New Fabric/New Find Friday #50

Jumping back to the fabrics that I have been showing you a few Fridays ago, here is part three. These fabrics just caught my eye and I love that they are all a bit different in color but look great together. Have you gotten that I love the pink and orange combination. There is something fresh and modern but at the same time a bit retro about the combination.

The fabric on the right is not what I would typically go after but I think it could be a great addition to a quilt with those bold colors, I like the bit of purple/blue that is mixed in there, it pops out against all of that red and pink. The middle polka dot would be great for burp cloths and some onesies, bold and girly. I think I might need to make something for myself out of the floral on the left, wouldn't it make a great skirt? If only I could get the nerve up to sew clothing again.

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone and I can not wait for more sewing fun in 2011.

Pacifier Clips

In preparation for our little one to arrive I have been doing a bunch of things around the house and buying a bunch of stuff to be sure we are ready when they want to come. I am not sure if we will give our baby a pacifier or if they will want to take it but I wanted to be sure to be ready if they do. I decided to make some pacifier clips for baby Bee that are universal to use with all pacifiers if we use them.

I went out to find some ribbon that I liked and there were not a lot of gender neutral. I did end up finding two that I really liked. The first one is the Bee ribbon that I think is so fitting for our baby since we call them "baby bee". I know that this ribbon looks a bit more feminine but I still love how cute the ribbon is so I had to use it. The red, white, and blue ribbon is the safe set, I think that it can go boy or girl but I think it does look a bit more masculine.

We will see what we end up having, but no matter what I am sure we will use one or two of these. I might end up selling the extras that we do not use once I get the etsy site set up. I am getting closer every day.

Pretty P's Leggings and Onesie

The friend who ordered the set of "A" onesie and leggings also ordered a set of "P" onesie and leggings for herself. Her second baby was born the week before Christmas and they were able to be home as a family for Christmas, how great is that! Anyway she liked this fabric and legging set that I showed her as an option for the "A" set and wanted this for her little one.

I love this set, mostly because of the pops of orange, I am totally obsessed with orange these days. I love the orange mixed with pinks and reds for a girl, gives the pink a funky twist. I like the funky flowers in the fabric on the onesie and the way the colors are combined with the blue background.

I am so excited for this mama and her two little girls. I hope that baby "P" gets to wear these for a long time to come. 

This makes me really want to work on some leggings for my little one, they will be great to wear during winter under those gowns. 

Merry Christmas!

I had to just pop in to say Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope that you have a blessed Christmas and are able to spend at least part of the day with someone special in your life. I always feel so badly for those who live far away from family or are over seas for the holiday season. We are so blessed to have family on both sides here in town and get to see a lot of them on Christmas or over the Christmas season.

I also hope everyone stays well, it sounds like there is a lot of sickness going around and I know I always catch something over the holidays, just when I finally get a break from work.

Last year I spent a lot of time making these great Christmas cards which I posted about here. I loved making them and hope that everyone enjoyed them. This year with the baby coming anytime now I decided I had to make our cards easy and simple. I used one of our maternity session pictures, you can see more of them here, and made a Christmas picture card. The photographers, who I just love, asked if they could post my card on their blog, check out the post here. It was also so nice of them to mention my blog on there as well. I hope you will pop by and see what they do to thank them for talking about me on their blog.

Well without further ado....here is our Christmas Card this year. I hope that they have made their way into your home already, if not they should arrive soon. For all of my blog stalkers out there, here is your Christmas Card! Enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

New Fabric/New Find Friday #49

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well it is Christmas Eve to be exact and I wanted to show you some Christmas fabrics that I picked up a few weeks ago. I love Christmas time and all that goes into it, seeing family, giving and getting Christmas cards, and putting up the tree. I do not always love Christmas fabrics, sometimes they just look so dated or not modern enough. I was on the hunt for some fabric for a project and came across these.

I love the red tree fabric, how cute those little trees going every which way. This is what I ended up using for a project and just wait until you see what I did with it. The second fabric, the green with trees inside of wreaths, I was borderline on liking so I just got a small piece. I am not sure what I will do with this yet but I like that it almost looks like a small dot from far away. The third fabric was considered a Christmas fabric but it really did not look like one to me. I mean I can see how you can call it sort of a modern snowflake circle design but it could be just a great red pattern. The fourth fabric is not a Christmas fabric but like the one before it looks like a big modern snowflake and could be used for Christmas or just as a red patterned fabric.

