Fresh Sewing Day

 

Happy Saturday everyone!!  Whoo hoo for the weekend!! 

 

I thought I'd take a moment and look back at the month that was May {where did it go?!?} and link up with Lily's Quilts.  Care to join me? :)

 

PicMonkey, my laptop, and I tried to make a beautiful collage for you but we went round and round without much success and I finally had to admit that the threesome wasn't working out today.  Another time, another place and it could have been magical.  But we went our separate ways for now; I really think it was for the best.  And even though you deserve so much more, there is just a rehashing of old photos to follow :)

 

 

a pouch for my son's extra ammo :)



I took part in the Say it with Flowers Blog Hop



The Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt is nearly done {I'm sewing the binding}



I finished my Sashiko pillow - the kids have put in a request for another one like it :)



the accidental quilt has been making progress, but I haven't taken new pictures yet.

If you missed the original posts about these projects, I linked the captions so you can go check them out :)

Also in May, although unblogged as of yet, I went on a quilt retreat!  It was a fantastic, rainy time and I accomplished a lot of sewing that hasn't made it onto my blog yet but will hopefully be showing up soon.

Now it's your turn - what did you sew in the lovely flower filled month of May?

tiny deer & Nerf darts

Last Christmas, I  bravely gifted my three sons with Nerf dart guns ;)    Son #3 bought himself extra ammo with a gift card a relative had given him, but he never opened up the package of extra darts.  Two days ago he told me he wasn't going to open it up until he had something to put his darts into so they wouldn't get lost.  Naturally, I offered to sew him something :)



I showed him several fabrics from my stash to choose from.  He said he wanted something that went with darts.

 



He chose three different colors of the Tiny Deer print from Momo's Oh Deer! fabric line, and he was very specific about what color went where :)

I used a red ribbon that has been hanging around for ages. 



I used the free lined drawstring bag tutorial over at In Color Order. 
Son #2 has already picked out fabric for his own little bag, and Son #1 would like one, too.
I just love a good excuse to sew for my boys :)

Linking up to these fine parties:  Freemotion by the River, Made by Me, Show and Tell Tuesday, You Flew, Fabric Tuesday, Link a finish Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF @ Charm About You and Submarine Sunday

time to zip it up....

You may have noticed the Triple Zip Along happening around blogland awhile ago.  Well, I made one too {whoo hoo!} and snuck it into the flicker group just in the nick of time.  I've been running all around with it because I love it so, but somehow I neglected to show all of you here.  I think it is about time I made my little zip pouch respectable and blogged about it, don't you?

 



Even though my zippers are boring white, I kind of like them  {i had to shop local, and we have poor color selection}

AMH Innocent Crush, inside & out :)  Oh, and I found the perfect lilac thread for top stitching in my thread bin!  little things like that make me so happy :)

Hmmmm, looks like my pouch is getting a little sassy and showing off her backside ;)

PS - next Friday is my turn to host TGIFF.  meet me back here with some finishes, ok? :)
I'm linking up to Submarine Sunday!, Show and Tell Tuesday  & Fabric Tuesday

UR Priceless! coin purse blog hop

 

You know the bad part about being on the last day of a blog hop?  So many fabulous coin purses have already been shown off by very talented folks, and now I have to show my little purse. {gulp}

 

 

 

The fabrics I used were all DS for Joanns - the orange dot that I'm using for the photo background is the lining of the purse.  I do love these three fabrics together, but let's put the purse on something else so it stands out better, ok?

 

 

There, that does it :)

Oh, look at that - she's fallen over with her fanny up in the air

 

 

It's ok little coin purse, just dust yourself off and whistle a little tune - I bet no one even noticed :)

 

 

I bought the frame at Quilttaffy

I do love my little coin purse! I'm very happy with the fabrics & it was fun to sew :)

However, I managed to make a mess of sewing the purse into the frame, which is why I'm not showing a photo of the inside.  I will go back and fix it soon, but she will have to wait until after the craft shows this weekend.   Just to be clear, I take full responsibility for the mistake I made, the pattern is just dandy :)

 

click on the UR Priceless button above for the full blog hop schedule {you really should go check it out, there are some amazing little purses being shown off!}  Today, these fine bloggers are showing their coin purses:

 

Julia P

Tina

Dachsies With Moxie

Marci Girl Designs

The Sunflower Patch

Wish upon a star

Mary on Lake Pulaski

Greco Mara

Linda M

Mack and Mabel

Dreaming in Patchwork

Judith Handmade Treasures

Kaydie

Caesarea Scrappers

Patchouli Moon Studio

Sew.Darn.Quilt.Sew We Quilt

 

I'm also going to link up to Fabric Tuesday - head over for adorable baby pictures & tons of quilty/sewing goodness :)

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

Easter sewing

Look what bloomed while I was out to Easter lunch Sunday :)

What do you cook for your in-laws, or company in general?  I have a habit of cooking something new, something I've never tried before.  Sometimes it is a total flop. But even when it isn't, an unfamiliar recipe under pressure can be stressful, you know?  I usually kick myself a dozen times over and vow not to put myself through that again.  And then I do.  I suppose the reason I search out new foods for special occasions is that our usual fare is rather dull.  I have better odds of getting dinner into the kids if it is simple food.  :)

Well, this weekend I did kind of the same thing, but in front of my sewing machine instead of the stovetop.  You see, I decided to bring a hostess gift for my Sister-in-law to Easter lunch.  Instead of flowers, I decided to sew her a little zippered pouch. 

I'd never sewn one before,  or any zipper at all.  I bought the fabric and zipper Saturday afternoon and spent Sunday morning sewing.  This is what I came up with:

It turned out fairly well I think, although I had my doubts for a little bit.  See, the directions called for a zipper foot, but somehow mine is missing.  I can't think what could have happened to it, I've never even used it.  So I made do with my walking foot, but the zipper pull knocked everything out of kilter when I had to stitch beside it.

I had a teensy bit of trouble when I didn't follow directions, and used too small a seam allowance.  Oops.

The corners on either side of the zipper are a bit odd.  There were openings on both sides of the zipper, because of the wrong seam allowance, that I had to hand stitch closed.  Oh, well, my sister-in-law liked it, and I'm planning to give it another go when I locate my zipper foot.  And I'll follow directions this time :)  If you're interested, I used a tutorial from Kelbysews.  And just to be clear, all problems I had were my own creation, the tutorial was great.

I love this picture :)
As for Easter lunch, I decided to ask the kids what they wanted me to bring - corn on the cob and ants on a log.  Nice and simple.  :)