Baby Clothes Quilt Along

I am doing the Baby Clothes Quilt Along!  I am a week behind, but I LOVE the idea!  I have about 14 boxes of baby boyz clothes sitting down in the basement, that I will probably never use again and that I am planning on dragging back to AZ in May of 2011.  I just don't have the heart to throw them out (do I really have the heart to cut 'em up?) so I am gonna make a quilt!  It looks pretty easy (simple blocks of squares and background fabric).  I am so excited to put it together!

Duke's Wedding Announcement

Their wedding was a little over a month ago, but I wanted to post their wedding invite cuz I think it turned out amazing.  Thankfully, Brittney was so easy to work with.  She gave me a few ideas then let me go do what I do best.  I really love the final result!

Outside

inside

Cuzinz

I made a Baptism announcement for my cousin Sarah and her little guy, Hunter.  I love it cuz she pretty much let me do whatever I wanted.  That always makes me incredibly happy!!  Here it is!

Isn't he sweet??  I remember when said cuzin was baptized and I was so jealous cuz she got the coolest Barbie!  Now she has a (nother) kid getting baptized!

Trails and Subway Art

I ran into the blog Tatertots and Jello and found the coolest post on Subway Art.  I heart Subway art.  I didn't know it, but I have been using it in my work for quite sometime now.  Anyhowzit, I was inspired to make this in CS4.  These are all the trails Brian and I have done over the years.  If you know us, you know that we love running/biking trails.  We have also done some bigs hikes like the Grand Canyon and Pikes Peak.  Since we live in Milwaukee and all the trails are currently under water from the floods and since our hearts are still on the trails in AZ and CO, I wanted to pay homage to all the places we love.  I had it printed at Sam's Club and am picking it up tomorrow.  I can't wait to frame it and hang it in my living room!!!

Eat Your Heart Out, Princess

I finished my Amy Butler Liverpool dress this week!!!  I wore it to church today.  The besticle part of wearing something you make is when somebody compliments you on it, you get to say, "Thanks!! I made it!!!".  I did get a few compliments, not complement.  That's biology.
So... Here it is!

This was the first collar I put in and it was certainly not easy.  I do not make any attempt to be a perfectionist but collars require perfection and precision.  I can do precision, but perfection alludes me.  But I think I killed the collar!  I am going to make another shirt with a collar and some pajamas for the boyz so I can master the collar.  

I also learned that interfacing is my new besticle friend.  I love interfacing.  And belts.  Isn't the belt fab?  The most important thing I learnt is that being a perfectionist does not necessarily mean that the results will be any better than if you are going for speed, or as I like to call it, efficiency.  Let me explain.  There is a lady in my class who cut, marked, pressed, pinned to the T.  She started sewing before me and was way ahead of me.  Then there is me.  I just go.  I am all about business.  I have about 2 hours a couple times a week to sew so I try to get as much done during that time that I can.  I don't have time to pin and re-pin 100 times.  What I am saying is that Lady probably spent twice as long on her dress than I did and it did not turn out any better/worse than mine.  I beat myself up trying to be more of a perfectionist but the more I sew and do other things too, I am finding that perfectionism doesn't really add much to the end result, other than time:)  I do think that I could pay a little more attention to reading the directions.  That is time well spent!

Quilted Coasters, A Must

I wanted to share one of the projects that I started/finished this week (another biggie to come!!!)  We were in desperate need of some coasters.  Contrary to what Brian believes (that those water rings can be rubbed off wood), coasters are kind of a big deal, unless you want unruly water stains on your wood.  Out there in the blogging /craft book world, there are gazillions of tutorials, patterns and the such for quilted coasters.  I got out my scraps and came up with my own little block.  I also made the cutest birdie appliqué and fused them on.  Easy project, but I thought I would share the results.  I did not use fusible batting which I will always do for projects like this in the future.  Speaking of the future, I am thinking some quilted place mats!  A few other things I learned that might be useful....

1.  Don't bother with the (cheap) store bought printer fabric.  It is way better to use bubble jet 2000/set /freezer paper method.  It takes a little longer but I found that the adhesive they use to adhere the fabric to the paper is way too sticky. I printed really small things and when I went to remove the fabric it tore.

2.  Use a small needle to quilt the coasters.