bijou lovely

simple stripes.

2012-02-01T12:05:00.000-06:00

I've been working on another simple stripe quilt this week. I love making these quilts, they're so fast compared to some of the other quilts I've been making.

I'm using lots of graphic basics from my stash for this quilt in green, yellow, blue, and faded red.

My strips are 2.5", 3.5", and 4.5" tall and the width of the fabric (usually about 42"). I just cut one strip of each from each fabric, and end up with enough to make 2 or 3 of these baby quilts depending on how many fabrics I use.

I need to press the seams open and trim the sides and this top will be finished. Hopefully I can quilt and bind it before the weekend!

improv mini quilt.

2012-01-30T11:10:00.000-06:00

I spent so much time sewing this weekend! It felt great to start crossing things off of my endless list of WIPs. My first finish was this improv mini quilt, made from the block I made during the Improv Sewing class at Sewing Summit. This one had been basted for awhile, but I had started pebble quilting it and it just didn't look right. So it sat for a long time waiting to have the quilting ripped out. That part wasn't fun at all, but it was really easy and fast to finish once I had spent some quality time with my seam ripper.

I used a thrifted purple shot cotton for the sashing, and I am really sad to say that I'm almost out of this fabric! It's got great texture and I love the look of the graphic stripe.

I quilted this in wavy lines using yellow Aurifil thread. It was my first time using Aurifil thread and I can say that I'm officially hooked. It makes such a difference, and my stitching turned out beautifully.

I used a Denise Schmidt print from JoAnn's for the backing, and a black pindot for the binding. I wish I knew who made this print, I'm almost out and I want to buy more, it's so versatile!

I handstitched a little heart on the quilt using a hot pink Cosmo floss, just for fun.

This one is hanging up in my sewing room! I'll probably move it to another wall once I finish another project I just started... a framed pegboard to hold all of my sewing tools and ribbon. We bought the supplies for that last night so hopefully I can finish it sooner than later. I have a bare wall that needs a little love!

I'm looking forward to posting more of my finishes this week! Hope you're having a great Monday.

quick sewing.

2012-01-23T12:15:00.002-06:00

I haven't really been too inspired to sew recently, but yesterday I was in the mood for a quick and easy instant gratification type of project. Something I could finish in one short little session to remind me how good it feels to finish a project! This lined drawstring bag using Jeni's tutorial was just what I needed.

I used Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelet print in Green from the 1001 Peeps collection for the exterior. I'm currently obsessed with this color! The black and white dot prints are just random fat quarters I had laying around, not sure who they're by. The ribbon is a Martha Stewart faux bois ribbon I bought at Michael's a really long time ago.

I'm traveling again this week and needed a bag to hold my current knitting project (another honey cowl). This bag will work perfectly!

This bag was so fun and fast to make I have a few more already planned. I think they'll make really cute gifts for Valentine's day.

another kind of stitching.

2012-01-18T15:09:00.001-06:00

Yep, I've caught the knitting bug. It started shortly after Sewing Summit. After seeing all the pretty honey cowls being stitched up there, I wanted to make one myself. And well, one turned into three, and now I can't stop.

This is the one I just finished, a late Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. I gave the other two away without taking proper pictures, other than a few Instagram shots.

I love how cuddly and warm these cowls turn out when they're finished.

Here's the one I just started this week for myself. It's an alpaca/wool blend that I got from a local alpaca farm/yarn shop called Rainbow Yarn & Gifts. The color is lemon chiffon, it's kind of like a citron-y yellow.

Here's my little furry alpaca friend I met at the farm. Isn't he the cutest?

It's nice to have a yarn store in the area, I'll definitely be visiting again. I might have to pick another pattern to work on soon so I can learn a few more stitches and have an excuse to buy more yarn!

Any recommendations for what I should knit next? I'm thinking one of these herringbone cowls would be fun to try!

colorblock quilt.

