sewtakeahike

my favorite things

 

This weekend, I've been doing a bit of settling into my new sewing room. One problem I had at our old home was a cat that wanted to play with everything I own that is cute, and not enough room to safely display my adorable things. I don't know why it has to be this way, but seriously, anything I think is too cute for words, our Fozzy wants to have for his own.

I still have this problem, but got smart about it. My dad made this shelf for me a few years back out of an old window, so I decided to put all those precious little things in there so I can see and use them, all the while protecting them from my savage little cat.

As you can see, it is chock full of ribbons, tapes, pincushions, buttons, and felted animals. One of my grandmother's canning measuring cups is in there, as well as a tiny little glass milk jug my dad gave me. And do you see all those little wooden spools? My dad used to send those to me all the time from estate sales or garage sales or whereever. He was my biggest crafty enabler.

So today, in honor of my dad (and to say thank you to all of you for the warm, heartfelt emails and comments), I'd like to have a little giveaway for a few of the wooden spools he sent to me, as well as some aurifil thread and an aurifil cotton thread color card from Alex at Aurifil.

 

Just leave a comment telling me your favorite memory of time spent with your dad. I'll choose a winner tomorrow night, Monday the 12th of December.

~Penny

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Eventually

My daddy was the king of procrastination. Especially on garage sale days. We could be in the car together on a very important mission (like getting milk for mom), and although we would eventually get there and get the job done, our route was a meandering one, full of right and left turns, turning around and backing up, making sure not to miss a single garage sale that might or might not be on the way.

As I was growing up, that type of meandering oftentimes drove me a little mad. My personality is pretty straight to the point and going with the flow is not easy for me to do.

But now that we buried my daddy a week ago, those times I spent with him in the car, rolling my eyes at him, hoping that this was the one time that we could go straight to the store and home, are endearing to me. You see, my daddy enjoyed the journey. It never was about the end goal for him. He knew how to laugh and have fun on the way, and that's something I cherish about him. I hope that each day I will grow to be a little more like him in that manner. Quick to smile, tell a joke, and help someone out. That was my daddy.

 

 

Moving in to our new home has been full of ups and downs. If you remember, before my daddy got ill, I made this rug and the main part of the pop bottle curtain before we moved in, so that it would be virtually ready to be put in our kitchen once we moved. I'm happy to be able to share this photo with you all, and extremely sad that he didn't get to see it. My daddy and I had much the same taste when it came to decorating and I know he would have loved it.

So here's to you, daddy. I sure do miss you.

~Penny

Shirley's scrubbie

This giveaway is closed.  Please visit my craftsy shop to purchase the pattern!

 

I know I mentioned this in my last blog post, but my Mother in law, Shirley, makes the best scrubbies.  They're always so fluffy and perfect!  So last weekend when we were down in Arizona, I took advantage of the time with her and wrote down her verbal instructions, modified them slightly and came up with this quick and simple pattern, "Shirley's scrubbie".  

 

 

For those of you who have never used one of these types of scrubbies, I just can't say enough about them.  They clean everything.  I mean everything.  Shirley even uses them to clean her car since they don't scratch the surface you're cleaning. 

I use them for dishes, veggies and the shower.  And I can't forget, I make a smaller ring version for my cat, and he loves it!  He plays with it and it makes a killer cat chew toy.  He likes to bite into it (it makes this crunchy sound) before he eats his food.  I know, kind of wierd, but apparently it keeps his teeth clean, he's 4 and has never had to have them cleaned by the vet.

So get thee to your craft store and pick up some netting, take a few crochet lessons if you need to, and click on this photo to order your pattern (or just click here!).  You won't be sorry!

Happy Thursday!

p.s.  The first 5 people that leave a comment on this post and tell me what you are grateful for this morning will get a free copy of the pdf pattern.  Just make sure I have an email address to send it to!

p.p.s.  Just to say thank you to you for always encouraging me, I'm listing the scrubbie pattern on sale for $2 through the weekend :)  

This giveaway is closed.  Please visit my craftsy shop to purchase the pattern! 

this weekend

Was full of fun for L-man and I!

