one shabby chick

More fabric

So I got another fun package in the mail - full of Amy Butler's new line.

Cynthia at Fabricworm is so wonderful and ships super-duper fast!!

I'm thinking of using some for my October quilt blocks.

My eldest and my sister have already started baking - today they made this:

It's the Truffle Brownie recipe from Martha's cookie book.

And she brought all kinds of cookbooks with her. I'm using this one to make fish and chips for dinner - yummy!

Oh and the photographer has added a couple of pictures to Flikr....more to come later!

Wedding

So we are all exhausted today after a busy weekend and I have to leave for my soccer game in about an hour now - ughh! I'm not really feeling up to playing soccer for an hour and a half in the blazing hot sun but oh well...

First of all, the wedding was beautiful.

It was supposed to start at 5 pm so we got there around 4:15 with our little ring bearer.

Around 5 pm the father of the bride informed me there was a "wardrobe malfunction" at the house where the girls were getting ready - luckily it was only about 2 minutes down the road. So a friend and I jumped in the car and sped down there.

One of the bridesmaids zipper had broken so we ended up sewing her into her dress - it felt very "Project Runway-ish" :-)

I had thought that was the reason for the hold-up but it turned out the makeup artist was behind doing the bride's makeup and hair so the wedding didn't even start until almost 6:30.

 

(the groom)

It was so pretty and they said their vows with a beautiful sunset in the background.

Only problem was that it was completely dark when they started taking pictures. Marina had a few tricks up her sleeve though and I'll link to the pictures when she gets them posted.

I didn't bring the camera into the reception so I have no pictures of the table runners (I'm sure Marina will have some - at least in the background) but everyone loved them.

(my handsome hubby)

Baby Girl was big into dancing and kept trying to persuade her brothers to dance with her. Finally Daddy succumbed to her pleadings and danced a little with her.

Little Brother did a great job as ring bearer...the other little guy never made it down the aisle.

He did have a few different poses as the ceremony progressed though....

I know it's still September but...

I am trying to work on some UFO's and came across a Christmas table runner I had planned to make for my mom last year. Her birthday is early December so I always try and giver her some Christmas-y things.

So I ironed it out and quilted it up - I wanted to try something different so I used loops and stars. They aren't perfect but I like the star idea for Christmas.

And I got some Christmas fabric in the mail too. I have always loved Mary Engelbreit but her fabrics haven't always caught my eye.

I was online at Fabritopia the other day ordering this skirt pattern and spied her new Christmas line and decided I needed some for a quilt.

OK we're off to the rehearsal and then to dinner...

Here's a sneak peak of the wedding location!

Belgium

I think it's good I don't live in Belgium....I love the beer from there too much. And I'd probably weigh a lot more than I do if I lived there (this is more randomness).

I finished the ring-bearer pillows.

I found some cute buttons at Walmart...the bride picked out the fabric so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Tomorrow night is the rehearsal dinner - the poor bride is really stressing. I think it's just a little bit of everything.

My fabric scraps are starting to take over so this afternoon I spent some time ironing and cutting - 5" squares and 2" x 5" strips.

I love this quilt and I have scraps to last me forever so I figured I should start using them. I'm thinking a few baby quilts and maybe some coin quilts too.

I haven't worked on the binding for the green quilt or quilted the other one - I think I'm just waiting until the wedding is over.

Too bad I missed submitting the quilt for this Etsy sale for the Nielsens - that would have been perfect.

Lots of Linkage (and randomness)

Somehow that title reminds me of Pauly Shore.

(this is our "Drawing Room")

So far the busy week is going ok - in a little while we are off to the kids' haircut appointments. Baby girl loves getting her hair cut - she gets super excited whenever I tell her we are going to "Cathy's" (our hairdresser).

I'm making ring-bearer pillows since the bride tried to alter the ones she bought and then didn't like them. I told her to just come over and pick out some fabric and I'd make some new ones. So that's what I'm doing.

 

Fabricworm over on Esty now has Amy Butler's new line in stock - I've already convo'ed my order to her :-)

I've always been more of a "pink" girl but the blues (and greens) are just calling to me lately.

She sent me a link for a new fabric line set to debut soon (she's getting the whole line) - I love the dogwood flowers (and the designer's blog is really cute too)!

I also saw that Carrie is having a very cute scarflette giveaway...I'm entering even though where would I possibly wear a scarf in Hawaii? Hmm..maybe to see this movie?

