We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

Today is the last day of February!

The thing is, I've still got 2 "LOVE" blog posts to share with you. They are almost ready to go and I had intended to finish and get them posted today...

However...

I'm going to extend February by a few days this year. (hmmm... can I really do that?)...

You see, my little one got the stomach flu last night and I was up most of the night taking care of her...

Then just about the time she fell asleep... a MASSIVE storm blew through here.  We were all huddled up in the basement waiting for it to pass.  Thankfully we have escaped unharmed (well the trampoline net was harmed, but it doesn't count).  They think a tornado might have touched down in our county...

So today, I feel like this....

and am going to need a day or 2 to catch up.  I'm getting old and missing an entire night of sleep is not as easy as it used to be.

But...

I did want to pop in here and share with you today that I've picked my theme for March!!

It's...

{Journey}

The gnome that went to Europe with us in 2007

I'll be sharing sewing and craft tutorials related to travel and exploring! Plus a couple of other fun ideas.

I admit to being struck with wanderlust, but even if your not, there will still be ideas that you can use!

Here's where I need your help...

I would love to add a "Guest Blogger" each month. A fun new perspective on that month's theme!

If you have a tutorial that you would like to share here, just send me an email.

-It can be a previously posted tutorial

-It doesn't have to be finished already. If it's not, just send me a description of your idea and a link to some other tutorials that you have written (just to get an idea of your style).

-I'm just going to be using one, and I'll mostly be picking it based on what I have planned that month. So something that compliments the posts that I'm already working on.

-Feel free to link up your blog, post a little tidbit about your etsy shop, introduce yourself  etc...

-Scheduling dates are flexible, but needs to be done before the end of that month.

-Doesn't matter how many blog subscribers you have.

-Please please please do not feel bad if I don't use your tutorial that month.  I really am going to pick them due to what I already have planned that month. The thought of turning someone down had me put off this idea for 2 months.

-Although I'm not picky, I will be a tiny bit particular about the posts.  All I ask is clear photos and easy to understand directions.  You don't need a fancy camera.

-It can be sewing idea, craft idea... whatever you think will fit in with the theme best.

Sooo... if you have a great idea to go with the theme "Journey" for March, send me an email!!  I'm very excited about doing this!! I'd love to be able introduce more of my readers to each other!!

... now I'm off to take a nap...

Things I Love... sewing

This week I'm sharing with you guys a few things that I love. Wednesday I did a post about scrapbooking today, it's about sewing... and like I said before, these are just things I love, I didn't receive any compensation to write about any of them.

Okay, call me biased, but I LOVE Moda fabrics and the Moda Bake Shop blog.  I love to see all of the great projects that their designers come up with for using pre-cuts.  I am always amazed by all of the creativity of the designers on that blog.


Fat Quarters...

There are a whole lot of Fat Quarters on that bookshelf!

Okay,  I LOVE to sew with Fat Quarters! I love to sew with them so much I could write a book about it (except someone else already did).  I love to think up projects that can be made with those rectangles. They are easy to store and inexpensive, and I like being able to get a little bit of each print of lots of different fabrics. Lots of shops sell variety packs of Fat Quarters now, which I love.

Pinking Rotary Cutter Blade

I have pinking shears but I can never seem to get them to cut straight. I'd much rather use the pinking blade for my rotary cutter. You can use it with your ruler to make sure your cut is straight. 

 I used it to make this roll up chalk place mat

Cut Glove

Speaking of rotary tools... Ever since I sliced off the tip of my finger last year, I've been using a cut glove ALL THE TIME! Let me tell you IT HURT!  and I will admit to being mildly traumatized by the event. Just wear one on the hand that holds your ruler...  trust me.

Gingher 4" Embroidery scissors

I love these, they are SHARP and stay that way. They are perfect for cutting out intricate designs for applique. The sharp tips really help to give you a crisp cut. They are also the perfect size if I ever take my sewing with me.

Fabric...

Okay it goes without saying that a sewers favorite item is fabric.... but here are a few that I love.

