slow summer...

It's been a warm summer in Alberta. Also one of the most thundery and stormy ones I can remember having in a long time.  Last night a big tree blew over in my neighbours yard and it smashed her car!  Crazy weather.

I haven't been up to too much lately either sewing wise.

July was a busy month for us.  

We went camping for a few days to celebrate our anniversary.  Little D and I went to the zoo with my mom and my sisters and their kids.  We went swimming at the pool, and there was a thunder storm that put the power out, so we had to leave.  And D and I have been keeping up our almost weekly visits with the sisters and my mom at my sisters house.  Yesterday my oldest sister came to our house with her three kids and when it was time to go, my 5yo niece says to her mom, "We going home now to having a boring afternoon?"  Summer is just so much fun for kids.

I haven't forgotten though that I have a tradeshow coming up in October, so I've been trying out some new patterns and ordering some fall/winter fabrics.  

One of the dresses I am going to be making for the show is Amanda's Dress from Lily Bird Studio.

I saw the dress pattern and thought it would be a pretty fall/winter style with the full skirt and puffed sleeves. I have one made already for my 7yo niece, mostly for me to try out the pattern and work out how I want to make it.

It was pretty easy to put together and turned out well.

My niece's favourite colour is pink (can you tell?), and she picked the fabric.

She tried it on for me yesterday and the only change I have to make is to lower the sash a bit.  It seemed a little too high and then it fell at the back when she wore it.  

Now I have to make one for her little sister, and instead of bias tape, I think I'm going to try piping. 

a new swap

I am really getting into this quilting thing.  I never thought I would like quilting, and I don't think I do in the traditional sense.  Making a whole bunch of blocks and making a quilt is not what I like doing right now, though even that may come.  I like making different kinds of quilts. 

Like the Hexy MF quilt.  I like handwork.  

I have 5 finished stacks now.  That means 5 finished fabrics and only 5 plus the centre colour to go.  I've decided to do some scrappy centres as well, just to keep things fun.

 I have also joined another swap.  This is another idea I had pinned a few months ago, so I could hardly resist joining this swap!  It's the *Picture Perfect* Polaroid Block Swap.

We are swapping untrimmed blocks without the sashing; just the polaroid.  I signed up for 20 blocks, but I have a few more good fabrics for this, I think I may just do a few more!  

For every block I am swapping, I am making one for myself.  That way, by the end of it all, I will have twice as many and a good beginning if I decide to make a quilt of them.  

Since I was making the blocks, I thought I also had to try it out with the sashing.

I used Kona Coal and I love how this came together!  I decided while I was at it to make a mini 4 blocks wide by 3 long.  I am really loving how this looks!

The only thing that stumps me now is how to quilt it.  I am thinking stitch in the ditch because I really don't want to take anything away from the blocks themselves.  Any other suggestions?

I have to share this picture too.

I was busy sewing blocks and little D must have thought I looked hungry.  She came over with some of her kitchen stuff and served me soup and juice, right on my machine.  Such a thoughtful little girl.

i'm going to melt

It is so hot!  I thought it was hot enough before, but this is really hot.  I really don't know what to do with myself or where to be in order to stay cool.  Since Monday we have had over 30degree temps (for the Fahrenheit people, that is well over 80degrees), and with the humidity it feels like 40!  We don't have a/c, and usually we wouldn't need it, but I sure loved getting groceries this week just to walk in to the bliss of a/c.

Since I don't know what to do with myself, I've been basting hexies.  I have three and a half fabrics done and basted.  I love these colours.

The Cheddar for the centres came in today, so now I have all the fabrics and can even start making flowers if the mood hits me.  These hexies are actually bigger than I thought they would be.  I am used to working with 1" sides and these are 1.5" sides which is kinda nice because you get a bigger flower.   That means less flower making to cover the same area  : ) 

 In this heat, I also spent some time distracted in front of the computer.  I mean, really, it's too hot to go and mow the lawn or water the garden, or anything like that, so I may as well waste some time on Pinterest and Etsy.  

I found these lovelies.

source

I never used to have a thing for bikes.  Then I met my husband.  He is big into road biking and he rather sucked me into the hype of Tour riding too.  Before we met, he had bought himself a road bike here and went biking a bit.  Then after we met, I bought a second hand road bike and we went together.  

An old pic on an old camera, so excuse the quality.

I always liked the flat roads while he likes hills. Luckily we both like bike paths that meander and go up and down.
I really like biking now and I watch all the Grand Tours with him and even have my favourites in the races. 

Unfortunately, this year my favourite go knocked out of the Tour de France early because of a crash.  

Next year Ryder!

source

In the last year I have been slowly collecting bike fabrics too.  They are not so popular and most of the good ones are on Spoonflower, but I really can't bring myself to spend such a large amount of money on one FQ.

source

So I guess, until I stop being so cheap, or I run into some money, all these lovely bike fabrics will have to wait for me. 

source

At least the looking is free!

it came!

