Momma got crafty over the weekend!  I scored nearly 2 yards of this Sherbet Pips fabric over the summer at SAS for something ridiculous like $2.99 a pound; and finally got around to using it.

Baby got some new pajamas!  The top fits well, but the pants are a bit too big.  I made them in a size 2, I’m hoping she can wear them through winter and even into next spring.  I used some vintage red/white bias tape I found in Globe last year (Go Arizona for great sewing finds!!).  I have been saving it for just the right project, I am really pleased with how well it looks on the pj’s.  I trimmed the pocket (not pictured) and the bottom of the pants in it as well.

I even got all fancy and finished all (but the underarm) the seams by flat felling them.  I’ve only done that once before, as it is a bit time consuming.  This time though, when I stitched the seams down, I didn’t stitch all the way through the garment, as I don’t like the extra stitching to show on the outside of the garment.  See this tutorial to see what I mean.

Baby seems to like them just fine!

Ya’ll know how much I love pinterest, which explains why I’ve been absent from this space recently.  I just wanted to pop back in and share this awesome project that I pinned from say YES! to hoboken.

I love this idea so much so that I went out yesterday and bought some white poster board and started snapping away today!  I’ve done baby, strawberries, mom, dad, (insert brother and sister names), kitty & ball.  Hoping to do banana, book, and ???.  Anyone have any more suggestions of things I should add?

Crossing my fingers to be back here on Tuesday to show you some progress on the (toddler size) dresden plate quilt I am hand quilting!  Hope you have a great weekend doing things that make you happy, with people that you adore!

If you follow me on pinterest you may have noticed that I pinned (and many people re-pinned) this lovely skirt.

This is the perfect summer craft as its a great way to re-use those popsicle sticks!

All you need is:

-sticks (big and small) – i soaked mine in soapy water for 5 min to get all the sticky popsicle off.

-scrap fabric

-pipe cleaners

-scissors

-school glue

-markers

-yarn

-sequins, buttons or other embellishments

-patience (cause its about to get MESSY)

For the ladies, we just cut rough triangles as dresses.  The pipe cleaners are cut in half and wrapped around the body for arms.  Yarn for hair and markers for the face.

With those sequin eyes I decided this had to be “crazy aunt Agnes”, and cousin Ruby.  Cracks me up to look at them, my daughters creativity know no bounds!

Be warned, this is a messy project….best done on the patio, unless you live in Arizona and its a hundred million degrees outside!

These summer days…its a love and hate going on over here.  The days are so full, trips to the library, summer school, afternoons by the pool, weekly movies and lots of popsicles!  At the same time, its so blasted hot!  I’ve been here 10 years now and every year when the heat begins it hits me like a ton of bricks, I forget how bad it is.  By the end of the summer I’m celebrating and doing outdoor stuff as soon as the temps lower back to the low 100′s.  Insane is really the only way to describe Arizona summers.

I stitched this while sitting on the pool deck watching the kids swim.  It’s inspired by this sweet Sarah Jane pattern and the “Families Are Forever” stitching that my aunt made that hung in my house growing up.  Something about satin stitched letters…that’s what got me!  I wanted to try some new stitches, so I whipped out my Encyclopedia of Stitchery and ended up choosing 2 new stitches.  I learned the Coral Stitch and the Cable Chain stitch (click over to flickr to see the notes about the stitches).  It is going to end up in the shop, soonish.

I whipped these up this morning while the kids were in summer school.  One of the mom’s in our little group is set to have a baby here very soon…I thought he might need a pair of shoes!

Yesterday I finished the Sunsuit that I started last year, it was waiting on straps and button holes (see how much I hate them!).  The style is based on a vintage McCalls pattern from the late 1930′s.  I absolutely love how it turned out!  Check out all the pics here.

When I saw Camille’s “Swoon” quilt pattern, that is exactly what I did, I swooned.  It makes me think of pretty snowflakes.  I pinned it to my quilts board and decided I was going to make it, in baby form, for a friend.  The very next morning I received an email from Camille with the quilt pattern attached!  I sent a text to the mommy to be, found out her nursery colors and went to work.

