Baby Burp Cloths

Good morning!! I've been so busy in the work world, that I haven't had three seconds to sit here and catch you up on what's new with us over here! Let's start with an update on the sewing studio.

I think I mentioned previously that it's all painted up!!! I haven't moved in yet, and all of my stuff is sitting in the middle of the room while I am waiting to create the built-in. I just finished designing it but I change my mind every three seconds. Seriously. I think it's a designer thing. This weekend I'm off to a reclimation shop to see if they have any while lowers on the cheap :)

Last week I had a work meeting with a lovely local client who has a pregnant employee. I adore her as well and thought I'd take along a mid-pregnancy treat! Who doesn't like a little treat?? I happen to know her little bundle is a bouncing baby boy, so I snipped some squares from some flannels I have and backed them with soft ivory terrycloth. Voila!

This has to be the easiest little sew job around. In fact I think my daughter is finally ready to learn how to sew so this will be the project we do together first. These 3 little cloths took me about an hour to whip off. I'm not going to do a little tutorial as there are about 900 of them online, but I will tell you that as far as gifts go- it's always nicer to have handmade!

Today, I am very grateful to have some time to get back to my mini curvy pinwheel quilt. Next post I'll talk about my experience with the pattern and show you some progress!!

Happy Thursday!!

That Sewing Machine Thing

A few years ago I had this itch to sew. I bought a pile of fabrics, a pile of notions, and a cheap little sewing machine from Walmart. I wasn't too sure if my new hobby was a passing fad or something more. Well, I guess it is an addiction because here I am with my own studio, a pile of cute things and a fabric stash that somewhat resembles the cutting floor of a JoAnn's. 

Before the move my poor little sewing machine, who has seen some serious action, was not behaving like a good machine should. I put off dealing with it until after we moved, and when I plugged him in... well he works but not like he should. He likes to snaggle his bobbin and snap his needle. No amount of fussing with the tension resolves his issues and after a series of frantic google suggestions and a phone call to the sewing machine doctor, he's just not coming back to life. Honestly, he doesn't owe me any favors... I'm not too sure it even cost me $100?

I called the sewing machine doctor back and asked him how much it would be to resurrect my sweet, and he told me somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. .. No. My machine didn't even cost me $200 so after a lot of pouting my darling husband suggested that I magically go out and get a new one! Well.... don't mind if I do....

This time around I decided that I wanted to try a sewer that had embroidery options. I don't want to commit to a full fledged sewing machine, so I thought this little buy may be a good option:



Its a Brother SE400 and it does sewing and embroidery!! What sewing machine do you use?

New Digs

I don't think people realize that when they start to become part of a community, that community misses them when they disappear for a time! I did get your emails and facebook messages, and I missed you, too!

Over the past year my husband and I decided to make a big shift in our situation. I took on a second job, which didn't leave me any time to sew or do other hobbies. The result of all that hard work though, is our new house and a dedicated sewing studio with two huge windows! Now that we have moved, and life is trickling back to a more relaxed atmosphere, its time to get the studio into an organized space. In our last house, it shared a room with the guest room. In this house, the guest room is downstairs so the sewing studio has it's own space!

A lot of people ask me how I make a color decision as they are often overwhelmed with color choices. Previously, I would recommend flipping through magazines to see what colors they loved and then work with them to find a way to marry them into a scheme. Today, we have Pinterest! What would we do without Pinterest?? Its pretty well laid out for you!!

(image: design-seeds.com)

 Sadly, being a designer does NOT mean my new house is in flawless order. Quite the opposite. The former owner had an Easter obsession. The master was bubblegum pink. The two other bedrooms are lavender and grey. The living room is soft pastel green and the kitchen is a soft yellow!! The basement is just a disaster. We won't go there yet.

Back to the sewing room: it's lavender. Problem #1: the new color.

Back to Pinterest!! I know the problem with Pinterest is that it's somewhat "pie in the sky" in its images. Who in their right mind has a sewing studio that looks like Martha popped up with Oprah's pocket book and gold leafed the walls?? Nobody. My budget is $60 for paint and $100 for MDF to make some built in work surfaces. Later, my budget will have some room for a new light fixture but for now it's limited to work surface and color.

So there is what I'm thinking....

(image: original Zulily.com)

Lighter than lime green. Love it. With white shelving and the wood floors, white window trim, and some sort of patterned drape would be really pretty. I love how fresh green is. I don't like white walls, but I love white as a furniture piece!! Is it bad that I love that little scallop trim?

