Delivery!

The mailman finally brought me some goodies today!  

Let's start with the smallest one.  A while back I ordered a vintage dresden clutch from Stephanie at Sand & Starfish.  Silly Canada Post took FOREVER to deliver it, but it finally arrived!

I actually have the same vintage sheet she used for the lining.

Cleo got excited when she saw me open the box, and wanted to check it out for herself.

Here's what I got:

Some awesome Christmas sweater type fabrics.  Every year we take a family photo the night of my company Christmas party when we're all dressed up.  Mr Mouse thought it would be fun to have a goofy picture this year.  I figure he's put up with me making him dress up all purdy, I might as well let him have some fun, too.  Keep your eyes peeled for what I'll make with these!

I'm hoping to make a rainbow quilt with one of my quilting bees.  I bought these cool leaf prints to add to my rainbow fabrics.  

This grey and yellow pattern is to be the binding for my Engagement Ring Quilt.

Teal & Brown Argyle.  Need I say more?

These teeny tiny argyle prints were just so fun!  Great stash builders.

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas!

Blue for my Jamieson Quilt (more on that later).

Just some fun extras!

And batting for my Stroll Down the Garden Path Quilt.

Cute flannelette charm pack.  Maybe for a baby blanket?

I've washed the whole bundle... now to fold it!

Hard Working Quilt Top

My inlaws dropped by with very little warning the other day.  In order to make the house a little more presentable, Mr Mouse threw my Strolling Down the Garden Path quilt top over the pile of coats on the chair in our front room.

Cleo then decided to claim that as her new napping spot.

The quilt hasn't even been completed, but it's already proven to be useful!

Rainbow Mug Rug

I made a little mug rug.  I can't say who it's for because she reads my blog.  Sorry, Mom, it's not for you...

I discovered the quilting guide that attaches to my machine!  Look at those nice, somewhat even lines!  I don't know why I haven't used it before!  I also tried machine binding.  Normally I like to do my binding by hand, but I wanted to try a new technique.  I can't remember whose blog had the tutorial, but all you do is sew the binding to the front like usual, then pin the back in place and sew in the ditch along the front.  It worked really well for the most part, but there is one place (top of the left side) where things went a bit wonky.

It was a hot day when I was taking these photos.  Cleo was outside, and when she saw my shadow she immediately flopped down in it, glad for the cooler shade.

Pretty Kitty

Mr.  Mouse and I have decided to try and have people over for dinner once a week.  Sometimes our lives get so busy and we can go for months without seeing friends.  When Cleo learned of our plans she requested some new party dresses.  She wants to look her best for company!

I started by taking an old Christmas dress that was too small for her...

...and cutting it up.

I then traced the pieces and added some extra room to make a new pattern.  Mom came over on Monday evening and we started working on some new outfits.  Here's the first one we completed:

I think it fits her quite well!

Maybe I'll add a collar and some embellishments to the next one.

Little Helper

Cleo likes to help me in the sewing room.  Whether it's holding down the ruler when I'm cutting, keeping the quilt steady when I'm basting it, or guarding my fabrics.  It's nice having her around.

Kaleidoscope Quilt Top

Long ago I decided to join the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along  with Don't Call Me Betsy.  I was quite excited about this project and decided to do a black, white and red quilt.  I quickly began cutting the patterned pieces, which seemed to take FOREVER.  I had 6 patterned black/white fabrics, and 6 patterned red pieces.  I needed 120 of each triangle, so I began cutting 20 of each fabric.  Once I finished those, I realized that I had accidentally cut double the amount I needed.  Apparently 6 x 2 x 20 does not equal 120. Nope nope nope.

I figured that I'd just make 2 quilts; one with black and white triangles with red corners, and one with red triangles and black and white corners.  I had a solid red fabric that I was going to use that matched ok.  It was a little darker and a little more cranberry-er than I wanted, but it was what I had on hand, and I've made a vow to buy as little brand new fabric as possible. (I prefer the thrill of finding fabrics at thrift shops)  Because I have crafting ADD (in addition to mild OCD and ADOS [do you know of that one?  Attention Deficit... Oh Shiny!!]) I decided to sew the triangles as I cut them.  Big mistake.  I got about half way through sewing the blocks together when I realized that I had run out of solid red.  I took a swatch to Fabricland (*shudder*) and couldn't find anything that matched.  What to do, what to do!  I thought I could use black and then alternate the blocks, but was worried that would take away from the pattern.  My mom then told me she had a whole ton of red fabric and gave that to me.  I wish I had thought of that sooner; it was the perfect shade of red, and there was more than enough of it!!  Oh well.

I decided then to just make a small, square quilt and add some other fabric to the top and bottom to make it into a lap size quilt.  Here it is in all its glory:

The photo is a little awkward; my kitchen light is directly above the top right corner of the quilt so the red looks a little different there.  But it's all the same red.  

It doesn't look too bad, eh?  Well, from far away it looks fine.  Close up you can see how uneven it is and how very few of the points and seams line up:

So, since nothing has gone right with this quilt, I've decided to call it a Wonky Kaleidoscope Quilt.  That'll work, won't it?  Let's just say I meant to make it a funny, small size where the reds don't match and the seams are waaaaay off.  Putting 'wonky' in front of something will fix any mistake!

Cleo agrees.

Ironing Board Makeover

The other day I was ironing.  I hate ironing.  The fabric I was ironing was super wrinkly and in my frustration I was pushing pretty hard on it to get the wrinkles out.  That's when I noticed that the little crisscross design of the ironing board frame had imprinted on the fabric.  I decided that I would add a new ironing board cover to my Christmas list.  (Yes, I do realize this is July and I'm talking about Christmas.  But it's never too early to start planning...)

I was over at my mom's the other day finishing up the Olive Circles Dress and was doing some ironing.  I noticed that her ironing board was nice and padded and was much nicer to use.  I mentioned to her that I was going to add a new ironing board cover to my Christmas list because I was fed up with how un-puffy and flat mine is.

She showed me her secret - she had an extra layer of padding in there!  Once long ago she bought a foamy pad from Liquidation World that fit under the cover.  Genius!  She went to her sewing room closet and rooted around for a bit and came out with this:

And extra one!  She had bought two at the time.  I guess it's an early Christmas for me!  :)  Deck the Halls!

The next night I decided it was time to give my ironing board a make over. Here's my board pre-make over:

I pulled off the cover...

...added a layer of aluminum foil (Another secret I got from mom.  Apparently it reflects the heat from the iron and it cuts down your ironing time)...

...put on the extra foam pad...

And voila!  An ironing board so padded and cozy that Cleo couldn't wait to try it out!!

She hopped up and got comfortable even before I finished getting everything in place.  It must pass the test!

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!