I am not sure what I am going to do with all of these but I love having some Christmas fabrics in my stash for when I might need them. Maybe next year I will make new stockings for our family since we do not yet have one for baby and will need one next year. Some of these fabrics could come in handy then. We will see.

Merry Christmas Eve, stay safe and I hope you are out enjoying family and friends....and not doing last minute shopping! :)

Thank You Gifts

I had a few showers this fall and wanted to give the hostesses something for throwing me a shower. I wanted it to be something small, useful, and that I could add a personal touch. After thinking about this for a very long time I decided on a serving plate with vinyl letters. I thought this would be something that they would all like.

The plate is just plain white and has a slight lip on the edge. I used two different colors of vinyl, light brown for the flowers and then a chocolate brown for Bon Appetit. I think this would be great for hanging on the wall, displaying in a kitchen on a stand, or even using as a serving piece. This vinyl  is not permanent like I would have hoped so I did suggest to them that they need to wipe very carefully with water if they use it or just take the vinyl off the plate and use it with out the letters. I was thinking it would be permanent but after cutting it out realized it was not, bummer. Oh well you live and learn.

Thank you to all of those that have been there supporting us we are so thankful for the many people that have done so much for us already and we have yet to have the baby!

Apron For a New Bride and Groom

We went to a wedding of two friends over Thanksgiving weekend and had a great time. It was a beautiful wedding and we were glad to see another friend of ours find the right person to spend life with. As part of their wedding present and a belated shower gift I decided to make an apron for the new bride.

I went with this brown and blue floral print fabric as the main and then trimmed it with blue and brown polka dot fabric. I love the way the two fabrics look together, a great complement. 

From their registry it looks like they are going to have some blue items in their home so I hope that this goes well with their kitchen and home.

For the other part of their gift I personalized an apron for him! I saw that they were registered for two aprons, what is better than getting one homemade apron and one personalized apron.

I found this apron at a local store and thought it was manly but at the same time could be something that a woman could wear if she needed a full length apron. I decided that since it was so plain it needed a little personalization. I embroidered "Chef Valenza" on it to give it a little something. It is not as bold as I would have liked it to be but I sort of liked how subtle it is.

I hope the bride and groom love these aprons and that they have many chances to wear them over the years. Good luck and Congratulations to the newlyweds.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #48

Here we are for another new set of fabric that I got on sale with those from last week. These are all Amy Butler fabrics and as much as I have falling in love with other designer's fabrics I still love hers the most. The fabrics that got me excited about sewing again.

The two fabrics on the left are the same pattern in different colorways and I think I still have some of  the other colorways in my fabric stash. These would make great neural nursing covers. The fabric on the right is one I have not seen in person yet and I really like it. The yellow really pops against that red/purple background and it is so fun and unique.

Purple Obession

It just so happens that someone else likes the purple fabric that I used in the last post too. It is the only pretty purple fabric I have, so it isn't too shocking. This order is for a pair of baby leggings and an onesie, they are a Christmas gift for a special niece, she liked the purple leggings and fabric that I coordinated with it.

Here is a close up of the items, and I think that this purple fabric looks totally different on a purple shirt than it does on a white shirt. It just brings out different colors in the fabric. There are some blues and purples in the leggings and I don't know if you can see it but there are some blues in the purple fabric as well.

I hope that this little girl loves her leggings and onesie. Those leggings will be great now that it is cold outside, and will be great for crawling!

Purple People Eater

No..no one is eating people, these purple shirts just reminded me of the song. These two shirts were requested for Christmas presents for two little girls who's names both start with E. Mom bought these two purple shirts in her girls sizes and I picked out this cute purple fabric from my stash to go with it. I love this purple fabric and I think of all of the purple fabric I have seen lately it is one of my favorites.

Here is a close up of the larger shirt with the larger E. I decided to make the E's two different sizes so that they were more proportional to the shirts.