So: I will blog about the sewing room transition in stages so you can see how we do this because right now it's a big mess with plastic bins holding all my stash... that ever growing stash..... It's amazing how I've pawned stash fabric off on all my sister in laws, but it still keeps growing.... !!!

Re-do to-do list:

1. Pack up the studio
2. Pick a wall color
3. Tape and prep for paint
4. Pick a built-in color
5. Design the built-in
6. Paint the room
7. Paint/Build/Trim/Touch up the built in
8. Unpack and Reveal!!!

Good Morning Darlings!

Just a quick check in! After a lot of life changes, I am in the process of rebuilding my studio in a fabulous new house! I have a pile of great ideas and will be jump-starting this blog and my facebook page with some great new projects,  tutorials, pattern reviews and of course, studio goodies!

Happy Sewing!

Winners and Treats!

Well hello out there :-)

I can safely tell you with 110% accuracy that I am not the bloggy type. I really wish I was because I'd love to fill you in on all the fun I have with thread and fabric around here, but for some reason my brain feels spring coming on and it wants to be outside. Anyone else find sitting in front of a computer dreadful lately? Thats me!

So, in an effort to thwart the computer blahs, let's just talk about my nifty winner and let me show you what I've been working on!!!

The biggest news of course is that I am not a Riley Blake retailer and I sell it with Claudia at the fabric store. Very shortly you will see the Riley Blake paired with some of the discount fabrics which will save you $$$$'s when it's time to create!! I've already sold some in the Etsy store as well as in the brick and mortar store so get it while you can! Remember that I'll gladly create a custom bundle for you if you give me some direction. It's amazing how much money you can save quilting with a couple of name brand fabrics paired up with discount fabrics. I have a nice collection of other designer fabric stores, like my precious pal Amy at Pinked Fabrics as well who I love to support. If you purchase something from her and want some discount fabrics to stretch your budget with, please feel free to message me!

With that great news comes even bigger news for my little contest winner..

Shirley Haynes Clark!

My friend. Guess what?! You will be getting some pretty Riley Blake tossed in with your fabrics!!! I'm going to message you shortly and we're going to talk about what you like to do so I can load you up with stuff from here and hopefully you will send me wonderful pictures of what you do!!

Want a snipit of the latest from my sewing table?....

Yup, that's embroidery! I made that pattern one night when I was lamenting about how I need to do something portable, and a week later out of my hoop jumped this little gem! Forgive the wrinkles, I've not ironed it yet! It really went from my hoop to this blog!!

So... what are YOU working on??

FREE Fabric Love

Quite often I get asked where I manage to find some of my fabrics at for such a great price.  I hunt around all the time and score some great deals but I have to tell you that the secret to making a great product is in your ability to color match. I also use a little secret and it's called Mimi's Treasured Memories! Mimi, who's real name is Claudia, has the sweetest little Quilt Shop located about 4 miles from my house. She manages to score some of the greatest fabrics that match perfectly to my designer patterns!! $3/yard and up! Honestly, you can't beat that price. I've been helping her a lot lately and now am helping her run the little Etsy shop where I've put up some of her pattern pieces! $5.50/yard for some of the fun little Valentines prints! You ladies who make little girls and boys outfits better get them while the getting is good because I've already sold out of some of our patterns. Eek!!

Here's what you want to really be reading: Until midnight on January 20th, if you like MY PAGE and MIMI's PAGE on Facebook, you can enter to win a free fabric bundle of my favorites!! All you have to do is like both pages, and then leave a comment on my page to win! That's it. I'll ship it anywhere in the world too!!

So get to it!

.

Call For Testers!

 Good Morning my Sweet Sewing Buddies :)

Welcome to 2012!!! What a fun holiday I had! I hope you had one as well!! I have a little surprise for you! Remember me telling you that I would blog about my daughters Christmas quilt? Well, I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of it before I gave it to her because I had to quilt at night so she wouldn't see it. Here is a picture of her all snuggled up with it on Christmas eve before Santa came!

 Now that she's back to School I'll get a nice proper shot for you in the sun while I have a chance! She totes it around with her everywhere so hopefully it's not TOO dirty yet!

On to other thing: I need testers for some patterns!!! Not just any patterns, but embroidery patterns! Here is the skinny:

I need three testers who meet this criteria:
~ You should be well versed in all embroidery styles. These are not beginner patterns.
~ You should be able to finish the pattern in about 1 month time maximum. (I did my own in a week with lots of distruption)
~ You should be able to take lots of photos along the way, including a really nice finished shot that I am able to use to promote the patterns in my Etsy shop.
~ You should be able to tell me how much floss you used!

