it's official....

I have completely lost my mind!:) I have been working so hard lately. Trying to turn this:

......into this:

It's really a good feeling to do something constructive with your scrap pile I must say. I decided while I was working on my first quilt this season the weekend before Thanksgiving that I should do another quilt for my daughter to give to her at Christmas since I have not yet made her a quilt. (this is the part where I lost my mind) So, long story short, my house is a complete mess, but I finished the binding on quilt #1 last night, and this quilt for my daughter is off to the longarm quilter. I'll start working on my 3rd tomorrow. not kidding. More on quilt #1 later. It is a surprise. How's that for some mystery?

picking favorites

I don't usually pick favorites between my babies, aka the clothes that I sew, but I have to say that this little dress is definitely my favorite thing I have made for my daughter so far *I think*! :) I made this the day before we were having our family pictures done and I loved how it turned out. I did not have a pattern. I just looked at a shirt my daughter already had and figured out how to make it into a dress. I think there will be more of these in her future. It was easy too! Maybe if I ever get around to writing some of my patterns out, I will include this one. Bonus: you get to see my sweet little guy too whose shirt was the basis of our color scheme for the family photos as it was one of the only "nice" shirts he had! Love how the pictures came out too. They were taken by Christy Johnson here NC. http://christyjohnson.com/

match making

Do you, Sandi Henderson's vintage cherries in fall, take Patty Young's tapestry in lime and Anna Maria Horner's polka line in brown to be your mates on this very cool shirt? To stay together always making these little girls' personalities shine with all the delightfulness that they are? ..... hahahaha! I have happily joined these fabrics together to make these custom shirts for my dear friend's 2 little girls. I think it was a match made that was always meant to be. LOVE how they turned out and they are so fall-like. Putting fabrics together is one of my very favorite things to do! Can you tell?! I think this combination will live happily ever after....

making lemons....

Well, I have been so busy sewing, and I love that! I have not been taking the time to blog it all, and I am going to try to do better with that. So, ever have something great planned out and things just don't go according to plan? Well, that never happens to me either, but I have heard that it really stinks! :) Nora Kate had her school pictures scheduled for this past Tuesday, the 10th. I had ordered the cutest royal blue floral peasant top (which I thought would really bring out her blue eyes) from a direct sales clothing company ON OCTOBER 1 and still had not received the order. Turns out there was some kind of random problem with the sales rep that I had worked with and bottom line was that I was not going to get my stuff before her school picture date. So, I had to improvise. Now, these were her first school pictures EVER so she had to wear something unique is what I was thinking. So, in other words, I had to make her something uber cute that would bring out all her darling characteristics:) So, on Sunday I made her some new ruffle pants, and on Monday I made the top and finished the headband that I had started to go with something else I made for her. I really like how it turned out and I am in love with the fabric choices on the top. I just love color. I don't know why I fight this. The only thing I would have done differently is to make the top smaller. It was a little bigger than I would have wanted, with it being her school picture outfit. See, I was being lazy. I had cut the cherry fabric out as a mistake when I was making something for an order a few weeks ago, so I thought, hey, this looks cute, I'll just use this for the top part. Love it! Then later I realized that although I had originally thought it was a size 4, it was in actuality a size 6. So, oh well. She'll actually be able to wear it for 2-3 more years! (again with the making lemons.....:)

So on Wednesday I made her a pair of ruffle pants to wear to preschool on Thursday and also made a new quilt block from scraps! And I got 2 adorable matching shirts mostly done for an order for my best friend growing up's little girls and believe me, the fabrics on these shirts were always destined to be together! Look for more on this in future posts!

custom order

I just finished this custom order this morning for someone local. I am really pleased with the way it came out! I made the skirt and headband with fabric flower, appliqued the 'm' on the shirt, and embellished the knee socks with lace and a pink bow! This is just another less than great picture from my iphone, so please excuse that. I seem to just grab whatever is closest. Someday I will actually take the time to take nice pictures with my nice camera! But for now, I just wanted to get this up quick! Hope you enjoy!

going out today!

I finally got this order finished and it will be going out today! This was the largest order I have gotten to date. It was for all 5 of these pieces shown which are available in my shop. I am really excited as the pieces can be mixed and matched and can be worn a lot of different ways. I hope she likes them and they fit perfectly! Hopefully things will start getting back to normal for my blog soon. As you can see I have been busy sewing up a storm to get orders filled. This order pictured is actually just 1 of 7 that I have had in the last 3-4 weeks. Seems the new photography is helping sales in my shop! Thanks Donna! Now to attach my 'Love Hazel' tags and off it goes. Whew!

Sandi's new fabric!

Wow! I haven't been this excited for a long time!! Look what Sandi just posted over at her blog:
http://portabellopixie.typepad.com/portabellopixie/