 

We flew down to Arizona for our friends Anthony and Jeanette's wedding and visited with L-man's parents for a couple of days as well.  This is the label I made for A&J's Unity quilt.  Yes, they were married on October 1st!

 

 

For our trip, I went armed with all the supplies to make a new and improved scrubbie pattern.  L-man's mom is a master at these and after several pointers from her, I gave it my own twist and came up with this new scrubbie pattern.  I'll be posting the PDF pattern for sale sometime this week for a minimal cost for those of you who are interested. 

 

And as you can probably imagine, L-man and I are out of our minds excited for our upcoming move.  I am so thankful to you all who left us encouraging comments about our new home, you guys absolutely rock!  Lenny and I sit and look at the pictures we have of our new home daily and plan and dream about all the improvements we will be making.  So until we actually move in, I'm making what I can for our new home. 

 

What do you all think of my new hand-soap dispenser for our kitchen?  It was super easy to make and all you need is a jelly jar, a pump and a lid for the jelly jar.  L-man drilled a hole in the lid so that the inside of the pump would fit snugly, I painted the lid parts and then glued the pump to the lid.  Easy peasy!

 

 

Here's a view through the kitchen door and windows that lead on to the deck.  One thing Lenny and I wanted was a home that didn't require a lot of upkeep in the yard.  We both agreed that we have too many things we enjoy doing in the summertime to have a yard that required any time at all.  We truly found what we were looking for in this home!  The complete 1/2 acre our home sits on is natural-scaped, complete with moss rocks, a few succulents, and whatever else grows up there naturally.  It really is a beautiful scene!  My plan is to throw out a few wildflower seeds, plant a few munstead lavender plants and call it good.

 

 

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and have an even better week!

~Penny

sunshine on my shoulders tutorial

 

(finished quilt size 50 X 63)

A month or so ago, I received a go! Baby cutter from Accuquilt.  I was really excited that they decided to send one to me since I had used and loved the regular Go! cutter to cut the fabric for this quilt. 

I'm going to take a little segway here, but it all fits in in the end, promise!  My weekend was filled with family visiting from Kansas from Thursday evening until late Monday morning.  We spent one day grilling and kayaking/tubing the river, most of another day at the Tour de fat, and another day in Estes Park. 

Back to now.  In the in-between times when we weren't going somewhere or doing something, I cut and sewed this quilt.  That's how easy it was with the Go! baby cutter. 

I have to admit, I wasn't particular if the fabric was ironed beforehand and I think that's why a few of the triangles came out slightly larger than some of the others as you can see here in the photo.

 

But, it all worked out in the end.  All in all, I am so very pleased with the Go! Baby.  It makes quick work out of cutting, which is one of my least favorite parts of the quilting process.  I'm just wondering, what is yours?

For you, Accuquilt is offering 22 quilt patterns to you for free.  Just click the link and sign up for their emails and they're yours.

 

So if you'd like to make a "sunshine on my shoulders" quilt of your own, here's a basic how-to tutorial.

 

What you will need:

• Go! Baby Cutter and 4 7/8" triangle die (or take tons more time and cut with a rotary cutter!) 
• 83 colored triangles cut with the die
• 83 white triangles cut with the die
• 28 tonal white triangles cut with the die
• 4 WOF X 4.5" strips of tonal white fabric
• 5 WOF X 3" plaid strips

 

What you will do:

• Sew each of the 83 colored HST's to one of the 83 white HST's.
• Arrange your squares on point how you want them in the quilt (tip:  I liked it better with the points of the colored triangles pointing up).
• Sew your diagonal strips of squares together, adding one of the 28 tonal white triangles to each end of each strip.

 

 

• Sew your strips together, lining up the seams.
• Trim your corners square.
• Sew a border of the 4.5" tonal white strips around the quilt.
• Sew a border of the 3" plaid strips around the quilt.

 

 

 

Lastly, keep an eye out here for a chance to win a Go! Baby of your very own soon!  Yay!

~Penny