2012-01-17T11:00:00.001-06:00

I finished my first quilt of 2012 last week! It's a repeat of the baby quilt I had made for Kelly awhile back, but this one is for a little girl.

I have had a lot of requests for a pattern for this quilt, so I'll be releasing one within in the month or two.

I love the colors in this one, girly but with a little bit of an edge to it. The kelly green really pops in the chevron stripe.

I quilted this one the same way I did the boy version, with straight lines parallel to each block.

The back is a lime gingham, and it's bound in my favorite gray, Kona Ash.

For the pattern, which sizes are you interested in? This is a larger baby quilt, about 42" x 55". Should I include a lap size and twin size as well? I'd love to hear your thoughts on size, as well as any other input on what you like/dislike about quilt patterns!

master bathroom plan.

2012-01-04T14:53:00.000-06:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we were planning to renovate our master bathroom. We started it the day after Christmas, and it's definitely still a work in progress. But I thought I'd share a little bit about what we're planning to do in there while it's happening.

Here's what the bathroom looked like before. This is the view from the doorway, and as you can see, even though it's actually a good sized bathroom, it looks pretty small here because of the linen closet that juts out on the right and the shower that sticks out into the room.

Here's a better view of the linen closet. It completely ate up the open space along the vanity wall.

Here's the view of the shower and tub. Not horrible on this side, but we really disliked the bisque colored shower, tub, and tile.

Here's another view of the vanity wall.

Here's the view from the wall near the shower looking towards the bedroom door. It bothered us that the door favors the tub wall, and it's even more of a problem from the bedroom since the bedroom and bathroom doors overlap each other (so if the bedroom door is open, it blocks the bathroom doorway). Also notice the randomly spaced light switches at different levels along the left hand side.

Another thing that you can't see in these pictures is the condition of the walls. There was previously wallpaper in this room and it had since been removed and painted over, but there must have still been a lot of glue on the walls when they painted because the paint was all cracked and chunky on the walls, with some moisture spots since they used the wrong kind of paint. It would have taken us forever to repair them enough to repaint!

Now that you've seen what we've got to work with, here's the new floorplan.

And here's everything we're using in it.

Let's start with the shower. We've ripped out the shower surround, the wall framing it in, and the tub and surrounding tile, so the entire left side of the room is a completely open space. That entire wall and a portion of the side walls will be tiled in 2x4" white subway tile with gray grout. The floor will be tiled in 1x2" honed carrara marble herringbone tile (also with gray grout). There will be a frameless glass door (with the actual door opening in the center) similar to the one in the picture above, and inside the shower area will be two shower systems, and a bench made of the herringbone tile along the entire back wall. Here's a sketch of what the shower will look like when standing directly in front of it.

The showerheads will each come out from an arm in the wall (they're rain showerheads) and there will be a built in square storage area of the herringbone tile to store shampoo, etc. Glass shelves will line the center of the back wall for towels, etc. Each shower will have a recessed light above it as well.

Now onto the vanity wall. The vanity is this one, which we bought on Overstock. It has an espresso finish with a carrara marble countertop and chrome faucets. The mirror came with the set as well. We'll be using these pendant lights from Restoration Hardware above each sink. We're using the same Kohler toilet we used in the first floor bathroom since we've had good results with it. There will most likely be shelves above the toilet for additional storage since we removed the linen closet and medicine cabinet from the room (we do have another linen closet down the hall though). We'll fill the shelves with baskets to hold our things so they don't look too cluttered. There will be some type of white wainscoating along the bottom of the untiled walls, and the top of the walls will be painted a light gray.

There you have it, our plan for the bathroom. Of course right now it looks nothing like the final renderings, but I'll share our progress in another post since this one is getting long!

happy 2012.

2012-01-03T11:19:00.000-06:00

I'm a few days behind but happy 2012! I hope you all had a wonderful time during the holidays. I've been on vacation since December 20th, so it's a little sad to go back to work today. Here's a little taste of what I did with my time off...

Turned 28.