You will receive the pattern that I've hand drawn on to a cotton piece for you with a water soluble marker. You will also receive any fabric pieces from me if the pattern calls for fabric. Otherwise you will be using your own floss. You will get to keep the finished piece but you may NOT reproduce the pattern in any way and/or resell it. You may however, sell any finished product you make with it as long as credit comes back to me. You will also receive a special little treat from me for testing the pattern :)

I just want to make sure the patterns are all do-able to other people before I launch embroidery kits in my little etsy shop!!

These patterns are doodle sketch type embroidery patterns. I made a series of them for a special project I was working on for a friend with a sick child. She gave me several motif's and I 'doodled' up each one in about 2  - 3 days. Each sketch is my doodles and while the nature or the concept may not be original, the art is and so that makes them really special to me! Then a crafty pal of mine latched on to one of them and has been working on it. She loves it! I've designed them in such a way that YOU get to choose what stitches to incorporate, the techniques you want and the colors you want to fit into your own decor. In the shop, I plan to offer two prices- one for just the pattern on cotton, and one for the pattern + materials.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do, please email me at: krenthom@gmail.com. We can talk about it more!

much love,

6 Months!

Good Morning Lovelies!

Can you believe it's been 6 ENTIRE months since my last post? Honestly! I'm ridiculous. Karen! Why has it been so long?? I'll tell you why. When you combine a person who loves to sew, with a person who loves to give things to people, and add in a million friends, family and gift-giving recipients.... one tends to go overboard... THAT's ME! Someone send a life preserver because I'm drowning in a sea of sewing!

On second thought- don't! I like it too much down here. The sad part is that I'm not even done. I've been sewing like a maniac since the October craft show and I'm still not done. Yikes. I've officially come up for air though! I'm done until after the holidays where January will see me finishing Christmas gifts! Seriously ridiculous.

Next week I'll be posting my favorite gift from this year: My daughters Christmas Quilt. I've sewn it entirely from Kate Spain's Flurry line, and added in a border of Kona Pink on the back of it. It's to die for. Want a sneak peek? I'll show you a progress shot from when I was figuring out how to piece this thing together:

This year I'm all about bright and crisp green and white, and I wanted her to have a Christmas quilt that would age with her as she grew up so that's what she got! I indulged on the back which you will see next week with the pink. She is after all, a girly girl.

Right now however, you should all be blistering your fingers with the amazing Sew Mama Sew giveaway thats going on!! Get your entires in ladies the prizes are outstanding! Makes me wish I had got it together to participate this round but I have a precious prize for the summer edition next year that your eyes and sewing rooms will love <3

Start  your entries with the beautiful and talented Amy Dunn at her blog "Lots of Pink Here" and tell her I said Hi!! She's amazing. Look at her prize!!:

See you all next week!!

Halloween Quilt!

I am in LOVE with this pumpkin fabric!!!!

When I first relocated back to the south, I arrived with nothing but 2 suitcases and a giant smile. I had no fabric stash, no sewing machine, and no idea how much either of those would change my life/house/sanity level either!! When I finally did invest in my first sewing machine, I logged onto the Fat Quarter Shop, with a big heart and a small budget and lost myself for about 2 hours in piles of delicious fabrics.

Can you see the glitter in the spider?

I finally decided that the best first project (lol) that I could start with was going to be something Halloween and so I bought a quilt pattern, a fat quarter bundle, some extra yardage and waited with great anticipation.

Now, quite a few months later and with a gigantic pile of sewing behind me, my house is a giant fabric stash, I sew in the craft room... the dining room... the living room... my bedroom... my office... outside... I have about 12 projects on the go and am now doing craft shows. Insane!! Sadly though, I never did my Halloween Quilt!! I love the pattern, and I grew my Haloween stash to the point where I could probably make 4 more of these but I still hadn't actually MADE one... so this weekend... I DID!!!

Witches use airplanes these days don't yo know?

I started cutting on Friday while I was minding the store for Claudia! By Friday afternoon I hd the blocks cut, and the applique sections planned out. I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening working on the applique sections. Sunday night into the wee hours of Monday morning I peicd it all together and I spend most of yesterday quilting the darn thing! VOILA! All done and I feel very accomplished....

Ghosts, Goblins Ghouls!

The finished quilt is 3 ft wide and hangs 5 ft long. 

