A few of my favorites...

from the photo shoot I did last week with one of my best friends (okay, we are more like sisters!), Nicole. I am in the process of updating my portfolio (slowly but surely anyways) by re-shooting some of my older pieces. First is this wedding dress:

Dress:  Kaysie Schreiner

I created this dress for my senior project while in fashion school and had never gotten around to taking photos of it on a real person only a dress form. I still have a few more photos to edit, but for now these are my favs!

One of the fashion shows I was in, included a short navy velvet vest with a gold lame backing. Really one of my favorite pieces from that show.

 Vest: Kaysie Schreiner

Tank Top: Jockey

Jeans: Silver

Boots: Fioni

Styling was kept to a minimum since we were short on time. We also got some shots of things for the future pattern releases. I had a great time taking these shots and a getting a couple of things crossed off my list, but the best part was spending time with Nicole (she was visiting from the east coast). Growing up, we were always creating things and loved to do mini photo shoots all around the house. She also managed to get some photos of X and me (I will try and post a few when I get copies). The whole time we spent together was a blast (not to mention a huge boost to my current creative flow) and it was fun to re-live those kind of creative adventures.

WIPs

nothing but a bunch of work in progresses(WIPs) going on around here:

So far, a bunch of triangles cut for the wonky star blocks (I cut enough to finish 16 more blocks) and some blocks that need to be trimmed to 4.5". White squares are in the process of being cut out, I am spending some time working on these each day. The blocks (26 of them) need to be finished up by August 12th (5 are completed so far).

My mom helped me out yesterday and cut out this stack of fabric (t-shirts that  are going to turn into underwear for the little guy, since potty training is in full swing around here) I am hoping to spend an hour or so working on these today, since most of the work is done on the overlock machine it goes fairly quick.

A sneak of a pattern that will be released this fall. I have several more projects started, in different stages and nothing really finished. Do you like to have several projects going at once or just one at a time?

Summer Adventures

Wow, Friday and Saturday just flew by... I spent Friday doing a little sewing (I will show you the results tomorrow, since I totally forgot to take photos of it yesterday) and catching up on a few other projects that have been laying around. On Saturday morning, I met up with a bunch of ladies (about 45 of us in all) from the Desert Sage Quilt Guild that I am part of and went on a fun all day adventure to the Boise Basin Quilt Show. The day turned out to be a ton of fun and I am so glad that I was able to attend. We took a comfy bus ride up there (since it is about a hour and forty-five minute drive or so):

I sat in the emergency section and ended up not having to share a seat with anyone so I ended up having some extra room which came in handy later in the day. We even played a few games while on the way up and I won a fun prize (it was a pattern with some fun little fabrics swatches, a picture is coming up later)

Our first stop was a fun little shop called:

I ended up with a couple of harder to find fabrics that I scored while I was there. After the shopping, we headed to a buffet for lunch. It was pretty yummy, but the best was the sundae bar as usual since it is my favorite thing in a buffet. 

Then we headed to the quilt show, but before we went in to check out all the quilts, we took a stroll through the farmers market. It was a lot larger than I had expected and the weather was just fabulous out. The vendors carried a range of things from jewelry to wine to crepes to clothing and tons more. It was great! The quilt show was awesome, inspiring and a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. They had door prizes, vendors, raffles and a gift shop. I did find a couple of fat quarters from one vendor that made it home with me. I also won another door prize in the last drawing of the day. (I think it was my lucky day yesterday since I rarely win at anything besides Bingo) At 5:00 was a lecture from Marianne Fons of Fons & Porter fame:

The lecture was actually really fascinating. Her personal story and lecture on Why people quilt? was entertaining, interesting and you really came away with a lot of interesting history of quilting. I found Marianne to be delightful, funny, and a great speaker. I was lucky enough to be the youngest quilter in attendance and won a free magazine subscription (how awesome is that!) there was also another raffle along with that which some of my friends won. After the lecture, we headed to a lovely restaurant, sat outside in the evening sun, and had a great dinner. 

A view from the tables of all the outside umbrellas. After such an exciting day we headed back to the bus and were on our way home. 

Here's a recap of some of the goodies I picked up:

Some Amy Butler Love fabric from The Quilt Crossing.

A couple of fat quarters (from the quilt show) and Plume by Tula Pink Charm Pack, my first tula pink fabric and I am in love with it (from The Quilt Crossing)

Then I picked up these freebies throughout the quilt show:

 

A free pattern, a pocket needle guide, a couple of Quilt show pins and some hexagons for paper piecing. 

Since luck was on my side yesterday, I won these:

A magazine subscription, a pattern, a rotary blade, computer inkjet fabric, some Best Press and 4 fat quarters. It was so exciting to win and I truly love all of my goodies and they will be put to good use for sure! Overall, I had a great experience and am hoping to do it again next year!

Just a few of the things I am working on right now

I have sooo many works in progress right now, it is kind of insane, but I am making dents here and there on the list. Of course I added new projects to the list, but who doesn't do that when you have a list full of half-completed projects. So for the first thing I am working on:

 These are little guys are going to become stamps for shirts for x. (as a side note they are sitting on my mouse pad- I took some leftover fabric (from Heather Baileys Pop Garden Collection), some fusible web and ironed it right on there. It sure was an easy way to use up some scraps!) Anyways back to the stamps, I drew up some basic boy kind of motifs (an arrow, a funky diamond that in my head is going to look awesome, and a lightning bolt) on some extra linoleum blocks I had lying around. Next up carving them plus this is a great project for doing downstairs while watching x. 

Okay, so this technically belongs in Tuesdays in the Garden, but I forgot I took a photo of it. In my quest for figuring out how I am going to mark where things are in the garden (last year's Popsicle sticks and duct tape labels sucked decomposed and broke off), I found some awesome more permanent ones online and thought, "I can make those!" Enter the metal stamp & die set along with some metal (the above is just a tester but it says cucumbers) I am going to be busy hammering out all the words and then rubbing with some acrylic paint. This way the word are clearly visible.

 The bunny bowling project for x's easter basket is coming along, they now have faces and

 have ears and some shape. They are now cozy upstairs waiting to get some interfacing in the ears and followed up by sewing them together and getting some batting in them along with some rice so they stand up nicely. 

 I picked up some new magazines, how I love reading magazines, probably one of my many crazy addictions. (from left to right: Shape- I love this magazine and in my quest to lose weight it helps me stay motivated; Threads- a must for garment sewing and techniques, I learn a ton from every issue; Cooking Light- this is the first time I have picked this magazine up, my cousin loves it and my mom found $1 off coupon, so I thought I would give it a go!) 

 Some knits I picked up at Jo-Anns. (I also picked up a pink, red, and brown yesterday along with some elastic and some gray serger thread.) These are for some upcoming projects and for some patterns I am working on.

 Some new fat quarters: (from left to right) one for x' quilt, one from moda's authentic for a shirt or pants trim for x, and some anna maria horner for a clutch for me (Sorry for the blurry photo I am having issues with blogger's new photo uploader thing) 

Working on a muslin for the Study Hall Skirt pattern from Anna Maria Horner. I have already picked out the final fabric for it but I wanted to make a test to see how it fits first. 

Of course I have other random projects going: some pillowcases for the pillowcase challenge, some pants and shorts for x, another skirt for me, a zig-zag quilt for x, some pot holders, and a cat tepee for Bentley. I am going to try really hard to get more of these crossed off in the next couple of weeks.

This week has been what I feel as unusually busy for me or maybe I am just feeling more like my old self, moving forward in this new chapter of my life, and actually feeling like getting out of the house and doing things. I have also been reaching some of my goals and being more productive in a bunch of different areas of my life which is going a long way in boosting my mood. Hopefully this keeps up!

This Morning...

I took photos of this pillow I finished yesterday:

*front

 

 

*back 

 I am so in love with it, especially the hot pink piping around the edge.

This is how I am rocking it this morning with my broken glasses (I think I must look like this most of the day in front of my computer, well when I am not chasing xavier all around):

Look closely and you can see the side of my glasses is missing, from the front it makes them very crooked:

 yeah, super goofy but I think I hear something going on with x:

wonder what he is up to?

yeah this can't be good... I better check this out, hold on a minute... alright I am back, remember the orange scarf:

here it is all knitted up and waiting for my mom to crochet some flowers for it, then it will be finished. (for some reason crocheting and I have not become friends- I have a feeling this isn't going to change for sometime)

this is also waiting for some crocheted flowers:

well, I am to take the chicken stock off the stove and get it into the fridge and then I am off to go fabric shopping with my friend Becky. It's going to be a great afternoon!

Tuesdays in the Garden: Vegetables

so last year's garden yielded lots of veggies and lots of learning. (not just a lot of learning but frankly some stuff just failed)  I have made a few changes in the layout of the garden and adjusted the amount of each vegetable that will be grown in order to hopefully have fewer vegetable failures, but who knows how this year's will turn out. Here is recap from last year's garden:

Carrots- this year I will be planting a lot more of these, I froze some for the winter and they actually all got eaten already. I think these were the hands down favorites from the family.

