Headscarves!

Circa patchwork, lined with aqua solid

Circa patchwork, 20"

Alchemy reversible full scarf

Baby Bouquet voile self lined

Floral patchwork half scarf

So, you know that if I was going to lose my hair during chemo I'd have to experiment with cute headscarves! An internet search revealed nothing appealing. I think I like the handkerchief look more than those with the band around the bottom and tails hanging down. Maybe I'll think differently when I have NO hair, but for now I like this look better. Here's what I did. My first scarf in Circa I pieced a 20"square, then lined in a coordinating Kona cotton. I folded it in half, like picture #2 and then tied the ends in the back tucking in the flap that would hang in the back. My son said I looked like that war advertisement with the lady in the headscarf. Retro is good! :) Next, I did a 22" pieced square, cut it in half and lined with a solid, like the last pic. There is less bulk & then I had another half with slightly different fabrics. With the pieced ones, pay attention to the fabrics you put in the middle because those will be on your forehead. I was thinking that voile would be super soft and comfy against my head, but I think voile on both sides is too slippery, so I would do voile lined with cotton on the other side next time. Lastly, I did a 22" square with 2 different prints making it reversible with Alchemy cottons. Love the reversible idea! To sum it all up, it seems like a 22-20" square is great for an adult's head. I sewing the right sides together leaving a hole for turning, clipping the corners before turning. Then I ironed & topstiched around the edge. Super fast, super cute!

What I'm Working On

minky blanket

barcelona skirt

quilt WIP

Just some projects I've finished or are currently working on. I have posted all these in instagram, so I feel like I neglect the blog! It's like mini blogging. First pic is a blanket I made with my freespirit winnings plus adding past Jennifer fabrics. 

Second is Amy Butler's Barcelona skirt, altered. The original length to cut is 28" & I changed it to 23". I just prefer the skirt to go above my knee. Also, I don't line it. I worry that the bulk will make me look wider, so I just omit that step and attach the zipper as directed & just finish the top edge myself. Now, the pattern is perfect in my opinion & I plan on making a bunch to match my cardigans!

Last is the quilt pattern I'm working on for my shop using Happy Land. I have in the past used 8" squares or random patchwork, but felt like adding a different design. I am fussy cutting flowers from the line and mixing it all up with the small inner and outer borders. I'm calling it Flower Box, so If you are interested in having one of these, let me know. Right now my plans are to make this a 40x56 as that works as a small throw, toddler bed or baby quilt size. I can always make it bigger! ;)

Cameo

I got Amy Butler's new Cameo line in yesterday and it was fun to play with! I love how it works so well with some of her cherished older lines, like Belle. I'm glad I still have a little bit left of a few of those prints. I have been looking at that olive green in Belle and wondering what I want to combine it with and then here is Cameo! It has that great olivey green, chartreuse & pretty blues that Amy is known for. The red looks great with the Wallflower red as well as the newer Souvenir in the last photo. Harriet's kitchen (the large one in the last photo) was especially fun to pull coordinates. I love busy prints with lots of color and finding just the right combo to bring out their beauty. Which prints are you planning on getting?

Sew Fun Scraps

I have a destash shop here and have just listed 'large cuts' of various designers if any of you are interested! :)

West Indies Gum Drop Pillow

I love all those 'poufs' that I see popping up everywhere, so I decided to try Amy Butler's Gum Drop pillow pattern and make one to match Holly's room. Truth be told, this was cut out months ago and last night we decided to finish! Yay! One to check of my WIP list! The pattern was really pretty easy. The hardest part was ironing open the curved seams, but it doesn't have to be 'perfect'. Holly was helping me make it until she burnt her finger while ironing~ bummer! The pattern piece calls for cutting it out on the fold for each piece, so instead I made a full size pattern from interfacing, so that made the cutting out quicker. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and may make some for my family room. We can always use extra seating. I used the largest size, 24" and it's pretty big! Jennifer Paganelli West Indies fabrics were used~ Chandler & Luca in Brandy were used. You can find them here

My Stash, Updated

I got an email from Amy Butler the other day, well, her newsletter email, not from her personally! She's having a show me your stash contest and so I thought I have a nicely organized stash, so I'll enter. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to see other people's fabric stashes. When I originally posted my Wall of Wow fabric stash on flickr, I had lots of response! Currently have 1,730 views, 33 comments and 60 favorites. We love to see what others have! I get lots of comments like it looks like a store or I need to show my husband because he thinks I have too much fabric~ I'm glad to enable more fabric buying! :) To be honest, my husband breaks out in a cold sweat when he starts looking at what I have and asks, "How many thousands of dollars do we have invested in fabric?" and I really try to change the subject! Honestly, I do have more than I  need and I've tried to destash, but that just takes time to do that I currently don't have, so I try to list a yard here and there in my destash shop. I have more to list eventually . . . Anyway, go to the flickr group with your photo and post it and you could win Gypsy Caravan, patterns, books from Amy Butler. (I hope I get extra points for my stash amount, but it is a random selection!) It's fun seeing how others organize their fabric and it is supposed to be a picture of you, too!:)

