The Crabs

Here are the Crabs! The inspirations behind the shirts! Really they are happy kiddos most of the time! I thought a photo of them actually wearing the shirts would be nicer than them just laying on the drive way :)

Toadstool Backpack

I finished a project from my favorite sewing book! I am so happy with it! Gina picked out the colors and sewed the button on the door. I can not tell you how much I love MELLY and her sweet patterns! This will be Gina's first backpack for her first day of Kindergarten (insert weeping momma here).She thought it would be cute to get a picture of her opening the door :)

Of course Adler loves everything I make ;) He wanted his picture taken too!

Another Sweet Bunny

A great little friend of ours turns 4 this month! What better gift for a cute little mother hen than a bunny and baby bedding! I love using these little quilts to practice my machine quilting. I did some free motion circles and waves on this cutie.

Was it Jealousy?

I was using my ANCIENT Kenmore to quilt my 4th of July quilt when all of a sudden my trusty Modern (circa 1999) Kenmore won't turn on at all!!! I think she is jealous that the old lady was getting sewing time? I have no idea! But how will I finish everything I need to? Maybe (hopefully) she just needs a new pedal/power cord. I am seriously in tears right now. I would love a new machine, but I have a sick attachment to her. She was my first new to me machine. The old lady is a piece of junk! I don't like her, and was just using her to quilt. She was actually 2 steps from being sent away before I realized I could lower the feed dogs to free motion quilt.

I am going to run and get my sister's power cord (she has the same machine). I hope this works!

Hello Kitty Sewing

Gina got a Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine for Christmas, and I love it (she does too)!!! I finally got it set up for her to sew. She was so excited sewing on her own. She is making a quilt out of her fabric stash. Oh yes she has a stash. Every time we are at a fabric shop she has to have a couple of FQ's. She had a sweet rhythm going, sew, clip, press until the ironing accident occurred. She was so excited laying her fabric on the ironing board that she burned the back of her arm. Nothing major, your typical sewers burn :) However she decided that I should do her ironing for her, for a little while anyway. I can not tell you how much it blesses me that my 5 year old loves to create alongside me. I hope it lasts through the teen years, but time will tell I guess :)

Gifts for the Girls

Super Bowl Sunday is so much fun for the guys, but what are the girls to do? I decided it would be fun to make and give the little girls at our party some new fashion accessories. My sister has some of our old friends staying at her house so finally there are more girls than boys around. (well the boys still out number the girls by one, but who's counting?) I made them initial shirts and leg warmers! This all started because I wanted to make little Annalye (8 mos old) some baby leggies like I made for Adler when he was little, and then I lost control. Gina loves the pairs I have made for her, so I thought her little girl friends might like them too!

Gina Loves her outfit for today!

This is the next project I need to get done. A Birthday shirt for my nephew that has a Birthday on Tuesday! I know I love procrastinating ;)

*The first Pic has a peek of the swap doll with hair. I still need to style it and dress her. I think I love her!

Little Blue Bird of Happiness.

One of Kerry's coworkers had to leave work early yesterday because his wife went into labor. I had to quickly come up with an economical gift. So of course sewing from my stash came to mind. I have never met his wife, but who doesn't love a new baby. I am still on a little high from the Candy Corn softie I created, so I thought I could create a cute little Blue Bird toy. The inspiration was the little blue bird hanging from the carriage on the fabric. I put a little bell in while stuffing so it would make a sweet little sound when baby shakes it. I can try to make a tutorial if anyone would be interested. I also whipped up some sweet baby shoes. The onesie is just a given. I love how quickly this gift came together.

It is a cruddy rainy day here, so sorry for the bad pic.

* I have the placement of the eye wrong on the bird, I also want to add some legs :)*

Fat Quarter Vintage sheet swap!

Just a little info for those of us that missed out on the Vintage sheet swap. I am going to host my own beginning August 1st! Please comment below if you are interested, and be on the lookout for sign up information. I am waiting until then because Elizabeth (the host of the current swap) asked that I wait until her swap is over. Tell your friends! This is a fun swap!

My current projects.

I am trying to finish up a couple of swaps. This is a WIP for the apron swap. It has been so hard so hard finding time to work on these with everyone being sick here.

This little summer tote and beach towel is for the Not too Shabby Summer Swap. It is ready to post, but with Adler sick I haven't been able to get to the post office.
I need to post a better pic. The bag turned out super cute! You can't tell in this picture though!

