Oliver + S Sleepover Pajamas - Finished!

Okay, every since I posted about the idea of project UFO, a little group that helps motivate each other to finish those projects we have laying around, I've been on a roll. I've been soooo good about not starting new projects and it is HARD! I've been forcing myself to finish up the projects that are soooo close (or even not so close) to being complete. You've already seen my reindeer embroidery wall hangings that I FINALLY finished. Well I've tackled a couple others too...but just one for today...

Ever since I saw Sarah Jane's Children at play line of fabric, I knew that I wanted/needed to work with it. And the flannel is just yummy! I also wanted to try out the Oliver + S patterns that everyone is always raving about. So sleepover pajamas became my goal! I made these for Caitlyn in the size 2 and it's definitely a little big on her. If you remember from when I finished the pants, my model is not always so cooperative...so I didn't even try to get a pic of her in the whole thing. Sorry!

I put off finishing the top for a couple months because I was a little more intimidated by it. Let's admit, the buttons, the collar facing, the sleeves...everything that makes garment sewing JUST a little more difficult. But I knew I could do it. I was sewing clothes LONG before I ever sewed a quilt, so I pulled out my memory and set to work.

Just imagine that chair is my daughter and the pajamas fit her perfectly. ;) I even remembered to properly sew on my tags (that I got at the sewing summit in my swag bag!) so that they are not seen from the outside of the garment! And I'll admit that I'm a little bit in love with the simple coral buttons that I sewed on with some contrasting bright turquoise thread.

True confessions. I completely messed up the top but in an acceptable way. If you look at the pattern, the coral polka dot that I have on the top facing is meant to be seen from the OUTSIDE of the garment. The way that I put it on places it in the inside...which is still technically a proper way to make the garment but I'm going to admit that I did not do it on purpose. But I didn't realize until I had already spent 45 minutes sewing it on, notching it, trimming the seam allowance, sewing on the labels, and top stitching the facing in place. And I made myself just move on and say "oh well". It still looks good, but in the spirit of honesty here...

And even more honesty. I made these for Caitlyn, but I really want them for myself!!! I LOVE them and she isn't invested in them yet. Too bad they're not my size. lol


If anyone wants to join in our little group on flickr, Project UFO, you are more than welcome!  We give each other a good kick in the pants when needed and help each other figure out what we should spend our time on.  I'm going to show you some of the great finishes others have done in the next couple of days.  We're rocking!

Oh and just so you know that my daughter is still as cute as can be, here she is at a wedding we went to this weekend with her best little pal Gloria (Caitlyn is on the right and Gloria on the left).  Oh they were killing me with their poofy dresses and cuteness!

Dream a Little Dream

I'm at the end of Jennifer's Blog Hop of Minis, but it's the very beginning of the opportunity to make your own mini for a chance at some fabulous prizes. Hop over to Jennifer's blog for more details, but just as reminder prizes include...


Both Viewer’s Choice Winners will receive a fat quarter bundle of the FULL LINE of Flea Market Fancy reprint by Denyse Schmidt.


James’ Choice Winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop


Both Luck of the Draw Winners will receive a $75 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop




I'm finished with my most recent mini that I've decided should be entitled "Dream a Little Dream". It all started with an inspirational sketch and post by designer Sarah Jane. This mini is part of a swap over at flickr and my partner doesn't know this is for her yet. So I can't tell you a heck of a lot about her. But I will say that I identified with my partner (and also Sarah Jane) on the need to de-stress this year. Life gets in the way quickly and it is easy to become overwhelmed by our own particular circumstances. So I thought my partner would appreciate the simplicity yet emotional nature of this quilt. And so Dream a Little Dream was begun.

The girl in my mini is completely inspired by Sarah Jane's illustration...but I'm quite pleased with how she turned into fabric and thread. I did this all with raw edge applique, a steady hand, and a lot of thread changes.

Her dreams are made up of all things lovely, sweet, and fantastic. Which just so happens to coincide with my love for Heather Ross fabrics. There's definitely a reason I'm drawn to her designs. You will see that they appear often. And don't mind me when I start waxing poetic and pulling out my love of Disney when I say " A Dream is a wish your Heart makes".

I also did a little stamping on this quilt. My very first time stamping on fabric! I did just a subtle (read: I didn't want to mess up) stamping along the quilt with the title. The free motion quilting is also supposed to be dream like... flowing, relaxing, and wavy.

The details are big in this mini, but I think the overall effect is Simplicity. I worked to keep things a little less overworked and I hope that it "works".

So, dear partner, I hope that you love this mini as much as I do. She's been peaceful and joyful for me...just what I think you will enjoy about her. I've loved having her finished for a while and getting to her enjoy her on my design wall. I don't always get to spend much time with the items I make for a swap and I feel lucky to have had her for a bit.

Fabric Friday

Hmmm...I like the sound of this post title. Maybe I'll have to make this a regular thing....Fabric Fridays! I haven't posted much fabric that I have lately mainly because I get a little embarrassed at the amount that I have and I don't want anyone else to think that they need to "collect" fabric the way that I do. I swear, I'm really working hard to use it up too! But oh how it calls to me.



This is a little grouping of fabric that has three fabrics that have been especially chatty at me lately. (remember my fabric talks to me...even before it's mine! "Angela...buy me! buy me!" How can you resist?)

