Potholder Pass 2 Assignments Are Out

I just emailed out the last of the assignments. My heart jumped to my throat twice when I discovered that two names were on the list twice. I think that I sorted all of that out though. I believe that I accommodated everyone who requested no international shipping. I assigned swappes randomly by drawing numbers. I did redraw if I noticed that a sister was sewing for her sister or that a person was sewing for the same person as last time. I am not sure I caught all of those instances though. If you did not receive an email, contact me right away. If you did and there is a problem, let me know as well and I will try to fix it. Now it is time to sew!

Potholder Pass Round 2 Closing Today

The sign ups for Potholder Pass Round 2 are ending this evening. I will assign partners and send out email messages over the weekend.
*****If you have not received a confirmation email from me saying that you are on the list for Round 2 and believe that you have signed up/want to join, please email me tonight. I responded to each request to join. If you did not get a message back from me, I did not receive your email.*****

This swap should be a lot of fun. The group has nearly doubled in size since Potholder Pass Round 1. We currently have 64 members from all over, including the UK, Canada, all parts of the US (even Alaska!), France, and the Netherlands.

It's not too late to join but it will be tomorrow!

Bunny Tail Hat

My son had emergency surgery on his tongue last night. He slipped in the snow about a week ago and hit his chin and bit his tongue. The bleeding increased so last night he had to have it cauterized and stitched. Really. The poor kid isn't feeling well today and asked me to sit with him as he napped this morning. So, I watched my biggest baby sleep while my littlest was napping in her crib...and I finished this!

This is the Bunny Tail hat from Itty-Bitty Hats. It's called Bunny Tail because you are supposed to include a pom pom bunny tail above the rolled brim in the center back. I skipped that because it didn't make sense to me. A bunny has ears on his head but not a tail!

It's a super cute hat. I wish I could have gotten a straight on picture but my model wasn't cooperating. I had to distract her from pulling the hat off simply to get these shots!

3 More Blocks To Go!

Since I last updated you on my progress, I have completed 6 more blocks of 4. As you can see, I just have 3 more to go but guess what? I ran out of white Kona cotton! All that is needed is one more yard but I am not sure when I will have a chance to get out to the fabric store. It's killing me! In the meantime, I might work on the layout (this is not the final layout by any means--I just randomly placed them) and sew some blocks together so that I can get started on the sewing of all the empty windows. I really want to finish!

Friday Night Sew-in

I joined Heidi's Friday Night Sew-in. Why not? What else do I do on a Friday night?

I managed to make a little more progress on my cathedral window quilt. I went from the pile above to a completed block of 4 windows and another block of 4 windows pinned and ready for handsewing.

Inspiration Board

Now I have an inspiration board too! Everyone is always talking about their inspiration boards and they make good sense so I finally made myself one while on my embroidery kick. I covered a bulletin board with linen and embroidered a needle and thread. My favorite part is the fact that the thread is knotted at the end with a French knot. I will use it mainly for the pictures of children's clothing that I cut out of catalogs. I already have a couple of summer dresses up there that I would like to make for my girls and an applique idea for my son's t-shirt.

Reminder: If you are interested in signing up for the Potholder Pass 2 (see the button on my sidebar) please do so soon. The sign up ends in about a week. I will then try my best to get everyone's assignments out by March 1st. The group is up to 46 people already, including many new members this round. All are welcome!

Coats and Clark Thread

The thread that I won from the Sew, Mama, Sew True Love Contest arrived today! My son and I had a little pyramid building fun with it. I am intrigued by the multicolored threads. I've never used them before but think that they could be fun for quilting or topstitching. Thanks again Sew, Mama, Sew and Coats and Clark!

Pot o' Gold Skirt

After stitching those 100 hearts, I got the embroidery bug. I came up with another use for the backstitch. I made this little St. Patrick's Day skirt for my daughter. I made the pocket appear to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I just love all the colors of embroidery floss!
I added this picture because I love how it looks in the sunlight. The colors are most accurate here too.

