My mother asked me to make an outfit for a friend of hers who has yet to deliver a little girl.  She wanted a skirt and shirt set for the baby to wear next spring.  I feel in love with Robert Kauffman’s “sweet confections” cupcakes and decided it would be perfect for the project.  I have enough left over for a lounge set or another skirt set if anyone is interested, leave a comment or email me.

Thanks to Sarah for measuring her sweet little nearly 6 month old baby, so I could get the size right!

and on the backside?

I’ve been rather productive in the creative department this week.  I want you to understand though, that it all comes at a cost.  This is my laundry room…all of those clothes….are clean….

the cost of creativity can be steep sometimes.

p.s. I loving these Hoops & Yoyo videos over at youtube- they are actual greeting cards that you can send to people.  I sent my husband this one (i have no shame) and I think this one is my favorite.  Oh, they crack me up!!

If you’re new here, I like to hold a giveaway once a month, because sharing is nice.  This month I am giving away a Patchwork Pillow Case  (no pillow just the sham/case, you’ll have to supply your own 14×14 pillow, may I suggest using your 40% JoAnn’s coupon?- that’s where I get my pillows).

I was just really hankering to make something pretty- for fun.  I was inspired by Elizabeth’s paint box quilt and I’ve always loved the coin quilt pattern.  However, it is not without it’s flaws, as in seams not quite matching and quilting not spaced evenly…etc.  But, notice how eye catching it is?

I backed it in what is almost the last of the brown sheet I thrifted (so far I’ve made, 1 dress, 1 blanket and now a pillow from 1 sheet!).  The binding features the same fabrics that are featured on the front.  Everything is 100% cotton and already washed for that lovely crinkly look.  Quilted with my favorite all natural bamboo batting.

In the lower left I added a special cream patch with the word “laugh” hand embroidered by me.  With this many colors, you know it will look good somewhere in your house!

All you have to do to win this pillow is to leave me a comment, if you want an additional entry you can add this button to your blog.

Just copy/paste this code into your sidebar:

<a title=”patchwork pillow giveaway!” href=”http://heatherhalesdesigns.com/blog/patchwork-pillow-giveaway/”><img src=”http://www.heatherhalesdesigns.com/blog/images/sidebar_add.jpg” width=”200″ height=”300″ /></a>

**the code wasn’t working earlier, I’ve updated it and it is now working!**

Comments will be accepted until I go to bed on Friday October 24th.

I made myself a skirt this afternoon, using an old sheet and some ric rac.  It turned out too short, maybe it will make a nice hostess apron?  I still have enough of the sheet left to whip up some soft pajama pants for myself and the daughter though.

My son asked me if he could eat some Honey Dew Melon with a melon baller instead of a fork.  Who was I to say no?

A few more days left to sign up!  Come make this Vintage Sheet Skirt with me on Thursday Oct. 2, $25 for the class and you can bring your own materials, or $15 and I’ll bring everything you’ll need.  You can sign-up online, or call the studio and do it over the phone.

Also, if your free Saturday morning (ie, not preparing food for 300 local people who’ll be watching this, like me) then you might want to swing by this charity garage sale, it promises to be good!

Oh, a little Post Script, to whomever it was that snagged my pajamas today at the Nie Recovery Etsy sale, THANK YOU!

Well, it was really made this summer.  It has been sitting in my to-do pile for far too long just waiting to be bound.  Today was the day, I popped in “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” and started stitching!  Bound, washed and ready for purchase!

I really love the look of the non-traditional quilts.  I combined both new and vintage fabrics and sheets to create this quilt and lined it with warm and natural (although the bamboo batting is my favorite!).  To make it even more special I embroidered a sweet little bouquet in the top corner (I can’t remember if I found the pattern on flickr or if it is one of my own, please leave a comment if it’s yours and I’ll credit you!!).

