Dress Pattern!

Ive decided what Ill do with the Valentines day fabric and it sadly doesn't include my "vintage valentines" fabric. Im going to make it strippy! Everything has been cut and I think ill end up finishing the top tonight.



These are the fabric im going to use.


I went shopping at Joanns yesterday. Spent a little bit of money. But, I found fabric for a few friends to continue their Christmas presents. Guess who these fabrics are for?


One of my projects this year was going to make a dress for myself. So I broke down and bought a pattern. I think im going to try and make the blue one at the bottom. I love the collar and the bow in the front!


Ill do it all in one color though. I loved this fabric too much and I couldnt find anything that worked for me.

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busy busy busy

Ive been busy making Christmas presents.


What! Making Christmas presents. I know.. im a little early but hey! might as well be done more quick than hurrying the last few weeks. Im not done with any of them yet. I need to take a trip to Joanns for a few more finishing goodies. Since they are presents I cant take any photos yet.. :(


I did finally finish my 2 blocks for the quilting bee though. Im happy with one and not so much with the other.

Happy


Not so happy

I ran out of the blue to finish edging it in. I think perhaps if I could have finished it maybe I would like it more.

Next on the cutting board is this fun Valentines fabric!

Its going to be a table runner. My problem is.. I want to include this fabric in with it.



But I think its too red.. and not poppy in color. hmmmm. ideas?

These are my favorite 3 fabrics from the Valentines day line I have.

They remind me of my best friend Alex. This is something she would draw. :)

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day 8-11: Soiree Quilt- Check

I bet you thought I had given up didn't you? I didn't Ive been busy. Busy with other things and I haven't been able to sew or anything until late in the night and by then the photo taking is no good. Last weekend was pretty busy. I don't remember what I did but I was worn out and not feeling so well.

I did make some progress on some sewing things though. I binded a quilt ive been working on since before Neil left on deployment. Its only my second one. The pattern I used was from Moda bakeshop. Have you seen their tutorials. Some are pretty fantastic. This quilt seemed quite easy for a beginner. I used 2 of Moda's Soire charm packs and white Kona cotton solid on the sashing. I forget what lines I backed it in. I really like the back although I don't have any photos for you to see now. Later on when I have Neil helping me I will. I ended up using the same line as it is in the tutorial so just assume it looks a lot like the one shown until I can get a better photo.



The binding matched perfectly and its from Michael Miller's soire line. Odd that that are both from a "soire" line and look a lot alike. Anyway, like I said this was my second quilt ever and boy did that binding give me a rough time. I did it a completely different way last time and it looked like crap in my opinion. :/ So it took me one day to actually get it on right and I had to rip it up a few times to get it on straight. Ughhhhhh. Then last night I finished it by hand sewing the back of the binding on. Its a bit wonky in spots but I don't think it looks too bad. Plus, it was good practice. And hey, I'm done with it. I'm not sure who will be the recipient but two of my family members are preggers and neither one know what they are having so I guess if either one of them are having a girl then its for them. :)



I started working on Katie's blocks for the quilting bee while I was frustrated with my binding. I like the one I have started I just need to get it finished and then do another. Once they are through Ill put up some photos of them.

Sometime last week I was meandering around TJMAXX and I stumbled upon this little bit of awesomeness. I have just read a blog about how Sublime Stitches no longer carries it and the only way I get my greedy little nibs on a copy is to buy one from a store and who knows how many are left out there. Well I practically stole this for a whopping 3.99! Wahooooooo! It really made my day.


Yesterday I had a newborn session with the cutest little guy in the world. His mom also rocked my socks. She had a ton of ideas and we rocked them. Anyway to get to my point I came home to some awesome new fabrics!! I signed up for the monthly stash building club at fabfanatics.com and this months "theme" was Free Spirit. Next month is Amy Butler and March is Heather Bailey. I'm really hoping that the only fabrics I get from the Heather Bailey month is Nicey Jane. I'm so in love with that fabric. Hey, my birthday is coming up? If you're going to get me something Id love 2 yards of each print. Thank you :)

Oddly enough from this lot I already had three of the fabrics. :) But I did get two from nicey jane!

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Day 6 & 7: Pillow- Check!

Look at what I finished today!



Isn't is awesome!

Today I put some embroidery on the back panel


I like it.

Im very happy to be done and it is my first real thing I have finished so far. I am counting the embroidery as a project in itself so technically its my first and second finished product.

Ive had quite the busy week. Busy doing random stuff though.

I dont think I ever posted about my new years resolution(s)...
I figured it might be nice to make a list that way at the end of the year I can see how I did. Here goes.

1) Not to drink soda pop again this year (last years old resolution)
2) Cook at least 10 things a month
3) Read at least 5 books, rereading the Twilight saga doesn't cut it. :(
4) Obviously the crafts, hopefully 365 in the end.
5) Shoot 15 weddings, I have 5 booked now I just need to find 10 more. Any takers?
6) Shoot a model once a month. I'm no good when it comes to models, mainly because I don't know strobes the way I want to. Because of that it makes me think I'm less of a photographer. I know that sounds silly but I'm going to try. Ive already got January's lined up for when I'm in Orlando later on in the month.
7) Ill also try to clean more but im not having that be a resolution
8) get creative with my 52 weeks I started today. You should check it out in a few weeks. I have a few awesome ideas.

I think that's it. I know its a lot. But if you don't set goals how are you do push yourself? hah, I originally wrote that as "punch yourself." I know I probably wont do it all especially once Neil is deployed again(the cooking part) but Ill try!


