Big Kid Room

After I made Grace her big girl quilt and decorated the wall on her side of the room, George asked me when I was going to make him a new quilt.  He acts like such a tough guy, but really he's tender on the inside and still likes his mom's handmade treasures.

I set to work on a Half Square Triangle quilt using Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander.  I think it's a nice cool quilt for a growing boy.

I added some superhero prints from Etsy and the birthday poster from Caravan Shoppe.

One day when we are in a permanent place, I'll frame these cool pics.  For now blue painters tape is my best friend for hanging stuff on walls.

George's side!

At the end George's side is the library corner.

I printed out another Caravan Shoppe print,

and I made this cool colorful poster inspired by the Instagram by Design Mom.

Just a reminder what Grace's side looks like.

And at the end of her room on her side.

Not a bad shared room if you ask me.  As much as these two think they want their own room, I really think this room works well for them to have their own space to do their own thing but also they get to hang out while being in their own space.

short and sweet update

I've been on an O&S dress making kick.  This is the Book Report Dress.  I made it while I was in Boston.  I used Anna Maria Horner's Dowry fabric, and I love the look and so did my model.

This is the Oliver and S Library Dress.  This dress looks more complicated than the Book Report Dress, but surprisingly it seemed easier.  It's probably one of my favorite dresses I've ever made.  I'm hoping I make another one soon.  I used the Heather Ross Briar Rose fabric.  It's so cute.

But maybe not as cute as my little model who added her own accessories.  Sweet!

Even with all those buttons, it wasn't that bad.

My Gs share a room and in order to keep them happily sharing a room I keep decorating and redecorating it for them.  I recently added a *build* and *create* banner and bulletin board.

I was totally fortunate recently to pattern test a new shirt pattern for Crafterhours.  It was a fun experience.  I'd love to do it again.

I joined the quilt club at church, and they asked me to teach a mini lesson on color.  This is my homemade flannel board with color combo examples.  I'm younger than most of the ladies in this group, but it's so fun getting together to just talk about sewing.

It's summer in the south and I need some cute new dresses to wear and stay cool.  I'm still perfecting my patterns, but these are my first two takes.

Gracie Belle got a Geranium Dress in Anna Maria True Colors for Easter.  Loved the dress and the fabric.  Gracie Belle did request that I lower the pockets next time.  Noted.

I went to a  fashion show at Anthropologie, and they made these cute thank you fans.  I might need to make some of these for some event some day.

I've always loved the Kurt Knudsen glass stars.  I helped a friend learn how to make a pillow, and she sent me a sweet star in the mail.  The packaging was just as beautiful as the star.  I might just need to collect these.  Hint, hint, Italian.

Probably my greatest accomplishment this winter was the Anna Maria Color Dive Quilt.  I made it for Grace's bed and it's made almost exclusively with Anna Maria fabric.  I'm in love with this quilt.  Absolute love with it.  I might just have to make a king size one day.

I added some ombre purple hearts above her bed because purple is her current favorite color.

I also added a collage on the side of her bed with some things she's made and other "big girl" things.  She's really wanting a big girl room, and this made her pretty darn happy which makes me pretty darn happy.

That's all for now.  I've got a quilt laid out that just needs to be sewn, and some more knit to make some more dresses.  Maybe I'll get them made and posted before fall.  Maybe! Haha!

Patchwork Prism Quilt

I've wanted an Anna Maria Horner Patchwork Prism quilt for years now.  Honestly, years.  I've even had all the triangles I needed for this quilt cut out and in stash since before I moved to Georgia.  However, I just never had the time I needed to dedicate to putting a quilt together.  

Then several weeks ago (or maybe it was just 3 weeks??) I had a trip planned to Boston to go and see Annee.  As my luck would have it, Boston was predicting a major snowstorm, and my flight got canceled.  I rebooked my trip for a week later, but "when life gives you scraps, make a quilt."

Instead of seeing Annee when I had originally predicted, I took a trip to Wal-Mart, and bought the cheapest felt they had and made a temporary quilt wall.  For 2 days straight, because it was freezing here and we couldn't play outside, I sewed and sewed and sewed.

Finally I  had my very own Patchwork Prism Quilt.  I used almost exclusively Anna Maria Horner fabric.  I have fabric from almost all of her fabric lines that I've used over the years, and they all came in handy helping me sew a rainbow.

Since it's been freezing, I decided to back this quilt with one of Anna Maria's Folksy Flannels.  It's soft and warm and makes me just want to sit on the couch and cover up.  And maybe take a nap or fall asleep for the night.  

Don't you love my little blonde helper?!

Now that I've completed this quilt I've kind of got the quilting bug.  I used to sew Easter quilts for my kids (well, I did it two years in a row), and I kind of want to do it again.  My Gs could use some new quilts for their beds, and I've got ideas swimming around in my head.  We'll see if it really happens. 

For now I'll just enjoy that I have this new quilt to add to my collection.

