by-a-thread

Hello again!

2010-08-16T08:49:00.003-04:00

just wanted to give you the news...

I've started a fresh new blog TODAY and would love to invite you to come along.

Shellie sews is my new place and I would love for you all to stop by for a visit!

hooray for blogging!

another place & time

2009-11-15T05:49:00.006-05:00

as you can all tell, blogging has not been my thing lately.

things are going so well with work and family and sewing

there just aren't enough hours in the day!

with that in mind, I'm shutting down the blog for now.

but don't be sad!

I'm considering a website

and will still upload photo's to my flickr photostream.

and don't even hesitate to email me!

see you soon...

xo

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-10-21T07:45:00.003-04:00

A house of cards in the shape of the United States of America
(built from memory) by Ed

photos by E. Moniz

HAPPY WEDNESDAY (and a post)!

2009-10-14T06:21:00.009-04:00

Yes. It's true.

I'm the worst blogger EVER!

I have tried and tried to sit and post about the goings on in my life but unfortunately, that life has taken control. Pull up a chair and grab a cup of coffee -- it's quite a story.

As if the kids going back to school and my reinstatement at Gap weren't enough to keep me busy, I still have this wee little sewing business which sometimes demands more of my attention than I'm prepared for. Somehow, I always make it work.

My good friends at the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation keep me very busy. And this September was no exception -- an order for 600 herbal therapy eye pillows. That's right. SIX HUNDRED! And since I'm always an "I can do that" kind of gal, I jumped right in.

I think it took me about 5 or 6 weeks total to fill this order. I used about 45 yards of fabric which I cut using this amazing template my very talented hubby made for me from an old ruler.

I just rolled around it with my rotary cutter and VOILA - I was able to cut about 4 pillows at once with this baby. Here they all are cut, sewn, turned and pressed.

Luckily, I found a place online which had flax seed for an amazing price! Five of these babies showed up at my door one afternoon and it took me all of 8 hours to empty each and every one!

Then came the most grueling, miserable, horrible part -- hand sewing them all closed.

YUP! UGH!!

It took me exactly one week to get them all done. I did 120 of them in one day alone. It was totally gross. I took these things with me EVERYWHERE.

I sewed them in bed, on the couch, at soccer practice,

in the car pool lane,

I even sewed some on my break at work!

But then... they were done!! and I had a BIG bowl of soy ice cream to celebrate! :)

Now while I was making these little babies, my friend Maria also ordered about a half dozen quilts for the Cotton Candy Boutique (the Foundation's non-profit store front). She also offered me table space at their annual Flames of Hope WaterFire event which, very unfortunately, I could not afford. So I offered to volunteer at the event instead - GREAT! A few weeks went by and when Maria saw the quilts in progress and then found out I was volunteering, she offered me a small space for FREE.

AMAZING!! This event draws about 150,000 people each year!! I was dumbfounded!

But then this also meant that I had about 10 days to finish 6 quilts. And wouldn't you know that in those 10 days, just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong. From Ava coming down with bronchitis to my cracking a tooth and clipping threads twenty minutes before I ran out the door!

It was all worth it though and I was able to get 4 quilts completely finished for the event which turned out to be more than enough (I sold 2!!). It was an incredible, all-day event which I was totally proud to be a part of!

pic from here

And then I actually slept! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And so, HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

PS I will upload pics of my pink quilts to my Flickr photostream this afternoon!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-10-07T07:32:00.004-04:00

Yours truly received a HUGE round of applause at last night's Rhode Island Sewing Network meeting for my work in redesigning the group's website (not actually for anything I've sewn this time). It was a thrill nonetheless -- especially since it was while being introduced as a member of the Executive Board. Yup, I'm in with the IN crowd. I'd jump up and down if I weren't so exhausted!

It was also a thrill to get a big hug from Ann Steeves of Gorgeous Fabrics who spoke at our meeting last night regarding fabric forecasts for the upcoming seasons. She's the best! Ann is so confident and knowledgeable and I often feel like a little groupie while in her company. So I was pretty stoked that she remembered me from other sewing events and seemed happy to see me. Awww, thanks, Ann!

Happy Wednesday!

PS You can check out my mad web design skills here.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-09-30T06:51:00.004-04:00

Happiness is....

winning awesome stuff!

I recently entered the Nature's Best Quilt Contest hosted by Quilting Gallery. I thought the beachy quilt I made for Heidi passed as a nature type of quilt so I entered! There are TONS of fabulous prizes and you know me... I'll never pass up an opportunity for free goodies!

So, VOTE FOR ME!!

Visit the contest website here and click on VOTE NOW!

My quilt is called "a day at the beach" and is located under the Large Quilt section of the contest. I already have 7 votes - woo hoo!

Then, cross your fingers! Maybe this will be the happiest Wednesday yet!

for me?

2009-09-26T07:30:00.004-04:00

One of my all time favorite blogs to visit is the always interesting, oh-so-wonderful Colour by Number. Cindy is constantly stitching up something fantastic and I love reading about her latest sewing project, her beautiful kids and seeing what fabulous fabric she's found at Vogue (Lucky girl!)

Cindy recently received a Kreativ Blogger award which she has kindly passed on to her faithful readers. Hooray - an award! In order to properly receive this award though, I must list seven interesting facts about myself. Most of you already know this stuff but here goes...

ONE:
To start at the beginning, and for those of you who don't know, I was adopted. This stuns most people since I am constantly told that I look like my mother -- the greatest compliment, by the way. And, that I have a baby brother to boot. Those 1970s doctors didn't know WHAT they were doing! Lucky me since I have the BESTEST family ever!

TWO:
I graduated 10th in my class from High School and a whole 1/2 year early, as a double major, from college. In short, I'm a geek. As if you couldn't have guessed that from my LOTR obsession and my inability to stay up past 8 o'clock.

THREE:
I've flown completely around the world - twice. YES, I stopped along the way but both trips made complete circles around the globe. PHEW!

FOUR:
I went to the same High School as Eddie Mekka who played Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Ragusa on Laverne & Shirley. Obviously, we attended at different times.

FIVE:
I met my husband in a tattoo studio. He was the tattooer and I was the tattooee. I walked out of the building with my brother and said "I just met the man I'm gonna marry." My husband does not believe in fate.

SIX:
I do EVERYTHING and always tell my kids that they can do anything -- the ol' "there's nothing you can't do" schpeal. If you want to do it - DO IT! In the past few years I've painted rooms, installed ceiling fans, replaced all of the electric outlets, planted flowers, baked breads, sewn countless garments and quilts, power washed my house, played mommy, wife, secretary, delivery boy and CEO. Do NOT tell me that you can't do something. That's bull#@#*!

SEVEN:
I HATE to be late! I'm one of the most punctual people you will ever meet. If I'm late, it's John's fault.

THE END!

WOW! That was fun. I hope I didn't scare anyone. Thanks to Cindy for getting me going!

I know I haven't been the best blogger these days. I'm finding it hard to get in front of the computer lately but check back! More to come soon - I promise.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-09-23T06:53:00.001-04:00

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-09-16T06:35:00.007-04:00

Shellie-

Thank you so much for sending in the photo of your beautiful dress! Your daughter is gorgeous and I have no doubt that she was the most fashionable first grader on her first day of school, great work! I have added it to our Flickr page, click HERE to see it along with the other entries.

Thanks again!

-Mallory

Mallory Theiss
Promotions Specialist
Amy Butler Design

time flies..

2009-09-12T07:31:00.005-04:00

well, you know the rest.

This was us 10 years ago today.

Two kids, two dogs, a house and a couple of sewing machines later, I still love him to death. We support each other no matter what and always end up laughing in the end.

Now, if only I could fit back into that dress!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-09-09T07:04:00.002-04:00

Happiness is...

an employee discount!

This one has ME written all over it...

photo from Gap

first day of school and lots, LOTS more

2009-09-05T06:56:00.012-04:00

Finally, she sits!

I know it must seem like I am constantly complaining about the amount of busy that goes on over here but truthfully, I LOVE IT! I'm the type of gal who just thrives on multi-tasking and am in my prime when I've got more than one flame a-burnin'. If it's boring, eh -- who wants it!?

The past two weeks or so have been a whirlwind of just CRAZY! See if you can follow along....

Saturday 8.22.09

Sister-in-law extrodinare's birthday; brother-in-law & sister-in-law arrive from N. Carolina.

After soccer practice, the kids and I spend the day baking cake and making salads. A quick shower and it's off to Mary's for a big cookout with the entire family. Totally great to see everyone together again!

Sunday 8.23.09

Breakfast send off!
Up early to make potatoes and monkey bread then back to Mary's for mega-breakfast; brother- & sister-in-law head back down south. Do the weekly market and try to get some sewing done.

Wednesday 8.26.09
BEACH!

Last truly HOT day of the Summer. Packed up my babes and headed to the beach one last time. Mad that I forgot my book but spent the whole day in the water anyway. GLORIOUS! So sad the summer has to end SNIFF!

Saturday 8.29.09

Playdate and a trip to the Shack

Ed and Ava's buddies come over for the day and I can finally get some sewing done! I bought John a Roku for our anniversary and it arrives but we need about a million different cables to get it to work. After Michelle comes to pick up her peeps, the kids and I run up to Radio Shack. $80 later and finally the Roku is working! Dad is MAJORLY pleased!

Sunday 8.30.09
Sofia's 2nd Birthday!

Off to Larry & Nicolle's to celebrate Sofia's second birthday! I hope they don't mind that I'm putting a pic up here but look at that face!! Great food and an amazing cake! YUM!

Monday 8.31.09
NEQS with G
As if this little list doesn't prove how busy I am, I also have a ton of sewing work to do (more on that another day!) Luckily, I'm blessed to have a quilt supply wholesaler within driving distance! My girl, Giuliana and I took a trip on Monday to grab supplies. Sure we got lost but that's OK - it was fun anyway. The only part I hate is going upstairs for notions.

THIS IS THE FLOOR!! What you see below the grates is the shevles and floor of the first level! EEEK!! And I am inevitably wearing flip-flops every time I go and they get caught in those slits and... it's truly all I can do to not crawl up there. It creeps me out!!

Tuesday 9.1.09
He's finally home!!
Birthday breakfast with Ed and then it's off to Mary's again later in the day. After almost three months of traveling back and forth across the country, my nephew Rob is finally home! Champagne and cake and lots of hugs. We're so glad he's back safe and sound!

