Friday Eye Candy

A week late and a dollar short right?!?  Sorry!  I've had a pretty bad case of the winter blues - keeping me from sewing and posting to the blog - but I'm trying to pull myself out of it.  Maybe eye candy will help us all!

 

My very very FAVE from this stack (AB - shocking huh?!)

 

and finally some ADORABLE fabric from Fabricworm

 

Have a great weekend.  I am headed to the middle of nowhere for a quiet knitting weekend with some good 'fiber friends' of mine!  We have a cabin, 4 bottles of wine, no cable television and snow on the way!  We should manage to have a really great time - and in light of the fiber weekend - I'll share some yarn eye candy too ( my BFF bought me this so we can make Calorimetries together as she learns to knit!)

Happy Weekending!  :)

Nursing Cover

My SIL mentioned over Christmas needing to get a nursing cover.  My mind immediately thought, "I can make that!" but I wanted to see if I could get my hands on a good pattern before jumping up and saying "Don't do that - I'll MAKE you one!"  So I researched it when I got back, found some great online tutorials, some great flickr ideas and then got to work.  You might remember the fabric I bought for it...

 

(again, horrible lighting....sorry)  All Heather Bailey prints

I finally finished it (it wasn't hard, I've just been LAZY!) and then I had my work cut out for me convincing hubby to be a model for a nursing cover, but he finally agreed and these are his amazing action shots!

 

"honey, are you REALLY making me do this?!? "

then...he decided to play along...

I think he's trying to look nervous that he's a man...breastfeeding a baby

Anyway - Details:

I lined the back with a really soft flannel (blue and yellow dots - from JoAnn's) and Eric did comment that it was 'very soft' - so I hope she and baby like it (and that it comes across gender neutral enough).

It was my first time using boning - interesting - but it seems to work to hold the top "open" for the mama's eyes only.

I didn't write down finished dimensions - but I didn't really follow either tutorial - just got a general idea from both.

Lastly  - I LOVE this fabric combo!  I actually saw this on etsy - and loved it!  :)

Forgotten Friday...

I'm sorry!  I forgot to post eye candy on Friday (and you thought I was good and didn't buy fabric - right?!?)  Well this actually came with my Hope Valley package - but it seems very different - so I kept it to entertain you at a later date.  This is my new 'pink stash'. 

 

The fabric on the far left is for the inside of my duffel bag (coming soon - I hope!), the middle has already been used in Josie's pillow (there is some left too) and the one on the right I just couldn't resist...I mean - brown and pink?!?  Those are MY COLORS!

(see...even in my wedding...those are MY COLORS!)

 

I think the wedding picture makes up for the tardy eye candy post (I hope anyway!)  Hope you had a great weekend!

Three Year Old Knitting

I posted at the beginning of this week about a new craft, Josie's pillowcase for her third birthday (which I am very proud to report that her mom says she sleeps on that pillow every night now and loves it!) 
In that post I might have mentioned also being there the day she was born.  (I drove over two hours to be there for one hour and she her bright shiny new face and give my bestest friend in the world a congratulations hug! and drove over two hours back home and went to work the next morning.  I loved this little girl from the get-go - anyhow...)  That day she came into this world I wrapped her in a Clemson Tiger blanket I had handknit for her.  I wanted her to know I loved her (no matter where I was) and I wanted to make sure she would grow up to be a Clemson Tiger like her mama and I.  So I had to start her off right...

I came back the following weekend - just to make sure she was still being wrapped in her blanket (or more-so really to hold her and love her and hog the baby like I always do!) but good news is the blanket was still in use...

Fast forward three years and after posting about her birthday party her mom says to me "I should send you pictures of that blanket now so everyone knows how much she loves and how much use she's gotten out of it", - "um, yes please!"  So I just got these...

 

(I'm pretty sure she is GROWLING like a Tiger in this one!  and the whiskers make it all the more convincing!) 

When she was little we used to ask her,  "What does the tiger say"  and she would answer, "grrrr" and then "What does a gamecock say?" to which she would answer (her very own idea) "Booooooo!"  lol.  My little tiger - they are raising her up right!  :)

Pretty Pretty Princess Pillowcase

Last week's secret project can now be revealed - our little JoJuice (and by our I mean Brandy and Dave's!) turned three on Saturday!! 

