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!

we have a winner!

The winner of the Domestic Bliss charm pack is 

sandyb!

She said:

Love the fabric choice and the hexies! My first job other than working for my mom at the snack bar counter was working at the snack bar counter at the diver-in theater. I was no nervous that I would mess up the pizzas:)

Thank you

Congrats sandyb.  You have 48 hours to get back to me.  Please don't make me pick a different winner.

Thanks to all who participated and shared their first jobs.  So many different things to do in the world!

Next time I hope to share the shorts I was working on.  I am planning to enter them into the Shorts On The Line competition going on over at Imagine Gnats.

I sure hope I can get D to cooperate with me when it comes to taking pictures.  I'm trying to teach her what cooperation is, but it doesn't seem to be sticking in her 2 year old mind yet.  So instead I wrestle her :)

summer's here

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!  It ends on Wednesday, June 27.

Enter here.

 

Summer is here and it sure is warm. At least for me. 

I used to love the heat. I lived in Australia for 6 months, right during the summer, and I loved the heat.  Now, if it is 23Celcius, I'm good.  Anything warmer and I just don't know what to do with myself any more! 

With it being summer, I am sure spending less and less time sewing and thinking about sewing.  Though I do have a pair of shorts cut out and waiting to be sewn up for D. They are from the most recent Ottobre magazine.

 Stinking cute!  

I am using a dark blue linen-ish fabric.  I am not really sure it is linen.  It seems to me to be more of a rayon linen wannabe.  The pockets on the side will be the balloon fabric from the Children at Play line by Sarah Jane.  

But this week is supposed to be rather warm, so D and I will most likely be on the deck in the shade spending some quality time in the kiddy pool.  Or as D calls it, the cool.

I am not doing much sewing, but I am doing some receiving.  

I received this package from Cherie for the June A Little Fabric A Little Chocolate Swap.

I know.  There's no chocolate.  But since being pregnant, chocolate has lost it's allure.  It's sad really because I truly got a lot of enjoyment from eating bits of chocolate.  Hopefully this problem rectifies itself after the baby is born.

Instead of chocolate, I asked for scraps and some squares.  She sent a bunch of squares.  I will have to find something to make with them now since they are not right for the hexy playmat.  

Maybe granny squares?  Hmmm.

I also received today a giveaway win from Art Gallery Fabrics.  

A while ago, she had a scrap giveaway on Facebook and I emailed my address and got to be included in the mass mailing of scraps!

Now, there is a lot of green in here.  For those of you who know me, green is not a favourite colour.  

However.  

I like these.  

I could become friends with green yet. 

hexies all around

I have decided on Hexie MF fabrics.  

Domestic Bliss was most popular in votes, and with my husband.   I usually don't ask my husband because his colour skills leave something to be desired, but this time, he swayed my mind.  I really like this line and am excited to be working with it.  

I was debating whether to also get the Modernology anyway and then decide when they showed up, but my fabric budget is simply not that big.  It's bigger when I am making things to sell, because then I at least make my cost back.  But just for fun stuff has a cost cap.

I only changed two things.

I took out the Mini Diamonds in Blue and Cream and replaced it with Out of Doors in Cream.  The diamonds didn't really seem to fit with the rest of my choices and I really liked the leaf print and wanted to include it.

I also went with Kona Charcoal instead of the Soho Charcoal.  It was cheaper.

The centres are Moda Bella Cheddar.

And did you know that it was impossible to get all these from one shop!!?  I had to order from 4 different Etsy sellers.  But they were all super friendly and super helpful.  

I love Etsy.

While I am waiting to start those hexies, I have been piecing these ones. 

I am squaring it off now because I am running out of hexies with kid identifiable images on them.  And really, 4 elephants is plenty.  LOTS of these fabrics came from my great swap partners and Flickr and Blogger friends.  

You guys rock.

Because so many of you were so generous, I want to return the favour.  

I will give one commenter a Domestic Bliss charm pack. 

All you have to do is answer this question:

What was your first job?

My first real job was working in a printing factory. It stank in there and I did not like it one bit.  My second job was in a bakery and I got to take home broken cookies.  I loved it!

Giveaway will end June 27.

