Brynn's Quilt

So one of my best friends got married in October 2005 (7 years ago!).  The week before her wedding I started a quilt for her.  This was before I realized and understood how long quilts took.  So this is the quilt that I started for her:

I hadn't gotten a lot work done on this quilt (because it is a LOT of work)  then I went to her apartment and saw how she had decorated her front room, in brown and light blue with orange accents.  My sister got this (the fabric pictured below) fabric and started on a quilt for herself  and then I thought this would be a fun fabric to make Brynn a stack 'n whack quilt.

So I actually pretty quickly sewed up the top for Brynn's quilt (this of course was in March 2008!).  Then I had enough scraps left from Brynn's quilt that I thought I might as well make my sister a lap quilt also.

So here is top of Brynn's quilt ready to be pieced up (missing some borders).

Then I got caught up making my sister's quilt:

And 2 pillows for her!

I gave it to her for Christmas of 2008.  I actually had started quilting Brynn's quilt, but I had problem with my bobbin tension, and felt a little frustrated, so I put it aside.  When my mom came for Christmas she unpicked all the quilting that was messed up and then I didn't touch that quilt until September of this year, 4 years it sat in a box!  Now it is done!  I can't believe I just let it sit there forever.

My friend Brynn and her husband just bought their first home, and their first baby is due this week.  They still have their family room decorated in light blues and browns with orange accents.  Hopefully they like this quilt, but even if they don't at least it is off of my to do list!  So here are some pictures of the quilt!

Flowered Swimsuit

A few weeks ago Autumn had a fieldtrip to go to the swimming pool, and she said all here swimsuits from the summer were too worn out to wear, so of course I needed to make her a new one.  Luckily we had some swimsuit fabric in the stash that was set aside to make her some new swimsuits.  She was so pleased with the swimsuit.

What I have been up to:

Today I got to go up to my good friend's house she just bought, and she is due with her first baby in less than 3 weeks!  We have been friends since I moved to NY 14 years ago.  It was fun to see her house and also setup a satellite sewing station and sew a fitted sheet for her nursery.

This is the crib with the new fitted sheet 

Here is a closeup of the fitted sheet with the other fabrics she is using for bumpers

Here is my satellite sewing station at her house 

This afternoon at my house when I got home, I got busy doing a cutting party.  Autumn is having a birthday party and the girls are going to make fleece ponchos, so I was starting to get everything cut out.

 I setup in the kitchen so I could be close to the kids playing in the front room

Here is the pile of fleece

Family Room Stuff

Since I have a tiny sewing room, but I am not the only one that likes to sew around here, I started keeping a sewing machine up in the family room (which is right next to my sewing room).  I have been working on curtains for this room since February!  I actually had the curtains basically done, but was having a hard time getting the grommets to finish them.  My mom found a place for them and sent them last week, yay!  So now I have my curtains up and a nice sewing machine cover to match.  Up next (not sewing) is to rip down all the wallpaper (even the stuff that has been painted over) and then paint the room a color to match the curtains, maybe in a year I can report that I actually finished that huge project.

The curtains training (getting the creases in the right place for when they are open)

One side of the sewing machine cover

 The other side of the sewing machine cover

The curtains open during the day.

 The Curtains closed at night

close up of the grommets and rod

This really makes me excited to paint down here.  I hung up the curtains before we painted, because we had these horrid blinds in there that were impossible to open, and I am a light person.  I want all of our windows uncovered during the day, so it drove me crazy trying to get the blinds open.  So I hung these up before we painted, because I wanted to get the light NOW!  So someday the walls will match.

Works in progress: pants

My girls get mostly hand me downs from a cousin of Ben's.  The only problem is neither one of my girls really likes jeans, and that is all that this girl wore.  So we bought some leggins for the girls, mistake.  All the leggins we bought got holes, the seams started coming undone after wearing one or two times.  I decided I just needed to make them a bunch of leggins.  So we went to Joann's on saturday and picked out a bunch of fabric.  We pre-shrunk it and then I had a cutting party last night.  The goal this week is to get a majority of the pants sewn up and to get ready for Autumn's birthday party on Friday.

Here is all the fabric we bought, all stacked up and folded after being pre-shrunk.

Here is a stack of 13 pairs of pants all cut out and waiting to be sewn (2 pairs have already been half sewn).

My girls should be better prepared for the cold weather once I get these sewn up.  Autumn keeps wearing the same 2 leggins that don't have holes yet.

Random projects

These are some misc. projects I had hanging around and got a few of them checked off one day.
 
This is a pencil holder for a bag that I made Autumn for Christmas last year.  I had put the velcro in the purse, but just now got around to making the removable pencil holder.

This is the inside of the purse where the pencil holder attaches onto.

The purse (Christmas 2011 present)

Detail of the front pocket

She got scriptures for her birthday last year, and here is the inside of the case I made.

Here is the scripture case.

Autumn was baptized last Decemeber and me and my mom made her a really nice dress for the occasion.   I made this dress bag to keep the dress in, so it is less likely to get dirty.

I have also been working on American girl doll PJ's for the girls' dolls.  Autumn is having a pajama doll party for her birthday, so of course her doll has to have matching pajamas.  This was a big deal because I had to make the pattern.  I took a couple of other doll patterns and combined them to make this footed pajama pattern.  Even after I had the pajamas sewn I had to do some editing to the pattern, the neck was just way to big.  So I think I have it to an acceptable size.

Here is Autumn Prairie and Zephyr in their Christmas Pajamas from 2011.

I also have been working on a new dress for me, but haven't finished that.

I also took a pair of pants I made when I was about 40 lbs heavier, and made them into tapered leg pants, and I am super happy with those.

I have been keeping busy in my sewing room.  No worries there.