WiP #26

 Not much time today, however, I have a few WiP's to report, despite a crazy busy weekend!


#1 - I have cut out most of the fabric for my nieces baby doll bibs and diapers.  Most of it comes from my scrap bin, and I wanted to give a little variety for the little hands to feel and play with, so I have plain cotton, flannel and even a denim one.  I am going to embroider their names on the denim bib.  I will be lining all the diapers in white fleece.

#2 - Since I cut into a pair of jeans for the bibs and diapers, I finished cutting the rest into squares for my denim rag quilt.  I thought I might cut a few squares with a seam in them, just to give a little visual interest and see if I like it.  I also saved the denim scraps and cut them into strings to possible throw a few string squares into the mix, too.  We will see.

#3 - I made a pieced strip for the backing of my baby quilt with my leftovers from the top, and finally found some perfect fabric for the binding.  Now I just need to piece the backing and get quilting!

 



 

 

Linking up to WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

This Is How Nerdy Quilters Get Excited

I was driving back from taking my kids to the pediatrician this morning when I remembered that a new quilt shop was opening in town not too far from the doctors office.  So I swung around, intending to just check and see where exactly it was, and if they had an opening date on the door. 

 

O. M. G., they were OPEN!!

 

So I riled all my boys up until they were squealing with delight about how excited they were to go to the new fabric store! 

 

Now, while it is still nothing like the quilt shops in my beloved Utah, compared to the selection I have here in northern-central Virginia, this place seems almost like an oasis!

 

I managed to pick up two charm packs.  One I need (really, I promise, I NEED it!) to use in my sisters Christmas gift but haven't been able to find locally, and one I just bought on a whim at checkout.

 

 

 

Actually, I have been looking for a Vintage Modern charm pack (which nobody in northern-central VA has, even though it has got to be one of the most popular fabric lines out there), but Marmalade will do for what I need it for.  And they had it in a mini charm pack, which is actually perfect.  I was going to chop the regular charm pack into quarters anyway!

 

The Joy charm pack I bought on a whim because A) it was too cute when I actually saw it in real life, and B) because I bought a Flurry layer cake last year for a tree skirt for my brother's Christmas gift, and then decided against it and went with something else.  So I've got this lonely old Layer Cake that needs to be used, and I though I could add to it from this charm pack once I decide what to do with it all.  (Currently I am thinking either a wall hanging, table runner or pillows.  We will see.)

 

So to recap, I am a nerdy quilter who gets way too excited when a new shop opens in town.

 

The End

 

Costumes of Halloween Past (and Present!)

In honor of a fun Halloween yesterday, I thought I would do a post of the costumes I have made in the past.

I have always loved dressing up for Halloween.  I have been making my own costumes since I was a teenager. 

I remember one year I was a cat and made my own cat ears out of poster board and crepe paper and a tail out of an old pair of black nylons.  I used lipstick to make my nose pink, and it didn't come all the way off.  I had a pink nose for the whole weekend.

Another year, I altered a long, (really lovely) hippy dress of my moms from the 70's into a Shakespearean gown.  One year a was a Greek Goddess with a handmade laurel wreath in my hair made from a wire coat hanger and tin-foil leaves that I hand cut and glued on, one at a time.

I made a Princess Leia costume one year out of an old bed sheet, cardboard (for the belt) and some cheap silver lame fabric.  That as the first time I ever covered buttons in fabric. I even dyed my blonde hair brown with some "wash-out" hair dye that didn't fully wash out for quite a few days.

And one time, I made a super girl costume with no sewing machine!  I was at college and didn't have access to a sewing machine.  I made the costume out of a long sleeved white t-shirt dyed blue, some felt Superman emblems that I cut out and glued together by hand, and some red costume satin that I made the skirt and cape out of with only a needle and thread and some stitch witchery.

Unfortunately, and don't ask me why, but I have almost no pictures from my Halloween Past!

Then I went through a phase where I didn't really have a reason to dress up.  So I didn't.

Once I had kids however, that changed, and I could embrace my love for dress-up once more!  And this time, I took pictures.

 

Here are a few of the Halloween costumes I have made in more recent years:

 

Angel and her Devils -2009

 

This was the twins first Halloween (2009).  I bought the red shirts and sweat pants, and made the devil hats and tails out of red cotton and black satin. 

 

I also made my angel costume, but unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of it, so you can;t see the whole thing.  It was a semi-sheer white fabric top with flowing sleeves, and a white, silver glittered satin skirt underneath.  I made the ties out of a star-patterned, silver lame-type fabric.

 

 

Below are the boys "official" Halloween pics from that year.  You can see the devil tail in the second one:

 

 

The following year (2010) I had just given birth to my third son, so I didn't make any costumes, although I did have to alter their store-bought ones, since they were a little too big.

 

2011 my boys were obsessed with pirates.  I decided to make their pirate costumes, rather than buy them.  Then I got the brilliant idea to make my youngest son a parrot:

 

 

 Pirate A & Baby Parrot - 2011

(This is the best photo I have of a pirate and the parrot together.  My boys were barely one and not-quite three at the time, so rounding them up for a group photo was pretty much impossible!)

THIS year (2012), my boys all wanted to be Superheroes.  Bummer.  I'm not even going to bother making Superhero costumes when you can get cool(cheap!) ones at the store.  However, that didn't stop me from some Halloween sewing!

 

My boys decided I was going to be a witch.  I figured, I will probably be a witch more than once more in my life, as it is a pretty great go-to costume, however uninspired it may seem.  So I decided to make a good, sturdy basic costume that will last me forever.

 

(You can read about the actual construction of the dress HERE )

 

 

The (Not-So) Wicked Witch - 2012

 

I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  We did!

 

As for me, it is now time to get serious about my Christmas projects.