Here is a close up of the smaller shirt with the smaller E. I like that these are both from the same fabric but because of where I cut the letter you get to see different parts of the pattern and different colors show up more in one than the other. I think that it gives them a bit of individual personality.

I am not sure if she will do this but I love the fact that no only will they have matching shirts this year (I love matching outfits and shirts) but that the younger E can wear the older sister's E shirt when she gets bigger. I guess we will see if the younger one thinks this is cool in a few years.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #47

I went to a local  fabric store a few weeks ago and picked up a lot of great things on sale. This is only one of a few posts about what I found. These are the fabrics that are not as bold and colorful as the other ones so I wanted to keep them in their own post.
They are both Amy Butler fabrics and I love the pattern on the left that almost looks like a paisley but it is more of a flowery tree pattern. It is subtle but at the same time is a big bold pattern. The stripe on the right is a bit more subdued in color and pattern. I could see this being made into a napkin or a neutral baby item or even part of a quilt. I love the bit of yellow/green that is mixed in with grey and blue.

I always have a hard time cutting into new and beautiful fabrics, so someone is going to have to force me! I can not have all of this fabric just sitting around, who needs something made? :)

Christmas Hand Towels

My mother-in-law loves fabric as much as I do and has about 30 Rubbermaid binds FULL of fabrics. There is stuff in there from the 70's up to present time and it is always fun to see what I can find in there. I looked through a few years ago and took a bunch of her stuff while she was cleaning house and have yet to use them but know they will come in handy with a baby.

She also has a few unfinished projects and these were a few of the ones she had. I told her that I would take them and finish them for her. That was about two years ago and I am finally getting around to it. So thank goodness she does not get on the internet because these are part of her Christmas present.

She had the towels already and the two pieces of fabric that she wanted to sew on them. The fabric that went with the blue towel had rows and rows of different Christmas scenes and I choose this Santa and sleigh to go with the blue towel because it had more colors that would coordinate with the blue.

The fabric she had for the green towels she had already cut out into small strips so I just washed them and sewed them to the towels. Pretty easy and they really do look cute. I am not sure if this is something that she will put in her kitchen or bathroom, we will see what she does after I give them to her.

I have a few more towels that I bought a few years ago that I would love to do some applique or embroidery on for our house and some gifts. I just need to find the right fabric to go with the towels I have and then I will be set.

I still have a lot of Christmas presents to get/make but at least this one is finished!

Cute Clouds On a Rainy Day

The same friend that I made the scarf for also requested a bulletin board for her office area and wanted me to make it. The fabric that she loved was being discontinued and they only had a fat quarter left so she bought it. We found a matching Kona Cotton solid to go with it and I love the way it frames in the fabric. She wanted the ribbon to be blue which is great because it just blends in with the background color and leaves you looking at those cute rain clouds.

I found the upholstery tacks in white and love the little pop they give against the fabric. I was thinking of doing fabric covered buttons instead of tacks but that would have been harder to attach to the board, maybe next time.
Here is a closer view of the board, she wanted some batting behind the fabric and I think it gives the board some depth and I love the way it almost looks quilted.

I love the way it turned out and it makes me want to make one for myself when we get the basement office/sewing area under control. I really wanted to keep it for myself but knew she was excited to have it back. She loves it too and I hope she enjoys putting inspirational item on the board for future reference.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #46

These fabrics totally remind me of fall and the beginning of winter. Brown always brings up fall thoughts for me and the blue and white reminds me of winter and snow, now that it is getting colder these are putting me in the cold weather mood.

I was in need of some brown and white doted fabric and fell in love with more than one so I had to pick them both up! The large polka dot just reminds me how much I really love polka dots, I don't know what it is about them but they are so playful. The middle fabric is a much smaller brown and white polka dot, this one goes well with a fabric I already have for another apron. I can not wait to put it together have it ready to sell.

The third fabric, the blue is sort of a take off of a dot pattern but with sort of a flower design. It reminds me of snowflakes. I just love blue and had to pick this up when I saw this, not sure yet what I am going to use it for yet but I will start planning soon.

