The hand-me-down furniture has been painted. And 3 gallons of Kilz has made the inside of our old garden shed habitable for a little girl. We have to frame those lower windows and paint the floor a color other than white but we are well on our way!
p.s. the dog painting was painted by a much younger me who was going to write a childrens book about a blue dog. That never materialized, but it looks pretty okay in the playhouse!
I am paying my babysitter this week in homemade pillows. I fell in love with them while I was making them. I wish I wasn’t sending them away.
Even though I kicked these out fast I spent a few extra minutes and added some top stitching…
I was forced to pull myself away from sewing for a little while.
Because a tree fell on the house.
And poked a hole in the nursery. We were at the grocery store when it happened, but the little miss points at the ceiling and says, Uh-Oh. We now have a new section of roof, but there are still some repairs to be done.
We have been savoring the last few weeks of warmth.
And I have put my quilting aside to do some other outdoor projects not related to big stinking trees. I started transforming the smaller, older tool shed into a playhouse for the little miss. A few gallons of Kilz on the inside so far but there is much more to paint. And there is a new window to be framed. I have been image searching and loving all the playhouse ideas out there and collecting all my inspiration on pintrest. Seriously, click that link and you will start dreaming about your own playhouse.
My mom arrived with these treasures and I promptly painted them with the wrong paint (*%^&#*@#!) . I thought I was spraying them with black primer but alas, it was product called “undercoating” which still has not fully dried 4 days later! So, there might be a trip to the sandblaster and then a do-over. In the end I want these to be red, with a pink seat and pink table top, and they will live in her playhouse.
So, that is what has been going on. Plus 2 more weddings, a birthday, a family reunion and friends staying from out of town. I have 17 days to finish a wedding quilt who’s top is not quite pieced… Or a year and 17 days if I choose to take my husband’s advice…
While racing around with 4 house guests this weekend I managed to finish these pillows for a wedding present. I took some photos with baby on one hip, husband asking which tie to wear and me trying to figure out what to wear 1 hour before the service. I’m happy that I got a picture taken at all is what I am saying…
I pulled the pieced part out of my scrap basket. I have no idea what I originally intended to do with these patchwork stripes but I know for sure they came from this quilt.
And the perfect purple triangles? Came from this quilt.
I am sure this is going to sound hokey and ridiculous, but I love how these pillows are connected in a small way to an earlier wedding quilt and a graduation quilt. And how (in my crazy thinking) the bride is connected to the other people I sew for, even if she doesn’t know it.
I have been done with this quilt for a while, but was waiting for my mother-in-law to come for a visit so I could finally give it to her. Christmas in July is what this really is, 7 months past it’s due date!
There is a lot going on in this quilt,I took some detail shots in an earlier post.
I like the back almost as much as the front. It is a long saved Ikea duvet cover. I had to add a little to the sides to make the twin size expanded to a queen size. The final size on this quilt is 90″ x 90″. Green is a hard color when it comes to quilts. Or at least I find it to be tough. It always looks a bit christmasy unless you can find some nice light greens. I think the binding saved this one from the christmas vibe. I am always on the lookout for green on green prints, and now more than ever because I have used up 2 of them!
Well I lied. I said I was gonna try sewing this dress without a pattern but I realized I had a pattern very similar!
I tried my hand at the Japanese pattern book I picked up ages ago … I wish I knew the name…
that is the cover, this is the dress I made
I made the smallest pattern, 100, which I later looked up and learned it equates to 3T. It was my first time in ages sewing with knits. This is saying a lot! I have been sewing since I was 12 and many failures in the early days had me too scared to ever try knits again. But I watched this video on YouTube and holy crap, it worked! I wasn’t brave enough to do all the pieced shapes from the dress I mentioned a few weeks ago, but I think it is pretty fantastic.
Full disclosure; I wish I could say that the contrasting fabric at the bottom was artistry and creativity, but truthfully it was accommodate the lack of fabric I discovered a little too late.I won’t be adding horizontal seams in knits again, it puckers a little too much for my liking.
And in this picture you can see the pockets. Currently below the knee (HA HA HA HA!) It will fit sometime around 2014…. But I love the pattern so much she will have a whole collection of these dresses by then!
I knew it would be way too big for her while I was cutting it, but it seems silly to take pictures of a dress on a hanger when there is such a cutie model who works for cookies!