Finished Christmas shopping and wrapping.

Visited with friends and family.

Attended and hosted a few Christmas parties.

Ate (way too much) good food.

Started our master bathroom renovation.

Rang in the New Year (with sparkly nail polish, of course!).

Read a couple books (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, this series is amazing).

Did a little sewing...

knitting...

and quilting.

So that was my time off in a nutshell, mostly through Instagram pictures. My username is bijoulovely in case you want to follow me there.

november blocks.

2011-12-13T13:31:00.002-06:00

I am so behind on blogging and blog reading! The Christmas making and baking are in full effect, and I'm just trying to get it all done in time. I'm planning to take a few extra days off next week to finish everything. On top of the usual holiday stress, we are starting our master bathroom renovation the day after Christmas. We're busy ordering all of the supplies we need so we can make a big dent in the renovation during our week off before the new year. Maybe I'll post more about the bathroom plans this week if I have time!

Here are my November blocks for the Inspire circle of do.Good Stitches. Becky asked for Bottled Rainbow blocks in a smaller size. I had orange and green!

These blocks are a great way to use up scraps!

I realized just how many green scraps (and scraps in general) I have while making this block. I definitely need to spend some time organizing them a little better.

I didn't have many orange scraps, so I actually had to cut into a few fabrics just for this block. I guess I should start using more orange!

fainting couch love.

2011-12-08T11:32:00.001-06:00

Our fainting couch just got delivered in all of its reupholstered beauty yesterday! It's completely transformed!

It's a far cry from what it looked like two weeks ago.

The fabric is Robert Allen Cameo Ovals in Bleached White...which is really a silvery gray color.

The wood looks so much richer against the light colored fabric.

I asked the upholsterer to add nailhead trim along the edges, I love the extra sparkle it adds!

Now I just need my husband to help me move it into it's spot in the living room. It weighs a ton!

guest room reveal.

2011-11-30T10:03:00.001-06:00

The guest room is finished! Okay, nothing is ever completely finished, but it's close.

My husband and I were so busy during the week leading up to Thanksgiving redecorating our guest room. We had family staying with us from Wednesday through Sunday, and we didn't start on this room until the Friday before that. Which gave us five days, only two of which were weekend days. Here's what it looked like before we started (minus all the boxes, this picture is from when we moved in. Not much had changed since then).

It's amazing what a little paint can do! The color is Behr Cloudberry. There was also lots of wallpaper stripping to get rid of the butterflies, along with a ton of spackle and sanding. The walls were a mess! It looked like it had snowed in this room after we finished filling the holes in the walls and sanding them smooth.

The bed in this room is from Adam's grandmother. We had painted the frame white with a pearl finish in our previous apartment, but it looks great in here. Eventually we'll be swapping out this full size bed for a queen, and we'll need to find a new white bed then. I love the way it pops against the wall color!

The blue quilt is also from our old apartment, along with the blue pillows. I added in the orange and purple pillows to brighten up the room a bit.

The artwork above the bed is really what makes the room I think. I found it at World Market when I was in Appleton shopping for all the accessories for the room the Sunday before Thanksgiving (yes, I have to drive 2 hours to go shopping in a real mall!). It was actually the last thing I found for the room, so the fact that it went with everything in the room and tied in the orange from the pillows was really lucky!

We added a chair from the living room in our apartment in the corner to make a little reading nook. All I need now is a little table or ottoman to set in the corner near the window as a second nightstand/reading nook table to set a few books on. I also need to add some art in the corner above the chair.

The pillow on the chair is from HomeGoods, I love the graphic print on it! I threw a chenille throw on the chair to make it looked more lived in.

The bookcase is also from our old apartment, and even though it doesn't match the walnut wood of the nightstand and trim, I think it works here. I love the way the purple curtains frame it within the space!

