Busy Work

This is what kept me busy during chemo treatments.  So glad to have a hobby I love to keep my mind off things.

Party Dress

A long awaited birthday present for one of my favorite little girlies. It's from one of the best patterns too. Seriously, Ive made 3 or 4 already. Awesome pattern: Leila & Ben Sweet Little Dress.  It is so easy to customize.  I added the belt and sashing.  It's really cute with just coordinating sleeves.  Or make it all one fabric and add a ruffle down the front middle or add a cute flower brooch.  The possibilities are endless!

The best thing about this dress is that because of the stetchy neck and sleeve openings, it can be worn for years!  Once it's too short, just add opaque leggings or wear with regular pants making it a tunic top.  So fun.

Pattern Tip:  The two little average-sized girls that I tried my samples on both fit the same way- top neck opening was a little too large and the dress length a bit short (but I prefer right at the top of the knee cap for little girls.)  So I made the dress sized down one size on the top and added a few inches at the bottom (which if you are a beginning sewer, this was super simple to do. The body of the dress is one long pattern piece, taped together from four sheets from your home printer.  So just just cut out the top and bottom pieces in your preferred sizes then merge the lines together in the middle.)

For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Board For Little Girls - Sewn and Crafted for pictures of a bunch of variations.

Beginnings of the Bike Quilt

When I first saw this bike fabric, I knew I had to make a quilt for my little boy out of it. So I finally got around to ordering some, along with coordinating prints, to put together a quilt for him. When it finally came in the mail I was super excited and showed it to him, hoping he'd share in my excitement (which you know with kids can really be hit or miss) and luckily he did!

In fact, he was so excited, he asked if he could help. I immediately said yes, thinking it'd be fun bonding time to spend together, but knowing that him helping will definitely make the process more difficult and frustrating. But I have plans, which I'll share along the way, of how to make it a fun time and give him the best opportunities to help out. Like cutting...definitely not a good time for him to help.
So our first quilting session together we didnt do any sewing. First, we needed to draw out our blocks to get them just how we like and figure out the measurements for piecing. So below are pictures of drawing our blocks. He loved this part since he really enjoys drawing. He drew quite a few pictures of quilt blocks and fabrics.






First quilt block

Second quilt block

This one is fabric (see the outline of the fabric and then he drew the pattern in.)

And I think this one is a quilt.
I treasure these drawings. Even if he decides he is not interested in helping with the rest of the quilt, this quilt will always bring back the fond memories of his excitement, working next to me on our quilting project.

Have you done any sewing with children lately? I'd love to hear how it went.

Thrown another curve ball

Life never gets easier.

I have had a hoarse voice since last November. I had been going to my Primary Care Physician who kept telling me it was allergies (which Ive never had before.) He told me I might need to see an allergist if all the allergy meds and steroids he was giving me didnt work. Finally he mentioned that I might look into seeing an ENT. So I did. And after me speaking one sentence, the ENT knew it was definitely not allergies. He used a scope in his office and right away found a tumor on my vocal cords. And biopsy results came back showing that it is cancerous.

So I'm on rounds of concurrent chemo and radiation therapies. I have already seen so many blessings throughout this battle. It will be a long road to recovery, but I know without a doubt that we will make it through, stronger than before. If you'd like to follow my battle with larynx cancer closer, click here.

With all my time waiting around in doctors offices and what not, I have dreamt up a few projects with all the new fun fabric lines out. This one will be a new quilt for my biggest little boy, who has yet to receive his own quilt from mom. He asked if he could help, and I of course said yes! Even though that means it will take so much longer and be much more difficult and frustrating. I love that he loves fabric!

Here is a little preview of the stack we are working with.

fabrics top to bottom: all Michael Miller- It's A Boy Thing Bicycles Haze, Wheel Dot Haze, Mini Harlequin Sea, Baby Dumb Dot Sea, Mini Mikes Random Pencil Check Sea, Bicycles Grey, Ta Dot Marine, Wheel Dot Charcoal

drawing our quilt blocks, planning what his "bike" quilt will look like.
More pictures to come of our first quilt planning session together. Cant wait!

My view

This little man likes to be sneaky and squeeze between my sewing desk and the wall. I rarely sew while my kids are awake, hence there is not a ton of sewing going on around here. But the few times that they are playing well together, I might stitch a few sides on a block. But when this view appears, it means back to mom duties. Wouldn't want any cute little fingers to get sewn through!

Office supplies in the sewing room

Hi, my name is Amber and I'm an office supply junkie. I love looking at all the cool organizing products. So when I found a whole row of new Martha Stewart products I just about died. I especially loved the aqua desk top organized, but they were really low on inventory for those...wonder why? But there were also tons of really cute labels, and note pads, and file folders, and binders, and vinyl dry-erase wall decals...and I could go on and on.

I grabbed these and just couldn't put them down. Didn't really have a purpose for them yet, but knew there had to be somewhere I could use them. Then inspiration hit!They were perfect for labeling my stacks of block pieces! I usually use either a fabric marking pen and write directly on the fabric, or post-it notes, but those never stick to fabric. I have no idea know why I never thought of using real labels before. They were just the right fit for the job. Not to mention, they're easy on the eyes! I cant deny that I kept stealing glances at them, wishing I had more pieces to label.

I also ended up bringing home the dry-erase weekly planner and dry-erase flourish edge decal. Both are currently living on my refrigerator and have helped immensely to keep me on track with weekly appointments and daily to-do's. I have the worst memory!

My new favorite thread

Ive been on the hunt for the best the thread since I started quilting and learned just how important good thread is, for your finished product and your machine. I somehow learned of this brand, ordered some to try out, and am now hooked. LOVE IT. Love that its 100% cotton. Love that it has a beautiful satin finish, giving it a little bit of shine. And love the colors.

Essential thread by Connecting Threads, 100% Egptian Cotton Satin Finish

I mean, look at these gorgeous colors! And at $2.49 for a spool of 1200 yards you cant go wrong. They even go on sale sometimes.

And I might have loved them so much, that I went back and ordered the black/white/grey set too.