hoops and hoops

I scored all of these hoops at the Goodwill for $6.00!!! I don't really have any plans for them but can't pass up a deal like that. Right? ; ) 

A Quilt Re-model

How sweet is this quilt? It is pretty rough for sure. I got it out of a storage unit that had been abandoned. My plan is to take all of the plate appliques off and repair the few that need it. Mostly its the center circles that have holes and the backing matches the circles so I'll have to use the backing to fix the plates. Im really excited to get it put back together and have a new/old quilt.

How Cool Are These

The McCalls are awesome, the Christmas one is from '63 and the summer one is from '68. I love the colors of the summer one.

Broken Zippers

All of the jeans on my sons pants refuse to stay up.

I decieded to turn them into button fly jeans instead of trying to replace the zippers, because who wants to do that? I took the old zippers out

 I cut the zipper out as close to the seam as I could.

 Then I took the other side out with my seam ripper

 Then I snipped the zipper as far down as I could

 I used grossgrain ribbon 2x the length of the zipper, which I folded over and then sewed a straight stitch down each side

 then I added a button hole with my nifty automatic button holer

 I then sewed my ribbon to the fly

 then I added my button (which Dallas picked out) and voila! a fixed pair of pants so that I'm not constantly reminding my sweet boy to zip up his pants and that makes both of us happy :) I'm sure that this is not the only way to do this and probably not the easiest, but it's what made sense to me.

It's chilly out...

so I stayed inside today and made these

this one is for me, I needed a little pouch to take with me to the gym

and this cute little thing matches my sisters theme for the nursery, its my favorite, I think its adorable. I started with Anna's tutorial for her lil cutie pouches. So cute and easy.

Rosettes

Well I got a couple wicker wreaths at the Dollar Tree and as I was looking around blogland to find inspiration I saw some cute rosette Valentine's Day items and had an ah-ha moment. I started with this

and then this

and it ended up like this

I'm not too sure about it. I think its missing something. If you know what it is let me know :)

A Gift

Today is Belinda's Birthday, and to celebrate I made her bias tape. I was not too sure how this would go since generally making my bindings is not so fun, but I bought a nifty bias tape maker from my LQS and it turned out to be one of the mindless tasks thats sort of relaxing.

Sweet Little Shoes

Over at Shwin&Shwin they've got a super cute tut/pattern for soft-sole mary janes which can be found here


I mean seriously, how cute are these?

Scrappy Hexigons

So after traveling through blogland yesterday I decided to give paper foundation hexigons a go. I'm going to make a throw pillow using the scraps from my its a hoot charm packs. I am using a template found here. I hope I do become addicted to them like everyone else seems to be because it will give me a fun portable project. Unfortunately I've been sick the last few days so who knows when I'm even going to finish the projects I've got going on now  :)

Scrappy Charity

I do love to sew but I've been missing my first crafting love. Crochet. So rather than planning a project I just dug into my misc yarn balls and started a lap size afghan. Its super simple front post single crochet. I have to admit that I'm itching to get to some hexi's but I have way too many projects half started or the stuff purchased and sitting on my desk in the sewing/family room. I'll show you what it looks like when the afghan is finished.

Valentine's Roar

Dallas digs on pirates, in fact we have pirate day occasionally at our house. After we get them printed out we will of course add some sort of a goody to it. I really love how this came out expecially since it's my very first time ever using picnik. Thanks to Cheri of I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar for her tutorial because thats what got me to give picnik a try.

Progress...

Here they all are laid out, I had to move a few of them around a couple times b/c of color clusters.

And now its time to start sewing. I have all my rows stacked and marked with a flat flower pin (totally not my idea but I don't remember where I saw it) and then I put the pin the pin in the first block so that I can keep all of my rows orgainized.

I've changed my mind

maybe not that big of a surprise but after starting on my fan quilt I decided I love it way too much to have it be just a lap size quilt. That being said, I of course ordered more material from The Fat Quarter Shop and from Stitches n Giggles to make it into the new quilt for my bed. I'm super excited because you can't have a new quilt without having new shams, throw pillows, and maybe even new curtains! I think its always exciting to switch it up and have any room feel fresh. Plus I have a lot of fun deciding what all to use and then seeing how it all goes together in the end.

Car Seat Tent

So how cute is this? Its a car seat tent for my sisters baby shower. She saw it on etsy at avisiontoremember.

I purchased the kit from her and then I quilted it with hearts on the pink squares and big spirals on the black squares. I really like how it turned out, I think it's super cute. You can check her out on her blog.

Jittery

I got the top done for my Java Jitters quilt. I'm really happy with the way it looks. I was pretty nervous since it was my first project that I made with out a pattern whether it be mine or someone elses. So here it is...

What do you think? I love it!

Today is a new day....

I went back to the gym for the first time since Thanksgiving! And I feel so much better already.

Now onto quilting. Here is a picture of the strips sewn together

I think I'm going to sew them together in a sort of hap-hazard way and just see what comes out. I really like all of the colors in this line. And my sister picked up this sweet calendar for me, there is a different patch with instructions for the patch and instructions for the quilt. How fun is that?

Also exciting....my Kona Cotton came in yesterday and is in the washing machine as I type!

P.S. Don't look too close at my sewing machine desk, its seen alot of better days, and re-finishing it is on my to-do list for spring.

Back to School

I've been anticipating this for the last 2 weeks, I love having Dallas home, but it sure messes with my routines, and it's impossible to keep the house looking the way I want. But I know I will miss him and think that the house feels too quiet tomorrow. So I've decided to take the day off from crafting of any kind, I've got dinner in the slow cooker and I'm getting his lunch made early so that we can hang out this afternoon, watch a movie, play some games and get back to reading The Chronicles of Narnia (we're on The Horse and His Boy). So I'm off to hang out with my kid.

Java Jitters

So I got all my Java by Deb Strain for Moda washed, pressed and starched and I'm going to start cutting today.  I've decided (I think) to cut it into 2 1/2" strips and see what comes out. I usually like to work with a pattern when I'm sewing b/c I don't feel confident enough to just cut with out intention but if I'm going to grow and become better I've got to push myself a little right? So wish me luck and I'll keep you posted about what happens.