Love for Clara

When I heard about designer Sandi Henderson's  baby, Clara, was born with congenital heart defect, pulmonary stenosis with an insufficient tricuspid & a fundraiser was started to help cover all costs associated with getting this sweet baby healthy, I knew I wanted to donate a blanket made with all her fabrics. I pulled together fabrics from Farmer's Market, Meadowsweet & Secret Garden.  It's a 32x48 patchwork and minky blanket with medium pink minky dimple dot on the other side.  Perfect for a baby, toddler or child.

 Here is a link to the You Caring site where you can make a direction donation & read updates on Clara. Here is the blog with all the info on the fundraiser including all the items donated. For each dollar you donate, you are entered into a drawing for one of the items on the list. Hope you can help!

Quilt from Crib Bedding

I recently had the opportunity to take a patchwork bumper I had made previously for a customer and make a patchwork & minky blanket for her as well as accessories for the new big girl bed! Above is the result. We refreshed the palette by adding some red and used Anna Maria Horner's Ghost Wing as well as a few other new ones. If you look, the top row is bumper at a narrow 8". The next row I did was 12" combining both old and new fabrics and then alternated between the 2. Repurposing the bumper was great in that some fabrics are out of print and I am no longer able to get them, like those from Jennifer Paganelli.

I also made a patchwork gathered skirt, pictured above. It is a lot of labor as all those seams need to be zigzagged to prevent fraying during washing. The result is amazing beauty, don't you think? Since this was going on a toddler bed I also made a fitted sheet and pillowcase using Sandi Henderson's Happy Butterfly in blush. I'm glad she liked the palette so much she wanted it for the big girl bed! It's one of my favorites!

Sew Fun at Home

I have so much fun working with lots of bright colors for my customers, but my home already has the fall colors of wheat, olive, chocolate and deep red. My husband won't let me change it all out as that would be a huge undertaking, so I've struggled to get the fabric designs I love into my home. I recently found the Thomas Paul fabric that's on the pillow at fabric.com & thought it worked well with the bird theme & color scheme already in place. I pulled together the caramels, chocolates and saffrons from recent collections from Sandi Henderson, Joel Dewberry, Jennifer Paganelli, Anna Maria Horner, Michael Miller & Moda. I used one voile to see how I liked it mixed in, and it works well. That particular color is really hard to find, but it matches well with Sandi Henderson's Fresh Cut Flowers in maize. My living room is finally ready for fall. I have some fabric pumpkins in the making and if I finish them before the end of fall, I'll post about them! :)

Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson

Hawthorne Threads got a few of Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden in, so of course I ordered it. I enjoyed seeing what goes with what. I could seriously play with fabric combinations all day! :) My favorite palette is the large Medallion print, Garden Gate in the speckle colorway with aqua, red and golds. Its is a beautiful large scale print that would be amazing as curtains or a bed skirt. Hope they get the rest of the prints soon!

Joann's Score

I had to get some supplies at Joann Fabric today and of course had to see if they had any of the DS quilts fabric line from Denyse Schmidt. They did, but I only had 2 coupons, so I bought the dots. Love 'em!! Holly found the floral on sale from a line called 'Garden Party'~ its totally her right now, so we will be making something for her with it. We bought all that they had left~ 1.25 yards on sale for $4.50/yd. All the fabrics have a wonderful feel to them! Holly found the pincushion, too. She was excited to show it to me and I paused for about 2 seconds & said, "Its Meadowsweet!!! Put it in the cart for $7.50!!!" The little cushion lifts up for storage, its completely adorable and was so necessary. A girl can't have too many cute pincushions. :) They also had it in Poppy Parade in Loden but the Vintage Paisley matched my sewing room better.

