Forest Blankey Love

I've been busy sewing lately, which is good! I had taken an unintentional sewing break for far too long! A dear friend just had her third sweet boy, and I sent this this blanket and tag blanket.

The picture doesn't do it justice. The fabric really is adorable. And word on the street is that the little man loves it! I love to make gifts for friends, so it makes my heart happy to hear that the gifts are loved as well.

August Break, the 8th

This whole photo a day thing is fun!! This is what I spent my weekend doing...



I am super excited to say that the quilt is complete! And it is still 3 or 4 weeks until the baby comes, I think. I still need to stitch up a few things, but it feels so good to have the quilt finished. I actually made my own binding and am really happy with how it looks!! I promise to post a picture of the whole blanket once my friend has received it! 

Currently on the Hook

I have been sewing a lot lately -- and for myself!  Now that the craft fair is over, I sewed a few skirts that I had been putting off.  I am planning to write a tutorial for this skirt over on Newly Wife later, but for now you can see a couple fun pictures that my wonderful hubby took.

I have also been crocheting a few things lately.  The finished cloche is with Lily Sugar N Cream in Pinky Stripes, with a Chrysanthemum [Mother's Day] pattern from Lion Brand.  Very fun and different!  The in progress cloche is being crocheted with Sugar N Cream yarn in Moondance!

Oh yeah.  And the blanket is Nov 16: Baby Gingham and I love how it is turning out so far.  I mean, I still have a TON to do, but I love it so far!

Easy Skirt

I had a lot of fun making this skirt.  It was my first item of clothing to make for myself.  I used fabric that my awesome friend Genny got for me from Thailand.  I just LOVE the way it turned out.  You can't see in this picture, but I sewed some ric rac on the bottom.  I pretty much used Dana's tutorial.  It was seriously simple.  I actually made a second, similar, one, but with my own improvements. :)  It was my Easter skirt.  I will try to get pictures of it later and share them with you.

I bought a bunch of other fabric with my birthday money.  I cannot wait to make a reversible skirt.  I have a bunch of ideas!

Table Set Up

As evidences by yesterday's post, I am really really excited about my Craft Fair.  My wonderful hubby let me set up my table early -- so I can get everything JUST right! haha I snapped these pictures really quickly, on my way out the door, this morning.

That is an overview of the whole table.   Some things are still in the box below (like napkins for snacks and doubles of some items).  I want to add more height / dimension, but I am not entirely sure how / what to do .  Any suggestions?

This half is accessories.  I have posted patterns for most of these beanies on the blog.  Soon, I will post about each one and which pattern was used -- and how I am checking off more CED patterns!  I love the headbands and have been wearing them non stop.  There are some that are yarn wrapped, and others that are sewn.  Most have flowers, but some do not. 

The other half of the table is (mostly) sewn items for the home.  There are coasters and potholders as well as coffee cozies.  I worked really hard on the packaging of each item.  I am still breaking down the price for each one, and I need to make price signs.  Any suggestions on price labels?  Should I use a placecard type pricing system, or maybe a label on a little stick in the baskets / vases?  What do you all do?

Gettin Cozy

Matt and I were at a local coffee shop (it's so rare for him to join me -- it was definitely a special treat!) and he said I should sell my sewn coffee cozies there.  This inspired me to bust out the sewing machine this weekend and get going.  I created my own pattern and template so that I could make these quickly.  I think I finally got the design perfected!

Matt suggested ones without buttons (lobster and denim above), but I took it to mean "put in a snap."  He as saying I should just make a continuous circle, but I just cannot figure out how to do that.  Oh well. Buttons it is.  Guess I'm limiting my audience to ladies!

 Here are some closeups.  This travel one below was inspired by my sis in South Korea!

And school, inspired by a few schoolteacher friends (Sarah, Jess, etc)

You can see the little sticker that I added as packaging.  Hopefully I will have a logo soon, and use that as the back sticker, with a price.  I was totally inspired by Gussy's post on packaging!

What do you think? Will they sell at the local coffee shop? And do you think I should try selling them on my etsy?

Iron Craft Challenge #5: Be Mine

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is all about LOVE.  We were challenged to make a valentine for someone we love.  Well I got a little excited and made Valentines for lots of people that I love.  It all started last week when I decided to make sewn cards with fabric scraps.  The idea was that I could send one with each etsy order, so the recipient could use it (and it would match).  Here are my first two:

As you may have noticed, the first one (left) was a bit messy and the scraps were sewn straight onto the card.  This left the back of the card looking like a total disaster. By round two, with a little advice from the hubs, I decided to first sew onto an index card, and then sew the card onto the folded card.  Then you still see stiches on the card, but not a zillion. 

I made a third card that night, much neater thant he previous two!  Also, I used a gluestick on the back of the index card before sewing it on... just wanted to keep those thread ends tucked in!  Each of these is going to a friend whom I love.

A day or so later came the Iron Craft Valentine Challenge.  I wanted to make a few Valentine's for specific people -- with specific fabric.  There is school fabric for a teacher friend, traveling / luggage tag fabric for a far away sister, polka dots and hearts for friends closer to home, soccer stuff for my beloved, and wine for one special wine loving cousin of mine!

I am really pleased with the final result!  And thankful that Joanns had cards on clearance so I could finally push myself to try this whole sewing on paper thing out.  I mean, seriously, I have been wanting to do this for months!!

And because you asked so nicely, here is the back of a card.  :)

Iron Craft: Get Cozy

I kept seeing Missie post about her Iron Craft challenges, and they just looked so fun.  This week's challenge was to make a coffee cozy.  Lucky for me, I had already made one!  I wanted to make a few more to sell on etsy, but the pattern just was not right.  I feel bad for joining the Iron Craft challenge a few weeks late, but better late than never, right?  I finished up these 2 cozies during the week of the challenge.

Below you can see the 2 next to each other.  You can see how much smaller the pink one is -- that was my first attempt!

I am in love with the pink / green hearts one.  The other one... well it just may be showing up when I do my giveaway later!  I had to do some last minute changes, after I tried it on the mug.  You can see my "fails" below!

This one was just tossed.  No recovering from it.  It would have been super cute,but part of it did not attach and I chopped off the end.  Then it was just too small.  :(

And this one -- well it is the "before" of the cute light blue & brown coffee cozy.  The button was sewed on too far to the right.  I was able to cut it off and resew it, though I was worried I would not be able to, because I sewed the button on before sewing the 2 pieces together.  Sigh.

All in all, it was fun to participate in this iron craft.  I would love to keep going - with more crocheted items!

Blankets, Coasters, & More!

I am in the middle of a few projects and wanted to share my progress with you!  I am making a girl baby blanket.  The precious baby, Alina, was actually born last week.  But it will be a bigger blanket, so she can get it late!  I have all of the purple (12) and white (4) squares done and 1 1/2 more pink to go.  Then it's just a matter of joining them together.  I have been weaving my ends as I go and it is making ALL THE DIFFERENCE! hahaha  I amusing the pattern from Dec 24 of last year! 

My love got me a Joanns gift card for Christmas, so of course I bought fabric -- I got some yarn too! haha  I have been wanting this Debbie Mum fabric for SOOO LONG!  It was on sale too.  Score!

What else is going on in my craft room?  Just some Valentines-ey love!  These squares are ready to become coasters for my etsy shop.  I am actually finishing cutting and just need to start sewing!  I am going to make some sweet potholders too!

ps. DIdy ou notice I hit 105 followers?  Crazy!  There will be a giveaway soon!
pps. I now have no idea how to title my posts!  The patterns names + date were just so easy!
pps. Sorry I get busy and forget to blog.  I do love you all very much!