Vacation, anyone?

I need a vacation.

Not because I do anything more difficult than anyone else. I'm a mom to five kids. I homeschool. I bake my own bread. I hound kids about piano practice. I read stories. I fix dinner. I do laundry. Lots of laundry. I do dishes. I buy groceries. I help my law student stay focused. And I sew.

But that's not why I need a vacation.

I need a vacation so I can use this gorgeousness:

I love this bag. Everyone says that, right?

And, don't hate me, but it wasn't all that difficult. Maybe because I'd built it up in my mind as some sort of sewing Mt. Everest and it was totally manageable.

A few things:

• Buy a cording/piping foot. A narrow one. Way better than a zipper foot and I could get so close to the cording and keep it really tight.
• I used the steam-a-seam tape for the piping. The ONLY way to go.
• I lengthened and widened the handles a bit. Good move.
• I made a inside zipper pocket, my first EVER, and I love how it turned out.

• I didn't break a single needle, and I didn't use a special needle. I should say though that my machine is a beast, and super strong. And I went very slowly.
• Since I was using directional prints, I had to piece the top panel dandelion pieces. I also wanted to match the patterns, which took some figuring out. It would have been nice if there had been some small pointers on doing this in the pattern.
• I attached the lining by machine at the zipper opening. Just followed along the original stitching and it's just fine. I put on some old Downton episodes and hand-stitched the rest.Give yourself time to do the hand-stitching. It's worth it.

I've got requests for more for Christmas, so this won't be my only one. And I'm okay with that. In fact, I've got my second one cut out and ready to go! On second thought, maybe these should be birthday presents . . .

So where should I go? Just for fun, here are my most realistic fantasy vacation spots of the moment:

Source: creaturecomfortsblog.com via Jennie on Pinterest

A treehouse in Issaquah? Near my favorite city with my favorite bakery and Greek restaurant? Um, yes please?

Source: runoftheriver.com via Jennie on Pinterest

Or a fabulous B&B near Leavenworth, Washington. They have a fabulous Christmas festival. It's a great little Bavarian village in the Cascade Mountains. Love it.

I just need a babysitter for a weekend . . . I have the fabulous bag covered now!Oh, and I'll need a somewhat fabulous wardrobe to go with the bag. You know. Because that's important.

The Official stats:

• Fabric: Premier Prints Small Dandelion Candy Pink/White (it's on sale right now for $5.98/yd.), Ticking Stripe Azalea/Ivory
• Lining pocket tutorial
• Zippers purchased here

Marking this one off the 4Q FAL list and linking up!

Friday Finish: My Secret Source of Power

Source: tribaltattoos24.com via Suh on Pinterest

Hee hee. I love Wonder Woman.

I've had, like, eleventy hundred (okay, maybe five) comments about how I get so much done. This makes me laugh, because boy do I feel like I never get anything done. But I guess I do. So I got to thinking: how do I get so much done?

Let's not consider that the laundry doesn't always get sorted. And sometimes I'm loading the dishwasher right before dinner. Or the fact that sometimes my youngest son spends most of the day in his underwear. Hey, at least he's not naked. And in my defense, he does have clean clothes. He just refuses to put them on and I don't feel like fighting.

It's nothing magical. Just organized.

First, it totally helps to have a designated crafting space. With a door. I can leave my project out and go back to it when I can find five or ten minutes. Chicken nuggets in the oven for 15 minutes? Sew some blocks, or work on some binding, or quilt a bit of a quilt. Older kids working on lessons? Cut fabric at the counter.

I also live by lists. I love my lists. I make a "to-do" list for each week. I put everything on it. Dinner plans. Lessons. Piano practice for the kids. Sewing things I want to get done. It's all there. I love crossing things off my list.

I deviate from my lists, but being organized lets me play fast and loose sometimes. Take this past week as an example.

My husband accidentally broke my ironing board. I know. How can you piece a quilt top without an ironing board. Don't ask. He got in some serious trouble for that one.

