Monday, February 22, 2010

Sewing machine blues...

Well...machine had to go to the shop today for a bit of a spa day...just wasn't working quite right and tension was all crazy. So...life on the sewing machine is on hold. (but ideas continue to keep swirling). Maybe I'll get more stuff cut out and maybe even dig out the old sewing machine!! This must be why I have not gotten rid of it yet! :)

One of my new favorite finds today is called Bubble Jet. It's going to let me print on my fabric from my home printer....I wonder how black and white photos will look...experimentation in the future!!

The weekends events have reminded me of how important awareness is. I'm watching the news right at the moment...haven't watched tv for a long time but with the Olympics going on, the tv has been on much more than usual.

Cats are chattering again now that the birds are out. I like this kind of entertainment for them!!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Shoes that smell like chocolate!

On my recent trip to Portland, I fell in love with groundhogs. (shoes!) The soles smell like chocolate. How long this lovely smell will last!??? Highest recommendations on these lovelies...and I have fabric to make a purse that will match! Hooray!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I like great days!


Happy Tuesday. Today has been a great day! :) Now a few minutes left of it to go sew!!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Peasant blouse is complete!

Here it is! The finished product. I love this blouse...so fun to make. I learned many new techniques while making this blouse: elastic several different ways, zipper placement, using my serger, and basic garment construction. The fabric is by Anna Maria Horner and the pattern is called "Funked Out Peasant Blouse" by Lila Tueller.

I had a fabulous weekend headed to one of my favorite places...Portland, OR. It was so good to see the sunshine on the way there, and the green trees!

Also spent a little time taking a drive out in the country. I fell in love with this tree.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

new techniques

Here it is....the funked out peasant blouse. I'm not as funked out as many of the other gals in my class. This pattern is a fun one. I've learned so may things from this class...not quite complete here...you'll notice the neck is quite large. There is no elastic here yet and there is no bottom hem. I love this blouse. It's taught me how to place elastic with 3 different techniques. I've also learned how to place a zipper (have only done this one other time) and just basic pattern technique. I highly recommend taking as many sewing classes as possible! So much to learn! :) I'll have to post the final project when it is complete.


And here is the start to my "Hercules" quilt. It's using tri-rec rulers. This is certainly a lot more work making each of the blocks than I knew what I was getting myself into but well worth it when I am seeing the final result...


And, here is the start of putting it all together. I love this fabric and the colors are so yummy!
I have forgotten one of the middle star rows when I placed it up on the design wall...I was just so excited to get a photo before class was over. This pattern is from the book "Big Print Quilts".

Off to go sew!!