Quick Update...

iphone pic...

THANK YOU for all the wonderful responses to my questions!

I've been busy creating all week... I can't seem to finish one project before I start another one... here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on.

It's a dress for my teenage daughter, I'm also working on sewing her a graduation dress (couldn't find a suitable one). Plus lots of other things...

This is NOT finished! Just pinned and the seams look crooked here but really it's the way it's on the dress form. I saw this tutorial and had to make it- it's a cute style of dress to wear under a t-shirt if you want to.

Some questions for you....

First of all, the Stamp Goddess herself, Ms. Tresa Black nominated me for a blog award... For those of you that don't know Tresa is a creative guru, a fellow CTMH consultant who I've been in "awe" of for years...

The rules of the award are:

*comment on this blog
*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog
*nominate 5 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude
*link to your nominees within your blog post
*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award
*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

I nominate:

Traci at Amazing Mae

Kathryn & Melissa at Nanny Goat

Jenni & Michele at Create a life you love

Stacie at The Creative Crate

Angie at Bushel & a Peck.

Okay, This time it's me that has some questions... some things I've been wondering about lately and knew that someone out there would probably know how to answer them:

1-Storage... specifically scrapbook storage. I have a Cricut and it's on a shelf by my desk, I've been wanting to use it more but am having an organization/storage problem.... how do you store your cartridges? Where to you keep your machine? Any creative ideas out there for me.

2- Quilting. I learned to quilt a long time ago in High School (AWESOME Home Ec teacher), back then it was all hand quilting. I've got the "piecing" part down for the most part but was wondering about the actual quilting. If you are doing a small project (like a bag or baby doll blanket) and don't want to send it out to be machine quilted, how do you do that? I have a Designer 1 from Husquvarna Viking... do I need another foot? Can I just quilt straight lines? What batting do you use? Warm & Natural, Fusible fleece etc? Can anyone point me towards a good tutorial.

3- Also- Quilting... does anyone know of a good tutorial for raw edge machine applique? I'm pretty much just guessing at this point.

4- For you bag makers out there what's your fav way to line it? Foam, Canvas, Fuse a Shade, Warm & Natural? Ideas suggestions? I just pretty much try something new each time I make a so I thought I'd ask.

5- Does anyone have a source for a dense Foam... like you would line a camera bag with?

6- I'm looking for vintage letters (as in alphabet)... anyone have any good online sources? I need to hit my local antique mall... when I type letter "a" on etsy I end up with a zillion responses.

7- Oh just for fun, anyone know how to keep a teenager to keep her room clean ? LOL!

Oh, Since I had a few questions about it... I'll share the Garth Brooks story with you... soon.

A few scrapbook pages...

Not that you could tell from my blog content lately, but I love to scrapbook, in fact I still call my craft room my "scrapbook room" even though I have just as much sewing stuff in here as scrapbook.
I've been sewing like mad lately and am MAKING myself take a break (just a week or so..) a couple of Christmases ago I sewed so much that I burned myself out majorly and didn't touch my machine until April.... so in order to prevent a "burn out"... I've been making myself sit down and scrapbook this week.
I am a Close to My Heart consultant, a couple of years ago, before my kids and church activities took over my night times, I used to teach scrapbook classes and had a monthly club.. I LOVED it, I really love to teach people how to craft, that's probably why I enjoy making the sewing tutorial's so much.... Since my clubs haven't been running, I've not been as good to sit down and make time to scrapbook..... The page above was made at the CTMH album retreat in January... I knew I had the perfect pictures to add when I got home.
I am still a consultant and hold out hope that our evening schedule will settle down sometime and I can start my clubs up again. As for now, I just place orders for friends and family.. so if you need anything let me know!

still needs "something"

Another one from the Album Retreat

inspired by a page on another consultants site...
close up of button trees

yes, it's THAT Mr. Brooks :-)

Happy Birthday...

So this week it was my birthday... I got some AWESOME hand made gifts from my friends and my Mom... watch for photos tomorrow... It's almost 11pm and I am going to make myself go to bed... (but I can't since I drank too much diet coke at the Hannah Montana movie tonight!--- which was actually a good movie)...

Oh- also, I'll get the questions from the skirts answered this weekend...

Inexpensive Bed canopy

A few years ago, The bombay company kids had this cool "canopy" crown  for sale. I loved it and in the back of my mind thought "one day I'll buy that"...we'll one day didn't come soon enough,  and they went out of business. You would think it would be easy enough to find another one but it was not.... Lots of looking online and only super pricey (like $1000 give me a break!) ones....

