Early Empire Cinch

My maternity wardrobe is a little bit of a disaster.  After I had George I gave away all of my maternity clothes along with all of our baby clothes.  And, for some reason I think maternity clothes aren't as cute as they were 3 years ago.  Maybe I haven't look hard enough, or maybe I'm kind of thinking what's the point because I only have 9 more weeks to go (that single digit number is a little frightening to me today!).  Luckily I have a very kind neighbor, Angel Amy, who has given me several items to bolster up my tiny collection, but pickings are still a little slim in my closet.

I've had 2 projects from the Anna Maria Horner Handmade Beginnings that I've been meaning to make for a couple of weeks.  The Early Empire Cinch was one of them.  I love when I can check something off my list, and last week I got to check this little number off my growing sewing to do sheet.  Check.

Now after wearing this cinch today I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  Last week I could not have said such nice things about it.  I had to use my seam ripper a couple times on it, and that always makes me feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and then I start to think the whole project is a waste.  Even if I finish the project, my sewing ego is a little beat up if I had to fix lots of my own mistakes.

These pictures were taken after I wore my new cinch for 4 hours.  Probably should have ironed it before taking the photos, but I was just trying to keep it real around here. 

But, after wearing my new cinch today I'm so happy with it.  I think it's the perfect compliment to my boring gray maternity dress. It adds the necessary color that I need in my wardrobe and my life.  

My cinch is reversible which means I now have 2 different options in the maternity wardrobe.  Perfect.  I'm also thinking that maybe, just maybe, I'll want to wear this even after I've given  birth.  I'm crossnig my fingers that I'll still love it after I say good-bye to my belly and hello to my baby.

Time will tell if it's an item that will last after my pregnancy, but for now I'm just excited to have something new to wear.  Now if only I could work up the courage to take on the Mariposa dress from the AMH Handmade Beginnings!

Again, keeping it real with the ladder in the background. Sweet.

Happy Birthday Weekend!

My little George turned three this weekend.  I would be really sad about my baby boy turning 3 if I didn't have another little one on the way.  I just can't believe how quickly time goes.  I mean 3 years just flew by.

In hopes of making all of George's dreams for his birthday come true, I let him help with the planning process.  I did make some suggestions, and for the most part George liked all of my ideas.

Super George

I was going to host a Super Hero Party, but I kept the party REALLY small, so I just called it a Backyard Birthday and ditched having to stick to a theme.  I did however make all those that attended a superhero crown because what kid doesn't like wearing crowns??

I also thought it was important for everyone to have their own birthday party favor bag for some little toys and pinata candy.  These ideas are always so good on the planning side, but during the execution stages I start to question my judgement.  I believe it was Grace who said it best the morning after I made all the birthday crowns.  She told me, "Mama, I think you accidentally made 6 crowns in one night."  In the end, I'm glad I made the simple little bags.

The only disappointing part of the Backyard Birthday is that George refused to wear his birthday shirt.  I mean he cried and cried and cried about having to wear it.  So he didn't.  Today is his actual birthday and he gladly put his birthday shirt today.  I guess he just wanted to wear it on his actual birthday.  My silly little rule follower.

Now that all the birthday excitement is over, I'm off to my next project.  More on that later this week...hopefully!!

I'm going to do it!

I went up to a new fabric store in Raleigh today, Wish Upon a Quilt.  It's been on my "to-do" list for months.  I took with me several pieces of fabric, never really knowing which project will emerge when you are in a fabric store.  I also took with me this inspiration picture that I've been carrying around for almost as long:

One day when I was unloading the dishwasher, I looked at the counter and saw that the bowls had randomly stacked in this order, and that I loved the color combo so much I took a picture.  I thought to myself it would make a beautiful quilt.

Then, I found a quilt pattern that I got really excited about.  Probably I got really excited about it because our local quilt shop had sewn up an actual sample and had it hanging in the store, and it was so very striking in person.  So I bought the pattern:

I've had two big pieces of inspiration that I tote along with me every time I go into a fabric store, just hoping that I'd get lucky, and find just the fabrics I needed.  Until today, it has alluded me.  But, when I walked into Wish Upon a Quilt, the friendly quilt staff was nothing but eager to help me bring my pieces of inspiration into quilt reality.  They started pulling fabrics left and right to help me sort through and find twelve that would work.

