I didn’t do this in February, but here it is for March.
I got this pattern and fabric at Sew Expo!. I have covet this farmer’s Market fabric for about 6 months now and I saw it at the expo and just had to have it. The vendor we were at had it made into a table runner which I just loved. Needless to say I bought the pre cut fabric and the pattern to make it. It is a quilt as you go style runner and it wasn’t too hard to work on. This is the biggest piece of quilt as you go I have ever worked on and that was a little challenging, but I finished. I even hand sewed the binding on. I have never hand sewn a binding, being scared of the time it would take and thinking it would look ugly. I really wanted to practice and just do this project ‘right’, so I got out my needle and for 2.5 hours I sat on the couch and worked on it. I found that hand sewing is very relaxing; although my hand kind of hurt afterwards. I definitely will be properly sewing the binding on from now on!
I have my 3 people for the pay it forward craft challenge. I have been reading your ladies blogs, and you all are very interesting people and I am excited to craft something for you. I will be contacting you within the next week to get mailing address’ (not saying I will be sending in the next week, but I want to be prepared).
I have been reading about the Pay it Forward Craft Exchange for the past couple of days. Most of the blogs I have been reading are from 2007 and already completed so I thought I could start a new chain myself.
According to the rules, you have 365 days to send out your homemade gifts. Rest assured, that if you win, I will not wait 365 days to send you your gift.
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.
2. If you are one of the first three to make a comment, you are a winner! And you then agree to post this challenge on your own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!
4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.
Please make sure you leave me a valid e-mail address in your comment or e-mail me at deannalynnmiller at gmail dot com once you comment so I can get addresses. If you are not one of the first 3 to comment, comment anyway if you post this on your blog, so I can check it out! I am always in search of new, fun blogs to read.
Here is another new font. I like this one way better. It is more like how I write. I am addicted to this font program. Think of all the cool fonts I could make.
I made the pin boards yesterday and I am quite proud of them. The first one I made the lines before attaching the fabric to the board and that was a pain in the butt. The second one I drew the lines after attaching the fabric and it worked like a charm. Now I need to make some fabric strips so I can start weaving. I have a lot I want to do before tomorrow, so I don’t know what to decide on.
I have my American Sewing Guild (ASG) meeting tomorrow and we are doing a show and tell about everything we got at Sew Expo!. I want to finish the table runner before I go, so I can show that off. That is the only thing I thing I am going to take, so I really have to get it done. I also want to get some of the weaving materials for the placemats done before Thursday, because I am babysitting at Tim and Amy’s and I think if I have my weaving it will be fun to work with the kids. There are also about 10 projects sitting in my WIP/UFO basket I need to work on. Plus the 5 other projects I really want to work on. Two of the quilts I want to work on I still need a lot of black cotton for the backing, like 6-8 yards of fabric. I have been to the store almost everyday in the past week, so I am not going today, but on my way home from my meeting tomorrow or from Amy’s on Thursday I will pick up the fabric I need. Although I might just wait until I finish my basket of projects before I buy anything. I have a lot to do today. So, I Sew.
So I found this great site that lets you use your own handwriting to make a font, for FREE. I did mine and here is the rough draft. I love it, but it definitely needs some work. The site is call YourFonts, I have been searching for a cheap way to make my own handwriting and haven’t found anything reasonable until now. If you do this let me know and email me a copy of your fonts. I would love to see what everyone comes up with.
I had an overall pretty good week. Lots of good things and really only one bad thing.
I thought I should post a picture of the table cloths now that they are all done, and were displayed.
I finished almost everything on my to do list that I had. I finished the personal swap stuff. I don’t know why I wait until the last moment to work on things. None of the stuff I made should have made me wait until this weekend to make it. We aren’t sending until March 10, but I feel like this is last minute for me in swap regards.
