USA Fabric Haul

I only got to go to 4 Fabric Stores on my visit to the States, so I didn't get to much and plan on blogging about those soon.  But here's the thing, my Mom had been storing fabric for me, for a few months, yippee.. skippee..AND it was ALOT!

Fat Quarter Shop had a 20% discount coupon and on top of that during that month they had Kona Solids as thier notion of a month and so that was another 20% off.

So I got a box of 100 FQ's, pretty huh!  Just bummed that they don't have the name of each color, like when you get a box of chocolates and they tell you what kind on the lid.

I also got these so I could make it to the $200 mark and get free shipping to my Mom's house.

Do you recognize the way the Fat Quarter Shop ships the fabric, all vacuum packed.

12 FQ's in here.

I mostly wanted this for the 4 FQ's of Seascapes,
2 are neutrals which I just find yuck, I am so bad at buying neutrals.

Yummy Chocolate anyone, getting ready for Valentines Day.

Some multi-colored prints.

Some Pinks

Some Blue's

Some Purple's,

Speaking of Purples, have you heard about the Purple Charm Swap.

Amanda of What the Bobbin is hosting.

Sign up here on Flickr.

I have been having a huge crush on Purple so many awesome prints out there.

My contribution are these 2

An awesome blender.

And Joel Dewberry Bungalow Lavender

I would love to buy more, but my money source was hacked, be careful, it happened to another friend of mine recently also.

I have these 2 in my stash, Collage only 1/2 a yard though and another pretty fun print from Amanda at What the Bobbin, we did a trade (more on that later)

There are so many awesome Purple's out there, by the way this swap is a great way to stock up on the Pantone Color of the Year, especially if you are going to join in on the Challenge being hosted by Anne at Play Crafts.

Acacia would be a wonderful addition,
there is already one of her prints in the party.

Or this beautiful Kaufman-Fusions Texture Collection-Orchid

Andover - Kim's Hand Dyes Series 1 - Purple

Kaufman - Dazzle - Boysenberry

You can find the above fabrics plus Collage at Jean Maries fabrics on Etsy and she is having a 25% discount if you spend over $50 going on till the end of the year, if only I had some money :(
Oh well I will have to be happy with this little pile of Kona purples :)

In Case you were wondering this box of wonderful fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop, held 48 yards of fabric
and broken down to the cost per yard was $4.70, Love a good deal! Plus it all fit into my
luggage without my husband even knowing it was there (except the box of Kona's, I told him
that was the only thing in the "much larger" box that my mom gave us, hehehe.)

Linking to Sunday Stash over at Blossom Heart Quilts

Fun stuff going on for 2014

Just found 2 new and fun things going on for 2014, will you join in?

Do you know of anything else going on, I will continue with the A Lovely Year of Finishes for 2014, a great way to make sure you get what you need to get done.

What about you, what are your plans?

Cushion for Christmas

I am testing out a way to make money, do you think I can sell cushion covers like this on Etsy?

Some quilted patchwork with a little embroidery?
My husband is getting tired of me making things just because I want to, he wants me to start making money, hehehe, I just like playing, he wants me to work.  On a side note my son said the cutest thing yesterday, he asked "Mom, do you LUV to sew?" , "Yes, I do", "Then why don't you do it all of the time?"  Awwweee... what a sweetie, I wish I could, but the hubby would definitely not allow that.

Each embroidered mitten symbolizes 1 of us with our favorite colors, my husband has the red one, me I am green, my son -yellow and black and my daughter - pink with a heart. 

The fabric is from a charm pack of Scrumptious, it was easy making them into pinwheels using this tutorial.
It's really simple:

Take 2 pieces right sides facing each other, preferable 1 light and 1 dark square.

Sew all the way around 1/4"

Stack 2 on top of each other and cut corner to corner at a 45 degree angle.

Easy Peasy.

And they end up looking something like this.

I wanted to put binding on, but the fabric I wanted to use ended up clashing with the Scrumptious, plus I really didn't have enough and would have had to add another strip of something, so I just used the cute mitten fabric to make a present wrapped envelope closure back.

I will take better pictures during the daylight time tomorrow.

Linking up to A Cushion for Christmas at Ms Midge's

Piecemakers Donation

My last fabric stop in the States was in Southern California, Costa Mesa.  A shop called Piecemakers, I had heard about it from Madame Samm, she recommended getting a certain sized needle from them.  I went the day after Thanksgiving and when I arrived I was a little shocked.
There were MEN inside the fabric shop and people EATING cakes and drinking tea.  I must have just missed the party because a few musicians were leaving.  I thought I was in the wrong spot, but nope I saw fabric, so I forged right in.

I found the sale pile and picked up a few pieces then I also got some notions at really really good prices (for a different blog post).  When I went to the counter, she said "Oh I see you found our flat folds" (that was the fabric on sale of different yardages and a pinned note of the  price per piece)  I told her that I was going to use them charity quilts and she said "do they need to be square pieces of fabric".  This got me thinking that she had some round pieces for sale too and I was kinda like no, we use all different sizes and make blocks depending on what the queen bee of the month would like us to make.

So she showed me this big bag.

As big as a child in a stoller

She pulled the fabric out and inside was a mix match pile of fabrics, some of them cut in really funky shapes and stacked on top of each other like an Orange County rich Mama just cut into a big pile of fabric to make drama school outfits.