If you'd like to make one, this is what I did:

Buy 1/4 yard of some shamrockish material and square it up. Measure the width of the material. Mine was 42". Fold in half, right sides together width wise and sew a 5/8" seam. Then fold it together length wise with right sides facing out and press. You will have the finished hem (ironed edge) on the bottom.

Cut a piece of linen (I used a linen look blend) to the same width (in my case 42") and the proper length to get the overall skirt length that you desire. Mine was about 12" long. My daughter is 4. Again, sew the side seam.

Then I attached the linen tube to the hem tube with right sides together and raw edges together. I used an overlock stitch (no serger here). Then trim the seam and press the seam up. Top stitch.

Then I followed Rae's pleated pocket tutorial for her pleated pocket but sized it down to make a 3 1/2" band at the top and smaller pocket. And I gathered the pocket rather than making pleats. Stitch the pocket to the skirt. For best placement, have your child try it on and reach their hand down.

Then make an elastic casing. I used 1" elastic.

Finally, sew your rainbow.

I wish I had taken pictures along the way but things were too busy here today. It's school vacation week.

Cathedral Windows Quilt Progress

At the risk of boring you all with another update, I thought I'd show you my progress on the Cathedral Window quilt. It has doubled in size! It is now about 36" by 36".
I also wanted to answer some questions that I have been getting. I am using this tutorial. However, I chose to hand sew the windows closed rather than using machine stitching.
Most of the fabrics are Anna Maria Horner, the Garden Party and Good Folks lines and the Little Folks voile. I am also using two fabrics from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection, Welcome Road Pink and Pocketbook Green. Additionally, there are two Michael Miller prints, aptly called Mezzanine Pink Stained Glass and Mezzanine Green Stained Glass.
This is one of the Michael Miller prints and it makes for one of my favorite windows. All the window fabrics are fussy cut in order to center certain designs or to eliminate certain colors, etc.
I'm not sure how big I plan to make the quilt. It will probably be lap size because I have no plans for putting it on a bed.
My next goal is just another row of 4 blocks of 4!

Thank you to everyone who has congratulated me for winning the Sew, Mama, Sew's True Love contest. In fact, I learned about winning from one of you! I'm very excited and am set with thread now for the foreseeable future. I've been having a little fun with the kids and told them that they are to refer to me as "Oh Grand Prize Winner" today instead of "Mommy." It lasted most of the morning before they tired of it!

Skirts for Haiti

Thanks to KT Quilts I learned about a wonderful project. Randi is asking people to sew skirts for the girls in Haiti and send them to her for distribution. I made up one little skirt that I could be worn by my daughter who is 4, but is long enough to be worn by a taller thinner girl and still reach below the knee. It is bound to fit someone perfectly. I added a little pocket using Rae's pleated pocket tutorial. I made the pocket about 2" smaller than she calls for in order to make it child size. Kids love pockets so I am hoping this pocket makes a little girl happy. I purposely put the pleat off to one side and a button to the other and now I just wonder if it looks like I couldn't center things. I am not sure that any degree of wonkiness is for me.
There is still time to sew skirts before the March 1st deadline.

True Love Contest

Sew, Mama, Sew is holding a True Love Contest where you are asked to use their cloth Valentine tutorial and make it your own. I made this Valentine for my husband. I started by looking for inspiration and Googling Valentine's Day sayings. I found this quote:

I had a piece of fabric that I had been wanting to embroider or quilt with text. I used it to embroider the saying from an unknown author. My plan was to embellish the card by creating 100 hearts on the verso. It was a lot of fun though half way through I decided that I was a little nuts. I was tired of embroidering hearts when I was only up to about 23! But here they are, all 100: 97 in back stitch, 2 in button form and one in chain stitch.

I hand stitched the envelope closed with X's.

And finally, I made a simple stamp using pinking shears and a heart stitched only down the center so that it has a three dimensional look. I also embroidered my husband's name on the front.