Patchwork Clock

Sorry its been sooo long since I blogged, but my daughter got the flu, then me. I would call myself 'barely functional' at this point, but life must go on! I didn't plan on many home made gifts this year because I new I'd be finishing orders up until last week. Thats when I got sick. See, the Lord knew that I would only stop sewing and take a break if I was sick, so I got a nice rest. Holly and I watched 'Elf" and I quilted this block for a clock. (I still LOL at the escalator scene, my favorite!!) I found a similar one in the magazine "Stitch", but it was bigger, had letters, etc. I took my inspiration from that and found a block in Elizabeth Hartman's new book "The Practical Guide to Patchwork" which I HIGHLY recommend~ and found a 12x12 star block I could make in Meadowsweet/Farmers Market fabric in the Superstar quilt. I added a 2.5" border all the way around in the Vintage Paisley fabric, quilted it, then attached to a 12" painters canvas I bought at Joann's. I used a staple gun to staple it to the wood frame and had my handy husband put the clock kit in, battery added and voila! He said the clock kit was super easy to put in. That's just his department in our house! I'm going to make one for my new sewing room, but at this time I am so overwhelmed at which 3 fabrics to choose out of the thousands (yes, I believe I have at least a thousand different fabrics which is why I'm getting a new sewing room!!). So, over the next few days I will be thinking and rethinking. Or maybe I'll do a different block that uses more?? Endless possibilities! Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas & I'll see you back next week! xo, Monique

Hobo Bag for Robin

Just finished a hobo bag for my sweet friend, Robin. I used a pdf pattern from Sweet Pea Totes. I purchased it from http://pinkchalkfabrics.com. (You can also get it directly from http://www.etsy.com/shop/sweetpeatotes ) Kathy has a great selection of patterns that I love browsing. I've made her mail bag before and loved it. What I love about pdfs is you can have it up on your computer and follow along with pictures. So great for people like me who love to have a visual! I posted more pics on my flickr & you can see Tina Givens' Opal Owl on the back~ a beautiful surprise & compliment to the Glam Garden, Bubble Burst & Henna Garden all picked out by Robin.

New Meadowsweet 2 Combos

I bought the new Meadowsweet 2 at http://hawthornethreads.com. They didn't have all of them in yet, but bought what I could and had fun introducing them to my other fabrics! :) I really love the robins egg blue group~ so pretty & fresh! I get so excited when new fabrics arrive. What new fabric lines are you looking forward to???

Choosing Minky

Which minky would you choose to go with this future random patchwork & minky blanket? I sewed up a block using all the fabrics that will be in this blanket for Alexis to see. She wants the double sided minky spa fleece and I think either of these would work. Which one looks better? I used mostly Anna Maria Horner fabrics with one Sandi H (butterflies) and one Amy B (dots).

Living Room Fabric Audition

I just got new drapes a few months ago for my living room and dining room which face each other. The old drapes I made myself and the were red toile from Waverly with cream boullion fringe. They just got a tad faded. I kept saying I needed to make new ones, but just haven't had the time. A friend of mine just bought these Pottery Barn (lined!) silk drapes and didn't want them, so she asked if I wanted them- easy to say yes! Now, I am tweaking the Living Room to incorporate the cocoa drapes. Sandi Henderson's Henna Garden from the new Meadowsweet line looked like a match. What do you think? My ottoman was made by my MIL with my requirements- the lid lifts off and I have my scrapbooks inside. I asked if I could cut up the family sheets that were ripped and used the top, pretty edge with the hand embroidered 'J' for Johnson. It fit perfectly around the edge. (Click the photo to see it better) I think it was a full size sheet. I stapled the linen to the inside of the ottoman. I have really enjoyed the look and the family tie. The top was covered with the red floral fabric that the pillow on the couch has, but its time for a change. There were matching pillowcases with the 'J' and I turned those into pillow toppers, and I will blog about that another time. I am waiting for Jennifer Paganelli's new line to come out, So St. Croix, as I think the reddish brown would look good in the room as well. Here's a photo of the fabrics: well, I guess its at the top. Some one PLEASE tell me how to move photos!!!!! Anyway, anxiously awaiting that fabric to audition!! She also has toile that I am excited about as well. Check out her blog, SisBoom Daydreams- I have a link under blogs I follow!