moving along

Hey look! I did manage to get a photo of my girls wearing their coordinating outfits. K in her new dress and D in her ruffly skirt. 

The dress fit perfectly and she managed of course to get chocolate on it while nomming on her cupcake.  

I also printed off all the paper piecing papers for the Feather QAL.  

That is one large stack of papers!  I am upsizing the quilt size to a queen without upsizing the feather pattern.  I'm adding on to the bottom and side of the original quilt size to make a quilt that should end up finishing at 88"x100".

These are the final colours I'm going with.  I originally had yellow in as well, but it got lost in translation - aka I didn't have a space for it when I coloured in my block map.  But I'm fine with that as I wasn't so sure about the yellows anyway.  

Can't wait to start!  

Actually, can't wait to be done!

a birthday dress

My baby turned 1 today. 

She is such a character - so different from her sister.  K is loud, moody, pushy, and a go-getter whereas D was soft, quiet, 'emotionless' (so some said, but I knew better), and calm.  It is so much fun to have two such different characters running/crawling around my house.

For her birthday, I made K a sweet little dress.

  

The dress is an Ottobre pattern and I'm so proud of how professional it came out.  My invisible zipper really is invisible!  And the piping lined up perfectly to boot.

The bubble is prefect and the dress is completely lined so there are no exposed seams. 

I made D a coordinating skirt from another print from this line.  I don't know what line it is, but I know I bought them together to match.  I always thought coordinating but not matchy was cute for sisters and this is the first time I'm doing it for my girls.

Will definitely need a picture of that.

falling in

I've recently made my baby girl a winter coat for church. Silly, eh, to make a coat specifically for Sunday.  We go to church twice on a Sunday and since we were kids, we always had a neat coat for church.  And I suppose I just can't shake the habit.  I have a 'neat' coat, and so does my husband.  Just fitting the baby had to have one too ;)

The pattern is from the 6/2012 issue of Ottobre.  I made a size 80 (the size K wears now) and it's a bit big. 

I'm particularly impressed that I remembered to add satin in the sleeves so her clothes don't ride up to her armpits. It wasn't in the pattern, and that is the only change I made besides leaving off the ribbon at the waist.

I didn't have any velvet ribbon to put at the waist and now I regret finishing it off before ordering ribbon (aka waiting two weeks for velvet ribbon from the States).  Oh well, it's still so cute on her since K has such chubby cheeks and the coat is a little bubble.

I've also decided to participate in the Feathers QAL over at The ADD Crafter.  This quilt will be for our bed!  I had started one for our bed before, but my husband thought there was too much pink.  What!?  Not manly enough?!  

Anyway, so this quilt will be jewel tone scrappy with black Andover Chambray for the background.  Now I just have to decide what range of colours to include.  

The top row is all the bits minus orange, the second row has some orange pieces included, and the bottom is basically the top pared down.  I think either the top or middle one appeals most to me.  Then the quesiton is how to put them together!  Just pick totally random, or make some order out of it.  Put like colours together, or just mix them all up.  Planning always takes me forever.

Last, and if you've come this far, it's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day {Week} hosted by Sew Mama Sew.  Last year I didn't participate, and this year I waffled, thus the late jumping in on the game.  I'm always wondering who comes by to enter giveaways - just people looking for freebies and they enter every giveaway they find, or people who really read blogs and enter only ones that they would find useful for themselves.  

I think I fall in the second group.  I am a blog reader when I have time, but I'm not much of a commenter.  I'm the silent stalker.  I also don't enter every giveaway open, but enter only ones that would be useful to me or someone I know.  

In any case, enough yapping, you want to know what I'm giving away!  I have two prizes, and I'm following Kristel's idea of giving one out randomly and one out to a specifically international/Canadian entrant.  

Here are the two prizes:

1. A pack of 42 5"charms chosen from my stash - they may or may not include these.

2. a 6" charm pack of Essentials 

To enter leave a comment telling me what kind of sewing machine you have.  I recently bought a Janome 2030QDC second hand.  The lady I bought it from only used it for the class and to make one shirt, so really, it was new.  Before that I had a Brother I had bought from Walmart - yeah, classy.  The only thing that machine lacked was throat space.

What do you sew on?

{Please also let me know if you are a US entrant or international/Canadian.} 

Giveaway ends Dec. 13 8pm MST. 
---CLOSED---
Winner will be announced as soon as Little D is in bed :) 

Winners have been contacted and have responded, so now I'm announcing them.
#52 Kellie Marie
#114 DeborahGun

add more to the list

If you've come here from the Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop, welcome to my blog!  I'm not always very regular here, but I do post sporadically.  I'm more active on Flickr as that seems to be more mom friendly.  It's easier to post a picture with a couple words than it is to write up a post when you have two little ones around.  If you're on Flickr, my name there is Principiessa.  (I chose that name because my husband, who is Dutch, claims to know some Italian and this is the word he, ahem, knows.)

I have a bunch of WIP's going on now and I want to show that I am actually working on them!  Some are over a year old, but I'm slowly chipping away at them.  

I'm still busy with my Hexy MF.  I'm not pregnant anymore (phew) so it's much easier to sew on this one.  I have only to attach 4 more flower to the stems and I'm ready to quilt, or sent it off to the quilter.  

I'm finishing the binding on my Stack n' Whack quilt.  Only two sides left to bind and I keep thinking to myself - Just get it done already!  

My Simply Solids Triangles Quilt is still a top, and I still haven't decided on a border or not.

To add to the pile, my Get Your Hex on bee blocks are almost all here and they will need a plan too!

it's so hard to take a good photo when winter is here.

This project is smaller and has to get done sooner as it's due to be sent in January.  I've become a mild swap addict and this bit of piecing is going to become a doll quilt for round 14 of the Doll Quilt Swap.