Oh yeah, check out these sweet pjs I found at Target :)

Neil's call sign is Gnome so Ive been collecting "gnomey" things ever since.

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Day 4 & 5: thrift shop yummies

Yesterday I had to go to court because I got a ticket back in October. In NC when you get a speeding ticket you either pay the full amount, hire a lawyer or go to court yourself. Figures I would get a ticket 3 hours away from my house now. Ugh. So, I got up at 4:30am and made the trek on over to Beaufort, NC. Turns out all you really have to do it show up, stand in line for a few minutes and when you reach the lady she asks, "do you want this lowered?" I wonder if anyone ever says "No, I totally deserve this amount." She didnt lower it too much but I guess it paid for my gas out there and back. Since I was out there and I had all day to do nothing I decided to get a few geocaches. I went around to a few Neil and I had tried to find previously and still had no luck. I did end up finding 3 or 4 we hadnt tried though. I even saw my first OTHER geogacher out and about. Neither of us could find it. :( Do you geocache? Find us here. We are Team Awesome-o.

After that most of the thrift stores were opened and I know I havent posted here enough for you to understand how much I love them but I most certainly do. I went to a few and they were kinda ehh. I did happen to see a quilt shop right on main street and I got all excited and then of course they are closed since its a Monday. Why are all quilt shops closed on Mondays? Its crazy annoying. Anyway, I got a few super cute things. I was in the Christmas spirit...




I got a few other assorted Christmas items as well including at least 100 gift tags and cute ceramic mouses.

I also got this big bag of buttons for 50cents


And this milk glass bowl


I absolutely love me some milk glass. There is just something so beautiful about it. Its classic and gorgeous.

I found a few sweaters for myself and Neil and these super sweet vintage pillowcases

Im not sure why Im all about the 70s recently. Its kinda weird.

Anyway, it was a great day. It ended with me finally deciding to go with 9block squares and I was sewing away. I did the same today. Half the top of the runner is done but I had to put it down for today. And I dont want to bore you with photos of the same thing over and over so I opted out of a photo today.

Hopefully in the next few days Ill get to something more colorful!

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Day 3: Gobble Gobble

I know, its a little late in the season to be making things for thanksgiving but I do have the fabric and I did start it BEFORE thanksgiving. I started it and decided I wanted it to be a bit longer than it was going to be. The first bit I did 9 patch blocks like this:



but I thought maybe 3 patch blocks might looks neat too.



But now I dont know. I think I might still like the tiny patches all over but I dont know. What do you think?



A good friend of mine told me about E-Mealz a few months ago and I finally decided to try it out. I have a hard time cooking mainly because I never know what to cook. Emeals helps out. It gives you a recipe for everyday that you want one. They have lowfat options and different store options. I have tried a few recipes now and none of them are things I would "typically" cook and I have loved them. Last night I made a pizza with chicken and spinach and the sauce ended up being ranch and it was pretty good. I hate ranch and I think I would have preferred more to be added. Maybe my tastes are changing. Anyway, you should give it a try. Here's the link. If you decide to join click through from this site as I get a $$ reference. :)

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Day 2: Stitch Sampler- COMPLETE!

Yes, this is a terrible photo. And its not ironed.



I haven't even brought out my d90 since I have been back home. All these photos have been from my Iphone. I finished the sampler today. Some of the stitches were a bit harder than expected. There are a few I don't want to do ever again. I really enjoyed it though. Its going to be a pillow. I already know what I will sash it with and back it. Perhaps Ill finish it later on in the week. In a few moments Ill start my Thanksgiving table runner. Its a few months late but I have the fabric so why not. Right?!

Today Neil and I went grocery shopping since I hadn't been home for three weeks. We really needed the restock. I wanted to go to Lowes Foods but Neil didn't feel like driving to Clayton(45min) so we chose Walmart instead. I hate Walmart. Long lines, always packed, no sales unless you know the area store's sales. Its terrible. While we were there we decided to get our oil changed too. That was to take an hour and a half. :/ I try to use cloth bags whenever possible. For some reason the cashiers at walmart NEVER understand that I don't want to use plastic bags. Its probably the most annoying thing ever. They always ask, "you're sure?" like 10 times. And they never pack them full. Like 3 or 4 items each. Man. It drives me batty. Anyway, well today we actually got out of the store using NO plastic bags. It really was a miracle. Usually they will forget and put something in one.


Oh and our oil took nearly 2 freakin hours to change. another reason to hate Walmart.

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Day 1 : Stitch Sampler

First off, I guess an obligatory "Happy New Year" post is in order. I know I rang in the new year right!


My main traveling craft project will be embroidery. There is a lot you can do with and it is all super cute! For Christmas I received a few books including Embroidered Effects, Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of crafts, Handmade Home and a few others I forget the name of.

Since I'm new to the whole embroidery thing I started with that. One of the first projects is a sampler to try out all the stitches. So far so good. I'm doing the easier stitches first and now I'm getting to the harder bits. :)

Here's what is looked like before I nodded off yesterday when we got home from Lindy Focus.



Also, while we were in Asheville last week Neil and I visited a quilt shop, Asheville Cotton Co. It was rather large and had a TON of fabric. A lot of I hadn't ever seen before. Although, I was most excited about Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane fabric. It is probably one of my favorites ever. Its so soft and sweet and cute and I love it. Its the perfect amount of girly for me. I didn't buy any because I didn't need it although eventually this year I will be using a lot of it. I did however pick up a few fat quarters to add to my stash to send for the Fresh Comfort quilting bee I signed up for. My the Queen Bee for February.



There's some Amy Butler, Love in there along with a few Christmas prints. Im excited to get to cuttin!

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