Happy Groundhog Day!

Hello every one, I missed posting on Ground Hog day because of a migraine  :(
If you missed Phil's prediction, you can check it out here:




Are you familiar with Wild Olive blog?  If not, pop on over and check it out.  I'll wait.

Oh hi, you're back - what did you think?  I know, right?  :)   Mollie's blog is one of my favorite reads :)
When I saw her tutorial for a baby groundhog & shadow, I knew I had to make one!

in my usual last minute style, I didn't even get to start on my little Punxutawney Phil until Ground Hog Day Eve.

all over blogland, people are using minkie to back their quilts.  Never having sewn with the stuff myself, I was curious, and when Joann's had some of their version in the remnants bin it just had to come home with me.  It makes great Phil fur :)




Oh my, I'm over due for a manicure, I'll just tuck those fingernails out of sight, ok?  but Phil's tail is cute, right?  :)




I found it easier to turn the minkie-ish fabric under the needle to follow all of Phil's curves than other fabrics I have tried to make stuffed animals from.




Is that a minkie thing, or does my machine have PMS?

My machine has never skipped stitches before  :(




Here he is, my finished ground hog! :)




and here is a closer look at his butt and shadow  :)



I hope your Groundhog Day was fantastic, and enjoy your 6 more weeks of winter!

I'm partying at Show & Tell Tuesday,  You Flew, Crazy Mom,

it isn't easy to get an interesting picture of a pillowcase...

there is more to say about this project, but it will have to wait for another day.  for now, my Friday finish is this pillowcase :)







linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

a pillow covered

I braved a blizzard to go outside and take a photo of this week's finish.  That's because it has already been put to use and is living in it's new home, the minivan.  :)

Lately, my youngest son has been falling asleep in the car.  He looks so uncomfortable all slouched over, so obviously he needed a snuggly pillow.

I had a 27" square {so I thought} pillow form I bought for something else hanging around, so I bought some flannel from Joanns to cover it with.  My son helped sew it all together!  I love that he wants to learn to quilt & sew!  :)

It turned out fantastic, except the pillow form is more like 24" square so the cover is saggy baggy, but my son insists he likes it that way, so I'm not fixing it.

It's a Friday & I have a finish, so I'll be linking up to these fine parties:
Finish it up Friday
TGIFF @ Kit Lang Art
Whoop Whoop Friday
Link a Finish Friday
Creative Friday
{I am soooooo ready for the weekend!}

decorating for Halloween....

It's never too early, right?



Remember the Curves Class I signed up for?  One of the first week's projects was this scallop bunting.  I chose this project mainly because it was the quickest & required the least amount of shopping for extra supplies {time and money were both in short order about the time class started}

But honestly, bunting really doesn't do much for me.  I had a hard time deciding on fabrics, thinking that I wasn't going to want to hang this up when it was done, and I didn't know anyone I could gift it to.  It crossed my mind to make a Christmas version, but I didn't have enough Christmas fabrics left.  And besides, I really need a break from Christmas  ;)



I thought about a baby girl version, with a specific new little one in mind, but I wasn't sure if the parents would want to hang it up in their nursery.

{ideally, I would have vacuumed before taking pictures.  but if I waited for the ideal situation, I'd never get anything done.  so please pardon my dirty carpet}  :)

Anyway, I went stash shopping, and somewhere in between fabric flying out of drawers/cubbies/bags etc I found my little bundle of Halloween fabric. Perfect!

These were set aside for a quilt, but I don't think using these little bits will mess up those plans much  {we won't mention how long these fabrics have been waiting to be turned into a quilt.  Or that I ended up prewashing 9 yards of fabric for a project that needed 2 FQs}



my 7 year old helped sew the final stitches on the double fold bias binding, and our first Halloween decoration is currently hanging in the living room!  :)

I love when a project turns out so much better than I anticipated!