Ghosts

Ghosts

 

Ghouls!

Goblins! My first time blanket stitching!

Love that pirate mouse on the stocking!

More adorable pumpkins! <3

 

I backed the quilt with a delicious Orange and Black glitter spider fabric!!

 So there you have it! I'm going to make a second one for someone special but I think I'll wait until after the craft fair which is in 26 DAYS EEEEeeEEEeEEK!

Twirling Skirts

Well, It's been awhile since I've been here, hasn't it? It's been a long few weeks. I've been battling the development of Osteoarthritis in my hands and it's made life a little difficult. So I've just been sewing to the best of my ability right now and concentrating on my over-abundance of projects. It would be easier if I had a crafty buddy to help me undertake these things on days where it hurts to use my hands but hopefully things will work out soon and I can sew with happiness instead of an advil induced coma! You don't want to hear about this though, you want to see sewing!!

I finally made Miss Emma a skirt! This is my first ever skirt! A few days ago we spent the morning watching after Claudia's fabric store for her while she did some sewing for a charity. The reward was a little fabric stash and so I let Emma choose her own fabrics for her skirt. The deal was that it had to be at least to the knees and then she said she wanted ruffles, twirling capabilities and ricrac. Here is the result:

She's only 7 but wears a size 10! Insanity!! I used this tutorial from MADE  and then altered it to suit what we needed the skirt to do! I love her vivid color choices... super cute!

 TWIRL!!

Craft Show Input

 Well, it looks like I'm doing a craft show at the end of September! I'm excited about it but apprehensive as well. They're a lot of work so I hope it pays off! I'm curious though- What do you look for at a craft show? what dollar range do you search out?

In other news: I have to show off a happy baby in his sweet baby quilt :)

 xo

Baby Chasen's Little Quilt

 It seems like just yesterday I was commenting on how I had won some flannel fabrics and had no idea what to do with them! I still haven't used them up but in the meantime one of our family members went and had a little piece of adorable and I had to pop out a baby quilt! He was just calling for something snuggly in the fall...

Riley Blake's All Star fabric I purchased from Raspberry Creek Fabrics She has some great blanket bundles!

There are a million tutorials out there for the Rag Quilt and it's really, super easy to do. This was my first one. Here are some hints for you:


1. Flannel shrinks. Consider that when choosing your square size. I used 8" squares but I wanted 6" clear within the ruffle.


2. Make sure your scissors are SHARP. I have a bruise on my had from snipping!!!

3. Flannel sheds worse then a dog in 90 degree weather. I have fabric all over my house. I shook it out before I washed it (on gentle, cold water) and then before I put it in the dryer (on low heat for 30 minutes) and again after the dryer to fluff it up a bit and it's STILL shedding threads.

In other news, now that this one is out of the way I can finish my star! Here is a picture of some finished stars from my class... beautiful!

 

Kids Quilt!

 I used to dream of all the little things my daughter and I would to together as she grew up. I think it's a secret desire of all women who have little girls that they will lovingly follow in their mother's footsteps and instantly love all the delicious and sweet traditions that we loved, too. Not so in my case.

My daughter and I are polar opposites. How things like this happen are beyond me, but she's ultra girly, speaks in an octave only heard by dogs, and loves pretty dresses and skirts. I am in essence, a tom boy. Granted, if I was the kind of seamstress that loved to sew pretty dresses and skirts, she'd be decorated from head to toe, but I like quick little projects that award a relatively fast sense of accomplishment. This makes me happy! It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere!

So, imagine my shock when she announced that she wanted to make a quilt for her half sister Sophie! At first I was skeptical.... can a 7 yr old REALLY quilt?? Then I thought why not, the local fabric store was having a sale and I had some gems tucked away so we decided to go for it.

SIX DAYS later, in the middle of all kinds of chaos and happenings, with a visitor from Canada in our home and various goings on, I present the finished product...

 The striped fabric and the colorful blocks with the turquoise on them are Michael Miller's Happy Hills and I always buy my designer fabrics from the fabulous Amy Dunn over at Pinked Fabrics!! She's kept her prices at the $8.50 mark so it's keeping designer fabrics easier to afford these days!

I then paired them with the fabrics Emma (my daughter) wanted from my local fabric store. We are in the middle of getting her store on ETSY so you can all enjoy the same super low prices I get to, because when I bough those fabrics up there she had them on sale for 50% and I didn't pay more then $1.50 PER YARD. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I think it will be up and fully running with little tidbits!!

