I have pictures!

But the pictures first... as promised, here is my first Alabama Chanin skirt!  I only did one layer instead of the two I was supposed to...but for the sail boat reverse applique, I cut a little piece of contrasting fabric.

I apologize for the wrinkles in the skirt.  Most of the time, unfortunately, that's how I roll.  My husband came home shortly after I took these photos and had a very puzzled expression on his face.  

"Why are you wearing a skirt over your pants?"  

"Because I had to take pictures of it on me."

"Oh."

;)

The slow cloth piece I worked on during vacation.  Still not quite finished, but I think I might just leave it be.  

Sorry!  Couldn't get it to turn!!!!

My first english paper piecing experience!  And after some time away from them, I already have several projects lined up in my head incorporating more hexagons!

And the mess that was formerly the craft room/office (affectionately known to J and I as the crawffice).  With the new internet came the need to pull the bookshelf out, so everything on it got put anywhere there was room in here...

And in here.  I'm happy to report that I went through all of it, got rid of a lot of it, and the rest is back in order in the crawffice.  It will all soon be a mess, however, because we are getting new carpet in our bedroom tomorrow, so all that furniture will be all over the house. ;)

Last, but not least, a baby hat made for a co-worker's new little one, Piper Jane!  (Isn't that a sweet name??  I love it!)  She is so adorable!  The pattern came from a search on Tangled Happy and can be found here at the Aesthetic Nest.

More soon!  Happy Independence Day!

Blessings-

Hi there stranger...

So it's been awhile huh?


Sorry about that.  We were on vacation with my family up in Michigan.  Not somewhere we normally go to vacation, but this time was a little different.  We spent the week on Mackinac Island (pronounced mack-ea-naw for those of us not from the region).  There are no cars on the island - not even scooters or golf carts (except on the golf course...silly goofers!), just horse drawn carriages and bicycles!

And it was chilly, even down right cold part of the time.  Such a wonderful difference from the stagnant heat of New Orleans.  We spent many an hour on the bicycles circling the island, getting off to do some window shopping and ice cream eating and riding through the woods.  


A few milestones were reached during our stay in the island... the first was that my husband and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.  Go us!  ;)  The little one stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we walked down to a lovely dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water.  It was perfect for us, beachy colors inside a window filled dining room (J pointed out that the color of the walls was the same color as our wedding cake!), yummy food and happy and friendly staff.   

I even found a quilt pattern in the design of the tiles on the bathroom floor!  Isn't it gorgeous?!

Speaking of sewing...I didn't get much of any of THAT done.  Which is a bit of a bummer.  But lots of time was spent with family so I really can't complain!  I took along my paper piecing teaser from the first issue of CraftSanity Magazine that I had yet to dive into and gave it a whirl.  At first, I really could not understand why people say it's addicting because it seemed like a whole lot of work to me.  But looking at the finished piece now, I really want to do more!  And I hoping to incorporate them into bags and items where they are not usually found.  Mostly though, it was that bathroom floor.  So so beautiful!  


I have been very inspired by the slow making/ slow sewing/ not sure what to call it - but the hand sewing (as in a needle and thread) talk that has been going on these days (more explanation coming soon...).  While working some late hours a few weeks ago, I finished piecing my first Alabama Chanin skirt!  I LOVE it and am happily looking forward to making more!!!  I put the elastic on while we were on vacation.  It doesn't look pretty, but it does it's job and that's really all I can ask of it, I think.  I don't have a picture of the whole skirt (yet), but here is the stencil before the reverse applique was finished. (note:  a few weeks ago my wonderful husband found freezer paper for me - I was beginning to think they didn't sell it in New Orleans, I couldn't find it ANYWHERE.  J to the rescue!!  This was my first freezer paper stencil and I was so happy with how it turned out!!!) (note(2): I did not draw the boat, I found it in Google images) (I think that's the last note...)

In my little sewing bag were also some shirt scraps and random thread.  The first time in a long time I went without a plan - and this was the result...

uh, sorry.  I don't have a picture of that either.  Coming soon!

Look at that, you got me all caught up in talking about sewing and I haven't even mentioned the other milestone!  ;)  Our little Wy is walking!  Definitely can't put my finger on an exact time or place but I know that when we got there he could only take a few steps before he fell down and now he walks across rooms and down hallways with no problem at all!  Things are happening quickly - I'm so glad we were able to spend the whole week with him to see all this unfold.


Alright, I suppose that's enough for now, don't you think?  Until next time...


Blessing friends!

Art Walk!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day on Saturday.  Just perfect.  I was in a sweater most all day, in Southern Louisiana, in mid-May.  Weird.  Weird, but wonderful.

And although the weather was lovely, there were not many people out and about enjoying it at the Art Walk.  Which is all to say, it was a pretty slow day.

But I met some sweet people, got to spend a day chatting with my friend Teresa (Thank you Teresa!) and we sat outside in the shade all day.  Oh, and I did make some sales too. ;)

This was my third time selling my 'wares' in a booth at a show and I could feel a difference.  Everything went a lot smoother than the last two times.  It was a nice feeling.

the table set-up practice Friday night (minus the cool hair clip cards...they had yet to be printed)

Up top there, you will have noticed my new sign.  I LOVE it!  I would LOVE it more, however, if I knew what I was doing with that whole quilting business, and it layed more flat.  I think I'm going to rip out the binding and redo it sometime in the near future.  With everything else going on around here, it was one of those things that intimidated me (the sign) because I had a picture in my head and I knew the likely hood of me screwing it up was pretty high, so I was putting it off for as long as I could.  I finally mustered up some confidence and minus the frumpy middle saggy bit, I'm quite pleased with it.  It mostly looks like what I had envisioned!

