Saturday, December 26, 2009

Knitting!!




With the new craft movement and all, I have looked longingly at all the gorgeous yarns out there wishing I knew I how to knit. For Christmas this year, my father painstakingly scanned in 2000 (out of how many more still left) slides from our childhood and sent all 4 of his children a DVD with the first years. The slide scanning technology is so great, it makes the slides look like brand new photos, the color is still so amazing. I haven't looked through all 2000 (my husband drew the line when we hit around 600 when I was about 13 or 14 wearing short mini skirts and sporting long long hair) BUT this one photo just struck me. My sister and I KNITTING! I love this photo!

Since she's missing front teeth, I'm guessing she's about 6 which would make me 8 which would make this 1967-68. Don't you love the curtains? And the upholstered chair? And the boots!?!?

Anyway, I thought I would share. I wish I could remember that knitting thing now!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Spoonflower Fabric Designs

Picture 2

Picture 1

Yes, I've been BIT by the Twilight bug! Coming soon... Edward and Jacob fabric, when you just can't choose one.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Apron Family Does Thanksgiving

OK, so I didn't plan it this way but I ended up getting most of the photos of Thanksgiving with everyone in aprons!

I "stole" this one from my shop and I love it. My new favorite apron.

I made the one my Mom has on for her last year. Dad has a man apron on, factory made. I think I need to make him one. Hubby didn't have an apron on so he didn't make it in the picture! (Notice my Amy Butler curtains there?)


And the star of the day! A twenty pounder, it was YUMMY.


I've been whining for years that I don't have a dining room, wah, wah, wah, but decided not to let that stop me from inviting my parents, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, to Thanksgiving. Wow. I didn't realize that I always just expect Mom to cook. Silly me. Mom was very appreciative. Especially when she left all the dishes in the sink, HA.

What was really fun was first, getting out my great-grandmother's china! It is beautiful and I'm not sure how they ate back in the early 1900's but there are about 5 different plate sizes and the same with bowls. And there must be 12 of each. I also have her crystal which is etched with flowers. It's SO pretty and I love to think about how it's been passed down through so many generations.

Then, my Dad brought a DVD that he made from old slides taken before I was born up to about the time I was 6 years old. They were amazing! The color and everything made them look like new photos. My mother was 21 when she had me and at 29 had 4 children already. And looked like she was 12 at the same time. Seeing photos of my relatives who are in their 70s and 80s back when they were 30, amazing. So much fun. Not to mention my obsession with all things 50s and 60s; the clothes, hair, decor, the old cars (which my father pointed out were NEW to them!). OH, and the furniture. We kept pointing out "I have that cabinet!" "Remember that sofa? Who has that now?" Memories....

I wish I could post some of the photos but I don't have them.... yet. In many of the photos where my mother was dressed to the nines in a long dress to go to some fancy party she said "OH, I MADE THAT DRESS! And that one, too!"

The legacy of sewing lives on. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

More Munki Munki Madness

munki munki

I'm finally going to dig into my stash of Munki Munki jammy scraps to make some patchwork squares which will become sachets for a friend's order. It's a little scary actually taking the blade to these HTF fabrics but I hope I can do it. The one with the camper vans is paired with lovely linen fabrics that I already had and can't believe how well they match the colors!

The dogs looks fantastic with some scraps of Essex linen/cotton blend.
munki munki

And here are some of my other delicious Munki fabrics waiting to be made into something fabulous. The one on top is my current favorite and I just succumbed to buying a quarter of a jammy leg on Etsy to get more! It's like drugs, you get a little and then....
munki munki

And finally, I scored some flannel Munki Munki at Marshall's yesterday in the way of Holiday or Christmas sweater PJs. These will be used with my other flannels from other PJs and I got enough to share in my shop as well!
Munki Munki Sweaters

Now if I can only carve out some time to sew!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Snow Day

Well, Denver got a dumping of snow this week so I thought I would share my keeshond playing in the snow.



