton fabric has been sitting on my fabric shelf for almost two years when I finally decided to cut into it, even though it has looked so pretty neatly stacked in it’s fat quarter ensemble. Flower pincushions seemed like a great project to use these Springy fabrics!

I used this pattern from this designer featured in the Spring 08 issue of this magazine. What a thrill! The pattern was not as hard as it appears to be, and each one only took about an hour or so to make. Sewing the petals on the first one was difficult, until I figured out how to maneuver the fabric for each individual petal to keep them from puckering or getting caught. Also, I could have used a little more information on how to attach the bottom piece, but I figured out you have to fold under the gathered edge and whipstitch to the bottom of the flower base. No big deal after it came together in my head.

I love how the different petal colors (pink above, yellow below) make each one look unique, just like the real flowers in my gardens.

Aren’t they cheerful and fun?! They would make great gifts, but I don’t think I can part with either of these, just like I couldn’t cut into the fabric. Well, maybe after some time passes, I’ll get over it.

Garden Quilt

I finished my new garden quilt just in time to lounge on the Adirondack chair with a cool beverage and a good book.

I used the Crazy Eights quilt pattern by Bits ‘N Pieces and a stack of fat quarters, mostly Amy Butler fabrics, along with a few others in the mix. After I finished piecing the top, I wasn’t real happy with the results because there wasn’t any order to the fabric layout. But I decided to free myself and learn to like the quilt for the fact that it wasn‘t so orderly.

I was overjoyed with how it turned out after my friend Julie machine-quilted the layers. Besides the cool quilt design she made, she also used variegated thread on the front, which blends in with the fabric colors, yet sets them off as well.

The bugs are starting to come out and take of the gardens, so I better get back inside. Thanks for stopping by!

Placemat Swap Part 2

I signed up to participate in the Placemat Swap for the Bend-the-Rules-Sewing swap. I finally finished making the set to be exchanged with my partner. She doesn’t know yet that I have her name, so don’t spoil the surprise before she receives my package.

She requested a set of six placemats and napkins for her family and guests. Her decorating style includes brightly colored paintings and artwork, and she likes Amy Butler and April Cornell fabrics. The fabric shop I went to didn’t have any Amy Butler fabrics, but I found a huge selection from the Kaffe Fassett collection, which I thought would be similar in style.

I chose to use some fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett collection. The focus fabric is Teal Paper Fans, which I chose because of its artsy look and the red accent that will match my partner’s red and white dinner ware. I framed the focus fabric in shot cotton white, which shot cotton teal backing. The napkins are a combination of the paper fans and shot cotton in teal.

I will admit that each placement and napkin are not perfect, but I tried very hard to make them as perfect and professional looking as possible, in the hopes my swap partner will still like them.

I have made other projects from the Bend-the-Rules-Sewing book, including the mixy-matchy napkins, but not the placemats. I must say I really liked this pattern. The directions and illustrations were easy to follow, and the results are fantastic. I hope my swap partner thinks so too!

Placemat Swap

My husband always teases me when a package arrives in our mail box. “Let me guess,” he says. “You ordered more fabric!” Well this week a package arrived, and for the life of me, I just could not remember ordering anything, even fabric. I had a feeling it was going to be something good because anyone who mails me anything mails good things to me!

I recently entered the latest Bend-the-Rules-Sewing Swap, where you agree to make a set of placemats and napkins using the pattern from Amy Karol’s famous book. I received my partner’s placemat set this week, and I wanted to call her to thank her (except that I don’t know her or her phone number). Isn’t this a beautiful set?! In my preferences, I said I love Amy Butler fabrics, which are featured in this set. I also said we just painted our kitchen Concord Ivory, which is a golden yellow, and these match perfectly.

She even went beyond the original agreement and made four matching coasters (in the upper left corner of the above picture), AND she included the scraps that were leftover from her project. What a nice touch!

(I included her picture above from her flickr page, since it’s cloudy today and my pictures aren’t as good)

The best part of this package was the letter Shawn wrote to me about her efforts in making this project, about her life, and her sewing experience. Now I feel as if I truly have a new friend. There’s always room in my life for new sewing friends! Much better than getting a plain old package of fabric in the mail. Thank you so much Shawn!

PS - the placemat set I’m making for my partner isn’t finished yet, so I’ll show that in another post.

Etsy Shopping

I was etsy shopping late one night, and found more cool handmade things (of course):

I ordered a Patchwork Pillow from The Little Room etsy shop because I loved these colors, which reminded me of the ocean. I love making these pillow covers, so I like to order similar things from other creative people to see how they approach their sewing projects.

I love how Liz packaged it - wrapped in a tissue paper sewing pattern. Clever girl!

I ordered an iHug from the Punchanella etsy shop because it was too cute to pass up, and because I love the Ginger Blossom fabrics. It has an elastic strap to wrap around your iPod while it’s in this pretty case.

I ordered a stash of Ginger Blossom fabrics from the Fresh-Squeezed Fabrics etsy shop because Sandi Henderson’s new Farmers Market fabrics be available soon. I didn’t want to miss out on this collection before it’s gone.

By the way, does anyone know when Sandi’s new Farmers Market fabric collection will be available? I was hoping to use some of it for a swap I am participating in, but I’m afraid I’m running out of time and will have to buy something else (something else equally good, of course).

I found another great etsy shop, which has cool lunch bags and market totes, although I haven’t ordered anything yet. I’m trying to keep my etsy spending in check! And my sister is wondering why a person needs so many bags. Come on - are you kidding?!