I also made up some new business cards (thank you to my dear husband who helped me figure out how to use the Mac template late Friday night before the show Saturday...) and some cards to display the hair clips.  Another one of those ideas that have been floating around in my head for some time now.  I just used a business card template and the business card paper that is already perforated that you run through your printer, and voila!  Semi-profesional product displays!

Work is ramping up around here for all the water that is coming down the Mississippi these days, so I'm not sure how this week will go - all I know is that I need Saturday off because we are having a birthday party for my now 1 year old!  (Can you believe it?  He's already ONE.  Crazy talk people!)  More on the decorations and such for that soon...

Sorry for the delay, here are the finished pinwheel coasters.  Not great, but they will do for now.

And this is some of what I did today...

Listened to some tunes while I worked...(I got the tip from Real Simple to put the iPod in a bowl if you don't have speakers.  It actually works pretty well and is super cheapo!)

A whole lot of bias tape made for new aprons today.  

Only one apron got (mostly) made (still needs pockets!).

Ah well.

Hope you had a lovely day!

Blessings

Finished Projects!

Hooray!  Some finished projects to share with you...

A sneak peak at my Craft Hope project!

All that's left for this project is the store bought stuff!

This is a pin cushion using a baby food jar.  Another idea I got in my head somehow and have been looking and looking for something to put in the jar.  Found these little birds at Michael's and they are perfect!

I'm semi-happy with how it turned out.  Needs some work on the top portion.  I think I'm going to try to make a felt pin cushion top for the next one and see if that goes better.  This top is just some stuffing in a circle of fabric that is gathered at the bottom into a big poof.  Then I had the problem of covering up the rim of the lid.  I think felt will be better over all.

And this poor apron was started over a year ago.  It is for a friend and was supposed to be a housewarming present.  She's been living in her apartment for over a year now!  I was working on the ties when my last sewing machine seized up on me and I got so frustrated I went to hand sewing for a long time.  I had already started this with machine sewing, so I wanted to finish it that way.  Better late than never, I guess.  The base is half of a pillowcase that my mom found and the pocket is made from a vintage sheet (I embroidered the A for Ali on it!).

My friend Andee (that is doing Craft Hope with me) has a little interview with me today, you can see it here.  I'll be interviewing Andee in April, so look for that here soon!

Blessings!

Moo!

I started this jolly little cow while my folks were here a few weeks ago.  For some reason I just got it in my head that there needed to be a jolly cow to go along with the happy lamb in my shop.  This little guy is gracing the front of a business card holder!  

Time and daylight have not been on my side, so please forgive me for the picture quality.

Hopefully you get the idea anyway.

And of course, my hand-made cards do not fit in a normal-sized card holder.

Just gives me an excuse to plug another crafty lady!  If you haven't already, you should make a trip over to Dottie's shop: rainbeauxart  I think you'll be pretty happy you did!

Fun and functional for you this Thursday!

delinquency and embroidery

So way back when, I mentioned I had a project that was due July 1, that needed some love...

It was Will Rogers that needed some love.  Through the Sublime Stitching blog, I found out about this project.  I'm not from Oklahoma, but it sounded like fun AND when I signed up for it this winter it seemed like such a long ways away... then all of a sudden we had a newborn and I had barely started!

Fortunately Sara, from the project, sent me a link to this fabulous poster to use as a guide.

Well, it bears somewhat of a resemblance.  Hindsight being what it is, I would probably use less than 6 strands of floss and start earlier so I could fill things in!

But, it got done and sent in by July 1st!  Hooray!

I love the quotes I found when doing some research on Will.  The one on the mat is my favorite: "I never met a man I didn't like".  What an axiom to live by!

Some catching up to do

Not much has been going on craft-wise since the Little One got here, but I can tell you about some things I did while waiting for him!

These were Mother's Day cards for all the mothers in our lives.  The flowers were removable brooches!  With 6 to be made, I'm afraid the outside of the cards all looked the same, but each one had a personalized flower and message inside!

We've been looking for something to hang in our living room to cover a huge empty wall (there would be a TV there, on top of the TV stand...but we don't have a TV so it's just a nice big empty wall).  I think I started this the day before we went in to have the baby.  Needless to say, it's still sitting in the messy Croffish. (Note:  Croffish is the name we've coined for our craft room/office.  While I would gladly just call it the Craft Room, my wonderful husband reminds me that it is his space too!  So we combined the two words and came up with Croffish, which works here in Southern Louisiana.)

Current state of my work table.  When I've had a few moments here and there I've tried to do some hand sewing (more to come on that soon!) which I LOVE!  I realized about day 5 of life with a newborn that some craft time was needed or things were going to go south soon.  My amazing husband made sure I had and hour of un-disturbed craft time and it was wonderful!

But I digress, back to hand sewing.  Maybe it's the fact that hand sewing makes you slow down and enjoy the process or that it's so portable or the imperfections that are bound to come and the skill that is gained, whatever it is, I enjoy hand sewing immensely.  My machine gets used quite a bit and it has its merits too, but I feel like I have so much more control and rhythm when I sew by hand.

Flowers are SO easy and fun to do!  

And in the midst of this (while it could be construed as a yawn, it is in fact crying)...

I was able to take a few shots for a sneak peak at what will hopefully be in my Etsy shop soon.  (Perhaps when the Grandparents are here???) :)

Now, a graduation gift to get working on before Saturday (!) and a project due by July 1st that needs some love!  But first...it's eating time for the babe...

Blessings!