Tuesday, September 30, 2014

FHS Blog Tour! and Giveaway!

I am so excited to tell you about the FHS Blog Tour and if you are wondering what FHS stands for it is the most FABulous Home Sewn blog by Fenna in Canada.  And she asked a few lucky people to test out 2 of her patterns and show you what we made, stay till the end you can win a pattern yourself!
We got to choose between the Pirates Treasure Wallet and the Perfect Petal Purse, well I asked Pretty Please could I do both ;) and she kindly said YES!, so come back Friday to check out what I was sewing up.
Love my Wonder Clips
Also be sure to check out what some other lovely ladies sewed up.

September 28

Nosy Pepper

September 29

From a Box

Gracious Threads

September 30

Project Destash

October 1

Filles a Maman

October 2

Sew Very

October 3

Friends Stitched Together

Secretly Stitching

October 4

Lulu and Celeste

Made By Sara

Be sure to enter the Giveaway

 

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Saturday, September 13, 2014

The Cottage Mama Sewing Contest

I feel a little silly entering, with my homespun rendition of the Claire Pajama pattern by Lindsey Wilkes of The Cottage Mama.  You should check out all of the other entries, that was my down fall, I was all proud this afternoon finishing "my super cute Pajamas" for sure I will win and then I pop over and saw what everyone else has sewn up AND photographed, were do they get these kids from, my daughter did this most of the time.
She was having fun, as evidence, I present you with a smiling photo
I kept telling her people wanted to see her face too and that she is so pretty and all the other pretty girls show their faces, yeah, that didn't work.
This is the best shot I got and I turned it into a Collage to enter in the Contest.
The purple fabric is a knit that I got in a fabric swap with Amanda of "What the Bobbin?".  It was my first time sewing with a knit, I had a blast, really not hard at all.  I had the correct needle and I made sure to cut the fabric after checking which way it stretched.  I finished all of the raw edges with that wavy rotary cutter you see in the top right photo (love my rotary cutter's can't cut a darn with scissors) and not having to try to figure out how to finish the edges was awesome, this fabric doesn't fray anyways.  The wavy rotary cutter was also used to make the decoration for the front bib.
My other change was putting the interior of the sleeves as the exterior, after making my own bias tape it looked to pretty to be tucked inside so I made it a sleeve embellishment instead.
added a little trim to both sides of the buttons
I changed up the pattern a little bit, couldn't help myself, I cut out 2 "Front Body Pieces" and did the button bib as the back and after checking it's size I made this bib for the front.  I used the gingham fabric for the bottom, put a piece of the purple fabric on top and sewed zigzag lines every inch and then cut it out in the same shape as the finished button bib that is now the back part of these pajamas.
First time working with yokes too, I love them, such a great way to finish a neckline.

Sewed up some quick Fabric Origami Butterflies using this tutorial and I have my Butterfly Claire Pajamas

I have learned now that my daughter requires a size 5 for her height but she needs it to be a size 8 in "width", so some minor pattern adjustments are needed to make her clothes fit.

Well I have been thinking about making this for weeks and finally did it, so Thankful for contest and challenges, highly unlikely I will get into the top 10, but I just have to put it out there.  Finishing it just in time for bed.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

It's Me in September!

Hello, Hello, I have been madly stitching away this summer, so much so that it wasn't so Secretively and today my husband told me I needed to stop sewing for a while.  WHAT? NO WAY?  This is my creative outlet, so what have I been stitching this summer.
  1. I did some Embroidery Projects:
    Bird Bones Mini Quilt, and Printing a Stamp on Fabric.
  2. I participated in a lot of Swaps:
    Strawberry Swap, Need a Needlebook Swap, and the Big Stitch Swap
  3. I experimented in making clothes for my daughter:
    The Butterfly Challenge, Liberty Shorts, and Up-cycled 4th of July Skirt.
Today I want to show you my 3 projects that I did specifically for this blog hop, all 3 have some Gingham in them, because I like the stuff!

  1.  Embroidered Dish Towels, I stitched these towels while on vacation.
A little bit in the Ancient city of Philippi
Some on the beautiful beaches of Greece

Madame Samm herself got me hooked on embroidery.
You can find the Pattern here
 I was going to keep these beautiful Greek inspired dish towels for myself.....
I just got this yellow ribbon in a swap from Karri!
.....But I am so excited my Auntie from Washington State is coming to visit us this weekend, so they will be a gift to her, to remind her of the delicious food we plan on feeding her and my Uncle.
And of the Views we will show her.

We have our own Olive Tree, so yummy.
   2.  An Open Wide Feathered Gingham Pouch for a Swap
Sent this Noodlehead Open Wide Zippered Pouch with added Vera of Negliegent Style handle to my swap partner this Monday.  It is a secret swap, but she seemed real keen on this kind of bag and she loved the look of pieced feathers. One of her many favorite colors was red, so I added a dash of fun with Riley Blakes Large Red Gingham to the inside.
  3.  One skirt for my daughter became 2
one sided Circle Skirt
 Originally I wanted to do this Reversible Circle Skirt, but then I realized that the the April Showers Rain Drop fabric would be upside down, lucky for me I had only cut out the gingham part.  So Katerina got 2 dresses, her sweet Red Gingham Circle Skirt and her Umbrella Swirl Skirt.
Umbrella Swirl Skirt

This totally fun hop and gathering is due to Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt.  She's the mastermind behind all these fabulous hops and of course our wonderful Cheerleader Shari at Living With A Purpose and we couldn't forget Riley Blake Designs for the lovely Gingham.

Be sure to visit my other fellow bloggers of the day: 

Wednesday 10, 2014
Secretly Stitching (You Are Here)
Thanks for stopping by, 
 
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Friday, September 5, 2014

See You In September Blog Hop Schudule

It's already the 3rd day of the blog hop and I am feeling my projects are inadequate, but these other ones are so Inspiring, I am pinning a whole bunch of them.  Check it out yourself. 
                                    Wednesday, September 3
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Bumbleberry Cottage
Thimblemouse and Spouse
Mad Quilter's Disease
In The Boon Docks

Thursday, September 4
Jane's Quilting
Life in the Scrapatch
Sew Many Yarns
Gracie Oliver Arts
Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Friday, September 5
Stitchin' By The Lake
Coeur d'Alene
Words & Stitches
TheSlowQuilter
Pig Tales and Quilts
All Thingz Sewn

Monday, September 8
Quilting Quietly
Creatin' in the Sticks
Procrastination Queen
Lovelli Quilts
Cherry Blossoms

Tuesday, September 9
Just Let Me Quilt
Marjorie's Busy Corner
The Quilting Queen Online Blog
Marla's Crafts
K and S Sweets and Stitching

Wednesday, September 10
Secretly Stitching
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilt n Queen
Quilted Delights

Grandmama's Stories

Thursday, September 11
Susie's World
Needled Mom
Cate's Linens
How ART you?
I Like To QuiltBlog

Quiltscapes

Friday, September 12
Sunshine-quilting
Sew Peace to Peace
MoosestashQuilting
More Stars in Comanche
Living With Purpose

Monday, September 15
I Piece 2-Mary
Till We Quilt Again
Vroomans Quilts
Nini and the Sea
Seams To Be Sew