Fortunately, I had just basted a quilt. So I wound some bobbins and got to quilting while he got to fixing (that is his super power: fixing anything and everything!). By the time Henry's quilt was finished, my ironing board was back.

So here is my official finish for the week:

Used the Slideshow quilt pattern (although I omitted the outer border). Used a FQ bundle and panel of Richard Scarry prints from the Fat Quarter Shop. Quilted in a meandering loopity loop, because that's what I do quickest and best. I stuck with reds, blues, greens and oranges for the accent colors. Some pezzy prints, some Essential dots, some stars. All boy-ish, in my eyes. I tend to lean towards girly quilts, and my boys don't mind them, but they need something manly every now and again.

The Pickle Car and Apple Car are my favorites.

Scrappy binding, green Minky back.

My quilt model/holder was at school, so this is the best I've got for full shot.

Here is the happy little owner of his very own quilt:

Checking this one off the 4Q FAL list. Slowly but surely, it's getting done. And now I can claim my string quilt back. Phew.

I also worked on this:

Isn't she purty? I got my fabric allowance and ordered the rest of the fabric I need for the lining. I also ordered the liner for my umbrella girl bag, so I'll be getting started on that soon. I've got interfacing to cut in the meantime.

And I have to give a shout out to my Prince Charming, who slayed dragons and went on a late night run to Walmart to get me binder clips. He didn't even bat an eye when I said I needed them for a sewing project. He's awesome that way.

Hope you have a great weekend. I have to go turn my sewing space into a guest room for my parents. I might sneak in some cutting though. Can't help myself!

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, who once again proves how awesome she and her sweatshop of sewers are by helping out whenever they are needed. Read all about it!

And linking up with Amanda at crazy mom quilts, because I've got a finish to share!

Make-A-List Monday: I'm dreaming of a white . . . Halloween!

Hey y'all!

How was your weekend?

This is what it looked like from my sewing room on Friday afternoon:

Yeah. My kids were so excited. Me? Not so much. To battle the unwelcome snowfall, I grabbed a cup of drinking chocolate (I have a killer awesome recipe that is more like drinking melted chocolate than cocoa - AWESOME!) and browsed through the Friday finishes and the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I made my list of nominations for the festival, which was fun.

As for my list last week, well, here it is:

• Quilt and bind zig zag quilt

Done and my James is so happy (he claims it is HIS quilt because I backed it in orange Minky, and orange is his favorite color, so of course it's his!). Checking it off my 4Q FAL list. Hooray! That's four done. And a gazillion to go!

• Cut out my Weekender bag (and accessory bags from the extra fabric!)

Done. I cut out the dandelion bag, complete with lining and piping and handles, although I need to cut one more top panel. This pattern doesn't give you great instructions when you're dealing with directional prints, so I have to order more of my lining material before I can cut that top panel. Not super happy about that one.

I also cut out the duck for my quilted version and the exterior fabric for my umbrella girl one. I might have also cut some more duck for a Christmas quilted one. Yes, I'm getting carried away. It's what I do.

• Slowly get started on my Weekender bag

I've got the piping made and I'm working on the exterior panels with pockets and handles - my machine is giving me fits and skipping stitches. It did it on a line of topstitching, so of course I had to pick it out. The bag itself is not so bad. It's my machine giving me fits!

Just waiting for payday so I can order my zippers. Making the piping was . . . tedious. I used Steam-a-seam, which is awesome and I've read makes it even faster, which terrifies me to do it the other way.

In the meantime, I made my quilted pieces of out Gypsy Girl.

 

When these are done, I"ll start on a Christmas one. Because I need a Christmas Weekender bag. You don't? Whatever. You're just in denial, that's all. You really need to just embrace the insanity.

• Finish piecing Richard Scarry #1 top

Still working on this. Once birthdays are over (did I mention I have THREE birthdays coming up - the 3rd, the 4th and the 6th), I'll have more brain power to devote to piecing a top. I need to hurry though. The little man who will get this quilt keeps saying my string quilt is his. Silly boy. But I can't correct him until HIS quilt is done. I'll share until then.

