Scrappy Goodness

 This ol' blog might not show it, but I have been keeping myself busy with some sewing projects lately.  Less than a month ago I hosted a baby shower for my SIL who is expecting a little girl this May.  Is there anything better than sewing for little girls?!  ***As a side note- I picked up several yards of clearance Lisette cotton lawn (Spring 2011 collection) from JoAnn's earlier this spring.  I have three little nieces to sew {matching}summer dresses for!***

Ok, back on topic.... sewing for the baby shower.  Waaaaay back in Sept 2008, I participated in a vintage fabric swap.  I think the premise of the swap was to cut through our stash of vintage bed linens and make 6xx6 inch squares, bundle them together and mail them out.  I wish I would have noted more detail about the swap in my post, because I know some amazing woman collected, sorted, and remailed everyones loot. But, hey, that was like FOUR YEARS AGO!  Where did that time go? Seriously.  Anyways, some of the blocks were passed along, others I kept and when it came to making a baby blanket I immediately remembers this great stack of blocks!  I rummaged through my own vintage scrap pile to cut a dozen more blocks and sewed this together in an evening.

 I was so smitten with myself when I finished piecing the top!  So girl-y and spring-y! And I had the perfect backing thanks to a wonderfully sweet and generous blog reader/customer of mine.  She was cleaning out her closets and found these older sheets and sent me a box to see if I could use them instead of throwing them away (If you are reading this now, THANK YOU AGAIN!).  A green and white gingham was the perfect piece to pair with the front.    To finish the quilt I sewed right sides together and turned it.  I top stitched the outside edge.  Instead of tying the quilt with yarn, I found a neat little stitch on my Pfaff 2038 that bound the quilt together.  I stitched a little pink diamond in the middle of each 6x6 square. 

And after I had finished the entire quilt, I had this nagging thought that someone might be grossed out that I cut up old bed sheets and made a blanket out of them.  I mean, not everyone is cool like my readers or fellow seamstresses.  The blanket was well received and I know it will get plenty of play time when the baby is born, but what are your thoughts on reusing certain vintage fabrics for new-er sleeping items? 

This posting is so late it's embarassing!

Considering this swap took place a few months ago, I am very late in posting the wonderful goodies Ann-Margret of Piece of Mind sent me way back in May! Earlier in the year we contacted each other to do another swap.  In the past we have completed color themed swaps, but this time I suggested I would like a Woodland/Nature theme since I was loosely using this direction in decorating my living room which already has a fieldstone fireplace and hardwood floors.  Ann-Margret choose her favorite decorating theme of cottage chic (with a preference toward turquoise and yellow) and we both got to work.

So without further adieu here is what I received in my swap package. 

 Now Ann-Margret really knows how to fill a box!  Opening this package was like digging into Mary Poppins carpet bag!  There was a whole slue of stationary, which I already have put to good use.  My inner 8 year old screamed out loud when I saw the pony paper. :) 

 One of my favorite items she include was the trees identification cards!  I have them sitting out on my living room end table and they are quite a conversation piece. I've gone back and forth about what to do with the mini pine cones she collected from her backyard, but right now I think I'll be making a winter garland with them.

 Our package had just a couple of rules and one of which was to include a handmade item.  She sewed together a sweet pincushion from a scrap of vintage bunny fabric.  I keep it on my ironing board.  And I think it's funny that we both included a yellow rose in our packages.  This one is a magnet and since my sewing table is an old steelcase table, I use magnets to hold my patterns to my fabric instead of weights.  So this has been used many times!

Along with all the amazing goodies she included a fair trade necklace, wooden beads, ribbons, fabric, and a note pad that says "don't lose" which cracks me up.  Thank you Ann-Margret for such a wonderful swap!

Here is what I sent and you can view it in more detail here.

Playing catch up

I downloaded many pictures off my camera a few days ago, but I can't recall where I put them. I did manage to find two unrelated pictures to share. I've been trying really hard to get back to blogging and I can tell it's going to take a bit more effort.

