Office Pillow #2

Here is office pillow #2! When I first met Amy this fall, we visited a fabric shop together and I saw Anna Maria Horner's Sketchbook Home Dec material in person and really loved it. I didn't buy any but said that I was thinking it might make a nice pillow cover for our office. At the time, the office room was still in the middle of the messy part of the renovation, not the decorating part. Wouldn't you know that she remembered that conversation and gave me a yard of this beautiful fabric for my birthday in November?

I've been anxious to make the pillow but other projects took precedence till now. I made a 20" pillow cover with an invisible zipper (my second ever, I might add). The front is fussy cut to more or less center the bird. I quilted the circle and the one branch the reaches over the circle from the right.

I also added some embellishments here and there, mainly in the form of matching French knots. I back stitched a vein on one leaf in the upper left corner. These are details that you don't notice at all unless you look for them, but they make me happy.

The bench is looking cheerier!

Office Bench Pillow #1

Here is the first of three pillows that I intend to make for our new office bench. Thank you for all of your compliments on the bench. My husband really did do a great job. It was a lot of work but I am sure we will enjoy it for years...especially once he gets to the table that he is supposed to build to put in front of it ;)

This pillow is intended to be sort of understated (that sounds better than boring or bland I think). One of the other pillows will be a simple pillow cover using a large scale fabric and the third pillow will be a bit on the busy side, using scraps from my Innocent Crush Double Hourglass quilt. I'd like them to play nicely together when they are all sitting on the bench.

I recently ordered new silkscreen inks and one of the bottles came with a broken top, leaking ink. The company was great to work with and sent another immediately. Meanwhile, I had a little ink left in the bottle that I thought I should put to use before it was no longer good due to the non airtight bottle. I printed a panel of my "Modern Blooms" design using the wine ink on natural linen for the pillow front. I hand quilted around the flowers using a mustard colored DMC embroidery floss.

The color of the embroidery floss picks up on the Innocent Crush material that I used for the backing. I matched the fabric up on the back as I was forming the envelope enclosure. I wasn't thinking at the time that the pillow would pull it open a little and mess up my careful planning! I should have used a zipper. Alas.

Worry Cat?

Did you know that children between the ages of 7 and 9 often experience separation anxiety? I didn't! I did know that my oldest little one has been having a very hard time leaving me each morning. Bus time has been hard. It's hard for him to go. It's hard for me to see his sad face in the bus window. I've been told by very reliable sources that he is a happy, smiley boy at school. His grades and behavior are great too. It's just hard to say goodbye and sometimes during the day, he wishes that he were back at home. I was reading a Parenting magazine last night before bed. It mentioned that this is actually common for children ages 7-9. Well, my 8 year old is smack in the middle of that age group. It was relief to know that this was a normal phase. The magazine gave some suggestions about how to help your child separate. The suggestion that my husband and I liked the most was giving your child a small object to take with them that would remind them of you. My son loves cats. He also loves the feel of silky materials and loops of ribbon on things. Green is his favorite color. This afternoon I made him what I am calling a worry cat. The idea is that he can keep it in his pocket (it's nice and small, only about 2 1/2" square) and reach for it when he needs it. There is a loop to fiddle with and the back is silky. And best of all, it is washable! My husband is already laughing about what it will look like by the end of the week. I'm looking forward to the afternoon bus to present it to him!

Edited to add: The worry cat received a huge smile when I gave it to my son after school yesterday. Today at bus time, he smiled at me and touched his pocket and hopped right on the bus! Amazing!

Finishing Touches-Simplicity 3897

Easter is rarely warm enough here for just a short sleeve dress. I made Penny this little pink linen coat using Simplicity 3897. I made view G but added the ribbon trim as seen in view F.

The linen is actually stretch linen. I was looking for pink linen at JoAnns for a number of weeks in a row and the only pink was labeled "stretch." I honestly didn't know that there was such a thing as stretch linen. I was hesitant to buy it but I knew I wanted to buy the material with one of my 40% off coupons so I finally did. It worked out just fine. If anything, it might make it a little more comfortable for her and it didn't change the look.

I let Penny pick out the buttons. She very clearly said "heart." I did limit her choices to just two different sets of buttons that matched. I was sort of leaning toward the butterflies but in the end, I think her choice was just right and the dots reminded me of some ribbon that I had at home. I ended up using it to trim the coat and it pulls in the blues and greens from her Easter dress.
Penny's coat is a size 2 with size 6 month sleeves. I guess she is going to take after her Mommy. Sleeves are always too long on me!

Our Window Seat Bench is Done!

I am delighted! Another project is complete. This window seat bench project of ours has been in the works for about three months now. I first mentioned it here a couple of months ago.