So I headed off to my local craft store trying to find something that would work... and I found it... It's a planter like as in flower planter.... I just hung it upside down and it was only $10...

The drapes are from IKEA they are just basic white sheer drapes... I then went though my ribbon stash and sewed all different ribbons to the top and tied them to the canopy... really easy!! And less than $30 all together...

Here's a close up---  I hope you can see it, I need a better picture...

Also, I have shared pictures of the room before but have a couple I haven't posted before... lampshade is from IKEA, one of my favorites.. it has birds embroidered all over it.

I painted the picture... just need to get it framed, someday.....

Q&A

I'm compiling a list of questions about the skirt tutorial I posted yesterday. If you have a question about the skirt, just leave a comment and I'll answer them together in the next post.

And thanks for all the LOVE! Seriously, thank you.

VERY exciting news!

So a very exciting thing happened to me last month. I was asked to be a Moda Bake Shop designer!

I was SOOOOOO excited! I didn't dare say anything until I had my first post up over there, but today I have my first tutorial on the Moda Bake Shop...

Check it out! It's a little girls skirt (yes, another one... I'm in my "skirt phase")

Owl applique, from Amazing Mae (click on owl applique pattern on her side bar)

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added: If you are looking for another version of the patchwork skirt I've made a new and improved tutorial. You can see it here:

*edited to add.... hi... I feel terrible that I have to add this... but this skirt tutorial is provided for your own FOR FUN at home use ONLY, please do NOT take this and make or sell a pattern of it, or produce it for commercial sale.. I want to keep putting this stuff up for free and to share, but only if everyone can play nice!****

Easter Dress...

Thanks for the kind words on the Easter Dress... the pattern is Macy by Children's Corner (picture below) If you are in the Louisville area, they carry them at The Smocking Shop.. otherwise I'm sure you can get it online.

I made a few changes to the pattern:

- I used a contrast fabric for the ruffles

- I used piping around the collar between the ruffle and the dress (see it on the closer shot below, it's "candy cane" piping)

-I added a sash.. This was pretty easy. I took a string and wrapped it around my daughter in the same place I wanted the sash... (it took 2 strings, and I tied them in a bow). Then I took the strings and cut 2 pieces of 5" wide fabric cut on the bias (by the length of the string).... Then folded it in half, sewed and pressed it. I put a big button hole in the side to feed the sash through one side.

I hope that makes sense... email me if you have questions.

I cut the sash on the bias because I like the way it "lays" on the bias, but to save fabric you could cut it on the selvage.

Looking for more tutorials???

I have some AMAZING friends... I'm totally surrounded by creative people that inspire me every day!! I thought I'd give them a little "shout out"..... Many of them don't have craft blogs but a few do... so I thought I'd share some of my favorite tutorials from some of my "Kentucky Peeps"... 

Traci at Amazing Mae has totally figured out how to refashion and make it cool.. .like a million times cooler than if you had just made it out right... She made this cute dress from her husbands old shirt!! How cool is that!!! And SHE FIGURED IT OUT and started doing it before it was "cool" ... She just dreamed up the idea! Everyone is catching on now... here are some others she's made with links to her blog..

Dress from Man's shirt

Here are a few of her other "refashions"... pillowcases, tablecloths, sheets, bandanas she's thought of it all.. nothing is safe LOL!! 

a few others...

Girls shirt from vintage fabric

Baby Bib set - machine applique

She LOTS of tutorials on her site.. check them out at www.amazingmae.blogspot.com

Jenni & Michele at All you Need is a Fat Quarter... made this super cute skirt from an old dress... I'm going to raid my closet to see what could be in there...

Kathryn & Michele at Little Nanny Goat made this AWESOME banner! Seriously how cute it this... Kathryn took the time to do a tutorial for anyone that wants to make one... check it out... They have taken the time to put up alot of tutorials.... scrapbooking, decorating, cooking... seriously TONS of ideas.

The Run for the Lillies...

We have had another busy week around here... today I got to go to the Kentucky Oaks... it's the "girls" Kentucky Derby- the Fillies run for the Lillies and the boy horses (what are they called?) run for the Roses tomorrow... The Oaks is the "locals" derby... We have lived here 14 years and ITS ABOUT TIME that I went.. next year we are going to the Derby (I've just decided, we'll see if it works... it's hard to get tickets)

We had a wonderful time with some great friends.. then a yummy dinner afterwards. Today was "pink" day at the track in honor of breast cancer awareness... as you can see, I was totally "pinkified!"

Have to clean the house for a Derby party... then next week - I'm locking myself in my craft room.... lots of project halfway finished.