Happy New Year!

Many other bloggers have been talking about their past year and looking forward to the next. Well last year I didn't make any specific goals to look back on now. I will just give you my thoughts on the last year which are a few.

3. My family is healthy and doing well. God has blessed us tremendously and provided for us in so many ways. I am so thankful for His care and concern for us over the past year.

2. I didn't sew a whole lot of garments but I learned a lot by what I did make. I am pleased with this years progress.

3. I finished 3 sweaters. I began 2 of them this year and finished up one started a couple of years ago. This was awesome progress for me. Yeah!!

Now, as for looking forward. I am not into New Years Resolutions. I never keep them. I think I have a commitment phobia. As soon as I think I have to do something I don't want to do it no matter how much I like the activity. I am such a rebel! So instead of resolutions I will nail down a few things I would like to accomplish. But remember there is no pressure here. Since I like to keep this blog mostly crafting I will restrict myself to crafty accomplishments. If I went through the things I would like to work on in my personal life the list would go on, and on, and on.

1. I want to purchase better quality fabric. I have a tendency to gravitate toward good deals. I need to put more quality stuff into my stash that I would actually want to wear. I also want to concentrate on coordinating fabrics and not just purchase things singly that I later have to find something else to match.

2. I want to spend more time crafting and not just vegging out. My main time for crafting is the evening and I am often pooped. I don't want to do anything but when I don't do anything I feel like I wasted a bunch of time. I will still veg out I would just like to do it a bit less.

3. I want to finish sweaters (and sewing projects for that matter) within a reasonable amount of time (not two years). I have been getting better at this and want to continue this success.

4. I want to sew more for myself which would then include increasing my fitting skills.

5. I want to make a chart to keep track of my projects. I really like the chart Karen made and want to borrow the idea. This will really help me see my accomplishments and be a motivator. Then at the end of next year it will be easier to count up my projects and yardage. I would really like to know exactly what I made and how much fabric I used. Oh, and I would like to fill the chart by the end of the year.

6. Lastly, I would like to figure out my camera and learn how to take better pictures. My pictures don't have to be museum quality just better than they are now. I really want to get some good pictures of my kids.

I am sure I could think of more but I will just stop here.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

Alaska Quilt Block Shop Hop

Back in 2006 14 different quilt stores across Alaska joined together to create blocks for an Alaskan quilt. I spent the summer of 2006 on a quest for all the blocks. I thought I had them all but it turns out I only have 11. Oh well back to my story. I obtained these block kits through different means and it was a lot of fun. Of coursed I planned to make up this quilt right away. That didn't happen and now almost 2 years later I think I should finally get to it. Wow! I can't believe that I am going to make a commitment to do this. I really want to finish this project and this is the only way I would do it. At first I was going to commit to one a week but I think that might be a bit much. If I do one a week great! But as I am writing this that seems like a huge accomplishment. No! I WILL commit to one a week and I will post my finished block here so you can see my progress. There! I'm going to do it! Now all I have to do is find out where I can get the Thangles that the pattern calls for. This might take me a couple of months. :)

I will leave you with this picture of my kids playing in the trees. They had such a ball.


Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

Final Christmas Gifts

Here is my last Christmas gift for my nieces. This was quite an easy project. I copied an apron that my children had. I used some Daisy Kingdom fabric that I got a few years ago at JoAnn's. I love the contrast binding. This is a close up of the embroidery and the binding.


Oh, my children would like to wish you a belated Merry Christmas and Happy new Year. ( I was attempting to get them to take a nice picture in their Christmas outfits. Not today!)


Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.

Until next time...

Birthday Dresses

I decided to make matching dresses for my nieces for their birthdays and my daughter. I was inspired by a dress a Gymboree earlier this fall. The Gymboree dress was a simple peter pan collared dress with a belt in a polka dot fabric. I loved the simplicity of the design and that it really showed off the fabric. I thought of making the three matching dress in September but it actually took me until late October to make the committment. Only after finding the fabric did I decide to make the dresses.

For my 2 year old niece I used New Look 6842. I was immediately drawn to the plaid dress. This pattern had the cute peter pan collared dress I was looking for. This was actually difficult to find in this size. The complete review is here. If I copied the whole thing here this post would be way too long.
A close up of the bodice. This dress has banded sleeves.

