I Did It! It's Finished!! Sparkle Punch Improv

 Last January (January 2012), I started Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch Quilt-A-Long thinking it would be the perfect gift for my daughter's 9th birthday. I finally finished it for her 10th birthday this year.

This WIP became a fixture on my entryway wall for over a year. Everyone who came by for a visit during the past year could watch my slow process of putting this baby together. It was all worth it, I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I know it will be a gift Charlotte cherishes for years to come.

Look At This ADORABLE Puppy Pouch!

How cute is this guy? I used the brand new Straight Stitch Society "Feed The Animals Coin Purse" pattern and I absolutely love it. AND I actually put in a zipper, something I've been avoiding for a while and it wasn't even that hard (in fact, I'm thinking I'll make the other two animals soon).

The pattern totally walked me through my anxiety about tackling a zipper (can you see the part where is says to take a deep breath and get out your zipper??), which really cracked me up and made the process a lot more fun.

Let's see... I also recently made my new Mail Sack purse out of some lovely Melody Miller Fabric I've been coveting for a while. I really stressed for a while on what to pair with these awesome typewriters...

then I found the bright and amazing floral pattern by Phillip Jacobs - perfect! Bright and fun, just what I need for summer (hopefully it gets here soon).

Here's my awesome bag in action. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this pattern? (PS I made P's shirt too... an ode to the car he currently loves and loves to take apart—I don't get it but it's fun to make custom t-shirts as gifts).

And speaking of making shirts, here's my last project to share. My ba-BLING Sis Boom Dana Top made out of ba-BLING Dear Stella fabric. It's peacock feathers with gold lamme sprinkled in. I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's lovely and just the right amount of ba-BLING! I finished it up on Mother's Day right before Quilt Market (it was supposed to be for Quilt Market but I was so excited about the ba-BLING that I wore it for Mother's Day too).

Cheers!! Thanks for stopping by.

Charlotte Made An Adorable Apron

I'm so proud of my 8 year old (almost 9) daughter Charlotte. Here she is posing with an apron she made (mostly) by herself. We used the new Riley Blake Verona Apron Panel, which I highly recommend for beginners or sewing with kids. It was quick, easy and a lot of fun. Plus look how darling it turned out. You could easily add your own embellishments to really make it your own masterpiece.

It took Charlotte maybe 15 minutes to cut everything out, give or take a few minutes if you add time to play with Sparky and scraps while cutting.

Then the next night we started sewing the pieces together. I had Charlotte do most of it herself. I've had her help me make other little projects (we're both beginners) and she's gotten better and better and handling the machine. At first it was scary, I was worried about somebody loosing a finger, but now that thought only occasionally pops in my head. It would be neat to get her into a sewing class for kids, and maybe she could eventually teach me a few techniques.

She sewed and turned the pocket and straps.

I had her do the pressing too.

I did the finishing edge all around the apron.

She chose the layout of the apron with the pocket at the top and buttons. It turned out great and she's so proud of herself. Now I'm thinking it would be fun to get another colorway (this one is calling my name) and making matching Mom & Daughter Aprons. I bet our cookies will taste even better when we make them wearing these adorable aprons! 

This Little Piggie is Going to Austin ...

Here's my first swap project - Petunia the Love Pig. Or maybe just Petunia. She's headed to my swap partner in Austin, Texas tomorrow morning. It's the Melly & Me pattern and this is the second time I've made it (I'll probably make it a few more times since I know a lot of little people that like cuddly little piggies).

Petunia made the rounds posing with a few family members before getting stuffed in a box.

Here's an adorable baby announcement I did for an old friend. Look at those twin babies aren't they ADORABLE!

And here's another caricature I've been working on for a different friend. This guy is going on a bottle of bourbon as a thank you gift for a job well done on a big project. Bottoms up!! 

I made a Scoodie

I wanted to make a few gifts for the holidays, girls are easy to make gifts for.. skirts, bags, dolls — there's so many options (and with 2 girls of my own I have quite a few patterns collected).  But I have a sweet little nephew that I really wanted to make something special for this year. I was racking my brain trying to find something quick and fun and then I remembered... THE SCOODIE!! I saw it on Happy Zombie's blog this summer (BTW I love this gal's blog - her style, her humor, and she's uber talented!).

So I whipped this one up over the weekend (yay! instant gratification for a finished project). It's a really quick project. I added some extra 'mohawk' prairie points at the top for a rockstar effect (he's also getting a sweet Paper Jamz guitar - so it needed a little extra rock start touch). Then I had my girls model it before I wrapped it up for the nephew. 

Inspired by the Happy Zombie post, I also had Flora try out modeling. She was a little less enthusiastic about helping me out. Blog modeling might not be her thing, but she liked the cookie pay out at the end.

Cool Stuff I Found at the Craft Bazaar

I went to a few craft bazaars this weekend. I love checking out crafty stuff other talented folks are making. It's inspiring and energizing. Plus I always bump into a few peeps I haven't seen in a while, or peeps like my awesome realtor -- I didn't know she was also a talented jewelry maker! Here's what I ended up taking home with me.

