Holidays are here!

Wow, I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving next week.  Where did the time go?

I've been busy filling orders and haven't even begun to try testing out my new embroidery software.  I did use a design that was on my new machine to make a bag for my niece a couple of weeks ago.
Here's a picture

I mirrored the design and then copied and flipped it so it made the big swirly design in the background. 


I'm getting ready to offer Miracle Blankets on the site as well.  If you haven't seen them, they are a wonderful gift for a new baby, truly a lifesaver for those times when nothing will calm the crying. I'll also be offering them monogrammed for a small fee.

Most of the items I'm working on right now are custom ordered blankets.  I'm loving all of the different designs.  It sure adds some variety and spices things up a bit.

Getting ready for a festival.

Hopefully I will be getting lots done this week. Last night I made my first tooth fairy pillow. It turned out so cute! I am planning to make a bunch more by this Saturdays fall festival at the park.
I bought another embroidery machine yesterday. It's very nice but its still got different features and controls so its a learning curve. I also bought the professional software so now I have the ability to create my own designs. I'm really excited about that hopefully I will have some time to learn how it works soon.

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I was working on some new things today.  I've had this monkey fabric screaming at me to do something with it, so I made a cute little set with minky on the backs of the bib and burp cloth, and that really fluffy material on the back of the lovey.  I just love the colors, and how cute that monkey is peeking out. 

I also made a girly infant seat canopy.  I used the pink skulls fabric, with a black contrasting fabric on the bottom side.  I also added ric-rac to the tabs to add a little extra something.  

Hopefully one of these days I'll remember to take pictures while I'm making things to make it more interesting.
I will be making a small bag with a vinyl pocket for a picture.  I have an idea for a design, I think it will just be a matter of  figuring out how to get it all sewn up.

Spring Cleaning

It's long past time to have my machine in for maintenance.  I bought it in August last year, and I haven't had it in since.  I'm taking it tomorrow so the guys will pick it up on Thursday from the dealer and hopefully bring it back in a week (I hope it's only a week).  So tonight I did a little spring cleaning in my room.  I started organizing a week ago and hadn't really finished, and so, it was a mess.  I still have a couple of things that are missing, but that could mean they've been stolen by the little leprechauns.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of my room. 

 My room isn't perfectly square, there's a little angled wall on one side, which allows me to watch the kids when they're playing in the yard.  Seth put in my cabinets for me and stained them.  We pulled up the carpet that was in the room and put down laminate tiles.  They look pretty good for being an inexpensive fix.  I really didn't want carpet because I didn't want all the thread getting caught up in it.  It was Seth's idea to cut the rug to fit around the cabinets.  Partly to keep my chair from rolling away, and partly to cover one bad spot in the floor.  The rug works really well to catch the thread and since it's an industrial grade it vacuums really well.

He also hung my thread racks on the closet door for me, which works really well.

My story....

My mom thinks I have sewing in my genes.  I'm inclined to agree. 

My mom made clothes for my brother, sister, and me sometimes when I was little.  I don't remember being to interested in watching her sew, but I don't have the best memory so I could be wrong.  I do remember little things.  It's the little things in life, the everyday ordinary things we do, that shape who we become.

I remember going to my grandparent's house a lot.  They always had a garden with strawberries, potatoes, squash, green beans and peas.  I'm sure there was more, but mostly I remember the peas and strawberries.  We used to pick strawberries, and I remember eating raw peas as we shelled them. 

My paternal grandma is the one who taught my sister and I how to do hand embroidery.  She would let us pick out a pattern and then she'd iron it on a piece of fabric and we would put it in the hoop and embroider it.  I'm not really sure what happened to all of those things we embroidered, but I know there were quite a few.  My grandma was a quilter. She would go meet at the church with the ladies for quilting club.  They would make baby quilts for the people at church who had new babies.  I've still got a few of the quilts she made, put away in my cedar chest to keep them from aging. 

I didn't really know my mom's family very well.  Her mom passed away a few years before I was born, and all of their relatives lived out of town.  My mom told me about her aunt (I think), who could look at a dress and sew one like it from no pattern at all.  Genetics definitely seems like a possibility.

I took Home Ec in 8th grade I think.  Only 1 semester to get to learn everything about keeping a home.  I think our sewing course was a week or maybe 2.  We got the basics of how to thread the machine, we picked out our pattern for the project we wanted to make (which I still have), and then we made the project.  I think that was all for sewing.
 
I moved to Arizona when I was 19.  It was different here, to say the least.  A few years later I was married, we had a house, and no kids to keep us busy, and I was starting to get in to crafts and scrapbooking.  I saw a project in some magazine I had bought, for a really cute pillow.  It looked pretty simple, 2 pieces of fabric, sewn together on all 4 sides inside out, and then make a slit in the center of one of the sides.  The front of the pillow had felt pieces that made up a bear scene and it was all hand sewn, and then after stuffing the pillow and sewing the front slit shut, you blanket stitched the scene on to the front of the pillow, covering up where the slit was. 

I didn't impress myself.  I sent the pillow to my mom (I am sure she my even still have it), and put my machine away.  I didn't really make anything else until one day when I decided to make some baby blankets for a few girls at work who were having babies.  There were 3 girls, all due around the same time, so we were going to have a shower for all of them.  I got out one of the baby blankets I had from my grandma, and used the measurements to come up with the blankets I made.  They turned out okay.....I guess.  I got a little of the sewing bug then and I made a blanket to go with a wooden scrapbook I had made.  The fabric cost me a small fortune, and I did my best, it turned out pretty nice.  I know the girl I sold it to still has it and actually bought the second one I made so she would have a spare.  Over the years I made a few blankets, but really didn't get "the bug".

Noah's Ark Blanket

I felt a little guilty that I didn't make Hunter a blanket when I was pregnant with him.  I really didn't even consider it.  I guess because I was working all the time, and being pregnant just made me not want to do anything.  The next time I got my machine out was to make a blanket for Rylie.  I wanted it to be girly, but other than that I really hadn't looked around, and I didn't know where to start, so I stopped in a quilting shop.  I was overwhelmed by all of the fabrics they had, so one of the really nice ladies there helped me pick out the fabric.  I intended to have her name, and birthdate and info put on her blanket after she was born, but I never really got around to it. 

 Rylie on her blanket

Fast forward a couple of years, no sewing at all.  No time with 2 little ones under foot all the time, and not really anywhere to do it, since we have a fairly small house.  I was having a hard time figuring out what to get all of the kids for Christmas one year.  They all have more toys and clothes than they could ask for, and I just couldn't think of anything.  So it was around Halloween that I decided to make 5 blankets for Christmas. I made 2 with monkey fabric, 2 with girly princess fabric and one for Hunter with superheros fabric.  I had a coworker embroider their names.

That was it for me, sometime between buying the fabric and completing the blankets I got the bug.  One day I was at Joanns buying material, and the embroidery machines caught my eye.  They sure looked impressive with all they can do.  I bought myself a used one, just to see if I would use it enough to justify spending the money on a nice machine.  I probably haven't gone more than a week with out touching my sewing machine since the day I bought it.  How's that for finding a hobby?