First off, I have to post this picture of my sweetie happy with her new towel.

I tried it on her the next morning hoping I had made the hole big enough for her head to fit through.  It did.  She was excited to wear it for a while.  But then it started to get in the way of her play, so it had to come off.

Yesterday and today the mailman was good to me.  

The fabrics and papers I ordered for Hexie MF came!  All except the yellow colour for the centres, but that's okay because at least I can get started on this.

I absolutely love these all together and I cannot wait to start putting it all together.

The gray colour is perfect!

Of course, I couldn't wait and as soon as the first few fabrics and the papers came, I was cutting and basting.  

I had never basted the paper to the fabric before with glue, and I must say, why didn't I find this out earlier!  It makes it so much easier because the fabric is not moving around on the paper.  I never liked using a pin because that always bent things up a bit, but this glue idea - brilliant.

Because I am in Canada, shipping can be quite pricey to get fabric.  Most Etsy sellers charge $12.95 CAN for 3.25 to 8 yards.  One seller had most of what I needed for the QAL, so I ended up ordering extra to fill up the parcel to 8 yards.  That way at least, my shipping was worth it.

That's where these beauties come from.

I asked Cheryl of on the grain fabrics to add to my order of 1/2 yards a rainbow potluck of 16 FQs.  Colour is always handy around here.  She picked some great fabrics and included a great variety of colour.  

Thanks Cheryl!

this and that

I am still up and down in feeling good and not, so I am not getting nearly as much accomplished as I would like.  I have a tradeshow coming up in October that I need to get sewing for.  I have patterns, I have fabrics, but most of the time I simply don't have the motivation.  Hopefully by the end of August I will have a bit of fire to get going.

I am still waiting for my fabrics for the Hexie MF quilt.  I am getting a little impatient, but they should come soon.  Every time I go to the mailbox and there are only flyers, I get a little more antsy.  But they do have to ship from the States after all, so I should give it a little more time.

I did complete some things between the last post and this one.  

First was a custom order sleepsack for a baby boy who will be making his arrival sometime this month.  

It's been ages since I made a sleepsack, and I almost forgot how!  I am sure I did the zipper differently than I used to do, but for the life of me, I could not think straight.  

That seems to happen a lot to me lately.

I also finished the pair of shorts I had mentioned last time.
I am entering them in the Shorts on the Line series going on over at Imagine Gnats.

They did not turn out as they look in the picture of Ottobre magazine, but apparently that is okay.  

I did not use cotton as they did in Ottobre - I used a wrinklier fabric, so it doesn't lay flat and stays poofier than cotton.  I also made the elastic smaller around the legs and that makes them more bubbly too.  

My sisters assure me that they are the cutest thing because they are poofy.  They said that I should dress D in such things while she is still small enough for it to be cute.  And I must admit, these shorts do look pretty cute on her.

It was my first time doing a fake fly and though I was slightly confused at first (yeah, the not thinking straight thing), it worked out pretty good!  I skipped the belt loops because D does not wear a belt and if I added the decoration of a string belt, she would just be distracted by it to no end until the thing was broken.  Belt loops will have to wait until she is older.
I will have to try and get a picture of her in them.  Try is of course the key word.  Maybe distract her with a ball...

The pockets are like little bubbles on the sides.  D found them right away and stuck her hands in them, strutting around with her knees bent so she could keep her hands in them.

Will definitely be making another pair of these another year, but with cotton and looser leg elastic.  

Every year for our anniversary we go somewhere.  Our first anniversary, D was just 4 months old, so we did a short trip to the Edmonton Zoo.  Our second anniversary, we went a little farther, to the Calgary Zoo.  This year, we are going a little longer - camping for two nights.  D has been camping before, but not really.  I think she spent a total of 2 days on the beach over 2 camping trips.  This year we hope is different.  We hope to spend 2 or three days at the beach in a row!  Imagine that!  :)

So in preparation for our camping excursion, I thought to make D a beach towel poncho.  I had recently seen a great tutorial over at Delia Creates for a hooded beach poncho.  I loved how the hood was two layers thick and I also liked how she attached the hood to the main towel.  

This was a super quick project.  In fact I think from start to finish it took me maybe a half hour.  Super easy for something so handy.

I love the bright colours of the towels.  Instead of using two regular bath towels, I went with one bath towel and a hand towel.  I still managed to get a full sized, double thick hood out of it.  Maybe not as deep as I would like, but it works.

Now we won't lose her on the beach.  She has a bright pink swimsuit and hat and a bright orange and yellow towel.  

Now that I see this picture, it kind of reminds me of a duck. 

Works for me!