cleaning

My sewing room has been in a sad state for over a month now. It's pretty obvious by my lack of sewing lately that I've felt overwhelmed by the mess. Yesterday I finally dug in and started some major cleaning. It's still need some work, but I'm feeling much better about it after just a few hours. I even tackled 5 bags of scraps that haven't found a home on my new shelf. I threw a lot of tiny pieces away, organized those that I'm keeping, and stuffed a flat rate box to giveaway to one of my fellow scrap lovers.

While I was cleaning, I also came across a whole bunch of scarves I made last year. Apparently I had anticipated listing about 10 of each colorway and never did. To make room for some new things, I've listed these in my etsy store for $20 each. They make great holiday gifts!

So you know the drill. If you want to win a box of scraps, leave a comment and I'll pick a winner Friday. I should also mention that it's not just scraps. I believe I threw some random yardage in there and some vintage linens as well.

blocks, john & a walk

Wow, I can't believe how long it been since my last post. Things have just been a little busy around here. I'm taking a few classes, working out with a trainer at the gym, and applying to nursing schools. To add to that, we found out that John was going to have to go through more treatments, so I've been stressing about that as well. Seems like there's never a dull moment around here.

Anyway, it's been raining for the past few days and I finally found the perfect opportunity to sew. I had a lot of virtual quilting bee blocks to catch up on, so here they are:

For Sandy




For Sam:



For Beki:



For Valerie:



For Heather:



I'm glad it's finally Friday. We are walking the Light the Night Walk to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. My parents are coming down for it and my sister-in-law are also here with her kids. I'm excited for all of us to be together to support this cause. A few people on our team still need to reach their $25 fund raising goal, so if you had a few dollars to spare, we'd really appreciate it. If you're able to donate, you can do so by clicking here or here. If you want to read more about the latest with John, you can visit his page here. Thanks for all your support. Hope you have a great weekend!

Swallowtail

For the first time, I finally finished a handmade gift before the intended day. A miracle in its own right. This was my first foray into lace knitting and I have to say it was pretty fun. It's the Swallowtail pattern by Evelyn Clark. The only problem is it turned out much, much smaller than I thought it would. It's more of a scarf than a shawl and I'm not sure its recipient would like something scarf-size. Since I have more of this yarn, I'm knitting another one with larger needles and probably adding more repeats. This probably won't be done in time, so I'm right back to giving gifts late. Oh well, one can try, right? And this picture of me? Taken by Isaiah, our new house photographer. Not the most flattering, but I'm impressed that it's pretty much in focus.

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl
Needle size: #4
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Lace Emerald

doll quilt received!

One of the best and worst parts of joining a swap is the anticipation waiting for your little package to arrive. For the last week I've been waiting and stalking my mailman for my quilt to arrive from the Doll Quilt Swap. I love this swap. I've received several fabulous quilts in the past and this round is no different. Today I was delighted to see a package in the mailbox after returning home from working out with the trainer at the gym (ouch, but that's a whole other story). I knew it had to be my doll quilt! I was so happy to open up this little gem and couldn't help but notice that my partner, Jennifer, was from VA, just stone's throw from me. Small world, right!??! I hung it up on my bedroom wall, a spot that's been empty since we moved here 3 years ago. I just love it! Thank you so much Jennifer!!

more thrift finds

I can't believe it's only Wednesday. This week feels like it has been so long! We went up to NY on Friday for a quick weekend trip. It was beautiful & fun, but way too short. Of course Isaiah and I are both sick, which is not fun since I've had class this week and an interview for nursing school. Hopefully we'll start feeling better soon. One thing that is brightening my day is these great thrift finds. Lately I've been having a lot of luck in the fabric/linen department at my thrift store. I found these 3 sheets and 2 pieces of wool/nylon/acrylic houndstooth still with the tags on!

Some of this will probably end up in my vintage etsy shop. I can only hoard so many vintage sheets here. I just have a major problem passing them up when I see them. If anyone's interested in any of them, let me know and I'll set up something for you on etsy. Hope you're all having a good beginning to your fall!

Little Houses PDF patterns ready!

I just wanted to pop in and let you know that the Little Houses PDF pattern is now available for sale in my etsy shop. The pattern includes templates for 6 different houses all using the paper piecing technique. Thank you to my testers, who made some very cute houses. Tammie has posted some pictures of hers on her blog and you can see them here. Mary also tested the blocks and finished a doll quilt which you can see here. It's soo cute! Each block is about 5.75" square finished so 6 of them together makes a perfect doll quilt. Of course you could make a whole bunch to make a larger quilt. I swear, once you make one house, it's hard to stop. They are so cute and addicting!

