A Thought. Plus a Vote!

As you may or may not know, I have one son (he's 5 for size reference).  For a while, I would look longingly over at the girls' section of a clothing or fabric store and think how much more fun it was.  All the boys stuff was either SPORTS or TRUCKS with a sprinkling of DINOS.  Ugh.  I don't like any of those things!

But now, there is an amazing variety of cute (not cutesy!) stuff for boys all over the fabric stores!  I have been thinking of doing a mini-makeover of my son's room using some of these new, fun fabrics.  Here are the options I am considering.  VOTE IN THE COMMENTS!

Option #1:  On the bed, a this bedding from the Ikea (large navy dots):

And this fabric for the drapes:

Option #2:  On the bed, this striped duvet cover from West Elm:

And this fabric for the drapes:

Option #3:  This Land of Nod guitar bedding:

With maybe this wood grain fabric for the drapes? 

I don't know!  I kind of like all of them.  Tell my why you love or hate any of them.  If you hate them all, tell me that too!  Have a great weekend!!!!

Project Checklist - Item 3 - Another Quilt Completed!

I'm out of order but still doing good on the old Checklist.  Moving the sewing machine into the dining room has been so helpful to my quilting.  I was able to finish the Modern Meadow quilt this past weekend in record time!  I am impressing even myself.

To refresh your memory, I actually started this quilt way back in August to coordinate with my bedroom drapes and bolster pillow.  It is now late January.  SAD.  The pattern is called Small Plates from the book The Practical Guide to Patchwork and the fabric is from the Modern Meadow collection by Joel Dewberry.

Here it is!

I did horizontal straight -line quilting.  I will learn how to free motion quilt soon!

Here is a close-up of the front with the binding:

The back has two large fabric panels with a stripe of strips in the middle:

Close-up of the stripe of strips:

And a 5-year-old for size reference:

QUILTS!

Project Checklist - Item 4 - Quilt Completed!

The birthday quilt for my niece is complete!  Yay!!!  I am so relieved it was at least finished in the month of her birthday.  My lateness is improving!  The quilt is currently in the air and/or on a truck towards Maine.  I'm not sure exactly how UPS works.

As a reminder, the quilt was made using the Crazy Nine-Patch Lattice Quilt from Oh, Fransson! and the fabric is Lark by Amy Butler.  I think the binding is Kona Charcoal or some other dark grey.

Here is the front!

Here is the back!

Detail of back:

Detail of front:

With a 5-year old in Mario pajamas for size reference:

A whole quilt checked off my Checklist of projects to complete!  Yay for me.  Check back in tomorrow for another exciting checklist development!!!

Captain Obvious

Lately I have been coming to a lot of obvious realizations.  The other day I informed my sister that brownies made from scratch are much better than brownies from a box.  I believe her response was "no duh."

So anyway, while working on my Crazy Lattice Quilt, I came to another realization.  My sewing area is much too small!  It is fine for piecing and such, but for quilting large quilts, I need more room.  I need to be able to get in there, let some air in and move things around.*

So, I moved my sewing machine to the dining room table and now I have a real quilting area!

In fact, I was able to use this long weekend to finish piecing the front and back of the quilt for my niece and do all the quilting!!!  All the quilting in one day!  It is so much easier now!  I almost have the binding finished.  I'm trying a new technique I found online.  NEW BINDING TECHNIQUES!  Oh lord what is wrong with  me?

Finished quilt pics tomorrow!  I know you can't wait!


*Bonus points to first person to identify movie quoted from in the comments!

Project Checklist - Item 2!

Did you ever get the feeling that I already completed some of the items on the checklist before I made the checklist?  And I included them because it's nice to cross items off a checklist?

Anyway, you'll be thrilled to know that Item 2 - the grey zig-zag quilt is DONE!  AND it came out super cute!

I made it using grey and color half-square-triangles.  The binding is dark grey and the quilted lines are pale pink.

I had four leftover triangles which I put randomly on the back:

I really like the colors on this quilt and the grey instead of white solids!

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this one.  It was maybe going to be a Christmas gift, but that ship has sailed.  Presidents Day???

Project Checklist - Item 1!

The first item on Project Checklist was to make a new slipcover for my armless chair.  As you can see here, I first made a slipcover for this chair last summer and found the process to be surprisingly easy.  You just need your basic supplies (fabric, pins and a sewing machine) plus a burst of energy.  Then you can complete the project in about two hours.

After I made the first slipcover, I knew I would eventually want to make another in a solid fabric.  I found this grey fabric in the home decor fabric section of my local JoAnn's and combined it with a 40% off coupon (nice!).  It's Dwell Studio Cameo Ovals in color Taupe, which is actually a very nice pale grey with an oval pattern stitched into it:

After a recent burst of energy, I was left with this!

A covered chair!  Much like the last time, I just draped the fabric, cut out sides, pinned it and sewed it together.  Everything came out pretty good!  Here is a close up of the side:

Looks OK to me!  So, Item #1 on my To Do list is DONE!  YAY!!!!

Finishing Projects!!! Feeling Chunky!!!

I am literally bursting at the seams with projects I want to do!  Well, I'm bursting at the seams because I eat too much and my pants are too tight, but there are also a lot of projects on my mind!

Right now, I am super eager to get started on a Swoon quilt and a Sparkle Punch quilt.  I also want to make a couple of these Gum Drop pillows.  BUT - here's the thing - I decided that before I start anything new, I need to 100% FINISH all of my in-progress projects.

Here are the projects in varying states that I need to finish:

1.  New slipcover for armless chair (have fabric, need to make)

2.  Grey zig-zag quilt (need to finish quilting and bind)

3.  Modern Meadow quilt (need to finish quilting and bind)

4.  Birthday quilt for Teen Niece (need to make back, quilt and bind)

5.  Fabric headboard cover for Nephew (have fabric, need to make)

6.  Red Christmas table runner for Mother-in-Law (barely started)

Ahhh!  That is a lot!  But I guess I will do them one at a time.  Also, the red Christmas item might become a red VALENTINE'S DAY item.  CRAFTY!!!!!!!

Craft Fair Recap!

Well, the craft fair happened.  And I have to say it was a big success!

Although my original plan was to make 14 aprons, I ended up making 11.  Of those, I sold 7!  And some to strangers!  I do want to thank Natalee and Ubaldo for buying 4 aprons.  YAY!

Here are some photos of the aprons at the fair.  Action shots!

Hanukkah aprons:

Green floral (my best seller!):

Nativity nesting dolls:

Snow hats:

I also picked up some kraft tags and red string and used printable computer labels to make these little tags:

And here I am in action, hawking my tawdry wares.  I kept change in my book-print apron pocket!

All in all, the craft fair was a lot of fun and I'm glad I participated.  If I did something like this again, I would try to have a bigger variety of products (pot holders?  tea towels?) and make some items that were not holiday-specific.

I also now understand why the fabric stores start selling Christmas fabric in July!  I need to get started much earlier!  Oh well, there's always next year!!!!