corduroy

You may remember the daisy dresses. I decided to try the same pattern with some corduroy. Aren't these fun flowers?

I'm really happy with how it turned out! I feel like the corduroy just came together so easily too. I can't wait to do some more jumpers and dresses... I've got a nice little stack of corduroy waiting!

bib for baby... finally

I've resisted making bibs for a while now. Short story... I'm just not sure about what materials to use, how I want to go about them, what shape/size, and a whole lot of other bogus excuses.

Well. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I read (on some blog?? don't remember where???) about some iron-on vinyl stuff. The people at the local JoAnn Fabric store didn't really know what I was talking about. I decided to just give this one bolt of stuff I found a try. I got half a yard and went to town this afternoon.
I sewed the candy striped fabric across the front of the bib. Then I ironed the vinyl on. It went on ok, except for the crease down the middle. Guess the red striped stuff wasn't quite ironed as well as it should have been!
After I sewed the seam & turned it right side out, it was VERY crinkly looking. Not quite what I was going for. Another ironing helped a little, but it's not quite what I was hoping for. The backing is white flannel with red dots. I top-stitched it and I'm going to sew on a snap later this evening.

I have a few kinks to work out, but I'm thinking this may be a good option for the craft show I'm going to be in this November. It is kind of exciting though to think that the options for bib fabric are pretty much endless though!

leaf tee

Just a little something to help us get in the fall mood. I may have to make one for me! (this one is size 5T)

Are the leaves turning color where you live?

christmas rosette

I decided to play around with some scraps and try to make a little rosette. (What can I say, a little late to jump on the bandwagon I guess.) I'm not totally happy with my technique, but happy with the end result.I may end up trimming it a little smaller. We'll see.
I see many options for these - I'm very excited to try putting one on a hat!

10 days!

Here's the rules for the 10 DAYS promotion:

- The first person to order an item from my ArtFire shop gets 10% off their order.
- All orders placed through ArtFire by October 1st will get totaled. The 1st person who ordered will get store credit for 10% of sales during this promotion. (Shipping not included)
- The 10th person to order by October 1st gets $10 store credit.
- As with all ArtFire orders, if you are local & choose to pick up your item from me, shipping will be refunded.
-Be sure to put 10 DAYS in the checkout notes.

What does this mean? Gather up all your friends, and start shopping! You have until October 1st!!!!
If you like this idea and would like to host your own be the thread online party sometime, let me know and we can figure out the dates & details!

*I will continue to take custom orders, they just are not included in this promo.

shishkabobs

Here they are! In all their sweet yummy ready-to-be-grilled goodness!!!I know summer's drawing to a close, but I had to share our favorite meal in case you have one last cookout left in you!

Teriyaki Marinade for Beef Shishkabobs

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2/3 c. ketchup
2/3 c. vinegar
½ c. soy sauce
½ c. vegetable oil
5-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 t. ground ginger
In medium bowl, combine ingredients, mix well.
Marinate the beef cubes overnight.

A full shishkabob may include:
Beef (cubed, marinated overnight & precooked)
Potatoes (cubed & precooked)
Pineapple chunks
Cherry tomatoes
Mushrooms
Red or Green Peppers
Onions

Once everything is skewered, thicken up the sauce with a little cornstarch. Now you’re ready to grill. Be sure to baste often and use as much of the sauce as you can. It’s so sweet you won’t want to miss any!!!
This is our favorite summer meal. It’s a bit labor-intensive getting everything on the skewer, but man it is worth it! It makes GREAT leftovers, too!

feeling sleepy?

I whipped up a couple little pillowcases. Cupcakes for the little girl - sweet dreams!
A little pink trim adds a nice detail.
And for her brother - pirates!!! (just in time for a good night's rest after searching for treasure on Talk Like a Pirate Day!)
The gold trim - a definite treasure on this pillowcase!

Sweet dreams kids. (hope you like them, M!)

Go Team!

It's starting to be soccer season. Are you ready to play?
Or are one to sit on the sidelines with the babe while the big kid plays? This long sleeved onesie dress just needs some tights and you're ready for a busy fall weekend of soccer games!
GO TEAM!

ballerina dress

I posted before about my tutu onesie creation.
Hope on over to Thrifty Craft Mama today to check out her darling!

While you're there, check out some of her cool ideas - we LOVED the flannel board when we were on our way to Massachusetts this summer!
She made some of her own maternity clothes, cloth diapers for her kids, and various other clothes.
She's done science experiments, crafts, and more. She recommends other crafty sites (I've found some great ones through her) and puts together some great book lists too.
Check her out!

facebook

I've personally been on Facebook for a while. I have an album on my profile with pictures of things I've sewn.
I decided it was about time I added more insanity to my computer time. So I now have a "be the thread" Facebook page. Come be a fan! (just click on the picture on the right to get there)
I'm still trying to work out a couple of the kinks, but hopefully my pictures will be on there soon.

Who knows, maybe there will be a coupon or giveaway coming up....?

my stash... my collection... ???

So when I began this crazy business a couple years ago, I was focusing on baby blankets. I bought a lot of fun fabrics & flannels so I'd have choices to offer customers.
I'm beginning to think maybe I overbought. just a little.Here's my plan - I paired up a bunch of the fabrics, and they are waiting over in my shop to be turned into blankets. It takes some of the guesswork out of the process, and customers will be able to preview a bunch of choices.The blankets will be 34 x 40. I will embroider names, birthdates, short phrases, or a small symbol or design as well.
What do you think of my plan?

