vintage sheet skirt

Well, I'm happy to be able to cross one more thing off the list! I sewed up this A line skirt yesterday afternoon. I'm so pleased with it! I started with a partial vintage sheet that I got from Heather a few years ago. It's crazy how much lag time there is from acquiring fabric to actually sewing with it...but I digress! I was able to eek out just enough length for my skirt. I added a lining, which is a detail that gave me a bit of trouble, but it was well worth the stitch ripping in the end. Overall, the skirt has a really nice finished look and feel. The lining adds a lot of stability to the skirt...which is nice. :) This is the same pattern I used for this skirt, which I sewed nearly one year ago. The pattern came from the book Flirt Skirts, which is a very handy resource for skirt sewing. The only issue with this one is that it is a little too wide for me. But no worries, I've got big hips. It's good that they are good for something. :)

van trash cans

Before I officially start my post today, I want to mention that I'm doing a book signing and talk about Sunday Morning Quilts at the Calla Lily Quilt Shop in Blaine, MN, on June 9th, which is coming up quickly! You can read the details here and find out how to register to hold your spot if you are interested. If you are in the area, I'd love to see you there!

Ok...I'm still working on my small projects list. I hope you are too! I'm doing one final push to get a few more things completed before May is through. I'm planning on hosting a link up party on Friday, June 1, for everyone who participated in the small projects sew along. It will be fun to see what you got done!

Today I made these a-dor-a-ble trash cans for my perpetually messy van. Here's hoping they help! :) You can find the tutorial here. Thanks Tara!

The oil cloth (or is it laminated fabric? i'm not sure) came from Treadle in St. Paul. The sweet yellow print is one of my very favorite fabrics ever. It's made by Connecting Threads and you can find it here. The little red polka dot fabric is vintage fabric from my grandma. I'm only using it in small quantities for that reason! I absolutely love this fabric combo. I think they all work together so beautifully.

This one is identical  to the first, except I used this gray print from my stash (that I found while I was treasure hunting at Mill End Textiles). I love them as a pair. Now I want to make a yellow and red and gray quilt. Wouldn't that be perfectly lovely? Maybe after I cross a few other things off the list.

I tested these and they look perfectly lovely over my craft room door as well.

Not that I need a trash can there, but a bit of cuteness doesn't hurt!

ticker tape on canvas

I took my ticker tape concept and translated it onto canvas.

Not much to say about it besides the fact that I LOVE IT!

So, I made another. This one is in my chopped rhubarb color scheme. I really, really LOVE this one as well.

Each piece measures 11" x 14".
I'm gonna make more...just as soon as I can!
Another bonus, one more project checked off my small projects list.

affirmation

This is a fabric pull from my stash that I was working on a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't completely sure about the color scheme, so I took the stack along with me to retreat where we discussed it. Melinda added in the garden party dot on the lower left. Unexpected, but a really good punch. I was liking it more, but still not completely sure.

 

The day after I got home from retreat I was chopping rhubarb on my aqua (or is it turquoise?) cutting board  and I realized that it was the exact color palette of my fabric pull. Exact. This delighted me to no end and I was immediately sold on the color palette. I am going to call the quilt chopped rhubarb. Isn't that a GREAT name for a quilt? I have to get around to working on it before I lose my excitement for the project. That's happened to me one too many times. I feel like I need to work faster!

Since we are on the subject of rhubarb, you should check out Cheryl's rhubarb iced tea recipe. YUM! My son has been asking for more. It is delicious! And as far as the rest of this photo is concerned, this is the spark of a new color scheme that came to me as a result of playing with scraps. Seeing this snapshot makes me realize just how thankful I am that I get to work with so much lovely fabric...even if I can't work fast enough. :)

Nikolai's quilt

I've been terrible at getting things in the mail. The upside of that? Eventually I end up seeing the person and I have a ready made gift (or pile of fabric) to hand deliver when I finally do. Case in point: Nikolai's quilt.

I was going to mail it, but I decided to hand deliver it to Cheryl when I was at market instead. It was fun to meet Nikolai, who is SO CUTE! (And no, I'm not just saying that.) I need to make baby quilts more often. They are fun to make and fun to give!

I used all kinds of cool colored scraps from my scrap bin, and pieced them together using the slab technique in our book Sunday Morning Quilts. The quilt measures baby size. :) I was too unorganized to take photos of the details of the quilt, but this shot shows a bit of the quilting. (Please ignore the stray threads.) The quilting pattern reminded me of a sky line. I made up the design on the fly, but it's being added to my quilting bag of tricks. The binding is a homespun that I cut on the bias. Love the touch of print in an otherwise all solids quilt. Hopefully the quilt will get used, loved and spit up on, washed, then used again.

Ok, now I'm not one that likes to slap her photo all over the internet, but Tara took this photo of Nikolai and me. I had to share, because isn't he darn cute??? I love the expression on his face.