If you can't view the video, try accessing it on Facebook here.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Mini Quilt Tutorial and Quilt A Long

Quilt Pattern

I am leading a mini quilt (24 x 36) quilt a long on a fabric forum, the Fabric Obsession. The Fabric Obsession is a community of fabric lovers and we have a fabric coop as well as sewing challenges. If you are interested in following along, go HERE and sign up for a free membership. The quilt a long is in the forum folder called Sewing Challenges, then Mini Quilt a Long.

It uses charm squares with sashing and is a basic pattern that I designed but it's very simple. I made a larger version recently:
Western Quilt


Download basic quilt instructions here.

Here's a sneak peak of what I have so far:

Mini Quilt Tutorial photos

Friday, October 23, 2009

New Stuff

Kona Love

OK, so I had my lunch hour free and I needed a break so I thought I would just hop on over to Hobby Lobby, conveniently located around the corner from my office, and see if they had any curtain lining fabric for a project I have in mind. Oddly enough, some things jumped into my arms while I was there. Very strange.

Kona Love

Kona cotton was on sale and I've been wanting to do this for awhile, just buy a bunch of colors for applique and other projects I don't quite have planned yet. So here you see some of my new friends: tangerine, canary, sour apple, jade, carnation, red and lagoon. It's quite an effort to carry all the bolts to the cutting table and then ask for only 1/2 yard each. But they are so nice there. The people behind me weren't so happy though. Actually, they were fine. Who wouldn't want to stay longer in a fabric department? OH and it was 30% off.

Embroidery Thread Love

Then I wandered into the embroidery area and MORE things jumped into my arms! Like, this new DMC embroidery floss line called Light Effects. Super cool colors that shimmer and shine. There was this nifty sign that said "DMC Floss 35 cent each" so I thought I would splurge on seven different colors. Apparently, the Light Effects are NOT part of that 35 cents thing, they were $1.99 each, not bad but when you're impulse buying....

OH, and if you're thinking "Well, that's not a lot of embroidery floss." I already have quite the collection at home. Here's just one of my collections.

Embroidery Thread Love

It's Friday so over the weekend I hope to be creative. I have a pillow to make for a swap (and some of the Kona color might be used in applique for that one), a quilt a long to plan and a zillion other projects in mind, including cleaning the bathroom.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Red Letter Day Quilts

Red Letter Day Quilt
Red Letter Day Quilt ORANGE
Wow, I forgot to share the finished Red Letter Day quilt! Elizabeth House designs the cutest fabrics! First Lizzy Dish and then Red Letter Day. I discovered Red Letter Day when I saw this photo on Flickr of a WIP quilt and I fell in love and HAD to find the fabric. I made up a pattern that was really simple and ended up having enough squares to make two quilts and here they are.

Front:
Red Letter Day Quilt

Back:
Red Letter Day Quilt

Front of quilt 2:
Red Letter Day Quilt ORANGE

Back is ivory flannel:
Red Letter Day Quilt ORANGE

Andover has a FREE quilt pattern for this fabric called Marble Champ. She has a tutorial on her blog for doing the circles. It's really cute.

OH and don't forget to check out the Flickr group for Red Letter Day!

And now for a BIG SECRET. My favorite bargain bin website for designer fabric has two of the duck prints for $4.00 a yard right now! (to find it, go to the category "New Andover 10/17/09")

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Utility Aprons

craft apron collage

I've been on a roll creating those little mini pocketed aprons, I call them utility aprons which is kind of a boring way to describe them. Anyway, I did some for the holidays last year, perfect for craft show vendors. This weekend I made one using retro bowling barkcloth and another one that was teacher oriented based on a customer idea! I used some fun scraps I received from a fellow fabric swapper who has the most incredible blog, Oh Fransson. I'm toying with the idea of publishing a pattern for this one. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and I added a playlist to my blog, enjoy.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Thanks and Inspiration Needed

Thanks for the birthday greetings everyone! I know I don't seem "that age" (I can't even say it). I was sort of a late bloomer and like my mother, I've always looked younger than my actual calender age. Part of it due to round cheeks, HA.

