Thrift Store skirt

I am constantly seeing all of these great thrift store finds in the blog world. I never seem to find anything, so I've committed to going more regularly. I've been going about once a week or so on my lunch break. Last week I got this great tablecloth for $7. It's huge. The lace goes all the way around it and it great.

I decided that it would make a great skirt (or 3), so I bought it and decided I'd try it out.

I took my waist size times 1.5 and cut the fabric that wide. I sewed up the two sided and trimmed the top to make it the length I wanted. That was the best part of the lace...no hem! Then I made a casing around the top and put in my elastic to check the fit. FAIL! It was terrible! It bunched and fell weird. I trimmed several inched off and tried again. Better, but not great. In the past I would have thrown it on the oh well pile and moved on to something else, but I really wanted to see this skirt through! I cut off a few more inches and tried again. MUCH better. I really like it. It's pretty comfy and I love the lace. I decided a yellow shirt would look nice and this is what I ended up with:

The yellow shirt isn't my favorite, but it works. I have enough material to make at least 2 more just like this and I'll still have about 4ish yard of the fabric with the lace. I'll be on the look out for projects to use it. Any suggestions?

WIP Wednesday 06/29/2011

I got a lot accomplished this week! I was very motivated all weekend and it's even carried over into this week!

First I made this wreath for Independence Day. I signed up for Mollie's All in the Details Embroidery Project and it started last week. This in one of the projects. I'm doing another post on the details later this week, so I'll spare you all the details here!


I also got started on my Skill Builder Sampler. I really like the stack of Canning Day fat quarters I ordered from Connecting Threads as a stack, but I'm not really sure how they are all going to coordinate for this project. I went ahead and ordered a few more fabrics to supplement my stack. This is my log cabin.

My nine patch value block. It's my favorite of the two.

I also started my Embroidery 101 blocks. Here's the first one all sewed up. I started the embroidery last night, but didn't get too far. The second block was posted today, so I'll probably go ahead and get them both done this week.


I also finished 4 blocks for the Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Bee. I still have 2 more to finish before I put those in the mail.

Finally I made something with this great thrift store table cloth. Come back tomorrow to see what!


That's all the progress I've made. It was alot. I cleaned up my sewing space, and it really got me motivated. I have several projects that I've bought the materials for and then never finished that I'm hoping to work on to clear out some space. I also want to finish quilting the plus quilt so we can get my daughter's room in order. I will be very motivated to help her get it all cleaned out if I know that I can put her new quilt on her bed. She will be too!

Don't forget to hop over to Freshly Pieced!

Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Bee

Carin over at Margaret's Hope Chest opened up a quilting bee a few months ago. If you haven't visited her site, you should. They give quilts to children whose parents are incarcerated. They started this charity after her grandmother, a quilter, was murdered. It's an amazing thing they do.

For the Wrapped in Hope project, custom quilts are usually made for a child by one quilter. For the bee, each quilter is making 2 blocks for the quilt. I volunteered and much to my suprise, Carin sent me directions for 3 different children! I got a little overwhelmed by all the decisions and learning new blocks that I didn't make much progress. I'm supposed to have the first blocks done by August so I thought I should get busy.

I was supposed to use this tutorial for a string block. I ended up LOVING making these blocks! They were fun to put together and I could use a ton of different fabric. My daughter had a great time helping me pick out fabric and got mad if I didn't let her tear the paper off the back! These blocks are for a little girl who is going to turn 13. The suggestions were pink, purple and cats.

These are my favorites. Harmony is going to be 12. She wanted blue, red, and green blocks.

I have 2 more blocks to make before I get these in the mail to Carin, but they are a different design. I'm pretty motivated to get them done, so hopefully I'll be posting pics of those next week!

Caught up on one thing!

I'm finally caught up on my Birdie Stitches blocks! I got behind because I didn't have any more blocks actually put together. I now have these two done and the next two waiting for the design!

When I first saw the May block, I didn't think I liked it. It turned out to be my favorite block so far! I left out a few little swirl flowers along the sides. I love how the big flowers came out.

The June block was a little bit too much for my liking. Almost the entire block was filled with text. After looking what other people had done on Flickr, I decided to take out a good bit of it. I like what I ended up with.

It feels nice to be caught up on this project. It's my first Quilt Along and I don't want to not finish it!