First, I need to talk about a great swap I had with Christina from This Girl Beads. It came about from a continuous email discussion on the color yellow. So we put together a private swap. I wanted a new yellow necklace and she asked for a new summer bag. Because I was terrible about taking pictures of her gifts to me (forgive me Christina!) and my swap partner is so awesome you can actually see what she sent me here.

Everything she sent was absolutely wonderful and I am one lucky girl. I wear that necklace often and it quickly became a favorite of mine. I did manage to take one quick photo of the bag I made her in the early morning light before I shipped off her package. (The rest seen here.)
She asked for a gray and yellow bag. She likes linen and pleats. I found the mustard velvet ribbon in an amazing fabric shop in Gettysburg, PA. They carry many period fabrics, as well as, modern reproductions. This ribbon may not be vegetable dyed but its an historically accurate color from the civil war era. Come to think of it, I bought the gray fabric there too. This bags looks really great in person.

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Remember those mojitos I mentioned last weekend. They were so good! I can't wait til it's weekend again.

Vintage Square Swap

This is the results of the Vintage Square Swap I eluded to yesterday. Last night I sorted through all the wonderful prints before I went to bed. There is 200 pieces of fabric stacked up there! And amazingly enough I did not spot a duplicate.

These are a few of my favorite prints. I'll be making a blanket/quilt out of these. I think I'll arrange the squares so they sit on a diagonal with a white background. I've never tried machine quilting before, so this maybe an easy first attempt.


Next post I'll show off my Pay It Forward goodies. :)

Travel worthy project

When life gets busy, find a project that travels well! I very cautiously cut into my cashmere stash- finally. Buttercup wanted to get to know Gray a little better. I precut all my pieces, gathered a needle and thread and put everything together in a zipper pouch. When I can grab a few minutes during lunch I recharge myself by sewing a few stitches in the beautiful autumn sunshine. Seriously, the east coast has been heaven lately.

I really wanted to visit my blog this evening, but I didn't get to take photos till dusk. Color is off, but the sunset couldn't have been more colorful.
I have some fun mail to show off soon too! I got my vintage 6x6 squares from a swap organized by Katie. I haven't even had a chance to completely go through all that goodness. And I have to properly thanks all the swappers.

AND I received my Pay It Forward package from Lolly. Awesomeness. Pictures to follow soon. This can only mean I will be continuing the tradition and Paying It Forward to some fellow blog readers. So be on the look out for that post.

My pincushions were also featured over on the Bee Square Blog. :) That's pretty fun!

So do you have a good travel project? Share and share alike.

Purple and Gray Swap

Months ago Ann-Margret and I decided to do a personal swap. I decided on a color theme and chose purple and gray. Ann-Margret knows how to pack a box, let me tell you. She gave me many items of inspiration including a handmade card holder that I am now using to hold my Moo Cards. Trims, zippers, paper, stationary, yarn, pens, soap, ribbons, and fabric too.


Ann-Margret chose the colors apple green and red. You can see what I sent her here. I found this awesome piece of embroidery at a thrift store and turned it into a red themed summer bag. I think its one of my favorite reclaimed items.

Red and Turquoise Swap

Awhile ago, Mary Ann posted a blog entry about expanding her color pallet to enjoy a new phase in creativity. I made the suggestion/ challenge of using red and turquoise for the new year and we made it a swap.

Beautiful tea towels find their home immediately in my kitchen!

I recently received my end of the swap and let me tell you, Mary Ann knows how to stuff a box! It was like digging into Mary Poppins bag. Never ending! I loved it. And it was full of inspiration. I would say half of the items already are strewn around my home. Like the turquoise place mats that are already in the washer. Then we have the bundle of zippers and vintage trims.

Here's a sampling of goodies I got! Now take a look at the red clothes pin hanger. I need to find about 6 more so I can hang some sheers in my sewing room. How cool would that be? Thanks for the great idea Mary Ann! Oh, and did you happen to notice the AWESOME cards she made with vintage dress patterns? I got a bunch of those. It's going to be hard not to hoard them. AND FABRIC! Most of which found their way into my next project pile! It was a perfect compliment to the vintage and thrifted fabrics I have been collecting to make a summer blanket/quilt! More on that later.