Wednesday 9.2.09
Happy Wednesday!
First day of school and a happy birthday to Edzo. The day went well and the kids looked fabulous, of course. Ava in her Amy Butler jumper and Ed in shorts from Ottobre Mag.

How did I spend my first child-free day? At the mall of course!

Thursday 9.3.09
Visit from Ashley & Colton
My good friend Ashely visits today with her 11-month-old son Colton. He is the best baby in the world! Spent 2 hours crawling and walking around my house eating little baby puffs. Henry was in doggy heaven! Finished up the revamp of the RISN website -- a task I took on over a month ago and have struggled to find time for. Its now done and will be up and running soon!

Friday 9.4.09
Can you say errands?
Tomorrow is the big Labor Day Birthday Bash here at our house. We celebrate both kids birthdays even though Ava's isn't for another month. It's just easier (and cheaper!) that way :) So I went from drop off to Joann, to iParty, to Toys R Us, to one market, then to another market, then to pick up then straight home to a glass of wine...

And so we arrive at today where it's now 738am and I've already made one cake and stitched up 5 aprons for my cousin, Pam (seven more to still be done) and caught up on the last 2 episodes of Project Runway. The house needs to be vacuumed, the bathrooms cleaned and a trip down to Venda for fresh macaroni. Thank goodness the weather is nice!

So, if you're not too tired yet, come back again and I'll tell you all about how I'm starting back at the Gap next week...

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-09-02T06:41:00.004-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EDDIE!

My baby boy is nine-years-old today folks! Seriously! Wasn't he just THAT age a second ago?!!

Not so much a "Happy" for my guy though -- first day of school! On his birthday. C'mon!!

I told him third grade was going to be totally cool. Big guy now; not the babies of the school any more. He's totally psyched that he gets a locker and his best friend, Joshua is in his class again. Other than that, I'm sure he'd rather be at the beach or on his bike.

And so we're back to the school morning routine again.

Let the chaos begin!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-08-26T07:54:00.006-04:00

A bit excited about joining her first sports team,
Ava asks to wear her newly purchased shin pads into Benny's.

PS Happy Birthday, Barbara!

a little bit of help

2009-08-25T05:39:00.007-04:00

If there's one thing about my family, we are just filled to the brim with people who like to help out. And Kiersten is no exception.

This fall Kiersten will compete in 109 mile cycling event to take place in Tuscon, Arizona in order to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) as a participant in their Team In Training program. She has been fundraising like mad and of course, I wanted to help her out!

Unfortunately, with the quilting and sewing work I've been doing for the Gloria Gemma Foundation, as well as the millions of other things I pack into my days, I didn't quite have enough time to whip up something grand to donate. Not that that stopped me though. She got something a wee bit smaller.

my attempt at an artistic-type pic out in front of my freshly power-washed shed

and then there's my typical table runner photo with my favorite vintage bowl

I used my recently acquired book, Skinny Quilts & Table Runners and the pattern "Rosy Runner" by (of course) Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy. I spent an entire afternoon digging through my stash for all of my Kaffe scraps and threw in some Amy Butler and Heather Bailey and other designer pieces to make it look similar to the one in the book. I was going for a more modern look than some of the country or contemporary styles I usually stitch up.

a bit fuzzy but...a close up of quilting done with my embroidery machine

K totally loved it and was so grateful! She'll raffle it off with some other great goodies and will hopefully reach her goal a bit faster. You can follow along with Kiersten here on her blog.

We're all here cheering you on, girl! GO! GO! GO!

PS Yes... this is the piece I was stitching the binding on at the beach last week! :)

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-08-19T07:13:00.003-04:00

M is for multi-tasking

HE MADE IT!

2009-08-16T07:16:00.011-04:00

I'd like to send out a big giant "WOO HOO!" to my nephew, Robert.

As most of you know, Rob has been participating in Bike & Build -- a volunteer group which organizes bike trips across the country. He and 30 other completely insane twenty-somethings left Providence on June 6th and have spent the past 10 weeks riding their bikes, sleeping at rec centers and stopping along the way to work and build various Habitat for Humanity projects already in progress.

On Thursday at approximately 230pm local time, Rob and the others crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and arrived in San Francisco. AMAZING!! From what I hear, they celebrated with champagne and cigars and a big beach cookout! You can read all about his fantastic journey here on his blog.

My super-sonic nephew is now slowly make his way back East this week. On four wheels this time -- not just the two!

Rob, you're family is so incredibly proud of you and we love you very much. We can't wait to see you again! xo

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-08-12T06:38:00.003-04:00

The Iron Giant Goes to the Market

by Ava

LBQA :: Making progress

2009-08-09T06:01:00.007-04:00

Y'all saw the closet, right?

It is totally awesome and I feel AMAZING have all that stuff organized and in one place. Unfortunately, cleaning up and organizing all of my sewing and quilting things took me the better part of an entire week to accomplish. Well worth it, but not a lot of free time for sewing.

In between the sorting of patterns and folding of fabric, I did find a wee bit of time to work on my Little Bouquet Quilt Along wall hanging. It has been very cathartic since the Summer of Rain has kept us all on the edge of a knife over here.

For those of you who don't know me, I am a very structured type of person. If I could carry a ruler around all day, I would. So to free form and not use a pattern and not be matchy-matchy well... that is just a thing unheard of!

Keeping that in mind, here is how my LBQA has been coming along...

This is my background which was created sewing different size green prints onto lightweight interfacing. I had never tried this method before and it worked out pretty great. As you can see, in this stage I hadn't really broken free of my rigidness and joked with Cherri and the other's about maybe being a little too "Type A" for this project.

Next step: creating the flowers.

As I sorted through my fabric, I chose pieces that I would never in a million years think about quilting with. I used a lot of dupioni and home dec, a little velvet and brocade, felted wool and linen. It's funny though how it's like a little reminder of projects I've completed in the past. In this photo, for example, I see silk eye pillows, Ava's Christmas dress when she was two and the curtains that currently hang in my kitchen!

I LOVED making these roses! It was so much fun to just put random fabrics together and sew them in crooked lines to one another. Who knew I could be so reckless! big laughs here guys!

And then... attach the flowers to my background. VOILA!

The kids were quite impressed with my latest creation. Especially Edzo who is very much a little miniature version of myself. I stitched the flowers on using an olive green colored thread using circular stitches as Cherri did and I also added three little leaves. I'm lovin' how this is coming out!

I now have LOTS more sewing to do this summer but will work on this when I can. When it's all done I hope to hang it in my new sewing studio. That's right, "sewing studio" - not "sewing room." I'm an artist now, can't ya tell??

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-08-05T07:03:00.004-04:00

happiness is....

a hubby with a laser level.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-07-29T04:42:00.004-04:00

The kids are going to Mama & Papa's today for

FOUR WHOLE DAYS!

a quilt, a new toy and some very angry green beans

2009-07-28T07:18:00.008-04:00

At last! The Unquilted has become the Quilted!

After piecing and then un-piecing and then piecing again, this oversized lap quilt was finally delivered to Heidi yesterday morning. Sorry, the above pic looks a little washed out. Here's a close up of some of the blocks.

I was going for a very soft effect and apparently my main quilt theme so far this summer. Blues, creams and shades of brown. Luckily, my next few quilts are for the Foundation so they are bright and girly and pink! You will no longer have to look at my beachy color schemes.

Anyway, Heidi LOVED her quilt which will be given to her daughter as a wedding gift in just a few weeks. It made my day to see her so happy with what I had done. She especially loved the embroidered label she requested.

And LOOK at what else I have to show you! A shiny brand new toy!

Well, actually it's a shiny used toy but that's more than OK with me! It's an Elna Pro 900 DCX coverstitch machine. EEEEEE!! My girl Karen at Blaine's totally hooked me up with this bad boy at an insanely fantastic price. She is so good to me! Thank you, Karen! Unfortunately, my new baby has just sat in the dining room since I picked her up; untouched as my sewing endeavors these days are more about quilting and not so much about garment sewing. Soon though, very soon. Patience.

And finally my fight with hostile green beans.

My dinner preparation times are always quite chaotic and last night was no different. While grilling chicken outside and preparing pilaf and steamed green beans inside, I was also tidying up my sewing things, cleaning the work area where John and I are installing shelves, and speaking to a computer tech guy on the phone. Not even thinking there might be impending danger, I removed the lid to check on my beans and then.... YOW!!

Now I've been steaming vegetables for a very long time and have NEVER had this happened!

John wanted to take me to Urgent Care but...no thanks! A little aloe and some gauze overnight and it's looking much better now. The blister has gone down and now it's just very red and very swollen.

Those green beans got it in the end though. I showed them who was boss!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-07-22T04:47:00.007-04:00

They say that a great seamstress lives in these woods.

An Elf witch of terrible power.

All who look upon her fall under her spell

... and are never seen again.

SUMMER TO DO:

2009-07-21T07:29:00.005-04:00

in no particular order...

finish Heidi's quilt -- it's comin' Heidi! almost there!
install shelves in closet
paint bookcase
wall hanging for Ava's room
throw for Ava's room
paint sewing studio -- say what??!!
stitch up sample eye pillow for Maria
design quilts, buy fabric, sew & quilt lap throws for GG
help kids with summer reading packets
sand & paint antique dresser
get organized!
make beach bags for kids before it's too late!
make first day of school dress for A
power wash the house
plan birthday party
beach, beach, beach!
find a job

That last one's pretty funny eh? And it ain't even Wednesday yet!

Alas, if I didn't have enough to do, I decided to participate in Cherry House Quilt's Little Bouquet Quilt Along.

I L-O-V-E love Cherri's blog and all the work she does. She is a truly gifted woman who loves her craft and her family -- sound like someone you know?? Anyway, a few weeks ago Cherri whipped up this adorable mini-quilt and all of us followers just went mental and needed to know how to make one ourselves. And so, the Little Bouquet Quilt Along was born.

I will be trying to post as I go and you can also follow the group's progress on Cherri's blog and on Flickr.

Cherri, I'm getting my green strips together and am grabbing up some NFNW interfacing at Joann this morning!

Hooray! My first quilt-along!!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2009-07-15T08:10:00.012-04:00

As many of you know, Wednesday is my most favoriteist day of the week.

