Reversible Purses

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Melissa

The last 2 days I have been happily sewing away on a set of purses. I’m only showing you one here because they are completely identical. I followed a fabulous tutorial and pattern from verypurpleperson.  I found the pattern on Pinterest by searching for reversible tote patterns.  I made this bag as part of a swap group I’m in on Facebook – Sew Swap Share. The challenge this quarter is for a re-usable grocery bag. I decided my partner needed a chic reversible grocery bag made from some lovely home dec fabric by Anna Maria Horner, the design is “Drawing Room”. I already know that my partner is happy with the pictures and can’t wait to mail hers off to her. The extra one will be one of my new bags for farmer’s market and perhaps just around town too.

I’m torn…can’t decided if I like the blue better or the pink?!?

I just wanted to show off the darts a bit. I thought they were a nifty design feature – different take on a boxy bottom if you will.

What did you all work on this weekend?

Posted in Purse/Pouch, sewing, swaps | 20 Comments

Pollination

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Melissa

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mom’s out there!

One of my pet projects this year that I have been working on with Anne is our garden. Her favorite plant so far is our Blueberry Bush. I think she likes the idea of being able to walk out the front door and pick them right off our porch and honestly, I like that idea too!

Today I walked out the front door to share some homemade cinnamon rolls with my neighbors and I was greeted by a bee pollinating our blueberries! This is great news for us! I quickly grabbed up my camera, popped on a magnifying lens and snapped off as many pictures as I could before the bee flew away.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Posted in Personal Post | 9 Comments

The Skirts are Multiplying!

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Melissa

********If you are looking for my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, please go here. Today is the last day to enter!

Have I ever mentioned that Anne is a complete girly girl? Skirts, dresses and as much pink as she can possibly get her hands on. She is a little fashionista in the making and I’m really not sure where she gets this from because from the time I was her age I was the jeans and a tee kind of girl.  This is why I’m learning to sew clothes and her homemade skirt collection is GROWING!

After the success of the Robot Skirt, I decided to make her a couple more skirts. The first one was made out of fabric that I have had since I was a teenager. I also used this same fabric as the backing for my first quilt. (sorry for the crappy pics, I was using my cell phone)

I actually made a second one of this skirt for my friend Lisa’s daughter, this fabric is special to us both so it is only fitting that both of our little girls have matching skirts. I used the same tutorial that I used to make the Robot Skirt.

(She loved it!)

The next skirt is another fabric that I bought as a quilt backing. I bought a ton extra because I knew I would eventually make some clothes out of it, it will eventually become the skirt part of a dress as well. I found a great pattern for a bubble skirt on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. The tutorial is by Michaela from Covered in Mod Podge and was posted on The Ribbon Retreat Blog.

This one is quite possibly my personal favorite so far, I just love how it looks on Anne!

One last picture that has nothing to do with sewing…

Anne and I got in a discussion last week about the fact that you can’t paint your toes, so I decided to show her that you can. We had a lot of fun with it and she keeps telling me that I need to paint mine to match! LOL

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Posted in Clothes | 10 Comments

A Lovely Year of Finishes – April Winners

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Melissa

We are all winners simply because we are all finishing some gorgeous projects, but some people have also been blessed in winning some awesome prizes from our amazing SPONSORS!

A Lovely Year of Finishes that is co-hosted by Shanna and I.  Click on either of our pages to get more information.

 There were 103 (well 105 counting Shanna and I) finishes in the month of April and they were all so fantastic!

April PRIZES from our amazing sponsors:

 1. A Craftsy Class (winners choice of class)

 I heart Craftsy!

 The winner is Lyndsey from Sew Many Yarns

2. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

The winner is Robyn from Flickr

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

The winner is Lindsey from Happier Than a Bird Quilts

4. A Paper Piecing Kit donated from Paper Pieces

The winner is Jennifer from Glinda Quilts 

5, 6, 7 Will get one thread pack of Auriful Thread donated from Aurifil

The winners are: 

Wendi from Bethadee Zoo
Debbe from Pieces to Love

8. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

The winner is Tubakk from Den Syende Himmel

9. $10.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

The winner is Cindy from In a Stitch Quilting

Many thanks to our amazing sponsors.  Having that additional incentive to finish is always an awesome encouragement!

Good luck with your goals in May!

If you are looking for my super cool Sew Mama Sew Giveaway go HERE it ends May 10th!

 

Keep it up!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 3 Comments

Swooning Triangles

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Melissa

This weekend was a mixed bag. It started out rough with a disappointing kidney appointment for Anne, but it improved greatly as the weekend went on.  We spent a ton of time outdoors in the unseasonably HOT Washington weather. Seriously, we were in the mid-80s most of the weekend!  We re-did our entire front yard and I planted more seedlings in our fledgling fruit and veggie garden. I’m really hoping something grows this year other than just weeds!

I did mange to find some time to work on my May Finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes (today is the last day to link up for May!).  I got all my fabric cut for the last 2 Swoon blocks on Sunday, I also sewed all the flying geese for both blocks and the HSTs. Yesterday I worked on trimming those HSTs to size (during nap time of course) and I will hopefully start assembling the final blocks today!

Since I have no finished blocks to show you I thought I would show you something I have collected whilst making my Swoon blocks:

144 small Half Square Triangles – once trimmed they will measure to 2.5 inches.  Now to figure out what to do with them…I’m thinking pillows to go with my gorgeous quilt, but I’m open to suggestions!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Swoon | 3 Comments