And magnets! She sewed red crepe paper to make little envelopes to hold recycled Altoid tins that housed a whole host of homemade magnets! I love them! My house is getting cooler by the minute.

And, I have to give homage to Mary Ann's incredible thrifting skills. Mad skillz. She found me a pair of Kate Spade sunglasses to compliment my spring/summer look. The only 'problem' is I have already started wearing them and they are currently in my car, in the cold, amongst the snow, and I am in my pj's at the moment. I promise an action shot in the near future. Really awesome.

THANKS MARY ANN FOR EVERYTHING!

It's almost Xmas.....

and I'm sick! Blah.

I even had today (and tomorrow) scheduled as vacation days. I knew I would want these days to finish up my handmade Xmas. And now I don't have the energy to concentrate on sewing a straight line. For the past two nights I have been waking up at 3:30am and not falling back to sleep. But today I did-

• Make myself a lavender steam pot to help with the congestion.
• Make a shea butter sugar scrub.
• Take a very long (ran out of hot water) shower and 1) did a mini microderm abrasion treatment on my face and 2) used up that freshly made sugar scrub.
• Take some pictures. I don't have the concentration to sew a straight line at the moment and I have 3 projects I need to finish by Saturday evening.
  

Right... onto a bunch of photo's! (I think I sneezed between every photo. I'll spare you the photo of the tissue waste basket that is following me everywhere.)

Diana (who lives in Italy) wanted some floral fabric I was giving away about a month ago. She suggested we turn this into a personal swap. She offered to exchange crafting magazines. I was game. Not only did I get two very cool magazines (pics to follow) but she included some "make my knees weak" linen, among a host of other things. Check it out....

Linens and trim!

Gift tags, bookmark, and a button pouch!

And of course the magazines!

I love these ornaments made out of buttons!

And wouldn't this string of little booties be the cutest present for an expectant mother around the holidays? I need to learn how to knit/crochet this year.

And Advent calender perfect for the gardener you know and love!

I'll be making this at some point. All you use is some scrap wood and nail it to a central cross beam. Think of the possibilities!

If only I had a porch I could decorate like this. *le sigh*

Free Money Loot and Nice Fun Mail

When I walked in the door last night from work, my husband said that I "exceeded my daily allotment of fun mail for the day!" What a great thing to come home to!

First off, I received my end of the Pumpkin Spice Coffee swap with Jenn. I really made out. She sent me several pieces of the softest wool felt ever! Along with some "melt my heart" polka dot linen, silks and buttons. There is some Japanese trim around somewhere, but it must have been on my sewing table when I took this photo. Thanks so much Jenn! I really loved it all! And my order from SewMamaSew arrived. Remember the "free money" I got from work. Part of it went towards this.
And I stopped in my local JoAnn Fabrics last night for some dark denim (which happened to be 50% off!). Little did I know that my JoAnn's sits right next door to a Goodwill. A match made in heaven. I also picked up a few other sale items/remnants. The lady cutting my fabric was a doll. She was generous when she cut my yardage and even gave me an additional 10% off coupon that I could use that day!
And my fun money bought me a 1/2 gallon jar full of old buttons and wooden spools!
I really apologize for the picture quality. Early morning daylight hours are not the most ideal conditions (especially with my camera). I must of took a dozen photo's of my button jar and this was the best I could come up with. Terrible I know!

Regardless of the picture quality, I wanted to share some button love. I picked this jar because of its overwhelming colors! (Yes, there where TWO jars available!) So let's say I give you until Friday evening to leave a note for a huge fistful of buttons. I'm just going to stick my hand in and you get whatever comes out. Wooden spools and all. It's kinda like those quarter claw games when you always get a prize. Except you don't even need to pay a quarter. Nice huh!