This Valentine is tucked away until Valentine's Day but it isn't a secret. There was so way that I had enough time to stitch 100 hearts without my husband seeing it so I put him to work double checking my counting!

Potholder Pass 2 Signups

I have been getting emails on a daily basis from people inquiring about Round 2. I decided just to go ahead and start accepting names. You may sign up for the Potholder Pass 2 beginning today, through the end of February. We will begin sewing at the beginning of March and you will send your potholders out by April 1st.

The rules will be the same as last time:

1. Potholders should be a minimum of 6", preferably 7-8".
2. Please use Thermolam or like material in the potholder-at least one layer, preferably two.
3. Try to accommodate your recipient's color requests and their taste.
4. Send a set of 2 potholders. They can be identical or coordinating.

Please send me an email message with the following information:

Your name

Mailing address

Color Preferences

Email Address

Blog Address (not required to join swap)

Flickr Account name

Will you ship internationally? Yes or no.

Do me a favor and include all of this information in one single email so that I can cut and paste it onto my list. Please don't make me hunt you down because it takes too much time!

It will be a secret swap which means that you will not know who is sewing for you. Participants can post mosaics of potholders that they like on Flickr for inspiration but it is not necessary. Sending along extras with your potholders is of course permissable but also not required. This is intended to be a fun for all, stressfree swap!

Grab the button in my sidebar for your blog and join the Flickr group where you will post pictures of the potholders that you create.

Come join the fun!

Hearts, hearts and more hearts

I made this set of stuffed hearts in 2004. My son was one and I felt like he was spending an inordinate amount of time in his highchair eating. I made these to give him something to look at for the month of February and they have come out each year since. They hang on the chandelier above our dining room table.
The material was part of a swatch book of drapery material that I picked up at a yard sale about 12 years ago. I like that they aren't all the traditional red, pink and white. I simply cut the heart shapes with pinking sheers and hand stitched the edges with coordinating embroidery floss.
This year, they are giving Penny something to look at from her highchair!

Valentine's Day Covered Button

I have covered buttons and then used them for hair elastic embellishments before but I had never thought to embroider on the fabric when covering a button. I got the idea from a tutorial posted on Sew, Mama, Sew in celebration of Valentine's Day. I haven't really done a lot of embroidery before, just cross stitch. I attempted a heart filled in with back stitches. I'll have to keep practicing but it looks cute in my daughter's hair and she loves it!

Star Wars Birthday Party

Lately, much of my creative energy has been directed toward preparing for my son's 7th birthday. He wanted a Star Wars themed party. Above are the goody bags. I made quick little R2D2s out of construction paper and added a couple of "jewels" to each for the robot's buttons.
I made a paper mache Death Star pinata complete with shooting green lasers. It was filled with Hershey Kiss chocolates. The kids broke it with a long, thick dowel painted with blue glitter paint. The end was wrapped in silver duct tape for the handle. It broke really well, slowly in bits and pieces. They would all scatter to pick up the candy, the next would hit the pinata and they would squeal and run around and pick up more.

This one makes me laugh. I found a picture of Princess Leia and my husband printed it out on 9 sheets of paper that I taped together. I then covered the bulk of the poster with clear adhesive contact paper. The kids wore a C3PO mask that I made so that they couldn't see and attempted to "Pin the Bun on Princess Leia." The bun is brown yarn wrapped and hot glued to cardboard. The picture above was staged! They didn't really get quite so close to the correct placement.

The kids also did a craft project. They made TIE fighters out of egg cartons and cardboard. I had precut the wings and pre-glued the egg carton bodies. The kids decorated the wings and then we hot glued them onto the bodies for them. They spent awhile flying them around the house, especially around the Death Star pinata. There were a few TIE fighter crashes requiring hot glue repairs which seemed to excite them to no end.

My son asked for a lightsaber cake. Cake decorating is not my strength but he was very pleased nonetheless. All in all, it was a great success! I am having a hard time believing that my little boy is 7 though.

To make this post relevant to a mainly sewing blog, he has requested a Star Wars quilt. I am mulling over ideas.