new pajamas . . .

My youngest daughter is awful when it comes to getting dressed. She has the most selection by far of my three girls, but sticks to her favorites over and over again. And I can maybe get her into pants once a month, otherwise it's always skirts. The whole concept that the third girl should be the cheapest in clothes? Well that doesn't apply when she refuses to wear 90% of the hand-me downs. She mostly wears the handful of skirts and tops that have been bought just for her. We were having another melt-down over what to wear last week, when I offered to make her something. She was VERY excited by this, and helped pick out the fabrics in the sewing room. I used the Go-To Dress pattern which was super easy, but since I was short on elastic, I finished it off a little differently. We decided it makes a great pajama ~ and my little girl then proceeded to wear it for the next 4 days straight, day and night :)

I'm linking this up with the Pajama Party! on Badlands Quilts.

Ebeanstock.com review . . .

Ebeanstock.com recently sent us a set of Double Dutch skipping ropes from Hot Ropes to review. We've tried them out with the girls, and really like the quality and length of the ropes. Our girls are 7 and 6 and can skip by themselves, but don't have the ability to "double dutch" using both ropes together yet. But they are getting better at skipping with one of the ropes while others control it. The set also came with a Double Dutch instruction book, filled with tips and tricks and some fun rhymes for skipping. This is a toy that the girls will get lots of fun out of next Summer!Ebeanstalk is a toy website that does their best to provide you with the best toys out there. They like to stay informed about the best learning toys and toys by age by having people like me and you tell them about their favorites! What are the perfect baby gifts? Does your child have one toy he/she just won't put down? Head on over to ebeanstalk and tell them what they are!

a REALLY good mail day . . .

So, I follow a lot of blogs ~ blogs of family and friends, sewing/quilting blogs, and some Mommy blogs. And a lot of these bloggers offer very generous giveaways, some out of the goodness of their heart and some sponsored ones. Well, I won a VERY good one recently, probably one of my biggest wins to date, and this was the package that the UPS man delivered yesterday . . .It's Tina Givens new book, 4 yards of fabric, 2 sewing patterns, and two boxes of stationery. THANK-YOU Tina & Lark Crafts and Pink Chalk Studio!

And I'll admit, I have three more giveaway wins on their way to me right now, each one also sure to make a great mail day. I've had some more time with my blog reader and entering giveaways this past month because of a week of tonsilitis and then another week of a virus that knocked me on my butt and gave me vertigo. The vertigo is getting better now, and my energy is thankfully coming back. And I'm sure this will help inspire me back into the sewing room :)

Above All Fabric wishlist . . .

Above All Fabric is doing a giveaway for posting your fabric wishlist from her shop. I thought this was a good opportunity to think about what I want to accomplish in my personal sewing for 2011 . . . I really want to work with some knits and make my girls some of these dresses.

I'm also hoping to get some twin size quilts for my girls finished (the tops have been done FOREVER), but they specifically want SOFT backings ~ this would do nicely.
And I'd like to make a sock monkey rag blanket for Justin ~ perfect for keeping him cozy in the carseat when we go out in the cold.And I'm hoping to get a start on Justin's twin size bedding because I LOVE this fabric line.And I'm still searching for the perfect fabric for a king-size quilt for my bed, but I think my hopes are a little high. This stack would make a nice start though . . .

I'm a guest blogger today . . .

a quilt giveaway and a fabric giveaway. . .

Pink Fig Design is giving away two finished quilts!! Hop over to enter!

and wouldn't these prints make some great Summer skirts and sundresses for my girls? Go to Retromummy to enter this one!

you know you're a crafter when . . .

I was sorting my purse and diaper clutch for an outing the other day and smiled when I realized how many handmade items were laid out on my counter. The purse, diaper clutch, cheque book cover, reuseable shopping bag, and "dirty dipes" wetbag were made by me; the keychain wristlet and tissue case were gifts, and the wipes case was a craft project with my daughter one day. I LOVE handmade :) And here's a pillow my daughter and I made for a birthday girl this week. It's hard to see in the picture, but the birthday girl's name is accross it. The fabric is a super-soft flannel from Moda's Woodland Bloom.

my first knitting project . . . sort of . . .

