Pumpkin Carving Party at Country Lane

This past week I made a dress for my daughter out of Bari J's newest line, Country Lane. She got the chance to wear it yesterday to church and then to a pumpkin carving party at our friends' house. It was the perfect choice for a beautiful fall day if you ask me....

favorite. project. ever.

This has to be my most favorite project I've ever done. It's from Anna Maria Horner's latest book, Handmade Beginnings. First of all, I LOVE this book. It has so many great projects in it, and I have neither a baby nor am I expecting one, so don't be fooled by the title. It's truly for anyone. When I saw this project, I knew I HAD to do it! I knew my little girl would love it, and she does. The pattern is for the quilt, the baby, and diapers to fit the baby. I must say that I loved making the diapers. I loved doing the hand stitching for the baby's face and hair. But most of all I loved making the quilt. The 4 blocks were foundation pieced, a technique I had not tried before, but found to be very easy and satisfying. I love color and it was so fun to put so much color into each block. All fabric I used was from Anna Maria's collections. I even mixed in some voiles with the cotton, and a tiny bit of her home decor. Do I even have to say how much I love her fabric? Just got in some of her newest line, Innocent Crush. Sigh. Can't wait to get started sewing with it.

Wow. I know, it's been a long time. I've been out of the loop for quite a while. I have a good excuse, though. We started homeschooling our kids this year. It was a very difficult decision that we put off until the last minute, but we are in week 9 now and although we have hard days (just like with anything else), it is going really well. More on that later though. I just wanted to peek my head up out of my 'cave' and let you know that I am still out here and slowly but surely, I am carving out little bits of time in my new schedule to sew.

What I am sharing today is the Madison Bag, a pattern I tested for Trish Preston. It's a great bag and I love how it turned out. Trish is actually about to debut her first line of patterns, which includes the Madison Bag, at the upcoming quilt market in Houston, last weekend of October. She has a sneak peak of them here, on her blog. I must say that ALL 14 of them look fantastic. I'm really impressed with how professional they look and the photography for the covers is amazing and makes you want to buy all of them! I'm so glad I had the honor to test 2 of them for her. Please, go check them out!

patsy ann apron top

Yes. I am still alive. Wow, time has been flying by and I have been so busy. Did May and June even really exist? It all happened so fast. Now, we are at the end of July and I am still extremely busy, but have gotten really sick, so I have been forced to slow down, thus the blog post.

This is one of the patterns I tested back in April. It turned out really cute. The pattern is the Patsy Ann Apron Top by Trish Preston. You can read her blog here. Trish is a really sweet, talented woman who will be debuting her new pattern line in her very own booth at quilt market this fall in Houston! So exciting! I know great things await her!

my thoughts on the pattern:

First off, it's totally adorable! I love how it turned out. And it's practical too! I actually made a mistake on the length of the fabric when I cut it and instead of re-doing it, I just decided to go with the length I had. It should be a few inched longer, but I actually like how it turned out. The straps go over the shoulders and cross in the back and then tie, as you can see in the first picture. This could totally dress up an outfit and give your little diva's jeans and tee a new look. Love it! You can order the pattern here, in Trish's etsy shop.

guest posting

Hey! I'm a guest blogger for Melissa over at the Polkadot Chair today! Go check it out!

Lily's birthday present

This is a quick outfit I whipped up for my daughter's friend Lily. It was her 5th birthday party and her Mom is always so sweet to comment on how cute the clothes are that I make for Nora Kate, so I really wanted to do this for her. And of course, Lily is just a doll! The shirt was purchased from Target and I appliqued a flower from the fabric. Quick. Easy. Great gift.

This skirt was so easy and fast because of the fabric design. Using Patty Young's double border daisy design from her latest line of fabric, flora & fauna, this skirt was a breeze. I literally just cut a main panel from each edge of the fabric, showing the daisy border, sewed them together on the sides, hemmed the bottom & gathered the top. I then cut 2 ~5" x 19" strips from the middle of the piece of fabric (light green dots), sewed together on the sides, attached to the main skirt at the gather, turned in to make waist band, added elastic waist & tag, & voila. easy, cute, skirt. I think the double border daisy design comes in 4 colorways. You can buy them here from Melanie at Above All Fabrics, one of my favorite places to buy!

Another use of the daisy border design was in a quilt pattern I tested for Patty Young back in December. I blogged about it here. I used a solid piece of the daisy border design in the mustard colorway for the background of the quilt as her pattern directed. It was a great way to have a quilt background with a lot of interest, but was so easy because it was not pieced. Great fabric, and great pattern, especially for beginning quilters.

Easter 2010

Easter Sunday was great. A day to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the glorious gift of the Resurrection! We celebrated by going to church, then coming home for a quiet family lunch, just the 4 of us. Later we went to a neighbor's house for a cookout. It was a nice day.

This year, for the first time, I made Nora Kate's Easter dress! It was truly a labor of love. I enjoyed every minute of picking out the fabrics, adjusting my pattern to fit what I had in mind, sewing it together, etc... I made this pattern back in the fall, drew it out on paper, cut it out, the whole 9 yards... I made a dress with it that she wore for our family pictures that we had done in November, then I used it to make a 'princess dress' for her for Christmas. I have to say that I LOVE this pattern. It is very simple, and there are so many variations that can be done. I also want to use it to make a top. Would like to 'go' somewhere with this pattern, hopefully in the future....?!!

I used Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane fabric for the dress, all except for the line of pink polka dot on the front which was a remnant of another fabric I had. I also made her hair clip, my first (and oh so fun!)

The only thing I was disappointed about was that I had originally planned to make my son a coordinating tie out of the stripe, but didn't get to it. As it was I just finished the dress on Saturday night. He had told me that he didn't want to wear a tie and wouldn't wear it to church, but would wear it for pictures. So, I knew it was going to be a battle that I didn't want to fight anyway. I may still make it and take him up on the picture thing....

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Oh, and if you want to win some of this beautiful Nicey Jane fabric of your own, go enter Ruth's Sew Love Fabrics giveaway on her blog! She's giving away a cool Heather Bailey pattern with fabrics to make it!