Last Minute Gifts

I hadn't planned on making any Christmas gift this year. Between craft shows, Christmas concerts at church and growing a baby, I just didn't really feel like it. Until Monday! I decided I wanted to make something. I picked pillow cases because they're so easy.

I headed out to Len's Mill and bought some flannel (cheaper and cozy) to make pillow cases for three of my nieces and nephews. If I'd thought of it earlier, I would have made more! There's always next year :)

Here are a few photos! (Our computer with photoshop is finally fixed so I can edit photos!!!!)











I plan on giving them their pillows tonight so they can have sweet Christmas dreams on them. I hope they like them!


Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Bethany

SALE!

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be having a 10% off sale in my etsy shop this weekend. Sale starts tonight at midnight and will end Monday night at 10pm (EST).

Just use the coupon code TURKEY10 and you'll automatically receive the discount.

Have a great weekend everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving to my American family and friends :)

Onesies

So I have been sewing. Honest, I have. I've just been really uninspired to take any pictures. And blog posts about sewing are kind of boring without pictures :)

I've seen appliqued onesies all over and wanted to try them. I had tons of iron on adhesive left over after making my sign for the craft sale and found some onesies on sale. It was fate :) Turns out I'll even be able to use some of these myself in about 6 months.









I've almost finished a bunch of other stuff. Let's hope it doesn't take me another seven weeks to blog about it!

Hello September!

I can't think of a better way to spend the first day of September.

Happy September everyone!

Bethany

Goodbye August

I can't believe tomorrow is September! In one week I'll have two children is school full-time. How can that be?

August flew by. I'm now officially half way to 70 :) I've been on a bit of a sewing hiatus (for no particular reason) but here are some pictures of a few of my more recent finishes.


Amy Butler - Ruffled Coin Purse



Laura Wisbrun - Tufted Tweets - Avian Therapy - Cosmetic Bag



Amy Wisbrun - Avian Therapy - Slouch Purse



A flower pin



A few more flower pins




I'm hoping to find my sewing groove again soon. After all, I have my new serger to break in!

xoxo
Bethany

Mill Race Folk Festival

I participated in my first craft fair last weekend (well actually, it was a folk festival that had some craft vendors) and it went really well. Although I have nothing to compare it to :) There was supposed to be about 10 000 people who come to the festival but I heard from repeat vendors that this was the slowest year out of the last five. Either way, it was great to get the experience!

I thought I'd post some pictures of my booth and a few random shots of the festival. The craft vendors were near the secondary stages, a few blocks away from the amphitheatre at the millrace by the river.



Here's my booth! We never did try setting it up at home because Dave was called into work early on Thursday so all we had to go on is what I had envisioned in my head (we had set up the tent and tables at home so at least I knew where they were going!).





Here is our side of the road find from last year painted up and put on a table to add some height.





The left side. Notice the $5 pet bed from IKEA painted up to hold my sunglasses cases and coin purses.





On the left is a crate (I have no idea where from, I found it in the basement) and on the right is a tray we picked up for $3 in Canandaigua in June and had planned to paint and use in the kitchen. (Say hi to my mom in the back!).





Here I am. This picture makes me cringe but I wanted to show off the vendor apron I made for the festival :) I love that I never had to worry about my money going missing!





And here is my booth at night (sorry for the exceptionally awful picture). It never even occurred to me that I would be there in the dark until the day before the festival. So Christmas lights it was. And a $10 light from Home Depot. Good enough for me!





Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out. Dave used conduit and hooks to hang my purses from both sides and another piece of conduit to hand my sign from the back. Next time I might put up some sort of divider between my tent and the tents around me. The ladies on either side of me both had something to divide the space but there was nothing between us and the guys behind us. Thankfully they were super nice!



Here is a closer look at my sign (I forgot to take one at the festival). I appliqued the letters on and my mom quilted and bound the whole thing and added the sleeve to hang it. She helped so much! Altogether, she spent over 30 hours in my booth with me. Thank you mom!





The w and the v are backwards. I was too lazy to fix it.





Here is the view from the front of my tent. The church my grandparents got married in ♥





Old city hall.





The performers tent near the craft vendors. There was some fantastic music!





Close up.






I'm already looking forward to next year!

If you're interested, there will be lots of new things going in my shop in the next week or so. And I'm thinking about a giveaway. Anyone interested?

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Bethany

Christmas in July Sale!

Etsy is having it's annual Christmas in July sale and I'm offering $3 dollar shipping on all slouch purses in my shop! Happy shopping :)













-Bethany

Pinwheel Quilt Top

I should be sewing purses for my craft sale, but lately I've been wanting to do something different. I've had this fabric for about a year and I didn't want to hang onto it for so long that I quite liking it :)

I knew I wanted to do something with a lot of white. I'm also a big fan of half square triangles - there are just so many possibilities. I finally decided on the pinwheels. Partly because they're quick and easy and partly because I just felt like they suited the fabric.







I was pretty pleased with the accuracy of most of my blocks. Who knew that sewing purses would improve my piecing skills too? I also squared up all the pinwheel blocks before adding the sashing. I think it really helped keep everything square! I really enjoyed putting this together.





Not everything is accurate. Not bad enough to rip it out though :)





I probably won't get around to quilting this for a while. My trusty old Kenmore isn't the best quilter so I'll probably quilt this on my moms machine.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's back to the purses!

Have a great week everyone!

Something New

I needed more lower priced items for the craft fair so I decided to make some key fobs. I might put some of them in my shop too.













They measure 1.25" wide and 6" long (a 12" loop). Pretty and practical :)

Garden Update #4

Well, my garden is still plugging along. So far everything is growing well. There are still a few things we need to do that we just haven't found the time for. We need to add supports to two of our gardens. My peas and beans are desperate for something to climb! I also haven't planted the 4 Brussels sprout plants that I bought last week. It's supposed to rain today and tomorrow but hopefully not so hard that we can't get that done.

On to the pictures!



Here's a view of most of the garden.




Carrots




Lettuce




Water cress




My ginormous broccoli. There's not actually any broccoli yet, just leaves. I'm hoping that changes soon!




Now onto the good stuff!



Cilantro. Mmmmm.




Tomatoes. Mmmmm.




Tomatillos. Mmmmm.




Only one of my tomatillo plants is actually producing. The others keep dropping their blossoms. I did a little cross pollinating the other day to try and help. Of course, I have no idea what I'm doing so we'll have to wait and see :)


Have a great weekend!


This post has been linked to Grow Eat Save at $5 Dinners.

Boy Purse For My Boy

My son has been asking me for a purse for months. I was happy to oblige. But there was a little problem. I didn't have any fabric for a boy purse. I have lots of flowers. And I'll admit it, I didn't want to make him a bag out of little boy fabric (think puppies, dinosaurs, footballs, you get the idea). I wanted it to be cool (that's assuming I know what cool is :)).

I've seen the Japanese imports around but have never really thought about using them for my purses (although I'm thinking a little differently now!). But once I decided on the pattern for the boy purse I knew that they'd be perfect. Thankfully Pink Panda Fabrics, a Canadian online fabric store, carries japanese fabrics. They also have free shipping in Canada. Free shipping makes me happy :)

So I gave my son a limited selection of fabric to choose from and this is what he chose.




This fabric in from echino. The line in called ni-co. It is a cotton/linen blend that's a little heavier than a quilting weight cotton.

I decided to use a pattern from the book One-Yard Wonders. It is called a map bag and it is the perfect size for a five year old.








This was my first time making an adjustable strap.




Under the flap.







The back.




When I finished it I held it up for him to see. He said it was beautiful. What more can a Momma ask for ♥