WIP Wednesday #4

Here's a special WIP Wednesday Thursday edition!

Completed Projects

1)  Coffee Cup Sleeve

More info on this further in the post!

2) Mended Jeans

I fixed a tiny hole in a pair of jeans in exchange for a little shelving unit to store my fabric.  A pretty good swap, I'd say!

3)  Hot Pads

I actually finished these quite a while ago, but never shared them.  I love to crochet hot pads, and so when I started sewing, naturally they were the first thing I made!

Ongoing Projects

1)  Spring All Over Quilt

Like the new name?  Martha came up with it!  When I was trying my hardest and not succeeding to come up with a clever name for this quilt, I wanted to somehow incorporate 'spring' into it.  I love it!  Martha will be receiving the coffee cup sleeve pictured above! 

I finished the quilting...

...trimmed the edges...

...made the binding...

...and started sewing it on!

I didn't realize how long hand sewing the binding takes.  I spent about 40 minutes on it and only got 4 feet.  But it was a good excuse to sit down and watch some TV while still being productive!

2) Wedding Placemats

I haven't actually done any work on these, but I was able to order the fabric last week!  Well, not all the fabric I wanted.  Due to the delay and the postal strike most of the fabrics I wanted were sold out.  But I still got some great ones!

3)  Skill Builder Sampler QAL

I made some more progress on this!  Read more about it here.

4)  Olive Circles Dress

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this.  I went over to my mom's house on Monday night and we worked on it.  Well, she worked on it while I looked through and ironed her fabric.

It's coming along and is starting to look like a dress!  I just need to get some wide bias tape.  They were out at the fabric store.  :(

5)  Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along

Cutting instructions were posted last week, but I haven't gotten to it yet.  I did finally pick out my fabrics for it, though!

I'm going to make the kaleidoscopes red and black and white with a black background.  The black circly-flowery fabric is for the binding, and the white is for the back.  It's actually a tone-on-tone print of leaves and ivy, but you can't see it in the picture.  You can barely see it in real life!

6)  Retro Trees Skirt

I bought the pattern for this one:

It's hard to tell in the picture, but it has cute pleats on the side!  

On Hold

1)  New Bee on the Block Quilting Bee

2)  2 Dresses

3)  Cosmo Bag

New Projects

1)  Tinkerbell PJ Pants

I love Tinkerbell!  She's my favorite Disney character.  I was perusing at the fabric store the other day and found some fun flannelette for 60% off.  You can never have too many pj pants!  :)  The remnant matches a lot better in real life than in the photo. 

As usual, Cleo was hanging in the sewing room with me while I was working in there.  She's afraid she might miss the action if she's not right there!  Of course, no WIP Wednesday post is complete without a picture of her.  The thing with her, though, is she hates pictures.  Whenever I aim the camera at her this is what she does:

We have this duck and chicken jerky that is actually a dog treat.  She loves the stuff, and knows the word 'jerky'.  So I decided to bribe her with some jerky to get a decent shot.

That's better!

Skill Builder Sampler QAL - Block #2

The second block was announced last Friday - a Value 9 Patch.  I saw it at work and printed out the instructions.  I looked it all over and figured it was easy enough!  Check it out:

Photo courtesy of Sewn

I was in Waterton all weekend and didn't have a chance to work on my block until Sunday evening.  I figured it was easy-peasy and didn't need to refresh my memory by looking at the instructions.  Here's how my block turned out:

I was so proud of it!  All (but one) of the corners lined up and were so nice and crisp!  But then I took a look at what we were supposed to make, and that's when I realized I was waaaaay off!  So I had to make a second correct block:

And it even passed the black and white test:

I think I'll still keep the wrong square and add it to the quilt somewhere.  I still like it and am happy with how it turned out!

WIP Wednesday #3

Unfortunately not much got done this week  :(  I was focused on the party all last week and then was gone to Golden for white water rafting on the weekend.  But, I did get a little done!

New Projects

1)  Amy Butler's Cosmo Bag

I found some left over home decor weight material that I had bought to recover my vanity stool.  The pattern is a little larger, so I thought it would be perfect for this bag!

Ongoing Projects

1)  Pink and Green Quilt

Ok, I need to pick an original name for this one.  Any suggestions?  If you have any, leave a comment!  I'll pick my fave and the winner will receive a cute coffee mug sleeve :)

Anyway, I have almost finished the quilting for this one!  I'm probably about 3/4 the way through!

Now I just have to cut and sew on the binding.  I'm going to use this for the binding:

It's getting so close! I'm so excited to be almost done my first quilt!  I couldn't have done it without Cleo; she was such a big help.

2)  Wedding Placemats

Unfortunately due to the lame Canada Post strike, we weren't able to order the fabrics I wanted from Hawthorne Threads.  So I might not get these done in time.  The wedding is at the end of July.  Bah.

3)  Skill Builder Sampler QAL

You can see my progress here.

4)  Olive Circles Dress

I got the pattern and material cut out for this one.  I now just have to book a time with my mom to go over to her place and use her serger.

On Hold

1)  Kaleidescope Quilt-Along

2)  New Bee on the Block Quilting Bee

3)  Retro Trees Skirt 

4)  2 Dresses

Completed

1)  Pillowcase Skirt

Well, this one isn't actually completed.  I had cut it the length I wanted, made the space for the elastic waistband, and threaded the elastic through when I finally decided to try it on.  It was too small for my big bum!  I was so disappointed!  So I'm just going to take it apart, keep the elastic for something else, and cut it up for a quilt.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Coffee Sleeves

I meet up with my mom and Bev, a friend of hers, quite often for coffee in the mornings.  Because the coffee is always so hot, they wrap napkins around the cups to protect their hands.  I recently bought a cute fabric coffee sleeve  from Etsy, and traced it to make my own pattern.  Last night I decided to give it a try, and made one for my mom and one for Bev!  I even put on snaps for the first time and was delighted to find out how easy they are!  For insulation I used more of my $2.99 Ikea blanket.