Could you resist this face? I know I can't!

• Piece minky backs for 3 quilts

I pieced the back for my Holiday Hostess quilt, that Richard Scarry quilt, my Easy as Cake quilt, my nephew's Max and Whiskers quilt, and my other Richard Scarry quilt. So I did FIVE! Wahoo!

Okay, on to this week:

• Finish piecing the Richard Scarry quilt
• Sew up some birthday drawstring gift bags (I hate wrapping paper!)
• Baste, quilt and bind the Richard Scarry quilt so Henry will stop feeling left out!
• Cut the white fabric I need for James' Richard Scarry quilt
• Continue working on the Weekender madness bag

That's it. In non-sewing lists, I have to go trick-or-treating on Wednesday, make three birthday cakes, and three birthday breakfasts, and three birthday dinners, and get all the gifts together for those three birthdays (I'm so very glad I did the shopping back in August!). I also woke up this morning with a super fun head cold. And I think I got it from my sweet baby girl, so we're chilling in the recliner until we feel better. Ha! I wish.

Have a lovely week!

WIP Wednesday: Can't Help Myself

My Weekender pattern arrived Monday afternoon. It completely derailed any logical plans from that point on.

As I've been waiting for it to arrive (like, for three WHOLE days!), I've been drooling over all the awesome bags out there, like this one, or this one, or this one. I've got serious Weekender bag envy. I MUST have a patchwork one.

So I bought some duck cloth at JoAnn's Monday on the way to swimming lessons (multi-tasker, that's me!). And I cut it out Monday night. And I might have forgotten to baste that Halloween zig zag quilt as I got lost in the piecing of my bag.

Um, hi, is this not awesome? I know, humble much Jennie? (If you don't like it, don't tell me. It's like telling a mother she has an ugly baby. Not cool. Or true. Every mother has a beautiful baby.)

I don't have the material yet for the lining. Or the piping. But I just had to piece these panels. It had to be done. Didn't it? Tell me it had to be done, please.

Okay, and I completely cut out my "plain" ones (as plain as bright pink dandelions and London umbrellas can get!).

Off to quilt that zig zag quilt. Ya know, before Halloween is over!

Linking up!

The Long Weekend: oh yes, I did!

 

Have you heard about what Lori H. Designs and Heidi from Fabric Mutt are doing?

Only the awesomest blog hop of the year!

*My apologies to the other blog hops out there. I'm sure you are nice hops. I'm just so excited about this one.*

The idea: to dust off your copy of Amy Butler's Weekender Bag pattern (or buy a new one because you can't seem to locate yours no matter how big of a mess you make in your sewing room searching for it). Not just dust it off, read the list of "ingredients," freak out and eat some chocolate and put it back on the shelf.

Nope. We're makin' 'em. We're going to sew them together. We might even sew two. Or three. Might. We'll see how painful the first one is.

I read a funny blog about the construction of this bag. It's been likened to childbirth. Sure, it's painful (I don't think you can get epidurals for sewing projects), but in the end, you will be giddy with the results. So I hear. Since I did the childbirth thing five times, I think I can handle this bag.

So here's my fabric selection #1:

I love dandelions. I've also ordered this in yellow with a yellow ticking stripe. If they had it in aqua you know I'd be all over it, but I could line a yellow one with aqua . . . see what I mean about making three? Or four?

And fabric selection #2 (which I will pair with Kona Ruby and line with Kona Pear):

I bought that umbrella print ages ago when I lived in Seattle. I know I'm not the only one who gets fabric out and admires it but doesn't really know what to do with it.

My brother's girlfriend would also love one of these for Christmas, so I've got to find a nice peachy fabric. This is proving to be difficult.

So join the fun my friends! There's prizes involved, which sold me on it. It was on my 4Q FAL list anyway. Better and better!