A Boy and His Truck

My husband's best friend has a truck. It is so near and dear to him that he requested his truck be immortalized on a onesie for his baby boy.

This truck isn't exactly immortalized, since it is just iron-on transfer paper from Michaels. But, until I can figure out how to silk screen this easily, or find someone to do it for me, it will have to do. It would be fun screened several times in lots of different colors, I think. I am pretty darn proud of it though! I'm sure they read this blog, so, what do you think?

I drew three different copies of this until I got it how I wanted it. I'll save you the trouble by putting my jpeg out for you to use. Deal? Just download it here.

Economics of a Sewist

I have a finished quilt top, fabric for backing and fabric for binding, and a stack of soon-to-be ironed quilt squares sitting on my table right now (hiding a pile of j-u-n-k), with backing and binding waiting for those too. The only thing missing is batting.

First comes rent, then comes batting, then come blankets for a baby carriage!

Halloween Table Decor

Today is one of those days... you know, when your freshly cleaned and folded laundry becomes a launchpad for children? Or when your kid gets nailpolish all over your Lucky jeans? Or when a child decides milk is more fun to play in than drink?

Yes. One of those days.

Although my laundry was a failure and my floor needs mopping, I managed to paint some wine glasses. They reflect my mood for the day- shaky. I had a third glass but... the cut on my finger tells the history of that one.

I found some kitschy figurines at Goodwill this weekend (half-off Saturday!) that looked all sweet and charming and made me want to sit down and watch Bambi or something. That is, until I took the black spray paint to them. Now the pastel dog in the grass is a vicous warewolf.

And that quail looks more like a wanna-be raven with sinister eyes.

And the sweet cherub is a sad gargoyle-esque figure.

My "BOO" banner needs to go up, and I need to put something in the wine glasses, and the halloween decorations will be pretty much done for this part of the house. I still want to do a witch silhouette on the wall too.

This tablescape brought to you by this inspirational post from last year. I still love it!

Skirt on a Friday Afternoon

Using this tutorial, I made one for myself. I've worn it twice this week already. I love it. Even though I rounded up too much on the waist and it is sorta big.

My mother would like me to hem it. What do you think? Is it too informal unhemmed to wear to church?

One Yard Wonders Project

I have been inspired by all the bloggers participating in the Fall season of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge so I decided to participate, kind of. Just for one day. I decided to use my hour on a One Yard Wonders project. It looked really simple, really cute, really easy, and I have a few yardages that I'm not super attached to, so I'm okay chopping them up. Alas, the thoughts were deceiving! My one hour turned to two... which was a big deal for me because the house is a mess and I wanted to get some stuff done today.

But she liked it.

Anyway, I made the ballet sleeve dress, and while the concept is really simple, it took me forever to slipstitch the arms closed. And then, the dress was gigantic. Like, it could fit her when she's 6. I purposely hemmed it long so she can wear it for years. SO, if you make this for a small kid, make the width a little narrower than the said 22". K? Thanks. But whatever makes the kid happy.

That Tinkerbell dress is one from our Goodwill trip. $4. And as long as a ball gown on a 1-year-old. :) Oh, and she'd like to share a Cheese-It while she's at it.

Spider Web Table Runner

OK. So I am so, so pleased with this project. The idea popped into my head while I was trying to sleep (I take forever to fall asleep at night, it is ridiculous) and I wanted to jump on it ASAP.

{First off, I know it is still September. But we Arizonians don't get Fall, so decorating with leaves and acorns and scarecrows is just weird to me when you walk outside and it is still 104 degrees. Halloween, however, is so fun that I'll just start early this year. :)}

Go get some black 72" felt from your fabric store. 3/8 yard of it, actually, for this runner! Bring it home and make sure it is cut a lovely, straight 16" wide.

Get yerself a spiderweb design. I drew this one up (8 1/2" square) to trace but didn't end up tracing every single web strand because, lets face it, that would be too much work for a lazy person like me.

Trace the outline of your spider web all over your piece of felt, and use your template as a reference for how to draw the webbing, if you are lazy like me. Otherwise, trace everything from your template. I found a white crayon was much easier to use and see than my other white pencils. I made sure to connect the spiderwebs together through their own little strands... just look at the picture :) Then, time to cut!

You will cut out all the "negative" space from the spiderweb designs, leaving a "border" around the whole thing. Or you could not have a border and it would be all over cool. You will be covered in tiny black felt cuttings, and your children may or may not decide that these would be fun to stick in their ears. Just warning you.

After all that cutting (mine took a few hours... but it was totally worth it!! And to think I was too lazy to cut out the template...) you should have some nifty spiderwebbing going on.

But, alas, the spiderweb is hard to see against my dark table!! Time for Halloween fabric!! Or, orange, since it was cheaper than the actual Halloween stuff at the fabric store. I just got 1 yard, cut it in half long-ways, and sewed the ends together to make a long, narrow(er) runner. Hem all the sides, and add any decorative things you might want. I had the hubs pick up the fabric, and he went the extra mile and picked up some giant black ric-rac. Gold stars in heaven for that one, people. However, after looking at it for a few hours, we decided to chop off the ends. After more time, we took off the ric-rac and stuck to simple. We're weird like that. I'm sure if I had cut more spiderwebs for a longer runner, this look would have been fine, but I wanted to keep my baby's hands from reaching onto the table and yanking it down. That would be a sad day!

I am thrilled! Overjoyed!! Pleased as punch!! And I can't wait for this weekend, when I gather thrifted items to become a spooky display. Stay tuned!

**ETA: The spiderweb template I drew is now available to you if you like! Click here for the PDF. The spiderweb is not nice and symmetrical on purpose; if it were, it would be a snowflake (which, as Robyn already pointed out, would be equally as cool for winter)!!