I styled it with some books, vases, and some extra blankets from around the house. I had found the tree picture on top at a thrift store, and painted the purple around the frame and for the flower petals (they were previously the bronze color of the branches). I also painted the frame silver to freshen it up a bit. The only other thing I bought for the room was the silver coral, which is really beautiful in person and gives the shelves the metallic pop that they needed.

This is my favorite vignette in the bookcase. Who knew all of my sewing books would be the perfect colors for this room? I love that little West Elm mercury glass vase too!

We used a side table I had found at the Restore as a nightstand in the room, topped with a white lamp I found at HomeGoods and a blue tray from West Elm. The flower diffuser and flower plate are also from West Elm, and the clock is from Ikea a few years ago. The milkglass vase was thrifted.

We added a new chandelier in the room as well to dress up the ceiling a bit.

Here's the whole room one last time! I think we'll be staining the storage bench the same walnut color as the nightstand eventually and adding in a long dresser on the left wall with a mirror above it, but we're happy with how it looks for now!

felt garland stocking tutorial.

2011-11-29T14:52:00.001-06:00

Want to learn how to make this felt garland stocking? It's fully lined and super fun! I'm guest posting about it over at Purple Panda Quilts. Here's a link to the tutorial.

Lyanna is hosting a Stockings for Kids drive to give stockings to foster children in her area. There's only a couple days left of the drive (stockings need to be mailed by Dec. 1st) but with so many fun tutorials, you can finish one or two cute stockings by Thursday!

Have you made a stocking for Lyanna's Stockings for Kids drive yet?

this week.

2011-11-16T11:59:00.001-06:00

This has been kind of an unusual week for me. My husband is at our camp for the week deer hunting, so I've been left to hold down the fort at home. My sister Dani is home from school for a little while, so I've been spending a lot of time with my family. Not much sewing has been done, but I've been doing other fun things like making Christmas decorations with two of my best girlfriends, cooking, and trying to remember how to knit.

I made 5 little trees on Saturday (not the bottle brush trees in the back!), and I really like how they turned out.

I made this little plaid tree by wrapping strips of plaid fabric around a styrofoam cone. The gray tree was made using paper for the cone and just wrapping gray yarn around it.

The white tree was paper wrapped in burlap fabric, the green and white one is crochet yarn that looks like baker's twine around styrofoam, and the little gray one is crochet thread wrapped around paper.

After a day of holiday crafting, my friend Kate and I enjoyed some wine and cheese...

roasted some veggies...

and made bowtie pasta with chicken, cherry tomatoes, and pesto cream sauce for dinner.

Last night my mom and sisters made homemade pizza with spinach, artichokes, olives and tomatoes.

I've been practicing my knitting with this simple scarf, but I really want to make one of these!

My little sisters are kind of crazy, as proven by this picture.

Here we are all together. I love these two girls so much!

It's been a pretty good week so far!

more minis!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.001-06:00

Happy Friday! I have a few things to talk about today. First, today marks two years since I started this blog. I think that warrants some kind of a giveaway, don't you? Stay tuned for more on that next week, because I'll admit I don't have my act together on it yet. But I do want to take a second to say thank you all for reading this little blog of mine! It wouldn't be nearly as much fun to post if you weren't here. Your friendship, comments, and support mean the world to me! You're all the best! xoxoxo

Second, did you know that Amy is having a mini quilt party today as part of her Sew & Tell Friday series?

Write a new post about a mini quilt you've made, link up to her blog, and enter to win lots of great prizes! I'm linking up with the mini I made for my Pretty {little} Pouch partner this week. I had high hopes of finishing a new mini in time to link up today, but it's taking a bit longer than I anticipated. Here's a little taste of what it looks like though! Let's just say that my free motion foot and I are becoming fast friends.

Also on the topic of minis, I started a new flickr group this week called Modern Mini Quilts.

It seems that there's been a ton of fantastic minis popping up in our community since Amanda's class on them at Sewing Summit (sadly I wasn't in the class, but I heard it was excellent!), so I figured it would be nice to have a place to share them all! There's already lots of pretty minis in the group, so it's a great place to go if you're looking for some small quilting project inspiration. If you're a mini maker, be sure to add pictures of your mini quilts to the group! Don't forget to add a button to your sidebar while you're at it!

