Sweet Dreams, sweet girlies

I have a perfect pillow,  and I use it every night.
The moment I lay down on it, I'm out just like a light.
It's not too soft and not too firm.  It's not too high or low.
It doesn't have a hollow where my head is forced to go.
It lets me snooze and deeply doze.  I sleep the whole night through...
But the reason its so perfect is it makes my dreams come true.
                          ~Gregory K.                        


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zazzle.com





While the sack race may not have been my

intended purpose for her pillowcase, I love

seeing that  she thinks outside the box!



I got the fabrics from fabric.com  The font is my new favorite, Sugar and Spice.  I used the same measurements for the cases....27 inches for the body, 9 inches for the cuff, but I did cut down the trim from 1 1/2 inches to about an inch.  I considered using  rick rack trim instead, but I didn't want sweet cheeks to have a zig zag imprint in the morning, so I went with the fabric!

I have always heard that handwriting that rises at the end of a sentence indicates a positive outlook on life.  Do you think the same holds true for embroidery?  For the life of me, I don't know how it happended.  It had to be in the software as I was juggling my letters.

  Katelyn got her Valentiine box this week, and of course sweet mommy sent me pictures.   

Here she is all ready to snuggle in, and rest her head on a cupcake pillow.  Sweet Dreams, Sweet Katelyn!

Market Basket



        ~zazzle.com

 To market to market to buy a fat pig,
Home again home again, jiggety jig!

I did this market basket for Susan, and while she may not be carrying any fat pigs in it, I have a feeling it might make a trip or two to her home in the mountains.   I have embroidered  these baskets before, and while the Bernina 200 may not be the simplest machine to do them on, you can make it work, but it would have gone much easier and much more quickly on a commercial machine .   I had to take it off  it's frame, which is easy enough, turned it inside out, hooped some Stabilstik and removed the covering, then lined it up and pressed it to the sticky surface in the hoop.  Then it was just a matter of attaching the hoop carefully to the machine and watching it as it stitched out.

The font is Kaleidoscope from a Bernina collection; it is bright and fun to stitch.

Three Sweethearts

                                                 

My heart to you is given:
Oh,  do give yours to me;
We'll lock them up togeher
And throw away the key.
              ~Frederick Saunders

 

I wanted my girlies to have their Valentine t-shirts a little ahead of the holiday so that they could enjoy wearing them.  I got three of them finished today; Mae is next on the list.  Katelyn's is first; it is a frame that I have used before from Band To Bow and added  "Its good to be..."  inside the frame. 

Issa's t-shirt applique is from Five Star Fonts.  I forgot to add her name until I had finished the applique, so I just added it from the fonts in the machine; this one is Cursive.  The litle middle heart is chennile, and she especially likes that.

The last photo is Sarah's little onesie with the Five Star Font applique.  I remembered on this one to add the font in the software and angled it to follow the slant of the hearts; the font is Sugar and Spice.

I have some fun new fabrics that we ordered from Fabric.com and am ready to make threir valentine pillowcases!

Lisa's Envelope Clutch



Letters are the most significant memorial a person can leave beind him. ~ Goethe 



 While there may not be a letter enclosed in this cute little envelope, it is the perfect size for anything else you might need when you are just a little too dressed up for your comfy shoulder bag.  Lisa showed us how to make it in one of her  "I Love To Sew" presentations at the store.

  The fabric of the dress that she was wearing was a perfect match to this Dupioni silk.  It was really very easy to stitch out, and she gave us the directions, all printed up, so that you could take them home and make your own envelope clutch.  On this bag, she used her # 32 pintuck foot to embellish the top of the bag before she cut it out, and gave us lots of ideas for other  embellishments.  She used Timtex as her stabilizer, cut it about a 1/4 inch smaller than the clutch, and after she had constructed the fabric part of the purse, just  folded it over and slid it into the fabric.  She used strips of Wonder Tape to hold down the 1/4 inch seams which were the final step to the bag, and then neatly topstitched it closed with the #10 foot.

Lisa is an accomplished sewist, and her first love is anything heirloom; she shares her expertise through her many Martha Pullen projects which she teaches at the store . Her heriloom classes  aren't limited to sweet baby clothes; she does placemats, totes, and lots of fun projects.   If you want to contact lisa about classes, email her at lisablejwas@ bellsouth.net.

My Mamie Made It!

Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over

the lives of little children .  ~Alex Haley

Even though she hasn't been feeling her best, Mamie knew what little Amelia needed for her birthday...a faux fur vest, with matching headband.  And of course it needed a beautiful monogram just like Mamie's not so faux fur.  The label proudly claims  "My Mamie Made it!"  just like Amelia does whenever she recieves a compliment for her attire.

Mamie used a Simplicity pattern, a satin lining, and pretty white frogs to serve as closures for the front of the vest. She reported that it sewed up quickly; in fact it could have been done in about an hour, except for the usual glitch that we both seem to experience when it comes to turning  these things.  You can see from Amelia's smile that she is more than happy with her birthday surprise, and what better way could a Mamie find to wrap up her sweet Amelia on a cold January day?

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie...

The minute that Kathy showed this quote to me, in my heart of hearts I knew just which little girl would wear it!  Our petite Sarah, the powerhouse of the grandgirlies... 18 months old, and this little girl takes care of business.  She doesn't ask for help, if she needs something, she moves furniture or climbs until she gets it.  She doesn't tantrum; a slight shake of the head informs her bibi that she prefers not to comply with the request.  Before her bath, she marches unclothed through the den taking her dirty clothes to the laundry room.  I picture her as the CEO of a corporation someday.  While this may have been a winter of discontent, this little girlie has brightened our lives; she keeps us in stitches.

This quote was digitized by Kathy, she used the Giselle font for the first 2 lines and Alice for the last.  I did have some difficutly stitching it out, but after trying many different solutions, I came out with a product that would work . I backed the onesie with polymesh cutaway.  My thread (I use Isacord) kept shredding and breaking, and this was I problem that I never have.  I rethreaded several times, checked the bobbin, dusted the case, oiled it, changed needles, ( I was using a 75/11 ball point), slid a second piece of stabilizer under the hoop, all to no avail.  A text from Kathy suggested a larger needle, so I ended up using an 80/12 sharp, and then decided to decrease the top thread tension just a bit.   The rest of the quote sewed out like a charm!

I can't wait to see Sarah in this; my love for this little girl is as constant as the Northern Star!

Pillowcase for Tony O

Sleep all night, in my sight

Though you're off to dreamland.

Then tomorrow with the sun,

Back to Mama, little one.   ~  French Folk Song

 

Little Tony Owen, Kathy's precious grandson, needed a birthday pillowcase.   Kathy went to work and  whipped up this bright one, with his name in applique and colors to suit an active little boy.  The font is the Happy Applique Font from Five Star Fonts.  The pillowcase is made from a yard of fabric, with an extra strip of bright red trim.

To make the pillowcase, 3 different fabrics are used; Kathy used a strip of the main fabric for the cuff of Tony's.  One strip is 27 inches, one is 9, and the trim is 1 and a half inches long.  You line up the strips on top of each other on the ironing board, matching folds and selvage edges as closely as you can.  Use a rotary cutter to trim them to the exact same width.  Now make 3 circles of fabric, you can use a serger or french seams if you like.  Then sew up the end of the largest circle, making the body of your pillowcase.

Now fold both the small trim strip and 9 inch cuff strip lengthwise and press. 

   Baste the trim circle to the cuff, then encircle this piece on the outside of the case.   All of your pieces match nicely because you took time to trim them all the same length.  (not in my nature, but boy is this a good idea.)  Sew the cuff and trim piece to the body of your pillowcase, trim the edges and finish the seam.  

Little Tony must certainly need his naps.  His  late afternoon antics are sometimes shared with us as he facetimes with his grandma, and his red hair and big smile are often the bright spot in an otherwise dreary day!

Yes, She's outa control!

She lives in Fairhope, Alabama; we have been friends for over 40 years, and her passions are her family, any holiday, and Alabama Football.  We met at the University of Alabama while our husbands were in graduate school; we taught school in Tuscaloosa County and formed a friendship that has lasted through the years.

Cindy is modeling her houndstooth pajamas which were a gift from her daughter, her lovely baseball cap, my scarf which has my crimson monogram and her new makeup case which was a gift from me.  The shaker in her hand has seen years of Alabama football games,  from either the stadium or her den.  A few of her former kindergarten students have gone on to play for her favorite team, and she cheers them on proudly.

We won't be cheering together, but tomorrow night will be an exciting one for Rick and Cindy, Joe and me.

Write it on your heart...

That every day is the best day of the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today is a big day in my little world. Thank you, gentle friends, for your prayers. And as soon as I figure out this iPad, or get my camera and laptop out of the repair shop, I will show some more of my little projects!