Winner, winner - and shop news!

Whew - what a week of giveaways!  Definitely a great way to celebrate a year of blogging.  Without further ado, Mr. Random.org picked the following winners....

The voile fat quarter pack is off to Susan, the vintage sheets go to Nikko, and the Flea market fancy/Heather Ross scraps go to Bree.  Congrats winners!  Your packages are already in the mail.

And after being flooded with comments about the Showoff Bag (thanks Rae - and thanks all of you for your kind words!), the winner is #74 - Alli!  Congrats Alli, Rae will send you a copy once the pattern has been finalized.

Whew, back to crafting.  I've got lots of things to post about these days, since I've been in full force nesting mode for the past couple of months.  But first I wanted to let you all know that I finally got my act together and am getting my shop up and running!

My stash of vintage linens is getting incredibly out of hand, but that doesn't seem to stop me from continuing to thrift for them, so I've decided to share the wealth!  I've already listed a small section (and had a couple of sales - woo-hoo!), but I've got TONS more to go through - and even picked up a few more this morning (it's a disease, I tell you).  So keep checking in.

Most of them are listed as fat quarters, but I don't actually cut anything until I receive an order, so most of the times, continuous yardage is available for your larger projects.  I'll also be throwing in some pre-cuts, and handmade quilts as well - so stay tuned!

Showing off my Showoff Bag

When Rae (of Made by Rae, of course) asked me to test out her upcoming Showoff Bag pattern, it couldn't have come at a better time.  My current purse is filled with goldfish cracker crumbs, a miscellany of treasures such as pinecones, rocks, and leaves that Phoebe has collected over the summer, and smells of old milk from waaaaay too many leaky sippy cups.

And who really has time to go through all of that and give it a good washing?  Not this momma!  So when my bag reaches that stage - it's time to sew a new one.

I'm lucky enough to live in the same town as Rae and when she walked in with her lovely chevron version to our monthly crafter's meetup, I knew I had to make one for myself.

The pattern is super easy to follow, and anyone with a basic knowledge of sewing could put this baby together in about an hour or two.

It calls for a heavier home dec weight for the main print of the fabric, but this lightweight cotton print by Michael Miller (Ellie in Amber) was calling my name, so I backed it with a mid-weight interfacing which provided just enough stability to give this bag some shape.

The top panels and straps are made out of a heavy upholstery-weight pillow sham that I got for $1.97 when Linens & Things was going out of business.  Score!  The only bummer is that the sham was shorter than the length the straps called for, so I ended up having to piece them, which kind of annoys me when I look at the photos.  I should have pieced them on the diagonal, but I get a bit lazy regarding things like that.

The best part - nice and roomy - my number one quality in a purse.  Especially when everything you carry around is 95% for your toddler and 5% for you.

The other best part?  Rae has so kindly offered up a free copy of the Showoff Bag pattern to one lucky EmmmyLizzzy reader!  She'll be releasing it later this week and you can be one of the first to get it!  Just leave a comment, any comment, and I'll choose a winner on Friday.

*Comments are now closed!  Thanks for playing everyone.  Winner will be announced soon.*

Balloons, confetti, giveaways! Happy blogiversary to me!

*The giveaway is now closed!  Winners will be announced soon.  Thanks for playing!*

One never needs an occasion to get balloons - but I am pretty darn excited that my tiny little corner of the internet has been around for ONE year today!

I had put off starting a blog for forever because I absolutely hate to write.  However, it turns out that I actually enjoy writing as long as I'm talking about things that I'm passionate about.

And adding lots of cute Phoebe pictures make the process a lot easier.

So to celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway x 3!  Just leave a comment telling me what keeps you coming back to my blog...  Quilts, kid clothes, baked goods, home projects, fabric porn, my adorable daughter......etc.  Or what kind of things you'd like to see more of in this little space.  

I won't make you follow, tweet, or pass out fliers for extra entries, because I freaking hate that.  I'll leave the comments open until Wednesday the 28th (at whatever time I get around to closing them), and I'll pick 3 winners who will have their pick of 3 prize packages (first winner gets first pick, etc.)

So what are these amazing prizes do you ask?

Prize package one has been generously donated by Brenda, owner of the wonderful Pink Castle Fabrics and is a fat quarter pack of all eight Pastry Lines in voile from Anna Maria Horner's little folks line.  I really can't express how much I love these fabrics.  I've got one yard cuts of them just waiting to be made into something fabulous for myself.  And if you don't think a fat quarter pack will be enough to make a quilt large enough to completely envelop yourself in voile (which is what I plan on doing), Brenda has all of them in her shop right now at a pretty fantastic price!

Prize package two contains three large vintage pillowcases and eight vintage sheet fat quarters.  If you've read this blog for even a short amount of time, you have to know how much I love using these in both my crafting and sewing projects alike.  For past vintage sheet projects, check out some of my posts here, here, here, and for my most pinned vintage sheet project on Pinterest, click here.

Finally, prize package three includes a fat quarter from the always popular Flea Market Fancy line by Denyse Schmidt, and other large assorted scraps (some of those strips in the upper right corner are about 5" x 44") from FMF and Heather Ross - my all time favorite fabric designer :)

Whew!  Got your favorite picked?  

Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to coming back next week with more sewing, crafting, and other lovely things (like giveaway winners!) to kick off my second year of blogging!