Skirt Turned Scarf

This project was one of the few that I have done that was totally custom and at the same time totally green! A friend of mine made a skirt in high school sewing class and was never able to part with it even after she could not or did not want to wear it anymore. I wish I had a picture of the skirt before, it was a cute long A-line skirt that has a fun story behind it. When she was making the skirt in class and she sewed it half, and that was the first time the teacher had seen that done in all of her years of teaching sewing. Sewing is not her forte and her mom ended up making it for her. :) She wanted to turn this creation of hers into a scarf to wear and I thought it was a great idea.

We played with the size a bit until we came up with this long thin scarf which works great because it is a thin material and hangs nicely and looks great on her. It was a fun challenge to figure out how to make it work for her and see what we could do. I can not wait to see what fun outfits she puts together with this, scarfs are becoming my new favorite accessory.

A Bouquet For The Bathroom

A friend of mine got these great prints form a illustrator that she really likes and has several prints of already. I love these as well but had no where to put them in my house, she decided to use them in her bathroom. They look great in her bathroom.

These are on one wall of the bathroom so she was looking for something else to tie the room together and we came up with the idea of doing vinyl flower blooms to match the prints. Going with white helps the shapes pop out against the wall and tie in the counter and hand towels in the room.

I  love the way these look in the room and I am glad that I could help with the finishing touches! It is amazing what these small little touches can do to a room.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #45

Here are a few fabrics that I had to pick up for some projects and they my not be exciting but they will do for what I need.

The left fabric is a solid white flannel, the middle is a brown flannel fabric and these are the two that I have projects waiting for and I will be working on them when I can. The most exciting of the three is the neutral baby print flannel on the right. I know the picture is not great but the pattern is a multicolored square print and some of the dots have words on them like cutie pie, so sweet, oh baby. I think this fabric would make a great baby blanket or even a soft burp cloth.

Auction Apron

My mother-in-law ordered this apron for a local Church auction and I was happy to make something for her to donate. It has been a while since I have made an adult apron and I sort of miss it. Maybe there will be a few more where this one came from!

The main fabric is so much fun, I love the brown and cream flowers, neutral but with some punch. I paired it with a cream fabric that has brown dots in different shades making a diamond shape. I wish the background was more cream and less yellow but I just could not find a fabric that I liked better.

I have yet to try a full apron because I am really still loving these cute skirt aprons. I love to wear them while cooking before having people over and sometimes I hate to take them off when the guests arrive because they are so cute.

This would be so cute for Thansgiving prep, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

In Need of a Christmas Gift?

I have these baby leggings ready for Christmas/Winter and found this cute fabric to go with it. Does anyone need any leggings with a matching onesie/shirt for a Christmas gift? The top could have an initial, an ornament shape, the word joy, a Christmas tree, a tie, or something else that we can come up with together out of the fabric.

I am accepting Christmas orders until December 1st so email me and let me know if you would like to place an order for this or something else.

Baby Room After

A great way to get moving on a project is to have a contest that you want to enter. I learned about the ohdeedoh contest a few months ago and decided I wanted to enter. I had no idea when it was going to start but I was slowly preparing for when it was announced. I just realized a few weeks ago that they announced it and people were already submitting their rooms. It used to be called the small room big color contest and this year it is small kid big color.
Go here look at the entries that were voted on.  You can go now to vote for the winner. There are some really great rooms on there. I think I might try again next year when we have the baby and know what it is and have more stuff in the room.

Lets take a look at a before picture from earlier this year when the baby room was the craft room. It has a ton of stuff in it but at the same time it was pretty practical. I hope when the craft area gets moved to the basement I can organize it better.

Here are the five pics of the baby room that I entered into the contest. I only have the girly fabric for the baby room so I used that to create a few things that I thought the room needed.

I love the animals around the room but they were falling off the wall on day two so I am now going to have to paint them with white paint to get the animals on the wall. I also love the shelves and of course it does not look as put together as it could be because I have no pictures in the picture frames and I am sure there will be more cute things once baby arrives.

There are a few things that still need to be done. After the baby arrives I need to actually make the bed skirt, drapery, pillow etc with the correct fabric. I need to put together the changing table top with the changing pad, cover, and some changing accessories. I also would love to hang some other items on the wall and make a mobile for over the bed. Like I said earlier the picture frames need pictures for them. I hope to fill them with cute pics of baby bee after they arrive.