So a group of friends and I get together for coffee once a week and over the years we've tried to make some of these nights productive ~ scrapbooking, card making, sewing, quilting, and our latest endeavor was knitting. So I picked out a sweater pattern for Justin and got started. I soon came to realize though that this is not my favorite thing to do, and one evening a week was not getting this project done anytime soon, or at least before he'd outgrow it. So when we went to visit my Oma recently, I was thankful for her willingness to take over the sweater for me. I had managed to get the back piece and half an arm done, but in no time at all, my sweet Oma had the whole thing finished and on its' way back to me. Thanks Oma for doing a beautiful job on another sweater for one my kids!

paci leashes . . .

My kids have all used a pacifier, and one thing I always make sure to use is a soother strap. I just don't want to take the chance that they lose it on an outing; or if it falls out of their mouth in the church nursery, the babysitters won't know who it belongs to and my kid will be the one screaming when I come for pick-up because they want it back.

Yes, my kids have all had a soother at one point and been addicted to them ~ but I'm still battling the dental and jaw problems from being a long-time finger-sucker, so my theory is that a soother is an easier habit to break. Plus, I really love being able to quiet them quickly when they hurt themselves or if they start losing it in the middle of the grocery store.

Anyways, the straps at stores are often velcro and I have gone through some of these in less than a month because the velcro wears out, or sewed them closed which created problems when the soother needed replacing. But, my solution came when I discovered how easy it was to order clips online, and make them myself. And I can even buy snaps with engraved images on them like butterflies, cars, and animals and match them up to the fabrics.

Now I've found another way to use up scrap fabric, and make cute straps that are usually only found in boutique kids stores. I've listed a bunch of them in my shop if you need some for a little one in your life.

And if you'd like to win one, I'll be giving some away to fans of my Facebook page.

doll quilts . . .

Doll quilts have become a fun mother/daughter activity around here lately. My two oldest girls are almost as crazy about beautiful fabrics as I am, and sorting through the scraps and small pieces of fabric is a great way to spend some quality time together :) And it's kind of funny how opinionated they are on which ones go together, and how to lay them out. Here's some fun ones that we put in the shop.

WAHM giveaway event happening today. . .

There's a big giveaway event going on today, filled with lots of beautiful handmade items. I've contributed two prizes ~ a burpie/bib/paci clip set and a second bib/paci clip to the event.

If you'd like to enter, just go to the WAHM Giveaway Photo Album at Bumbledoo. You can enter as many or as few as you want. All you have to do is "like" the WAHM that is sponsoring the giveaway, leave some comment love for that WAHM, and then report back to Bumbledoo under the picture that you did! Bumbledoo will start drawing winners at 9 pm EST. She will also have a couple of gift cards to her store up for grabs!

the Tweet Tweet quilt . . .

Today begins an online blogger event called the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I thought about which quilt to contribute to this event and kept coming back to this one ~ my Tweet Tweet quilt.

The fabric is from Tweet Tweet by Keiki for Moda and I actually won it from a generous giveaway event sponsored by one my favorite bloggers ~ Heather from House of A La Mode (you should go check out her blog and drool over all her beautiful creations!).

I really LOVE these prints ~ so many cute things to look at. I held it up for my youngest daughter and it was like a whimsical I Spy quilt ~ she just kept picking out items, animals, and cute little things on it.

This is definitely one of those quilts where the fabric created the quilt design. I just couldn't cut those larger scale prints into little pieces and lose all the great detail in them. And because I was using fat quarters, I had to improvise on what was the best way to lay them out.

I don't have a person in mind to give this one to right now, so I've put it in my shop.

Now go check out all the other beautiful quilts in this event!

aprons in action . . .

