I am enjoying sitting at the machine working on the last items for my Etsy Store. These were a recent gift for a new mom and good friend. The front is 100% cotton and back a terry cloth. Even though the cotton can be washed, I would use the front as a drool catcher and the back for eating. I don’t have anymore of this fabric and I may or may not incorporate applique on the next batch, I like how the new fabric looks without. If I can get my hands on the same fabric there will be more of these in the future.

The Sunday before last I helped my niece clean out her room. I wish I would have done before and after shots with the room. She did a fantastic job of sorting and getting rid of things she didn’t need or want. She donated a TON of stuff. I would give her bins of sorting assignments and fill them up when she was done. I would quickly ask “keep or toss?” before throwing the item towards its new fate. I found her Jesus bear, which I knew was similar to Jason’s Mine in that she loves it and slept with it for many years. Clearly her dog got to it. When i picked it up I saw her look at it to which I said “repair or toss?” Repair! she said with certainty. So above is the before and below is the after. I looked at two Joann Fabric’s (including their catalogs) and a Walmart to find the same fabric and I couldnt. So I picked my favorite fleece and gave it a Jesus shirt and pocket(the original had a back pocket in the same spot). I hope she likes it.

I am getting close to opening up my etsy store. I already have two crib quilts awaiting the arrival of the tags I bought here. I also have two of my swarowski crystal breastfeeding reminder bracelets to put up. The above fabric is going to give me two aprons, a crib quilt and four bibs. I so enjoy sitting at the machine and creating these one of a kind pieces and can’t wait to open up.

The One Million Pillowcase Challenge

American Patchwork & Quilting is challenging you to join efforts to Make a Pillowcase and Make a Difference. A pillowcase can provide comfort for a cancer patient, hope for a foster child, encouragement for a battered woman, or beauty for a nursing home resident…and make a difference in your community.

To participate, find a shop hosting One Million Pillowcase Challenge events in your area. If there is not a participating shop in your area, you can mail them to a nearby participating retailer or donate them locally.

Here is a link to free pillowcase patterns. Once your pillowcase project is complete and donated locally, you can log on to enter how many pillowcases you made. Above is the pillowcase I made this evening, the dark purple is a hard to see ruffle that I love! I’m going to try and make a few more to help them reach their goal of ONE MILLION Pillowcases!

I’ve recently completed my internship with the Guardian Ad Litem program seeing how a case works and was assigned my first case on Friday. I immediately went for my stash of fabric (thanks Mom!) and picked out the colors for this quilt. It is a gift for my child that I will meet this week and see through their case plan for the next year. I’m excited to meet them and get started.

My mom recently introduced me to the log cabin quilt pattern and I love it. If you haven’t made a quilt before this is a fun and easy pattern to get you started. I find sewing log cabin blocks very addictive. I’ve also recently become addicted to stripes. The strips are so much fun to work with.  I made larger quilt blocks this time because of time constraints but you can downsize the strip width and make a smaller log cabin. I think the smaller blocks with even more contrast look even better. To make a log cabin block you need strips, lots of strips! Contrast is important to making the design. By adding strips and trimming the excess off you don’t have to actually cut out or measure all of the pieces you can simply cut and sew as you go. Here is a link that shows you how to assemble your strips.

My student loans have come in for payment, its been six months since I’ve received my Master’ degree from Florida State and they want their money! Well Sallie Mae does, and Nelnet, and the Department of Education. My loans have been sold and privatized. Brian and I went over it last night and its quite confusing, and the numbers just don’t add up. I’m pretty sure we’ve paid for someone else’s education along the way as well. My loans were denied one year because of another Michelle Smith’s drug trafficking charges, perhaps I’ve accumulated her loan balance as well.

So theres some filing to be done. I’ve gathered it all from the office and bedroom closet and placed it nicely on the dining room table. In the mean time I’ve cleaned our bedroom closet. The picture doesnt really do the closet any justice, you would have had to of seen the before picture (I didn’t realize it was blog worthy or I would have snapped it). There was a layer of clothes and shoes on the floor (Jason likes to try on each one of our shoes through out the day) and the shelf that now has things neatly folded, was n pile spread evenly across. Perhaps tonight I wi ll get to the loan paperwork,until then I have some sewing to do before Jason wakes up.

While its no Martha Stewart, I was able to do two loads of laundry, put away the dishes, make a centerpiece, get in some of my embroidery project and write this post while Jason took his nap. Publix has piles of branches you can take for free, paired with some berries from the front yard and a red ribbon and you have a free centerpiece for the holidays. If you don’t have berries try some small ornaments or acorns or pine cones instead.