I was a bit upset that I was not chosen for the contest but there are some really great rooms that deserve it. I know the room is not as finished as the rest of the rooms that were chosen and almost everyone else either already had the child or knew what it was going to be. We have no idea what baby bee is which I makes it harder to really finish the room with the fabrics I choose. I am okay with the contest now and am just so in love with the baby room and I hope that our little one loves it as much as we do. It makes me so happy to go in there and that is all that matters.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #44

Here is another set of the fat quarters that I picked up a few weeks ago. I am not a huge fan of purple fabrics but I like how the other colors pop on the purple background. The middle fabric is fun and vibrant, it looks a bit tribal and at the same time has some modern whimsy. The dot fabric on the far left is just fun, so many little dots of color and I think this could be a fabric that both boys and girls could enjoy.

I might just have to pop back in the fabric store in a few months and see what other fat quarters they have. They are just the right amount of fabric to try on small projects without breaking the bank.

Only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving and I have to say that I am so thankful for my friends and family that have been so supportive of my mini business. I can not wait to see what this next year has to offer.

Aprons for Christmas

I am back with the second set of items that I made for my cousin's two girls. As we were talking about the birthday shirt the idea of aprons for Christmas came to her, and so I was off to create something cute for the aprons. We only talked about putting their name on it and I was given freedom to do the rest how I wanted. I went with something simple, block embroidery in white which pops against the black apron and a fun print for the pocket. I love big pockets on my aprons to hold things while baking and cooking and I am sure the girls will love the pockets too.

It could be so much fun to do the names in rhinestones and maybe a really simple pattern on the front, like apples or oranges or something. I was even thinking of just the words Bon Appetit with a spoon under it. So many options but I like the way this set turned out and again I think my cousin likes them too. Can't wait to see how the little cooks look in their aprons.

I am still taking orders for Christmas, I will be taking orders until December 1st. I need to make sure I can get all of the items made before Christmas and baby's arrival, just in case they decide to come early!

Birthday Shirt For a Princess

My goddaughter is turning six this month and I wanted to make something special for her. I know my cousin (her mom) has been so upset because I was only making baby items for a while and she wanted something for her two girls. Now that I have more equipment and options I am coming through for her, this is the second thing I have made for them and not the last.
The birthday party is going to be a princess themed slumber party (that does not last all night) and I thought it would be cute to put the word princess on a shirt in some sequence for her to wear to school since the party will be a pajama party. This way she can have princess fun on her birthday during the day!

On the back I put her last name and how old she is in pink flocked heat transfer. It looks so cute! I used the idea of the font and jersey style layout from this post and I think it looks so cute.

The best part the shirt is that not only can she wear this all year (or really anytime- no one will know that the 6 means she is six) but if it does not fall apart in the next few months child #2 will get a chance to wear this as a hand me down during her 6th year of life. Bonus!! 

When my cousin got this in the mail she was so excited, I did not tell her what it was going to look like so it was a nice surprise. I hope her daughter loves it too when she opens this on her birthday.

Happy early birthday to my one and only goddaughter.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #43

While I was out shopping a few weeks ago I picked up some fat quarters, usually I do not like to buy fat quarters because they are not big enough for most of my projects but what they are perfect for is applique on onesies and tee shirts. They were on sale so I picked up a few that I thought were really cute.

Here are three of the green ones that I picked up. The one on the left might just find a home in my kitchen. On the other two, I love the play of the colors together on the green background. Again here I am wishing for spring, and maybe I even got a little taste of it this week with the warm 70 degree weather we have been having.

I am loving that I can wear skirts without the need for leggings or stockings to keep me warm! It has been a great week but I am actually ready for sweater weather.

Stars and Stripes Leggings With Onesie

I was asked to make a onesie and two sets of leggings for baby girl T. I was so excited to make a matching set because I think those leggings look so cute on baby with a matching onesie or outfit.

