Vintage Apron

I’ve been wanting to make a vintage apron since I made my vintage dish towels.  I finally got a round to it when our church group decided to have a retro night and apron making was on the list of possible activities.  I decided to whip one up just to see how easy it would be to teach to a class.  This one is a little more time consuming than I thought it would be, but I love how it turned out!  I can’t believe it took me a year to make it!

I used this Simplicity pattern:

I feel like I need to put on a pair of heels and some pearls when I wear it!!

Stormy

Daffodils

Last fall I bought a mixture of bulbs to plant.  I’ve never worked with bulbs before, but I just had to try after looking at all the beautiful blooms in my neighbors yard.  They were the first signs of spring and a little color in our Texas desert.  I picked daffodils, irises, and freesia.  So, I just had to share in the excitement in our first blossom of the year.  (It just happens to be daughter number 3’s favorite flower.)

So so so pretty.  I think I’m going to be a big fan of planting bulbs.

Stormy

Sew she did

Anyone who knows me, knows I would rather quilt than sew clothing.  As I have been sewing more and more for my girls (especially modest skirts for my oldest girls), I started thinking about all the clothing my  mom made my sisters and me.  I loved watching my mom working away on her sewing machine with yards of fabric to make matching dresses for the four girls.  (Not as much was made for my two brothers.  Sorry guys!)  She made us Easter dresses, summer dresses, Christmas jammies and outfits, play clothes,  stuffed animals and doll clothes.  The list goes on and on.  It was so much cheaper to sew than to buy.  So, sew she did.  I thought I would share a few of my favorite outfits of years gone by. 

Don’t you just love my mom’s dress?  (That’s me on the left, Steffanie on the right and Shellie in the pink.)

The year of the gaucho pants.  Aren’t they great?!!  You can tell my oldest sister Stacie just loves hers! Lol

I love this one.  We were all so proud of our fancy new clothes! 

Anyway, thanks Mom for all the years of sewing!!  Hopefully my girls will sew for their girls one day too.

Stormy

Skirt Tutorials

Easter is just around the corner, which means I’m starting to think of what kinds of dresses/skirts to make for my girls.  I’ve already picked up some great fabric at Hobby Lobby, and now I’m looking for patterns.  Here are a few skirt tutorials I’ve come across that are high on my To Do List.

The first is such a fun and easy twirly skirt from House On Hill Road.  It had to be high on my list.

I love, love, love this ruffle skirt pattern from craftsew.com. I think rufflefabric.com is going to be getting a big order from me soon.

 

I’ve had my eye on this twirly skirt for quite a while.  I think it’s about time I made one.  You can find it over at 7layerstudio.com.

And last, my older girls are growing out of all my kids patterns. So, I’ve been on the look out for more patterns to fit them.  I came across this one at stop staring and start sewing that is a must.

Now, I better get moving so I can get my gorgeous gals (and guy) outfitted in time.

Stormy

Finished Postage Stamp Quilt

Last January I started a PSIQUILT postage stamp quilt-along.  I was super careful and pinned every single corner.  The finished top was awesome.  I’d never had so many corners match up so perfectly.  I decided I wanted to quilt it diagonally through all the squares.  But if I did that, I would have to pin together the quilt sandwich and quilt it with my regular sewing machine.   (Sewing straight stitches on my quilting machine is next to impossible.)  I don’t like to pin/baste quilts.  At all. So, my beautiful quilt sat there folded up in the corner for a year while I pieced and quilted about 12 other quilts.  Last week, I decided I was tired of looking at my poor sad quilt top.  The only way it was going to get finished was to put it on my quilt machine.  So, I quilted a large flower pattern on it instead.  It turned out beautifully!  And…. it’s finished.  Yeah!  It’s currently folded across the bottom of my bed so I can admire it all the time.

This is also the first large quilt I hand stitched the binding on.  I’ve always been so impatient to get my quilts finished, I machine sew it on.  But, I like the professional look of the hand stitching.  So, I think that’s what I will stick with.  (Even though it took me four hours!  Maybe my time will improve with practice.)

Stormy

Baby “Swoon” Quilt

A friend of mine is having her fourth baby soon. (Third boy!)  Her baby shower is this week.  At first, I was going to make her a couple of flannel receiving blankets, but then I started my “Swoon” quilt!  I said I was going to use the pattern to make a few baby quilts didn’t I?  So, here is the first one.  I was a little nervous about using gray as my background, but I think it turned out super cute. 

What do you think?  Does gray make a good neutral?

Stormy

Swoon-Along

I’m a big fan of Thimble Blossoms.  I just love Camille’s book and her patterns she puts out.  That’s why I was so excited to hear that a “Swoon-Along” just started on Flikr.  I bought the Swoon pattern a few months ago, and for Christmas I found an awesome Black Friday sale on the quilt kit as a Christmas present to (ahem)  myself.  I also just started piecing the big beautiful stars last week!  So, if you want to go check out what I’m talking about, go here.  If not, you can just look at my 3 new star blocks. 

 

It’s such a great block, I’m thinking of making a few baby quilts using this pattern too.

Stormy