Okay call me crazy or a stalker or whatever you will... but I love Heather Bailey fabric. I've got quite a collection of all 3 of her fabric lines.  I know it sounds a bit cheesy but when I discovered her fabric and made this dress

it really got me wanting to sew again. I had been scrapbooking more back then, but something about that fabric got my creative juices flowing.

Heather Ross

When I saw this image on Heather Ross' blog about her new fabric coming up, I got so excited!  Living in Kentucky, horses are kinda a big deal, and I can't wait until this fabric comes out and I get my hands on it.  I just discovered Heather R's fabric a year ago and am kicking myself that I never got any of the one with the VW buses on it!

I also really love...

Sandi Henderson's meadowsweet collections... especially the prints with the strawberries (so cute)...

and 

The Sis Boom collections from Jennifer Paganelli... I can't wait to get my hands on some of her new fabrics... did you see she's got laminates with it? I totally love it, so preppy chic!

and of course....

Amy Butler

This is her new line, which I haven't bought yet, but is next on my wish list. 

Can you believe I still have some of her very first Midwest Modern line? I'm afraid to cut it, I think it might cry - can fabric cry? *wink*

Okay so your turn now,   so spill... what's your favorite sewing item right now???

Things I love.... scrapbooking

Okay,

I know that you are not supposed to love "things"... but my "favorite things" title was already taken by someone famous :) and things I love fits in with my theme this month *wink*

Just rest assured, the things I love the most in this world are my friends and family...okay and maybe my dog too.

When it comes to crafting there are some things that I LOVE to work with and do so over and over again.... *note: these are just things I love- I have received no compensation from any of these companies**


Today, I'm going to share some of my favorite things for scrapbooking.  Then I'll do a post of  sewing stuff and finally just some other stuff I love, that has no particular category.

Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo.... I use it with a sponge applicator to distress paper edges. Of all the ink I've used it spreads the most smoothly. The Vintage Photo color seems to be the perfect one to make things look a bit "old" without darkening them up too much.

It's how I added the "aged" look to my Halloween Banner.

Also from Tim Holtz...

Kushgrip Snips- The thing I like about them the most is they have a coating on the blades. So when you cut stuff that is sticky it doesn't stick to, and ruin the blades. You can also cut almost anything with them (don't tell, but I cut wire with them once).

7 gypsies Binderie Punch.  I LOVE this... I didn't "get" why I needed it until I used it. If you like to make mini albums it's a must. It helps you to line up all of your holes.  You quickly make many pages for an album and know that they will all fit. 

I used it to help me make my Savannah mini album.

Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Marker... The PERFECT journaling pen in my humble opinion.  I'm totally addicted to these, I have a few in my purse a couple in the kitchen and several in my scrapbook room.  It's my favorite pen to journal with plus it's great for sketching ideas.

My Jenni Bowlin monthly scrapbook kit. I love the variety of products I get and they always find an interesting and unique way to combine products. I love the little "unexpected" treats that show up each month. Plus it's the thing I use the most, they don't just sit and collect dust on my shelves. They always have fun projects for Holidays too!

And lastly,

Studio J by Close to My Heart.

I've taken lately to doing some digital scrapbooking to help me tackle some older pages that I never got finished.  

These are some pages I made from one of our Disney trips. The software is easy to use and I love that you only pay for the pages, not for the digital images. Plus there is very little "thinking" involved, you just pick your paper, layout and upload your photos. You don't have to know photoshop or anything. I wish they had an option for making a hard bound book (similar to shutterfly), but I do LOVE that I can combine the digital pages with traditional pages in my albums.

So those are some scrapbooking things I love... what about you? I'd love to hear if you have a favorite.

A long time ago, before there was a blog...

Last week I was asked at a church meeting to bring a dress from home and talk about it.  It could be handmade or bought, just a dress that meant something to me.


I brought this dress...

It's a dress that I made when my oldest daughter was to be baptized. I wanted her to have a special dress to wear that day.  It was not the dress that she was baptized in (in our religion children wear white to be baptized) but her special dress to wear for the day.