On a side note, it's Cheryl's birthday today. Happy Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

home again

After back to back weekends of traveling, I'm ready to 'settle down', as my husband put it. So ready.

Quilt market was amazing.
I'm exhausted.

Cheryl and I did a schoolhouse. It was a hit. I'm so thankful. Then we worked hard for two days making connections and following up with others. We also did a book signing. Market is a lot of work. Good work, though.

It was so great to meet so many people that I have 'worked' and blogged with over the years. It felt successful and very well worth it. Again, I'm so thankful!

I also got to see and hang out with Tara and Angela. (YAY!!!) We didn't get to hang out nearly enough, but it was super fun when we had the chance. We managed to fit in plenty of laughter when we did.

I got to meet Denyse! That was pretty awesome. (heh. that's a big understatement.) Her friend/assistant, Leslie stood in line for OUR book. So, Cheryl and I signed OUR book FOR Denyse. For Denyse!! Which we ended up hand delivering later. Oh. mylanta.

And you know Liberty fabric? They are coming out with quilting cotton. I managed to swap my book for a few sample swatch packs. There is a whole back story to this that I know I can't do justice to in a blog post...but we will just say that I am so very excited. It was the cherry on top.

It's a wonder I haven't exploded.

There were 100 other great things that happened. Way too many to list.

Now I can't wait to sew!

Happy Monday to you!

more small projects

I am slowly but surely making my way through my small projects list. It feels good!

First off, I made these lanyards for me and my sister at wear to quilt market. A patchwork lanyard has been on my list for over 3 years. Probably closer to 5. I'm so glad that I finally got around to it. Sheesh, that took long enough!

Look at all that patchwork. It makes me happy! I didn't use a pattern, just made them up as I went. I wouldn't recommend the method I used to anyone. ha! They will work, nonetheless.

Also, I made close to 20 of these babies. Thread catchers, tiny trash cans, whatever you want to call them. It's a pattern I made up (which I'm thinking of selling when I get around to it...). I love these. It was fun to play with just two fabrics at a time. I loved putting together the different color combinations from my stash. I gave these to my retreat attendees and we used them to catch our trash and threads when we sewed. They also doubled as a little gift basket. They held a few goodies including their name tags, a tiny 9 patch pin cushion along with some fabulous soap and lip balm (a la Tara). They were fun little projects to make and to give!
So here's what my list looks like now:

1. Patchwork lanyard
2. Vintage sheet skirt with lining
3. Dress!
4. Zippered box bag
5. Tiny trash cans
6. 9 patch pin cushions
7. Van trash cans x 2
8. Guitar strap
9. Granny square pillow cover
10. Thread catchers (with tiles)
11. Color coded storage boxes for stash
12. Patchwork belt
13. Another flirt skirt
14. Drawstring backpack
15. Kitchen curtains
16. Ticker tape on canvas
17. Kitchen chair pads  I bought some, so they are off the list! :)
18. Dress for my daughter
19. Table topper for TV console table
20. Mini quilt for front entry table

Hurray for progress!!!

catching up

oh mylanta.
there is so much to say....

i got home last night after a great trip to a happy and healthy family. what a blessing! i have the BEST family ever.

(these photos were taken during homework time tonight....we had fun with the camera.) my kids were so happy to have me home.

i had a fabulous time away. this was the view at the retreat. sigh. it was so beautiful. the retreat itself was AMAZING! the book signing went very well, too. thanks so much to everyone who came out to both. you ladies were so much fun!!! it's always so good to go, but it's so good to come home, too.

my family got me fish for mother's day. :) along with adorable handmade cards. and a few other goodies. it was all lovely. we were even able to sneak in an impromptu campfire before bed. it was a nice way to catch up after being gone for several days. even though the kids talk all at once. almost all the time!!!

while i was gone over the weekend, my husband ripped out the banisters and built a wall. you know, just a regular old weekend project.....

This is what it looked like before. I had trouble finding a photo of the banister without a quilt on it...go figure!

And now. i think he was trying to hide the perpetually messy landing, LOL!!!  no, actually, he was talking about doing this for awhile now, so it wasn't like he took it upon himself to redesign our house on a whim. which is a good thing....a very good thing. :) I'm looking forward to seeing it finished! (That's just for you, retreat ladies!)

I decided to do a little retrospective giveaway from last post. thank you to all who left sweet comments! I appreciate each and every one. the random number generator picked #44, which is Stephanie! Stephanie, I'll be happy to pass along some scraps to you, should you like to play with them. If you have plenty of your own, I'll handpick a stack of fabric for you instead. Just let me know what you prefer. I'll hand deliver them at market!

Speaking of market....I'm headed to quilt market in just two short days. WOW, that came up quickly. If you are planning to be there and would like to meet up, shoot me an email!