Vesuviusmama was the winner of the apron and purse in my Fall into Fall Giveaway, but since she has two boys she was happy to receive two aprons instead. Here's what she had to say about them. . .

And when we got home today, there was a surprise in the mail. I won a giveaway from Rebecca at Our Busy Little Bunch in the Fall Into Fall Giveaway, and she sent aprons for my boys. Of course, they wanted to cook right away, so we scoured the cupboards and found the fixings for oatmeal raisin cookies, which we took to our Cub Scout Den meeting tonight. Thanks, Rebecca, the aprons are fantastic - I love the design, the durability, and the fabric!

name pillowcase . . .

This was a request from my daughter for a birthday party she went to yesterday ~ a pillowcase with the birthday girl's name on it. It was also a great way for me to practice using my blanket stitch on my machine ~ this is my first project where I successfully used it.

math used to be my strongsuit . . .

I'm working on a custom order right now with some Wee Woodland fabric ~ I ordered a fat quarter stack of the flannels so I could get all the prints and have been trying to figure out the math to squeeze two baby quilts out of it. I have some additional half yard cuts for the bindings and think I may be needing those for the blocks too . . .

and this was a half hour window of "happy" for our little guy yesterday ~ he gets these windows between his not wanting anything to do with me cause he's too busy playing with his trucks, and his not-so-fun adjustment from two to one naps lately ~ don't you just want to squeeze those little cheeks?!

boys aprons are in the shop . . .

A fun little photo shoot with some cutey pie nephews and four aprons are in the shop! Thanks for your help sis!

giveaway winners . . .

So after adding up all the unique comments (162) plus followers (63) plus Facebook fans (93), I had a number of 318 entries. Off to the random number generator I go . . . and back to my spreadsheet . . . and the winners are . . .

Vesuviusmama (apron and purse) and Kristin (book and charms)

Thanks everyone for entering and supporting me as I opened up my Etsy shop! Today I listed my first girls' apron, and a batch of boy aprons is ready to go in the shop; I just need to get some pics with a couple nephew's first.

Fall Giveaway Day!

And the winners are . . . Vesuviusmama (apron and purse) and Kristin (book and charms)

Let me introduce myself! I'm a stay-at-home Mom of four beautiful kids and for the past decade I have been sewing and quilting as a part-time hobby. Well, now that my youngest is a year old and sleeping throught the night (finally!), I've decided that I have the time and energy to sew and quilt for people beyond my own family. So I'm joining Etsy and today is opening day at my shop! Please take a look at some of the quilts I've made for it so far, and I'll be adding new items soon!

I have two giveaways up for grabs ~ first up is some handmade items ~ one of my Criss Cross Applesauce purses AND a childs aprons (these are my next items that will be going in the shop!) ~ there's lots of prints to choose from (just check out my last post) and for the apron there's boy prints too!

My second giveaway is for Amy Butler's InStitches to inspire some sewing in your craft room! I'm also throwing in a Fairy Frost charm pack from Michael Miller fabrics ~ it's a stack of 50 5" squares ~ enough to complete a small project!

How do you enter? Just leave me a comment! I'd love it if you visited my shop and told me what your favorite item is or what you'd like to see next!

If you follow my blog publicly or "Like" my Facebook page, you'll automatically get some bonus entries!

Winners will be chosen by a random number generator on Oct 15th.

THANKS so much and GOOD LUCK! And head over to the giveaway page to enter some more!

in production . . .

So I have been sewing, really! It just doesn't look like much, yet!

Fall Into Fall Quilter Bloggers Giveaways . . .

Want to win something homemade or something to use in the sewing room? There is a BIG giveaway day coming up and I'm going to be hosting a giveaway too! I've been working on some projects to start an Etsy shop, so what better way to share what I've made with you, than by giving something away too?

So, if you want to win or host, click on the scarecrow to get taken to all the details and make sure you don't miss out on Oct 1st!