My husband and I designed this "L" shaped bench for our office. This end of the room is intended as a sitting area. There will be a table in front of the bench and a bookshelf to the right when all is said and done. There is storage space below the bench; some sections will be filled with books, others with games. The higher section on the right will hold a lamp just as soon as Penny is a little older.

Our progress was slowed a bit when my husband injured his back this winter. Leaning down to work on the bench made matters worse so I ended up doing all the finishing. The bench was stained in a color called "Espresso." The stain was followed by two coats of sanding sealer and then three finish coats with sanding required between each and every coat. Ick. My husband made the cabinet doors last and they have been in the kitchen all week receiving one step of the finishing process each night after work. After completing those, he determined that I did a better job with the bench finishing so he wants to turn the job over to me in the future. Drat. Sometimes doing a good job really doesn't pay!
Now I can make my pillows for the bench! I am very excited about that.
I also need to decide on window treatments. The room is very bright and sunny and we want to keep it that way but we also want the option of pulling shades because at times it can be impossible to see the monitor with the glare. We were considering having me make roman shades using these directions. Has anyone made them before? Were you happy with them? I am hesitant to try them because I fear messing up and wasting a large quantity of expensive material. I am also worried about them fading when left in the up or down position, leaving bands of darker and lighter colors. Any suggestions?

Butterick 3762 but this time in a size 2!

It's Penny's turn to show off her Easter dress today. It is also a Butterick 3762, like her big sister's dress and is made up in the same City Weekend fabric. This time, I opted for a different view since she isn't old enough to insist on the fiddly ruffles. I am also fond of scallops so I used the scalloped collar from view E but otherwise, made view A.

Here's the back. The detail that really makes this pattern for me is the the pleated waist. It's also the trickiest part. I followed the directions while making Lily's dress. I first sewed the side seams and the shoulder seams of the bodice and then the pleats. When I went to put in the zipper, the pleats did not line up and I had to spend some time ripping stitches and realigning them. This time, I did not sew the shoulder seams, only the side seams. Then I made the pleats while carefully measuring each step of the way to make sure that the pleats at the back on one side were the same height as they were on the other.

I am happy to report that it worked like a charm! It would have been ridiculously difficult to make the pleats on a small dress like this, with the shoulder seams sewn. It's much easier to be able to lay the piece flat.
I am so happy to have these two dresses done! I need to make a little coat for Penny next and then I am on to a couple more pillows!

Butterick 3762 in City Weekend

Lily wanted to try on her new Easter dress as soon as she got home from school. I took a couple of pictures but will be sure to take better ones on Easter. It's too cold to send her outside in this dress right now. We are still in the thirties here. Lily picked view C, the one with terribly fiddly ruffles on the neck and sleeves, Butterick 3762. The dress material is Moda, City Weekend, Corner Florist in Candy Store Pink, using Cafe Dot in Candy Store Pink for the ruffles.

This was my first time using Moda fabric for clothing and I have to say that it gathered particularly well and hangs nicely. And boy, does that skirt twirl!
Penny's dress is next on the agenda. Lily requested that they match. The materials will be the same and I will use the same pattern but I might try the scalloped collar option for Penny's dress.
I bought the fabric from Pinked Fabrics. Amy is carrying a number of prints from the City Weekend line. She also has a new offering in her shop! She and Virginia of Gingercake Patterns are teaming up to offer a art folio kit that includes the pattern and all supplies (except thread) to make an art folio. She will be selling kit "refills" as well.

"Modern Blooms" Applique Tee Shirt

I was itching to try out one of my new "Modern Blooms" appliques on a tee shirt for Lily. Her big brother couldn't resist getting into the picture too. I was lucky to get this one shot because the others are generally blurs of them rough housing rather than modelling the tee shirt! I ironed on a 4" applique then pinned a layer of "Tear-Easy" stabilizer on the backside of the tee shirt. Then I finished the edges of the applique with a tight zigzag stitch. It should wash very well. Lily will be back tomorrow, weather and photography session time permitting, to model her Easter dress that I will be hemming tonight.
Edited to add: I am selling the appliques already adhered to a fusible web called Lite Steam a Seam. So when I mentioned that I ironed it onto the shirt. I meant that I peeled off the backing on the fusible web and then ironed it on to the shirt.

Giveaway Winner

The giveaway winner is #40, Marsel who said "I would love to use the appliques on a summer dress for my daughter!" I am happy that Marsel won as she takes time nearly every day to leave a comment on my blog. She is a great supporter! Marsel, let me know what color and size appliques you would like and I will get them out to you!
For those who didn't win, if you feel that you must have some "Modern Blooms," please check out my offerings here!

