another belt bag

After making the last bag with the belt as a handle I knew there would be more on the way. This one is made with fabric from the Dogwood line, thrifted wool, a black corduroy, and a little touch of fabric from the 1974 line. I'm pretty pleased with the style of this one too. I was feeling ambitious and even added a zippered pocket in the lining. Hopefully my sewing mojo, which I've lost in the past few days, will come back so I can make some more of these!

BLQB blocks and john update

I am finally caught up on my blocks for the Busy Little Quilting Bee.

This block is for Jenny who is making two quilts for her daughters. This is for her daughter who likes diamonds and giraffes. I was going to try to add more diamonds, but those little suckers are tricky!

This block is for Betty who requested triangles. I basically drew out on a plain piece of paper how I wanted it to look and then just paper pieced the triangles. This could probably get really addicting.

These two blocks are for Valerie who is making two quilts for her family room. She sent all these gray and yellow fabrics and I think it quickly becoming one of my new favorite color combination.

I also wanted to give a quick update on John. He had a PET scan on Monday and we were really pleased (and relieved) by the results. He only has one remaining "lesion" and the scan showed that it is slightly smaller and less "intense" since he last scan. So he can continue with his normal treatment and by next week he'll be down to one doctor's appointment a week instead of the two he's been having. Very exciting stuff!

Meeting Heather Ross & Weekend Sewing

On Saturday I met up with Stephanie and Kristen to go see Heather Ross at a signing of her new book Weekend Sewing. We were all excited to go meet such a celebrity in the sewing world. She demonstrated the Little Girl's Smocked Dress from her book and it really made me wish I had a girl! Too cute! Anyway, it was so fun and we all chatted for a while afterward. She is just as nice and down to earth as she seems on her blog. We also got to see samples from her newest line Far, Far Away and it is just gorgeous. I cannot wait for this fabric line to come out. The fabric itself is actually made of two layers of fabric. It is the most wonderful feeling fabric and the prints are beautiful. Anyway, here is Heather and I. For some reason my fist is weirdly clenched. It's a very odd picture of me, but hopefully not too scary.

So more about the book. I have to say I really, really love this book. Yesterday I made the little boy shirt (Kai's shirt) for Isaiah. It only took a few hours (with lots of breaks in between) and it was really simply and easy. The only thing I have left to do it put on the buttons. Isaiah loves the shirt and it fits him perfectly. It's made with the Swim Class fabric from her Mendocino line.

I debated about buying this book at first because I already have so many craft/sewing books. But trust me, if you like sewing, then this is definitely a book that you'll want to add to your collection. It is great because I can imagine myself making every single project from the book, something that I could probably not say about the other sewing books I own. Not to mention that I was thrilled that there are projects for little boys in there. Her instructions are clear and easy to follow, plus all the diagrams are hand drawn, which I just love. Now Isaiah is demanding a pair of seahorse pants. Who am I to deny him a pair of handmade pants?

a new bag

Finally I have something finished to show! I made this bag over a few days. Truthfully, I could have finished it sooner, but I really wanted a vintage belt to use as a handle.

The fabric is from the Dogwood line by Michelle Engel Bencsko. It really is a beautiful line of fabric. I think the main reason why I love it so much is that I have a Dogwood tree right outside of my window of my sewing room and I watch the birds come to the feeder while working. Anyway, more about the bag. I used thrifted corduroy fabric on the bottom and a thrifted gingham fabric for the lining. Normally when I make bags I tend to use a lightweight fabric for the lining, but this lining is a home dec fabric weight. I found that I much prefer this because it give the bag more stability without having to add more than one layer of interfacing. I really love the belt strap too. I picked up a few more at the thrift store too, so I'm going to try them on some different bags. Maybe another bag with the blue bird fabric from the Dogwood line?

more wips and a St. Patty's Sale

I have been sewing a lot the past few days, although I don't really have anything finished to show. It seems the more I sew, the more my WIP stack grows. See, I have a craft fair coming up at the end of April and I'm starting to get anxious that I haven't sewn a single thing for it. I did this same fair in October and it poured the entire time. Even with the weather there was a decent crowd, so I'm hoping with nice weather (and tax returns, haha) that it'll turn out to be a good one. The thing I noticed was that it was a very family oriented community and lots of mothers were there shopping for their kids. There was a woman selling doll dresses and she was selling them left and right.

I figure instead of sewing clothes, which would take me forever, I'd make some doll quilts to bring with me. That idea flooded my brain with quilt ideas so now I'm hopping from one quilt top to another. Let's just hope I can finish them in time for the craft fair!

I almost forgot to mention that I've having a St. Patty's Day Sale in my etsy shop today. My Wristlet Pattern is on sale for $7.00 and most everything else has been marked down 20%.

More DBJ

Since that pile of fabric was sitting on my sewing table making me feel guilty, I figured I'd try to catch up on some of my Dear Jane blocks. Of course, that was the whole "reason" I started fabric shopping in the first place! I managed to make 7 more blocks and have 1 or 2 in progress. I think I'm around 20 behind now and it feels so good to be closing in. I'll have to make a trip over to Joann's at some point though because I'm almost out of red and aqua fabrics again! I think at the end of this I might own every red and aqua fabric made, which is fine by me!

new fabrics

Since I need 200+ fabric for my Dear Jane Quilt, I started shopping around to find some different red and aqua fabrics. The next thing I know, my cart was filled with fabrics that I "didn't need." And then I clicked checkout. How did that happen? Well needless to say, some gorgeous fabrics have a nice new home. Now, what to do with it all?? Oh, and that flea market fancy fabric? I was lucky enough to find 3 yards on eBay because the seller had several misspellings in the titles. Score!

more quilt blocks

I didn't mean to disappear like that. I've kind of been in a blogging funk which has turned into a life funk, or vice versa. Luckily I had a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather that snapped me out of it. I am just so over winter and can't wait to be spending the majority of our time outside. I know I'm not the only one, right?

I did spend a little time inside catching up on some virtual quilting bee blocks. I really love that natural sunlight for sewing! Stephanie sent ABC blocks and pink and green fabrics. We had the option to embroider the centers, which I did. I think pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations so this was definitely fun.

Sara requested the popular spiderweb blocks. She sent along different strips of reproduction fabrics with white fabric for the centers. This is really addictive, I tell you!

If you want to see more of the blocks for this month's Pieced Together Quilting Bee, check out the flickr group.

latest finds

I have had a couple of great thrift finds lately. A few weeks ago I found a huge bag of vintage knitting patterns. They are so fun to look through. The styles, the models, and the pictures are something else! These are a few of my favorites. The baby one is from the 30's!

The Japanese mugs are from a thrift store I rarely go to. Actually, it's a funny thrift store because it's two thrift stores in one huge building. You could spend a whole day there. I picked them up on a 50% day off too!

Lastly, I found this vintage cheater cloth on Sunday. I had walked past the sheets and saw this piece and immediately threw it into my baskets. Later as I was sifting through the fabric section, I spotted another piece of the fabric, except it hadn't been sewn at all. Score! I ended up buying both pieces because I just couldn't resist them.

And for some exciting news. I've opened up a vintage shop to sell some of my finds. I often pick up things that I really love at the thrift store but have no room for. I find myself needing to buy them because I just can't leave them behind for someone else! It's probably a sickness but at least I'm admitting it. Some of the things above are listed, including the mugs and some of the cheater cloth. Hopefully I'll be adding more things this week. Come and check it out here.

Today Isaiah and I are venturing out in the snow. I think this is the most snow he's seen in his 3 years. We hardly even get a good amount of snow, especially in March!