Christmas Aprons

Shhh, don't tell anyone from the Pueblo West Quilters but this is a gift I am donating for our annual Christmas party. Well, one of two. I made two of these and still have enough of the tablecloth to make ten more. I don't know if youcan tell from the picture but the apron is two layers. The top panel is made from a vintage tablecloth. I got some requests for Christmas aprons but just hadn't made any. Guess I will make some of these for next years' sales or if anyone one wants one this year, I can custom make you one too. I have so many things to make for Christmas - hope to get half of them done.

I've been busy

These are cell phone carriers I make. They are made using a combination of upcycled 100% linen and new material. The front pocket is great for holding your i.d., debit card, a few bucks of cash. Your cell phone goes in the larger area. The side loop is for carrying. There is a back velcro strip that you can use to attach the carrier to your purse strap or your pants belt loop. These have been quite popular at my farmers market sales here in Colorado but this batch is going to Oregon. If you want one, and it doesn't sell in Oregon, I should have them back in a couple of weeks. Just in time to add to someones stocking! (only $6)

Farmers Markets

I had so much fun this summer with all my farmers markets. They are a lot of work but so fulfulling. I love how people love my stuff. With each sale I am still amazed that someone wants to buy what I have made. I actually started jumping up and down a couple of weeks ago when a customer wanted to purchase a couple of my bags.

I actually covered that bike seat and basket. It's adorable. It was made for my display at a local Apple Harvest event (hence the apples in the basket). I wanted to let people know I do custom sewing also. I don't mind doing custom sewing - it's not as fun as just going into my sewing room and creating whatever I want but I do it. What I don't like doing is alterations. Ugh. I don't even like to do my own! And it's stressful. If I mess up, I mess up a whole garmet. But it helps during the slow times to make some extra cash. So I do them.

I have some exciting news to share but it will have to wait until next post. Stay tuned.

I picked . . .

wild strawberries and ate 'em all. For being as tiny as they are they are so flavorful. We went to the mountains and these are what I found. I don't think I have ever found them before. I get excited over the little things. We went about 6 weeks ago and we are thinking about going again this weekend to see if the Aspens are beginning to change. It should be beautiful.

My Garden

We are growing cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and pumpkins. I get excited every day to go out and see the changes. This is my first time growing pumpkins and it is so exciting. I have 14 pumpkins! The cucumbers are coming along okay. We get about 5 a week. I think I would like to get 5 a day but really? how would we eat all of those. And the cherry tomatoes!! They are doing so well. The plants look like a jungle - it is so fun to go pick them because I won't pick them by myself so Lewis and I pick them together. I won't pick them by myself because I am afraid that I may find a snake when i am digging through the bushes. No snakes yet!

I'm Back

First off, I want to apologize for not updating my blog for so long :( - I keep handing out my little business cards to all the great people I am meeting at my Farmers Markets and I keep apologizing about my blog because i haven't updated a post. And where to begin? Well, I have been sewing like crazy for the Farmers markets and I have been busy with the markets as well. There is a lot of time and effort in loading the car/setting up my booth/tearing down my booth/unloading the car. Oh, and the hours I spend AT the farmers markets. It's been tons of fun though. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE talking to people about my projects and giving them inspiration or hearing all the kind words people have to say about my sewing. And every time I make a sale it surprises me a little. Like, really? You really want to buy something I created. I'm lovin' it!

Thanks for coming back to read my blog and I once again, will TRY to post more frequently.

Oh, I met a new friend. Check out her shop. I should share with you how we met. She visited my booth at the Farmers market and told me she had an online fabric store. My sewing friends and I were invited to shop at her house and we did. I think it's so funny to actually meet someone out there in "blog" land. Her fabrics are so cool and she's very sweet.

Banner

I co-co-co-co hosted a babyshower for my sister-in-law the other night for their second little girl, Alexandria. I decided to make a penant banner for the shower decoration and also thought it would make a unique gift for decorating her room. The pic shows the banner and the mom (those girls are really lucky). If you click on the picture it makes it a little larger for better viewing. They're going to call her Allie. Really cute because her older sister (who by the way is ONLY 13 months older) is named Addison but we call her Addie. Cute, Cute!

BIG and small

Isn't it funny where our sewing will take us? Who knew when I started sewing yesterday that I would make a couple of BIG bags and then in the evening be making a couple of small bags. (and lovin' it!)

