And the SMS giveaway winner is . . .

Congrats to Tamara ~ I'll be in contact with you!

Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day!

Today is the Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Day! and since I've won some very generous prizes from blogger giveaways this past year, I'd like to give to someone else!

These prints are from the Aqua Terra line from Connecting Threads. There is a yard of the Drifting Blossoms print and a quarter yard of the four coordinating prints ~ so that's 2 yards of fabric in total.

Giveaway is open to everyone ~ I will ship internationally. Good luck! And if you follow me, leave an extra comment for a bonus entry.

And it looks like there is GOing to be a big giveaway coming up on my blog, so I hope you visit again!

Sister Sundresses . . .

We were blessed with some beautiful sunshine and bright blue skies today . . . oh, how I love dressing up little girls for Summer . . . good thing my nieces don't mind . . .
linking up to QuiltStory.

Playing with scraps . . .

I had lots of little scraps left over from my Oma's quilt and wanted to play some more with my 'Diamond is a Girls Best Friend' ruler. So I cut out a bunch of little diamonds and had some fun trying out my first round project. It ended up being about 10" accross, too small for a table topper. So I used some insulated batting and finished it off as a pot holder. I don't have a recipient for this right now, so I'll just enjoy it on my kitchen wall for a little while :)

linking up to Quilt Story.

A is for apples and aprons . . .

Another birthday invitation came home and another little apron was made. Instead of the standard cookbook on the side, I skipped the store this time and made a little pouch and recipe cards. My daughter picked out some favorite recipes to put on a few, and we left a bunch blank for the birthday girl to fill in. I couldn't think of a better project for this sweet fabric covered in apples ~ it's called Bite Me from Michael Miller.

the Diamond quilt . . .

I finished off the diamond quilt this week and gave it to the very special someone, my Oma. She has made so many beautiful knitted and crocheted projects for me over the years, and never complains when I send another pattern and more yarn her way. All of my children have 'Oma sweaters' for church, and she just recently made a beautiful Shalom sweater for me and a smaller version for Elayna. While making this quilt, I thought of her often, and all the times she put so much work into something for me.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Fresh Sewing Day and Fabric Tuesday.

more Summer dresses . . .

Chantel has a cousin named Averi and although they're 13 months apart, they are almost exactly the same size. Last year I made them matching Summer dresses, and Chantel was pretty excited when I suggested we do it again this year.I used the Tatum pattern and the fabric is from Riley Blake's Enchanted Garden.
My niece lives quite far away, but hopefully we'll get some pics of the 'matching cousins' when we visit them this Summer.

the Tatum dress by Sew Sweet Patterns . . .

This is one of my favorite dresses I've made lately, or maybe that's because my little model gives it so much personality? Again, I was very impressed with the design, sizing, and finishing touches on this Sew Sweet Pattern. The only modification I made was to make the waistband wrap around because I wanted to break up the white butterflies with some color. I have two more Tatum dresses halfway done in my sewing room, and I'm hoping to finish them up this weekend.

The pattern for the dress is from Sew Sweet Patterns ~ a shop full of patterns for little girls, boys, and dolls. If you'd like to support this shop, please mention in the notes section that you found her through my blog.

And if you'd like to see some more dress reviews from Sew Sweet Patterns, you can see them here and here. Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

WIP Wednesday . . .

This morning I cut up some flannel and batting at my kitchen island while the kids played and now it's waiting to be sewn up into a rag quilt for a sweet little babe born last night . . .I also have two matching dresses waiting for me to get back to (if you want to see some finished ones I've done lately check here and here) . . .

and the diamond quilt top is all pieced together. It needs a good pressing, and then I can baste and quilt it.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

the Elsie dress from Sew Sweet Patterns . . .

This was a quick dress ~ I made three at once, all during one nap time. My favorite details are the ruffles on the shoulders, contrasting band on the hem, and fully-lined bodice. I used a single snap for the back closure.These dresses will be for three of my little nieces, and none of them live near me, so the little model in these pictures is another niece of mine. I'll have to make her one of these dresses sometime soon, doesn't it look so sweet on her?The pattern for the dress is from Sew Sweet Patterns ~ a shop full of patterns for little girls, boys, and dolls. If you'd like to support this shop, please mention in the notes section that you found her through my blog.