Her birthday party was an explosion of pink (including everyone's outfits, the food, the decorations, the presents - everything!  There are more excitingly pink details here...) but to make the princess happy with pink I had the perfect idea!  I had just gotten some Princess and the Pea fabric (by Heather Ross) and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use some of it (fussy cut of course).  I used this tutorial and made her a pretty pretty princess pillowcase for her big girl bed!

 

I couldn't find a bag big enough to fit the pillowcase with a pillow in it - so needless to say she had NO idea what it was when she opened it and tossed it aside.  Good thing we had bought her Pinkalicious as well! She did take a minute to look through that.  :)  Later we put a pillow in and showed her what it was - then we got a good reaction!

 I think she liked it!!

 

 Playing with it is a good sign!

 

All in all I think it was a pretty good gift - and I sure enjoyed making it (I kept talking about using all that pink fabric for something!) 

This week is back to the regularly scheduled programming - I HAVE GOT to finish that quilt!  I am going to miss my New Years Resolution in the first month!  :)

Friday Eye Candy

This weeks fabric shipment (ha ha!  I talk about them like they just show up and I don't scour the internet over lunch and order them!)  Anyway...This weeks fabric shipment - included Denyse Schmidt fabric.  Her new line of fabric is called Hope Valley and I'm warming to it.

I ordered a FQ set in my favorite of the colorways (Fiesta!)

And I ordered some of the other prints that I really liked

See, I pretty recently started sewing a lot (and becoming obsessed with fabric), and I'm learning that fabrics are usually only printed once.  So - if you love a fabric line you gotta go ahead and buy it.  Or you'll miss it. (great marketing scheme - eh?)  And Denyse Schmidt has a huge following after her Flea Market Fancy line.  (that website is where they are petitioning the fabric company to reprint it b/c so many people - like me! - missed it or just want to buy MORE of it!  Sign it if you haven't so we can all have a chance to buy some more!)   I also missed her Katie Jump Rope fabric line too - (well, I can find a little bit of it for less than $10/fq - but not much).  So I took a chance on liking Hope Valley the more and more I see it too.  I think my favorite quilt (so far) made in this fabric is from Red Pepper Quilts.  I certainly didn't buy enough fabric to make that quilt, but I bought enough to experiment and see how I like it too. 

I hope you enjoyed the eye candy - and have a wonderful weekend!  I have to get the princess' present finished tonight and hope to have some sewing time when we get back on Sunday too.  The quilt top is starting to taunt me! 

Exciting News

Well - I promised handmade things before the end of the week - and I shall deliver - but I must share my exciting news first!!  Glenna sells fabric and she featured my AB love bag here - on her blog today!  I was so excited this morning!  Yea!  Someone noticed my stuff (and liked it too!  ala Sally Field "You like me, you really like me!")  anyway - enough gushing.  Just thought I'd share my excitment.

Now, truly onto handmade things.  I chose a layout for the Nest Quilt (or rather learned how you were supposed to do it) and sewed the squares together.  I still plan to frame the front and have to make the back - but I'm pretty happy with the layout.  Also - my squares are lining up better and better!  The 1/4" foot is making a difference - but I am not invincible - yet.  :)

I do have another handmade I'm working on this week - but its a surprise for a certain little princess's birthday this weekend - so I can't show you.  Luckily, I have a few aces in my back pocket of things I've made that I haven't showed yet.  Here is one!

My fabulous Amy Butler Wide Leg Lounge Pants (complete with fabric upside down - I was just too excited when I started making them that I cut before I realized - lol!)

Anyway - I love them.  But also - just because I thought it was funny - not only are they wide leg - they are wide topped too!  If  you untie them they fall STRAIGHT down...

No unfortunately - I didn't lose any weight for this shot!  I just like to pretend it is my 'after' picture when I'm having a bad day!  These pants are actually why my mom asked for her pair for Christmas!  I love the In Stitches book and have made quite a few patterns from it now.  These, are probably my favorite!

You are definitely going to want to come back tomorrow - Friday Eye Candy is going to be GOOD!  :)