Focusing on Fall

In Corvallis it has been a beautiful fall.  Lots of sunny crisp days and gorgeous red and golden hues on the trees.  I do love the colors of fall.  I have given in to the idea that summer is over and fall is upon us and I have been slowly transforming the house with fall décor.  My kids usually take care of the Halloween decorations outdoors, so I focused on decorating my mantle, my sewing room and my table.  

Here are a few of the projects I’ve been working on.

I have had cloth napkins for a while, so I finally made a storage box for them.
They were previously in a too-small bowl and sort of a wonky mostly tippy stack on the kitchen table which wasn’t very neat or pretty.  So I took care of that.  Now we have a nice neat way to store the napkins with easy tabletop access.

...And then there were the buntings.

 I made a bajillion of these and most of them went straight to Kari Bruck for her photography studio.  

 But while I was at it, I decided to make some fall and Halloween colored ones. The Halloween one is currently decorating my mantel and another is in my sewing room.

    

The fall ones will go up in November. But  I did manage to give them a test run at a bake sale that my daughter organized.  I love these colors and they spruced up the tent nicely.

Next up was a thanksgiving tablecloth. Not that we needed one just yet, but I’m trying to get a jump on things this year as we will actually be having family over for dinner.  So I dug through the stash, and found this lovely home dec weight fabric by Valori Wells, one of my all time fave lines from her.  Perfect for a tablecloth.  Added some bias binding and voila – a new fall-colored table cloth.  

And as if that wasn’t enough, I finally made myself an apron. Every year at thanksgiving or Christmas as I’m semi-dressed nice and dishing out the last minute fixings, I lament the fact that I don’t have anything to protect my clothes.  Every. Year! No more, I am finally ahead of the game and made myself a pretty little apron.


Pattern is from the book With Fabric and Thread, by Joanna Figueroa.  Such a cute pattern and pretty easy to make.   Plus it’s reversible which caters to my every changing mood.    I might make another one with a Christmas theme, if I can keep up this momentum.  Ha!

Happy Sewing!

Some exciting news to share

So, this little book will be debuting at quilt market in Houston this week

I'm so thrilled to share this news finally.   Playful little paper pieced projects
from  C&T Publishing.

It was compiled by the lovely Tacha Brucher and I'm excited to announce that I have a project in that book. This is pretty big news for me.  I haven't done a book project before, so it was pretty exciting stuff.

If you peek inside amazon's page you'll see my sewing machine cover on the table of contents page.  

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon and will hit the shelves in bookstores in January.  I'll post more when it's closer to release date including some pics of my project and some exciting giveaways.

Stay tuned.  Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along Block 12 Gallifrey

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

How about a visit to the home planet? It's time for Doctor Who Along block 12 ~ Gallifrey.  Home of the time lords.

This block was designed by Soma and you can find the pattern on her blog.
Here is my version of the block.

You can visit the Doctor.Who.Along group on Flickr for lots of inspiration, sewing support and chat.


Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along block 11 Striped Scarf

In this weeks installment of the Doctor Who Along, we have "4th Doctor" Tom Baker's striped scarf. Remember that scarf? To say it was long would be an understatement. It always seemed to come to the rescue when needed and somehow magically never managed to get caught on anything - or did it? It's been awhile. Tom Baker was the Doctor that started me on the series in the beginning. I was still a kid back then - hard to believe I know. The special effects in those days were laughable at best, but somehow the show had a charm that made you look beyond all the cheese.

So I present to you, the 11th foundation block for the Doctor.Who.Along - the striped scarf. Make it in whatever colors you choose. I chose to stick close to the original colors. Another Constellations fabric print for the background. Perfect I tell you! Thank-you Miss Lizzie House!


Link to Pattern and Instructions here and on Craftsy.

I hope you enjoy sewing it, it's one of the easier blocks in the QAL. The 11th block means we are more than halfway through this QAL!

Allons-y!