The colors aren’t ones I would pick, but I still love this quilt!  It is backed in the same brown fabric from the front.  I quilted around the smaller brown 8 point star, then around the outer star, and finally I quilted in large squares around the sashing (it looks really cool on the back!).   I *wish* I had the patience to make (and quilt!!!) a queen sized version.  I made a few mistakes while constucting it.  Which you can see in the full version.

You may notice that some of the purple points aren’t actually points, but rather blunt edges….that’s because I have problems with math.  I know where 3.5″ is on my ruler, but 3 7/8th?  Where is the mark for that?  I know, its totally embarrassing to be 33 and um, still not be good at math.  Besides that one “little” thing, the quilt went together really well, Camille’s instructions were great and the pattern is really simple.  I’m not a quilter by nature, I come from a long line of garment sewers and I was amazed how many pieces I had to cut out to make one quilt block.  Holy heck,  how do people have the patience to do large quilts?!!

Here’s hoping the momma to be likes the quilt, I’m delivering it tonight.

Monday evening was really a beautiful night, it cooled down and a breeze was blowing.  The son mowed the lawn and its lush greeness called to us.  I told the kids to take their shoes off and feel the soft green grass on their bare feet, it was that wonderful soft squish-y-ness that transports you back to your own childhood. ahhh….

(loving her post bath curls!)

I also added a crossover dress to the shop today.  I finished it Friday except for the button holes.  I loathe button holes…I have a very old machine and while it does have a good button hole stitch its NOTHING like those fancy attachments the newer machines have that practically stitch themselves.  So, I procrastinated them all weekend long and finally just hand stitched them this afternoon.  Hand stitching them took longer, of course, but at least I could watch a little TV while I did it!

I am on FIRE I tell ya!  This one came together SO quickly!  I could not be more pleased with it, and how she looks in it!  The pink fabric is Dream On by Urban Chicks for Moda, the yellow lining (& bloomer fabric) is a yellow/white polka dot print I picked up this week at JoAnns.

Click on the image to read the notes I added to it on flickr.  There will -for sure- be more of this pattern in the future!!  I have some DS set aside for another dress!!

A very belated birthday gift for a girlfriend is finally finished!  It seemed I could only work on it in snatches here and there…making it take forever to finish.

But, hooray it is done!  Now I just need to fill it with a few fun lip glosses.  It is meant to be a small make-up/cosmetic bag for her purse.  You know, so you don’t have to dig all over your purse to find your lipstick or compact.  I made it with some sweet Liberty fabric that I picked up at Purl in Orange County.  The bird is embroidered on linen, and the bag is lined in the dark pink/white polka dotted fabric.  The velvet ribbon I purchased in a massive bag at Goodwill for $5, I have tons of different colors of ribbon!

We’re all still a bit under the weather, the baby ended up with a double ear infection (poor thing!).  We’re hoping to all feel better by Friday for our trip to Globe.  Did you know its National Public Gardens Day on May 6, and you can print free tickets to most major gardens through the US here?  Yes  you read that right, FREE TICKETS, I printed off 4 for our family.  However, I noticed in the paper today that the garden we are going to is waiving admission on May 6th, so I guess I didn’t need to give BHG my info to print tickets.  You can see the list of participating gardens on the pull down menu at the BHG link above, hope there is one near you!

What a week its been!  Tuesday morning I interrupted my morning bike ride with a trip to the ER for dehydration & vertigo.  Super fun, really…..  I’ve spent the rest of the week at home on the couch, giving myself permission to take it easy.  However, yesterday evening I just felt the desire to sew!

With the temperatures expected to top out today at 97 (holy freaking cow, right?!), I decided baby needed some new summer duds.

I used some Bliss that I picked up months ago…I trimmed the bloomers with some bias tape made from the floral top fabric to bring the set together.  I’m quite pleased with how it turned out!

I could tell you that I have another set cut out of some Amy Butler fabric that I want to list in the shop.  BUT, every time I promise something like that it never comes to fruition.

Have a fabulous weekend!