Sew & Tell Friday: A little bit of sewing and little bit of telling

Well, after nine consecutive days of grandparent house guests (my mother-in-law and my parents, back-to-back), I haven't accomplished much in the sewing arena!


I did, however, make this grocery bag dispenser for my mom.  (Tutorial here.)  I finished it just in the nick of time before they had to leave!




My mom and I have very different taste, color-wise, so this one is really different than the first two I made. However, it was lots of fun to put together a color combo that was "out of the box" for me, and she really likes it!


While I haven't been sewing much, we have definitely been enjoying the great outdoors! I love spring weather in Myrtle Beach.

Be sure to check out the other fabulous finishes over at Sew & Tell Friday.


Have great weekend!
Mary

I heart naptime

and this is my idea of a naptime well spent . . .

Have you discovered Stitch Magazine yet?

It pretty much rocks.

This issue features projects by Beki of Artsy-Crafty Babe (her project is on the cover!), Ayumi of Pink Penguin, and Rashida of I Heart Linen, to name a few.  I love seeing some of my favorite bloggers in print, and I love how modern this magazine is!

Now if only we could get a quilting magazine this hip and modern!

Happy sewing!
Mary

Monkey Business

Introducing . . . Molly the Monkey!

Lauren loves monkeys, and my mom was sweet enough to make this for her!

Molly was made using this free tutorial.  

Her clothes and socks are made from Heather Bailey fabric.

Don't you just love those shoes?  And the socks?  Adorable!

Thanks Mom!

Where's my mojo?

I have been a sewing slacker lately.  S.L.A.C.K.E.R.  For real.

Where the heck did my mojo go?

If found, please ship it to me immediately!

I have plenty of projects in progress, it's just that I can't seem to finish anything.  Hmmmmmm.

Well, I have to blog about something, so here are some cute pics we took over the weekend.  Our weather has been really nice, so we headed out to the park with our tripod and handy camera remote (no more messing with the self-timer, hooray!)

Lauren was so cooperative in our family photo shoot, it was amazing!

And of course we took lots of pics of the little one by herself:

Gosh I love that kid!

Well, my goal is to have something finished and ready to share by Friday.  I think I can, I think I can!

Hope you're having a good week . . . and hopefully it's more productive than mine.

Happy sewing!

Mary

Sew & Tell Friday: Director's Chair Makeover

Is it cheating if my "Sew & Tell" is actually something my mom created?

Even so, this project is pretty awesome and I want to brag about my mom's skills a bit.

To start, here's a chair my parents bought for me when I was a toddler:

Hey, no giggling at my middle name!

Last summer my mom decided to give the chair a little makeover so that Lauren could use it.

It took lots of sanding, lots of stain, lots of varnish, my mom's awesome sewing skills, and a little help from her fancy embroidery sewing machine.  (I did contribute by picking out the fabric and stain color!)

Doesn't it look great?  Totally modernized and re-personalized.

This is Lauren testing out her chair for the first time last summer.  She was so happy to have a chair her size!

Thanks for all your hard work mom!  

I'm linking up to Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday, so hop on over and check out the other finishes too!

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Pinwheeling my way to sanity

I really, really, really needed a break from the Mommyhood today.  I was just one whine away from my breaking point, and luckily my husband stepped in to the rescue.  And as a bonus, Lauren's Uncle C was in town today, so between the two brothers Lauren was thoroughly entertained and I had many glorious hours to sew and regain my sanity.  Phew!

I buried myself in pinwheel making and caught up on the last three weeks of Rachel's Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along.

We only have one more week of block making left, then we start to assemble our quilt tops.  Yay!

I've also been working on the Man Quilt this week, and hopefully I'll have a completed quilt top to show soon.

After my marathon sewing session I felt much better, so Lauren and I celebrated by making brownies.  Sanity regained!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Mary

And so I tried to design a "man quilt"

I've been promising my husband a quilt for a while.

I've been scouring Flickr for inspiration, but nothing quite fit.

He was beginning to give up hope.

And then I happened upon these awesome quilts  (from none other than Red Pepper Quilts and I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts) and I immediately went to work with this pile of Authentic by Sweetwater (which has been sitting around since Christmas) -

and turned it into this -

Bold, huh?

The husband was pretty skeptical that I could make a quilt look manly.  But he gave me lots of feedback while I was laying it out, helped me make some design choices, and by golly, he likes it!  In fact I think he actually agreed that it's "manly"!!!!!

I'm hoping it's not too bold, but I really felt like I had to add a lot of black to up the "man factor."

Now it's time to sew these blocks together!  The finished quilt top should be 6' square, making it my largest quilt to date, and my biggest challenge to date!

Wishing you a happy and productive week!

Mary

Sew & Tell Friday

Thanks goodness it's Friday!

I was up late sewing last night, which is becoming the norm for me on the night before Sew & Tell Friday. But it's just so satisfying to end the week with a nice finish!

First I finished my Nicey Jane Grocery Bag Dispensers:

And since this "recipe" was from the Moda Bake Shop, it only seemed appropriate to use some Moda twill tape for the hanging tab.

I finished these before midnight (which is kind of early for me on a Sew & Tell Friday "eve"), so I decided to start a whole new project and whip up this adorable Patchwork Pencil Pouch:

This pouch was designed by Vanessa over at Little Big Girl Studio, and the awesome tutorial can be found here.  It's quick and fun!  Even the zipper was super easy to install.

This project was perfect for using just the tiniest bit of Verna fabric from my stash, and I just love patchwork.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Happy sewing!

Mary