The Lotta Jansdotter print on the bottom has been out for oh about 6 months now I think...maybe more maybe less. But I've resisted and resisted. No more! I finally figured out an excuse to buy it: New Curtains for our Dining room in our new house! Nope. Doesn't matter that we are still at LEAST a month away from moving in and even then curtains in the dining room will be low priority. ;)


The middle blue text print is a newer fabric from Japanese Designer Suzuko Koseki. It comes in about 5 or 6 colors I think. But blue, text, and japanese?! I Swoon! (nope...not making a swoon block with it...I just literally get a little faint at the sight of it)


The top print is one of those luscious fabrics from the Michael Miller, Put a lid on it collection, that inspired my new found love of Cathrineholm Enamel ware. The grey is a fabulous color (oh and I also got the colored navy blue version!). In fact, it's so pretty that even my husband said he liked it. Although he doesn't love the Lotta print, so take his opinion with a grain of salt. ;)

And then I have the fun of working with a charm pack of Mark Cesarik's newest line, Cosmic Burst. It ships out in April and I'm think I'm stuck until then because I definitely need more than my 24 little pieces of fabric to play with. Teehee! This line is literally bursting with color. And I tried to separate out the colors and think about using them individually, but ultimately I just loved how they looked all jumbled up together. A true cacophony of color.



Okay...enough ramblings on my fabric for today. Tune in tomorrow for my day in Jennifer's Mini Quilt Blog Hop. I'm going to share my latest finished mini quilt of the day dreaming girl.

Giveaway Winner!

Sorry for taking a bit to post this, but that whole loss of numbering on my comments made counting big pain in the %#&. So, here I am finally letting you know that lucky Caitlin is the winner of the giveaway.

Caitlin has some serious luck with my giveaways! This is not the first time she's won. lol. And I swear it's not because her name is the same as my daughter's. After all, the spelling is slightly different.


So congrats, Caitlin, Lethargic Lass, on your win of the $25 gift certificate from Intrepid Threads.

Reindeer Embroidery - FINISHED!

Yay! I'm super excited because I finished my reindeer embroidery wall hangings. I started these back in September I think with my very first embroidery patterns...the reindeer.

You can find the info on the embroidery patterns from my previous post HERE.

I did a simple quilting pattern around the perimeter of the wall hangings because I didn't want to distract from the embroidery. Then I bound each with a combo of lime green fabrics. I'm one of those crazy people who loves to hand sew my bindings. And then I added two grommets at the top of each wall hanging to help hang them.

The plan is to hang these in the staircase of my new house next Christmas season. I'm sure we'll actually be in the house by then. lol (oh that kind of hurts to even joke like that!)

Here they are on my design wall with a couple of my swoon blocks...boy those swoon blocks are huge!

Each one is a fun time! And gosh darn if it isn't just fun to have them finished! ;)

My latest obsession

So you may laugh, but I've always been one of those people who "wanted" to collect something but couldn't stand the thought of it as well. I hate to be burdened by something such as a large overwhelming collection but I love the idea of having something special that I would always love to get.


I had an aunt who used to collect turtle objects and I liked that you could always find something for her...but on the other hand, I didn't like that she most likely got all kinds of turtle junk that wasn't important or special.



But I think I've found my true love. And I'm probably way behind the times and you'll all say "Angela, EVERYONE loves that." But ah well..I've just fallen head over heals....


and what is it? Cathrineholm Enamelware. LOVE. I don't have any of my own, so I have to steal these photos from other people...

(photo by H is for Home)

(photo by Sew Katie Did)

(photo by lolie jane)

Oh I could go on and on... I'm completely in love. And I don't have a thing! I'll admit, that my love sort of started with a mild obsession with this line, Put a Lid on It, by Michael Miller.

(image by Hawthorne Threads)

There are a rainbow of colors in the fabric line and I finally gave in and just ordered a bit of the grey and the navy colored prints. I decided (with the help of Kaelin) that what I really wanted was the ACTUAL kitchenware and not the fabric. So I didn't go overboard....just enough to keep me happy until I can find some actual Cathrineholm Enamelware.



So here's my question for you all...have you heard of this? Have you found some? Do you have some that you want to send me? ;) How should I find it? There are some up on Ebay and Etsy but the prices scare me!! I don't want to me to be taken for a fool. And I don't have the need (right now) to own the REALLY rare pieces...plus I want a SMALL collection.


Suggestions?!

Doing some Free Motion Quilting

I've been doing some free motion quilting lately.  Just a little bit.  You see I wanted to do something kind of fun for my quilt for the Fab Little Quilt Swap...the one with the girl.


I'm not horrible at free motion quilting, but I'm certainly no expert.  And I need inspiration for quilting ideas as much as I do for piecing ideas.  So I scoured my favorites and searched online looking for free motion quilting ideas that I thought I could reasonably accomplish.  (always the trick right?)


I knew I would need to practice before I attacked my precious little quilt (eek!  scary!), so I made myself a little quilt sandwich and practiced some ideas I had floating around in my head.

It was about 1 AM when I finished with these and I made the very WISE choice NOT to start quilting my mini right at that point.

Practicing is huge for me.  If I feel comfortable I know that I can make it work.  And you always have to remind yourself with free motion quilting (or any quilting really) that it is about the overall effect and not about any one spot.  No one will find that little place where you zigged instead of zagged.


Ironically, in the end, I quilted my mini with a completely different style free motion than all those practice types.  But I needed to go with something that worked for me and for the spirit that I want the quilt to have.  So I wanted more movement with the quilting than I was getting with my practice ideas.


A little peak....

The quilt is almost done now... I just need to put the binding on it and make a label.  I'm making myself not overwork this.   I personally think I tend to do that with minis and I like the less is more approach.  I'll show off the whole thing to you all next week when it's my day in Jennifer's Blog hop for minis!  You'll have to wait until then!