A Very Southern California Christmas

Adult Table outside

The spread

With 95 year old grandma & great grandkids

My last minute skirt

I can't complain about the weather we had today in Manhattan Beach at my brother's house with lots of family. It was about 73 degrees, clear and sunny. We had an outside BBQ of tritip and shrimp with incredible sides, cakes for dessert and amazing appetizers. Normally the weather isn't THAT nice for Christmas, but this one was one for the books~ just gorgeous!! I had originally planned on making the Painted Portrait blouse to wear by AMH, but I must have measured myself wrong as it came out way too big~ I'll try to alter it another time! I made this skirt last minute from the Barcelona pattern from Amy Butler using the Clippings fabric from Loulouthi. There is a basic A line with zipper option that took about an hour to make. I skipped the lining and just hemmed it all up, love how it came out and intend to make more. What a beautiful day! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!

Lark is Here!!

Got my Lark by Amy Butler yesterday and despite my lack of energy, I was able to make a huge mess in my sewing room coming up with new combinations. Somehow all this vibrant fabric infused some energy and I was able to have a productive evening. Who knew new fabric was just what I needed?? More combinations can be found on my flickr . I pre ordered my Lark at Quilthome, it should be arriving everywhere else soon!

Teardrop Bag in Patchwork

I had a custom order for the Teardrop bag from Amy Butler in patchwork and adding a flap and inside zippered pocket. I was up for the challenge! Nellie wanted purples, pinks and blues and so we decided on Heirloom & Ginseng by Joel Dewberry, Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner & Flower Power from Jennifer Paganelli.. I cut 4 1/4" squares for the body and 4 1/2" squares for the strap. The trim piece along the top as well as the 'hips' are all Wilflowers fabric. I had a flap pattern I use for my diaper/wipes case and it was the perfect size~ it just needed to be a little longer, so I went with that. I put a magnetic button in the middle of the front pleat and the flap for closure. Inside Nellie wanted a zippered pocket, so I used the Mail Sack pattern~ (one of my all time favorite bag patterns) to construct that. The other side is a patchwork pocket that is divided. I'm really happy with the way it came out & I hope Nellie is too! :)

Spice Market Tote

I made these last week, the day before I left for vacation for my SIL and for me. I gave her the Love tote & I made mine out of Soul Blossoms with the inside in AMH Maybe in tangerine. I love the cool/warm color combo! Overall, it was a fun pattern, I made the larger tote. I will probably make the smaller one as well. Here is my experience: the pattern calls for attaching interfacing TWICE to the exterior & interior panels. It sounded like too much for me, so those totes are singly interfaced. They hold up well in my experience so far. The straps don't call for interfacing, which I was surprised, but I like because then they are floppy and don't weigh the bag down. My own personal problem with this size is that there is only 1" difference between the length and width and I got the positioning wrong, so make sure you identify & mark top so that you don't do that. Its easy to get it mixed up. On both bags my lining was either smaller or larger than the outside either due to the mix up or??? So that was a bummer! I used the laminated Sandlewood print for my SIL with straps & lining in the regular cotton. I like the stiffness it gave in addition to the interfacing. Overall, a make again~ it was fairly quick to put together, would make great Christmas gifts if I can be that organized this year!

Patchwork Diaper Bag

I had the pleasure of sewing a patchwork diaper bag for Nakia recently. Its one of my favorite things to sew~ well anything patchwork is! :) I used 5" squares and just trimmed down as necessary to create this aqua, lime and teal bag from fabrics by Amy Butler, Jennifer Paganelli, Patty Young & Michael Miller. She ordered a changing pad in Patty Young's Hummingbird and wanted an aqua/green bag so I added that print to the mix and any others that coordinated. Jennifer's Ann Flower Mural was added towards the end because as I walked by my fabric wall I noticed it would be gorgeous in the mix. I enjoy impromptu fabric mixes. You never know what coordinates sometimes until you are sewing along and you see one more who wants in on the fun! Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids, so I've got lots to do today. Hope you are enjoying your day!

One quilt finished, one started

The random patch quilts are my very favorite to sew! I love playing with the placement in color and pattern. I just finished Jenna's quilt in the oranges and pinks and now Elena's with purple, red and blue. I'm also using voile in this one, so can't wait to see how this works. The back will be mostly voile with a border of the regular quilting cotton. Can't wait to work on it this weekend!

Vote for Lindsi!