Flying Geese Spring Pillow

I am going to visit some friends in about a week and wanted to bring a gift. I haven't visited in a couple of years and was having a hard time recalling how various rooms were decorated. I contacted the husband via email and asked what color pillow cover might suit his wife's decorating taste. Well, he did not disappoint! How many husbands could answer so completely? He told me that the first floor palette was pretty consistent and that if I stuck with yellows, browns and soft greens I would be safe.

I was a little concerned, not thinking I had fabrics in those colors but I was able to pull together bits and pieces of these prints for a flying geese pillow cover. I love how springy it feels!

I used the Meadowsweet 2 Daisy Path in Robins Egg as my starting point and chose the other fabrics to coordinate. I was thinking of pairing them with an off white until I thought of natural linen, as another shade of the requested brown. I love the look but I have to admit that sewing so many 2" HSTs with linen was not fun. It's shifty stuff and I like my points to line up. I managed OK though with a little help from my seam ripper.
I am looking forward to delivering this gift!

I'm linking to

Lavender Sachets and Modern Blooms

I printed these dresses from my linoleum blocks ages ago with the intention of making sachets filled with dried lavender. And then I never got around to making them. I kept putting them off because I couldn't find the perfect backing material until now. I decided on vintage sheets. Perfect!

The vintages sheets were just the look I was going for. The sachets hang on dotted satin ribbon hangers that are long enough to hang on a clothes hanger or a knob. They are in my shop.

More fuchsia ink arrived this week so I printed another batch of fat quarters with my Modern Blooms design. I love seeing them hang together. I hope you do too! They are also listed in the shop.

Happy Mail Day!

I got some more fun mail today! I know, it's been a good week for me in that department. Penelope entering into the terrible twos has offset it just enough that I don't feel too giddy. These are the potholders that I received from Kimberly, my partner in the Potholder Pass 6 swap. The theme was monotone and I asked for pink, green or blue and Kimberly went with the pinks! That's always a good choice for me. It's funny that she chose an asterisk block because I made up an asterisk block for her before changing course and making these. My block was made up of four asterisks all in different shades of green Kona solids. I am still not sure of what if anything to do with that orphan block. I like the way that Kimberly turned her asterisks into flowers. Clever, clever, clever!
Kimberly also included some fabric from the Bahamas which thrills me. I love having bits of fabric from different places. I will have to think long and hard before cutting into it. There is also some cute trim with turtles on it.
Thank you Kimberly!

Potholder Pass 7

Potholder Pass 7 Sign ups are beginning! You need to be an active Flickr type to participate. Here's the link. This round, the theme will be "anything but square." In addition to swapping potholders, you can choose to also swap reusable grocery bags! You can do one or the other or both!

For the reusable grocery bags, we will be using three great patterns:

Keyka Lou's Grocery Bag (20% off discount code will be sent to you with your partner info)

Sewtakeahike's Wrap It Up Bag (20% off discount code will be sent to you with your partner info)

Jane Market Bag

There is also a free tutorial option available.
Let the fun begin!

Jennifer Paganelli Love

I received these Queen Street fabrics from Jennifer Paganelli as part of my prize for the Sew, Mama, Sew Pieced Pillow Contest. Aren't they beautiful? When I opened the package, I was confused because I was sent more fabric than I was supposed to receive so I contacted Jennifer Paganelli through her website. Madeline, her assistant, wrote back that it was not a mistake! Apparently Jennifer likes to be extra generous.
So what should I make? I have nine fat quarters and two larger pieces (a half yard and a yard). Additionally, I have two pieces of laminate (in the back). One is a yard and the other is two yards. I was wondering if I had enough to make myself a raincoat out of that pretty pink print. It's two yards and I wear a size XS/S. I have to take a look at some more patterns and see. Then I thought of lunch bags, of course. Any other ideas?
The FedEx truck delivered a 12" down filled cube shaped pillow form today. That prize was contributed by Downlite. I am not quite sure what to do with a cube shaped pillow but I will think of something. I know that the kids would think that it was super fun to run and dive on but I am not sure that I want them doing that!

Introducing "Modern Blooms" and a Giveaway!

Do you remember the freezer paper stencil that I designed for one of my Dress a Girl Around the World pillowcase dresses? I was so fond of it that I decided turn the image into a silkscreen.

I arrived at this design. This is what a fat quarter looks like printed in peacock ink.

I am also printing the fat quarters in fuchsia ink. They look nice paired together.