Lastly, I just wanted to say Happy Veteran's Day. For all of you who have served our country, thank you for all that you've done for us! I made this banner for The White House recently, and this quote wouldn't be true if it wasn't for your service.

That's it for today. Have a great weekend!

side projects.

2011-11-10T14:01:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd share a few things I've been working on that aren't fabric related. First off, baby shower invitations for my cousin. She asked for a Winnie the Pooh theme, so I came up with these simple invites based off of a quote I found on Pinterest.

I've also been working on a few blog headers, including one for my friend Megan

and one for my friend Amy

I put together this button for my new Modern Mini Quilt flickr group too, but you'll hear more about that tomorrow!

I've really been enjoying working in Illustrator lately. It's nice to be able to create something without having to sew every now and then!

hello winter.

2011-11-09T13:49:00.001-06:00

Well, fall lasted until November 9th this year. That's actually pretty long to go without snow in the UP, so I'll take it. Here's what our front yard looked like around 9:00 this morning. No snow on the ground, a few leaves left on the trees.

Here's what it looked at around 1:30 this afternoon (still the front yard, just a different angle).

Thank goodness for peppermint mocha and chicken noodle soup!

I'm actually kind of excited that it's snowing outside, but I know I'll be sick of it as soon as I need to shovel off my windshield. I'm embracing winter here today, listening to Christmas music, cuddled up on the couch, and baking the first batches of cookies with a few girlfriends tonight.

a pretty little pouch for me.

2011-11-08T13:19:00.000-06:00

As soon as I got back from mailing my PLP swap package yesterday, I found my own pretty little pouch in my mailbox from ambernoel!

Isn't it beautiful? I love the gorgeous star she made, the fabric choices (herringbone! FMF seeds!), the background fabric she chose, the colors, everything! I also love the green zipper she chose. I'd never put all of these colors together on my own, but they look so pretty here!

Here's a closeup of the star on the front, isn't it the prettiest? I love that she made one of the points in the middle out of a different (but similar) fabric.

She put some scraps inside of the pouch for me too. How cute are those little matryoshka dolls?!

Thank you so much for the gorgeous pouch Amber! I can't wait to fill it with some embroidery supplies for stitching on the go!

mini making.

2011-11-07T11:43:00.001-06:00

I made a little mini quilt for my partner in the Pretty {little} Pouch swap last night. Nothing like waiting until the last minute (the last day to ship is today).

I used a Premier Prints home dec print for the backing since my partner said she likes linen and this print has sort of a linen look to it.

I quilted it with straight lines on the diagnonal. I've been practicing adding my logo with free motion quilting, it's still not perfect but it's getting better!

I'm linking this little mini up to Amy's Mini Quilt Party!

Here's the whole swap package together. I used the backside of the denim that was used for the pouch as the sashing for the mini so they kind of coordinate without matching perfectly.

I added in some vintage trims, fabric scraps and zippers, and it's headed off to my partner today!

thrifty.

2011-11-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

I have been having some really good luck while thrifting lately. It started a few weeks ago when I stopped at the ReStore and found this gold framed mirror, which is perfect above our mantle. I had been searching for something similar to this for quite awhile so I was really excited to find it.

Then, last week my husband and I went to an estate sale and found some great pieces of furniture. We came home with two desks (we're using them as console tables), a rocking chair, and my favorite, a 1910-1920 era fainting couch.

The first desk is exactly what I was looking for to put under the floating shelves in our living room. It's got great details and a pretty shape and matches the wood in our house perfectly.

The smaller desk is currently in our foyer, and definitely came in handy while we were passing out candy on Halloween. We'll probably paint this one since the finish isn't the greatest.

We're not sure where the rocking chair is going to go yet, but my husband fell in love with it. The cushion needs some work so we have some time to figure out where to put it.