Happy Monday to you!

happy

Today I learned that Sunday Morning Quilts is already headed for it's second printing. What?!?!?! It was only 2 short months ago that the first batch arrived on my doorstep. This whole book experience has been quite surreal. A big THANK YOU to all of you who have supported us throughout this journey. It means so much. Really. I would be remiss if I didn't say a big THANK YOU to the folks at C&T, who have been aMAZing to work with. Seriously amazing.

I found a bit of time to play with some scraps today, just for fun. That totally made me happy. Now that I'm posting this photo, I'm not sure that anyone else can appreciate the beauty in this mess. I'm nearly drowning in scraps, but I don't mind. Not one bit. The possibilities in this basket make me giddy. (I may need help.)

I'm headed to Madison tomorrow for the book signing and then the retreat! It's been months of planning, prepping, sewing, planning. The piles I have been making are ready to take over. And so are my lists. :o) I'm so ready to retreat! It will be fun to sew for the entire weekend and as a bonus, I get to meet up with my pal Terri. I can't wait!

As far as the small projects sew along, I'm still working on it. More on that later!

a dozen pin cushions

I've been having a lot of fun with my small projects list. These pin cushions are proof positive of that. They are small-only 3.5" finished. The more I made, the cuter they looked. :) I may have squealed (a lot) when I was making these. I had to make myself stop at a dozen and move on to the next thing on my list.

I wanted to say thanks a bunch for all the sweet comments on my dress!!! You all sure know how to make a girl feel good. :)

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There are a few giveaways going on right now that you might want to check out.

*Notions (the Connecting Threads blog) is doing a giveaway of Sunday Morning Quilts! They are offering up 3 copies of the book! Head on over and leave a comment to enter your name into the virtual hat.

*Pat Bravo is giving away a fat quarter bundle of the gorgeous new fabric line Rhapsodia over on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog. It's definitely worth checking out!

Both giveaways are going on through Monday, May 7th.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!!!

dress!!!!!!

I finished my dress! And it fits!

I LOVE it!!!

I'm very happy that it won't be graded by a Home Ec teacher because I don't think I'd get a very good grade. BUT...it fits, AND it's wearable...even out of the house! I'd call that a success.

Pattern: New Look 6557
Fabric: clearance cotton ($3/yard)
Total cost of fabric, pattern, zipper and supplies: less than $20
Not. Too. Bad.

book signing and a sew along button

I'm excited to announce that I'll be doing a book signing next week in Madison!

Where: The Sewcial Lounge, Madison, WI
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2012
Time: 6:30 pm

I'll be showing my quilts from the book Sunday Morning Quilts, (plus a few alternate designs) and talking all about scrap quilting. I'll be signing books, too! If you live in the Madison area, I hope to see you there!

<center><a href="http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/05/small-projects-sew-along.html"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_F6nz3FRmX176In2OgAEdVpT6cK2-SteuZARc07NS6KtzQMvBdEuo0XHFI8U7F7VcgJvBKLPHB0PDOKJTgQlC4QHf_CopH4VLkTTGIUwNrDusQiCQijUgJ7gl68Gjro2z7BNcA/s320/blog+button+test.jpg" /></a></center>Also, thanks to those of you who are joining me for the small projects sew along! Carmen so kindly made a button for us to use. Thank you Carmen! Feel free to grab it and post it on your blog. Hope you've had fun making your lists....and I hope they aren't as long as mine!

small projects sew along

Happy May Day! As I eluded to earlier, my May is going to be CraZy! So, why not add to the craziness with a small projects sew along? I don't know about you, but I have a bunch of little projects I'd like to complete. Since May is going to be so busy, small projects might be all that I get accomplished. I thought it would be fun to host a (low key) sew along so we can work through our projects together.

Here's how it would work.

1. Compile your list of small projects you would like to complete.
2. Write it down in a blog post.
3. Throughout the month, work on your projects, as time allows.
4. As you complete a project, blog about it, cross it off your list and do a little cheer. :)
5. Share your photos in the quilting with crazy mom flickr group. Make sure to link to the source of your pattern/tutorial/inspiration if you used one.

(I'm in list making mode, can you tell?)

===========
Here's my project list:

1. Patchwork lanyard
2. Vintage sheet skirt with lining
3. Dress!
4. Zippered box bag
5. Tiny trash cans
6. 9 patch pin cushions
7. Van trash cans x 2
8. Guitar strap
9. Granny square pillow cover
10. Thread catchers (with tiles)
11. Color coded storage boxes for stash
12. Patchwork belt
13. Another flirt skirt
14. Drawstring backpack
15. Kitchen curtains
16. Ticker tape on canvas
17. Kitchen chair pads
18. Dress for my daughter
19. Table topper for TV console table
20. Mini quilt for front entry table

I think that's it for now. :)  They are listed in no particular order. Now, I'm not delusional or anything. I know I won't get them all done, but if I accomplish even a portion of them, I'll be pretty excited!

So, anyone want to join me?

(would someone want to volunteer to make a button for this? I'd appreciate any help!)