2nd daughter with her twin brother

Years later, my 2nd daughter also wore the same dress when she was baptized.  (Mostly because I didn't get to finish the one I was making for her, but now I'm glad they both wore the same dress).

This got me thinking....

A long time ago, before I had a blog... this dress was the kind of thing I made.  I love to smock and had really wanted to learn how to for years. When my twins were babies, and I was a bit overwhelmed with taking care of them, I found a smocking class at a local store a night. It was great to get out of the house at night and sit and sew and learn. I loved to talk to the ladies in my class and found such relaxation going there once a week in the evenings.  It was a much needed break.

yes, that was a lot of work

I have a friend that used to joke "do one thing a day that a kid can not undo"... Dishes and laundry do not count as they are easily "undone" by children.  Hang a photo on a wall,  write a letter,  call a friend, sew a dress.  I took the advice to heart and soon my "one thing a day" was sewing and scrapbooking. I am convinced that those hobbies got me through those tough first years with twins.  And yes, they were tough, I try to keep a "never let em see you sweat" mentality, but it was hard. I could not go to the grocery store (at the time there were no double grocery carts with seats for 2 kids), I had to wake them up from a nap every day to pick up my oldest daughter at school.  Anyone with a baby knows it's a cardinal rule NOT to wake a sleeping baby.  I feel like I spent countless hours sitting outside their room thinking "please go to sleep, please go to sleep".

Yet with all of the work that was required in those early years, I look back on those days with such happy fond memories.

Mostly I look back and think, "wow, I actually got to stay home!".. and by stay home I don't just mean not have a payroll job (I had been working full time until they were born). I mean I was in my house! Something that now is such a rare commodity!

I would take care of the kids and sew.  I loved to sit in front of the tv in the evenings and pull out my smocking.

I haven't smocked in a while, and I do love to smock... which fits perfectly in with this month's theme of LOVE.

That dress made me think about it.

So I pulled out this:

My last smocking project that's been sitting for over a year unfinished.  It's time to bring it out and finish it. Remember how much I loved to sit and sew without the creative pressure.

Hopefully I'll have a finished project to share with ya'll this Spring. Smocking is not a quick craft, (much like quilting sometimes), but one that I think is worth the effort involved.

If you want to see more of my smocked dresses you can view them here.

Great News!

I'm so excited! I've found a way to make the patterns for sale in my shop available to you via INSTANT DOWNLOAD!!

Yep, that's right, no waiting around for your pattern to  be  emailed! After you check out you will be sent a link to download the pattern yourself!

June Bag Pattern

Aside from saving me time to email all of your orders, it will also benefit you so that you can get started on your project right away!

March Bag Pattern

Sunday Bag Pattern

Just a note, I believe it is all set up correctly, if you have a problem with the downloads PLEASE let me know!!

I also wanted to share this June Bag, it was a custom order for Mique of 30 Days.

She loved the colors of the March Bag I had for sale at the time, but wanted it in a smaller size. I was so happy with how it turned out. So bright and fun for Spring!!

For those of you that have asked, I am diligently working on restocking the already made bags in the shop. I should have them listed by next week!!

Friends...

Yesterday I joined a great twitter chat with other bloggers from crafterminds.  I mentioned that I had never started a Polkadot Chair facebook page before because I didn't understand why you would want it and a blog.  Many of them pointed that there are a lot of great things to having your blog on facebook...

-easy for people to ask you questions about a project you posted

-some like to read blogs in their facebook live feed instead of only in their blog reader

-it's a great way to get to know some of your readers

They convinced me, so yesterday I started a group on facebook, The Polkadot Chair. Right now I have a few friends, two of them are my daughter and sister...



I'll be sharing links to some projects that inspire me, photos of what I'm working on and some other fun stuff. You can ask me questions and we can all get to know each other a bit more!

and

I promise not to clog up your facebook feeds with constant posts!

I'd love it if you'd head over to facebook and "like" me... (oh did I just say that? I feel like an insecure teenager).

Also on the friend front...

I'm so happy to be guest posting for Mique at 30 Handmade Days again!  I'm sharing my method for scrapbooking vacations..