And then there's the fainting couch. It's currently sitting in the middle of our living room waiting to be reupholstered. It will most likely replace the loveseat that you can see behind it once it's finished.

The detail of the wood on this piece is amazing. I'm on the hunt for some gorgeous fabric that will complement the dark wood, but also lighten the piece up a bit since it's so heavy looking. Light gray velvet or some metallic linen are on the top of my list at the moment, with nailhead trim to give it a little sparkle.

I also came home from the estate sale with some smaller items, including a brass pedestal, lotus bowl and some little teapots...

Three jadite bowls and the best cookie press ever (my mom has the same one, which used to be my grandmother's), which I can't wait to test out while making Christmas cookies...

a silver pedestal bowl and gravy bowl set...

and last but not least, six blue mason jars.

Then today, I stopped at one of my usual thrift stores and found this 1940s Royal typewriter, which is in amazing condition (and still works!) for $10.

I also couldn't resist picking up a few things for Christmas while I was there.

Hopefully my luck will continue, but I probably just jinxed myself. Have any of you been feeling extra thrifty lately?

halloween fun.

2011-11-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

Did you all have a fun Halloween? We usually don't get into this holiday very much, but this year we had a Halloween/birthday party to go to for one of our friends (Happy Birthday Kate!). My friend Jackie and I made a cute Halloween cake for the birthday girl (inspired by this one).

Several of the food ideas for the party came from Pinterest, including this slightly gross presentation for the guacamole. Also served were homemade pretzels with jalepeno cheese dip, pumpkin pie dip with apples and graham crackers, and monster pudding shots. The food was all delicious!

My husband and I came up with a bunch of ideas for costumes, but none of them would stick. Finally we just decided to walk around the stores until we figured something out. We ended up being Papa Smurf and Smurfette. Of course they didn't offer a Smurfette mask online like they did for the rest of the Smurfs, which meant I had to paint my face blue. Thankfully it came off pretty easily after the party!

On Monday I invited some family over for chili and to pass out candy at our house.

My nephews came over after they were done trick or treating and looked so cute all dressed up.

It was a great weekend, definitely the best Halloween I've had in a long time. Hope yours was great too!

improv mini.

2011-10-19T14:15:00.001-05:00

I'm in the process of making a mini quilt out of my improv block from Sewing Summit. I was going to use my go-to natural linen for the background, but it didn't look quite right. I auditioned about ten other fabrics before ultimately deciding that this thrifted purple stripe was perfect for the job.

This block is a little loud for me, but I'm going to embrace it rather than trying to calm it down. I'm thinking it will be just the pop of color I need against the gray walls in my sewing room!

chevron clutch.

2011-10-17T11:52:00.002-05:00

I stitched up a little chevron clutch yesterday for my partner in the Pretty {little} Pouch swap.

It's made of a purple-ish denim from JoAnn that I got forever ago, with the Premier Prints Zigzag in Ash in the middle. I lined it in Lizzy House's Illusion in Orange from 1001 Peeps.

I added interfacing and a layer of batting to give it some shape, and straight line quilted along the sides. The gussets were added to give it a little depth.

A shiny black button on the front finished it off. It came together pretty quickly considering I had drawn up the pattern in Illustrator just 10 minutes before.

This little clutch will be headed off to my partner soon!

ABC progress and comment problems.

2011-10-14T10:27:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday friends! I made a little progress on my Daisychain ABC Sampler at the Sewing Summit. I can't seem to find my black wool to finish the "C", but other than that I'm finished with 4 letters! I love working on this piece so I'm taking my time on it.

I've heard from several different people that they've had trouble commenting on my blog lately. I have no idea why this is happening, but it makes me sad that some of you can't comment when you want to! I've switched back to the pop-up comment window, maybe that will fix things? Can you try to leave a comment here to let me know it's working? If you're still having problems, please shoot me an email at bijoulovely@gmail.com and I will do some more research to figure out what's wrong. Thanks and have a good weekend!

