Embroidered Roses Brooch

I had my first custom order on etsy this week. It was very exciting!marie requested a brooch embroidered like my pillowcases. I was happy to tackle a new project.
She asked for the background in royal blue. I went to three, oh yes, three fabric stores in the area for the prefect blue fabric. i wanted it to have more of a texture, more visable weave, but oh no, I couldn't find it. I settled on my second choice as it was the perfect color.
I transferred the image to the fabric.

Then I embroidered it. the next step was to put it all together. The brooch has many layers inside: batting, interfacing and cotton interlining.









Here is a picture of it being sewn:





I then embroidered a blanket stitch around the edge.





Here is the completed brooch! :)

Delaney's Room

Baby Delaney's nursery room is finished! Delaney is the first grand baby born to my husbands family and everyone pitched in to make sure her world is perfect! Some shopped, some painted, I sewed and we all had fun! I just got the pictures of the completed room so here it is!

Karen chose a jungle theme for Delaney's room but didn't want it to be juvenile. It is hard to find commercial bedding for babies that isn't pastel and sticky sweet. Karen and David had a dresser set that they were going to put into the room and so we used that as our color inspiration.

I found a fabric that matched it as close as possible! it is called Oasis and the colorway is Sugar. It had nice bright colors, elephants, and two coordinate fabrics in a floral and a stripe to match! Perfect!
Karen requested a pleated crib skirt . The pleats have a yellow fabric in them but it is hard to spot in the pictures. The crib skirt is almost floor length @ 14 inches. I make all of my crib skirts with slits in the corners for easy installation.

The valance is in the same fabric, with the fun stripe on the pleated sleeves. I love this pattern. I have made it for a few clients as it turns out perfect in any fabric. You can dress it up with bead trim and a swag instead of the flat panel or make it playful like I did here with red puffball fringe. It also does not require large amounts of yardage. This window only needed two yards of fabric!


Karen and her mom found a rug with zebra print on the edges that adds more fun to the room. You can just see it in the bottom corner.

With the extra fabric from the cribskirt and the valance I made a diaper stacker and little flowers that velcro onto the crib. These will be moved out of her reach to other places in the room when she gets a bit older. I also made a blanket for Delaney with her name on it. I had never done applique like this before. It is a time consuming project! It was worth it though as I love how it turned out. Look in the far left of the picture- that is Ryder, Delaney's furry big sister! :) You can just see her nose :)



A friend of Karen's painted Delaney's name onto squares for her room . Look at how amazing they are! She copied parts of the fabric pattern in the squares so it matches perfect!


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And here is Delaney! I know I am biased as she is my niece but isn't she just the most beautiful baby? I just love her little chin! Too Cute!

World Bread Day pt 2.

The picture loaded up on this post, not on the other post with the recipe. I love technology.

World Bread Day

It is World Bread Day. Go Figure. I was making pizza dough anyhoo as it is Friday night PIZZA NIGHT! With the leftover pizza dough I made a Sea Salt Rosemary loaf. I will take it to Elaine's tomorrow for lunch!
Here is my recipe:


Sea Salt and Rosemary Bread with Wine.

Open bottle of good wine. I recommend a good Pinot Grigio. Pour yourself a glass.
Put two cups room temp water in a bowl.
Add 1 ½ package of active dry yeast (or a palm and a half- I buy yeast in bulk now and never measure ☺ )
Add the yeast to the water to “proof “ it: make sure it is active. Let is sit for about 10 minutes. Once it bubbles add about a tablespoon of salt and sugar. You can add more salt than that if you like. Let it sit for about 10 minutes until bubbly again.

Start to stir in flour by the half cup full. Add flour and stir until you really can’t stir it anymore.
Pour it out onto a clean counter dusted with flour. Coat your hands in olive oil and knead it. Turn it over and over. Treat it little your little bitch.
When it is tough to knead, wash your hands and wash out the bowl you mixed it up in. Pour some olive oil in the bowl and toss the bread around in it until coated. Cover it with a dishtowel and go find some more wine. Let it rise for about an hour.

At this point you can bake it or let it rise again. My husband really prefers bread with a second rise. It just has a more complex “bread” taste. For the second rise, punch the dough down again (Remember , it ‘s your little bitch. It has been very naughty. ) and let it rise again for another hour.

To bake, dust a light colored cookie sheet with corn meal. Take the dough out of the bowl and form into two loaves. Place the loaves onto the cookie sheet. Make little slashes across it with a knife, if you want to. Brush with cold water. Sprinkle with sea salt and place fresh rosemary leaves on top of the loaves. Place a pyrex dish of hot water on the rack under the bread. Pour another glass of wine.
Place into a cold oven on the top rack. Bake for about ½ hour, a little less or a little more, depending on your oven. You are looking for the bread to be a nice golden color all over.

Remove from the oven, place on a cooling rack and remove rosemary. Wait about half an hour to slice and eat. Have a big slice dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar along with any wine left in the bottle. Store leftovers ( if you have any) in plastic grocery bags just tied at the top . This bread is even better the next day! Oh yea and the more wine you drink, the better it tastes! ☺ ☺

To make pizza dough, just add extra sugar at the add sugar and salt stage.

I can't upload images right this second. Why? Dunno. Some kind of 'internal error'. But trust me, the bread looks DELICIOUS!!
I am entering my yummy bread into the World Bread Day Competition just for kicks. Click on the link below for more info!!

First Etsy Sale

YIPPEEEEEEE! Tonight I made my first sale on Etsy. I am just so giggly happy and tickled ten different shades of pink! Thank you Marie for purchasing my embroidered rose buttons.
Weeheee!!! My first sale!!!

Eden's room Valance

Here is the valance in Eden's room! This is one of two. She is so excited about them! She designed them, she says, as she picked out the fabric. That's my girl!

Today I searched Lowe's, Home Depot, Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond for funky, shiny possibly sheer pink panels. No Luck! I have been all over online as well. Dagnabbit! I will keep searching. :)

First Blog !

Ok people, look out! I'm blogging! 

Today I made new Valances for my daughter Eden's room.  She is almost 7 and has been bugging me for a while for new window treatments. We re-arranged her furniture a few weeks ago and I told her if she could keep her new room clean, I would make her new windows. It has been mostly clean, so today was the day to work on them! 

She loves dogs. She wanted her room to be dogs. The only fabric we were finding for a while was brown or not little girl-ish. We were in Hancocks a couple of weeks ago and she shouted out "MOMMY, I FOUND MY FABRIC!" And she did- it is so cute!

 

I found  a pattern in my pattern box  I had from a while back that I have not ever had the chance to make. It is a Sewing patterns for Dummies, pattern. Now, don't laugh! Patterns for dummies? Yep! Some of them are actually pretty good.  This is is super easy- I did have to move  a seam line from where they said it should be, but other then that, this pattern is a breeze! 

Eden is asleep  right now so I will have to take pictures in the morning.

To complete her new windows, I am going to go to Lowe's and Home Depot tomorrow. They have some fun girls sheer for pretty inexpensive. I have not been able to find a coordinating fabric to make panels out of.  I remember seeing some funky sheers there a while ago on my way back to Lumber Land. 

        I am going to make her a new bedspead with the dog fabric  on one side and large blocks of pink & lime fabrics on the other. I found a great polka dot today that I am thinking about ordering.
 

I will also make her a pillow case and one pillow.  For her birthday, I am thinking about making her a bean bag. She would love that. 

Enough typing.  I am going to go sew something. :)