Head over there and check it out!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day!! I hope you get to celebrate it with those that you love!!  We will be having our "fancy" dinner on the "fancy" plates in the dining room, the kids look forward to it every year. (which reminds me I should go to the grocery store to get some "fancy" food for our "fancy" dinner... not terribly prepared this year.)

I just thought I'd share with you a couple of Valentines I made this weekend. My husband is having me help him out at his office with a few marketing items... He wanted something to pass out to patients, and something for his staff.

For his patients, we found these cute heart suckers. I then made little tags in Illustrator for them.  Super easy, just punched them out with my scalloped circle punch, punched a hole in the center then tied them onto the suckers.

For his staff, I printed out the Valentine's Day Subway Art from eighteen25 and wrapped it around a giant Hershey bar.  Really easy and not too "lovey dovey".

the back

Since I'm not the best at being AHEAD of things for Holidays (which is hard when you are trying to create blog content... it helps to be a bit "ahead" of the game)... you will still see some Valentine's day stuff on the blog this month... but hey, just think of it as being EXTRA prepared for next year!

Tutorial: Charming Gathered Table Runner

After I finished up my last Moda Bake Shop Project (to be posted in March), I had a bunch of charm squares left over and knew that I could not let them go to waste!  If they get put in my "scrap bucket" they are likely to sit there forever, so I thought I'd make this easy table runner.

This table runner is made from the new Sherbet Pips line, yardage is not out yet, but I have seen pre-cuts for sale.

At first I was going to appliqué the hearts onto the center, then I realized that I would like to use this runner until Spring, and the hearts make it too Valentiney to me. So instead I attached them with buttons! That way after Valentine's day I can just take off the hearts and leave the runner out longer. You could do the same thing with a Christmas runner. I think I'm going to do the same thing for Easter.

bad photo, gloomy gloomy sunless weather, no good light in the house!

I thought that gathering the charm squares gave it a fun twist!  

Okay now onto the tutorial!

You will need:

1/2 yd fabric for backing

1/2 yd white batting (I use quilters dream cotton)

3 Jelly Roll strips for binding

2 buttons

6 Jelly Roll strips cut to 14" long.  (or if you don't have Jelly Roll strips, cut white fabric to 2.5" x 14")

1-2 Charm packs (buy 2 if you are picky about which prints to put in your runner) from those charm packs pick out:

12 Charm Squares in color 1

12 Charm Squares in color 2

3 Charm Squares in color 3 (for center)

2 Charms for Hearts

To begin:

Sew 6 charm squares together 4 times... soo... you will have

2 rows of 6 RED charm squares

2 rows of 6 GREY charm squares (or whatever color scheme you choose).

Sew 3 charm squares together of color 3 (in my case white).

Press seams OPEN. (it will make it easier to gather).

Beginning with your grey charm row, run 2 rows of gathering stitches down each long side of your row.

Pull up on gathering threads and pin to one of your 14" white strips.  Sew.

Repeat with a 2nd white strip on the other side of your grey row.

Press seam towards white strip.

It should look like this.

Next gather and attach your RED row and so on until all rows are sewn. 

It should look like this:

ROWS

1- White Strip

2- Grey Gathered Row

3- White Strip

4- Red Gathered Row

5- White Strip

6- White Row of 3 charms that is NOT gathered (the 3 charms sewn together)

7- White Strip

8- Red Gathered Row

9- White Strip

10-Grey Gathered Row

11- White Strip

Next cut your batting and backing to 18" x 37" (this will give you 2" extra to work with on each end)

Quilt and bind- if you want to see how to do this- check out my last table runner tutorial here

Next take 2 charm squares and make a "sandwich" with the charm square on top, batting in the middle and fabric on the back.

Draw a heart on with disappearing ink.

Stitch around the heart

Trim off extra

You will have 2 quilted hearts.

Stitch 2 buttons to the center of the runner, and stitch 2 button holes in the hearts.

Trim threads, press well and you're done!

I hope you like it! Let me know what you think, it's really easy to sew, I did it in an afternoon!