The craziness of the weekend has passed, the kids have settled into their [school] week and dad is off to work at the shop. On Wednesdays I wake up relaxed and ready to take on what I hope will be a very peaceful day.

And so, I thought it might be fun to share my mid-week happiness with those of you out there in blogsville. From now on each week I hope to create a Happy Wednesday post. It may be a story or a picture or just some random something that has made me laugh. Chances are it will be about the kids since, when I'm not screaming at them (as all good Italian mothers do), they are cracking me up something fierce!

Whatta ya think? Good, eh? Better than Miserable Wednesday, right??

OK then! For my first Happy Wednesday post I give you....

"It helps me swim faster."

Yea, Michael Phelps - that 1/2" buzz cut I gave you last week was really slowing you down. It's not everyday a boy will put on his sister's swim cap and let you take his picture so ya just gotta run with it.

Hope we made you smile. Stay tuned for more random sarcasm -- I mean silliness! See you next week.

The Unquilted

2009-07-13T07:13:00.007-04:00

Sounds like the title of a horror movie, doesn't it?

Believe me, it should be!

Recently, a close friend of the family asked for a quilt for her to give to her daughter as a wedding gift. Perfect! I'd love to do it! I found a pattern I liked in a recent BHG Patchwork & Quilting, collected a pile of very soft blues, tans and chocolate browns and went to work. It was coming out fantastic and I was thrilled up until the blocks were all pieced and then I saw it...

The darned thing would NOT lay flat!! Curse those bloody blocks on point!

After staring at it for days laying on the floor, wishing and hoping that somehow it would settle into quiltable flatness, I finally accepted the truth -- it would have to be undone.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

And so I packed up the quilt and my best friend, the seam ripper and took it along to our weekly visit to Mama's house. Thankfully, my friend the sun was out and the undoing was able to be performed poolside.

After hours of pressing and straightening and squaring, the blocks are now sewn back into rows and I'm about to press them -- AGAIN -- and stitch them all together -- AGAIN.

Cross your fingers and pray that it works. You do NOT want to see "The Unquilted II." The main character actually turns into a zombie and tries to throw herself off the roof in that one.

FINALLY!!

2009-06-29T06:54:00.007-04:00

There is a sun!

After an ETERNITY of rainy days here in RI, we finally got a taste of summer. On Saturday, the sun shined through and gave us an absolutely gorgeous day. So what do my peeps and I decide to do???

You know it!

There is no keeping the three of us from the sandy shores. After all, we do live in the Ocean State! The waves were perfect but the water was cold as it usually is this time of year. That didn't keep Crazy One and Crazy Two from spending the entire day boogie boarding and body surfing. It was awesome!

And just in time, too. These guys have been out of school for over a week now and have been stuck in the house ever since! Can someone point me in the direction of the nearest liquor store, please?? I definitely could have used a bottle of wine, that's for sure. Alas, we struggled through. A coffee date with my girl Elyse, a trip to see UP in 3D and a lot of sewing kept me somewhat sane.

I'm now in the process of finishing up the last 36 of the first 100 robes for the breast cancer foundation. A bit boring but... that's OK. I also got another little job stitching up a banner made up of "blocks" signed by families of cancer victims/survivors which will now go to hang in the oncology ward of a local hospital. Hooray for being paid to sew!!

And finally, I quilted up this little goodie as a gift for my hubby's cousin who recently got married. It's a log cabin from Alex Anderson's book, Neutral Essentials.

I guess I had beach on the brain! Hopefully, it remind Bobby and Jody of the beach too since they are WAAAAY out there in CO where they have no beach.

GASP!! Don't even say it!!

heaven on earth

2009-06-13T06:21:00.015-04:00

I know you've all been waiting to hear about the BIG weekend last week -- and here, a whole week has gone by before I actually had a chance to sit and blog about it. The kids are finishing up their last days of school, the rain has not stopped, and I took on the task of trying to paint Ava's room and complete it in five days time (which I successfully accomplished).

And so it's Saturday and before we head out to the state Jr. Olympic basketball competition (Edzo placed first in the 8-year-old division here in our town) I'll fill you in on the craziness that was last weekend.

Every year my girl Giuliana and I take off north to the Keepsake Quilting Annual Summer Sale. Last year we had to miss it and then spent the next twelve months in tears just waiting for the first weekend in June to roll around. So after much to-do (i.e., prepping the hubby and kids for a night without mom), G took a half day of work and we headed to Lake Winnipesaukee. We checked in to our sweet little hotel on the lake and treated ourselves to a nice dinner complete with mocha chocolate chip cheesecake. YUM!!

Now, if you are a quilter who lives anywhere within driving distance of Keepsake, YOU HAVE GOT TO GO!!! Like the woman said, heaven on earth! I'm pretty sure it's quoted as being the largest quilt store in the USA. It is GIGANTIC and has everything, everything, everything you could possibly need (or NOT need - hehe). I give you an example...

This is a photo I took of their BLUE WALL. But not even all of it -- it still goes on around the corner down there! JUST BLUE! And not even including blues that are batik, or Asian, or nursery, or reproduction or... they actually have separate sections for all of those. Get it? It's big. And every bit and piece of this store is just gorgeous. mmmmm. Heaven on earth!

Now, the Annual Summer Sale is not for the faint of heart. You have to be hard core to endure this sale. You would think a bunch of old ladies wanting to buy some fabric wouldn't really be an issue but -- oh yeah, it is. They are crazy! First, there's the line...

This is how it looked when we arrived at 6:00am. They come and sit in their stadium chairs and wait to be the first to get into the sale tent. Some even bring their husbands (oh I don't think so!) to help fold and organize their finds. Oh yeah - CRAZY! But that's just the beginning.

the line at 8:00am

One of the many wonderful perks of the Keepsake Summer Sale is their scrap bags. The girls from the shop bring out boxes of "scraps" and as many as you can fit into a bag is yours for $4.99. Here's a glimpse.

The girls drop boxes like this all up and down the "porch" and the quilters attack it like ants on a donut! It is MENTAL!! I want the good stuff too, but some of these gals are just down right nuts!

They scoop it all up and drop it in their bags then sit and sort it out later. G and I are a little bit better and a lot of us have fun with it, get to know one another and the style or theme of fabric we're looking for. For example, there was Margaret who was looking for fabric with flip flops on it and then the guy who was helping his wife find bits of orange. These are the good folk who make this sale totally fun! Me? I like a little bit of everything...

my pile of scraps

which I crammed into 3 bags -- well, actually 4 by the time we left!

G sorts her stash

The best part about this is that these pieces, in my opinion, are no where even close to being scraps. Sure, I grabbed some bits that were like 10"x12" but most of my goodies were over 1/4 yard pieces. A lot were even 1/2 yard pieces. And, Giuliana and I are pro's at packing the scraps into the bags. You can seriously tell those of us who have been to this sale vs. the newbies. There is a method to filling these bags and if you ever go, I will reveal my secrets. hehehe

All in all I got almost 6 yards of fabric in each of my bags. That means about 24 yards of fabric for $20!! And we're talking quality stuff-- Moda, Free Spirit, Michael Miller, batiks, homespuns, the works!!

OHHH!! EMMM!! GEE!!

And then... there's the tent.

The tent is packed with patterns and notions and all sorts of goodies! Keepsake is also the proud parent of Patternworks, their knitting shop, so there is yarn and knitting books and the like in here, too. They also have about 100 bolts of fabric marked down to $3.99/yard. On top of that, they took an extra 20% off whatever you bought in the tent. I grabbed a couple of things but didn't find as much as I have in previous years. But the yardage I grabbed was great!

Here is what I ended up coming home with (in addition to my scrap bags, of course).

I got some beautiful Moda and Free Spirit fabrics, sock monkeys on pogo sticks (boxers for Eddie), a fat quarter for a buck and some patterns. I love the sock hooks for Christmas time so I don't have to drive tacks into my recently painted fireplace. Oh! And see that blue fabric bundled up at the top? I WON THAT! In a raffle. It's a SEVEN YARD piece!! I'm not sure who makes it but... SEVEN YARDS!! Holy moly!

It was, of course, an amazing trip! And I love my Giuliana so much. We laughed, we cried, we drank a lot of coffee. It was awesome.

And, the house was still in one neat little piece when I got home.

just because...

2009-06-04T12:44:00.006-04:00

Yup! It's an artsy-fartsy household over here.

I particularly like how the "m" in mother is capitalized. He knows I'm the head honcho! Thanks, Edzo.

BIG WEEKEND planned and I'm bringing my camera so get ready for a big post next week sometime. The weather is supposed to be awesome so cross your fingers that it is as predicted.

And enjoy your weekend, too!

PS: Rob heads out on his cross-country trip this weekend! On Saturday, his group will dip the tires of their bikes in the Narragansett Bay and start heading toward Connecticut. Cross your fingers for that big guy, too. We love him and will miss him! Godspeed, Rob!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

2009-06-01T06:02:00.003-04:00

All of you out there in blog-land please put your hands together for my two MAY DAY GIVEAWAY winners!

I will be mailing out the GIRL frame gift set to mommyof2girlz over at A Pocket Full of Buttons and the BOY set to Bethany of Creating 4 my 4.

Thanks to everyone for playing along! I had a great time and was so AMAZED by all of your wonderful comments.

Don't go anywhere just yet though...

Please come back and visit me as I have a very busy summer planned. Not all of it includes sewing but one huge item on my list of things to do is to spend a good portion of the next few months cleaning out my sewing stash in preparation for my new SEWING ROOM!! More on that to come soon. This means more giveaways, giveaways, giveaways!!

So please come back and visit and see what I'm up to.

MAY GIVEAWAY DAY!

2009-05-27T06:08:00.016-04:00

Welcome to my May Giveaway Day!

I'm totally excited to be participating in this giveaway day being hosted by the gals over at Sew, Mama, Sew! I had so much fun back in January when I took part in IAG's International Stash Busting Giveaway -- met some very cool bloggers, received some very awesome fabric from Very Mary, and gave away a little bit of my always-growing fabric stash. So when I saw another group giveaway being organized, I just had to jump in!

This time though, I am giving away something handmade...

Check it out! Two baby gift sets! That's right -- TWO! And you get to choose which one you like!

The girl frame is made from 100% white linen and has mint green chenille ric rac trim and a pink polka dot grosgrain hanging ribbon.