Also, to celebrate my newest pattern, I'm having a 2 for $10 sale. You'll get the house pattern and the ruffle wristlet pattern. Happy Sewing!

want to make your own house?

Thank you for all your comments on my little house quilt! It was really fun to make and very addictive. So much so that I'm working on some paper piecing patterns for the houses. Mine was not paper pieced, but I figured that it would be easier for people to follow. I've created one that I'll be sharing with you all for free. It is the same pattern I used to make the block of the pink house. The finished block is approximately a 6" square. I have a couple more blocks in the works and I'll be offering them for sale in my etsy shop as soon as they're ready. ** Update-- They're available now in the shop!*** If you've never paper pieced before here are two sites that have pretty good tutorials.

You can print on regular printer paper or use freezer paper, whatever you prefer. Also remember to set you stitch length to a smaller length so that it will be easier to tear the paper off in the end.

Here is the link for the free house pattern. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them in the comments section. Paper piecing can be tricky, but the more you do it, the easier it will get. Scraps are fine to use for this project, but make sure you have enough fabric to cover the piece it will go on.

I'm also in need of a couple of testers to try them out to make sure everything works out. If you're interested and can get back to me quickly, let me know!

Finished Doll Quilt

You may remember me asking your opinion on how to finish my doll quilt for Doll Quilt Swap #7. I was finally getting ready to finish it yesterday and started making a pieced house for the back. The house turned out so cute it became addictive and before I knew it I had made 5 more, just perfect for a doll quilt. So what did I do? Yep, I started a brand new Doll Quilt and actually finished it this afternoon. I tried my hand at some free motion quilting and I think it came out pretty well. I still have a lot of practicing to do but I'm happy with the way it looks. I was really inspired by this amazing quilt, which I'm sure many of you have seen already. It is so cute! My houses aren't nearly as small and I can't imagine how that woman managed to sew such tiny pieces. It felt good to work on this project because I actually started and finished something within 2 days. I can't remember the last time I did that!

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend. I'm hoping to squeeze in a little more sewing time and hopefully have a few more projects finished!

Winner winner chicken dinner...

Which is a completely appropriate phrase since our winner is Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew who said :

"I'm Allison, and I'm sitting here blogging trying to avoid changing a poopy diaper and hoping my husband will do it instead. Not likely. :)"
Allison, please send me your address so I can mail our your scraps!


Thanks to everyone who played along. I loved reading your little "about me's." We all sound like we like to do the same thing: sew or quilt and forget cleaning! ha. I'm glad to know I'm not alone.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow for some good craftiness.

cleaning=giveaway

So things have finally calmed down around here. I finished my class last friday and John went to back to work on Monday. Isaiah's school is closed this week so I finally got some time to hang out with him again, just me and him. It's been so nice. I finally started going through my scrap bags and I've decided that it's time for a giveaway. Plus this also happens to be my 350th post so it seems like a perfect time for a giveaway. I have a ridiculous amount of scraps because I really never throw anything away. Even tiny little pieces. For some reason I always think I'm going to need them. It might be a sickness. Anyway, I have a FRE stuffed with all sorts of scraps. Some are larger like fat quarters and others are just small scraps that would be good for patchwork. To win just leave me a comment telling me something about yourself. It could be anything, like "hi I'm Katie and I really hate putting silverware away." To earn an extra entry, you can either tweet about it or post it to your blog. Just make sure to mention it in your comment here. I'll pick a winner on Monday afternoon. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Light the Night (and fabric)

John and Isaiah are in Cape Cod this week vacationing with his parents, while I'm stuck here studying in 100 degree weather. Seems unfair, right?!?! Well I am glad to have a little time to myself and if I can get my act together maybe I'll fit in some sewing. Anyway, I wanted to pop in here and mention that in October John and I, along with some friends and family will be participating in the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As many of you know, my husband John has been fighting cancer for the past 2 years. In December he had a bone marrow transplant and is on his way to beating this cancer. As a stay at home mom, this was scary for me in so many ways. John was our family's sole provider and he was unable to work for several months. During this time, we received help from many places, without which I would have had to search for a job during the most difficult time in our lives. Thankfully this was not the case and John has since been able to return to work and I am going back to school to obtain a degree in nursing. It is so important to have these foundations around to support cancer patients and their families. Not only do they provide money for those who need it during treatment, but they also fund research needed to cure and prevent cancer. I have gotten more long winded about this than I had intended to, but this is a cause near and dear to my heart. If you have any money to spare (and I know things are tight right now), please consider donating to our team. We are hoping to raise $5,000 as a team so even the smallest donations will help. If you are in the D.C. area and would like to walk with us, we'd love to add you to our team. Simply click the "walk with us" button on the page. The more the merrier!