The Big bag is my own design - it doesn't "wow" me but it will do. It needs something . . . but it would still be very functional. It is roomy enough to take to Farmers Markets or the Beach or would be great as a diaper bag. If I was going to keep it, I would use it to transport a sewing project to a friends house.

The small one is from here. I don't know how these things find me but it was perfect timing because I was looking for bag patterns and I had to control myself from buying all of the patterns. I love that you are able to make things from the patterns to sell if you give credit to the pattern maker. I like that alot of designers are giving their permission for you to sell things made from their patterns. So generous.

I purchased another pattern from their site. Hoping to make some up today. Any guesses on what pattern I bought?

Yoga Mat Bags

I host a sewing group on Monday nights and we are working on projects from One Yard Wonders. We made the Yoga mat bags. I love a project that teaches new techniques and poses some challenge BUT . . . there is a mistake in the book so no amount of skilled sewing is going to get you through that. The pattern calls for you to cut out a circle with a diameter of 16 1/2" - that's a pretty big circle! Thankfully, some of the girls actually take yoga and we realized that there would be no way the bag would need to be that big. so after cutting the circle down, and cutting the circle down and cutting the circle down some more we arrived at a diameter that would work. This morning I found this. LOL. I think I will make at least one more to boost my sewing confidence - because not getting it right makes you feel like a failure and now I need to know I CAN sew if I have the right dimensions.

Nearly famous

I entered the "Official Spring Sewing Tops" on flickr and one of my entries made it to Made By Rae blog. Oh, I am so thrilled. I know it really doesn't mean alot in this big blogging world but it means alot to me. The judging gets started next week. Let me see, I think first they narrow it down to the top 50 so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I make it to the top 50. These are pictures of two of the three that I entered. To see the third one, click on the "made by Rae" link above. I am in the first row of pictures of the pink shirts. It is labeled "pinkie by Joey sews".

Makeup Bags

It's so nice when my girls want to sew! So the three of us recently spent an evening in the sewing room making these makeup bags. The robot material is an old shirt of my youngests. She loved that robot print so of course we didn't throw it out when it got too worn. Nope! I knew we would be able to use it. She actually had cut out the individual robots then roughly stitched them to another piece of fabric. It's really cute. The white makeup bag is made from a piece of sheet leftover from some lounge pants that I had made and the third one is made from the "stash".
I recently purchased a "ruffler" foot at the thrift store for $2 and so now EVERYTHING gets a ruffle. That little attachment is Amazing! No more "basting two lines of sewing only to have one of the threads break halfway through pulling"! I am having a little trouble judging how much material to use to get it to "fit". But there is a little "give" in the ruffle after it's been through the machine so so far that has worked. The ruffler foot allows you to make regular ruffles and also does a pleat. On the makeup bag, I cut a narrow piece of fabric (2") and serged both long ends and then ran the ruffler stitches down the middle then attached it to the bag front. Could only be more pleased by that fact that my 16 and 18 year olds like to sew too!

Super Easy Bag

We made these bags at my sewing group that I host at my home every monday night. The pattern we used is from this book, although, I believe I have seen the pattern many places. The pattern calls for round purse handles and I couldn't find them locally so we ordered some online but I couldn't wait for them to come in so I made some fabric covered handles. The exterior of the bag is a fabric sample remnant (given to me) and the interior lining is a thrifted table cloth. I am very pleased with how the bag turned out. I think my girls liked it to. It's nice to be able to impress your teenage daughters. (as you can tell from one of the pictures, I think the bag could be reversable).

BINGO!!

I'm afraid I just don't have a pic to go along with this post. But I did want to tell you about another great local place to eat. Bingo Burger. My friend, Tammy, told me about the place and we decided to try it last Saturday. They advertise that they have "locally grown, grain fed meat". MMMM, MMM, MMM, good. Although, I might just skip having a burger altogether to have their sweet potatoe fries. Oh, those are so delicious. Who came up with that? Thank you!

This outing wasn't a "date day" in the thought that it would be just me and my husband (21st anniversary on Thursday!!!!). Our two girls came with us. No complaints from them either on the food. Pretty good. You know how hard it can be to try and please teenagers. Not sure why it is called "Bingo Burger". Hmmm will just have to go back and do some asking (and have some sweet potatoe fries).