I'm linking up to some fabulous parties:
Crazy Mom Quilts; Richard & Tanya Quilts; TGIFF @ Made in Home; Whoop Whoop Fridays; Pieceful Life's show off Friday; A Stitch in Time; Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday & Sew Cute Tuesday

crafting, slowly

Well, I did it :)  I turned the rest of those two charm packs into coasters yesterday.  I love when life goes acording to plan ;)  There are now 16 of these little cuties.

These are four of the grocery bag holders I made, the fifth one still has the ribbon hanger on the wrong end.  I know it doesn't look like it would make a difference, but the bottom ends have tighter elastic than the tops.  Plus, I chose the only directional print I was working with to get upside down.

Before you ask, no, I don't need to keep that many plastic bags.  Or put that many drinks on cute little bits of fabric goodness.  I signed up for two craft fairs.  On back to back days.  In two weeks.  You are looking at my complete inventory.

With the exception of the two charm packs, I'm using fabric I already have, so my out of pocket cost is minimal.  At the time I thought the worst that could happen would be I wouldn't sell anything, and everyone I know would get handmade Christmas gifts this year.  No problem, right?  Now I'm afraid I won't have anything to sell.  I just haven't been able to carve out the time to sew I had hoped for, because when push comes to shove my kids and our homeschool have to come first.  Even if it means I'm going to look like a total fool with next to nothing to sell.

Ok, I'm done whinning now :)  I was going to do some linking, but on second thought I probably shouldn't drag this pity party around blogland.  I'm off to cover some journals with fabric, once we get through geography, science, reading, math, handwriting, etc. etc.   On the plus side, I'm far too busy to be bored :)

I {heart} our Sunday School teachers, Part 1

About two weeks before the last day of Sunday School, I decided to sew a little something for each of my kids' teachers.  I wanted them to know just how much I appreciate their service for my sons.

The quiet voice of reason in the back of my head said I wouldn't have enough time, but I didn't pay any attention.  Darned if it wasnt right, though.  Ah, well.  The gifts are done now, and I trust a little delay won't diminish the sentiment.

The fabrics I used were Noah's Ark by Jim Shore.  It seemed an appropriate choice  :)
Above is the large focal print, and here are the other fabrics I had to work with:

I originally bought these fabrics to make a large bag for myself to carry all those things you can't seem to leave the house without when you have youngsters.  But I had been carrying childish diaper bags for so long, I decided I really didn't want to carry a Noah's Ark bag around after all. 

So the fabric has been languishing in my stash.  And that bothered me, because I liked it and wanted to use it.  For awhile I thought I would get a little more of this and that and turn it all into a baby sized double wedding ring quilt.  I wanted to use various colors to make the arcs into rainbows, with fussy cut Noah's Arks in between, the tan Two-By-Two print for a border, and the rainbow stripe cut on the bias for binding. 

It would have been great, I know it would have.  But I just had to admit I didn't want to buy anymore fabric. Or invest the time in a difficult pattern for a quilt without a future home. 

So, when I popped the top off my stash and Noah's Ark was staring back at me, I thought, Aha! I'll turn these into...

{sorry to leave you hanging, but the sun and my schedule are finally cooperating so I can get the last pic taken.  I'll be back later, promise}

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

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

A different kind of stitching

Hey, did you notice my new button?  It's over there, on the right.  That's it :)  I'm taking the Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

I've never sewn any clothes for my kiddos, it's one of those To Do's that haven't made it off the list.  I'd like to make something for each of my boys as well as my goddaughter.

I don't have any definite plans yet, but these fabrics have been hanging around with no purpose for a long time now:

The top fabric is a paisley I-forget-what -it -is-called, the pink floral is seersucker I think, and the red on bottom is corduroy.

And from my garden:

I'm so thrilled my daffodils are blooming!!!  I'd cut some to share with you if I could, but we will just have to settle for virtual flower sharing, won't we?  These are new to my garden this spring.  My Mother-in-law shared some bulbs she divided last fall.  They were originally planted around the family farmhouse decades ago by my husband's step-grandmother.  I like having flowers blooming in my garden that have a family history.  :)