Kid's Apron and Chef's Hat!!!!!!

 

I LOVE THESE SO MUCH!  This set is quite possibly one of the cutest things I've made to date.  =)  When I was up north at my Grandma's we were looking at kid aprons and we found these.  I was so excited because I wanted to make one for my niece.  While looking around for apron patterns we stumbled upon a chef's hat.  HOW CAN ANYONE PASS UP A CHEF'S HAT?  I do realize its possible I'm more excited about this than my niece will be, but I'm okay with that!  =)

Here are the fabulous patterns!!!

Apron from Living with Punks; Mini Me Apron Set

Chef Hat from Stardust Shoes for Michael Miller; Chef's Hat

The patterns are very well done and don't need any extra explanation.  I only did a couple things differently.  For the apron I edge stitched the entire apron, not just the bottom.  Also, I didn't have any elastic thread on hand so I just sewed on some flower buttons to the pockets.  For the Chef's Hat I finished the inside edge with my serger rather than the binding and it worked great.

I just can't get enough of the Michael Miller cupcake fabric!  It's too cute!  I used some other pink fabrics that I had in my stash to complete the set.  For fusible interfacing I used Pellon 911FF for the Chef's Hat band.  It was what I had in my craftroom and it was perfect!  Exactly the right weight, in my opinion.

 The apron is lined too!

I love the pleats!

 

It's adjustable so she'll be able to grow into it!

I might have to make one for my husband!!!  =)  As soon as I showed him the hat he started doing an impression of the the Swedish Chef from the muppets.

100th Post : Meet Harmony!

Welcome to my 100th blog post!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's definitely a special one!

 I never thought I would ever own a fancy sewing machine.  My Mom has one and I always loved sewing on it when I was younger.  My Grandmother always talked about how she wished she had one even though she does like her Husqvarna.  I always looked at them at the quilt shop, and just figured I'd get one 'someday.'  Well, an awesome financing deal came up, and (with the wonderful support of my husband) I bought a ......

I bought the 550 QE from Thimbles in Lockport, IL.  They were great!  They have classes on how to use it that will be coming up once they get back from Quilt Market.  When I picked up the machine one of the lovely ladies took the time to show me a few things I should know before I get started!

 Here is the unveiling.  Yes, its a ridiculous amount of pictures and if you don't want to continue reading I understand.  For those of us who are crazy about Bernina, read on.  =)

 

 Opening the box!  There's my tray table and a bunch of other goodies!

 (It was late and my flash kept making everything look worse, so the pics are a little dark.  Maybe someday I'll learn to use a camera.)

The top of the machine still in the box!

Accessories!!!!!!

Some great colors of mettler thread.

BSR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WALKING FOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Case to hold all my feet and stuff!

Fun accessories and feet.

 

Carrying bag for the machine itself!

TADA!

Meet Harmony!!!

Yes, that's what I named her.  I know its a bit corny, but when I was thinking of what to name my machine this word just kept popping in my head.  I have never named an object before... my cars or clarinets don't have names.  I felt pretty strongly that the Bernina had to have a name!

Harmony it is!

LCD screen and control buttons.

 

 

Beautiful light!!!!

I did have to rearrange everything.  My 1970s White is in the beautiful cabinet that you see.  I decided to put Harmony on top because I love the height and sturdiness of the table.  Plus its fun to know that my trusty White is right below if I should need it.  I've been looking for a place to put my iron and I wanted the accessories close by.  This little end table we have did the trick!

 

 When I first told people I was buying this machine they all asked, "What will you make first?"  I decided the best thing to make first was a sewing machine cover for her!  =)  I made it right after we took her out of the box.

I LOVE this poppy fabric! 

It stays on with the help of a cute ribbon that I tacked down on each side.

I adorned it with one of my favorite flowers.  You can get instructions on how I made this flower here.

Okay! Off to sew!!!

Ruflle Purse

The other night I didn't feel like grading papers.  I've had this beautiful Poppy fabric staring at me for a while.  I was hunting for a fun zipper tutorial when I stumbled upon Gussy Sews! I LOVE the little ruffles she puts on her bags.  You can see some pictures on her post here.

I still made my zippered bag the way I like to, but I tried my hand at a ruffle!

 

Ruffle placement was difficult because of the size of the Poppies on this print.  I think next time the ruffle will definitely be vertical.

 

Ruffle!!!

 

The beautiful back!  Love the fabric.

 

Oh, zipper!

 

  

It's a bit hard to tell, but that's Tinkerbell in there!

For the Strap I cut my fabric a width of 2 1/4".  Then I fused some leftover interfacing (Pellon 911FF) over the entire 2 1/4" x 50".  (I made it my normal way... I folded it in half and ironed.  Then opened it up and folded both of the edges toward the middle.  Then in half again!!)   

I REALLY like how the strap turned out.  The interfacing is awesome!

I think attaching the straps this way worked.  It's not completely ideal, but its fine.  I have another idea brewing... we'll see when I have time to sew again!

Ghastlies Table Runner

Hello!

As usual, I'm running around performing and teaching!  It's been a wonderfully busy couple months!  I've sewn a few things!  AND I have some VERY exciting news coming up this week!  Stay tuned!

Don't you just love Alexander Henry's Ghastlies?  I mean, its the best Halloween print ever!  My mom especially likes to decorate for Halloween so I made her a table runner using the Ghastlies fabric!!!!  

This is quite possibly one of the most awesome table runner patterns in the world.  It is called Divided by 3.  Here it is on Keepsake Quilting's site.  I saw it at Thimbles in Lockport and bought the fabric to make it!  I have another one already in the works.  It's a great runner to showcase fabrics that you love!!!!

I chose to make the borders all black.  In hindsight I probably should have used the pink fabric as the small border between the pictures to make everything 'pop' more.  Oh, well!  Pardon the binding clips.... 

This is the right side of the runner.  I had a great time picking out the scenes from the fabric to display.

 

I love the detail in the print!!!!

 

Here is the left side!  

 

These three kids are my favorite!  The girl on the left is holding a hammer!!!!

 

Close up of the angry pregnant mommy and the wanna be flapper!

 

The back!!!

I just quilted in the ditch.  I still haven't really mastered quilting... so I thought it best to hide it!  =)  I finished hand sewing the binding on the train and then delivered it right to mom.  I still need to get a final picture!

Thanks for stopping by!