Mid-Town Trench---Finished!

I FINALLY finished the Mid-Town trench jacket from Indygo Junction that I've been slowly working on. See initial post. I'm quite pleased with the results but if I had to do it all over again, here are the lessons I've learned: 1. I love tweed. I think it is so classy but it is extremely thick and difficult to work with sometimes.

2. I opted out of putting buttons on this jacket for reason #1. Next time I'll choose a cute, thin cotton and then use the buttons I purchased.

3. Next time around I'll plan a liner for the jacket. Either that or I'll have invested in a serger. This coat is not very pretty on the inside. A fashion design student at CSU found it really cute so I'll put that in the win column. See how the wind flapped my jacket bottom and because I had no serger, it looks messy? The solution is for me to take the time to build in a liner. Look for that post sometime next year. Ha ha....

Now for the things I love about the Mid-Town Trench:

1. I love the cut and think it is a timeless classic cut. I chose tweed because I do think it is a classic cut and tweed works well with such a cut.

2. The collar is super cute. Takes me back to the Jackie-O days. I love her coats--every one of them.

3. The length is cute. The pattern actually calls for a longer jacket and you can tell by the pattern, their jackets sit at their knees. I'm not super tall so I opted to shorten it a bit.

4. I love the pleats in the back.

Well Hello!

I have long ignored my blog. I don't know where time went! I'm going to try to be a more regular poster.

So much has happened since my last post. Some family birthdays have passed. A Christmas has gone by. MiniMe is mid-way through first grade. Where should I begin? How about a little craft love.

I finished this quilt as a Christmas gift for my in-laws. It has a lot of Joel Dewberry fabrics. After completing a hexagon quilt, this one seemed SO easy. I wish I had been more careful in taking pictures. We were trying to get the package to the post office so I took what pictures I could take quickly. I love the colors.

Quilting Along

S orry for my long absence. Life can sometimes get in the way of my creativity and blogging. I've missed it though and I've spent a great amount of time catching up on all your blogs.

I finally finished this quilt I started, oh well, a YEAR AND A HALF AGO! Like I said, life got in the way.

I love hexagons but they are really hard to quilt. I don't think I'll ever quilt a hexagon again. The design of this quilt is my own. When I started the quilt we were living in a different house and I finished it in another house. The final size of the quilt is much smaller than I'd initially intended but after working on these teeny little hexagons, I was ok with making the quilt a square.

Car Quilt

Still working on this quilt. Life is crazy busy. We had our house on the market and got an offer on the first week! I have a feeling I need to put this on the backburner for a bit with the move and all.

Little Car Quilt

I've FINALLY started cutting the fabric for MiniB's car quilt. I'm going for a hexagon star pattern. Let's hope that I can squeeze in some time to work on this project. Lately I've felt so busy and our house is going to go on the market so I'm going have to keep my house clean...GASP!

Japanese Fabric, part 5

I shouldn't be dragging this fabric presentation out for so long but it is an easy way to get many posts completed. :)

I don't have any idea or plans how I'm going to use all of this fabric but it is fun to have it!

Japanese Fabric, part 4

More Japanese fabric to show you. You can't go to Japan and not buy something Hello Kitty, right? The Hello Kitty fabric is for something for MiniMe. The truck fabric is for something for MiniB. Too cute!

Japanese Fabric, part 3

A few more Japanese fabrics to show you--some cute mushrooms and some little animals. The animal fabric is an entire panel of lots of cute critters. It will be a good backing fabric.

Japanese Fabric, part 2

I recently posted here about my husband's trip to Japan. Here is another sampling of the fabric he brought back. I'm not sure what I'm going to use these sweeties for yet but they are certainly cute, aren't they?

Japanese Fabric

Last month, Brian went on a work-related trip to Japan. I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Japan but unfortunately we couldn't work it out so that I could go with him. So what does a woman who loves Japanese fabric do? I educated my husband and begged him to go to Tomato store in Nippori Textile Town in Tokyo. My. Husband. Is. The. Best. Sweet guy dragged a fellow co-worker with him to the fabric store one night and brought back three huge bags of Japanese prints. I asked him to give me every detail about the store since I knew it would have been my Disneyland. He agreed that I would have had the time of my life. Sigh...

Now back to the educating part (I call it educating, he called it bombarding him)....I spent a couple of nights quizzing him on different fabrics online asking, "would I like this one?" And even trying to trick him, "I'd like this one, right?" The guy was wrong only once! Does he know me or what? I basically sent him with a list of prints he couldn't go wrong with: Kokeshis, matroskas, sweet little animals, mushrooms, pears, apples, and anything red and aqua. Teaching someone to know your taste is hard. You're never quite sure they got it down and you know this is your one opportunity to get it right. Does that make sense to anyone else out there?

I'll show you some of the prints in the coming days. Isn't this Matroska print adorable? It was one of my favorites.

A New Start

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's twenty ten. Or is it more appropriate to say two thousand and ten?

I've had it on my list to post this fabric for a while now. It is for a quilt for my boy--some Japanese prints. I am deciding between two patterns. I can't wait to cut into this fabric but first we have been doing so many little house projects--trying to get our house ready to sell. More on that in future posts. I'm a bit tired of it all.

On another project front, hop on over to my PhotoMojo blog where you can see my newest endeavor. I'll be participating in the 365 project--taking a photo a day.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Ours was wonderful. I'm so sad when the lights and tree come down. Enjoy the remainder of the holiday!

My Fabric Wish List

Today I wanted to share my favorite fabrics with you. I'm a Fat Quarter Shop fan. I like their web site. It is easy to navigate and I like being able to see the coordinating fabrics in a line all together. So, all of the following colorways can be found at FQS.










I can't get enough of all the Japanese import fabrics. They're pricey but so unique and fun. I recently discovered Fabricworm's Etsy shop. I also recently discovered sewdeerlyloved's Etsy shop. I'm planning to make a car quilt for MiniB and found that her shop offered the perfect mix of red and aqua Japanese fabrics. I love these Japanese cuties:








I hope you've enjoyed my wish list sharing. I'd love to know if you post your wish lists. Maybe I'll get some more ideas!

Project Raqua

I love red and aqua--together. Rockwa, Raqua, Rockua, whatever you call it, I love it. Stay tuned to see what I'm creating here.

Finished Purse

Every year, my church has an annual auction to raise money for a local organization. And every year I have donated a handmade felted purse. This year I decided to go the fabric route. I think it came out pretty cute!




Pattern is from this month's Quilts and More magazine. Handles are from Kati Cupcake.

Other side:



Inside:



And, MiniB wanted to be included in a picture tool!

(Almost) Finished Snippets Quilt

I got the Snippets American Girl quilt back from the long-arm quilter! For background on this quilt, read here, here, here, and here. It's been a long time coming. This one took me four months. Whew! And by the time I get the binding on, it could be fall. Oh well. I still love seeing it almost completed!

More Linens

Ever since I started reading this book, I've had my eyes peeled for vintage lines or even unique linens of any sort. While browsing a country store, I came across these handkerchiefs and red, cherry towel. Notice on red towel how the bottom has cute ric rac/crocheted detail. I can't magine carrying around and using a handkerchief. Does anyone do that anymore? But I couldn't resist. Maybe I'll carry it in my purse and see if a need arises.