BOO!

Check out my latest Halloween adventure...Aren't those eyes the funnest?
And the pink pompoms on the bottom???

Hop on over to my RapidCart on the side and grab it quick!!

applesauce for dummies

OK. So I've decided it is my lot in life to reinvent the wheel... do things the hard way first... and most importantly learn from my mistakes. Yeah, something like that.

Our neighbor generously gave us a bunch of Jona-free apples from his tree. YAY! A few had worm holes, boo. We just cut out the yucky parts and got down to the business of making applesauce. I quartered them, added water and sugar, and started cooking them up.

After 20 minutes, we opened up the pot, stirred just a little and this is what we saw.It was at that point I was seriously rethinking my "easy" project. So, I guess maybe I should have peeled them first? I don't mind a little chunk to my applesauce, but it was a nice mush of apples, and a whole lot of slimy peels? No thank you. So, what's a girl to do? Try and strain it? Cut up the peels somehow? Put it in the blender? Do I cool it first? What would you have done?

Well... take a guess what I did. It looks worse in person than it does in the picture. It became this really creamy mushy stuff. I hope the kids like it. Just seems like a waste of good apples to me.(yeah, I didn't let it cool & put it in the blender. wrong choice.)

eleuthera ... a remembrance

My cousin spent five years teaching on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. She is done teaching there, and my aunt is done with her special quilt.
Isn't this amazing!!!????!!!!My aunt spent years gathering specialty fabrics with shells and fish on them. She used a trapunto style of quilting when she put them on. Do you see the eel and the sea star? Did you notice all the coral that she machine quilted in there?
Do you see the octopus swimming by (in the quilting)?
The raw edge technique was used for a lot of the coral... and variegated thread accentuated it. The black coral was a circle, and the spikes were all stitched in.
She attached a few buttons here and there - a turtle was peeking out in this corner!
Isn't this a gorgeous jellyfish?!
See the little flippers swimming along the ocean bottom?
There's even more details that are too numerous to mention. My cousin said she feels like it's a fun game to play - see what else I can find that mom hid in the quilt for me.
What an amazing gift, eh? Leave her some comments & I'll be sure to pass them along!

(I saw my cousin this weekend & took the pictures then. Now it's a day later and as I'm writing this, I realize I don't even know all the names of everything that she was pointing out, and there's so many more details that I probably should have included. Seriously, a stunning quilt!)

cupcakes, circles, and a party

72 mini cupcakes+24 regular cupcakes
+30 plates
=1 fabulous party!

The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate buttercream, and funfetti with buttercream (birthday girl's request). They were all covered with nonpareils (large on the big cupcakes, small on the minis).

The plates were kind of a random idea. I saw this laundry line featured on Twig & Thistle. I knew my friend's 40th birthday party was coming up, and she's going with a bright circle/ circus/ fun fair kind of theme for it. So I was going to cut out a bunch of circles and make a garland to decorate with, and for guests to write her birthday wishes. But when I went to get the paper, the plates were sitting on top - and I got this crazy idea to get out a circular sponge & primary colored paints. This is what I came up with! If I had come up with the idea at a better time, I might have had my son help me with some of it. Instead, he spent his last hour before bedtime helping daddy dig up & wash carrots. I was on a deadline, so the painting fell to me. There are so many cute ways to make this work for your party theme or craft time!If I'd thought it through, I might not have brought permanent markers - but everybody was able to write something nice & the kids drew some illustrations. It was fine.It looked pretty fluttering in the breeze!

The birthday girl wanted to relive her youth, and she did that by getting out the "old favorites". She had Bozo Buckets, badminton, croquet, Bocce, Musical Chairs, the balloon stomp, and of course...

a water balloon toss...

the clothespin drop...

And car rides!

It was such a great celebration - her family and friends came together at her parent's house. We ate, chatted, made new friends, watched each other's children have all kinds of fun together, and enjoyed some fun "retro" music from her youth. (Yes, there might have been some singing along to ABBA!)

Happy Birthday, B! The kids loved it!

more daisy girls

These four girls are just the cutest, aren't they?




They loved dancing around in their dresses! Thanks again, Toni!

labels

I've been sewing a lot of clothes right now, and I'm starting to lose track of what sizes some of them are. I decided to give these a try.

I was able to design my labels in Word and just run them through the printer. You just cut, peel off the back & iron. So easy! I don't know how they'll last through repeated washings, time will tell!

fishing

We spent some time recently in Wisconsin with family & friends. This is my favorite shot of the bunch, I think! They were having such a great time together.

time for a seasonal vote

I've been busy getting my plans together for fall stuff. Now that I have 4 afternoons a week with a school kid and a napper, I hope to be able to really get a lot more crafting time!!!!

Here's what I started last week. I was gone this weekend and didn't have time to photograph them until today.

Christmas dots - long sleeved, red ruffle

Christmas candy - long sleeved, red ruffle

Thanksgiving turkeys - yellow short sleeve, orange ruffle

Halloween dots - yellow short sleeved, black and white check ruffle

Fall leaves - tan short sleeved, orange ruffle

So what's your vote... should I leave the top plain and ready for an initial or for the customer to request something special? Or should I add my own designs (appliques or sayings) before I list them?