The boy/neutral frame is made of soft blue Minkee fabric with multi-color eyelash fringe and apple green pom-pon hanging ribbon.

Each pillow is filled with polyester fiberfill and has a 100% cotton "frame" with clear vinyl opening.

Along with each frame I've included an embroidered linen sachet filled with dried lavender and grains. They are perfect to place inside a drawer in baby's room but are cute enough to display on the shelf!

TO WIN

If you'd like to enter to win one of these sets simply comment on this post and let me know which set you'd like -- girl or boy! It's that easy!! I contemplated offering up both sets to one lucky winner and say I'll put your name in each "hat" but...I think it's more fun to have TWO WINNERS, don't you? So let's please just keep it to one set per entry.

I will draw a random name for each set on June 1.

Oh! For my friends overseas, I WILL ship internationally. So drop your name in!

And visit all of the other blogs participating in the giveaway. I know I will!

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

skinny legs & giveaways

2009-05-22T06:06:00.010-04:00

I am the happiest girl in the world right now!

For one, the temps yesterday here in RI were somewhere in the upper 80s! Ava, Henry and I sat out in the back basking it up for about an hour before heading out to pick up Ed. It was GLORIOUS!! I credit it to the fact that it was Papa's birthday and since he is the God of all Beachbums (taught me everything I know), the heaven's shone down upon us with an absolutely perfect beach day. Too bad we had to go to school! BAH!

And how can one top such a perfectly beautiful day??? With a sewing success of course!

Robert rode his bike over to our place yesterday afternoon after I called to let him know that his pants were all set. You know that I've been working on my first pair of men's pants and have been insanely nervous about messing them up! It's one thing to whip up a pair for my own little ones but I always freak when I do something for someone else and fear that they'll find out I'm actually a big fraud and have no idea what I'm doing. Luckily, that wasn't the case.

Check it out! They totally fit and look fantastic! I used Burda 7918 and, with the help of some friends over at BurdaStyle, decided to made the size US 38. Robert has to be the skinniest Italian ever to walk the face of the earth and I don't know why I thought they were going to be too small in the hips but they weren't.

Far from it! After he slid them up over his bike shorts I thought maybe they were too big and needed to be taken in. He said he LOVED them and they were perfect! I thought he would fib just to be a good nephew but he said he wouldn't do that. We all know that's a lie though -- he's just not the feeling hurtin' type!

But I take his word and will confirm with Mary later on this morning.

It looks like another beautiful day here in RI and I will spend it running around per usual. Maybe I'll treat myself to a nice bottle of wine and have a glass with dinner. mmm...

Before I go, just want to give you a head's up that I'll be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day next week! Check back here on May 27 as I'll be giving away some little handmade goodies! What fun!

summer sewing is fun!

2009-05-20T12:31:00.010-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm currently working on my very first pair of men's trousers. They're coming together quite nicely and I'll have lots to tell you very soon.

In the meantime, since the warm weather is FINALLY here, I thought I'd share a few quick summery things that I've done.

A few weeks ago my mother asked for a new quilted piece for her kitchen table. I saw this one in BHG American Patchwork & Quilting and LOVED it! It's my first hand applique piece and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I don't know if I'd applique an entire quilt. I was a little done with it all after seven or eight of those little leaves and some of my circles are a bit wonky (my new favorite blogging/sewing term) but it was a good project to get me started.

Of course, Mommy loved it! Hooray!

Ava got a new summery dress recently as well. She actually wore it to little Jack's baptism in March but I forgot to grab a pic of her in it. Now that the nice weather is here, she's able to wear all these light things to school so I grabbed a shot before we hopped in the wagon.

This is the "Rose" dress from (where else??) Ottobre 1/2008. I love black and white gingham so I made it pretty much exactly the same as the photo. I machine appliqued the leaves and stem on and hand stitched the gathered rose with a vintage pearl button in the center.

Add a pair of hot pink leggings from Old Navy and $2 Chinese Mary Jane's and you are totally rockin' kindergarten!

the lazy blogger

2009-05-12T12:30:00.011-04:00

I KNOW! I haven't had a really great blog post lately.

My laziness first appeared last week when I crashed (big time!) after my nephew Robert's Bike & Build fundraising dinner. My sister-in-law organized the entire thing complete with buffet dinner, bar, music and dancing and the big to-do: 4 tables full of donated gifts to be raffled and auctioned off. WOW! It was amazing! And I was her right-hand man!

With my "stay-at-home" mom job and my amazing ability to run 6 million errands in two hours, I helped out wherever I could.

Tablecloths?
CHECK

Tulle for the raffle table?
CHECK

Bike-related decorations?
CHECK

Forty pounds of spiral cut ham?
CHECK

We were back and forth with each other so much, all I had to do was hit send on my cell phone since her number was most likely the last one I had called.

Another one of my duties was to make a lap quilt to be auctioned off on the silent auction table. It was an honor for me to be able to help wherever I could and if some of that included sewing well... how could I refuse!

And so I made this lovely little triple Irish Chain in black and white and apple green. I was nervous at first that it would be too boring but then I really liked it!

Of course I used my embroidery machine to do this cute little circle quilt design in the center of all of the solid blocks. Someday I'll have a long arm and all my problems will be solved but for now, my little Bernina will do.

I also did a scalloped edge binding around the entire quilt which, I felt, softened it up a bit.

I backed the quilt with this totally cool green and yellow and blue paisley that reminded me of Vera Bradley or Lily Pulitzer. A nice POW to the simple black and white front. And for the final touch, I pieced together a house block to use as a label for the quilt - complete with Rob's thanks!

The quilt went for a very nice price with some pretty good bidding. Hooray for aunties! ;)

Of course, what kind of event would it be if my peeps didn't have something new to wear!

I made a top and pants for Ava from Ottobre 1/2008. The "Polka Dot" top is quilters cotton -- I just LOVED the color -- and trimmed with black and white gingham. You can't see it here in the pic because of her hair but it has a little slit near the left shoulder with ties made from the gingham.

The pants are the "Desert" pants I made from 100% linen. The pattern called for elastic to be sewn into the outer leg and inner leg seams but I ended up just doing it on the outer leg. I also tapered it in a little bit so it was snugger and cropped them up a bit. They are TOO cute! Like MC Hammer pants! hehe

The boy looked totally cool (as always) in the "multi pocket" long shorts from Ottobre 3/2008. They're made from this almost-but-not-really sears sucker looking cotton I got at the Sewing Expo.

I don't know if you can see the stripe in it but they are so nice! The fly gave me a little trouble on these -- I don't know why -- but they still look good. And, of course, what kind of post would it be without a picture of my son's butt.

The back pockets on these shorts were so cool! They each had two pleats on each side that then were pressed in opposite directions so they almost twisted. I was loving them! I would definitely make him these pants again!

So....do you see now why I was a bit too tired to blog? Throw in a weeks worth of rain and the impending visitor .... well, lets just say my kids were lucky they even ate last week. I have been keeping up and reading all of my favorite blogs and promise to post some comments soon!

Next up... my first pair of men's trousers! YEEPS!

PS Happy belated Mother's Day to all my mother friends out there! Our day was beautiful and I'll try and blog all about that very soon! Mama got a new table topper and I was blessed with some sweetness from my family, too!

vote for me!

2009-05-05T05:05:00.002-04:00

My top is in Group One, Top I

see pic below

Thanks!

Spring Top Week

2009-04-30T05:55:00.009-04:00

I've finally gotten around to taking pics of my new Spring top! I had finished it over the weekend but have been so busy working with Mary on Rob's fundraiser dinner that I just haven't had the time to post it! Ed helped me take some pics yesterday morning of me actually wearing the blouse but my pasty winter skin just isn't doing it justice! Maybe we'll try again after this bod has seen a beach (Oh my! There's a scary thought!)

But now it's done! And I've uploaded my pic to the Spring Top Week Sewalong Flickr Group. I hope the other ladies like it!

I made the blouse from a Jennifer Stern pattern I bought at the Sewing Expo a few weeks ago. It was really nice to put together. Jenn did an amazing job with this pattern -- I LOVE IT! The sizing is fantastic and her direction is wonderful! I want to make another one with long sleeves and another one with the mandarin collar!

I used a linen/cotton blend fabric which is oh-so-light and delicate. Really, quite pretty. The buttons are vintage (of course) from Gramma Rita's sewing basket. I love using the vintage buttons but I just HATE cutting them off the cards! YIKES!! Especially when I don't use all of them.

But they just screamed "USE ME" for this blouse -- they are perfect!

And they're "le chic" -- just like me!

WHY I LOVE APRIL :: THREE

2009-04-26T07:03:00.007-04:00

One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
J. R. R. Tolkien

Those of you who know me -- and let's face it, that's most of you! -- know that the Lord of the Rings are my most favoritest movies of all time.

I LOVE THESE MOVIES!

I watch them over and over and over.

I watch them with the subtitles on so I'm sure to get every word, every syllable, every orc grunt ingrained into my memory.

I get chills when the Beacons of Gondor are lit.

I cry when King Theoden buries his son.

I sigh at handsome, unshaven heroes with daddy issues.

I know every word of the opening monologue by heart.

I even made my four-year-old son go out as Frodo for Halloween (and his older brother, Gandalf).

Every April, a movie theater here in RI runs a LOTR marathon. For the past three years I have been lucky enough to be able to attend. The first time I went by myself -- as if going to a LOTR marathon isn't geeky enough! The last two times I was accompanied by Lysie's hubby who is totally funny and a great movie goer. I am grateful for the company and he is so much fun!

The first movie starts at noontime and it all runs until about 1130pm. There are two 30 minute intermissions between the films where you can stretch your legs and grab a bite. Since it's probably the only time each year that I actually sit down you'd think I would enjoy the rest but you're actually sitting for so long it starts to hurt. That's right -- sitting can be very painful! As comfy as their stadium seating is, my legs just cramp up something fierce! But it's totally worth it!

My family thinks I am insane but I'm always able to get one of them to look after my peeps so I can attend. This year it was Mary's turn and John picked them up after he got out of work. I'm waiting for them all to wake up so I can hear all about the fun they had jumping on the trampoline with Rob and eating burgers on Auntie's deck.

Only one more week and April will be done. Can you believe it!?

