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.
The past couple of days I have only been working on birthday fun. Three of my four nieces are having their birthday party this weekend and I have been asked to help out with some of the decor. Mostly just make the table clothes out of the fabric Amy bought. I did that, and I added the ribbon to the border of one of the overlays. I was going to sew the ribbon on, but I ended up hot gluing it on due to the beads that kept getting in the way of the needle. The ironic part is the only reason I was even asked to do the table clothes was because I was making fun of Amy for wanting to hot glue the ribbon on. I also made some super cute hair clips for the girls to wear at their party with the leftover ribbon. I made four of them and I am posing with one in my hair just for you to get an idea of what I made. They turned out really cute, I am very proud of them.
I also have been working on the cutting stage of a rainbow rail fence quilt. The picture shows a sample of what it will look like. I just laid out some of the fabric to see if I liked it. This quilt should measure around 60"x72" when finished, but we'll see about that. I bought all the fabric (except for 1/2 yard of red and the backing) yesterday. The total cost was $12.50 so far, which I am ok with. I can't stand the thought of a quilt costing me $100 for the fabric. I rolled up the fabric into two jelly rolls to save for later. I won't be making this quilt for a little while because I have a long list of other things to make.
First I finished up the Kitchen Swap and sent that today. I can't wait for Classybroad to receive. I hope she likes everything I sent. Even after 10 swaps I still have swap anxiety. The thought of are they really going to love what I spent so much time on, or are they just going to put it to the side and say 'it's ok'. There has been so much stuff that I really love when I receive it, but I'm sure that the part I love the most is not always what the sender meant for me to love the most. Anyway she should be getting it within 2-3 days, so I will find out then.
The final project of the day were some magnets. I found a blog today that said to use the thumbnails from the back of your old calendars to make buttons. I need magnets, so that is what I decided to do. I used my 2008 Kim Anderson Calendar and the large clear craft rocks. I cut out the pictures and then glued them on with Diamond Glaze. Once the glue was dry I used E6000 to attach the magnets. I love how they turned out. I dug out my 2007 Christian Riese Lassen Calendar and cut all the pictures out for those too. On these I used my Xyron Sticker Maker to attach the pictures to the rocks. It was less messy, but we will see if they can handle the weight or not. I think next time I won't use as thick of magnets. I am not too fond of how far out they stick. 
