Design Your Own

I’m so excited to offer you guys a chance to win a Milkshake Baby Messenger Bag!

Wendy, the owner/designer/seamstress behind these wonderful bags, has graciously offered my wonderful readers (yes, that is YOU) a chance to win one of these fun bags!  And you get to design it yourself with any of the fabric in my store!  How awesome is that!!!!!

The bags are made with durable duck cloth and added stabilizers.  They have 3 pockets inside, 4 pockets outside, an adjustable strap, and a magnetic closure on the flap!  Plus they are just really really fun!

Any mom or student or grandma or basically any breathing person would love one of these bags!  And Christmas is quickly approaching!!!  Visit Wendy’s shop here.  

So how do you enter to win?  

Tell us which fabric you’d pick for your custom made bag!
Pick any of the fabrics I have available in my shop!

The winner will be picked on September 30th at which time I’ll get you in touch with Wendy.

Thanks for playing!!!!

Patchwork Camera Strap Cover – a Tutorial

I could have actually worked on my “to-do” list today. It is long. It is growing. It would have been the responsible thing to do.

But I had to visit the dentist. (Follow up work, nothing new or unexpected.) Paying him even more money kinda put me in a bit of a mood. For me, sewing helps right that mood. So instead of being responsible, I made something pretty.  This not totally irresponsible now that I now get to share it with you!      

Here’s how: I determined I needed my cover to end up 2 inches wide by 20 inches long (I wish now I had made it 2 inches x 22 or 23 inches so it’d go onto the leather strap area.)  I used a charm pack as my starting point. That along with a scrap of fabric for the back and some fusible fleece was all I needed to make this quick project!  (and the fleece is optional!)

I used 9 – 3 inch squares from the charms and sewed them together.
(If I made it again, I’d use  11 or 12 squares instead so it’d be longer.)  

Then sewed the patchwork piece and the solid piece together.

Iron fusible fleece on the wrong side.

Top stitch the patchwork squares.

Fold over the ends and stitch in place.
(I did 4 rows of stitching because I though it looked cooler.)

Sew right sides together.

Trim the excess so the seam is not bulky.
(if I had used 2.5 inch squares this wouldn’t be necessary)

Turn right side out and iron.

Slide it onto your strap and you’re done!

 

****** BONUS ******
I have an extra one laying right here. It measures about 2 inches by 20 inches.
Would you like it? Just leave me a comment. I’ll draw a name in the next couple of days.

 

PS. The FABULOUS fabric is Momo’s new line for Moda.  It is called Odyssea and I am so in love with it.  The pre-cuts are here now.  The yardage will be here sometime this month!

Off to be “for real” productive……

It’s Beginning

to look a lot like Christmas

Who am I kidding?
it looks and feels nothing like Christmas
here in one-hundred-and-way-too-hot Arizona

But here is an inconvenient truth

CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 137 DAYS AWAY

Okay okay, so that seems like a long time and not all that inconvenient
but if you are planning to make your Christmas gifts this year
(which I highly recommend!)
right now is the perfect time to get started!
Before you totally freak out and go to the store and buy gifts.
Think of the relief when the holiday season rolls around
And you’ve made your list
and checked it twice!
And in that spirit, I have put all my holiday fabric on sale!
For the rest of August
Seriously…huge sale!

And if nothing else, my children’s Christmas PJ’s are done!

Whew!

Sense the relief?
You could feel that way too!

 

(PJ pants were adapted from an Oliver & S pattern
Fabric is from the line It’s Snowing by Moda
Embroidery Designs are from Bunnycup Embroidery)

Christmas Patchwork Quilt

Do you remember the Christmas Patchwork Quilt I made?  A picture to jog your memory?

My friend, Carly, wrote up this pattern for her Etsy shop. It uses one layer cake (pre-cut 10 inch squares) and one charm pack (pre-cut 5 inch squares). It is a GREAT quilt for beginners!  The top goes together quickly since you’re using pre-cut fabric. 

So guess what?!?!?  Carly is letting me sell her patterns in my store.  And I’ve made this exact quilt available as a kit!  So  you can make one too! Even better?  This particular kit includes the backing!  You can find it here.  

Speaking of Christmas….we are about HALF WAY through this year!  WOW!  So even though it’s nice and warm outside – it’s not too early to start your Christmas sewing!   Did you join in the Advent Calendar Sew Along?  I guess I did since I have the button on my blog….but I haven’t made anything yet.  In fact, we have never even used an Advent Calendar in my house.  Oh well.  If you’re looking for Holiday fabrics for the sew along…or for any project,  I have added a few new things to the Seasonal Fabric section of my website.

Okay so you’ve stuck with me this long….why not have a little give away?!?!?  I would love to send ONE person the kit and pattern for this super fun Christmas Quilt.  Just leave me a comment telling me what are some of the gifts you would like to make for the holidays this year.  I like to leave these up for about a week but we’ll be leaving town next week.  So I’m guessing that I’ll need to wrap this up after the weekend.  So comment away!  And if you don’t win…well you know where to find them!

Baking

A cute little set of gingerbread cookies has put me in the mood to bake. (I usually don’t bake – mostly because when I bake I eat – and I don’t need to eat, so I don’t bake.) Seriously, how amazing are these! I was in awe when I saw them on flickr – little did I know one set was comin’ to me.

So in this baking mood, I got to thinking – maybe I should buy some awesome bake ware – which led me to the Williams-Sonoma website.  I haven’t made the trip over there yet – but I have a feeling when I do, I had best leave the credit card at home and only carry a limited amount of cash. (Also because the same mall is home to the Apple store – and that could be big trouble!)  Have you seen some of this stuff?

This particular cake pan is PERFECT for the sewing party that is being planned with the baker of the awesome gingerbread cookies.  Perfect – with a capital P!  (I’ll have to post more details in the future for those of you in the Tucson area!)

So anyway, the kids and I are making sugar cookies tonight.  We’ll decorate them tomorrow and put them out for Santa.  They will not be amazing pieces of art but still, it should be lots of fun!

Kids Christmas PJs

My list of “have to’s” is getting shorter and shorter!  The jammies for Christmas Eve are done. 

I’m debating putting an applique onto Kyle’s shirt.  It’s not on my “have to” list – so I doubt it will get done before Christmas.  I stopped by JoAnn’s for some elastic and that cute transportation knit just happened to fall in my cart.      Lucky for me, it’s perfect for my little guy!   Pictures of them in their jammies in one week!

********ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS********

(in case you didn’t realize!)

Matching Game

Alright – I just had a quick break from today’s scheduled events and was reading the hundred million blogs that I subscribe to -  Did you see the Michael Miller Blog today? (maybe you read Stardust Shoes) Now I know what I am doing with these fabrics! – maybe tonight – maybe tomorrow.  I’ll post again when I’m finished!

Woodland Friends Fabric – from Timeless Treasures

Animals Gone Wild Fabric – from Robert Kaufman

Isn’t it fun?!?!?! AND anyone could do this! (Even you, Kari!  You know Tate would love this little game!!!) If you don’t know how to sew, you could just make the matching squares and forget about the drawstring bag. Then tie a ribbon around the set. Ta Da! Great gift for little kids!!!!