Yesterday, my movie companion was doing some twittering during the intermissions and I was intrigued. Thought I might give it a try. Let me know if you Twitter, too.

SEWING FUN!

2009-04-23T07:09:00.004-04:00

While visiting Cindy this morning, I read about this fun little sewing group being hosted by Rae and happily joined in!

Since the success of John's flannel shirt back in January, I've been making tops left and right! Some not so successfully but I'm all about the tops these days!

AND, I just got that totally adorable J. Stern pattern which I'm getting ready to put together as we speak.

Stay tuned!

WHY I LOVE APRIL :: TWO

2009-04-21T12:24:00.013-04:00

Another reason I am totally in love with the month of April is the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo comes to town!!

photo from here

HOORAY! THE SEWING EXPO!

As if I weren't lucky enough that it actually comes close enough for me to drive to, the Expo is always held right near where my parents live! That's right -- free, all-day babysitting! They play, they get fed and they even get bathed. Seriously, can you get any luckier??

This year the Expo was fantastic but (sigh) not quite as good as in previous years. Some of my favorite vendors were missing! MQX was held the same weekend up in NH so some of them headed that way -- as did my BFF Giuliana! I'm sure she had a blast and I can't wait to see her and hear all about it!

Missing vendors aside, the Expo was a lot of fun! I took a class with Peggy Sagers who is so brilliant when it comes to sewing techniques! I had taken one from her last year too and I learned more in one hour, I tell ya! The rest of the day I spent my time wandering and ogling all the pretty things! Just look at a mere section of the Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods booth!

Unfortunately, I panic when I see so much pretty and didn't buy from them this year. Maybe next year.

I bought two patterns from Jennifer Sterns who I had originally met at one of my RISN meetings last year. At that time, she was just finishing up her patterns and getting them ready to be printed. I bought one for an insanely cute top with a peplum and one for pants. Jen is WAY too cool and actually helped me out and took my measurements so that I would make the right size. THANKS, JEN!

I then walked over to Vogue Fabric and bought some black stretch cotton (what else!) for the pants. I also bought some very cool tan striped cotton from "the wool guy" to make Edzo a pair of shorts. No one ever knows this guys name but he sells all of these imported wools, linens, cottons and bamboos! Gorgeous!!

Could I have any more fun, you ask??

Why yes! I could!!

Since I was born and raised right there in Worcester where the Expo was held, I made a big plan with my old High School girlfriends for a little night on the town! I know, I hear you laughing! But a few glasses of wine and a some Mexican style mini -burgers helped ol' "in-bed-by-eight" Shellie actually stay up and have a fantastic time!

Look at these ladies! Can you believe we've been out of school for almost ACHEM years! A few of our crew couldn't make it and were sadly missed but luckily I was able to have a very early coffee with Brenda which made up for it.

And as far as April is concerned...

WHY I LOVE APRIL :: ONE

2009-04-14T15:20:00.013-04:00

Of course, I am a total Thanksgiving and Christmas kind of girl but Easter is that holiday that just makes everything seem so bright and cheery. Spring dresses, pastel colors and the knowledge that summer is not too far away. We spent the day visiting family in two different states. From RI to MA to RI again -- what a fabulous day!

And the kids looked amazing if I do say so myself!

Ava's dress is Simplicity 5226 made from this magenta linen that's been in my stash for FOREVER! I used these beautiful vintage pearl buttons and made her a matching pocketbook from Ottobre 3/08.

The slip dress (see it there, hanging out the bottom??) was made from some very old Amy Butler fabric -- I think the first I ever bought. Charm, maybe? It had been made into a hippie dress for myself but was so badly made that I ripped it apart and put the fab back in my stash. Perfect for this Easter ensemble, though...

The boy wore a shirt from the Gap -- I tried two times to make him one of my own but they just didn't meet my expectations. Better luck next time. The pants, however, are the "Linus" pant from Ottobre 3/08 which I made in navy blue linen. They were perfect!

Here's a pic of the front pocket which is inserted into a seam kind of in the front/not really on the side. I thought this was a cool detail - made them a little different and interesting. Also, my fly front zippers are going in much easier as I practice, and practice, and...

And a pic of the faux back pocket (and his cute little tushy!).

What a weekend! And a great start to what I'm planning on being a fantastic April! Just you wait and see...

Call me Ishmael

2009-03-27T12:28:00.007-04:00

This is my Moby Dick.

I recently finished up this lovely for my bed after only a year of stitching. Actually, it was my "project-between-projects." You know... that thing you do when you really don't have anything else to do but then when you're sick of it you tell yourself that's it's OK not to work on it?? Yeah, that project.

The center stars are paper pieced and then there were something like 60 flying geese units and I think about 35 or 40 Ohio stars... The thing is just so darn big!

How big is it??

Well, technically it's only about a full size quilt but it's just one of the largest quilts I've ever done. I actually had to move my kitchen table OUT of my kitchen in order to baste it.

You can't really see the block but look real close. I used my embroidery machine to quilt a floral-esq design into each of these plain squares. I did this sixty times! Hoop, stitch, unhoop...hoop, stitch, unhoop... SIXTY TIMES. I actually stripped the screw on my embroidery hoop! Luckily, I'm in good with a machinist who whipped me up a very fancy new screw in a matter of minutes. ;)

Was it worth all that hard work?? Are you kidding! Check out how FABULOUS it looks on my bed!

History 101

2009-03-19T07:33:00.004-04:00

A week or so ago I snapped this pic of Ava heading out the door with dad for their weekly library trip. A little Daddy/Ava time, this used to be a trip just to grab a few dvds and some picture books. But now that she's able to read, these trips to the library have taken on a whole new meaning.

Alas, this post is not about my beautiful daughter and her amazing ability to read big kid books.

Oh no. It's all about the bag.

That's right, the bag.

Held snugly under Ava's arm is a corduroy tote bag complete with two outer pockets, cotton webbing handles, strawberry ribbon and red and white gingham check lining. We came across it during a recent cleaning of the attic and she asked if she could use it. This bag is thirty years old!

Not only that but this silly little corduroy tote bag was the VERY FIRST thing that I had ever sewn in my life!

When I was about seven or eight years old, my friends and I spent afternoons at the local Girls Club. My friends took dance class -- I took sewing class. In this class we learned how to make tote bags. No pattern, no fancy sewing notions. We cut with scissors and the blind hem stitch on your machine was as close to a "decorative stitch" as you were going to get. My mom would take me to So-Fro fabric at Lincoln Plaza and help me to pick out the corduroy, cotton lining, handle webbing and ribbon ties.

Thanks, Mommy.

Back in 1980, everyone got tote bags for Christmas. Gramma Grace, Gramma Rita, Auntie Phyl, Katherine... EVERYONE. I know my mom still has hers and I have mine and the one I gave to my grandmother.

And that's how ALL OF THIS began.

I think I'll show Ava how to make a tote bag.

Phase I: COMPLETE!

2009-03-16T05:57:00.004-04:00

HIP HIP HOORAY!

On Wednesday I officially completed 58 fleece bathrobes for the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation.

And then I slept.

Only 342 left to go.

Ava's quote of the day

2009-03-05T12:34:00.006-05:00

OR things you hope you'll never hear your daughter say

Mom?

Yes.

Can my friend Dominic come over to play?

Ummm... sure (having never heard the name Dominic)

Good. He's going to bring his "nun-chucks" over.

Bathrobe break

2009-02-27T07:07:00.008-05:00

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! It's so nice and quite at 710am!

I've just inhaled a bowl of cereal and polished off my second cup of coffee. In about 20minutes the babes need to get up and chaos will again ensue.

I'm very tired and I definitely need a break from this big ol' pile of fleece robes. So a little blogging will do nicely.

Wanna see how it's coming along? I give you my week in pink...

fully wound bobbins ready to go

about 58 robes cut by hand

seriously I don't know what they did before the rotary cutter!

cutting ties in the car pool lane

my grandmother's scissors still cut beautiful!

step one: shoulder seams

Ava plays kitchen as I work.
She loves to collect the scraps that fall from the serger.

not my usual organized work
rest assured, they're folded now

Hopefully, this project will be completed this week. All that's left are the side seams, pockets and hems. hahaha - that's all.

Will keep you posted.

That's funny, by the way.

Nice work if you can get it

2009-02-21T07:42:00.007-05:00

I've finished a few more quilt projects but have not been able to blog about them just yet. I've begun my "big sewing job" and it's taken up quite a bit of my time these days. I was taking advantage of the fact that the kids have been home from school and my days aren't so chopped up with drop-off and pick-up and the like.

You wanna know what the big job is, don't ya? Well, I'm sure most of my readers actually DO know what it is but for those of you lurking out there in blogsville, here it is.

For the past few years I've been a sub-contractor of sorts for the local breast cancer research foundation. I sew curtains and clothing -- pretty much anything that can be done with a needle and thread. They call me "the seamstress" which makes me laugh as I consider myself anything but.

My BIG sewing job these days comes in the shape of fleece bathrobes. FOUR HUNDRED fleece bathrobes. Now I do not have to have all of these robes done at once; batches of 50 or so at a time. Fifty robes requires about 10 bolts of fleece.

For the past three days I've been cutting out robes. I'm a little tired of standing at the cutting table for sure! And so a little blogging break.

As far as the quilts go, I finished this little baby after Donna's table runner was done.

Very few quilts ever stay on Chestnut Street so it's nice to make something I can see regularly. Last summer we re-did the living room -- ripped down the 1960s wallpaper and gave it a fresh coat of Barrister White. A crib size, appliqued quilt from Lancaster, PA has hung here since we moved in almost 8 years ago so it was time for a change.

I bought this fantastic fat quarter bundle from the City Quilter when we were in NYC over the summer (yes, the same trip where I bought the charm pack of Japanese fabrics). It was full of fabrics from Kaffe Fassett, Joel Dewberry and Timeless Treasures just to name a few. It was fabulous!

I decided to go with this Boston Common type pattern and I love the results! I added in some more Kaffe I had bought from Peggy Anne's at the Sewing Expo a few years ago and some other bits I had laying around. I decided to quilt it using dark brown thread -- I'm not sure if I truly LOVE it -- what do you think?

I wish my pics were better but I'm still learning how to use my new camera.

Ooooo!! One last thing! I got a very special package in the mail on Thursday!