Birthday gifts

This Saturday was busy with 2 birthday parties in a row! The first was a bowling party for one of Gina's friends, Avery. Avery is in our playgroup, and her mom and I were friends pre kiddos. I made Avery a twirly skirt (my own pattern) with a flower pocket, matching shirt, hairbows, and a bracelet. I love the way it turned out, I am pretty sure she did too.
Next was my nephew Carter's 3rd birthday. It was Soccer themed in their backyard (pics to follow), It was a great time! We call him Carter Bug, so I made him this shirt with a disney inspired bug. He loved it!
It was a busy but super fun day!

Mother's Day Gifts :)

I had to wait to post this until after Mother's Day. These are the gifts I made for the special Mother's in my life.

For my wonderful sister, who is not my mother but acts like it (LOL), I made this adorable bag. It is a slightly modified version of Amy Karol's pleated bag. I took a picture of her boys and put them on one side. The denim on the bag is from a pair of my capris I didn't care for. I used the pocket on the other side of the bag.
I also made this cute fabric flower pin. Finally a no cash wallet from Amy Karol's book. I filled the purse with her favorite juice and cookies.
For my Mom, my sister and I put together a pedicure basket. A ped egg, nail polish, nail stickers, and cuticle salve. I made her a fabric flower brooch. The bottom box is full of our home movies. My sister took all of the Vhs movies and transferred them to dvd. It was a good mother's day.

A lot of catching up to do

I am so far behind! I will start by posting St. Patrick's Day and get myself caught up :)

St. Patrick's Day is also my Dad's Birthday, so that morning Gina and I made a batch of Birthday cupcakes (Golden cake with Rainbow chip icing)!

Of course Gina is wearing yet another mommy made skirt and bows (shirt by Target :) ) We loaded up the Birthday goodies and headed to my Dad's office to surprise him! We met my sister and her boys there! I think 'Grandpa Pat' was excited to see us!
Gina had to explain that the card and present were for him, because you know it's your birthday. And yes my adorable nephew is sporting a mohawk. It was taller the day before, my sister trimmed it a bit. He totally asked for one... to cute!
Adler spent the entire time being held by Peggy (my step mom). He seems to enjoy her and she Loves holding babies :) It's a win win situation. I can't believe how far I have fallen behind in posting. It seems like the time from St. Patrick's day to now is a total blur! We celebrated this day, then jumped right into Easter preparations, then we loaded up and went to the lakehouse to get it ready for the Summer! (YEAH) I can't wait for the summer! I will post Easter later today or tomorrow! We played lots of games with the adults and some of them got physical LOL!

Last year's Easter outfit

Okay I have no real inspiration for this year's outfit, by the way I am a BIG Procrastinator! Last year I had the whole Peep inspiration, my daughter loves marshmallows! This year I need to consider a coordinating outfit for little Adler. Any suggestions would be more than welcomed! I thought about making a cute little tie onesie like http://theskyispink.blogspot.com/ Lera does. They are too cute!

You cant' really see my skirt in this photo, but I made my own pattern with ruffles out of Amy Butler fabric to coordinate with Gina. Her skirt was made out of Michael Miller disco dots (I love this), and a pattern made by me. I think I will attempt making a tutorial for this skirt next week, I may have to wait until after Easter. I am hosting the Family at our house, yet another thing I a procrastinating about! Oh well I am sure it will come off beautifully, things always have a way of working out :)

My Funny Valentine

With a new Holiday upon us my daughter asked for a new twirly skirt! How could I say no? I could not stop at just a skirt, new hairbows were in order too. The froggy shirt (Target purchase) was the inspiration for the color combination. I used my own pattern for the skirt along with various fabric scraps. The heart is actually a pocket. Gina seems to always have little treasures she needs to tuck away. She loved this skirt so much she asked if I would take her picture :) As soon as I can figure out how to put the pictures in my blog where I want them I will post some free tutorials/patterns. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

A Cutie Creation

Finally a post about my creations! I know it has only been one day, but this is what I really want to post and share. Don't get me wrong there will be plenty about my family too. My daughter inspires me so much. This little doggie dress and hair bows was made with her interests in mind. I had every intent of selling this set, but the new baby came and time got away from me. The only way to get her to pose for me was letting her have a sucker! Well she poses, but never seems to look at me or be happy without one! I made this simple little jumper with a ruffle accent, then of course ruffle jeans were in order. Hairbows are a must at our house! Gina has curly, crazy hair with a mind of its own, plus she likes picking out the ribbon for me to use. I really like the blue and purple she picked for these. In fact she loves blue and purple so much right now that we are moving her room to give her purple and blue. I can not bring myself to paint over her current bedroom (I will post pics later of it). Look this was supposed to be about me and my sewing and somehow went back to being about Gina Beana.