The leggings are a bright fuchsia pink and the stars and stripes are a dark navy blue making them look almost black. These same colors are found in the floral print that the T is made from, a few shades of pink and a deep midnight blue. I think this color combination is a fun change from pink and black and is even a bit more subtle, if that is possible with pink. :)

Here is a closeup of the T, I used the darker blue for the outline because I really wanted the T to stand out and with the pink thread it just faded into the pink flowers. I love how abstract the floral ends up looking in a smaller piece, you have to look to see what it is and that dead white space in the middle of the flower really pulls your eye into the shape giving it some pop. It looks like the flower is flying out of that white space.  

This is the first time I have used my silhouette to cut out fabric and I am excited to use it more often, it will save my little hand from cutting out those letters, especially the intricate ones.

A Cover For Me!

I have been trying to get everything ready for the baby to come, I do have two months but I am afraid they are going to just fly by with the holidays coming up. I found this fabric a while ago and just love it, something about the bright green background with the black and white just thrills me. I usually love really bright fabrics and I am sure that I will make another one with some bright print but for now I really love this print. It has some pop but isn't too crazy with the colors.

I made a cover and two burp cloths for myself, you never know when you will need them. These colors will look great with my diaper bag as well, it is grey with some green accents. I think these burp cloths will be great poking out of the bag. I am excited to use it!!!

Finally there is a giveaway for the Happiest Baby on the Block dvd here: http://www.alittletipsy.com/2010/11/baby-week-happiest-baby-on-block.html

Go check it out if you are wanting a copy for yourself. I have heard some good things and am interested to see what they say.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #42

I am so excited about this fabric Friday and these two prints. It has been a while since I have put new prints on this blog and as much as I love fall, I LOVE spring and these make me think of spring. I have some great ideas for these and I hope to show you the project I did with the one on the left soon.

Funny story about the one on the right, I just bought a cute wrap dress last week and when it arrived I realized it is made out of the exact same fabric as the one on the right. I must have loved it twice, once to buy some at the fabric store and once to buy a dress in the same fabric.

Off to more sewing this weekend! Hope you all have a great one, enjoy the weather before it gets too cold.

Silky Burp Cloths Part III

Here is the long awaited part three, I am sure that all of you were on the edge of your seat waiting to see what part three was going to be. Here it is! This set is a bit more oriental and sophisticated and the front is silk so it is not as washer friendly as the other burp cloths. The other two that I showed you have been pre-washed and are able to be washed over and over. This set has a beautiful gold and brown silk on the front that I am not sure it can be washed. I might be able to be spot cleaned and washed on gentle but not put in the dryer.

I know that does not sound as practical for a burp cloth but there is always the back to use and again maybe just a spot cleaning will do it. I just love how the rich gold front looks with the dark maroon fleece backing. It would look great on a purse and could be used as the back up, back up burp cloth.

Sometimes you just have to make something that moves you but is not practical.

I am getting closer and closer to showing you the before and after of the baby room. I am thinking about entering it into a contest and if I do I will let you know so that you can vote for me. Happy Wednesday, I have a feeling Friday will be here before I know it.

Halloween and Fall Decorations

Happy Belated Halloween everyone!

I was going to get this posted yesterday but I was busy getting ready for all 10 trick-or-treaters we had. I was really excited about that number because we were up this year 50% over the number we had last year.

Last week I changed some decorations around the house from spring/summer to fall/winter decorations and the pumpkins were part of that.

Last year I put a few little gourds and pumpkins in the window boxes with some hay. I thought I had to go find or buy more hay but I realized I saved it from last year! This year I decided to buy some fake pumpkins and gourds so that I can use them over and over. I like the little white pumpkin with the two orange gourds.

For these two pumpkins for the porch I bought bigger fake pumpkins and put a vinyl be on them and then covered them with glow-in-the-dark glitter. They do not get a chance to glow a lot because the light is always on by the front door. The glitter does give them a little big of shimmer that I like even if I never get to see them glow. I put one green gourd with each pumpkin, I think it needs a bit more, I was thinking a mum would have made the groupings. Maybe next year!

These will probably stay up for a big since they are not going to rot and turn from Halloween decorations to fall decorations. Next year with a little one "running around" we will probably buy a few real pumpkins to carve and light up to show them how it is done.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween and that you have been good with the left over candy. Happy All Saints Day today!