JOEY

LUV quilt

I originally joined our local quilt guild with the intentions of donating quilts for kids. But I have sadly failed in this area. I seem to have good intentions but too many projects. Anyways, maybe I can beat my last years total of 1 LUV quilt donated. That would seem a more reasonable objective. This LUV quilt top I started two years ago. I fussy cut all the blue squares to get cookie monster facing just right. Then it sat. and sat. and sat. Until last night. I pin basted the top/backing/batting, quilted and bound it all in about 1 1/2 hours! Really? Why does it sit for two years only to get done in so little time. I like how the backing came out. I think I will try to do something similar to all my quilt backs. The quilting was just "eyeballed". One of my specialties. lol. But I like it! I hope there is some little kid out there that will like it too.

Requests Anyone?

These are some fabrics that I recently purchased.These are some home dec weights. Great for bags.
Gotta love ANYTHING with browns.
The yellow/black combination is really quite stunning (and I'm not a huge fan of yellow but it works)
New birdie combo! Birds are everywhere with fabric right now.
See!! More birds!
And gotta love the turquoisy scroll pattern. mmmm!!mmm! mmmm!!

These are some fabric combinations that I purchased recently. Planning on making some bags/aprons/wallets/lunch totes for some upcoming craft sales. Would be SO willing to take special orders and make some sales now if anyone is interested? LemmeKnow!

JOEY

She's here!

Remember my post about this? So here's the story. I found a piano for sale on craigslist. My son and one of his coworkers moved it to the house. It tooks my husband and I about three months to sand and paint it not because it was hard work but because we just don't have time. My fatherinlaw fixed the leg on the bench. Yes it has a bench. The seat flips up to store your music. He is an amazing woodworker. I don't know how he got the leg to match the others. It is slightly tapered at the bottom and it matches perfectly. I want to make a padded seat for the bench and cover it in something from here. My daughter Brooke has taught herself to play. Row, row, row your boat, jingle bells and do your ears hang low! Oh, there is some bad news! We scratched the wood floors when we moved it into the house. We were trying to be so careful but there is a scratch about 1/2" wide by 5' FEET!!! We will try to sand it out but it is covered by the front entry rug.

Does this count?

So, my new years resolution was to sew two items of clothing a month for myself. So does it count if I sewed two shirts for my daughter. Only one is pictured because it is quite the ordeal to get a picture of her. She has to want to wear the shirt that day, her hair has to be just right, she can't be getting a text, the lighting . . . .the list goes on. This shirt is made out of some voile fabric I got at Walmart for $1.50/yd. Ooh, it was tricky to work with - so thin. And the zipper in the back is kinda heavy for the material. The other shirt was made from a thrifted plaid sheet. The zipper went in so easy and it turned out really cute. Good thing I made that one first. I have about half a sheet left and am hoping to make a shirt for my other daughter. There were complaints! "how come she gets a shirt" "when did you go to the thrift store". Aww, the struggles of splitting your time with your mom or your BOYFRIEND!

Date Day

I love our little hometown. This is a favorite place of mine to go eat mexican food. The people are so nice and remember us everytime we go in. Our waitress even gave me her recipe for making tortillas, bean and breakfast potatoes with green chili. She doesn't know that I don't cook but she did talk to me very slowly and repeat herself, it must be that obvious. Funny thing is that the next place we went, a complete stranger gave me HER recipe for making tortillas. Is this a sign? Maybe someone is trying to tell me something. "you need to make tortillas and not sew" or maybe "sew something round like a tortilla!!" I'll go with the second one. ooh, we also saw went and saw "Blind Side", which I always want to call "sidelined". Being that we go to the movie theatre like once a year I'm not that big of a critic and I have to say it was good. I cried nearly from the beginning. Most of the tears where tears from missing our son play high school football. Sandra Bulloch looks great! Just ask my husband. Now, I think he will have to be banned from seeing anything with her in it. I mean how many times do I need to hear how "hot" she is still. Nah, I'm really not the jealous type. In fact, i'm thinking of getting her bangs. If you can't fight em, join em. Right?

Wardrobe Refashioning

This dress for Addie is made from a tshirt from my girls (size M - adult). I just took up the side seem and shortened the length. With the extra material I cut off the bottom I added the ruffle. The neckline was a little big so I made a gather and attached a button. I have three other tshirts to make into other clothes for her too.

The legwarmers were made from a ladies pair of long socks. You cut off the toe and heel and reattach the middle piece to the sock by serging. These really help protect her "crawling" knees right now. And she looks cute in them too.

New Buffet/Hutch

Any suggestions for decorating it? The China is my Grandma's and I would like to display some of it but also want a more modern look. Oh, don't you just love it. I don't know what style this is but I love it.