the house that goes with the quilt

Well, I'm home from my mom's big birthday bash. I can't even begin to describe the crazy venue where the party took place, but I found a little video tour that can show you around much better than I ever could. My mom had an awesome 60th (complete with Elvis), and loved the quilt very much. Do you think it goes well with her house?









I thought so, too.

xoxo

Gay South of the Border Motifs!

I found this sweet little Senorita pattern posted by Floresita some time ago, and stitched her up onto a dish towel for my mama:

Going through some of my own patterns, I realized I had her already - in a pile of uncut transfers without any envelopes. Now I know that she is from American Thread Company #133 - Gay South of the Border Motifs (Miss Stitchy Britches also posted it here, as Vogart 133).

Since we are rounding up embroidery week (thanks again, Pip!), I thought I'd share a couple more patterns from that same sheet:



And now I'm taking my pretty little towel and heading to the airport for my mom's big birthday bash. I'll be back next week!

xoxo

Vogart 146

embroidery week continues with
Vogart 146: Novelty Patch or Embroidery Designs for Pillow Cases

The back of the envelope reads, ahem....
"What an exquisite shower gift a pair of hand embroidered cases would make. A hand made gift is so much more expressive of the giver and so much more appreciated by the receiver than any purchased gift could ever be. It is well worth while to spend a few pleasant hours to "sew and save" and make it yourself...."

To find out what happens to handmade gifts once they are given, please refer to This American Life, episode 192, Act 3: Martha, My Dear by David Rakoff. - (about the last ten minutes of the episode). So, so funny.


xoxo

Tootsie's Quilt (finished)

Well, the quilt is finally finished! You can read about the WIP here.

My fingers are like raw little sausages from binding the quilt by hand, but I think it was worth it. I also hand embroidered my name and the year 2008 on it.

For the binding, I patched together random lengths of all of the fabrics I used in the quilt, and used an iron to fold in the edges. I didn't cut the fabric on the bias, so it's not actual "bias tape" but I didn't need to round any corners - I mitered them. In the end, I had enough of my binding left over to tie around the quilt and into a bow. I hope my mom likes it.

What fun things are you working on this week??

xoxo

playing along

Pip over at Meet Me at Mikes has turned over her blog to Floresita for a week of vintage embroidery transfer pattern love, and of course I'm playing along, too!

This little guy is from Vogart 705: Easy-to-Do Motifs with Toddler Appeal:



Heather has shared this pattern before as well, but I just got my very own uncut package, and it's really cute, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Other images on the sheet include a lamb, a sweet little farm girl in a kerchief, a cow, some chicks, a kitten peeking out from a watering can, a little boy in overalls and a ten-gallon hat, a scarecrow, a windmill, and a rooster.

As always, if you stitch this pattern up, please let me know so I can take a peek (or upload it directly to the Feeling Stitchy Flickr Group)! Please don't duplicate and sell the pattern itself.

xoxo

happy Easter

xoxo

name dropping

So after my post yesterday, my new *bff Jennifer Davis emailed me. She tried to upload a picture into the comments, but it's impossible to do that, so she emailed me instead and gave me permission to post it for her:

I love the post you made this morning about the letter from your kids. My mom saved similar letters from me.

We DID get the puppy- but we did not feed it or walk it. Mom ended up doing
most of that. Imagine that!

*Okay, so to be honest, I've never actually met Jennifer. I've written before about how she's a Minneapolis artist whose work I adore, and I've bought several pieces from her now. We've emailed back and forth over time, and she is such a sweetheart, but NO, she's not actually my bff.

I was so thrilled to find out that Jennifer's painting Mississippi is one of the four prints featured right now in Tiny Showcase's Spring Series.

I grew up in Minnesota, and we spent summers on our boat on the Mississippi River. This painting reminds me of spotting the Delta Queen chugging towards us as my brother and I played in the water. I always made sure to tell my dad that "I saw it first, dad! I really did!!"

