Welcome to my new Sewing Room

Come on in! I'm excited to show you my new sewing room. I even have an extra chair in the closet and space at my table so we can sew together.

My cutting table. It's an old banquet table from our church. Very sturdy (and pink!)

My sewing desk. This is a freebie from a real estate office that went out of business. The chair was a freebie too. Bet you can't tell. :-)

The filing cabinet is full of fabrics. Knits, Denim, Flannel and thrifted sheets. On top of the filing cabinet is my mending pile and ironing pile. The closet has my batting an extra chair and the vacuum cleaner. Fat Quarters and small cuts are in the pop bottle crates. I love looking at those!

Beyond the filing cabinet is my design wall.

My ironing station. Under the table are my scrap bins and patterns.

My bulletin board and thread rack.

I feel blessed to have my own sewing room. It's upstairs so it has lots of light and I'm close to my family when I sew. And, in the winter I can actually sew without wearing shoes and a coat to keep warm! I've already been in there a little bit. I'll show you what I've been up to soon!

Riley Blake Contest

Just wanted to let you know about a little contest going on at Riley Blake Designs.

The only thing I can't figure out is if is for this year or next. If it's 2011 then the apparel deadline is over. But there would be time to enter for the quilting deadline. I like Riley Blake fabrics alot. Many of them are great for kids.

Okay, got it figured out. It's for this year and the apparel winners are posted here.

6 Months and a Skirt for Me

I had it in my head that I wanted a white tiered skirt for the summer. It was a fun experience even though I ended up going to Fabricland 4 times in total! I used a gauze fabric and lined it with broadcloth.  The lining isn't tiered - just a basic A-line shape.  The skirt is super comfortable.  The only thing I'm slightly unhappy about is that the lining rides up around my hips a bit and get stuck under the skirt so you can see a white line if I don't straighten it out.  I don't think it bothers me enough to change it though :)  The lace was a later decision and I love it!

For the waist I dipped the front down 11/2" (probably could've done 2) and made a knit waistband about 4" wide. I ended up slipping a wide elastic into it so it didn't feel like it was falling off.

I definitely don't like self-portraits - can you tell?!?  But here I am at 6 months pregnant :)

My camera is not very good and has a really hard time photographing white!

Last day of school!!

And I don't know who's more excited - the kids or me!  I can't believe another school year is done but we are so ready for holidays over here.  No early mornings unless we want too, no making lunches and no schedule!  I know that by the end of August I'll be ready for routine again but right now I'm ready for none :)

I copied one of Alisa's ideas and made pouches for the kids teachers and bus driver.  I used a tutorial from Noodlehead but changed up the front on two of them.  Very easy and fun to make!

And just a couple of pictures of what was going on here last week.  It was wet and rainy so I had to spend some time in my sewing room :)

A new floor!  So much nicer and easier to keep clean than the white carpet that was here!

Butterflies and Lady Bugs

I finished Tessa's butterfly shirt so now I can show you the girls finished outfits!  The skirts are made using a tutorial from Tanya at Grand Revival Designs and the shirts are freezer paper stenciled. 

You can find tutorials for the freezer paper stenciling here and here.  The one additional thing that I suggest is to put a piece of freezer paper under your fabric so that the paint doesn't bleed onto the back of the shirt.

Baby-in-the-Hood Jacket

I made this quite a while ago for a nephew of mine.  It's from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings

It was a lot of fun to make and came together very nicely.  Now let's hope he hasn't grown to big already it fits him this summer :)

Looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks T, Y and D!!

Teacher Gifts

Every year I have intentions of making little gifts for my kids' teachers and that usually doesn't happen. Why I did this year I have no idea as I have never been busier at this time of year. Possibly because they are small projects and I need a little bit of sewing to keep me from being too frazzled. And, I haven't been getting out much.Melissa's teacher is getting married this summer so we thought some potholders would be a good gift for her. Now that I've made a few, these are super easy and fast to make.
For Ben's teacher I made a fabric box. We'll put a card and some chocolates in there. This is the first year we've had a male teacher. What do you think? Would you give this to a guy?
A free tutorial/pattern is available for this pattern. It is very well written and easy to follow. Highly recommended. These 'boxes' come in many sizes so you can make what works for you.
It sure is fun playing around with fabric scraps.
For Deanna's teacher we are giving her one of the pouches I showed you on my last post. We'll fill it with candy or chocolates and call it done.

Quilt Till You Wilt

One of our local quilt shops hosts a Quilt Till You Wilt once per month. Rebecca and I have gone a few times and sometimes with another friend too. We were going to do it this month but I had to cancel out due to my husband working that night. (I was sad about that, believe me.) At the last minute my husband did not have to work and I got to go!! At this particular time it was really nice to get out. Really, really nice.
Thanks Rebecca, Jen and Ashley for the fun night. I know I acted like a goof but it's true, I don't get out much! :-) We paid for next month right away so I'm looking forward to it.
These photos are of the table runner I worked on while I was there. It was promptly given away to my husband's niece and her fiancee for their engagement.
It's good to spend time with the girls once in awhile. And quilting + friends = super fun!