WIP Wednesday 06/22/2011

We spent last week at the beach and it was wonderful! I had grand ideas of relaxing and doing a little hand sewing, but obviously I've never been on vacation with a 5 year old and a 1 year old! Vacation was nice, but not relaxing!
Since we've been home, I've been getting caught up on the projects I feel like I'm behind on. I got all of my pieces cut for the Clover and Violet QAL. They posted the first block while I was away, so I need to get it done before the next one comes out!


I've also gotten a little behind on my Birdie Stitches blocks, because I couldn't make myself sew all of those little squares together for the border! I finally sat down and put 4 of them together. I finished up the May block last night and will probably finish the June block tonight. So far the May block is my favorite, but the pic isn't very good at all. My sister has ended up with my camera after the beach trip, and I haven't gotten it back yet so these are cell phone pictures. The colors are a little off and I haven't bothered to iron it yet!
My goal for the next week is to get the birds finished, do the first Clover block, and to get the Skill Builder Sampler started. Is anyone else doing any of these? I'd like to see how they are coming along for you! I'm trying to resist the Farmer's Wife QAL, but the blocks that everyone keeps posting are really cute! I am going to try to do the Kaleidoscope QAL at Don't Call Me Betsy. I think a baby quilt would be a nice project to work on. I'm still working on quilting the huge Plus Quilt, so I think a small one wil be a much needed change!

Be sure to click over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is up to!

Work in Progress 06/08/2011

I've been busy sewing away this past week! I've made alot of progress on a couple of projects and have picked out fabric to start a few more!

First as you saw yesterday, I finished this pleated purse. I'm happy with how it turned out. If you haven't made this purse, you should definitely give it a try. Once you get it all cut out, it comes together rather quickly. I've made it 3 times and it's a great project.


Next I made this bag:

We're going to the beach soon and I wanted a bag to carry all of my stuff in that is separate from the sand toys! I got this fabric for $1/yard, I think. It was my practice bag. I really like the bag, but I ended up with handles that are too short to put on my shoulder. I think it may end up being daughter's toy bag for the car trip, because she was super excited about it.

She's also super excited about her quilt. It's coming along. I'm quilting now, but I want to quilt each of the pluses by itself. It's going to take me forever because this quilt is HUGE. It's 71x91 before I started quilting. She really likes it though and go onto me last night because I was sewing bags and not her new blanket!

The ladies at my LQS suggested that I add the small border and I love the way it looks. I think I'm going to use the rest of the polka dot fabric for the binding. The pink polka dots were a special request!

I've also been picking fabric for my new projects. I'm going to do two quilt alongs. The first one is the Skill Builder Sampler on Sewn. I am excited about it. I has some of these Canning Days charms from Connecting Threads and I ordered some fat quarters as well. I like the vintage feel of them for a sampler. Plus there is lots of variety for the number of blocks that are planned in the Sampler. I'm ready to get started on this one!

I'm also going to do the Embroidery 101 quilt along over at Clover and Violet. I have 8 of the fabrics picked out, but the ninth is giving me problems. I think I have settled on this bundle:

I'm going to try to get these all put together as my next project. I hate cutting and that's what's next on this on.
I'm going to try to finish my Birdie Stitches blocks for May and June in the car on the way to the beach!

I have one more project to finish before then though, and that's this bag! I am using the same Summer Madra tutorial as my practice bag, but I'm also adding two small pockets to the inside and I'm definitely making the handles longer!

Depending on how the kids do in the car, my hexagons may make a reappearance! My daughter suggested that I bring my sewing machine on our vacation (so I could work on her quilt!), but I think I'll just bring along the Birdies and hexagons!

Next week, I'll have my toes in the sand, so I'll probably be skipping a WIP update! Be sure to visit Freshly Pieced today and next week to see what else is being made!

Second Saturday Sewing~June

Since summer is in full swing, we had to make some adjustments this month. We did sewing on Sunday and on the first weekend, but we're back to Second Saturday for July! Everyone has been very busy, but Christy and I faithfully sat down to the machine to finish up our pleated purses. We were both pretty happy with how they turned out. I don't think I would change anything about mine. I think it is going to end up being a teacher gift maybe.

Susan, Stacey, and Mandy joined us a little later. They worked together to finish some fabulous curtains that I, of course, didn't take a picture of. Take my word for it, they were very cute.

Thanks, ladies, for making the trip. I love seeing my friends every month!