I think we did a pretty good job together, the three of us:

The blue is not quite as "blue", and the greens are a bit more subtle, but I am pleased as punch with my assortment.  I think it will do quite nicely.

Next up, one queen size quilt!  Yikes.  I've never made one that big before.

Oh yeah, on more thing I found on my way out of Wish Upon a Quilt today:

They had a charm pack of Sherbet Pips!  Of course I had to bring it home too.  Sadly it feels very wintery right now in the middle of April.  But maybe in July I'll be super excited about the cool colors and looking ahead to Christmasy sewing?!

Of course, first I will finish my color value quilt.  I have not forgotten my priorities.  That will be turned into a baby quilt to send off to another friend having a baby.

Company in the Sewing Garage

Nothing like a new toy to get all inspired again.  First class in the mastery class was great.  Mostly it helped me realize how much I have to learn.  But that's okay, I'm okay with that.  I'm not so prideful to think that I'm going into a mastery class already at the mastery level!

On Tuesday afternoon when I got home from my class, and after the kids got home from school, Ruby had been invited over to a friend's house for a playdate.  My girls are in different classes at school, so they have different friends too.  I think it's good for them to venture out on solo adventures every now and again.  But we have a long ways to go, in terms of how the twin left at home often feels.  Jane was feeling a bit blue.  She told me she wanted to learn how to sew.  I should love that!  But it's really hard to be the teacher in the mother-daughter relationship.  I'm sure the teachee thinks it's really hard to have to listen to their mother so much.  We are all very independent women in this house!  But I decided if I could just reach deep down and pull up an extra measure of patience we might actually survive day one of Sewing 101, taught by Mom.

Here is the finish product:

"The Fish Bag"

Original design by Jane Dorothy Earnest

I tried my very best to let her design the whole thing.  She learned some really important skills like PATIENCES, sewing on buttons, how to sew a straight line, how to back-tack at the beginning and ending of a line.  Not too shabby for day one.  We both survived, and hopefully we even thrived a bit.  I know it won't be long before they are too independent to let me help them at all.  I guess I really just need to give them the sewing machine basics, and then just step back and let them go.  They can figure it out on their own, just like I did.  It might just be the best way for these sewing lessons to go.  Another compelling reason for a mom to have two sewing machines.  One for herself, and one for sharing :)

Of course, when Ruby got home from the playdate, Jane was quick to tell her how much fun sewing lessons were, and how she got to sew all. by. herself.  Ruby was instantly jealous, but before I had to go out for my second session of Sewing 101, she started throwing up!  Not that that's great news, but I knew I didn't have it in me for round two!  So Ruby got sick for the rest of the day and all through the night.  She didn't make it to school today either.  As a result, I got to have the whole day alone with the "other" twin.  As you can imagine there was some sewing involved (because as soon as she woke up at 10am, she was better)!

More buttons.  Little ladies must learn how to sew on buttons.  If they don't learn that, I have failed as a teacher.  

  

"The Ladybug and the Flower"

Original bag design by Ruby Lark Earnest

(But her bag doesn't get to get finished until she does something nice for her sister.  She was stubborn during one too many of their fights today!)

Friends, if I am making it look really cute to have twin daughters, then something is being lost in translation.  I mean, they are darn cute, but will it ever feel "easy" to be a mom?!  

In the midst of all the bag making, and daughter shaping, I had to have a little something going on the side, or else I might have lost my mind.  I was recently inspired by Rachel over at Stitched in Color with all of her talk about Value Quilts.  I was really intrigued by the idea that the fabric design doesn't matter, as much as the color value of the fabric.  I have so, so, so much fabric!  But the patterns can get overwhelming at times.  I wanted to try this method out for myself to see if it was true, that you could really ignore the pattern, and just focus on the color value.  

My friends, it's true.  Look what Ruby and I came up with today while she was home sick:

After cutting 6" squares in either dark values or light values, I started paring them up, one dark with one light.  Then you do what you like to do when making half square triangles, and after doing that over and over and over again, you have tons of square that you get to start playing with...

Variation #1:  Concentric squares

Variation #2:  Matching up the dark values according to color.  Ruby called this the "sorting" method.

Variation #3:  Random groupings, with the small square pattern repeated and the dark values in the center

My little partner:

I would say she got some really important lessons in emerging patterns, color values, and hanging out with your mother.  Homeschooling at it's finest :)

Now here comes the hardest part, which variation do you like best?  #1, 2 or 3???