Sewing Summit 2011.

2011-10-12T20:52:00.000-05:00

I'm back from the Sewing Summit! It was an amazing, overwhelming, and exciting experience and I am very glad that I went. I am glad to be back home now though too, it was an exhausting weekend! There was so much going on and so many people to meet, I never really got a second to breathe and take it all in.

I arrived in SLC Thursday evening and met my roommates, Rachel and Amanda. I was a little afraid that it would be awkward sharing a room with two girls I hardly knew, but it was actually one of the highlights of the whole trip for me. They are both super sweet and I hope we get the chance to see each other again soon!

Friday morning was the Shop Hop, in which 50 fabric-obsessed ladies chartered a bus around the city to three fantastic fabric stores (Pine Needles, Quilt Etc., and The Material Girls Quilts).

It was so much fun and a great way to meet people! My roommates and I walked away with quite the collection of goods.

We had a late lunch at the Blue Lemon with some of our new friends, and headed down to the Meet & Greet. I'm somewhat shy and not the best at meeting and greeting, so I found it to be a little intimidating, but I did get to chat with a lot of wonderful people there! I had dinner with a small group of girls at the Red Rock Brewery, and then we headed back to the hotel for the do.Good Stitches meeting (where Rachel taught me how to crochet) and to drop off my charms for the Color Wheel Charm Swap.

I started off Saturday in Jess' Improv Piecing class.

I'm not the best at improv but I do enjoy it, and had fun stitching up this block. I also learned how to do curved improv piecing which I want to try out very soon!

From here on out is where I'm lacking in the picture department. I couldn't get a signal on my phone to upload to Instagram, and I just didn't feel like pulling my camera out much. My second class of the day was Vanessa's photography class, and then I went to Jeni's fabric selection class after lunch. We all got Kona color cards which I was very excited about! I can't seem to find my old one anywhere.

My last class of the day was Getting the Perfect Vintage Fit with Gretchen, which I loved! I'm not much of a garment sewer but I learned so much in her class, I want to make a dress now.

Saturday night I had a lot of fun hanging out by the fireplace in the lobby, chatting with some of my favorite bloggers and working on my Daisychain ABC sampler. We stayed up way too late, as evidenced by this picture that Erin took of us. What am I doing in this picture? I have no idea! We were supposed to make a funny face, but it just looks like I'm sleeping.

On Sunday I took an Aspiring Authors class, which was very informative, and finished the day with Dana's blogging class. Then it was time to say goodbye to everyone! How sad.

Overall I think the conference was a great experience for me. It got me a little out of my comfort zone in terms of meeting new people, I learned a lot, had lots of fun, and left feeling inspired! Thank you Erin and Amy for putting on such a wonderful event!

packing.

2011-10-05T15:37:00.001-05:00

I'm busy packing up for the Sewing Summit today. I leave for Salt Lake City in the morning!

I've got my business cards ready to be passed out to friends.

Also going in the suitcase, some charms for the Color Wheel Charm Swap,

fat quarters for our big FQ swap on Saturday night,

and some scraps for my Improv Quilting class with Jess.

Now if only I could decide what to wear...I'd be ready!

chevron market tote.

2011-10-03T15:36:00.000-05:00

I put together a new market tote for Sewing Summit this weekend! I modified the pattern to add a pocket to the front and back sides, inspired by the Jane Market Bag.

The chevron fabric is a Premier Prints home decor print, and I bought it to make curtains for our living room. Buying the whole bolt was not much more expensive than just buying the yardage that I needed for the curtains, so I have some extra fabric to use up!

The top of the pocket is made from Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelet in Purple from the 1001 Peeps collection. The bottom is some gray corduroy I've had forever.

The lining is a weird purple-ish denim that I bought in the clearance section at JoAnn's a couple years ago. It's perfect for a rugged market tote!

Three more days until I arrive in SLC! The sewing scramble continues until then.