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  

An Extra One : :

Yesterday our beautiful baby girl turned NINE! It was a busy weekday night, so we celebrated simply with a nice family dinner of her request - spicy chili, cheddar biscuits, and old fashion apple crisp! Almost every time we go out to eat she orders a side salad and a cup of chili, it's the funniest thing! There was a little bit of sewing for her birthday - a crown, of course! This year I had offered a new special Holiday Crown design and sale, and when Haila saw me sewing them up last week she asked if I could make an extra one for her birthday. Absolutely!



I love this shade of spice berry red! It's pretty and festive and is one of those colors that just looks good on everyone, don't you think? Adding in bright corals and red, dusty pink, and aqua blue made such a great color combination!



Our birthday girl loved hers and looked so beautiful!







My hope is that each of the little girls who will be receiving one of these crowns this year lights up like my girl!

♡ 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

A Birthday Beginning : :

Over the weekend we celebrated Haila's seventh Birthday with a bit of a "sewing theme" -- her request! It was beautiful!! My best friend Cynthia of Taylormade Baked Goods, made another confectionery masterpiece with button and stitchy details that was just as yummy as it was pretty! We topped it off with seven candles fastened into very old wooden spools from my collection, it was the sweetest cake!







Over the Summer Haila started sewing on my Janome, with my hovering and guidance, and began asking for a sewing machine of her very own. We decided on this Hello Kitty Janome and can't wait to break it in over Christmas vacation! Of course I'll be sure to share all of Haila's sewing projects right here!

Her reaction was priceless!!





Yup, she's  in love!!



You can imagine how excited and proud I am to see her so enthusiastic about sewing! I'm a self-taught sewist myself. Come late March it will be four years since I started & fell completely in love with sewing, and look what's it's become for me! I've heard so many wonderful stories over the years from people who've been lucky enough to sew with their mothers and grandmothers. Many who learned so very young, sewing on the laps of their loved ones, observing their skills, absorbing the beautiful tradition. Yesterday was the beginning of that for my family, a birthday that I will always treasure, and I can't wait to see the magic that's going to happen!


 
♥  Maureen 

A Ballet Bag : :

This past Saturday afternoon my girl and I made a little, dance class bag together. This is her first year doing ballet and we're both so excited! I've been patiently waiting for her to reach this time where she feels comfortable enough to join teams & take on extra classes without wanting me to coach or volunteer. We made it and I'm thrilled!!

She picked out the fabrics -- several of Sarah Jane's Children at Play prints left over from the pillow & crown set I made my niece Molly, while I tried to find the blog post for when I had shared the ballet class bag I made my niece Ceci for Christmas. Rather than trying to remember how that bag was constructed, we decided to just go for it and make something new. It's a little big, but we think it turned out pretty cute!



We had fun making up the design as we went along including a large, front pleated pocket, an inner smaller pocket, an inside drawstring for cinching, and the handle design was definitely inspired by Anna Maria's Multi-Tasker Tote. For a little extra sturdiness I used a light weight fusible interfacing by ThermoWeb. A medium to heavy weight would have worked much better, but the light weight is what I had on hand. I'll need to stock up soon, I've been going through my interfacing, stabilizers, and adhesive like crazy!





Besides all the crowns & fox pillows I've been making, it was so nice to start and finish this smaller sewing project in just a little over an hours time. Now that I've been busy making all these quilts, I've let all my smaller project ideas fall to the wayside. I really need to work on finding some project balance. While there's nothing quite like making a quilt, creating something small & special can certainly be just as rewarding!



Happy sewing!!  ♥  Maureen

HOMEmade -- A Butterfly Appliqued Curtain : :

Making a curtain is a super satisfying thing, it always leaves me with a good feeling! Besides being so simple, it's functional and likely more affordable to go the handmade curtain route. Of course, we LOVE that!



I'm hoping at least a few of you understand just how tricky it might have been to take a photograph of a hanging curtain, on a bright winter day, in a not-so-large bedroom, with a not-so-wide camera lens? It wasn't easy and I can't say that I ever really figured it out. When I went through my pictures I was a little disappointed, it looks so much prettier in real life, I promise! Yet my dedication to sharing my first "HOMEmade" project for this new home of ours pressed on, and I really hope you like it!



I only made one curtain and I'm still trying to decide if this window really needs two? What do you think?

This one was made with some simple, large improv piecing of several Pure Element solids from my stash and scraps left over from this qayg project, one of my favorite Summerlove prints Daydreaming in Sunshine (still available at @Hawthorne, Moona, & FQS), and a second curtain layer made up of lots of LillyBelle Garden Rocket in Turquoise.



I love seeing that sweet LillyBelle print peek through! Still the appliqued layer can be lifted or swept to the side, once we choose a Tie-Back, to reveal that gorgeous print. I chose to do it this way just for fun really, I thought the layers would look really sweet and girly, plus I knew we wouldn't reverse the finished drape often.



I added a quick Butterfly applique to match my girl's bedding!



Machine stitched with an Aurifil 12WT in a brown, and a hand-stitched loop-de-loop with pearl cotton floss.



It was a lot of fun to make this curtain and is definitely not the worst thing in the world to finish something and the only struggling part be the photographing that comes after!



When we first moved in I loved all the white shutters on the windows so much, I was rather opposed to having curtains on most of them. It was so lovely to see clearly outside! But now that we're deep into the winter months it's feeling a little bare. If I find time and a stronger urge in the weeks ahead, a few more windows in this home might just get a treatment after-all -- we'll see if I improve!  ♥, Maureen

Today's Plan : :

Back before we moved into our home, I shared a little post with some ideas we had for our daughter's room. Since then, with the help of Santa, some of the items on her wishlist have been crossed off, others just wouldn't work, and some things are just waiting to be made -- yay for me!



The Canopy Play Home has ended up being the biggest hit! Along with a high stack of pretty floor cushions. It is rather large and pretty dreamy with the addition of some twinkling lights, and she has even slept in it twice now!



The Enchanted Forest Mural totally wouldn't work, the dimensions were all wrong for the wall we had in mind. That's the thing about making plans for a home you don't own or live in yet -- measuring before planning is key! So, that was a bit of a bummer, but leaves an opportunity for some fun sewing!

First on my list -- a new curtain!



Her room is pretty little in size and is so super girly, with a bit of a Princess & the Pea theme happening, just like her recent party.



There's lots of color, mostly brights, but really anything goes!



For the curtains I would personally love to add in some applique and maybe some scalloping, similar to the that on this sham and her canopy?

We looked through my stash last night for some fabrics and she chose this LillyBelle print, which would work perfectly. So, I'm planning to use it on one side of the curtain, but want to have some fun, improv sewing time while stitching up the other!



I think our own Lily agrees, just as long as I get a move on it! This happens to be her most favorite room, as well, and I'm pretty sure that all the light coming through this curtain-less window is a problem for her.



Plus, I need to get busy crossing some much needed things off of my list before I'm busy making my crowns full-time! The orders have been really coming in this week and I wasn't expecting it at all.  My felt won't be here for a few days yet, yikes!



I'll be back soon with a finished curtain to share and some handmade holiday gifts that I've been meaning to share, as well! Until then -- Happy Sewing! ♥, Maureen