I had my very first magazine swap with Tine who lives in Denmark. I sent her an American Patchwork & Quilting and she sent me these European mags. They are totally cool and even though I can't read them (hehehe) I hope to make a project from them one day soon. And I LOVE the fat quarters!

Thanks a million, Tine!

If it's free...

2009-02-19T07:33:00.003-05:00

I'm sure most of you know my motto already ;)

Therefore, I was insanely psyched to see Kylie's amazing fabric giveaways celebrating her 100th blog post.

Pop on over and leave a few comments as I'm about to do right NOW!

Thanks, Kylie!

Go Bulldogs!

2009-02-18T07:31:00.006-05:00

Since the boy wonder has really taken to basketball this year, I decided to take him to his first college game at the ol' Alma mater, Bryant University (which was Bryant College when I attended - yesh! I'm old!). He was so excited and we had so much fun! And Bryant whooped NJIT a very cool 70 - 46. Add in a couple of free foam fingers and February vacation is off to a fantastic start!

Today the festivities will continue with a long awaited pancake breakfast and trip to see Hotel for Dogs. The kid (and the girl) could hardly contain their excitement last night! Little do they know that I have a side trip to Ryco planned after the movie.

MWUAH - HA - HA!

Actually, after we watch our cute little dog movie, we are also stopping to drop off my latest quilted goodie - a table runner for Donna.

I'm hoping she'll like it and it'll match her kitchen!

Now the babes have to get up because I'm starving -- must have pancakes NOW!

Hooray for giveaways!

2009-02-11T07:31:00.005-05:00

Now you all know that I recently participated in my very first giveaway -- IAGs International Stash Busting Giveaway. I gathered together some things, received a record 164 comments and handed off a few sweet springtime fabrics to Beth at Wee Pereas.

What you DON'T know is that I won my very first giveaway over at I am very mary!

Mary Ann, I received my package and I love it! Some sweet pastel pieces and a bit of vintage stretch lace.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I can't wait to make something sweet with it!

Thank you Mary Ann! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Adventuuuuure!

2009-02-09T04:23:00.008-05:00

Sometimes.... I make myself laugh! But we'll get to that in a minute.

About a month ago I received a really important phone call which resulted in a very big sewing job - hooray!! The downside being that once I started this work, I would not really have any time for "personal" sewing. I was then on a mission to start and/or finish up any gifts, quilts and other projects which needed to be completed.

First on this list was a quilt for my new nephew Jack who will be christened next month. Usually when I start a gift like this, I will choose a pattern, pull a few saved pieces from my stash, and visit my local fabric stores to fill in the gaps. This time though I wanted to see what I could do using just the scraps from my stash. And I got a stash, believe you me!!!

So I pulled out some blues and whites, greens and yellows and reds (???) It was a pretty substantial pile, that's for sure! I wasn't quite sure about the red so I asked for a little help from my Flickr friends (who unanimously agreed to keep it in) After long deliberations, I came up with a pile that looked something like this.

Once I had my fabrics, I was on a search for a really great scrap pattern. I visited Bonnie's blog for some ideas. Bonnie makes some of the most AMAZING scrap quilts ever! I wasn't sure what I was looking for but her site is very inspirational for anyone who loves scrap quilts! WOW!

Anyway, after a very long search, I ended up choosing a pattern from a BHG American Patchwork & Quilting mag which I modified to crib size and VOILA...

A scrap quilt for Jack!

Every piece of this quilt -- including the batting AND the backing, came from my stash. I bought nothing! NADA! ZIP! And I'm pretty pleased with the result. Whadda ya think??

As for the giggles mentioned above, I laughed for a few reasons. First of all, Flapjack just makes me laugh! It is the creepiest, silliest cartoon I've ever seen and the kid is just so flippin' cute, he makes me smile. :)

Second of all, a few Sunday's ago Ed had strep and we had a major snow storm so I sat on the couch with my peeps to sew the binding on this guy. The kids were watching a The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack marathon on CartoonNetwork and so the quilt lovingly became known as "ScrapJack". John and I LAUGHED AND LAUGHED!!! It's a good thing my sister-in-law doesn't read my blog (I think??) cause I don't think she would like that very much.

And finally, what truly caused my little outburst of laughter at 445am....

... the quilt matches Flapjack's outfit.

Congratulations to...

2009-02-06T04:47:00.004-05:00

BETH at Wee Pereas !

Woo Hoo!

Beth, please email me your address and I will mail out your goodies!

Thanks to Katy who organized this whole to-do. I was blown away by the size of it and just AMAZED by everyones enthusiasm. I hope we can make this an annual thing! hmm...??

And thanks to everyone who participated! Please stop by and visit me from time to time -- especially if you need a good laugh. With two kids, two step-kids, a husband, a dog and a squirrel (YES, a squirrel!), my life can get pretty comical.

a-yuk-yuk-yuk

The Great International Stash Busting Giveaway

2009-02-04T04:15:00.005-05:00

Hooray! It's giveaway time!

And it's my very first giveaway at that! I'm so excited!

Here are some pieces I pulled from my stash to share with all of you. There are six fat quarters of some happy-fun spring colored fabrics. Plus I have an entire yard of a pink surprise and a few little sewy/crafty bits to share as well.

All you have to do is leave me a little comment on this post and tell me where you're writing from. THAT'S IT! OH! And don't forget to include your email and/or blog address so I can get in touch with you if you win!

It's only about 430am here in RI (yup! I'm an early bird) so you have all today and tomorrow to visit my blog. I'll draw that special, winning name same time Friday morning (Feb. 6).

Finally, be sure to jump on over to Katy's blog to see a list of all the others participating in this worldwide giveaway! AMAZING!! You could walk away with some pretty great things this week!

Thanks for stopping by! Good luck!!

a day at the beach

2009-02-03T04:55:00.007-05:00

that's right... the BEACH!

On Sunday the temperature rose to a whopping 45F here in RI. After a few weeks of 20F and 30F weather, this is like a heat wave. I needed to get out and get some fresh air. The kids definitely needed to get out, too. Bottled up 6 and 8-year-old energy is a very dangerous thing. Any mom who lives where it's cold knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

And so, I wrapped my babes up in a million layers of fleece and packed them into the wagon. We stopped for coffee and hot chocolate and took the ride we take at least once a week all summer long.

It was so beautiful! And smelled so good! AHHH!!! Ava tested the water and said it wasn't too cold - yeah, right! The air actually wasn't as cold as I thought it would be and we spent close to 2 hours walking up and down the shore.

And Henry came,too! This was his first visit to the beach since dogs are not allowed during the summer and this was our first trip down in the off season. Lot's of new smells but a nice long way to run. He's been trapped in the house, too so getting to stretch his legs and run with the kids must have felt great!

Now they keep asking me if we can go back. Alas, only 117 more days until June!

Crazy busy - and my first giveaway!!

2009-01-31T06:00:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was one of those crazy-stupid busy days.

Coffee
Sew
Laundry
Sew
Get kids ready for school
Drop off child #1
Drop off child #2
Run to Joann ($3.99 Vogue patterns, baby)
Run to the market
Pick up child #2
Eat
Coffee
Laundry
Sew
Laundry
Pick up child #1
Iron Winter Ball gown
Chat with sister-in-law
Make salad
Yell at child #1 and child #2
Laundry
Help child #2a (ha!) with make up
Send child #2a to Winter Ball (she looked beautiful!!)
Make 3 pizza's
Eat
Do dishes
Coffee
Put away laundry
Yell at child #1 and child #2 to hurry up in the tub
Take shower
Blow dry
Pass out while watching House rerun

Just your average day.

Somewhere between 11 and 12 I sat and stared at the computer screen for about 15 minutes and came across Katy's blog, I'm a Ginger Monkey. I'm dying to make new blogging friends so I try to find time to blog even though I'm also trying to do what... 32 other things :)

So Katy is totally sweet and I love her blog! As it turns out, she is hosting the Great International Stash Buster Giveaway. I've never had a giveaway before so I thought I'd give it a try (see, Elyse I'm takin' your advice!)

Today is Saturday so I think I only have about 25 things to do instead of 32. In that free time I'm going to see what I can part with from my stash and maybe post some pics. And then check back here on February 4 to see how you can win my stuff!

And I got good stuff...

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-28T10:48:00.006-05:00

Today is the hubby's birthday - the big 4-5! Each year I love him more and more.

And each year it becomes more and more difficult to come up with a really cool gift. He is HORRIBLE to buy for! Very particular about... well, everything! I am constantly on the look out for the right t-shirt, shoes without contrast stitching and flannel shirts that don't scream Paul Bunyan.

This year the hunt for the perfect flannel shirt began shortly after Halloween and only produced one really nice find from Macy's (thank you, Mom!) So here is where I decided to actually MAKE my hubs a flannel shirt.

If shopping isn't hard enought, sewing for men is even worse. The patterns and fabrics are usually so... bleh! I ended up finding some nice pewter color chamois flannel though and...

TA DAH! Oh, so handsome!!

This is the first time I've made him a long sleeved shirt and was totally nervous about messing up the cuff but I think it came out pretty sweet. What do you think??

"Totally Pro!" he said. Thanks, Babe!

Mal's girl, Kathleen, shares this special Birthday, too! She's away in NH at school getting really, really smaaht so I sent off a little package to help her celebrate...

Cupcake jammies! Yes, I'm a little flannel-PJ'd out after Christmas but I wanted to make her something sweet. I hope they fit her!!

The arrival of John's birthday means one especially great thing -- January is OVER!! Even though it's snowing right now, there is hope that beach season is right around the corner!!

HOORAY!!!

What was I thinking!?!

2009-01-22T07:16:00.004-05:00

I have a hangover.

Well, not really. But it sure feels like one.

Last night I stayed up - actually UP - to watch the season premiere of Lost and didn't close my eyes until after 11pm. For those of you who don't know me, my usual bedtime is in the 800pm to 830pm range. In the morning, my alarm goes off just shy of 4am. I am a morning person and so would much rather get up early and sew for 3 hours before my peeps get up than stay up 3 hours after they've gone to bed.

UGH! I'm feelin' it now guys!

On the upside, the season premiere was quite good. Not great, but intense just the same. Or it may have just been that Josh Holloway didn't have a shirt on for two hours. (I'm a back & shoulders kinda girl!)

So here I sit with an intense headache and a whole day of busy ahead of me.