Retro Duffel Bag

The Italian was suppose to take the kids to his parents house the past weekend.  Unfortunately my little George's ear infection from 2 weeks ago never went away, so we ended up back at the pediatrician's on Saturday morning for our second round of antibiotics.

BUT, before all the illness drama went down, I worked away on a Retro Duffel Bag for George to take his precious belongs with him to Grandma's house.  He requested a green bag when asked what color he wanted.  When he woke up at midnight Friday night in pain and with a fever, I had just finished the Retro Duffel Bag.  It was perfect timing because when I told him his bag was done he quickly got excited.  I love how easy it is to distract my kids.

He was excited and I was too.  I love the way the bag turned out.  The tutorial is well written and easy to follow, and the bag is very easy to make and comes together quickly.

George uses his bag around the house to carry all his stuff.  I'm hoping that soon he'll get to take his new Retro Duffel Bag on a very special trip to Grandma's house, so my pregnant self can have a weekend vacation at home!!  If I do get a weekend to myself, watch out.  I have big plans that included securing myself the prize for craziest friend that Annee has!  I'll will for sure keep you all posted!

Breaking it in.

I've been sewing on a Euro-Pro denim and silk sewing machine for the past 12 years.  It's been a great machine.  It was a gift from my mom when I graduated from college and she made sure that it was built with solid metal pieces.  It's been great.  But with the recent onset of sewing mania over the past few years, I could tell that this particular machine wasn't really built for 3-4 hours of daily sewing!  An upgrade was well deserved.

The world of sewing machines is vast.  It's hard to navigate and figure it all out.  I wouldn't have wanted an exclusive or fancy quilting machine because I love to sew clothes for my girls and need to be able to put little sleeves into little dresses.  Not all of those fancy quilting machines can do that.  And then, in the back of my mind I just had a feeling that no matter how much research I did, or how many quilting shops I visited, I would ultimately find my way back to Bernina.

It's really just the basic, entry level Bernina, the 330 to be exact.  But it has already out performed my old reliable, and that is simply impressive.  I will always love the old Euro-Pro and the journey we took together into the world of sewing.  But I can see that this new machine is going to help me keep going for many more years to come.  Not to mention how excited I am about the six mastery classes that come with the purchase.  The first one is tomorrow.  I'm really excited :)

To get familiar with the new machine before my first class, I decided to sew up a series of pillows for my oldest son Henry's new bed.  He inherited our old bed.  It's sort of a season for upgrades around here.  Anyway, while we wait for the bedframe to arrive, I thought I would spruce the bed up a bit.  He's entering those tween years.  He's half a year away from being 12.  Yikes!  He's grown past wanting a "theme" to his room, but I needed a direction for my little brain to create from.  He's the most avid reader I've ever met.  To see my son discover the world of books and reading, and love it maybe even more than I do, has really been something.

 I decided that "books" and "reading" would be my theme as I thought about what pillows to make for him.  I've long admired this Anna Maria Horner fabric called "Volumes".  I'd read somewhere that it's supposed to look like a stack of books.  That was the first fabric I ordered when I knew I was going to make new pillows for him.  

Anyway, here's what I came up with over the past few days.  I could add more, but let's be honest, he's almost a 12 year-old boy.  This is already about five pillows too many...

The finished ABC pillow (inspired by the Etsy shop called Pillow Factory) which is only on loan to his bed for now.  I love it so much I want one in every room of my house!

The confetti pillow is his favorite.  He was disappointed that it didn't get made in the bigger size.  I was scared of all those circles, so 20x12 was all he got.  Inspiration taken from the spring issue of Stitch Magazine.

And finally the "volumes" pillow.  Nothing very fancy about this one, except I did try for the first time doing an "invisible" zipper closure.  As you can see, it's not so invisible.  I will try it again for sure.  I can tell that if you could get good at this method, it might stand a chance at dethroning my all-time-most-used pillow zipper tutorial!

I followed THIS tutorial for the invisible zipper insertion.  I'm anxious to try it again soon.  

Until next time...

A Camera Strap

I hope your weekend is as picturesque as the past couple of days have been here.  

A night or two ago I made a camera strap from Crap I've Made's tutorial.  Annee, made one for me, and I love it, so I'm passing on the great gift idea to friend.  Hope she loves hers as much as I love mine.

Happy weekend sewing or playing in the sun!