What I'm working on and what I'd like to do

I added a section on the right of future things that I have in mind to work on. One of the things listed is a dress for Sarah. She currently owns this dress
and it's one of my favorites! I love it and as I was looking at it the other day on her it's getting a little short and as I looked closer, I think I may be able to duplicate it. We'll see. Again, it's on my "to do" list so we'll see when I get to it.

The other thing on my list is a quilt for Sarah. I do have 2 daughters so you may be thinking, what about Leah? Well, that's where I'm way ahead of you! (don't you love how I talk about you like you're really there even though I've shared this blog address with NO ONE so far!! haha! At least I'm amusing myself!). My current project is a quilt for Leah. Below I showed a sneak preview of it but here is the quilt top finished... I think. I say I think because now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have made it bigger to fit a twin size bed. She's not ready for a twin but I'm wondering if that would have been more practical... not sure yet but here it is.


The style is called "Stacked Coin". These are the 9 fabrics I've chosen and it's coming together nicely. I'll post another pic when there's a bit more to show. I didn't follow a pattern or anything. I knew that I liked the stacked coin look so I went to flickr and just typed in "coin quilt" just to see what all was out there and how folks made them. I just picked a style I liked. I will say I learned a lesson about seam allowances so far with it. I am doing 5 rows of "coins" each with 28 rectangles. I noticed that 2 of my rows, once they were done, hung slightly to the left. Meaning half way down the row they started vearing left instead of being a straight line. I realized that some of my seams weren't 1/4" from top to bottom. Some of my seams got bigger toward the end. Meaning when sewing 2 rectangles together, I started with 1/4" seam but then ended with a slightly bigger than 1/4" seam. This caused my row to not be straight. I fixed about 4 - 5 seams in each of the 2 rows and that fixed it just fine. I was also then more careful with the next 3 rows.

If I do chose to make it bigger, I'm thinking about adding some squares around the outside and then sashing again in white... not sure yet. Oh and it's about 40" x 60" right now so I think it needs to be 60" x 90" to be a twin.

My first projects

I did take a quick sewing class. I only had 3 classes and it was much more social than a learning experience but I did make a top for Sarah. It looks impressive but the instructor told me step by step what to do so it was pretty easy.
I even did a zipper!!!
I made a dress all on my own for Sarah but it was so easy! It's just a piece of fabric from Joann's with the smocking already done. I just measured it around her, sewed a seam up the back and hemmed around the bottom. I added straps so it wouldn't fall down and that was it!


Well, as easy as it was, I still managed to mess up the bottom... I learned how to do a hem at sewing class yet I failed to do it that way on this dress... I'm going to have to redo the hem...

Two other projects I've done are from patterns and tutorials I've found online. One was a little cubby box. I don't think I cut the inside cardboard big enough and I wasn't as precise with my seam allowances as I've learned to be so it's kind of flimsy but it's still cute.

The tutorial came from crazymomquilts.

Then I did this cute bag from a tutorial at Filminthefridge.


It's pretty easy as long as you don't screw up the handles like I did. Eventually I got it worked out and it's a nice bag.

The last thing I've been into making lately are pillowcases. I don't know why but they're so darn CUTE! Here's just one that I've done. It's for one of Sarah's friends for her birthday. My plan is to make her a pair of matching pajama bottoms to go with it.
The tutorial for the pillow cases is over here.

Finally... here's my new quilt that I've started on.
It's called a stacked coin quilt. I found some full and queen sized white sheets at the Salvation Army store by my house the other day for only $2 each and I'll use one of them for the sashing and backing of this quilt.