I got all 3 knits from Cloth and Bobbin.
First, I would like to present photographic proof that all those people with 3 and 4 kids who find time to sew obviously do not sleep, because this is a regular sight in this house with just one baby.
In that last picture you can just make out the 12″ Habitat blocks for donation quilts. Which were made when I should have been asleep. They ended up inside a weeble treehouse just a few moments later.
speaking of treehouses… oh heck, there just isn’t a good segue-way for this, oh well, plunging in;
My vegetable gardener husband grew birdhouse gourds from seed . After we picked them we put them in a milkcrate and stored them safely in the garage to dry out. Fast forward five years. I have been telling anyone who will listen that I want birdhouses for my birthday. I have 6 or 7 birdhouses currently and they are mostly occupied and I have a totally illogical urge to invite more squawking poopers over to our yard. Anyway, it came to me in a dream that I have moved that damn milkcrate around the garage umpteen times and it was high time to make my own birdhouses.
I won’t bore you with the construction details (just put it in google, folks). But the whole reason I am posting the pictures is I wanted to share how much I LOVE the patina on these gourds before they were painted. People pay big money for granite that looks like that! But I am too lazy to go all the way to the store for varnish, so, white they are.
Somehow this year we have every weekend between June 18 and Sept 18 booked. For Real. I am only a few weeks into the 3 weddings, 3 bridal showers, 3 bachelorettes, 1 family reunion, 2 road trips, let’s-have-a-party extravaganza and while I am holding my own, I am also seriously wishing for a maid and chef. And a sitter so I can go see the last Harry Potter.
In between all the craziness I did manage to enter my block for the Jay McCarroll Habitat Challenge. We were asked to make an original block, which is no easy task, my friends. I doubt that my block is original, but I did some serious internet looking and couldn’t find anything like it. I am going to call it rouched circles or maybe ruffled dots. Some of my inspiration on this block is here and here and here.
I did manage to trim up the edges a bit before I sent it in, but I do regret this camera phone picture is all I managed. I have a bunch more of the Habitat fabric to make into blocks for the guild’s donation quilts, but according to my schedule I might have some time to myself about 10 days from now. Ahhh, relaxing summer…
And a picture of the babe with PIGTAILS! I waited too long for this day. Honestly, the pigtails make me way more happy than any hairstyle should.
In all of my spare time this summer I plan on sewing a dress without a pattern, gulp. I lurk this company that I have mentioned I LOVE in the past, but when I write their name in my blog readership goes through the roof with people trying to find their products stateside. So, instead I will link their site with this dress which I plan on making for baby girl in a size that will fit her next summer. Thank you Cloth and Bobbin for carrying the gorgeous knits that will make this dress!
I squealed just a little bit when I found this on Purl Bee recently;
A FABRIC memory game. okay. I am still a little giddy about it.
I have been keeping an eye out for a vintage memory game for our little girl. The current disney princess version just doesn’t do it for me. And knowing that she won’t need it for a few years means I can save up the most perfect scrap squares for a little while. And since I know I will have to make 3 or 4 sets, I will also have the perfect gift for all those babies that are growing up so fast!
A small start…
I got a little distracted from the 2 quilts that are in progress and I did a little side project over the last week. I am sure these have a real name, but I call them pillowcase backpacks. All the fabric is from my stash.
Much of it is fat quarters. The orange and pink cording is from an amazing fabric and trim discount store here in the Philly area; JoMar. As long as your expectations are low, you can find all kinds of trimmings for a steal compared to normal retailers.
The orange cording was 60 cents a yard which is not so bad. But, the deal of the day was fat rick rack for 25 cents a yard!
The 2 with astronauts are for brothers that are now 3 and 6. I made baby quilts for them long ago, but I wanted to make them something new.
I am not sure who will be getting the grey giraffes, but I think it might be a good big brother present for some friends that are expecting a new baby soon.
The pink one is for a fantastic little girl who is turning 8 at the end of the summer. To the dismay of her parents she is barbie and pink crazy. All that really matters is if she likes it…
And that there is a sneak peek at our sweet babe, who thinks this baby rocking chair, that I love so much, is unspeakably horrid. I plop her in it now and then and she always reacts with terrible dismay. And if you look real close, you will see our sweet dog, always watching from a distance, just to make sure we rescue the poor baby.
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