Not much time for blogging these days as I chauffeur kids to and from school, basketball and the emergency room. Not to worry, it was just strep throat. Poor little guy. Trying to tell Eddie to sit still and rest is like trying to tell me to! Thank goodness for antibiotics.

Sewing these days has been mostly in the shape of gifts and so I can't post pics just yet. Gift sewing -- the bloggers nemesis! I will try and take some sneaky shots so you can see some of what I'm working on.

OH! And I think there's a big project in the works. Remember when I said I was going to "take it slow" this year. Well that lasted approximately 3 weeks, right. More to come on that.

I hear Spongebob - that means the boy is up.

Gotta go!

BIG STORY....little quilt

2009-01-12T12:51:00.008-05:00

Back in July - when John and I went to NYC - we visited this truly great quilt shop called the City Quilter. I could have spent all day there but you know... the hubby.

So anyway, here at the City Quilter I found this little charm pack of 100 Japanese fabric 4" squares! I didn't know what I was going to do with them but I had to have it!

After looking at them in my fabric pile for a few months, I decided that Ed could use a new quilt. The last quilt I made for my little guy was for his second birthday (who gives a baby a quilt for his birthday??!!" John says) and has since been put away - baby fabrics, ya know, not cool.

I had 100 4" squares which actually makes for a pretty small quilt. And once you start cutting into them, it gets even smaller. I decided to show off each of the fabrics by adding solid navy blue sashing and borders.

Some of the fabrics are prettier than others but they're all very cool. They have a different texture than the quilting cotton I'm used to from the US -- much looser weave -- but they sewed together very nicely with the navy blue Kona.

These are 2 of my favorites -- I love the little fishing boat!

Resolution 2: Shashiko Quilting

Sorta, but not really... but sort of.

Traditional shashiko quilting is hand stitched -- usually white thread on a navy blue cotton fabric. I went with this but used my machine and a navy thread so it would blend and give more attention to the fabrics themselves. I drew a 1 1/2 " grid across the entire quilt (which measures about 50"x60") and then traced in semi-circles to create what is known as the Fundo or balanced weights pattern. Here's a pic of part of the back of the quilt...

I had these two great Alexander Henry fabrics called "kanji" and "tatsu" I pieced them together for a little fun and tried to make it look like a kimono. It's not centered but I like it :)

And so does Eddie!

Resolution One: Applique

2009-01-09T06:07:00.006-05:00

I'm off to a great start with this New Year's resolution business. Since January 1 (all of 7 days ago), I have attempted my first machine applique, worked on a Japanese "shashiko" style quilt and cut my calorie intake down to about 1600 per day.

WOO HOO!

Now only to keep it up....

Here is a somewhat lousy picture of the table runner I made for Mary. It really doesn't do the work justice (if I do say so myself!). This is the first time I did anything with applique. The flower petals have a pleat at the center which makes them a just a little 3-dimensional. I used my machine to applique them onto the runner with monofilament thread so it LOOKS like hand applique. AHA!

Mary saw the semi-finished project last week when she and Rob stopped by to say "BYE" before he headed down to NC for a new adventure in bird research. OHHH how I wish this kid could be cloned! Ava and I were in the process of making him some chocolate chip cookies for the road.

Good luck, Rob!

She received this get up as part of her Easy Bake Oven gift from Uncle Jamie & Auntie Janet. She wore it for 3-days and had a semi- permanent elastic mark on her forehead from the chef's cap. TOO CUTE!

BTW ... Robert is also in training for a cross-country bicycle trip to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Click on the sidebar link for more info -- and check back here, too!

Good ridence!

2009-01-01T07:48:00.007-05:00

I am SOOO glad that 2008 is finally OVER! I'm not usually a negative person but this past year just did not sit well with me. John will disagree and say that it was great but...I say no. I did my best to look on the bright side and in many cases it did work but now I'm just glad it's done.

Bring on 2009! I am ready!!

As I'm sure you all know, I am a morning person and being a morning person I look upon the start of a new day (or in this case, year) with great promise. I'm hoping for some truly great things in 2009. I plan to get myself into shape, organize myself a little bit better, have a little more patience and try not to take the whole thing too seriously!

As far as my stitching is concerned, I plan on taking that a little more lightly as well. In the past I've always tried to pack as much sewing into my life as possible -- I sew in the morning, in the car, in bed at night! A lot of times it seemed to be just getting it done and not actually enjoying the process.

So now my plan is to sew a little less but with greater gusto! What's that they say... quality not quantity, right?

I've already started my post-Christmas sewing off right and am taking on some new challenges including applique, shashiko quilting and making myself that perfect pair of pants!

OH! And hopefully a little better blogging, too! For Christmas my hubby bought me my very own digital camera -- woo hoo! I'm psyched to start carrying it around and using it but not until I make a nice little case for it. It's so new I don't wanna scratch it!!

So wish me luck!

And all my best wishes to everyone for a fantastic 2009!

Pajama-thon

2008-12-24T06:08:00.023-05:00

It's finally here! Tomorrow will be Christmas and I am totally thrilled to say that all of my Christmas sewing has been completed, photographed and wrapped! PHEW! I was a little later this year than usual but in typical Shellie style, I finished up with plenty of time to spare.

After completing Lisa's quilt (Moving Right along...), my next big commitment was a slew of pajama's which my niece --hehe --Kiersten ordered as gifts. Two pair of fleece pj bottoms with t-shirt tops for her and her ski-mate, Michelle; and three pairs of pjs for the children of other good friends.

Kieli trusted my judgement on fabric and design but gave me some totally excellent guidelines to consider...

For the ski-bums: Something in fleece that coincided with their love of the slopes. She didn't want a matching top -- a t-shirt would be fine.

It took two trips to two different fabric stores before I found the perfect girly - but not TOO girly - snowflake print fleece. These pants are SOOO soft!

I used a cotton twill tape drawstring in each pair but also put in elastic as I thought it made the waist band look nicer. You can't see it here in this pic but trust me, they look nicer. :)

At first I thought I would embroider the t-shirts but then freaked out! I'm still too new at the whole embroidery thing and doing so on a knit scared me even more!

I found these totally cool crystal applique snowflakes that I think Kieli will like very much! They were very easy to put on and, according to the packaging, are machine washable. Cute, right?!

For three-year-old Tommy, I was told that he loved cars, trucks --anything "boy." And that he looked great in blues.

I'm always amazed at how hard it is to find something you think would be totally obvious -- fleece with snowflakes or a ski theme? blue boy fabric with cars on it? Am I the only one who thinks these things should be easy to find??! All of the "car/truck" fabric I found was either totally UGLY or not the right color or not right for the age. UGH!

After much deliberation, I settled on the jungle theme -- cute little giraffes, elephants and alligators on a blue background.

And a fabulous little giraffe button! For the children's pjs I was completely comfortable in making up cute little name tags which I put inside each piece. I think it's a nice little homemade touch. :)

Seven-year-old Emily is tall and blond. She likes orange and pink and has recently fallen in love with horses. I found this and knew it was the one.

I used the two daisy buttons because all of the horse buttons I found were way too realistic for this cartoon like design. You cannot see them in this pic, but the same flower can be found scattered among the cowgirls and lassos.

And then there is three-year-old Astrid who look fantastic in bright colors. "Florals and stripes!" Kieli suggested.

I love this frog/prince fabric! It is too adorable for words. And the matching striped pants are just perfect! As with Tommy's pjs, I used the stripe also as the neck facing fabric which I think ties the set together.

And then I saw this frog button...

Kieli is coming to my house on Thursday for Christmas dinner and I'm just dying to show her everything! I'm even hesitating to tell her about this post since I think the pjs are so much better to see in person. I'll think about it some more over breakfast.

Before I'm done though there were more pajama's to be made! I have two older aunts that deserved something a little special this year as well.

My dad's sister Katherine has yet to receive anything meaningful from me just yet -- hand sewn that is! I have a quilt in mind (shhh!) but in the mean time...

Aren't these pjs's sweet? I wish I was a better photographer so you can see the fabric. It's a soft pink with tiny silver pin stripes. The sleeves are gathered at the wrist and look very soft. I hope she likes them!

And who could forget Auntie Phyllis!

Auntie Phyl is my Godmother and has gotten more handmade sewing gifts than I can recall. This year she received a flannel bathrobe.

I sent the robe up to Worcester yesterday with my dad -- I thought she might use it when she goes to visit my Aunt in woods of North Central Massachusetts (haha!) so she got her gift a few days early.

She loved it of course! I found the buttons in an old cookie tin I have which belonged to my late Aunt Rose (as in Ava Rose). I needed ten pink shank buttons and when I went searching, this is what I found...

Do you believe in fate?

I love the package of these buttons -- "unusual value." It made me laugh!

But then I called my mother who said my aunt called her crying and then she started crying and then I started crying and...

A lot of emotion over one little robe.

And now I can rest! But those of you who know me know I cannot sit for long! Tomorrow we're having 22 people over for dinner and instead of worrying about where everyone will sit, my first thought is "where can I sew?" since I will have to set my dining room table tonight!

Happy Holidays to you all!

Connor's Crayon Caddy

2008-12-20T12:12:00.008-05:00

I am almost done with absolutely every bit of Christmas sewing I set out to do! Hooray! I know I've said it before but now we're getting really close to being DONE!

One of my recent accomplishments was completing this way cute crayon caddy for my nephew, Connor.

I had decided to put together a little gift bag packed with coloring books, paper, crayons, markers -- the works! A nice, no batteries required kinda Christmas gift. :) While blogging one day I came across a tutorial on the UK lass in the US blog on how to make this cute roll-up crayon caddy. Connor just had to have it!

Dawn gave some really great instruction and I was able to whip it up in about an hour. I'm lucky to have a great guide that attaches to my walking foot and didn't have to draw in all of the lines. I loved that she used a little pony tail holder as an elastic around the button. It's so much more pro looking than your average white elastic found at the fabric store. And I used this really cute Robert Kaufman fabric I had in my stash. I LOVE the chicken driver -- see him between the two oranges??

Filled with about 16 Disney Cars crayons (one of Connors favorite movies), the boy is ready to go!

Thanks, Dawn, for a totally cool gift idea!

More pics to come!

Moving right along...