Swapping Goodness Style

This is a long over due post. It all started back in August... when Rebecca asked me if I would like to do a personal swap with her. Of course I said yes, but immediately after I agreed I got notice of my new job and long story short it's now the middle of October and I am posting pictures of my loot.
She sent me a whole tin full of sewing goodies that included buttons, trims, zippers, and fabrics. She made me a pink and brown button ring, felt blue and brown flower napkin rings, and a crochet tea cup. I have to really admire knitters and crocheters. You are a special group of people that spend a lot of time creating wonderful things. She also made me a mini pin cushion in a white porcelain basket and the 'star' paper flower pin.



I regret that I had to abandoned most of you in reading all your blogging posts and reset the counter. While I love Google Reader, after being gone for so long and accumulating over 800 unread posts I had to call it quits sometime. Last night I set all blogs to 'read' and I start anew today. Hopefully, I will have more time to note back. And, of course, maybe sew something.

If you want to check out my end of the swapping bargain click here.

Bucket Full of Sunshine Swap!

Yesterday evening I received my summer swap package from my partner Elise. I wasn't able to completely enjoy all its glory until this afternoon.

Did you see that sign she made for the front of the basket? How cool is that?! I think it's my favorite part. :)

Then she made me this gorgeous apron! Holy cow! Look at the colors. The little bird applique is simple amazing. I love the fabric choices too. I can see why she is selling these like hot cakes!


I also received a wonderful book on herbs that contains some great recipes and a magazine. I already tagged a few to try this week. I have a ton of cilantro and dill to use up.

And here's the rest of the package. Her container is a very fun chicken wire egg basket. I will be storing my zippers in this when I get it empty of all the goodies inside. She also made me flower pens. Also included are 2 pillowcases, a ball jar full of thread and goodies, a milk glass vase, and a vintage strawberry jam tea towel! I am going to use that towel in my kitchen. That is until it inspires me in the future. Then it may have a personal introduction with my scissors.


I really love it all. I have had nothing but great experiences with these swaps and encourage anyone who is not participating to keep an eye out for the next one. I also love how all my swappers wrap up the goodies in reusable items. Tea towels, rick rack, ribbon... you are all such a great group of people. I am so glad I found out about this whole crafting group.

I did end up hitting the thrift store on Monday to check out the chair. The bad news is it wasn't what I thought it was. I hate it when that happens. The good news is sitting right next to it was this-


But wait! There was two of them! I picket them both up for $30. I really love its modern lines. The wood has a wonderful mahogany patina to it. It was a worn leather seat which I was going to recover until I researched a label that was under one of the chairs. A spoonful of Google and a pinch of eBay told me this is chair was made in Norway by Vatne Mobler. It was designed by Sigurd Resull and they call it the Falcon chair. These are in very good condition with a few wear marks. eBay had them listed for $150! I think I did alright. The leather covers snap right off, so I may just make new cushions in a lighter microfiber. Does anyone know anything about midcentury modern furniture to tell me some more about these chairs or the designer? Most websites I found where not in English. Our first newlywed funiture purchase arrived on Saturday too! But that will have to wait til another post. I think I pictured you all out.

Swap what you have! has arrived!!!!

EDIT: To see my end of the deal on this swap you can view the photo's here. And thanks for all the help on the blogger issues!

Yesterday I received my swap package for the "Swap what you have" swap (organized by Katie). My partner, Anina, did a wonderful job. I'll be able to use all of it! The wildflower seeds will be enjoyed by my mom. She planted some this spring and they turned out well. There are also some blank note cards, fabric, buttons and beads, paper, and ribbon. It's all put away ready to pull out at a moments notice. Anina, thanks so much!

And if the swap wasn't enough, I was the lucky 100th post winner on Anina blog! Lightning can strike the same spot twice!

How did you know I have been wanting a tissue holder for my purse?!? Saves me from making one now. The tissues and pen were put in my purse right away, and if I could think of a logical reason to have the orange pincushion in my purse, it would be in there too. I was thinking the other day that I needed a pincushion just for at my ironing board, so that's it's new home. It makes me happy just looking at it!