This is my parent's on their wedding day (I love Mom's shiny cheeks!)
Wedding Party

This is me with my now 16 year old niece in 1993 (more shiny cheekiness!)
meandsusie1993_2

And now Susie looks more like this (Surprise! Wearing an apron I made! And she hates this picture but it's all I could find at the moment.)
Susie Apron

And I look like this, hehe (YES I am wearing Munki Munki pajamas! NO I did not cut them up and make them into quilts. Ok, so I cut up another pair...)
Photo 9

Anyway, when my Mom was in her 20's, she had 3 children and people used to think she was the older sister taking her siblings out! When I was a recent college grad, I had someone at church ask me if I was looking for the 6th or 7th grade Sunday School classroom. I was mortified. Now I wouldn't mind so much. Maybe.

Anyway... I have hit a creative slump lately and I need a boost of something! I'm not sure what. Hm. I have a lot of fabric.

Fabrics

I had five whole days off work last week and spent most of it doing nothing! I did get a quilt top pieced for a friend's baby gift but it felt mechanical while I was doing it. I want to be INSPIRED.

Cowboy quilt top

SO if anyone has ideas on how to crawl out of a creative slump, please let me know! I'll be off punching in numbers at my desk, in my windowless government cubicle. Hm, wonder why I am not inspired?

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

October 8!!!

On October 8, 1959 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a little girl was born to Les and Mary Jo Walker, their first. Les was 24, Mary Jo was 21. It's hard to believe I am 50 today, I really actually CANNOT BELIEVE IT because I feel so much younger, how did that happen? Well, I'm trying to feel good about it. My father got a scanner that scans old slides and sent me these photos, they are amazing.

Photobucket
My grandfather delivered me, here he is outside the Operating Room. Love the purple feet from the dye.

Photobucket
My mother was all of 21 here, eek. She looks so rosy cheeked and perhaps a little unsure of motherhood.

Photobucket
And my father, all of 24 and looking like a member of the rat pack!

My grandfather was an Obstetrician in the small town of Pine Bluff but he also had a passion for art. The story goes, he went to college to study art but when his mother found out he was drawing from nude models, she made him quit. So he became and Obstetrician/Gynecologist! I don't know if that's true or not but I love it! He was an artist and did beautiful pastel portraits of all his grandchildren and his beloved dachshunds. I still have the portrait he did of me in my bedroom. He also did needlepoint and I have a pillow he made. He died in the 1970s.

My father followed in his footsteps and went to medical school and also became an OB-GYN. And like his father, was also very artistic, which made him a good surgeon but he also had a model railroad and spent hours making the scenery, painting the cars and engines to look realistic. He still has one today, an outdoor version.

My mother went on to have 3 more children, pretty close together, so she spent her younger years pretty much driving car pools, cooking and doing laundry. When the last one of us moved out, she was only 50 (notice I say only???) and she and my father eventually retired out here in Colorado and they live on a mountain overlooking a gorgeous canyon and they hike almost daily.

And here they are today! The reason I am who I am and have come halfway to the century mark (eek) Of course my mother is wearing one of my aprons. :)
Photobucket

Friday, October 2, 2009

GNOMES on DINNERWARE




I just found this dinnerware on a site I had bookmarked (P.O.S.H Chicago) but hadn't been to in awhile, oh my gosh are they cute! Here's a little more about the store. Lots of other fun stuff there.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Blog Love

Melanie at Fabric Shopper posted this the other day and I almost missed it! Thanks for the compliment!

And while you're on the Fabric Shopper blog, click on the Christmas 2009 Idea-Zine link on the right side of the page. It's a pdf download with ideas for Christmas sewing projects. And I am also featured there.

Happy Monday.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Crafty Things

Cicada Fabric Coasters

Driven partly by my husband putting a wet glass on our desk, I decided to make some drink coasters using fabric and cork rounds. I had the idea for awhile and finally found some cork thingees locally (they are easy to order online but I wanted immediate gratification) at Michael's.
Cicada Fabric Coasters

I used Cicada Studio fabric, lovely hand printed fabric by Michelle Engel Bencsko. This fabric is linen and hemp.