These are nice and quick to make, are a great way to use up scraps, and would make fantastic Christmas or Birthday or Happy Tuesday! presents.

Skill Builder Sampler QAL - First Block

Yay!  The first block for the Skill Builder Sampler QAL was announced last week.  Since I had Cleo's Birthday Party on Friday night, and then was whitewater rafting on Saturday, I didn't get a chance to make the block until Sunday.  But first, I wanted to rearrange and organize my sewing space a bit better.  Here's what I came up with:

I'm still organizing and trying to turn my 'office' from more of a scrapbooking/crocheting focus to a sewing area as well.

Anyway, once I got this area tidied, I decided it was time to get to work on my Log Cabin square.  Since I am still a relatively new sewer, I don't have a whole lot of scraps, but since I am frugal and have made it my goal to use second hand fabrics and sheets wherever possible, I'm just using what I have.

Here's how it turned out:

That was fun.  Now I just have to wait for the second block...

Cleo's 2nd Birthday BBQ

Before getting too far into this post I would like to give a disclaimer:  I am not some wacko cat lady!!  I don't want you thinking that I dress my cat up on Sunday afternoons and make her have tea with me or anything crazy like that.  I love my kitty, but I'm not that far over the edge...

Cleo turns 2 on June 30, and I thought it would be fun to have a little party for her.  It really was more just an excuse to have some friends over for a bbq.  But I love having themed parties, so I decided to celebrate her birthday.

The colors I picked for the party were green and brown.  I played off the fact that her fur is brown and her eyes are green.  I had fun making yarn balls that I hung over the table.  They're really fun to make; all you do is soak yarn in glue mixed with water, and wrap it around a balloon.  Once the yarn is dry (takes a few days) pop the balloon and voila!!

I also made a flower arrangement out of dollar store flowers and a dead choke cherry bush from my back yard.

Then when we were at Costco picking up some supplies, I found these beautiful green and white flowers.

Since the colors were green and brown, I decided that all the food had to be green and brown, too.  I also made little name tags for the food so everyone knew what they were eating. 

At the end of the night Cleo even got a birthday kiss from a special friend...

Giveaway Winner!

It's time to announce the winner for my Vintage Orange Apron!

I'm a fairly new blogger, and was excited to have 23 entries for this giveaway!  Thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging words!

Drumroll please.....

The winner is comment # 12 - Jessica!!

Congrats to Jessica!  You'll be receiving an email from me shortly!  :)

Retro Fun

Check out this awesome material my mom found waaay in the back corner of her sewing room...

Apparently her mom (my Oma) bought it years and years and years ago for $0.75/meter.  Could you imagine paying that little?!  Think of all the fabric I could buy!!

She selflessly gave it to me, and since the pattern is so large I think I'm going to make a skirt out of it.  I was happy to stumble across a great tutorial on Noodlehead  that is simple and cute all at the same time.

I probably won't get to it this week.... or next week... but check back in a few weeks to see the completed project!

WIP Wednesday #2

Just a reminder that my Apron Giveaway closes tonight! If you haven't already got your comment in, you still have a bit of time!  I'll announce the winner bright and early tomorrow morning.

In Progress:

1) Pink and Green Quilt

I finished the quilt top, basting, and have started the actual quilting.  This is my first attempt at quilting, and I must admit; I'm finding sewing straight lines to be quite challenging!  I've given up trying to make it perfect, and have decided to use the excuse of "this is my first quilt" and go with it, crooked lines and all!

Here's a really really poor quality pic taken with my phone.  But you get the idea...

2)  Pillowcase Skirt

This one is at the same stage as last week.  Although now I do have the elastic for it, so I suppose I am one teeny tiny step closer!  I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to have it done in time for Skirt Week, so I'll just make it for fun for myself.

Completed Projects:

1)  Camera Bag

Up Next:

1)  Wedding Place Mats
2)  Kaleidescope Quilt-Along
3)  Quilt Sampler Quilt-Along

4)  New Bee on the Block Quilting Bee

4)  Retro Trees Skirt (more on this later)

5)  Dresses

I almost forgot that my mom and I had bought the patterns and fabric for 3 more dresses about a year ago...  It's my job to cut the fabric out, then we'll sew 'em up together!  I'm still a little scared of sewing clothing (perhaps more on that later...) but I feel better having my mom, the expert seamstress, at the helm!

Pay it Forward Giveaway

In the New Year I participated in a Craft it Forward event on Facebook.  I had so much fun with it!  I was able to make some crafts for some special ladies, and it turn got a few things myself!  I was excited to see this post on Fiber of All Sorts because it meant I got to do it all over again!


Here are the rules:


1.  I will make something for the first 3 people that comment on this post.  QUICK! Comment now and read the rest of the rules later!  Just kidding... you might want to see what you're getting yourself into before you commit.  Also, if you do comment, make sure that your email is attached to your account, or include it in your comment.  I need to have some way of getting a hold of your to get your address!

2.  I will have a full 365 days to make and send your item.  Maybe when you least expect it and have forgotten about this, it will show up in the mail.  

3.  Once you comment here, you must post about your Pay It Forward on your blog to keep the fun going with the Pay It Forward badge.  You then will have the joy and fun of making something for the first 3 people that comment on your post!


Also, feel free to join the Flickr group to see what else is being sent!