I made three night gowns for Maribell for her birthday. Becky asked me to make some during Christmas, because she looks so cute in them. So Aunty pulled through and made a couple for her. I didn’t want to make them because I knew that they wouldn’t fit right, and sure enough they don’t. The body is too big and the sleeves are too small. After the first one I made with sleeves I decided not to put sleeves on the others. They turned out ok other then the sizing and she could easily wear them as a dress in the summer if she wanted. The first one is Pink Panther print, the second is fabric from Julie that is made just for dresses I think and the last is a red and white gingham with little lady bugs on it. I wish I better photos of the prints. Maybe I can get some action shots from Becky later.
I made this blanket about a week ago for Kelahna for her birthday. I was a little sad at how small it ended up, but it will make a great lap blanket for when she is out watching the boys play soccer or baseball. I used up some of the left over squares I had from the log cabin quilt I made for a swap and added some very fuzzy fleece to the back. This sort of inspired me to want to make some blankets for all the kids. I don’t know how well that will work out for me, but I think I could at least try it. There is only 9 of them and I all ready have one finished (I might make another one for her thought later). I have some great ideas for some of the kids on what I want the style to be. I hope I can complete this task, I am not putting a date on it so I can do this for the next couple of years and make it fun for me.
On Thursday I received the fabric I had won in the mail. Bolsa chic really exceeded my expectations with that box of fabric. I got tons 
of great prints in great sizes too. Nothing was too small, and nothing can be too large. I already have some of it kind of planned out on what I want to do, but I don’t want to cut into it yet. I have tons of other projects I want to work on. There are cottons, satins, and tissue weights to work with. My favorite print is the green and orange stripes in the middle and the best part is there is almost 3 yards of it. I can’t wait to use it.
On Friday my mom and I went to Sew Expo! in Puyallup. That was so much fun. We just walked around the vendors to see what was for sale and such. We got there right when they opened and it was busy, but not too bad. We got to see lots of great demonstrations of products we have seen and of products we never even heard of or thought of. My mom kept telling me that being there was great inspiration to start sewing again. She has been wanting to sew, but doesn’t have time or her machine set up. I told her that we could get together every other Sunday to sew together. We could alternate houses and just have fun sewing 
and creating. Between the two of us we only spent $150. We were watching people drop 7 grand on one item, not to mention they were carrying bags of stuff they had already bought. Our money spent was miniscule in comparison. I bought the Batting Buddy to make easy quilt as you go blocks. And I bought a pattern to make my mom this ridiculous bag she fell in love with. I think it is goofy, but she likes it and I told her I would make it for her. She bought some mesh and a pattern for a bag that she has been looking for, for about 4 years now and unable to find. She also bought my birthday present, which consisted of some fabric and a pattern to make a table runner, a pattern to make some really neat woven placemats, and a tube system to turn tube fabric really fast. By the time we left we were both exhausted, but full of ideas of stuff that we saw there that we could make. Including a design wall for me and a pin board for the woven placemats.
When I got home on Friday, I got a phone call for a job interview at an optometrists office. I went to that interview on Saturday instead of going to Kelahna’s Princess party. I felt the interview went really well and the doctor also said it went well, and would call me on Sunday to let me know whether I got hired or not. I waited all day Sunday with no word. I was very said to finally give in a say I didn’t get the job. Now I need to just keep searching and not give up, I will find a job soon enough. I will be baby sitting up to 8 days a month until June for one of the teachers at Ft. Stevens, which will give me a little bit of money to work with.
My mom and I went and bought all the supplies we needed to make some pin boards and a design wall yesterday and I was quite happy with how little it all cost. For two pin boards it cost us $15 to make them ourselves, if we bought the ones at the expo we would have spent $25 on each. For the design wall to make a 50”x50” collapsible wall it cost me about $20 to make using pvc pipe. The one they were selling at expo was a 54” square for $110. I will be working on making both of those items in the next couple of days. So I will post pictures when I am finished. So, I Sew.
I finished a quite a bit this last week. I made the 3 night gowns for Maribell, Sewed up some table cloths, hair clips, and finished everything for the personal swap.