Featured Etsy Seller ~ SewSweetPatterns

I've been in Summer dressmaking mode lately, and love working with work-at-home patterns, especially PDF ones that I can print off and start making right away! I discovered an Etsy seller named SewSweetPatterns and this week I'll be featuring three of her patterns. The first one is the GIA dress. This sweet pattern has a pleated skirt, a squared neckline, and has a back closure (I used snaps). I would consider this an advanced beginner pattern. The bodice is fully lined and the pattern bodice is fitted (I would recommend taking a chest measurement before you start cutting). The fabric I used is a cotton, but I think this would also be sweet done up in a knit. My daughter LOVES this dress, she said it was very comfortable, and she insisted on wearing it for a Mommy-date we had that night. Definitely a pattern that I will make again!This pattern is also available with matching doll pattern (wouldn't that be sweet?!) and the seller has MANY other patterns available for dresses, skirts, pants, shorts, aprons, dolls, and even some boy patterns. And you can mix-and-match for some great bundle deals. If you'd like to support this shop, please mention in the notes section that you found her through my blog. And check back this week for two more pattern reviews from her shop!

Miss Madeline dress . . .

I've made several dresses from the Handmade Dress, but this was my first time using this pattern. It was probably one of the quickest dresses I've ever made, and perfect for the beautiful weather we've been having. I see lots more Spring and Summer dresses making their way to my sewing to-do list . . .and this top is the result of cutting off the bottom of a t-shirt that had a big stain on it, and adding the cotton fabric. I didn't use gathering threads, just fed it through the machine quicker than the t-shirt ~ wow, did that save a lot of time!

Linking up to Confessions of a Craft Addict.

15 down, 10 to go . . .

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Finished!

I was asked to make some more scripture bags, and took a bit longer than I'd like to finish them ~ but we had a flu bug go through the house, Spring break, and we had a little family getaway. But now that school is back in, we are back to routine and I'm finding my way to the sewing room again.

I tweaked the sizing of the original pattern so these are a better fit for our Bible/psalm books for church. I'm hoping to sew my girls Spring dresses sometime soon and use the leftover fabric to make some of these for them too.

Linking up to Whoop!Whoop! on Confessions of a Craft Addict.

I am a total copycat . . .

After seeing this beautiful quilt, I was so inspired that I bought the exact same fabric, printed off the exact same pattern, and even got the leftover scraps from Alisa :) This is going to be a lap-size quilt for a very special someone . . .linking up to WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.

too blessed to be stressed . . .

This is a phrase that's entered my mind many times this week, "too blessed to be stressed . . ." It also got me thinking of a couple small positive changes I can make in my life.

Here's some things that made me feel blessed today . . .

Filling up my new magnet board from Livy Lou Designs ~ amazing quality and beautiful little magnets! Such a great way to display business cards and thank-yous in my craft space. I know I have more to add, I just have to start digging around for them . . .

My new notebook, waiting to be filled with all my project ideas so I can stop trying to find back my scraps of paper all over the place . . .Elayna's first knitting project, she LOVES sitting down to knit . . .

Our beautiful sunshine, can it can get any better than this?!

And my project on my cutting table right now, scripture tote bags for a custom order. I'm going to stitch on the Bible verses today, and then I can assemble them.

And this afternoon, my sister and I did a 'kid-swap' so I have cousins playing nicely, while Elayna gets the expertise of her Aunty in scrapbook-making.

Another quilt out of my UFO pile!

This is another quilt top that I pieced a LONG time ago and quilted at the retreat this past weekend. It was supposed to be for my oldest daughter, but we rearranged the bedrooms this year and she now has a double bed. But I just wasn't motivated to keep making these diamond blocks, and it already kind of matches Chantel's quilt, so I finished it off for Alyssa. How is it that my third daughter has four quilts from me now, and my oldest only has two? I better change that before she notices . . . her name quilted in the middle . . .
and both quilts together now. So happy to have them done!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

a productive weekend of quilting . . .

This past weekend was our annual quilt retreat! I helped with the organizing this year, so my morning was a bit of a slow start with checking everyone in, but once I got some time in with my sewing machine I managed to get two twin size quilt tops quilted! I am so glad that these quilts are off my to-do list as the tops were pieced so long ago, it's embarrassing.

This is the first quilt I finished, and after machine-stitching the binding down yesterday, it is now on Chantel's bed. The backing is mostly a pink non-pill fleece with a little bit of purple pieced in. She had requested a soft backing, and I skipped the batting layer ~ it quilted up so easily! I just did a large free-motion meander for the quilting. The pattern is Lucky Stars from Atkinson Designs. And I'm not sure if you can read it, but I quilted her name into the corner of the quilt (my kids LOVE having their names on their things).

If you want to read about our quilt retreat, it's in a guest blogger post at Quilting Gallery today!