Oliver + S: Music Box Jumper Meets School Photo Dress

I was supposed to be on a flight to Boston yesterday morning to go and see my Sew Sister Annee, but my flight got canceled due to snow storm Nika.  I was pretty much devastated, and I probably could have flown out last night, but it just seemed like it would cut my already kind of short trip just too short, so I opted to just leave next week.  A week delay.  It was totally tragic and sad, and I made up for it by sewing my heart out all yesterday and today, and really I'm glad that I get to see Annee, and it will be so much fun when I finally get there, but sometimes patience is no fun.  Oh well.  Sew, instead of sewing the night away with Annee, I'll share something I made last week.

I saw this absolutely adorable dress on Pinterest.  Their was no link to who made it and how they did it, but the description on the pin said "Music Box Jumper with sleeves."  I immediately bought the Music Box Jumper.  This is the year of Oliver + S, so I totally needed the pattern, and I needed to see if I could recreate the vision I saw.  I'm not there yet, but this was my first attempt.

At first I didn't think this dress was much.  I was kind of sad that it wasn't more like the image I saw.  However, I wasn't going to let this dress just sit in the closet unworn, so I threw it on Grace for church on Sunday.  Dresses are so much cuter on a model than on a hanger.

The only modification I made to the Music Box Jumper pattern was adding the sleeves.  I had just sewn the School Photo Dress, so I added the sleeves from that dress to the jumper.  I made no modifications to the Music Box bodice at all, and I followed Liesl's sleeve instructions from the School Photo dress, and it worked out perfectly.

I was nervous that the shoulders would feel short to Grace and she wouldn't like it because of the way it felt, but there were no complaints out of her at all.  This dress is roomy and comfy and cute.

She played in it all afternoon.  I would say that's a sign of a good dress.

My next attempt, I'm going to shorten it ever so slightly, try to lengthen the bodice a bit, lengthen the sleeves, and maybe just maybe try to alter the neckline in some way.

I'm hoping to get really comfortable with the Music Box Jumper.  Hopefully I'll be as comfortable sewing it as Grace is wearing it.

Probably the only part that will be the hardest part to get comfortable with are all the buttons down the back.  That's a lot of buttonholes to make and buttons to sew on.  A lot.

That's a wrap.

Hopefully the next post will include pictures of Annee and I sewing together!!

Caravan Shoppe and Olliblocks

After moving to the South, I went to go and see my friend Summer who introduced me to the Caravan Shoppe.  I talked about it in one of my previous posts, and I've seen their Olliblocks all over the internet, but I thought they would be too tricky or pricey to make.  Then Summer educated me on how simple and inexpensive they were to make.

I think a normal person would have just done one or two sets of Olliblocks to see how hard they are and how long they would take.  Of course I'm not normal, so I took on making 10 Olliblocks people (30 blocks).  It was a bit of a labor of love, but seriously they are so cute and worth it.

I made two sets of the girls, the monsters, the superheros, the boys, and the animals.  Each of these sets are a one time purchase (the starter pack includes the boys, girls, and animals), and then you can print them as many times as your hands desire to do all the many steps it takes to complete these darling blocks.  On the Caravan Shoppe blog, they recommend using blocks from Craftparts online.  I made one perpetual with blocks from Hobby Lobby, and quickly purchased 50 blocks from Craftparts because the quality of the Hobby Lobby blocks were horrible.  I think I got a splinter from one of the blocks.  My other hot tip is regarding Modge Podge.  I was a school teacher many years ago, and I bought a bottle of Modge Podge that lasted me 4 years, and I used it for several different projects with my students.  Modge Podge is to be used very sparingly.  A little goes a long way.  I've now made 40 blocks with the bottle I have, and it's still very full.

It was quite a site making all of these.  Oh, and since I was already into this project pretty deeply, I decided to throw in making a perpetual calendar as well.

I love this little calendar and so do my kids.  They like to change it.  I think it reminds them of doing calendar time at school.

 Then I tested out the blocks on my little one, and he thought these blocks were such fun.

I'm sad I didn't get his eyes in this shot, but I think you can see that he's totally loving the Olliblocks.

He's going to be so happy when he gets his own set.

For Valentine's Day I decided that each of my kids will get 2 Olliblock dolls (6 blocks).  I couldn't just give them the blocks, so I made drawstring bags.  This was another hot tip from Summer.  She's just full of good ideas!  This was the Lined Drawstring Bag Tutorial I used, and it's fabulous!

This tutorial was crazy easy and fast.  Once I had all my fabrics cut for 5 bags, I sewed all 5 bags from start to finish in 2 1/2 hours.  That's pretty speedy.  This was such a genius way of constructing a bag.  I will definitely make more of these in the future.  

I do 14 days of Valentine's for my kids, and I this will be day 14's Valentine.  Now I only have 13 more to come up with.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Sorry just a couple more pictures of the blocks because they are that cute and deserve a couple extra shots.

Off to trace an Oliver + S pattern.  I only have 3 new ones to try, so I've got to get busy!