Goodbye summer! *wave* ...now, let's sew!

There has been tons happening this summer unfortunately most of it has not been sewing! Bah. It's all crazy I think :) I did fix up a few pairs of jeans that had mysteriously gotten holes in the with some awesome Amy Butler, Jenean Morrison, and I think Riley Blake? OK I must be thoroughly ashamed of myself when I can't remember the designers of all the fabric in my stash. At least I still like them all and these... I love!

OK and serious awesomeness from friends, I posted these on the MSQC forums and someone mentioned having done something similar to lengthen there jeans as kids. Seriously... I love that! maybe even for me :) if the fabric were awesome enough. (I'm now dreaming of my coveted orange and turquoise Amy butler Belle Duck Egg Acanthus)

*sigh*

Oh well, in the mean time I took a great old bench I found, I know you all wish it was yours! Hehe, just wait! I took it from this...

to this!

Why you ask?
Well who doesn't love sitting on there front porch in an awesome turquiose vintage rocker? I do! Now I just want to add some awesome red polka dot pillows, so yeah, I've got plans.

And a little self bragging. Sorry. Shameless I know!
I made an amazing wedding dress this summer!
Check it out!

Yay! There are more pics at this amazing photographers site. (This wedding is all in august, maybe you can even search suzanne, but check it all out) Major eye candy there :) Aside from the dress!

Back in the swing of things, from Far Far Away

So glad school is started and... not.
It's been crazy busy the last 2+ weeks since the start of school and just before it :) But I'm forcing myself back into my sewing (should that require forcing? I think not!) with a baby shower gift! I've been dying to use this Heather Ross Far Far Away fabric that I got at quilt market last fall! And since my wonderful friend had a beautiful baby girl I was reveling in the perfect moment and put this together yesterday!

I love the fairy tale images Heather created! I really want to get some Far Far Away 2 I have a friend with some in home dec weight... aah! It's so pretty :D
It's a changing pad so of course I had to give it something soft and fluffy for the backing!

I've got a boy one I'm finishing up for my etsy shop and then I'll have to see about finding some more minky and chenille backing fabric!
*thinking in your best fairytale accent*
Alas, a girl's work is never done!
Fair thee well my good friends. I wish thee much joy and sewing! Or joy in sewing :) which ever comes first!

Yay!!

I have never been so happy to be posting!

I've been working on this quilt for more than a year now. I made it last summer during my first, eye opening, self hosted, quilt along. Phew. and then it sat on my shelf. and sat some more till last month I decided I would finish it no matter what well that didn't inspire me as much as it should have and it still took me another month to finally finish it! The good thing about having a project on your machine that isn't getting done very quickly is that you get a lot of other things done!

I've rearranged bedrooms, and visited friends, and helped a friend clean out her art room, and more. All because the projects I wanted to sew on I couldn't because this was on the machine!

I'm thrilled to have it done though and I love the way it looks! I love the hidden cars and the trees and houses!

I even added a sun next to one of the smaller houses :D Can you find it? I'm excited to have something that my little boy will be able to play on and that my girls can have pretend barbie adventures with! I just hope they're as excited as I am! Oh well, I'll enjoy tracing the cobblestones while I eat popcorn if no one else does :D

What do you call this shape?

I don't even know.

But I like it and I cut almost a hundred of them which puts me with a little over one hundred done. I need 240 I think. I cut until I ran out of steam a seam, so, I'll be heading to the quilt shop soon I think!
I can't wait to start putting blocks together!

Here's the link to my last post about my lovely Arcadia blocks and the fun pattern they will soon be :D

Happy quilting!

Munki on your hips

I finally pulled this Munki apron from my brain to the fabric thanks to my one man sewing retreat! Heather Ross is pretty amazing and I love this pink icecream truck fabric! When I got the fabric it looked like this... as so much Munki Munki fabric does :)
I was trying to come up with a way to use it that would really highlight the fabric and so I could use and love it!