Zucchini-this year I will be planting a lot less of these because they were out of control last year (I think they became the vain of my existence at some point) and we still have a ton that I froze. 

Pumpkins- probably do fewer of these mainly because I didn't have much time to carve them, but I did have a rather large pumpkin patch ;) I also planted them to close together so it became a woven mess of mini pumpkins, sugar pumpkins, and Connecticut pumpkins, in which I preferred not to walk through...

 Bell Peppers- these actually failed in the garden (disease hit these hard), I think we only ate one- so I will attempt this again this year

Hot peppers- Last year these were a success but I will probably plant a lot less this year mainly because most went to waste

Lettuce & Arugula- I planted way too much of this at one time last year and it became a giant lettuce mess so I will be sowing more often in fewer quantity 

Beets- (I loathe them, my mom loves them) so I will plant probably quite a few more because I made some pickled beets and apparently they were a hit.

Cucumbers- this year I am planning on growing a ton of these, why might you ask, the pickle people of my house love the dill & bread & butter pickles. All the jars have almost been consumed 

Onions- not really a huge success last year but I am going to try this year again

Garlic- failed last year, going to try it again

Corn- not even going to attempt this year since raccoons ate it all... and I mean all of it...

Peas- were a huge hit last year, so I am going to plant a lot more so I can freeze some for the winter

Beans- were okay and will probably plant about the same amount

Radishes- I loved these so I think I will try and up the quantity of those

Acorn Squash- was low in quantity but tasted great

Butternut Squash- was eaten up by something not sure what

Eggplant- needed more sun, I think so we only had a couple 

You would think by the amount of vegetables I had a farm, but I just have several gardens going in different areas and I just trying growing all kinds of random things. Really I just give it a whirl and have no clue what I am doing. Next week, I will recap tomatoes & melons along with the flowers!

New Beginnings with a Hearty Helping of Cinnamon Rolls

waiting to be baked...

my life has taken some unexpected twists and turns (basically a 180 from what I thought would be my life) over the course of the last few months and I finally feel that I am getting a grip on things and moving forward. I guess when one door closes another opens, so in trying to be positive, I am going to be taking it a day at a time and not worry about what the future holds. This also means that the blog will be getting back to being more personal and not all projects with total randomness thrown in for good measure because I am finally feeling like myself again.

my new favorite outfit and my little man hanging out in the studio

Alright, here's to moving onward!

Wednesday

X and I spent some time in the studio this morning... I actually got a few projects started before he started getting into everything. Here are some of the highlights from this morning:

the main part of the studio is cleaned up from a mess of projects...

found my paint palette, now to clean it up and start a new painting

X's latest project

working side by side

carving a rubber stamp for the valentine cards this year (I stopped sending out Christmas cards, instead I send out Valentine's, which include a photo of X, working on a concept for that)

yepp, working hard here

carving....

yes it was a good morning, hope that we can do this again!

12 Projects from 2009

Happy New Year's Eve, I truly hope that 2010 will bring you much love, peace, joy  & happiness. I love sharing this space with you and hope that in 2010 I will get to know you all even better. I really enjoy reading the comments and hearing what you have to say.

Row 1: Baby Blocks pattern from the book Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler, Baby Booties pattern from the book Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler, Woman's Tunic pattern is McCall's pattern M5659, Empire Dress from the book Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler

Row 2: Fabric Corner Bookmark tutorial from KZJO'STUDIO, Love letter pillow improvised design from KZJO'STUDIO, Two Trees Mini Quilt (first attempt at free motion quilting) improvised design from KZJO'STUDIO, Reversible Apron pattern from Church Ladies

Row 3: Xavier's shorts pattern coming soon from KZJO'STUDIO, Halloween Mini-Quilt improvised design from KZJO'STUDIO, Travel Tic-Tac-Toe Game tutorial from KZJO'STUDIO, Doll Quilt with Hexagons

later today I will post some of my favorite projects from the year...

Day 2....

of my little trip down memory lane also know as Back to School: My College Days!

Here are two swimsuits that I designed and sewed for my first fashion show! These are photos that I took for my portfolio in 2005.

 

  

Next up a knitted shawl in bright orange:

  

  

there were a ton of projects throughout school and at the end I chose to design a wedding gown for my senior project. It is probably one of my favorite things I have ever made. 

 

  

(* I really need to take new photos of this with an actual model in it) 

anyways, tomorrow I will be sharing some of my favorite fashion/sewing/inspiration books with you.