Progress Report #1

A list seems to be working for me!  The girls skirts are finished.  I'll post a modeled picture once I finish the stenciled shirt.  I also fixed a couple of my tops and today I hope to get a start on my skirt. 

So much to do...

...but I can't seem to finish anything!  So I made a list!

I've got way to many things on the go at once and too many things I want to do.  Lists work for me when I do housework so I'm hoping to be crossing some things off shortly!

Something Special

This is a cross-stitched wall hanging I made my parents about 7 years ago with all their grandchildren's names on it.  I made it including the two rows of hearts on the bottom which were empty at the time and left a whole bunch of extra aida cloth folded up behind.  Last summer I took it from my parents to add another row on because they were all filled (I just hadn't put the names in yet) and, Lord willing, by the end of 2011 all the new hearts will be filled too!  Wow!  We praise God for the gift of life and entrusting to us so many of His children!

It's definitely harder to make the time to cross-stitch with 4 kids rather than one!  (I didn't own a sewing machine at the time I initially made it either!).  I'm finally making some progress though and hope to bring it back to them in a month or so when we go to BC.

A detail of one of the hearts.  They are all the same, I just used blue thread for the boys names and red for the girls. The heart pattern was from a book I or my Oma had.  I changed some of the colours and made my own overall pattern.

*I should add that my Mom, many, many years ago made something similar to this for my Dad's parents and that's what inspired me to start this one.

Little Bits

Just some little bits of sewing I've been sneaking in. And a few other bits too. Hope you are all having a good weekend. At the moment many of my fellow Canadians may be watching the Canucks. Right now it's 2-1 for Boston. Hopefully that turns around. :-)

Not sure if I've posted this bib yet. Just recently gave it to someone for their baby girl.

My brother and his wife just had a baby. I gave him the bib but I would still like to make something else. It'll be after the big move.

I tried my hand at a few little pouches. The one above is full of goodies for my sister who just turned 19!

I tried this box pouch using the tutorial here. The tutorial is good but I'm not sure I like this shape too much. The above pouch is actually the second one I made. I added a little handle to it.

Gave this one to another friend on her birthday. She even has a perfect use for it so I'm pleased.

A little dress and diaper cover for a sweet little girl who is turning 1. The dress is Simplicity 5118 and the diaper cover is from a tutorial at MADE. I just love a quick project that turns out cute!

Sports Day was on Friday! It was a beautiful day and the kids have so much fun! Just showing you the back of Deanna's PE shirt. After Benjamin losing 2 shirts in a very short period of time I decided to put our last name on the back of all the shirts. That way they can get passed down in our family but the name will stay the same. I used freezer paper to make a template then painted over it. The only thing is that I couldn't reuse the template over and over. It would just get very messy. So I had to cut out the template multiple times. Tedious! I actually did this project in January but haven't had the chance to photograph it until now. If you want to know how to make freezer paper templates you can see another tutorial at MADE.

Lastly, we are packing! The kids are having fun with the boxes. If you live local and have boxes, please let me know.

It's now tied 2-2!

They won!

Patchwork blankets made by Anneke and Lukas

We started these blankets back in Spring Break but didn't get them finished.  Anneke finished hers about a month ago and Lukas did a couple weekends ago when we had a holiday Monday.

They went through my flannel drawer and chose the fabrics they wanted.  It was fun seeing what they were drawn too.

This is Anneke's.  She didn't want anything to do with big prints and this is what she ended up with.  Very soft and feminine.

And here's Lukas'. The funniest comment came from him as I was winding a bobbin. He said, "Wow...it sounds like a machine!!" We had a good chuckle over that one :)

I cut the squares for them.  They had fun laying them out on the ground, figuring out what layout would work and they sewed all the squares together.  Because it wasn't going to be quilted I topstitched about an 1/8" away from the seam lines securing the seam allowances.  I also helped them pin the rows together and make the backing.

These are the backs.  We just did it pillowcase style and then they both chose a fancy stitch to top stitch with.

We just did it pillowcase style and then they both chose a fancy stitch to top stitch with.  Anneke used a flower one.

And Lukas chose turtles.  They didn't work out that great, partially because of the layers and seam allowances and partly because Lukas was guiding it and it goes back and forth so much it's hard not to pull.  I still think they're cute.

This was Lukas' first time using the sewing machine and Anneke's second.  They did a great job!

Oh...and they've decided that if the new baby is a girl then it can use Anneke's blanket and if it's a boy then Lukas'.  :)