101_8468

I just traced the cork form onto the back of the fabric, cut it out and used Mod Podge to glue it on. Then after that set awhile, I brushed on a few more layers of Mod Podge to seal it. The Mod Podge completely sealed the edges so there is no way the edges will ravel, pretty cool. Although we do use them now, there are a few things I might do differently next time.

The cork is dark so when the light colored fabric is on the cork, it does darken the color a little. I would use some white cardboard next time to a) lighten the fabric color and b) give the cork some more stability. Which is the second thing I would change. The cork is kind of flimsy and I was envisioning a more stiff coaster so I think a thick piece of cardboard would do the trick.

And one other problem I can't solve. If the glass is sweating, it sticks to the coaster, annoying. Not sure how to fix that.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Fall


It's been a crazy few weeks. First we were able to go on a last minute much needed vacation to the beach in Mexico. It was hectic getting ready and all and the travel was a little crazy but we arrived and prepared for a great time when my petsitter called to tell me my sweet pup Rocky had died. It was pretty devastating but his health had been deteriorating the past year and though his spirit was strong as ever, I could see his body wasn't keeping up. I made a tribute to him here.



We managed to enjoy the vacation, worrying a bit about the pup left behind who has never been alone but the sand and the surf helped to ease the anxieties.

Now on queue, as the last day of Summer rolls out and the first day of Fall arrives, it has turned downright chilly here! Yesterday we even had a few minutes of SNOW. Eek. But it's making me think quilts and other warm things.

Mod Sampler Quilt And speaking of quilts, I finally finished my Mod Sampler quilt!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Attention!

I have a confession. Since this will soon be leaked out to the press, I wanted to tell my loyal fans first. As you may or may not have already suspected, I have to admit that I am, and have been for awhile, an agent in the FIA (Fabric Intelligence Agency). In case you don’t know about the FIA, it is a covert agency, started in the 60s during the Cold War when the Communist regime in Russia threatened to make all fabric gray and only gray. Thanks to the efforts of this small and secret group, the war on fabric was won and color restored to fabrics throughout the world. The FIA is determined to protect fabric and never allow this threat to happen again.

More recently, a new threat arose from the Textile Mafia, a criminal faction that has been methodically stopping print production on the most popular fabric lines (think Heather Ross Lightning Bugs and Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy). Fabric designers who stepped in to stop the mafia were shot (with textile inks, very messy and permanent) and manufacturers were threatened by ink wielding thugs who threatened to replace all colored ink with you guessed it, Cold War Gray. Although not general public knowledge, FIA agents throughout the world have been working to stop this new insurgence of evil.

And finally, you may have heard in the news that with the new regime change in Washington, the old regime is being investigated and the FIA has not escaped scrutiny. We are being investigated for fraud and extortion. Allegations include; bribing popular fabric designers to produce so many fabric lines per year that consumers are going broke, purchasing Munki Munki pajamas on the black market and reselling for exorbitant prices on eBay and the lowest blow of all, FIA agents have allegedly participated in the ‘fabric mortgage business’, taking cuts from the bank who has loaned money to fabric buyers who clearly cannot afford it, thus driving up the prices of fabric and creating a fabric bubble!!

Of course, these are only allegations. I cannot believe any of my fellow FIA agents would participate in any such crimes but we are also human. Overall, I am confident that justice will prevail and the FIA will be seen in a positive light once more.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Apron Pattern

Patchwork Harlequin Apron

Patchwork Harlequin Apron

I have finally finished the updates to the pattern and it's on it's way to print! Here is the Sheri Berry Holiday version of the apron, I just love these fabrics, even if they aren't the traditional colors of Christmas, they just look like a big basket of decorated cookies to me, yum.

Harlequin Apron Pattern - cover

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Harlequin Holiday Apron Tutorial


A little change in plans. I will still provide a pictorial tutorial here but I'm also prepared a PDF version of the more detailed instructions that will be for sale in my Etsy shop I will also be selling kits with pre-cut fabric (Sheri Berry holiday fabric!) I will start the tutorial tomorrow! (UPDATE: Argh, as usual life gets in the way of my blog! Tutorial soon...)