And as a thank you (or a ploy) for your donation, I will hold a giveaway for all those who donate. I will most likely send an assortment of vintage fabrics, including the fabrics from the last post. If you donate and want to be entered into the giveaway, please let me know so that I can enter you. Also, the fabrics are also in my vintage shop if you just want to purchase from there. I know several people were interested, so I thought I'd mention it.

Finally, thank you for all the support and prayers you guys have sent our way over the last two years. It has been so appreciated and made us feel really loved!

Thrift scores

I've been pretty lucky the last few weeks with the thrift store and a really awesome moving sale. Oh, the moving sale. I'm still dreaming about it, wishing I had bought more stuff. It was a very nice old lady who was moving from her home and I really could have just moved right in and kept all of her things. She had a sewing room filled with fabrics & notions, a kitchen full of great pots, bowls, and recipes, and a huge room filled with old kids toys & books. When I say toys, I mean awesome fisher price toys that had barely been played with. Of course, I don't have any pictures of these. Isaiah's already playing with the toys I bought and the fabrics I bought are in the wash. What I do have to show are the awesome fabrics I picked up at the thrift store last week. There were probably about 15 more pieces of fabric I could have brought home, but I'm really running out of fabric storage space around here.



Two of these pieces are screenprints on 100% linen. I'm sure this was really expensive fabric. It has the most wonderful texture.

This pink one is just fun. Maybe a bag or a skirt?

And this other fabric? Well, I have an entire bolt of it! Exciting, right?

Since this is more fabric than I need at the moment, I'll probably be putting some up for sale in my vintage etsy shop. Which is looking pretty bare, I probably should upload all the vintage items laying around my house! If you'd like me to reserve you some fabric, let me know.

I almost forgot! Thanks for all the input on the doll quilt and for your well wishes for John. I haven't decided what to do about the quilt yet.

DSQ #7

I couldn't resist signing up for Doll Quilt Swap 7. I just love making these small quilts and getting one in return. I think this is the 4th round that I've participated in. As fate would have it, I have no tests or quizzes this week, so I thought I'd get a head start on my quilt. I didn't want to get too behind. This is what I've come up with so far. My original idea was to put white circles at some of the points, but now that it's together I'm not sure if I want to. So, any opinions? The circles in the picture are just freezer paper, so if I did end up doing the circles, they'd be more uniform and they would not be see through. I look forward to hearing what you have to say! (sorry for the blurry photo!)

I also wanted to give you guys a little update on John. He had a scan last week and received really great results. There is very little sign of cancer left and we are so thrilled. Now he's dealing with a skin rash from what is called Graft versus host disease. He's really being a trooper, but I know he'd be much happier if it would just go away! So, if you want to send a little prayer his way that the doctors find the right treatment for that, I'm sure he'd be most appreciative.

catching up

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I just finished my class on Friday and I ended up doing really well in it. It's nice to know all my studying (and therefore lack of sewing) really paid off. I had a nice little break over the weekend before starting the 2nd half of the class yesterday. I fit in a little sewing yesterday and today before I got crazy busy with studying again. I had two blocks to make for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee. One for Stephanie who is making a spiderweb quilt. I just love the fabrics she sent and I can't wait to see her finished quilt. It is going to look amazing!

The second block is for Edith and she requested circles of some sort. I had seen this circle tutorial on dioramarama a while back and have been wanting to try it forever. It turned out to be a perfect technique for sewing circles and didn't take longer than a hour to do (which included me allowing the glue to dry for a while). I think this could get really addictive.

Anyway, what's been going on with you guys? I hope you are all having wonderful summers. It's hard to believe it already half way through July. Sorry I haven't been commenting lately on your blogs, but I have been reading. I promise to be back to commenting after this class is over, probably with a margarita in hand!

Cushions

I finally found a few hours to finish up a project for my friend Katie. I'm afraid to admit how long ago she gave me this cushions to make new covers for, but better late than never right? (At least I hope anyway!)

It was really a simple project, most of the time was really devoted to measuring and cutting. I think usually this is the longest and most boring part of a sewing project. I just traced the existing cushions and measured the rest of the covers that Katie dropped off. I love the fabric that she chose. I think she got it at Joann's and it was from the Better Homes & Gardens line. I don't think the pictures really show the true color since it is more of a lime green. Very summery and fun. All I need to do now is press and trim some threads. Hope you like them Katie!

A gift for you!

