Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year! We all had such a wonderful holiday! Christmas Eve and morning were truly magical. There were so many beautiful moments shared. And although I was too immersed in holiday celebrating to pop a post in during the busy week, I tried my best to keep up on social media and I did manage to sneak in a tiny bit of sewing (using Garden Dreamer, of course) to make a set of pillows and few new tote bags to gift family members. And because my niece was here visiting, Haila, Ceci and I spent yesterday afternoon sewing up reversible aprons together. This sewing session was one of my favorites yet, the girls drafted their own pattern and did such a wonderful job!

I love the reflection that a New Year brings, but today I'm really looking forward to 2017! I'll have some BIG goals and exciting news to share once I can get back to my regular blog routine. Unfortunately our wonderful break is ending with a nasty bug sweeping through, so in the meantime I want to wish you all a happy, creative New Year filled with health, love and joy!

XO Maureen

A Birthday Gift Set : :

Haila & I spent this past Saturday morning sewing up a special gift set for her best friend's birthday and I had to show it off today!



She loves the drawstring backpack I made for her last week and REALLY wanted her friend to have one, too!

Inspired by the personalized drawstring pouches we made together earlier in the Summer, Haila chose Bari J.'s gorgeous Joie De Vivre collection and began her project by fussy cutting her friend's initials, A.R. from the Joyeux Alphabet panel. This time, I just had to guide Haila while she created a log cabin style block using my quick quilt as you go method to be the front of the backpack. She's getting so good!



Haila wanted to embellish this backpack with the same lace details that I had added to hers. The combination of these colorful fabrics, denim, and lace is so pretty!



For the lining she chose this sweet, pink Joie De Vivre floral. She did such a great job!



I think I'm most proud of how well she quilted the reverse side of the backpack. Her stitch consistency has come such a long way since that very first simple, quilted pillow we made together when she was just beginning to learn. I love it!



A little matching pouch from the scraps made such an adorable set!



The little pouch measures a 5.5" x 7.5" and the drawstring backpack measures 12" x 15" finished. Since these turned out so perfect, I'm thinking I might pass the bag-making torch off to Haila for a little while, so I can get back to more quilt making! I'm hoping to start a new one today using April's new Observer collection, I shared a little peek of my plan just now on my Instagram!

You can find these lovely Joie de Vivre fabrics in stock at Fat Quarter Shop and Llama fabrics!

♡ Maureen  

Personalized Drawstring Bags : :

It's become tradition that when my niece comes to visit, Haila, Ceci, and I plan a sleepover sewing session to tackle a new little project. Last vacation it was pillows, this time we decided on a pair of Drawstring Bags, personalized with their initials, with a quilt as you go twist!



These adorable bags started with Bari J.'s new, gorgeous Joie De Vivre Joyeux Alphabet panel. We fussy cut and framed each letter, creating little log cabin style blocks using my quick quilt as you go method!





The girls each picked fabrics to pair with their letter and I love what they chose -- a Blossom Lavish print in aqua blue for Ceci & a sweet Garden Paperie print for Haila!





These drawstring bags were so much fun to make! If you're looking for a sweet, functional projects to stitch up with a young sewer in your life, I definitely suggest you add these to the list! You can find the tutorial, with just a few slight modifications, at Svetlana's blog s.o.t.a.k Handmade!





♡ Maureen  

Sewing Room Snapshots : :

Lately in the sewing room...















there's been a mess of Etsy crown and pillow making, Christmas music playing, felt and fabric flying, lots of coffee drinking, and so much more! Many little moments both good and bad and fun and hard, as this time of year has a way of overwhelming me every single year as I prepare for the holidays, both Kaiden and Haila's birthdays, work on my Spring fabric collection (a first for me), all while taking on as many orders as I possibly can! But I'm feeling so grateful this morning for taking the time to sew with my birthday girl this past weekend. She's NINE today!! While we both don't get as much time to sew together as we'd like, when we do we LOVE it! So today, on her birthday, I'm extra grateful for my sweet, creative girl and my overwhelming feelings of love and pride for her that fills my heart and the gaps of what I sometimes forget!

Happy Birthday Haila Grace!

♡  ♡  ♡

Haila's Fox : :

This past week we had such a houseful, but on Saturday for just an hour or so, Haila and I found ourselves a little stretch of sewing time. A promise was made that we'd sew over Thanksgiving break, and this was our big chance!

First I asked her to choose from my pile of random quilt blocks what would be the center of a new quilted pillow. She opted for a little fabric fox appliqued onto a light gray PE solid. She's always loved my fox pillows and was thrilled for this chance to make one of her very own. She decided right away to surround little fox with pretty flowers, so that's what she did!