For my 5 year old niece and daughter I used New Look 6309. Essentially it is the same dress except the the shape of the collar in the back and the ruffled sleeve. The review for this pattern is here.

This is my daughter and my 2 year old niece in their dresses.` My other niece doesn't live near us.
In my reviews I tell how I added the belt. I will put this explanation in my next post.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

My Black and White World

Time for another completely unsewing related post.

I like to take pictures but I am not that good at it. I tried taking pictures of my kids on Sunday but it didn't work out at all and I was definitely rethinking why I try. Today I decided to take some pictures while my kids were playing outside since that is where the best light is.

Lately, I have been looking around and noticing how black and white the world is especially when we have a lot of snow. Here are some pictures I took (that I actually like) that display my world. Just so you know the pictures are actually in color. I didn't post process them to black and white.





I don't think I will quit taking pictures quite yet.

Oh, here are my kids. They had a ton of fun playing.

Then to make the perfect end to a fun time as were were leaving I somehow dropped the key to my car. We walked to find a phone (mine was in the car of course) to have my husband come pick us up. We ended up getting the car towed to the dealership where it is sitting waiting to be opened and a new fancy key made (we only have one key because they are so expensive) sometime tomorrow. What a day! Although it could have been worse the details worked out fairly smoothly.

Hope your day ends better than mine. :)

Until next time..

A Call for Help from a Bad Pattern Reviewer

I thought that I would start some reveiws for Pattern Review so that I could enter some items into the Holiday Sewing contest. Of course I have done a few reviews before (although I am not so great at it) but was slightly confused with the picture thing among other things.

I noticed today on my review page the little part that has a number and a C by it. As I read the page I realized that that meant the number of comments on my review. I was so astounded and excited that people actually read my reviews and found them helpful. Now some of those reviews were written in April so as you can see I am really taking a long time to understand all the ins and outs of Pattern Review. Quite a few of the reviews said that my pictures would not come up any bigger than thumnail. I would absolutely hate to come across a review, be very interested to see the garment review and then not be able to see anything other than a small thumbnail. If any of you have read my reviews and this has happened to you I am soooooo sorry. I guess I need a bit of help. What is the best way to put pictures on my reviews? Do I need to use another site? Should I just link to my blog? I know that many of you are loyal PR's and throughly understand how to do this so I would really appreciate your help.

Thank you so very much!!!

Until next time...

Baby Shower Gifts and My Cute New Niece

I went to a baby shower the other day and I actually made the gift. I made simple burp cloths out of cloth diapers and some leftover Amy Butler Fabric. I made two plain ones and one that was personalized that turned out quite cute.

These are pretty easy. here I how I made it.

First I cut out the correct size for my fabric strip. For me it was 5"x18".

Next you should interface the fabric at least where the name would go. I didn't do this but I sure wish I did.

Then print out the name large and bold in whatever font you would like. I picked something pretty blocky because I thought it would be easier to satin stitch.

Center the paper template on the fabric. You can either pin or use weights to keep the template from slipping.

Cut out the letters very carefully. I used a very small rotary cutter to do this. I am not sure scissors would work as well as the scissors would lift the fabric.

Now place on the diaper and stitch around the edges. Lastly, satin stitch around all the edges of the name.

Then make another one by satin stitching on the letters directly onto the diaper.

Okay, now to show you my adorable niece Aleya and the ones I made for her.

Spartan Pullover Turned Vest Finally Finished

It has been a few weeks since my last post but I have been very busy. I have quite a few things to post about but haven't had the time to do the actual posting.

I finished this project for my hubby little bit ago. He has actually worn it a couple of times already AND liked it. The pattern had sleeves but as you may remember (from a post quite a while ago) that I ran out of yarn and couldn't finish the sleeves. I had the entire sweater finished-shoulders seamed neck edge completed--when I tried it on my hubby. It was awful! The dropped shoulders just would not work to finish for a vest. So, I had to unseam (Is that a word?) the shoulders and then rip the whole thing out to the armholes. Then, I proceeded to bind off 20 stitches for each armhole and reknit the front and back following the pattern. To Finish I just did garter stitch edge for the neck and armholes.

The final product:And on my hubby: