Halloween Weekend

On Friday Ella and Miles had Halloween parties at school.  Here is Ella with her Kindergarten teacher.

Here is Miles with his Pre-School Teacher.

On Friday night Ella and Daddy headed off to camp with Adventure Princesses.  Meanwhile Miles and Mommy went to see Grandpa and Grandma for a very short visit.

We came back Saturday for Miles to participate in the business Trick or Treating.  This year they had carnival rides.  A first!  He loved the cars and dragons rides.

 

Ella and Dad came back for a few hours for neighborhood Trick or Treating.  Mom and Dad could not keep up with them!

Shades of Red, Pink and Cream

The autumn colors have been so vibrant this year.  I think that they are most years, but I am never not amazed each year how stunning they are.  Today our subject is a bush in our front yard.  I cannot even begin to capture its beauty in photographic form, but I tried.

A more complete view of this bush projects reds, pinks and creams.  I love the transition of color throughout the bush. 

I love leaves on the ground.  I purposely like to turn down a side street when I’m coming home from running the kids around.  That side street is heavily scattered with golden leaves and since it is not as well traveled, the leaves cover more of the surface of the road.  It is like I’m driving on a street of gold, only better.

It is heartwarming to witness Ella and Miles admiring the beauty of nature as well.  Miles told me that a tree with bright red leaves was “beautiful”.  Ella enjoys this bush in our front yard as much I as do.  She delighted in finding a pink leaf and gave it to as a loving gesture.

Hope you are having a beautiful fall too.  I’m off to work on a few more potholders before my next craft show.

A Break from the Cold

On Wednesday we got a nice break from the colder temps that have been the norm lately in the Chicago area.  While I felt like I should have been totally devoted to my sewing for this Friday, I could not resist finding any excuse to play outside with the kids.  So to feel less guilty about playing hooky for a few hours from my work, I decided to rake.  And thus, the kids got to play in the leaf piles.  It was so warm, about 69 degrees F, that none of us needed coats.  As usual, the kids loved bathing in the leaf piles.  This provided a great photo opportunity.  Here is the best of the few I took before I got really serious about the raking.  (You should see how many more leaves fell since yesterday!)

Here are my two favorite aprons (on my two favorite kids)...

 

And my favorite new potholders.  I want to keep one.  Luckily I have plenty more of these fabrics if I want to make one for myself.

Here is my apron display for the show...

Onto tagging all of the new items!

Very Biased

I continue to sew sew sew for the Friday show!  I finally cut myself off from starting anything new and settling on finishing all of the items I have started.  Which still means a lot of work.  The most time consuming part of this all is making bias strips.  These bias strips are needed for both the potholders and the kids aprons which are the items I am working on now.  Lots and lots of bias tape is needed for the kids aprons.  Yards and yards of bias strips! 

To make these, I cut strips on the bias (45 degree angle) of the fabric.  Then I sew them together to make one really long strip.  Next is ironing the seams and cutting off the extra triangles on the sides.  Finally, I use my bias tape maker to fold the fabric lengthwise into double folds.

Bias tape makers

For the aprons I iron both folds, for the potholders I only iron one fold.  Then for the aprons I fold it in half lengthwise and iron again.  Phew!

If you are interested in how to make bias tape, here is a place to start.

(from www.TheQuiltingCoach.com - Penny Halgren).

There are a few ways to make bias strips.  I know two ways, but have just been doing straight forward cutting for now instead of a more complicated tube method.  Learning to make bias strips/tape is a GREAT technique.  They can be used for so many things like binding a quilt or even making piping for a pillow.  Or, of course the examples below.

More potholders (these take a while to finish when you take into account all the steps required.

Layers of kids aprons on the dress form.  Yes, I'm making a couple of boy's aprons.

More aprons waiting to be finished (just need, you guessed it, BIAS TAPE!).  With that, I better get back to it.

Working Hard

A little sneak peek at some of the new fall and winter fabrics for some pretty potholders.

I am currently putting together as many new potholders as I can before next Friday.  I hope I get them all done before receiving Christmas fabric I ordered to make more children's aprons.  I already have an order for two from a local friend.

I can finally unveil a dress I worked on last week for a custom order.  Pretty cute for a girly girl who LOVES pink!

  

Finally a very rare photo of both of our cats actually snuggle up together.  Just moments earlier Velvet (on the left) was grooming Paris (on the right).

Hello Stranger

I know I haven't been very forthcoming with posts lately.  Perhaps I have been hiding a little, like this little fellow...

...our cat Paris.

Working a little on some sewing jobs like...

...adding a tulle ruffle to the neckline and other alternations of this homecoming dress.

Loving...

...a lot.

 

Mourning more than a little...

...

Nursing my daughter who had croup and myself with a lovely cold weather-related upper-respiratory congestion.

Now I am focusing on sewing lots of items for Kitchen Stitchen.  Because I have THREE Boutique shows coming up!

I've made a few new seasonal potholders.

And while I wait for more terry cloth fabric and insulbrite to arrive, I have been deciding what to make with some "orphan" fabric I have.  So I made two of these children's aprons (identical) and plan to make two more identical aprons in a deep blue fabric with lime green trim.  I'm thinking holiday gifts here.  Any other ideas of kitchen gifts to make?

 

And if you are interested in the upcoming shows I will be in:

• Here is a link with info for the first one:

The Unique Boutique

• The second is in Indiana at my friend's mother-in-law's house and I don't have info for that just yet.
• And the info for the third show can be found at the link below:

TMC Holiday Tea and Boutique

Sewing Cabinet DONE!

It has been done for a while, but I have had a pretty crazy couple of weeks, so I am just now getting around to posting photos.  I finally completed my goal of repainting my sewing cabinet that my mom handed down to me.  You can follow the saga of this project here.

 

The spray paint technique did not work out for me.

 

And so I stripped it with real paint stripper and not just the liquid sandpaper I used the first time.  I sanded too.  Much better!  Then I primed and painted with a brush.  One coat of Kilz.  Two coats of antique white.  Brush painting has its drawbacks.  You can see brushstrokes and some drips go undetected until it is too late.  But that is where I learned you can sand between coats. 

And while it's not perfect.  I'm happy! 

Before

After

Matches much nicer with my wall organizer and my neat Ikea chair!  Looks great from a distance too.

Lake Geneva

Fall Decor

I started writing this post a few weeks ago, then waited to publish it when I heard that Rhoda at Southern Hospitality was having her "It's Fall Y'all" Linky Party. 

Well, my mantel is ready for fall.

This year I actually had a vision.  I must have seen these bundles of um, weeds fall foliage? somewhere because they came to mind, as well as placing little pumpkins on my black candle stick holders. (now if you look at Rhoda's decor on her blog, maybe that is where I got the idea for pumpkins on candle stick holders)

I found the pumpkin candles and bundles of fall foliage at Target in the Smith and Hawkins section.

 

The "hurricane" is actually a vase that came with some flowers that Jason sent me recently.  I filled it with coffee beans and put a nice plump candle in it. The small blue vase is something I bought a while back to hold the wild flowers that the kids love to pick for me.

I recently found a ton of acorns in a corner of our yard from our neighbor's tree and had the kids pick them up for me.  I used them for a filler in another hurricane.  Warning:  if you decide to use acorns for decor, make sure to soak them a while in salt water to kill any creepy crawlies that may be hiding inside!

And... some other fall decor I have around the house.

Here is a pumpkin "planter" project I made a couple of years ago.  A Southern Living at Home project idea.

A wire pumpkin candle holder I've had for years purchased at Kohl's and two chenille pumpkins purchased from a crafter at a garage sale a few years ago.

 

An acorn pillow my mom made for me last year.

 

Here is a project idea that I stole from Creative Little Daisy this year.  Much cheaper than buying something similar available this year at Pottery Barn!

 

Do you put up fall decor?  What do you put up?  I'd love to see your photos too!  And if you want, you can link them up to Rhoda's Party too!