I am selling the fat quarters in my shop along with some appliques. I fused the fabric to Lite Steam-A-Seam2 and then cut out each individual flower. Whoever purchases the flowers will just need to remove the backing and fuse the applique to their project! I plan to add these appliques to some of my tshirts and to my daughters' clothes as well! The appliques are printed in peacock (teal), fuchsia, lime and red.
And now to fulfill my promise...I would like to giveaway either a fat quarter or two appliques to the winner who will be chosen by the random number generator. All you need to do is leave me a comment here. I will choose a winner next Sunday, March 20th.

Edited to add: The fucshia fat quarters are temporarily sold out in my shop because I was playing with the fuschia ink for my initial designs and ran out halfway through the batch! Therefore, I only had one to put in the shop! I have more ink arriving early this week though and there will be more fat quarters in the shop later this week (and it is definitely still an option for the giveaway). I've learned my lesson and will practice with colors that I don't plan on using to print the final design!

Innocent Crush Double Hourglass Quilt

I was so eager to share pictures of my completed quilt that I took pictures this morning even though it is a very overcast day.



I started with a fat quarter set of Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner. It was a Christmas gift from my husband. When I set out to make this quilt, I decided that I wanted to try using solids in a different way. I didn't want to use just one solid for sashing and I wanted to try to avoid Kona Ash, simply because it seems like it is the go to solid for Innocent Crush and I wanted to try something different. I decided to pair each print with a coordinating solid. I looked for a block that used just two colors and settled on the Double Hourglass. I kept the blocks big since the print is large scale.



I was anxious about this quilt when I started making blocks. Although I liked them separately, I wasn't sure how they would look combined. I decided to keep going with the original plan and I ended up liking it!



For those of you who like to let your eyes rest a bit, then the back is for you. I decided to back the quilt with a natural linen and a pieced stripe. I love the grid that was formed on the back due to the quilting.



Quilt Stats:

Block style: Double Hourglass, 10" finished size
Dimensions: 60" square
Fabrics: Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner (not all prints were used)
Kona wine, lilac, eggplant, crimson, candy pink, burgundy, school bus orange, aqua, navy, turquoise lagoon and peacock. Binding = Kona eggplant. Backing = 100 % linen
Quilting: Straight Line, 1/4" on both sides of seams, Gutterman 518

Dress A Girl Around the World Sewalong: Embellishing with Freezer Paper Stencils

If you are visiting from Little Big Girl Studio for the Dress a Girl Around the World sew along, welcome! I am happy to be a part of this event.

When it comes to charity, I am always wishing that I could do more, give more. With this tutorial, I would like to show you how to inexpensively add a little something extra to a solid pillowcase to make it into a cute dress. Because it won’t cost you a lot, you can give more!

I purchased solid colored pillowcases at Target and prepackaged bias tape at JoAnns. I followed the tutorial provided by the Dress A Girl Around the World organization for my dresses. I wanted to keep my dresses fairly simple so that they would wash and wear well.

I embellished my dresses with freezer paper stencils. I would like to show you the basic technique that I followed here.

The first step is to design your stencil. You can use clip art images if your talents don’t lie in drawing. If they do, the sky is the limit! For my first design, I sketched a stylized flower. I colored in the design with a Sharpie and taped it to my cutting mat. I then placed a sheet of freezer paper (purchased at the food store in the wax paper/aluminum foil section) on top of the design, wax side down, and taped it in place.

Then I began to cut out the areas that I had colored in with my Sharpie using a sharp X-ACTO knife.

Once my stencil was cut, I positioned it on the dress, wax side down, and held a hot, dry iron to the surface for a count of 10. This melts the wax and temporarily adheres the stencil to the fabric. Then I applied fabric paint to the stencil using a flat bottomed stencil brush.

After allowing the paint to dry for at least six hours, you can peel the freezer paper off and ta-da, your stencil is complete! Depending on the brand of fabric paint that you purchased, you may need to heat set your design before washing.

For my second dress, I sketched a house and apple tree. This type of stencil requires a bit of thought and planning. In some cases, I needed to save pieces that I cut out and used them again when it came time to iron on the stencil. I think that the step by step pictures show this more clearly than words. Click to download the pdf showing the various steps.
House and Apple Tree Stencil Process.pdf


Finally, I made two more dresses with an easy, beginner friendly design that I will share with you. Click to download the apple stencil.
Apple Stencil.pdf


First I cut the apple exterior and leaf from the freezer paper, ironed on the stencil and applied the paint. On one dress, I stenciled a red apple and on the other, a green. (This picture was taken of the stencils once they were used but it shows you which shapes to cut first.)

Once the paint dried, I adhered a second piece of freezer paper with the seeds cut out and used a second color paint.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will join us in making dresses for girls in need around the world!