Soooo, about those mailing labels I made last weekend.  I was thinking all of you that don’t have photoshop might like to simply buy the digitally formatted labels all ready to print from MS Word.  Check the shop this weekend for some customizeable mailing lables- holiday & other fun designs!

A few weeks back my “good scissors” (I use that term loosely) stopped working.  I think maybe I tried to cut through a pin, thus causing a sticking spot on the blade.  In an oh-so-bright moment I thought I could sharpen them up on the same sharpener I use for my knife blade.  Hmm, really bad idea, it made them worse.

A combination of cheapness and lazyness prevented me from purchasing new scissors right away, instead I pulled out my plastic red handled scissors that came in my very first sewing kit when I was about 12.  Amazingly they still worked well, and it’s been a long time since I was 12.    Between the red handled ancient scissors and my equally cheap rotary cutter I managed to get by.

Yesterday while I was at JoAnn’s I noticed that all of their scissors were 40% off- that helped curb my cheapness and I bought a new pair of scissors.  I stayed away from the orange plastic Kane scissors this time and started looking at their Gingher line.  They look sturdy, sounded foreign and were on sale- that was enough for me.  I really liked the sturdy looking metal handled ones, but they would have been about $5 more and well…cheapness is me, so I went with the plastic handles, telling myself they will feel more comfortable.

Now if you were to ask me to recommend a pair of scissors to you, I would tell you hands down my favorites are Wiss.  Talk about strong-last-the-rest-of-your-life-all-you’ll-ever-need-in-a-blade scissors.  I have 2 pairs of Wiss scissors and I love them.

My mom found the pinking sheers at a garage sale years ago and gave them to me as she already had a pair.  The thread clipper used to be hers as well.  The thread clipper is awesome, everyone needs one!  The blades can lay flat up against your fabric and trim those loose threads down to the seam!

What about you, what kind of scissors do you use?

 Thank You to everyone who participated!  The winner is KIM!

I know, I know, I just did this…but I have one more giveaway.

This reusable grocery tote (or perfect for trips to the farmers market, or the thrift store…etc) is constructed from vintage pillowcases and is lined with white linen (nice and sturdy!).  It measures about 19″wide, 16″ long with a 4″ wide bottom. Leave a comment if you want it, comments will be open until Thursday AM.

If you won the last giveaway I plan on mailing everyone’s stuff this weekend.

Mark Your Calendars to Be There!!

Be sure you come back later this week, it’s been too long since I’ve had a give away!

My oldest was home sick from school today, which means of course that he was fine by about 10am (no complaints from this momma!!).  I decided to we should have some fun today.  I donned my apron, made a loaf of banana bread and got everything set for what my kids like to call an “Arts and Crafts Project”.

I used my one leaf shaped cookie cutter and traced leaves on to printer paper (we’re out of colored construction paper).  The kids colored the leaves in fall colors and then we added a glitter border to each one.  After cutting them out we decided to hang them along the mantle in the dining room.

I uploaded a pdf file of the leaf pattern so everyone can feel autumn in their homes!  Have a great weekend!

Thank You!  To everyone who emailed or called, you prayers and good wishes must have worked.  I am feeling much better today, walking is a bit stiff but it doesn’t hurt.  BIG THANK YOU to Sara who called and offered to bring me lunch, almost made me wish I was flat on my back in bed.

I managed to pick up my fabric from Jona today with no problem- she was so sweet to invite me in to her home and let me talk her ear off.  However it seemed that every skein of floss I wanted from JoAnn’s today was on the bottom shelf.  Bending down (at the knees) isn’t so bad, it was the coming up that was pretty uncomfortable.  I am glad I was the only one in the aisle at the time (I’m sure I looked pretty silly)!

I picked up these fabrics to make some embroidered pillows.  I’m teaching an embroidered pillow class on the 25th of October at BLS (feel free to enroll!).  I’m going to create my own embroidery pattern for the Heather Bailey fabric, but plan to use this pattern to pair with Sandi Henderson’s Cherries.