2008-12-17T05:46:00.005-05:00

I am very happy to announce that things here on Chestnut Street are going pretty quickly! The list of Christmas sewing projects is getting smaller and smaller each day. Projects for others -- especially those which were "orders" -- are just about completed and all that is left are a few items for my peeps. Luckily, none of which are grand surprises so I can sew all afternoon if I need to.

One of the most important of Christmas sewing projects this year was the lap quilt ordered by a co-worker of my sister-in-law, Mary. Lisa had seen the quilt I made for Sharyn and asked if I could make one for her husbands grandmother. She didn't care what pattern or what colors or anything! This may sound great to some of you -- artistic freedom and all -- but it was actually WAY stressful as I had never met Lisa or her husband's grandmother!

I found a pattern that I loved and had never tried in a Quilter magazine which I borrowed from (who else) Giuliana. And VOILA...

a close up of one of the blocks...

One of the things I truly loved about this quilt was that it had no borders. Instead, the pattern uses setting squares all around the edges. A nice change from the norm!

I delivered the quilt to Lisa yesterday and she LOVED it! I'm so relieved! I sat with Mary in the kitchen of her office where she proceeded to invite everyone in to view my work! She is slowly but surely catching up with John and my mother as my biggest fan. I love her for her undying support! Thanks, Mar.

Accidents will happen

2008-12-13T06:02:00.003-05:00

OK - a little blogging accident!

In an attempt to edit some of my posts, I accidentally deleted two of them. :( Not a big deal I guess but one of them was the pic of Ed in his little hoodie.

If you'd like to see this pic, it's posted in my Flickr photo stream.

oops!

Coming up for air

2008-12-12T07:15:00.014-05:00

PHEW! I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post. Needless to say, things have been pretty busy in this house -- you wouldn't believe it if I told you. But we'll give it a try...

Last week I spent most of my time getting ready for the famed Snowflake Bazaar! If you were a fly on my wall, you would have seen me tagging my wares, printing out inventory lists, and sewing the bindings on table runners at Ed's basketball practice. And then there was also the batch of sweet potato cupcakes for my nephew Robert (who came home Saturday night after spending six months working in California) and my favorite brother-in-law-to-be Don (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!) who at first was tricked into believing they were pumpkin muffins. Aren't all men really 7-year-old boys at heart??

One last meeting with Elyse to firm up our plans and we were ready! For those of you who haven't already seen Elyse's beautiful description of the weekend, the bazaar was so much fun!

Our table received a lot of attention and wonderful compliments from everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who came -- and especially those who bought! We sold a little bit of everything and even took a few special orders. How cool!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We attribute our great success not only to the fact that we're both very talented (or so my mother tells me) but to Stephan who secretly sat behind our tables and gave to us the same luck which he has brought to so many tattoo conventions across the country. Thank you, Stephan!

After the snow fell (aww! she didn't say that!) I returned to the dining room to find a GIGANTIC list of Christmas sewing waiting for me! It's funny how it seemed like I would have so much time but with the daily reminders from Ava as to how close Christmas actually is, I started to panic!

Luckily, I adhere to the house motto which my loving husband coined ...

Efficiency, Effectiveness, Adaptability.

Now to those of you who actually KNOW my husband... stop laughing. Poor baby is actually NONE of these things but that's OK - we love him anyway.

So I tackled the sewing list with gusto and so far -- in the five days following the bazaar, I have made three pairs of pajamas and a lap quilt; cut out a muslin of Ava's Christmas outfit, baked brownies for the Christmas Festival on Saturday, and caught a nasty cold! ACHEW!

Oh... and did I mention that my step-daughter is now living with us for a few months??

Sleep is for the weak!!

Black Friday & sewing related injuries

2008-11-29T05:26:00.007-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was fantastic as I got to spend lots of time with my family that I love so much! The food was amazing too and I will be quite sad when the leftovers run out. We're already all out of pie! :(

Yesterday, my BFF (haha) Giuliana and I hit Joann Fabric at 630am -- hooray to G for getting up and out so early! We walked in and after briefly looking at the 99 cent Butterick patterns, grabbed our cutting table ticket without even having looked at any fabric. We were #s 70 and 71 and they were only on 35! This after only being open for 30 minutes! Quite alright though since it was difficult to shop with so many people grabbing up cheap fleece and flannel. And then there was the injury to tend to...

While looking for patterns I accidentally let the drawer roll shut on the index finger of my left hand! ARGH!!! It *&#^$(@)#$ killed! Giuliana thought we were hospital bound but nothing was keeping me from fabric shopping! I ran it under some cold water and suffered through. It still kills but I'll survive!

Anyway, two hours later we were at the table. Now, we all know that Joann is not the greatest fabric store in town but unfortunately, it's just about all we got. I LOVE Ryco and Lorraine's to death and shop them quite frequently -- but with my budget (and I use that term VERY loosely!) you just can't beat the prices at Joann. And if you do some digging, you can find some pretty OK stuff. Plus the notions wall at 50% off! C'mon!

So I left Joann with some very cute flannel for lots of kids PJs. I also got some quilting fabric and this ADORABLE salt & pepper washable wool for Ava's Christmas skirt (from the new Ottobre, of course!). Wait until you see! I need to start sewing immediately for all the Christmas gifts I need to do. But I love it and just can't wait!

Speaking of Ottobre and Black Friday shopping, I went to the Stunt Sewing blog this morning and saw that Corie is having a HUGE Black Weekend sale herself. I wish I could buy all of her things, I swear! Please check out the website here -- especially if you have little ones to sew for this Christmas. The patterns and fabrics she has to offer are just amazing!

Only 26 days until Christmas! Better get sewing!

xo

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T07:31:00.009-05:00

This week is proving to be a very busy and very tiring week -- and it's only Tuesday morning!

On Sunday I went to an ASDP seminar where Ann Steeves, owner of Gorgeous Fabrics, spoke about the upcoming Spring fabric trends. Ann is a fabulous speaker and soooo knowledgeable about all things sewing! I really enjoyed listening to her speak and was glad to have a few minutes to talk to her face-to-face -- she's too funny!

Monday was spent running from place to place getting ready for Thanksgiving and doing the usual dropping off and picking up of children at school. Not a lot of time for sewing but look at what Chris (our mailman) brought....

I finally broke down and purchased another issue of Ottobre Magazine from Banberry Place! I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about this mag since it's almost all I use when I make clothes for my babes. I poured over it three times last night after I crawled into bed. The clothes are just too awesome! I woke up wanting to stitch something up for Ava to wear on Thursday and actually got to the point of rummaging though my stash but then I just couldn't do it!! Even I know when too much is too much! Christmas is coming though...

Well now the cherubs need to be fed and shuttled off to school. Hoping to have time to quilt today after I make some pumpkin bread!

So little time...

2008-11-22T08:41:00.004-05:00

So, the Snowflake Bazaar is now only TWO WEEKS away!! I feel like I have a million things to do. Most of the sewing has been done though I really wanted to make a lap size quilt and maybe a few table runners. Can it be done? Maybe I should set the alarm for 3:30 instead of 4:00.

This week proved to be very productive as I finished up all four Shabby Stockings, two corduroy caps, three more aprons and six lavender eye pillows. How does she do it, you ask?

Well, it was actually very helpful that my computer broke down AGAIN and was at the shop for two days. We found that it cannot be fixed and so it has now come home essentially to die. After 7 years (thats about 180 in computer-years), we have concluded that a new computer must be bought. Not something I really want to do one month before Christmas but what can you do...

So now, my hopes to make at least $20 to cover the cost of the Bazaar table has turned into my hoping I make somewhere around $500. How many lavender sachets is that???

a VERY good mood!

2008-11-08T06:20:00.006-05:00

Look at what my incredibly fabulous RISN friend, Donna got for me...

Donna went to NYC with members of the group at the end of October and I asked if she could get me a bag from Mood -- famed fabric store of Project Runway. YES, I was at the store this July with my hubby but ran out without a purchase after running into Season 2 finalist Daniel V on the second floor. I was just too excited to shop at that point.

Anyway, I expected dear Donna to return with a plastic store bag but no... this wonder woman talked the store manager into giving her seven of these beautiful, heavy, grommet handled bags. And I am the lucky recipient of one of them!

Amazing!! Donna... you are my new best friend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!

2008-11-06T06:56:00.003-05:00

I got the call about an hour ago!!

My new nephew, Jack was born this morning around 530am weighing in at a very nice 8lbs 9oz. I'm sure he'll be every bit as cute his big brother.

Will post pics as soon as I get them.

Congrats to Jamie, Janet & Connor.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-04T08:04:00.007-05:00

from the Wicked Witch of the West and the dead pirate!

What a beautiful night -- nine of us walked the hills of Graniteville and had a blast! Too much candy to count.

The costumes worked out great for the kids except that they both vowed to never wear the makeup again. Fun going on -- not so much coming off! In fact, Ava's skin was still stained the next day. Too bad I didn't notice until we were actually out amoungst the public.

And there was also the giant "A" that was created for the Alphabet Soup kindergarten parade.

No sleeping yet, though! Maybe after the Holidays...

Snowflake Bazaar

2008-11-02T07:58:00.002-05:00

On December 6, 2008 I will be attending my very first craft fair! The Snowflake Bazaar is to be held from 900am to 300pm at the Old County Road Elementary School in Smithfield, RI.

My good friend Elyse and I will embark down this new road together - wish us luck!

And keep watch to the right for more info and pictures of some of the things I hope to display.

Pants...I mean REAL Pants!

2008-10-30T12:26:00.003-04:00

Although I am what I consider to be an "intermediate" sewer, pants with a zipper, waistband, beltloops, etc., always seemed too... UGH. However, I needed something new to make for Ed. The poor dear is up to his eyeballs in novelty pajama bottoms!

And so, I attempt to make REAL pants. Tah dah...

In the coolest shade of steel gray. Pattern courtesy of Ottobre Magazine 1/08. They are a little big in the waist but nothing a belt couldn't fix. You would never know that this kid eats ALL DAY!!

Next... a hoodie!!

extremely slow beginnings...

2008-10-29T06:45:00.000-04:00

OK So I'm the worst blogger EVER!

I created this blog over six months ago and have yet to post one thing! My good friend Elyse has been inspiring and so I hope to update my blog from time to time. But only if Ed or John are around to take pictures!

Lots going on so hopefully you'll be seeing stuff soon. Until then, feast your eyes on my best work to date.