The start of fall craft season

Why is it that people don't really decorate the house for summer?  I guess we're all too busy doing fun things outdoors to really want to stay inside anyways.

Well now that the temperatures are getting colder and we're spending more time indoors, we're doing a lot more crafting and getting the house ready for fall.  This project I found via Pinterest - the greatest place on the internet, in my opinion :)

After painting coffee filters with watercolors and markers, I cut out little leaf shapes, backed them in double stick tape, and let Phoebe go wild sticking them onto a large kraft paper tree I taped on the window.

Phoebe liked to stick most of hers onto the trunk (I guess that's what you get when you tell a toddler, "put the leaves on the tree"), and I took liberty in finishing the branches.

That extra branch turned out a little bit crazier than I had planned.

Stacked strips

The top for this quilt came together in one evening, but commenced to sit in my studio unfinished for weeks while it waited to be basted and quilted.

Basting is my most unfavorite part of quilting - even more so now as my growing tummy makes it more difficult for me to crawl around on the floor smoothing, pinning, and readjusting.  The cats don't help the process either.  The minute you lay a piece of fabric on the floor, they take their cue to begin tumbling, dive-bombing, and performing cat-aerobics across (and under) the entire thing.

This quilt was made entirely out of my stash and combined both modern prints and repurposed vintage sheets.  The backing is a large piece of vintage sheet combined with some Kona cotton in pale flesh.  (Seriously Robert Kaufman - you couldn't think of a better name for this lovely shade of pink other than pale flesh?)

We have been having a truly wonderful time these past two weeks while my husband has been on vacation.  No trips or fancy excursions, but we've gotten a lot done on the house and have spent some wonderful time together as a family.  And heck, I even have someone here to hold up my quilts so they can be photographed!

Too bad it's back to work tomorrow.  I think we all feel the same way.

Other going-ons

I haven't been the most consistent blogger lately, but now with summer coming to a close I'm hoping for things to slow down a bit so I'll be able to devote more time to this space.  Especially since my one year blogiversary is coming up later this month and I've got a great giveaway planned!   Well, I don't know exactly what it will be yet, but I promise you it will be great :)

So even though the blogging has been lacking, I've still been keeping pretty busy.  Here's a couple of things we've been up to that didn't fully necessitate their own blog post....

I finally made Phoebe her own Sweet Pea Pilot Cap

I've been in bloomer production once again as I have been hit with a slew of baby showers.  I also had another batch of three more that were shipped out before being photographed.

Phoebe's summer onesies had gotten way too filthy and stained for my liking, so a quick trip in a dye bath of fall colors made them good as new.

We took some time to visit the area's county fairs and mingle with the animal life.

I've spent many an evening sewing late into the night with my kitty quilting companion.

 

And finally we've just been enjoying these cooler temperatures and late summer rainstorms.

 

Is everyone else's summer finally winding down?  Do you love fall as much as I do?  I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season the other day and it was heaven!

A little baby sewing

I still haven't gotten around to sewing anything for my own upcoming arrival, but I did manage to finish some baby things for some other pregnant friends - and oh boy, there seem to be a lot of them popping up lately!

I made a couple of these simple blankets out of some cute pieces of flannel that I'd been saving in case I ever had a boy.  Since pink is the only thing in my near future, I thought another baby boy might as well enjoy them.  

I made tons of these when Phoebe was born, simply by squaring up a yard of flannel, then hemming the edges.  Most receiving blankets never seemed to be big enough, or were always rectangular and not good for swaddling.  These are the perfect size for spreading on the floor, being discrete while nursing, covering a carseat, and of course, swaddling!

Here's Phoebe wrapped up in one of hers when she was just two days old <3

Burp cloths were another thing I could never seem to have enough of, and I found that flannel backed in chenille really got the job done and kept them from looking totally disgusting in between washes.

And of course, what new baby doesn't need a Mooshy Belly Bunny?  You can find the free tutorial right here.

More furniture makeovers

I think that my husband is more excited than I am to have this piece of furniture finally finished, since it's been taking up a good chunk of garage space for the past 4 or 5 months.  I'm always on the lookout for this style of furniture (whatever it's called) because it reminds me so much of my childhood.  I had standup dresser with similar curves when I was younger and my great-grandmother's house was filled with pieces like this.

When I saw this dresser at an estate sale this past spring for a mere ten dollars I could barely contain my excitement.  

Nevermind that I had to drive back and forth across town to borrow my friends truck, or that I had to lug most of it by myself (with some help from strangers who took pity on me) down a super steep set of stairs.  And let me tell you, this baby is solid wood.

Aside from the surface looking like crap, it was in pretty good condition and just needed a lot of sanding and a couple coats of primer and paint.  You can see a bit of a before shot here.  I ended up going with the color Sea Glass from Martha Stewart's line, and I'm still debating about painting that hardware.  It actually doesn't look so blatantly gold in person (it's much more dull and distressed) and I don't terribly mind it, but some white might brighten the whole thing up. 

I'm slowly working on transitioning Phoebe's nursery into more of a big girl room, so I'll be swapping and moving around her current furniture and giving the room a fresh coat of paint.  If only we could do something about that hideous carpeting, but it's just not in the budget right now.

Now we just have to see if all of these drawers will hold the wardrobe of a 2 year old girl.  It's gonna be pretty close...