I also finished up my summer swap package and it was put in the mail today. I had a lot of fun putting this swap together. Even though my partner, Elise, doesn't have a blog we have been emailing back and forth and I had enough to go on to make it really personalized to her and her hobby interests. I can't wait til she gets it!

Now onto summer time sewing. I better make those skirts I had planned on before the summer is over.

I don't think I ever showed you my little zen rock sculpture I piled together for my little container garden. I rearrange them at will. They are so smooth and curvy you just can't help but pet them. I am so bummed about the current status of my garden. After we returned from our extended fourth of July trip I found most of my herbs didn't make it. The picture above was from early this summer. Seeds hadn't even started to emerge. The sad thing is my garden still looks this way except dead herb plants are in some of the containers. Good think I have a back up supply at the parents farm. Rule #1- Always have a backup plan. Check.

I have my black bird purse slated to be back on the sewing table soon. I thought of a better way to do the handles. This is all a learning processes. You got to crawl before you can walk they say. I have also been very productive with filling up my idea book. I am having more inspiring moments than time to complete projects. I like that my idea book is filling up. I try and date my thoughts since sometimes they are so sporadic. Maybe when I have nothing better to do I will graph which months and days are the most idea productive times. Then again, maybe not.

I completed a 20 mile bike trip this afternoon. Towards the end of the ride when my legs (and butt) were complaining I couldn't stop making a morph song out of Queens "Fat Bottom Girls" and "Bicycle" tunes. I won't be too upset tomorrow if I am too sore to play Ultimate Frisbee. I need to straighten out my sewing area. I have 6 boxes of new hand-me-down supplies to find space for. I was able to fill up my "Swap what you have" box for my partner, Anina, and put it in the mail today. I still need to finish up my Yellow and Orange swap package but it is coming along nicely. Swaps are fun!

Pink and Green (SPRING)

I joined my first swap a few weeks ago and I am in the middle of putting all the goodies together. My partner Dinah has emailed me and I grabbed a bunch of idea's from there. (Dinah, where is your blog?!?!) Everyone encourage her to get one up and running. She said she would like to have one.

**EDIT** Introducing my swap partner! http://missbufforfington.blogspot.com/

I made my items already, but I was having the hardest time finding the "right" thrifted item. I know! How hard can this be for a thrift loving gal? Yesterday I decided to make a mid week run out to the thrift store. I never really thrifted before on weekday (I'm a Saturday morning thrifter) but I came home with some great stuff. I also found THE PERFECT item for my swap. I only hope she likes it. My husband thought it was ugly, which only means it's awesome!



I was just telling myself I needed a pair of pinkin' shears and I found one for $.50. Only when I got them home did I realize they don't cut fabric. Bummer. I found some lovely purple and lavender bed sheets($1.50 each) that are destined to become skirts for some little girls I know, more zippers ($.10 ea), and some random beads ($.50). Oh, and a bag full of D- rings($.25). Perfect for some purses I have planned!

I almost forgot about this one. I saw this kit in the jewelry counter. I know the round nose pliers will come in handy for making jewelry, but I am pretty sure this kit is intended for scrap booking. I think there is an eyelet applicator in there, but I am not sure what the other stuff is. I am going to call my scrap booker friend and have her come over to clue me in. I figured at $4 it was worth picking up.

And several of you asked where's that coin purse I have been making. Since we moved apartments, it's home has been a zip lock baggie with all my notes and pattern pieces. I discovered one more change I would like to make. I will put this back on the priority list so hopefully I'll get this done this weekend.

And I also was one happy camper to discover fun mail over the past few days! Katie sent over some scrap fabric I was lucky enough to win (thanks to her son who picked 2 names instead of 1! I was lucky #2!) and Mary Ann recently threw a party on her blog and I received my party favor! My batteries are now recharging so no pictures of my goodies today, but soon.