an interesting fabric

There is a whole bolt of this fabric at one of my LQSes.  I've seen it there before, it always catches my attention.  I don't know who the designer is, I'm always too entranced by the fabric to check the selvedge.

Two days ago, a bit of it finally came home with me as part of a charm pack.  It was laid out on my sewing desk with the rest of the charm pack, and even though I really like this fabric, I decided that I had to admit it is rather ugly {I do like a good ugly fabric sometimes}
Then I realised I was standing there wearing the exact colors of this fabric - a shirt the same blue as the polkadots and pants the same melon as the background :) Maybe I'll go back for some yardage of this polka dot.

KCWC

So, the Kids Clothing Week Challange ended awhile ago.  Were you wondering what happened to that? Yeah, so is the pile of fabric in my sewing room.  Oops.  It turns out, when you have never sewn any clothing before, it is a bad idea to commit to sewing 3 pairs of shorts and a dress during the same week your Hubby flies to San Diego and you have to pack the kids up to stay with relatives while you go on quilt retreat.  During baseball & golf season.  Because standing at a quilt retreat holding a pattern you can't make any sense of when you could be piecing a quilt just isn't a whole lot of fun.  Which is why I didn't.

I still intend to sew the promised garmets, but it isn't likely to happen before school ends. 

Hmmm, a post about what I didn't sew {???}  Hopefully I'll be able to redeem myself tomorrow.

a little R & R

I went on quilt retreat!!! Yay!!!
Look, here is my machine on vacation:

Doesn't she look relaxed?  {grin}

I went for four days, along with the Fabulous Leslie, whom I hitched a ride up with.  My Mom and two of my Aunts stayed the whole week {I'm sooo jealous}

While I was on retreat, my hubby was in San Diego, so the kiddos bounced around relatives :)  They couldn't have been happier.  In fact, they had a countdown started six weeks ahead of time ("Mom, are you leaving yet?") and they are already trying to send me back {no arguements from me :) }

It was crazyness getting the family ready to head in so many directions, and it wasn't until the last minute I even thought to wonder if we had enough bags to send five people in three directions at once (nope).  Guess who lost out in the bag-grab-fest?  Not to worry though, I found a pattern for the perfect travel bag while I was away.  Next year, I'll be traveling in style :)

I may have arrived with the fingernails of my left hand painted and my right hand bare, (crazyness I tell you) but I had a wonderful time.  Food to die for, pastries and desserts you wouldn't believe, and a steady flow of hot coffee (helpful when stitching 'til 1am). Yum.  (best part - someone else to wash dishes!) I don't think I ate for two days after I got home :) 

Here is something I made while I was away (I didn't just eat):

My second go at a zippered pouch went much better, now that I have a zipper foot.

I'll show you more later :) ta-ta for now

Butterflies

We recently went on a field trip to The Butterfly Place.

It was amazing!  So many beautiful butterflies, flying all around us :)

As I stood there enjoying these lovely creatures with my sons,

I was inspired to pick up one of my UFO's. (please excuse the bluriness of this photo - this was one of my favorite butterflies, but they didn't perch for more than a second, and so were very hard to get a picture of)

Another project that has been in the works for awhile - this one I am piecing by hand, and I plan to quilt it by hand as well.  I am packing my butterfly blocks up and bringing them on a quilt retreat this weekend - {!!!!!}  More about both the retreat and the quilt later...



Oh, and the Butterfly Place also had this fabulous fish pond {love those fish}:



Kids Clothing Week Challange Kick off!

 

If you look carefully, you can see three pairs of shorts, just waiting to be cut out and sewn up  :)    One pair for each of my boys, and a dress for my goddaughter.  That's the plan.

I haven't actually done my one hour of sewing yet today, but I still have hopes of squeezing it in before bedtime. 

I did go shopping this weekend, and that counts for something, right?  That part was fun,  I'm good at fabric shopping.  I've been honing my skills in that department for a few years now.  With some experience under my belt, I can puruse bolts of cotton with the best of them, confidently laying my selections on the cutting table.  "I'd like one yard of this & this, a yard and a quarter of that, and two-thirds yard of this" just rolls off my tounge with ease.  Yup, I was feeling pretty good leaving Joann's. 

Today I opened up the dress pattern.  I'm in trouble.  Call Mom kind of trouble.  (I've had alot of over-the-phone sewing lessons from Mom.)

It makes no sense to me, in any of three languages, and I keep seeing something about cutting the lining?!?  All I can say is, I hope it still looks like a dress without one, 'cause I didn't buy lining fabric, and the shopping is done.  lol

On the Runway: High-Fashion for your Morning Coffee

Oh my, where are my manners?  I realized this weekend that I never showed the finished pics of the coffee cozy & mugrug sets I was working on.  ( if you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's ok. Look here & here to find out) So I decided to head down to my favorite coffee shop, pick up a couple cups of my favorite espresso drinks, and have a fashion show for you :)

First up is Caramel Way.  She is comfortably attired in a purple cozy adorned with stars and gold etching. 

{Caramel Way turns to the right} The cozy is fastened with a lovely button with a glimmer of gold amidst swirls of dark chocolate and coffee.

Caramel Way is standing on an approximately 6.5" square platform of randomly pieced strips of gold etched and opalescent fabrics with a mitered-corner binding.  Thank you Caramel Way {polite clapping}

Next we have Irish Kicker, who is wearing a cozy of shimmering hydrangea & raspberry print fabric.  The topstitching was done with a matching lilac colored thread that was swiped from the designer's mother, also a quilter {thanks Mom!}

{Irish Kicker turns} A lovely button made of natrual shell keeps this cup of coffee wrapped in luxury.  This cozy's elegant style makes transitioning from office to evening wear a breeze for fashion conscious coffee.

Irish Kicker is standing on an approximately 7" square platform made with a wholecltoh top and strip-pieced backing that was brought around front to bind.  It was quilted in wavy lines with the pilfered thread.  Thank you Irish Kicker {polite clapping}

Thank you for attending our fashion show today :)
Want to dress up your coffee?  I used the tutorial here.
I'm linking to Fresh Sewing at Lily's Quilts.  If you came here from there, Hi! Glad to have you for a visit!  If you didn't come here from there, I'm glad to have you visiting, too! :)  Have a great day everybody!