My previous post on Lindsi's nursery (scroll down to see) ended up with so many questions about the details of her beautiful new baby's room. One commenter, Jan, has a website where you can enter your nursery in a contest & asked if Lindsi wanted to. I forwarded the info & she's up on Jan's site now, here's the link: http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/the-bold-and-the-birdyful-nursery.html She named her nursery "The Bold and the Birdyful"~ cute!! All you have to do is comment where you rate the nursery~ super easy. If you are looking for baby room inspiration, this is one site you have to check out. Tons and tons of rooms to look at in every style imaginable for both girls, boys and gender neutral. If you want to enter your nursery, just contact Jan by clicking "contest" on the home page. Have fun browsing and don't forget to vote!!

Inspiring Nursery

This gorgeous nursery design is courtesy of Lindsi who ordered her crib bedding from me~ you will recognize the ruffled crib skirt from a previous post! I thought her nursery was so gorgeous, so I asked if I could share the photos with you all. Originally she showed me the bird pictures that are above the crib~ she went in a totally different direction than I thought, and I love it!! That dark plum wall really sets everything off and I love the contrast with that and the bedding. That plum is in small amounts in the Love fabrics by Amy Butler & it just comes to life. Enjoy!!
*****LATER NOTE: heres where she bought the narrow bookcase: http://furniturewithasoul.com/ ********

Ruffled!

Just finished a custom order for a Bliss Bouquet crib bumper and I attempted the ruffled skirt. It took much longer than I had planned and in the end I added one more ruffle (really!) of Cypress Paisley in lime because it came out too short. My ruffling foot got a work out and actually pooped out at one point, but Handy Husband was able to fix it, thank goodness! I was sweating at the thought of doing the running stitches/pulling for gathers on this one! It truly looks like a ball gown fit for a princess baby!!

My WIP

The ripple effect of adding on 2 rooms to our house is that you want to redo the other rooms! My family room has similar colors to the wip above, but is darker. I want to brighten it up with a lighter paint and livelier fabrics. I started with Amy Butler's Twilight Peony in saffron and started adding fabrics from there. I am fussy cutting the Cameo fabric from Parisville as the face on that fabric doesn't go with my theme, but maybe I'll add one just for fun. :) This is going to have to go on the back burner for awhile as I am overloaded with orders that were due YESTERDAY :O and my sewing room should be ready to paint a week from this weekend!!!! So, I've got to crank for the next week in order to have time to paint it and speed up the process of moving from the dining room to my new room. I can hardly fall asleep at night with all the thoughts I would like to implement in my creative space!!!!!

WIP Gray, Chartreuse & Blue

In between orders I'm working on this new color combo. I started with Anna Maria's Lovesme Lovesmenot in leaf and Amy Butler's English Garden in bluestone. I really liked them together, so then I pulled out some coordinates from my closet from Jennifer Paganelli, Patty Young, Denyse Schmidt as well as AMH & Amy. Oh, yes! The Coriander in pine looks lovely with it! I was kind of excited about that, and Patty Young's Hive and Hummingbirds in lime~ gorgeous!! Then, I got some of the Ty Pennington's Impressions line and was super excited to add those. Its really coming along and I really do love it. I'm not a huge gray fan~ its the smallest section in my fabric closet~ but I love this color combo. Not sure how long it will take to complete, but I work on it a little each day! Sewing room update~ slooooooowly coming along. Hope to start the stucco part Saturday. Maybe 1 more month of no heat?? I'm really tired of being cold!

A Bright Spot on a Grey Day

I got to finally work with Soul Blossoms! I really like that fabric line, but find that I enjoy using one of those prints to pull prints from other lines. Each fabric is a work of art and looks good supported. I made a single fabric blanket using the Pillow & Maxfield Pretty Bird fabric & saw how great it looked with Disco Flower. P&M's new Gypsy Bandana has great saturated colors~ love the reddish fuschia print with this. Kaffe goes with everyone, and Paperweight is one of my favs~ need it in every color! Jennifer Paganelli prints are in almost everything I do, the Queen of Color herself!! BTW, go to her blog to preview Honey Child~ amazing color combos~ can't wait! I was worried about the pics because its sooooooo grey here. I'm already ready for spring, I guess thats why I picked the bright colors!

Got Soul Blossoms?

I ordered my Soul Blossoms from http://hawthornethreads.com & had fun playing with the combos. Some new Jennifer Paganelli & Patty Young goes nicely with them. There are just so many prints, that I didn't order all, but still felt like I got a TON! My favorite is the Peony, so I posted those combos. Other combos are on my flickr site. Enjoy, try not to drool!!! :)

Sew & Tell #2

At the last minute yesterday I thought I'd try the Everyday Reversible Shopper from the Style Stitches book. Since the Teardrop bag was tricky, I wanted something fun & easy. This bag is both of those!!! It is humungous. There are large inside & outside pockets & I can fit everything in it for projects to take to different places. I used Full Moon Dot & some new prints from Kristian Howell that I bought at http://www.hawthornethreads.com/fabric/designer/khristian_a_howell/high_society I enjoyed this so much~ it would be great for gifts. :)