There is one piece that is about 10 yards long that was just cut into, it is green so I think it must have been used to make a tree.  Most of them are cut like this

with a pencil mark and following a line, this one is Halloween fabric.  Susie (the women who was showing me this) took most of the Halloween fabric and Christmas fabric out since I said we really don't celebrate those holidays in Europe.  But I still got a lot of it in the bag, or it would have been twice the size (my husband would have for sure have killed me if I wanted to put all of it in our luggage).

Look at what I still got, some sparklies.

Even a piece of fabric that I know since it was the first piece of fabric I ever used to make a dress for my daughter, my parents got it from JoAnn's so I even know the brand.

Here she is wearing it again this year at IKEA, it is a repurposed baby onsie turned into a tank dress, I just cut the snaps off of the bottom and sewed a piece of fabric around it.

 I made a pile of the ones cut WOF, they are all about 5 - 6"

The other pile I am slowly going through and ironing them and cutting them into manageable pieces, like I said one is at least 10 yards long.

I am working on it, to put together as little packages for my fellow European Siblings Together bee girls.
If you are in the Los Angelas area of Southern California then please make a stop at Piecemakers it is a fantastic shop.

Piecemakers Country Store
1720 Adams Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Thank you so much Susie for donating this fabric to us!

Linking to Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth.

Chocolate Covered Fireside Bowl Bag

I got my "Big City Bags" Book while in the States, it is written by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness.  I love her purse patterns so I just had to have the book.  I wasn't going to make anything till the start of New Year and then I saw the contest going on for Sew Mama Sew and I said "Hey I have 3 days, I can do it."  Plus if you know me, and if you don't you will learn I love a good Challenge.

I give you my version of the Fireside Bowl Bag, the first pattern in her book.

The white fabric with chocolate covered strawberries is "Chocoholic" designed for Exclusively Quilters and the black fabric is Studio 8 for Quilting Treasures.
The strap is Black Kona and the detail is Red Kona.

For the Interior I used the same black fabric as the exterior bottom.

I only did 1 pocket and since I only had 1 lobster claw I only used 1 on 1 side and sewed the strap in on the other.

Detail of sewed in strap side.

The making of this bag went super easy, I didn't have any deco-fuse fusible interfacing so my version is a little softer, and the fabrics made me crave a stop at my favorite coffee shop, so I took the bag along.

I drank my latte and the bag and I picked out some sweets, chocolate covered, of course.

There really is no front or back of this bag, they both look the same.

Oh and I added handles at the top, just for fun :)

Linking up to Mama Said Sew, Sew Sweetness Bag Contest (say that 5 times fast).

We are Back and December Goal

We arrived back in Greece yesterday, and I am already thinking of what to sew.
On the trip I took along my nephews messenger bags but never got to sew them together.  I did get a chance to purchase the interfacing that I needed to finish them.  But ended up bringing them back to Greece so I can sew them together, so I need to finish them up and send them before Christmas.

This is the N I did for my son

And now I will be doing the A, C and O.

Plus I need to make up for the Bees I missed in November both the European Siblings Together and the Get Your Hex on Bee, I didn't get done and I will need to work on the December bee projects too.

Linking to a Lovely Year of Finishes December Linky Party.

Amy Backpack (Chris W Designs)

This is my third entry for the Purse Palooza 2013 going on over at Sew Sweetness.  My first entry can be found here and my second one here.
If you are looking for the All About Boys Blog Hop post it is the one below this.

The Amy Backpack from Chris W Designs, once again I was very lucky in getting this pattern for free from a girlfriend of mine Shirley at SimpleSew.  I really needed a backpack pattern so I could make my daughter one for our trip and this is the first time trying to make a backpack.

Pattern:  Loads of instructions and pictures, best part is that she also gives you the option to print just a few pages in a condensed instruction section at the end after the pattern pieces.  Bad part, I didn't like the way the interior part of the bag was supposed to be sewed in, this gave me a hard time, so I modified the pattern.

Materials:  Pretty basic, bag construction materials, I was out of fusible interfacing so I quilted batting onto the interior fabrics.  I also did not use the suggested elastic for the front and side pockets, instead I used a zipper and buttons.  The fabric I used is mostly Riley Blake, the fabric you see above is part of a panel it is the "closet" from the Princess Pillow Panel, that I purchased from The Intrepid Thread.  The fabric for the inside and the back is "Dress Up".

changed the 2 straps for an over the body doll carrier.

Instructions:  I really didn't follow any of the instructions, I think I have a problem with that, good thing I was never in the military.  But the Instructions are very well written, I just wanted something different and I wanted to use what I had on hand.  The basic shape of the bag is true to form.

Modifications:  The straps turned into a baby doll carrier, the pockets are not gathered with elastic, I had to change the gusset, if you don't know what that is, and I didn't, it is the material that goes around the 2 main pieces, the one that you see above with the pocket on it and the zipper.  I changed all of that so I could sew my interior lining in, instead of hand sewing it to the zipper as suggested in the pattern.

I added a little hoop to one side so I could attach my daughter's traveling pillow.

That is a bed with a little princess, the second part from the Panel that I bought.

Some extra photos.

I am washing the pillow right now, because my daughter threw up all over it on the plane, no fun at all.  But they are doing really good at traveling and we are very excited about continuing our trip.  Leaving for New Mexico tomorrow, but not before trying out some American Barbeque today!