Not for the faint of heart, or, Lucy's shoes!

ok here are the shoes that have given me fits. the pattern makes it look easy but without michelle's help i couldnt have completed them. i used fleece for the inside, corduroy for the sole and cotton for the top! i dont want to whine but wow, this was not an easy project!

Quilting Article a la Martha

OK, so I'm a little behind in my magazine reading. Last night I saw a neat article in the January 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living (pgs 96-103 if you wanna track down the hardcopy). It features Log Cabin with more modern fabrics and colors - no prairie calicos here! Also included are some really neat unquilt projects, such as pillows, framed squares grouped in a kind of color study, and even a log cabin tote stitched out of leather. Nice! There's an online derivative here: http://www.marthastewartliving.com/article/quilt-to-last Enjoy!

Oh happy day!~

I would have plugged along with my Husquvarna/Viking 180 for probably the rest of my sewing life. My machine had other plans! For a couple of months the power cord had been acting up, sporadically cutting out and stopping. Last night while bobbin winding it was all over...kaput, sayanara, adios. My electrician husband to the rescue- um no, he could't fix it either.

So here is my new acquisition! A Viking 200 - the Scandinavian! Hah i love the name! I had great success with the owner of the store in Racine. I would recommend calling ahead and being very clear about which machine you have and what you want in the new one. When we got there he had the lowest model ready for me to look at. I had to ask what the next level was above it which I really liked- he was not pushy at all. Both the machines i looked at were store models, not privately owned. He was pretty up front about how much each had been on the floor. My model was on the floor for about 15 months. I thought that was an acceptable amount of time for the price he was asking and liked that it was a store model versus privately owned but that is a personal decision.

So tadah! Thanks to Jo, Michelle and Julie for their sage advice; it worked wonders to help me decide what i wanted from a machine and how much i wanted to spend! Thanks again my wonderful, KNOWLEDGEABLE quilting friends!

Scrappy

I've been cutting out 4 1/2 inch squares from scraps for some time - now, having a ball putting them together in somewhat random-ness.

Organizing the Bookcase

For Michelle!

Love this quilt!

at Cluck cluck sew

baby blocks for Kaylee

I got ambitious and ended up making a set of blocks for Kaylee with the left-over foam from Oliver's set. In this simple version, I just cut out 3.5 inch squares of fabric and sewed them together by machine (right-sides together) with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving a gap large enough to turn right-side out and stuff the foam cube inside. I ended up using fabric glue to close the gap rather than hand stitching it shut (I’m terrible at blind stitching and don’t feel like taking the time to practice enough to get better right now). I used the left-over fabric from Kaylee’s quilt so they match everything else I have made for her. I also added a bits of plastic from an empty wipes refill pack to some of the blocks to give them a nice crinkle sound when you squish them. Every block is made up of minky, linen, and cotton fabrics for contrasting textures. I’ll be honest, the blocks were not fun to make and required a bit of wrestling to get them to turn out right. It took me about 2 weeks here and there to finish them up. Kaylee likes to shake and chew them and knock down the towers that we build. We like to throw them at her head (they’re soft, and it makes her giggle).

Retail Therapy

I ordered this Heather Ross print yesterday from Spoonflower ! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but it makes me happy. Spoonflower makes it possible for the individual to design, make and sell their own fabrics. I love Heather Ross - she's one of my favorite fabric designers. If you want to read more, here's Heather's blog. She was on Martha Stewart yesterday too. She demonstrated how to make bloomers from her book Weekend Sewing which I've put in the sidebar.