Anyway the entire quilt maybe set me back around the $20 mark.... maybe. It's crazy how cost effective they can be when you pair some really splashy fabrics with happy little blenders that are dirt cheap!!

We are pretty happy with the way it turned out....

 Have a funtastic 4th weekend to my American peeps, and a wonderful Canada Day to my Canadian peeps!!!

xox

Lonestar!

 Thanks for your comments about my previous battle with the sewing machine! It's still an ongoing battle and it now has an appointment at the sewing machine doctor. Little nightmare.

So, what a better way to celebrate my 'machine is making me batty' then with a new, really hard project! Yeah! *sigh* Someone come kick me in the rear end.

My little local fabric hole-in-the-wall hosts a quilty gathering of ladies on Thursday nights. I've always wanted to get in there so I decided to partake on their journey with them... and promptly bit off more then I can chew. Meet, the Lonestar:

I forget where I stole this from but it's not MINE!!!! I stole it. It's pretty though, right?

Well, thats the Lonestar done right. It's a really pretty quilt in person and since I'm not one to do traditional quilts I thought yanno, I should probably do one for fun.

Ha.

Fun.

More like giving myself a bald patch.

Here are the colors I chose:

What does that translate to?

Where am I currently? I'll tell you where I am. I'm in the corner rocking back and forth real slow like. Things I've learned about myself:

1. 45 degree angles and me are a bad combination.
2. I think it is possible to wear out a stitch ripper.
3. I need a money tree.

This quilt is amazing when it's done and that is what I keep telling myself after day three of sewing, ripping and re-sewing. The diamonds have to be pieced together with perfection ... all the seams have to look like they flawlessly run together. Right.

Currently, I have two whole diamonds pieced and sewn. I have the other 6 sewn together in the first 3 rows only. Why? Because I discovered row 4 was cut to the wrong strip size!!! I cut my fabrics at 3" instead of 3.5" and they pieced wrong so today I have to cut, strip sew and 45degree cut row 4 again... and then sew it to the 6 remaining points so I can finish the star in this quilt.

What happens tonight at quilt class? I'm not sure. they are going to analyze my sewing and let me tell you something. The back of this quilt looks like a spiders web that was caught in a tornado. I hack sewed this puppy together like a true hack-pro.

Lesson learned: I love my squares.

Stay tuned for the anti-climatic unveiling of the Lonestar in it's wonderul mis-shapen glory. LOL.

One of THOSE Days

 Typically people comment on how patient I am when it comes to doing the things I want to do. If you know me outside of this blog, you know that the moment someone says that to me (which is a lot!) I promptly laugh for a good ten minutes. I am not a patient person. I am a busy person. Busy people are either terribly efficient, or incredibly inefficient, I'm actually not too sure what it is. Regardless, I'm just really busy. I'm a mother, teacher, entrepreneur and part time seamstress. I enjoy what I do until I run into days like THIS. Today. Day # I'm-too-hot-to-count of the heat, and behind in sewing like you would not believe.

I'm in the quilting stage for my sweet little baby quilt.

 I backed it with the sweetest buttery yellow cotton from my favorite hole-in-the-wall fabric store. (Mimi's Treasures in Rock Spring, GA if you are down here!) It was on sale for $1.50 a yard! I bought double what I needed just because I have a horrible fabric hoarding problem! Eek! Anyway, I sandwiched it with it's organic cotton batting, perfect for little sensitive bundles, and then pinned it to the backing and went to quilt it thinking I'd just do a simple little square stitch quilt job when all of a sudden.....

Urgh.

Ripped out the stitches.

I adjusted my tension, and tried it out on a scrap fabric sandwich.... all good.

Attempt #2 at quilting baby blanket, and what do you think happened? Yes, refer to the above picture.

Ripped out more stitches.

I'm feeling a little bitter at this ripping thing. This thread is Orange so it's not like it's blended in and I can just hide the stitch with a hand-over job.

Adjust the tension, sew a bit to make sure and .... all good! Just to be sure I clean out the bobbin house, check my thread, make sure my needle is sharp. Yes, all seems okay.

I'm feeling confident now because I've just tested the heck out of this tension and so in goes the baby quilt and 3/4 of the way down the quilt... SKIP.

($)*#(*$)@*$#%$

x 10.

So now I've ripped the threads out and I've folded up the baby quilt and I'm blogging! I hope you're all having a wonderful Friday and not wanting to throw your beloved machines out the window along with me!

xox