Slowly emerging from the doldrums

Christmas sewing killed my mojo. It is only recently that I have seen a glimmer of it returning. But in the meantime, here are a few photos of the gift madness.

My army of Gingermen ornaments, ready to take over the world.


Gingerbread cookie kits, with cookie mix, cookie cutter, ornaments, and bag


Hot chocolate kit, with mix and bag


Holiday collar (as modeled by a horse, because I don't have a dog!!)


And that doesn't even include the quilts and gift tags. I will do those next week. Shew!!

Hello Random

Working on bits and pieces of this and that. So here is an update on some random projects I have been working on.

Costumes for Miss Adams Morgan Pageant, a drag queen show here in D.C. I made several outfits for one of the contestants, but stupidly only took one picture the whole time I was there. DOH! I'm the short one. :-P



I made my hat, loosely based on one of the Vintage Vogue hat patterns. My dress is the Decades of Style Button dress. I also made her dress, which was a mash up of draping and several different patterns. I wish I had a picture of the looooong skirt that also went with this dress. It had yards and yards and yards of ruffles trimming it. How much do I love my automatic ruffling foot--A LOT!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a little Dancing Buddha embroidered doorstop that I finished just in time for it to be too cold to open the doors. Yay Me!



And finally, now that it is getting dark so early, I needed some reflective patches to wear when I run at night. Aliens and robots make me happy. I think I will make a squirrel too.

What I Wrapped, Part 2

Sassy and Sweet embroidered onesies



Toddler Backpack. Modeled by a horse because that is the closest thing I have to a toddler in my house (the cats don't make very good models...)



Teeny Tiny Baby Shoes


And a Quilt!!

Very Productive, just not here...

I have been sewing TONS in the last month, but you wouldn't know it from my blog! Two reasons--I have been working on deadline for a lot of my projects, which means I actually have to buckle down and work on them rather than leisurely toodling around my blog. And second, a lot of them have been gifts and I didn't want to post here until they were sent and received.

I have some project updates coming up, but in the meantime, here is a super quicky embroidered shoe bag I made for a dancer friend of mine. Just in time for H. P. Lovecraft's Birthday!

Too much sewing to blog

I have been doing a ton of sewing but too busy to take pics and blog. I did manage to snap these shirts before they were given away to various peeps.



And a quick shot of what I am working on now....I love painters tape!

Squirrel! Woof!

My sister was kind enough to do my hair for my wedding, and in return I offered to do some sewing for her.

Her choice.....a custom collar for her dog with squirrels on it!

I machine embroidered the tiny little squirrels and stitched it up for her. It was surprisingly easy to do once I disassembled a cheap collar to figure out how it was put together.

And I have to admit.....it turned out pretty cute.

Here it is modeled on my stuffed horse (the cats wouldn't stand still for it!).


Other shots

So many toddlers, so little time

Been quilting up a storm and I am almost done with the Mod Sampler quilt top. I finally get my fancy machine Sven back from the spa today....so no more excuses about starting the actual quilting part of the quilt.

And of course, my scatterhead has started new quilts before the first one is finished. But this time it actually makes sense. The Husband and I between us have about a billion friends having babies in the next few months, so I am making several small baby quilts. These will be easier to machine quilt than the big lap quilt, so good to do them first for the practice. I'll take some photos of the fabrics and progress this weekend, but I think they will be really cute. Children's quilt fabric has come a long way from the cutesy stuff it used to be. Now you can get cute AND funky. YEAH! There was even some robot fabric that I had to buy for myself. :-)

Speaking of cute and funky, more toddler shirts, made several more for the many many toddlers of my acquaintance. Cause everybody wants some...I want some too! (sorry, Cusack flashback. it happens.)



I like what I did with the hippo--took off the bird, resized, and reversed so there is a momma and a baby. Designs, of course, from Urban Threads.

Before I do the quilting this weekend, I need to work on a commission piece. There is a REALLY good lead in our local swing community who wants some vintage style pants. He has a pattern that a tailor made him long ago, but no one to make the pants. It has been really interesting to work from someone else's hand-drafted pattern and it is a fun project. Plus I get paid with some private dance lessons, which is great!

Brains.....BRAIIIINSSSSS

So what do you bring as a hostess gift to a Zombie Party?

Well, we were all out of brains, so I decided to make some zombie potholders! Because really, who couldn't use another potholder (even zombies use them, I am sure).



The embroidery is from Urban Threads. Although that bunny was originally holding a carrot. I used my digitizing software to alter it into a bloody arm. Because I don't think there are vegetarian zombies. I could be wrong.



After I made them, I wanted to wrap them nicely....so I made a little pouch and put another bunny on it. I love how his little teeth hang over the flap.

Urban Threads is made of awesome!

I have an embroidery machine that I rarely use. Partially because I am lazy, but also because a lot of designs out there are kinda country cutesy style. Now I don't have a problem with that style, but it really doesn't suit me.

And there are also a lot of poor quality embroidery designs out there--stitches that are too dense or not dense enough, outlines that are a little off, etc. So even if you find something fun, it is either outrageously expensive, or not worth the few bucks you spend on it.

Just when I thought there was no hope besides digitizing designs myself (which I can do but really am too lazy for that), Urban Threads saves the day! Her designs are modern and funky and include things like zombies and robots and monsters (oh my!). I bought a few to try out on some shirts for a friend's toddler, and I couldn't' be happier with them.







She has lots of fun project tutorials and a fanged stuffed bunny as a studio assistant. I desperately covet her boingy curl hair.

I had a question about their designs and they wrote me back within an hour or two. Fabulous customer service!

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

Parting Shot: I just rediscovered this one of The Husband and Bella as a kitten on the camera. She is SUCH a Daddy's Girl