I really love this pillow - the colors, those sweet florals, and my girl's effortful stitching. It's always so fun watching her work, understanding each step with such delight, it's exciting to see!

As long as she keep requesting these sewing sessions, I will happily oblige. It's a pleasure!

♡  Maureen

Next Up : :

Now that my quilt top in Emmy Grace is finished and I'm waiting for my backing (Budquette Nightfall) and binding (Ripples River) fabrics to arrive, now that I made and gifted the Indelible pillow set to my friend, now that I'm finally getting caught up with etsy orders, it's time for me to begin something new and to finish up some of the mid-way projects that have been laying around the sewing room.

First up, my Arizona Herringbone QAYG! This project hasn't seen any action in weeks (months) and it's time I remove the cat hair it's collected & finish it up!







Haila and I also started a new sewing project last night before bedtime! We're using Bari J.'s Bijoux collection and we're making a tote bag. I remember the first tote I made in my early sewing days and how magical it seemed to take just a few pieces of material and in such a short time create a useful bag. I'm excited to share that with her! Here's a peek, she's doing great!



I also want to invite you all to listen to my very excited self and four fellow Art Gallery Fabrics designers chat about our new fabric collections on the latest Modern Sewciety podcast while you sew this week and to enter the wonderful Giveaway! Click HERE or on the image below to be directed!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

♥ Maureen

A Pair of Pillows : :

I really want to spend more time sewing with Haila this Summer! Since she received her very own Janome back in December we've only had a few sewing sessions where she's made two quilted pillows and a strand of wool felt heart garland, with my help. For us, making pillows has been the perfect simple project! It's a wonderful way to get acquainted with a sewing machine, to learn basic construction, seam allowance, both the straight and zigzag stitch, straight-line quilting, the double-fold hem, etc. To keep things extra easy the first two pillow projects were both whole cloth. I simply asked Haila to choose a fat quarter from my stash in a print that she would love to see turned into a pillow. Watching her sew up that first one was magical for the both of us!

Sara Lawson Sew Sweetness blogger and new Limited Addition designer for Art Gallery Fabrics, recently reached out to me and asked if I'd like to choose some fabrics from her first collection Jungle Ave to use in a sewing project and to share here on my blog. At first look I thought I'd finally stitch up the quick tote bag I've been meaning to make for weeks now. But when the fabrics arrived the bright colors & fun prints I had selected caught Haila's eye and she's been asking if we could share them!

So, on my birthday I reserved just a couple of hours in the late morning for her and I to turn these Jungle Ave. prints into a new pair of pillows!



For mine, I wanted something super quilty! Just as I do in my Herringbone QAYG, I added strips on the diagonal to a cut piece of batting. This time I measured out each fabric strip needed to create my 12"x16" pillow front, creating a balanced pattern that I thought would really pop!



For the back I quilted my favorite Jungle Ave print, Floral Asphalt, to more batting scraps, finishing one raw edge with some left over quilt binding. I love finishing my pillows with a little binding!



For Haila's pillow, rather than beginning to work on piecing, I decided to teach her the same quilt as you go as I used to create my most recent quilt finish, my Endless Summer quilt. Using more batting scraps she simply worked her way down the narrow pieces, sewing down one fairly large piece of pretty fabric after the other until done. She did great!





She finished her pillow with just a few quilt stitches on the pillow front and an easy envelope closer for the back!





After this project, I think she's definitely ready to make those doll quilts on our list!



How about you, do you have any project suggestions for us to add to our Summer sewing list?

♥ Maureen

A Quilted Pillow for Grace : :

This past weekend we had lots of family here visiting, including my adorable baby niece, Grace Anne! It's such a treat when they'll come to visit, we all miss having a baby around so much, and she is just the sweetest, most smiley-est baby!



Early Sunday afternoon while we were playing Haila asked if she could make a new quilted pillow, this time just for Grace, so we dove right in! We picked out a few fat quarters from my stash of Lotta Jansdotter fabrics, specifically in prints to match up with the Glimma Quilt I gave to Grace at Christmas time.



We spray basted the fabric to a 15" square piece of batting, Haila chose a matching yellow Aurifil, and handled the quilting like a pro! I love the wonky-ness of her stitches so much! Part of me hopes that doesn't change as she gets more and more comfortable, but I know it's bound to. This time I hovered a little less compared to our last pillow making session, and by her last few stitches I had moved the speed up almost all the way!



I helped out with the trimming, backing, and finishing, and then she tied it up with a little twine bow before handing it over to Grace!



Another sewing finish for my girl and Yes, we think Grace loves it!! 



♥  Maureen