So life has been crazy since I started this class. The house is a mess, I've done absolutely no sewing, and I think I've never studied this much in my life. And this is only for one class. I think this is partly due to the fact that it is a summer class and so everything is just packed into 6 short weeks. The only other thing I've been doing besides studying (well and playing a lot of baseball with Isaiah), is swapping a lot of fabric. It's kind of getting on the obsessive compulsive side! So many cute fabrics! If you look at my post about swapping, there is a link to the flickr group. It's private now, and I think you have to ask for admission into it now. I've received a lot of my favorite Flea Market Fancy fabric from this swap and it's been so exciting to look at the mail box everyday!

Speaking of fabric, Fabric.com was nice enough to offer my dear blog readers a coupon for $5 off your next purchase. It is good from June 17th to June 24th, just enter "blogseekatiesew" at checkout. You could get yourself some of my newest favorite fabric Lantern Bloom by Laura Gunn. Isn't it pretty? They also have a whole section of fabrics for under $5 a yard. I highly recommend fabric.com. I've ordered from them in the past and they ship quickly and have so many great fabrics in stock. Don't say I didn't warn you!

quilting bee blocks

Today I took an hour to sew and finally caught up on my blocks for my two quilting bees. This block is for Diane who is making a quilt for her 100+ year old house. I had something else in mind, but the triangles were giving me such a hard time that I had to modify the orginial design. This one is for Jenn. She asked for rectangles and squares. (I don't know why this is so blurry. I guess I was in a hurry!)

Finally, this is for Michelle who is making a sampler quilt.

I was originally going to make a block called Martha Washington, but realized I didn't have enough solid, so I modified that one as well. To see the other blocks being completed by the groups, you can check the respective flickr groups.

Now I'm back to studying for a little bit before Isaiah gets home. I already have a test on Friday!!

eye candy

I might be sewing much these days, but at least I'll have some new fabric waiting for me when I can find the time. Right now I'm "relearning" to learn and how best to manage my time. Hopefully it'll come back to me like riding a bike. I started school on Monday and wouldn't you know that Isaiah got a fever at school and had to come home. Then Tuesday morning, John and I were unaware of their fever policy and we got a call from the school 1/2 hr after he was dropped off saying we had to come pick him up. Talk about stress! Anyway, today he's fine and has been at school all day long. Hopefully there won't be anymore problems, this class is hard enough! Just in case you want to get your own fabric, I bought it here.

a new flickr group

Oh man, I'm really slacking on the blogging lately. The month of May just flew by, it's so hard to believe it is June already! Today I started my first day of class. I'm taking one class this summer, and probably two in the fall. I'm hoping to go back to school for nursing in the Spring, so things will probably be pretty hectic for a while. Of course, because I was totally anxious about going back to school, I decided it would be a good idea to do some reorganizing. So, I moved somethings around, one being a shelf that housed all my fabric leaving my sewing room a giant mess. I picked up a new shelf at IKEA and I'm hoping that at some point this week I'll get it back together.

In the meantime, I've been dreaming about fabric. Someone pointed me to this new group on flickr that is for swapping out of print/hard to find fabric. It's called Desinger fabric stash swappy poo. Basically you can load which fabrics you are willing to swap and state what you're looking for. I just uploaded these Flea Market Fancy prints and I'm hoping to finally get a complete collection of the prints. I'm missing a few and I'd really like to get my hands on some of the brown, aqua and gray ones, just like everyone else. Anyway, feel free to join the group. There are some gorgeous fabrics in there! Hope you're all having a great beginning to your week.

thrifting

Gosh, it seems like I am barely blogging these days. It's not really that I'm that busy, it's just that I haven't really done any creating lately. Anyway, we had a great Memorial Day weekend and I think I'm still recovering from it. We had a BBQ here on Sunday that I still have dirty dishes from. I'm hoping the magic dish fairy will come finish them for me.

On Monday, my sister and I ventured out to the thrift store because everything was 50% off. There were tons of people, but I managed to find some really great stuff. I don't know about you, but whenever I see pretty dishes I have a really hard time leaving them behind. If only I needed all of them! I did pick up quite a few, but I plan on listing them all in my vintage etsy shop. I just don't have the room to keep them around but I couldn't leave them at the thrift store! I really think there needs to be a support group for this problem.

Most of these items were designed by Ben Seibel and there were a lot more of his designs at the thrift store too. I was just imagining that someone was a huge collector of his stuff and that it was given to the thrift store. I mean there was so much of it there!

At the last minute, I also found this really cute apron which I couldn't pass up. It's reversible, the one side has lace and the other has the cutest bird print fabric with blue strawberries! It even has pockets on both sides. My sister looked at me like I was crazy when I picked it up, but I still love it! I guess she doesn't appreciate aprons as much as I do. It's a terrible photo, aprons are so hard to take pictures of!

I guess I'll go finish the dishes since it seems that fairy isn't coming today. What's on your agenda for today?