That's a Hello Kitty wallet made out of Duck Tape. It was made by Ben's World of Duck Tape - a 12 year old boy trying to save up some Christmas money. He was such a sweetie and Hello Kitty Duck Tape, I had to have it. The cute flower barrettes were also made by a couple of young ladies who started their own little business last Christmas to save up some spending money. I was so impressed by all these little entrepreneurs at the craft bazaar this year. Plus those barrettes are going to look darling in the girls hair for Christmas! And I really couldn't resist the Garlic Lady and her tasty treats - Spicy Margarita Mix, Garlic Jalapeño Olives, and Habeñero Garlic Cloves. YUM! The salesman promised if I ate a Garlic Clove everyday I'd never get a cold again, I guess it's worth a shot.

I finally finished up this lovely bright quilt for mom. The quilt label I made says Summer 2011.... oops! But at least we're still in 2011 and I did start it in the Summer of 2011. I took it to a longarm quilter to finish up. The girls helped me pick out a paisley quilting pattern. I'm looking forward to seeing it in a couple of weeks.

I wanted to share this gorgeous bag. I DID NOT MAKE IT. My friend Teresa made it for me. I picked out all of the fabrics and she whipped up the pattern from Kay Whitt's new book Sew Serendipity Bags. Isn't it gorgeous?!?!? Love the ruffles and bright colors.

What A Ghastlie Bag!

I just LOVE Alexander Henry's Ghastlies Fabrics. So I decided to make myself a lovely new purse out of the collection. The more I look at the illustrations the more details I notice. LOVE.

My favorite is this sweet little girl with the ballerina dress and if you look closely she's holding a hammer. Yikes! And of course I love those big, round, pink cheeks. There's another print where all of these characters are sitting at the dinner table together and this girl has her hammer sitting in front of her on the table. They put the whole story together on the fabric... I just love those little details. 

I used the Mail Sack Pattern by Pink Chalk Studios. This is the second time I've made this pattern and I really like it. The bag has a long handle that's meant to cross your body for hands-free carrying. I'm really tall and I'm usually packing a ton of odds and ends because everybody hands me their stuff to hang on to, so this BIG bag is perfect for me. And I think it's quite stylish too. There's also a "mini"version of the bag that I might make one of these days when I'm not packing so much stuff. 

Here's Sparky posing with the Mail Sack Pattern. She likes to help.

And I can't resist sharing my my spooky witch finger cookies from this weekend. So creepy looking, one little girl refused to eat one at our pumpkin carving party.

Eww! Look at the broken fingers nails!! I used the Witch Fingers recipe from Allrecipes.com and added some green food coloring for that "witchy" effect.

I finally finished my first quilt!

Ta da!! I finally finished my first quilt. I started this quilt in May with a class I took at a local quilt shop. I zipped along on the quilt top, I even got the back and borders put together pretty quick. Yep, I was thinking this quilting thing was no big deal. I had a local longarm quilter do the quilting for me. I chose a teal thread which blended nicely on the front and contrasted really neat on the solid brown back. It was looking lovely and going so smoothly and then came the last step... hand sew on the binding. WHAT?! Hand sew?!

Really, hand sew on the binding. This quilt is big (well, only twin size but that seemed big to me thinking about hand sewing on the binding)! I didn't really pay much attention to binding "talk" before this little step popped up on the instructions... How come more quilters aren't complaining about hand sewing this thing on at the end? *Sigh*... So I set off on hand sewing the binding on in late June. I would work on little bits of it here and there and it was so SLOW going. In late August I was still working on whipstitching this binding on (yep, I said whip stitching *shudder*), then along came this smart new gal at work who let me in on a little secret - YOU DON'T WHIPSTITCH THE BINDING. Oh man!! I'd already gotten half way around this twin size quilt, diligently whipstitching along when I could find time (have I mentioned I sometimes have up to 5 kids running around the house and I work full-time?). ACK! What was I thinking?? I'd seen quilt backs and hand sewn binding, and now come to think of it they never looked whipstitched.

I just thought those other quilters were better and stitching than me (which they probably are) but they were actually just using the right technique *sigh*. Well, I decided to just start doing it the right way "blindstitching" the rest of the way around. I guess it makes my first quilt a little more special with the learning mistakes making it uniquely mine.

 In other news... I need to convert these bottles into my world famous, fancy "birthday label" bottles. Stay tuned for before and after pics.

AND!!! Look at this sweet new program I just purchased. Corel Painter Essentials 4. It's like painting on the computer. I'm super excited to learn all of the bells and whistles and hopefully master it soon for my 2011 Christmas Card.
Thanks for stopping by to read my rambling blog post.

WIP Wednesday: Halloween Table Runner

Here's my WIP for Wednesday — a Halloween Table Runner. I'm feeling a little behind since it's already October and I'm just now finally getting around to sewing this baby together. I've had the Halloween fabric kicking around since July. It seems like I work best with a looming deadline.

My other WIP would be this blog (I'm still figuring out all the bells and whistles of how to make this thing look how I want it to, for now it's a basic template). I've wanted to blog for a while now.... but I didn't really know what to say, or if what I had to say would be remotely interesting to anybody out there. This posting seems so lack-luster with the amount of time I've spend pondering a blog, but here I am... finally. Hello everybody! Or hello anybody that might just stop by and read my random ramblings.

Stay tuned for all of my creative endeavors!