Turning Twenty-Nine

Yikes!

I'm turning 29 today.

(For the first time, I promise!)

I sewed myself a little something for my birthday.

This is the Quilted Bible Cover by Amy @ Park City Girl.  (Free tutorial here)

I've been meaning to make this for a while - 

my Bible was looking a little worn and needed some dressing up!

My mom (who also loves sewing!) spoiled me with a trip to the local quilt shop.

Hooray for new fabric! Thanks mom!

(Bonnie & Camille - Cotton Blossoms)

She also made me this awesome Heather Bailey pincushion (based on this tutorial)

(Top and bottom shown)

I love that flower button!

And then she further spoiled me with a new ironing board.

I'm soooo excited!

Never thought I'd say that, but my old one was about 10 years old, the cheap one we bought when I was heading off to college, and it was really sad looking.

I didn't care much (and didn't iron much!) until I got into sewing 6 months ago.

But now that I spend a significant amount of time ironing (oops, I meant pressing)

it's really, really nice to have a new one!

Well, it's my birthday so I think it's time to log off now.  

I'm linking up to Sew & Tell Friday over at amylouwho.  Better late than never!

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Turning Two

Little One turned two yesterday.

Where does the time go?

I wanted her to have a special birthday shirt, so I whipped this one up at the last minute.

No sewing involved!

I printed out a big #2 from Microsoft Word.

I traced it on freezer paper, ironed it onto fabric backed with Heat-n-Bond Ultrahold, cut it out, and ironed it on the shirt.

My favorite part is the birthday candles :-)

I went a little crazy with the other shapes, but I had fun with it.

Now we'll just have to see how it holds up in the wash!

(P.S. - I can't take credit for the applique on her jeans - those are from Old Navy)

Quilting Hangover

Well, I've done it again.
Stayed up waaaaaay too late sewing.
3:30am to be exact!
But I finished my quilt and it was well worth it.

I've been working on this quilt for a couple months now.  It's a gift for friends of ours who just had a baby, and I had promised myself I'd finish it by the baby's due date.  Well, the baby came three weeks early, but I still managed to meet my deadline since the baby was technically due yesterday :-)

This quilt is based on the Sweet Menagerie Nine Patch Quilt from the Moda Bake Shop.  I used Tula Pink's Hushabye fabric, which I absolutely love!  In fact, this quilt is a "cousin" of my first quilt.  I had tons of jelly roll strips left, so this pattern worked perfectly.

Here's the back:

And here's a another picture of the front.  In this one you can see how I quilted it.

(Yes, it's laying on the back of my car - part of my photography experiment of the day!)

The quilting was inspired by Ashley at Film in the Fridge.  I really love her methods of straight line quilting!

And this is my "Little Helper."  We really enjoyed the sun today.

I'm linking this to amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday, which was a great motivation to go ahead and get this quilt done!  So thanks for the motivation Amy, and now I'm off to nurse that darn quilting hangover . . . **yawn** . . . and figure out what to feed the family for dinner!

Hushabye Baby Quilt - Progress!

I've been working on this quilt for a while. I'm making it for friends of ours who just had a baby, and my intention was to have it done before the baby was born. She was due February 18th, but surprise! the little one decided to come along at the end of January instead!

I have my "sandwich" pinned together, so now I just need to decide how to quilt it. Decisions, decisions!

The Lickety Split Bag

I have to be honest with you. When I first saw the Lickety Split Bag by Made by Rae, it wasn't love at first sight. Don't get me wrong - I love her designs! I love her blog! I'm a huge fan of the Buttercup Bag.

But the Lickety Split Bag just didn't do it for me.

Until I saw this. Rae donated this bag to the Crafthope for Haiti Etsy shop, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Unfortunately I couldn't afford to buy it, but I knew I absolutely had to make one for myself!

This is what I made:

Because this bag is big (it requires one yard of fabric for the front and another yard for the reverse side) it's perfect for showing off fabric that you LOVE. This gorgeous fabric really caught my eye last time I made the pilgrimage to only shop within 90 minutes of my house that carries designer fabric. (But I'll whine about that some other time.) It's Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey and it is so perfect for spring! You really must see this line in person. Very, very pretty.

Because this bag is reversible, I get to show off MORE gorgeous fabric! (Nicey Jane again.)

I used Rae's Pleated Pocket Tutorial, which adds a really nice touch.

Did I mention that the Lickety Split Bag has NO interfacing?!?! I've never made a bag without interfacing, and I admit I had a really hard time not using any. It felt wrong, like wearing boots without socks or clothes without underwear . . . but after agonizing for a bit I just went with it and sewed the interior and exterior together with nothing in between!!! Now that's living on the edge, I tell you. The result is a very flexible bag, but I think once I fill it with the contents of my purse it will fill out just fine.

Now that I have a pretty spring bag, can I just have some warm weather? Please?