I have a button now - Woot Woot

Thanks to my super duper cousin Alisha. Would have never happened if she didn't hook me up with step by step instructions! Thx cuz!!!!

Sew I'm seriously past due on my July Sewing retreat journaling as one of my other super cousins pointed out. Sew my intent is to play catch up this weekend with some new posts. ;-)

Playing with new toys

Had a chance last Sunday to play with some of my new toys. Just now getting around to posting them. Some turned out better than others, just means I need more time to play to get it where I like it :-) At a sewing retreat this weekend so more pictures to come soon.

Vintage Vogue Stamp Set

I'm in love with the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set (from Stampin Up). I have seen several card ideas with this stamp set that are gorgeous and very creative. I can't wait to do more with these but this is the one that I did from last night. Simple layout no fancy embellishments, but I still fell in love.

University of Texas patchwork skirt, top, and flower headband

Sew I started this skirt around Christmas time. I could never seem to get motivated to finish it. I had made a cutting mistake initially and therefore couldn't make it work with the pattern. Megan Daves read the instructions and said where is the other one? I was suppose to cut 2 of a certain piece and overlooked it. Finished the skirt about 3 weeks ago along with the headband. Again just couldn't get motivated to make a shirt to go with it. I actually recall complaining about this to all who have been to the "crap/craft" room lately. Well I sat my hiney down and made the shirt today. Boppi said it was very Halloween looking. Not the response I was looking for......what does he know, he's a Minnesota fan! Needless to say I love the skirt and tested it out on this fabric because I really didn't have much use for it for anything else. The set was giving to our neighbor Mattie who is a sweetie and a cutie.

Paper covered frames for new little wee ones

These frames are covered with paper. I got this idea from Meg's recent stamp camp. Love them for a splash of color. Two girl's and a boy.

Catch Up Post

Sew.... I'm a little behind on posting, but I have been able to squeeze in a little crafting over the past few weekends, or for some projects they where started months ago. Like Emily's new overalls, she asked Santa for a new pair of overalls with hearts on them because her other ones where too small. As awful as it sounds I wasn't able to produce in time for Christmas, but here they are now, and she seems fine with it and is happy with the hearts. You can't tell very well in this photo but on the leg the pink and white polka dot is a big heart shape.
This is the backside of the overalls. Mom was genius to suggest this idea, and cousin Holly helped by doing the serged edges for me making this ruffle super easy.

This is a kid's t-shirt embroidered using the crayon technique. The pattern is from the Stampin Up digital scrapbooking cd. My friend Meg (Emily's Mom & Stampin Up Demonstrator for those of you that don't already know that) showed me how to use the digital cd to enlarge the stamps and viola now I have a multitudes of patterns for embroidery plus digital scrapbooking which I'm still intimidated by. But hey one thing at a time. The possibilities of patterns that could be used for onsie's, burping cloths, etc with these stamps/patterns is mind boggling and exciting! I was quite pleased with this first project.

Big Shot Crazy. Sew Meg and I have been dying to make time to play with the Big Shot and fabric. (Big Shot is a die cut machine offered by Stampin Up, again if you didn't already know.) Sew here are some of the out comes. Last Sunday Meg was determined to make some of the flowers for hair accessories. They require scraps, heat bond, and very little time to complete. Here are a few samples we did.

This is a dish towel that uses the oval die and then layered to resemble a flower??? This one I'm not as thrilled with. However, there are more creations we made with fabric over on Meg's site. www.iteachstamping.com

Sewing Retreat

Sew if you have read Cousin Holly's blog lately you know we escaped last weekend to a sewing retreat and I agree with Holly that we need to find time to do these more often. We have enough people in our family & friends group to book all the open spaces with our own peeps.

I'm not attaching all the pics, but I have emailed out the kodak gallery link where they are posted and made it where you are not required to log in to view them. Here are a few, mostly mine because I want to log them on the blog, duh. I actually completed several projects because I brought my UFO's.


The "finished" board. Some things didn't make it up, but this is a good sampling of some things that where made and finished.

Embroidery and then pieced together hot pads for a McCord cousin wedding gift. The embroider patterns are free Internet patterns at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacquedavis/sets/72157605615689465/ which Crafty Cherry turned me onto.

Go green bag (thanks Trish for the pattern, again!) for Holly's birthday.

Grandma's bible cover. Freehand pattern using notebook cover technique.

THE JACKET. UGGG. Long story but Grandma has FINALLY received her September birthday gift. THE JACKET.