I've fallen in love with this block, and I'm not even sure what to call it!  Is it square in a square, or fussy cut squares.  If someone could help me out to find the real name, that would be great.

Anyway, I've gone with Moda Cheddar and Kona Slate for the surrounding squares and bits of Heather Ross for the fussy cuts.  I'm thinking of backing it on magentas to match the centre mermaid square and than bordering the whole mini with some low volume fabrics.

everything is a bit too bright in this photo...

I'm so on the ball with this project.  I can't send until January and I'm ready to get the whole thing done now.  I hope I'm not doubting myself by the time it's time to send.

still around, just not here

I don't know how you ladies with jobs, kids, and a sewing hobby find the time to blog regularly.  I find I hardly have the time to blog and so it gets ignored.

I do find time to sew though!  I miss it when I don't have a chance to get behind the machine.  Over the last bit I've made 4 blocks - 2 for a bee and 2 for do. Good Stitches.

I joined the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee for a round and chose to make Icky Thump from 627 Handworks.

This is my 'test' block made in the colours I requested - navy, magenta, and light yellow with low volume background.

This block is for Linnea in the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee.

I also finished up these two blocks for do. Good Stitches.

Amid all my sewing, I also received some sewn gifts.  I received a large tote bag from Jennifer as part of the Secret Tote Bag Swap.  I am in love with this front pocket panel and I want to simply hang it on my wall.

Then I received this gorgeous needlebook and F8's from Leila in the Simple & Sweet Scrappy Swap.

Last, I made two bags, one for pattern testing and another as a special order.

This is the Penelope Purse, a pattern by Clover and Violet.  Jennie put out a call for pattern testers on Facebook and I responded to help her out.  This is such a cute pattern, and I love the top zipper panel.  I don't have many pictures of it as my daughter took off with it almost immediately and filled with with her 'stuff'.

I used denim for the bottom and the strap and a fat quarter bundle of Paper Dolls by Studio E Fabrics I had been saving to make something for D. I also did my first bit of 'real' free motion quilting on the top of the bag - pebbles.  It worked out not too bad either!  Not that I'm confident enough to try it on a quilt or anything.  That seems like a lot of work, but then maybe my pebbles have to be bigger.

I just finished up this bag yesterday for a customer who wanted a wet/dry bag just like the one I'd made for her friend.

It has a 'dry' front pocket and a large 'wet' pocket that's lined with PUL fabric.  It's quite a big bag and holds 8 cloth diapers. 

Tomorrow I'm having a sew day with a friend - and truthfully, I'm not sure what to sew!  I'm waiting on fabric to make Sunday coats for my girls, so if that comes first thing in the morning, I've got my day set out, but if not, I might have to make up a project.

blocks and plans

I have been on the wait list for a Canadian branch of do.Good Stitches for a little while and a spot opened up for me in the Happiness group at the beginning of October.  I'm looking forward to making these some blocks every month as I'm always looking to make something but don't really need anything.  

The October quilter asked us to make Crown of Thorn blocks in blue and yellow and low volume for the quilt she is putting together.  

It's a paper pieced block, but was pretty simple to put together. I love how it looks too.  Might have to keep it in mind for myself one day.

I've been slowing down with dress making and I'm not doing any shows this fall/winter.  I've decided that I'd rather do the odd custom request instead and focus more on quilting .  

This dress was a custom request for a customer who needed a dress for an upcoming family photo shoot.  She had three dress pictures and wanted something from each of them put together just like this. 

Can't wait to see some pictures from the photo shoot.  It's always so rewarding to see things I've made being used.

I'm also hosting another round of the F8 Swap Canadian Edition.  This time we're swapping modern novelties.  I love so many of these novelty fabrics that are coming out or have been around, but I really don't need a whole bunch of each piece as I usually fussy cut and only use bits, so a F8 is the prefect size.  

I'm adding Sarah Jane's Children at Play Balloons to the swap.  

So far we also have a bit of Madrona Road and some Riley Blake houses.  There are still a couple spots open if you're wanting to swap.  I'm also thinking of opening the group up to whomever wants to swap, not just Canadians... So long as it doesn't get too big.

I also have some plans to make a quilt for my baby.  She'll be one in December (eep!) and she's been sleeping under a too small blanket.  It was fine when she was smaller, but she's a pork chop and doesn't fit nicely under the blanket anymore.

These are the colours I have in mind, using Full Moon Lagoon as the main inspiration and adding some navy to it rather than orange or white as is found in the panel. 

I'm not 100% sure of a design yet, but I have some time.  I'm sure something will come to me, right?  Maybe you could suggest something?  I'm not a fan of a quilt that is symmetrically blocks, but rather more of a 'whole picture' type of design. I guess that's why I'm having trouble finding something I really want to do yet.

back to relative normalness

Phew! My little sister is now married and I feel like I can focus on other sewing projects now. 

I had made the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dress for her wedding and it seemed to me that as long as the wedding was still coming, I should be doing something with them!  That wasn't really true, just how it felt.  I don't have a great picture of the bridesmaid dresses as they looked kinda bad on the hanger, but I do have an almost final picture of the flower girl dress.  

In the end, I took off the blue tails from the flower as I thought it made it look like a fair ribbon, and I added a gemstone to the centre of the flower.  I'm horrible for remembering to take photos, so I don't have any of D wearing the dress.  

After the wedding on Saturday, I whipped out three bee blocks, two of which I forgot to take photos of before mailing them off, and a 241 Tote for the Secret Tote Swap.

241 Tote finished just on time!

the one block I did have time to take a photo of

I also received this Super Tote and Open Wide Pouches from Little Island Quilting as part of the Sew Sew Modern Swap.

Feels good to be able to sewing again!