I Have Arrived!!!

For years now I have tried and tried to get into Swiss Days... a wonderful event over Labor Day weekend in Midway, Utah where there are MOBS of people and more crafts than anyone could ever need. But EVERYONE applies and not nearly as many as apply get in. 

Well, this year I had a breakthrough!! I didn't actually get accepted, but I did get accepted as an alternate. Can you believe it? I feel so lucky! They even said in this letter that I should not be disappointed. That this is a great compliment. And I agree. I didn't get rejected this time. This is HUGE. So I just had to share this news. Hooray for me.

Fabric... More Fabric... the Joel Dewberry Kind

So I spent the whole day on Tuesday at Joel and Laurie's home working with Laurie on several projects that need to be done as soon as possible so that they are ready for market. The fabrics are so beautiful, and these the the ones that I am working with. I have a lot to do, again. I need a time making machine. If you have one for sale, please let me know. I am so excited about all of this, but the lack of time makes me a little stressed. Why is it that when it rains it pours? Couldn't these fun, beautiful projects just trickle in? Oh well. I'll just do what I can to enjoy this.

Market Projects

Today I went down to Riley Blake to pick up some of the cute fabric that I will be using to make my Quilt Market Projects. I smell a ruffle duffel bag with this adorable line by Shari Butler. Hooray!

And this sweet little baby line has adorable cover-all bibs written all over it. How will I ever get these done? And I have several other lines to work with that haven't even come in yet. So much work. so much fun.

Gathered Around Purse

 I have been a very busy girl. This is a purse that I just designed for Riley Blake to be sold in kits in two different color ways. Very exciting. I have been working hard on it for a week and am relieved that I am mostly done but so pleased with how cute it turned out. Hooray!!

The craziest thing is that I have been asked to come up with several projects to be displayed at the Internatonal Quilt Market in May. I have a zillion things to do for Joel Dewberry's pattern design before then too so I am so so so busy. I don't know what to do with myself. Sheesh. Wish me luck.

Altering or Refashioning Garments

At the Sewing Summit, in Salt Lake City, in October, I went to a inspiring class by Melissa Esplin. She taught us about refashioning garments. She goes to thrift stores and finds things that anyone else might immediately dismiss and turns a man's shirt into a button-up skirt or completely changes the look of an outdated shirt. Her style is very different than mine, but her message rang loud and clear. I need to change the look of the clothes that I have bought for some reason and can't wear for whatever reason or don't like anymore. I have not yet totally changed anything from one kind of a garment to another, but I have done a lot of altering to make things more modest or to fit my taste more. Here are a few examples:

I LOVE this dress, but I bought it a size smaller than I wear. It was too short, and the neck was too wide. So I bought a small amount of black fabric that was the same stretchy "rayonish" feel of the dress and added some length in black. I topstitched and was very careful to make it flow and look right. Then I opened the neckline and took off about 5 inches of elastic for a smaller neckline. It fits perfectly now. I love it.

I bought this dress a few years ago and after the first time I washed it, it was too short for my liking. So I found two T-shirts that my son had outgrown and cut them. I added a small strip of folded white cotton between the addition and the dress and didn't even  bother to finish the bottom edge of the dress because it is knit and won't fray. I wear this dress a lot in the summer. It is so comfy and I don't have to worry when I lift my arms up that I am revealing too much.

Cute suit, right? I bought it right after I had a baby and couldn't even try it on because I was 3 or 4 sizes larger than usual. I bought it in this color and black because I liked it so much. When I finally lost my baby weight and tried them on, I found them to be WAY too low cut. They looked bad. I haven't gotten to the pink one yet, but I did make a change to the black one that has worked out very well.

I cut some fabric off an old black swimsuit that I don't wear anymore and applied a ruffle to the neckline. It added just a bit more coverage, and that was all I needed. I feel much more comfortable in the swim suit now.

This is my next project. I bought this Lands End dress and really liked it. But then I washed it and now it doesn't fit right. It is short and the neckline shows my bra straps. I also don't like the fold up sleeve. So I have some work to do. Wish me luck.

In My Happy Place

It seems like every time I have a deadline and HAVE to sew/write patterns/create ANYTHING, which it seems there is always some sort of deadline, I go through the same cycle. First I am excited to do what I am about to do. I can't wait to get moving on it. I start. I start cutting and sewing and thinking. Then I start getting interrupted. I dread interruptions.  You know? The phone rings, someone needs a sandwich, it's time to pick the kids up from school. And then I get back into it with deep focus. But the problem is that that I get so driven to complete my projects that I don't take the time to enjoy them. I am DYING to complete the thing so I can get on with other things.

I wish so much that I could just enjoy the whole process. Sometimes I find myself there. But usually, I grow impatient for the end of my process to see the finished project.

Well, now I am in an interesting place. I have completed so many necessary things over the past month and a half. And now I have been organizing my house and working on other things. And I find my imagination running wild. I have so many ideas in my head for fun projects and a really great pattern design idea that I can't wait to make.

But now I hesitate because I realize that the best part of the process is really when I am building it in my head. This is where I don't mind the interruptions. I can see a finished product in my mind, and that is sort of satisfying. This is my happy place. I think I'll stay here a while.

Babies Grow Up and the Storage Grows Too!

I have been thinking lately about how I would really like to preserve some of my babies' clothing and items that were important to me as their mom. I don't want to just collect all of their stuff so it takes up space in storage and clutters my house, collecting dust. But I am looking for some projects I can conquer in a year or two that would be a great way to preserve these memories. I love this bench, for instance, made out of a baby crib. It comes from Casandradesign.blogspot.com We have a cute crib that is very similar to this one. It would be adorable.

Then there are bins of baby clothes that I treasure. You never get any significant amount of money selling used baby clothing. And if you lend it to friends, it ends up coming back to you when their baby outgrows it. So as soon as my little Macy (21 months) is 4 or so, I am going to cut up all of hers and Savannah's (age 9) baby clothes, and make quilts for both of them. Then they can cuddle up to them forever and have a memory to hold onto.

I wish that I were showing you my finished products here, but I am still in the baby trenches. Before long, I'll show you what I come up with.