*****Giveaway is now over.  Winner will be announced shortly!*****

some help please

This year I caught in on the fun and joined Craftaholics Handmade Gift Exchange.  This was the sixth exchange and there are two a year, one in the spring and one in the fall.  

This year Linda chose to use a site called Elfster to organize the swap.  Elfster blindly paired people up and then when you find out your partner, you can ask secret questions and look at their likes and their wishlist.  Some people don't seem to like or understand how Elfster works, but I thought it was great!  It was nice to be able to ask my secret partner questions about her style and likes.  That way I can put a gift together that I know is her style.

My partner collects owls and foxes, and I had some owl fabric left, so I made a reversible tote.  It turned out a little smaller than I hoped, but it is still a good size for when you don't need to take much along.

I had received some of the same owl fabric in a different colourway so I reverse appliqued an owl of the lighter colour on both sides of the bag.  I haven't done reverse applique before and I really like how it turned out.  I first interfaced the fabric I cut out of so that the edges wouldn't fray too badly.

My partner said she really liked colour so the reverse I chose a much brighter print from my stash. 

******

A quick interruption from our local elephant.

She used to be scared of this costume, but now she wears it weekly.  Even eats lunch with it on!

******

I am going to take a really big step.  I am joining a QAL.

I know!  What am I doing?  I'm not a quilter!

I make clothes and small quilty things, but I am not a quilter!

See, it's a big step.

I read over on Marian's blog about a QAL that Fat Quarterly is hosting.  Then I saw the quilt she was talking about and it was one I had pinned a while ago!  How could I resist!

The quilt is Hexie MF from Katy over at i'm a ginger monkey.

image from i'm a ginger monkey

I loved this quilt the moment I saw it, and now I have the opportunity to make it!  I am just a little excited to be making hexies all summer and then end up with this!

But now I have to pick fabrics.  I don't have a specific plan for this quilt, other than to make it, so my colour options are pretty open.  I headed over to the Fat Quarter Shop and Etsy to scope out some good fabrics and came up with three lines that I really like.  I want colours that will make the flowers pop from the background.  For all three lines I chose Soho Charcoal for the background.  I really wanted to find a crosshatch or sketch in charcoal, but there is none to be had, so this will work.

I need your help now.  Which of these three lines do you think will show off the pattern of the quilt best?

Domestic Bliss by Liz Scott for Moda Fabrics

Peachy Keen La Dee Da from Erin McMorris

Vogue Blue Modernology by Pat Bravo

some great mail

I did not get too much sewing or crafting of any kind done this week. 

I managed to make some progress on my hexie playmat. It is getting slowly bigger. I was making it using 'flowers' of hexies with a solid in the centre, but I think I have exhausted my solid collection, so now I am squaring the whole thing off.  So until I am satisfied that it is complete, I will be adding strips of hexies instead of flowers.  If anyone is interested in trading some 2.5"-3' squares for hexies, I am happy to oblige.

I did get some great sewing related mail this week.  First, I received my Modern She Made Swap package.  My partner was amazing with stalking me and finding just the things I like.  Honestly, when you open the card without looking at anything else in the box, and the card is perfect, you know the rest of the package is a winner.

My partner, Karen, made me this gorgeous cathedral windows mini quilt. What a lot of work went into this!  It really is absolutely beautiful I got completely spoiled.  She also included some lovely extras including some bike fabric from Spoonflower and a cute little sleeper for our baby who will join us in December, Lord willing.

Swaps like this really work to turn me into a swap addict.  

I had also won a Lotta Jansdotter scrap pack from Imagine Gnats for participating in the Covert Robin Swap, and that also arrived this week. 

Now I must admit, I am not as taken by Echo as others are, but when this came and I got to feel all the fabrics, I began to like the line a little more.  These fabrics are definitely quality fabrics and they feel so soft!  There is some quilting cotton, some linen-type, and a piece of corduroy fabric, and there is only one piece smaller than a charm. 

I love scraps.  And these ones are no exception.

And for one last question, how can I get rid of all these ants that have invaded my gardens?  I have a raised flower bed at the front and it is literally crawling with ants!  I have tried store bought ant bait, and homemade borax bait and they seem to survive it all.  

Any tips or advice?