So here's my "feet" picture (it's old but I don't think that matters):

And since I'm going completely random here, I recently got this book on audio. I haven't started listening to it yet but it has really good reviews on I-Tunes. Looks like there is more "sewing with Stephanie" in the future.

Busy week

We are trying to recover from a long weekend filled with soccer, beaches and sunburns (oops!).

Today my eldest and I had dentist appointments (no cavities - yeah!) and tomorrow it's round 2 (for Bela and Little Bro). Plus I think we have to go find some wedding outfits for the girls.

(fun mail - a new cookbook)

Wednesday the kids have haircuts and my sister and brother-in-law are moving back. Not to mention soccer, ballet and my sewing class.

I have a hair appointment on Thursday (and more soccer) and then Friday is the rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner (we've decided to only take the child actually in the wedding to the rehearsal dinner...All 6 of us are invited - we thought about just the two of us going but I decided we should bring the reason (aka child) for which we are invited in the the first place).

The bride was having some issues with the ring-bearer pillows so I told her to just come over and pick out some fabric and I'd make her some new ones. I think she is coming over later.

I quilted the patchwork baby quilt I pieced together the other day. Just need to do the binding.

 And I finished another top made from those same scraps.

Off to soccer practice for Little Bro...maybe I can take a blanket and curl up under a tree!

Overachiever

Ok so I'm almost hesitant to admit this but today Carissa's fabric came in the mail for the quilting bee and I made my blocks already (gulp).

I don't know what it was - the challenge of a small, but new, project or something else but I was just excited to cut into this fabric.

And I made three blocks :-)

You can check out her inspiration quilts here. I hope I kept with the theme.

I've been working on this little quilt - using pieces left over from my giveaway quilt and charm squares from my fabric orders here.

I have this fabric as a border.

I was thinking about making a bigger quilt but now I think I'll just make a few baby quilts. I've been getting craft fair applications in the mail so I'm debating about signing up for a couple.

I attached the binding to the front of this quilt - just need to hand-sew the back.

Oops - forgot a title!

I finished up two aprons the other day but just got around to taking pictures today...

I had a request for one and thought I'd make two and give her a choice between the two.

I finally got some batting and so today after school I quilted the baby quilt which I am planning to give to this auction.

I used two different color threads...green for the middle section and brown for the border.

I like how it looks on the back. These little quilts are so easy and fast to quilt.

I want to finish my "cheater" quilt but am procrastinating pinning it all together. Plus, I need to finish the other auction quilt before mine anyway.

Off to soccer again :-)!

An easy quilt and fun goodies

I finally got my long-awaited order today - so many fun goodies.

Lots of fabric and some adorable patterns!

And here's the quilt I was talking about in my last post. All I did was add two borders and it's a finished top. I have 6 "blocks" in the center so it ends up being a good size lap quilt.

I'm off to soccer practice - we lost yesterday...I think we'll be running a lot today - ughh!

Back to red

The blond thing just wasn't happening - too much "obvious" bleaching and dark roots were bothering me every time I looked in the mirror...and the only way to remedy it was to go back to red. So that's what I've done....

Maybe one day I'll try and figure out what my original color is..I think it's dark blond now although I was a total toehead when I was little.

I am loving this fabric...so much that I made some new pillows for the couch...covering up these ones. I ironed on some fusible fleece and quilted the fronts to give a bit of structure to the pillows.

The other improvement to the couch was a sort-of slipcover. We have a leather couch that has seen better days but I still love it because it's so cozy. There's a big rip in one cushion (and they aren't removable) so I've been using a twin sheet to cover up - tacky and annoying since the kids bounce all over it and it always comes up (huh - wonder how it got the rip in the first place?!).

So I took a big piece of my favorite fabric and pinned the corners and then serged them - for now I have the front tucked in but I'm planning on adding foe to finish it - or something like that.

It seems to be holding much better than the twin sheet. And it looks super cute!

I've finished another quilt front and back out of the patchwork fabric too - this one is for me - I am totally psyched about this fabric..all you have to do is add some borders and viola - you're done. Well, I  have to quilt them all but still....

(somehow I didn't take pictures of it but I'll post some tomorrow)

Soccer games tomorrow and my first one is on Sunday - I'm a little nervous - ok a lot nervous...I'm in a much better division this year and just hope I can keep up with younger girls. We'll see how I feel on Monday :-)