The Mother-lode

After seeing Olivia's new wardrobe today, JB said, "Aunt Rhonda made it in just under the buzzer!"

Olivia received a package from Great Aunt Rhonda on Saturday, containing what Rhonda hoped would be Olivia's first purse:

1.) It IS her 1st purse!

2.) Isn't it the cat's meow?? I love it! (And not just because the purse reads, "My Mother, My Friend." haha.) It's the perfect size for her, and as she loves containers, she's going to put some major miles on this thing. Thank you, Great Aunt Rhonda!! :)

3.) The reason JB commented on Rhonda's timing was that today Grandma Marian brought back The Mother-lode of clothes for Olivia, after her recent shopping sprees in Florida. She and her friend Lizzy (aka Nanny Liz) are shopping professionals. They hit all the right stores and know all the right ways to find deals, etc. And they never tire of walking the  malls. When I spoke with Marian yesterday she said that she bought so many things for Olivia that she to pack O her own bag for the flight. When I got to her house today, I saw that it was an Adidas duffle bag full.  Not, say, a plastic shopping bag. But an entire duffle bag. (Okay, so there were some pretty shirts in there for me, too, but it was mostly O's!) Included was another beautiful toddler's bag. Marian pointed out that this is a beach bag, though, so Rhonda's is still O's only purse.

Here is a shot of most of the clothes. I am amazed at and grateful for Mark and Marian's generosity. I won't have to buy O anything for Spring/Summer except for rainboots. Isn't that incredible?? The beach bag is in the top left corner, with a matching blue polka dot sunhat and polka dot outfit. There are polka dot sunglasses, too. I wish that half these things came in my size.

There is an outfit, a sunhat, and sunglasses missing in the above shot. But don't worry, you still get to see them, just on the model. O was so enamored with the pink sunhat that she insisted on wearing it at naptime:

Agh! I can't resist! Here's her in the polka dot hat. I wish they made this in MY size!

Wool Felt Goodness

As I've already posted, I made a lot of stuff to give as Christmas presents this year.

Two things I made that I now have photographs of are a Spring table runner for Marian, and a felt tea cosy for Marian's birthday on New Year's Eve.

The table runner was designed by JB, so I'm very proud to showcase it here, because I think that JB is very talented and was thrilled that he was inspired to do this. It took two months from start to finish, and it felt good to complete it. It is all handsewn and creating the pattern with proper dimensions took some time. The flower stems themselves took three hours to sew, if you want an idea of how long it took. So no, I will not make one for you, no matter who you are! :) It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing (famous last words), but I may make the pattern printable/sharable. I may even try to sell the pattern, but really, who wants to spend nearly two months sewing a runner?? It's worth a try:


We even got really creative and made the tongues be the dirt, with the bulb flowers having bulbs, and the other flowers having roots:


Earlier this year Marian saw a cool wool Jan Constantine tea cosy in a British magazine (love that British style!) and I tore that magazine page out, thinking I could make her one. I mean, I could have bought her one: for $164!!! No, not sixty four. ONE HUNDRED and sixty four dollars. But that's a little out of my price range.

I checked out her website and JB was really interested in her Americana ones, so we did a hybrid version of two of hers and came up with this (we didn't use pure wool, because that's where part of the $164 comes from):


which Marian loved.

And then demonstrated how it is not a hat, contrary to the popular story!




So now I'm kicking around making things to sell on Etsy, such as cool felt tea cosies. But not this one. Because it's probably considered a Jan Constantine rip off and if she can charge $164 for one tea cosy, she probably has enough bankroll to fly her lawyer across the ocean to pay me a visit.

I have one original pattern idea up my sleeve. However, I have also declared this year to take my "crafting sabbatical." Not Quilting sabbatical (because who in their right mind would give that up?) but Crafting. So the only sewing I wish to do this year will revolve around quilts. This means no homemade Christmas presents. Sorry, guys. Mama's tired.

This means that I'm not sure when I'll make these tea cosies for Etsy. But one day, when my faithful unemployment runs out, it may just happen...

Quilt 2009

So I can FINALLY tell y'all what I've been doing for the past four months! Since January Marian and I have been furiously working on a quilt for Austin and Lauren's wedding. I don't know how many hours we spent deciding on a pattern, creating the layout and measurements, picking out fabric, washing and ironing fabric, cutting, and then finally assembling the quilt. We pieced the quilt, which means we put it together, but we hired a woman to quilt it, which is the part where you sew the top, the batting, and the back together. We don't have a special machine and it would have taken us way too long to quilt it ourselves.

The quilt has the Ohio Star block in it. We used a bunch of Marian's fabric scraps, which she said included a lot of fabric that used to be Aunt Helen's (recognize anything, Aunt Helen?). We also bought some fabric that we wanted featured, including a "Go Green, Go White" print, some horse/riding prints, a snowman one, and some Civil War reproduction fabric, since Lauren is from Tennessee. I LOVE that Civil War fabric and want to buy a bunch more for myself.

It was a load of fun to make it. We wanted to see them open their gift and figured the days around the wedding would be a little too hectic. Well, and basically, we were tired of waiting. :) So we gave it to them Friday night when they were in town.

Obsession

It's all Marian's fault.

Since becoming unemployed I picked up my old pasttime of quilting. I originally intended to make Olivia a twin bed quilt before she was born, to put on the bed in her room. Haha. I never even started it. Here's the fabric I have for it. It's going to be a dutch windmills design, as Olivia is part Dutch:



But now that I have more free time (but not much, mind you, as you stay at home moms know!) I have resurrected this project. Marian has been helping me with my quilting aspirations and now things have gotten a little out of control.

We went to Smith Own fabrics to shop around and we were very restrained and only bought like 10 different fabrics. I spent almost all of my "fun money" that I had been saving. After we paid, Marian said, "Now let's get out of here before we buy anything else." So we did. But then the next day I made JB take me back. There was one fabric that I had forgotten to purchase and I NEEDED it. I don't know WHAT I need it for, but I was desperate to own it because it's so beautiful:



I also picked up a few more things. Fun money = spent:


Last night I was telling JB that I had been looking on the internet for more 30's reproduction fabrics for the Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I want to make.

"You're going to make another quilt?" he asked, incredulous. I guess he thought that Olivia's quilt was enough. And the quilt that I'm making for Krystal.

I told him that I had plans for many quilts, but I did not list them off, as he would think that I am crazy. I did admit to him that I am regularly tempted to go back to the fabric store and just buy whatever I want and put it on our credit card. He forbade me. This was a smart move.

If Marian wasn't such a quilting fanatic I may have stopped at Olivia's quilt. At least for the time being. But she has been teaching me tricks about sewing and planning and my confidence is growing. She has told me about women who will do the quilting part of your project (sewing the top to the inside batting and the bottom fabric) if my quilt is too big for me to do at home. She shows me her quilting magazines. She shows me her massive fabric stashes. She goes with me to various fabric stores.

I am a Jane-of-all-Trades in that I like everything and do lots of things. But I think that the buck may stop at quilting. Or, at least, collecting beautiful fabric. Not sure which is more fun.