Such a Tease

I. Love. This.

I'll show you the whole thing tomorrow... right now I'm waiting for the hubs to get back from the fabric store with more orange fabric. :) He's a trooper!

Monday already?

This weekend went by too fast. I probably think that because nothing really happened this weekend to make it particularly memorable, so I feel like I need a do-over. Well, actually I did find some Disney Store brand Princess dresses at Goodwill for CHEAP, so that pretty much made me the happiest mom of two girls you ever did see. They were practically unworn too! Check your thrift stores for their halloween racks- you never know what "dress-up" clothes you might find!

I did a ton of sewing this weekend too. Not really exciting stuff for the most part, but I did finish a baby quilt. Can I tell you how frustrating minkee fabric is??? Ugh. But we ended up recognizing our differences and making it work. :)

The front is made up of 4" squares (4 1/2" cut) with a 4" border.

The back is solid red minkee I found for 75% off- SCORE!

I bound it with some Summer Fun! plaid By Deb Strain. I love how it looks with the back, but it kind of disappears on the front. And, if I weren't a cheap-o, I'd have bought enough to cut it on the bias to make bias binding. But, I'm cheap. :)

I quilted it together by doing a large cross-hatch. I figured I wanted this to be as soft as possible with that minkee, so the less quilting, the better. I used my mom's walking foot machine so it would look good! I didn't quilt at all on the border fabric, just the squares.

The front fabrics are mostly colorful polkadots and stripes, with the occasional fish thrown in :). Can you tell this one is for a boy? I have two girl quilts in the works, so it was nice to have a really, really colorful break with this boy one. Time to toss it in a box and ship it off to wait for its new owner!

Famous, almost.

One of the cool things about having a mom in the Workroom Industry is that every once in a while, her stuff shows up in cool places. We once found a job show up in a magazine ad for another company, it was just in the background of what they were advertising, but still cool. I also helped write a magazine article with her once, which was totally awesome. This month, in the October 2010 Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine (available soon in stores!), a job from last year (or was it two years ago?) made its appearance.

This one is clear in all of our memories around here, because her employee and my BFF- you know her as Kirsten from Maniacal Material Girls- was feeling the woes of first trimester pregnancy and couldn't do much other than eat saltines and sleep for a few days. Poor gal. Anyway, to get the job finished, my mom enlisted all of us kids and our spouses to help tuft the huge cushions. We had an assembly line going in my parent's family room, and it was fun to see Mike wielding a huge needle and thread. After that was all done, Kirsten's husband bagged the cushions... and that was no small task.

So we feel like our efforts were recognized now that those navy monstrosities are out of the workroom and in a magazine. And they look so much better on those chairs than in huge piles!!
I'm sure Kirsten can go into more detail, with some choice words, about this!! Anyway, a BIG thumbs up to my mom and Kirsten who made the cushions and pillows, and the rest of us on the Tufting Team. We're famous. Almost.

Things I've been working on

I've been busy with a few things that have drawn themselves out over the weeks. A few things are finished, and others... well, not as finished! I'm working on something in the One Yard Wonders book that got placed on hold because I don't have any poly-fil. I am waiting patiently for sales and coupons for that, I hate paying full price for things.

First up, my baby's skirt. It is ADORABLE! I want to make 20 more of these skirts and have my girls wear them every day.

Second, I made this green bird pillow for my sister. She got the cute fabric from JoAnn's, if you want to know. I've also seen the print in blue.

This same sister is always trying to come up with fun activities for her kids, and one was paper dolls. I drew these stick figures for her and she colored them, laminated them, and then mounted them on magnetic paper so they would stick on her fridge.

Hi Alisa!!

I had taken a little sewing break this last weekend because I was super busy. I had a concert that I was preparing for, and the only sewing I got done was hemming my performance skirt, a heavy dark blue knit... blech. I was feeling kind of down and aimless for a few days, and I decided to sit down and work on a quilt Monday night... and it was so theraputic. I was happier instantly. I am in a much better mood when I can create something!

Are you working on anything? How many projects do you have sitting around half-finished?? I've lost count here! Here's hoping today has a good naptime. :)

The post in which I thank you profusely

We want to thank you so, so much.

Thanks for all the comments. I was seriously blown away by all the help I was given.
Rachel was swift in her online search and found a closely matching pink puppy on Ebay and let me know about it. Brooke knew of someone who sold the TY pluffies with blankets, Wendy suggested a toy portrait by the same person who forever archived her daughter's lovie in acrylic paint, and Robyn offered website information, and Kris offered Puppy's tan cousin as a replacement.

I was gone most of that day on the hunt for that puppy at Goodwill and in Lost and Founds in stores around our home. No luck. So, when I came home to an inbox full of information, I was close to tears with gratitude!!

But we were seriously lucky with Jennifer's comment, saying she actually HAD a pink puppy. And he was headed for the donation pile. I am sure my squeals were audible in the e-mail I sent to her, and we couldn't be more happy!!

She mailed him off the NEXT DAY and we got him on Monday, complete with a cute sketch of the package's contents on the outside done my Jennifer's daughter. My munchkin was delighted, and Mike and I were shocked to realize how pink the puppy was in its non-grunged state.

I know I don't talk religion much on this blog, but can I just tell you how this was such an answer to prayer??? My girl had been praying that her puppy would be found so "he could be with me forever" every day. My thanks to Jen for stopping by my blog, reading my post, and being willing to send off this critter my my sweet girl.

And thanks to everyone who was so willing to jump in and search with me! I have been telling everyone willing to listen how generous you all are. Thanks a million.