To make it I folded the shirt panel to where the neck line started to curve and squared the panel side. I saved the hemmed edge and unstitched it to get as much length and use of the fabric as possible.Then used my ruler to square off the arm curve on the top as high as I could.at that point I created a ruffle that goes the length of the apron base and added a row of contrasting fabric at the top and a sash twice the width of the fabric.
I added the buttons along the button holes that were already there due to the fact that it was a shirt panel, I love the way it came out, they looked so cute!
Good luck with your Munki Munki!
Do something that makes you love it even more than you already do!

Quilt retreat! Party of 1 please :D

Last week my husband and I went out of town on business. So, while he was working...
I had my own personal quilt retreat!
It was fantastic! See I even brought my name badge so I'd remember who I was.
I had 2 kid free days to sew all I want while my husband was gone and then dinners and evenings out with my Happy husband :D hehe! I couldn't have asked for more, except there was more! We got to meet some new friends through my husbands workplace who we got to hang out with on a couple of occasions during the trip!
Yay! Quilting, food, and friends!

During my 2 days I brought almost my entire stash (well, atleast what I was excited to use and would fit into 1 suitcase!) and several unfinished projects just to see what I felt like.

Well, those days prove that inspiration always wins out over necessity because my log cabin quilt sat un-quilted the whole time, but, I finished 2 new projects! An apron & a wall hanging top (if you count a top as finished :) hmm, it feels like I accomplished something.) and started into a new quilt idea with an Arcadia layer cake I've been dying to use! It's gonna be gorgeous!
This is the beginnings of the wall hanging's color line up :D I'll be posting more pics soon!
And... I should have a tutorial for how to use a munki munki shirt panel in a cute project that really highlights your favorite fabrics even with all the odd angles the clothing panels give you!

It's a great project, I love it, and I'm making more!
Isn't that the test of a good one? I think so.

Populating Suburbia

Does anybody remember my Log Cabin Suburbia quilt along way back last summer?

Well that's what I pulled out of my unfinished because it's so scary pile :)

I've been wanting to finish this for awhile but I wanted to do something fun with the quilting,

so, I decided to do it.

I knew I could and I'm not finished yet, but,

I am in the process of populating suburbia!

Hehe! It makes me giggle a little to think about it like that :D

I've got 5 kids I've populated quite enough thank you!

For my quilt I wanted it to look a little like a town so I'm quilting sketchy little cars all around the sashings like they are driving around town!

Old trucks at the corner,

and a convertible speeding down the road, unfortunately that's not what I'm driving.

But that's ok because I have a house.

Yes my cute little sedan is pulling up in front of my adorable little house with the flower box windows.

Just a little starter house for me and my hubby, but it has a fireplace! Apparently.

And a circle window, that I think is way cool :D

I'm still working on finishing out all the streets. When I'm through the cars will probably be somewhat hidden and probably only the one quilted house some things are still to decided.

Hopefully I'll be showing you bigger pictures of my little town in a day or two!

I better watch out though, my daunting project is in danger of becoming seriously fun!

Why are there teeth marks on my arm?

It's the grip of summer!

I swear!!! And a little school starting! LOL!

I've had to rip myself from it's jaws but it's ok, you can get excited now because today you get to see my first completed attempt at my own pattern!

Yay!! This is the full view of my "You Are What You Eat" quilt that I have hinted about before :) I know it's been a long time but it's so cute! I've really been enjoying this project! I'm now in the process of revising the directions and making another sample.

But I think we should all get to enjoy this! and I'm loving that you can see the 3D tail in this next shot!

This one is a close up of some stitching detail and my cute little giraffe's head :) He makes me smile :D big!

This has been so exciting, working on a project that I care so much about! Along with a major learning experience! And I'm still learning! I'm excited to be soon bringing this project to a close... if I can keep my nose out of to many swaps, other wips, and blog surfing, and other life events... HA! All I can say is I'll try :) and I can't wait to have my first patterns up and ready I've got about 5 in the works and ideas for more! Hurray!