Buying a print from Tiny Showcase is really a great opportunity to own a print of Jennifer's work at an affordable price, so if you like it you should go scoop one up right away (otherwise, you can find more offerings in her etsy shop). I already ordered one, and have promised to show Jennifer where the rest of her paintings live in my house, so look for a photo tour of my 'gallery' here soon.

And no, this is not a paid advertisement!

xoxo

dear easter bunny,

I guess I didn't know the Easter Bunny takes request, like Santa Claus. But then I found this letter from Olivia on the kitchen counter:

It says
Dear Easter Bunny,
Can Jack and me please have a Webkin
if you give us a Webkin I'll tell you this:
there is [fifdy] cents on the stairs for you.
Next we have treats on the kitchen
table for you.
Thank you,
Love, Jack and Olivia

So I figured I might as well share my Spring wish list, too, just in case the Easter Bunny is reading:

this bag
this dress... and this one, too
these sandals

this book

a membership here

a pink velvet settee
and....
a brass birdcage on a stand

Thank you, Easter Bunny!

xoxo

It's Spring! It's Spring! It's Spring!

(image from an old Anthropologie catalog on my inspiration board)

We will celebrate with a lovely vegetable risotto for dinner (currently a work in progress):

What are you up to tonight???

xoxo

you don't have to pay to play

I forgot to tell you about a cuppla giveaways that I know about - and thought you might like to get in on the action.

1. Sweet Sarah over at Welcome to Girl Land is celebrating her 200th post. Go give her some love, and enter her contest.

2. Sparkle Power Candace has posted 500 times!!! Go see if you can find out what she's giving away here.

3. Old Red Barn Co. is giving away the amazing quilt shown in the photo above and some $35 gift certificates to her natural body care company. Sheesh.


Now get to gettin!

xoxo

portrait of a "lady"

Olivia drew my portrait at dinner last night:

pen and crayon on paper tablecloth at Mexican restaurant

Olivia, 2008

xoxo
ps: I don't wear any "rouge" on my cheeks. I am naturally fresh-looking, like Snow White,
which I think is evident in the above portrait.

My ABC Book

My ABC Book
Pictures by Art Seiden
c. 1953, Wonder Books

But W is not just for 'Wagon' - it's also for WINNER! And the person I randomly chose (with a little help from my kidlets) to win the great giveaway is: CindyisCrafty. Cindy, Please send me an email with your mailing address to:
jessie@sweetjessie.com - and I'll get some good Bits & Pieces shipped out to you (I can't believe the three bucks didn't win)!

To the rest of you, thank you so, so much for commenting on my 250th post. I was so thrilled with the response to the poll and all of the sweet comments. So thrilled, in fact, that if you send me your mailing address (to the email above), I'll send you a little something, too. Because that's how I roll.

xoxo

almost spring

Well, the cats are out of the bag, so to speak. And so now I can share with you some of the little gifties I sent out into the world last week.

The photo above is some little springtime treats I sent to Elorie. That gal likes to give gifts as much as I do, so we're always sending little things back and forth to each other.

I ordered all of the darling little picks (and the plastic roses, too) from Amanda's store The Emporium, and repackaged them a bit. This photo of Danielle's greatly inspired my packaging.

And....

Last fall, when I sent this and this to Caroline as a birthday gift, Sarah saw a picture and said she'd like to custom order a similar set for her daughter Quinn.

Seeing as miss Quinn is now expecting a little sister in a month or so, I made a little outfit for Q, and a matching onesie for Vivian (don't you just love that name??!!) and shipped it off to Sarah as a little pre-baby baby gift:



I got an email from Sarah saying that she's all hormonal and that the gift brought tears to her eyes. I'm so, so happy that she loves them so much. I said to my husband, "See, I touch people." He smirked and said "yes, you change lives."


xoxo

7 things

I was tagged by both doe-c-doe and early bird special this week, so I guess my number is up. The number 7, that is. So here we go, seven random things about me:

-- I have a younger brother named Adam. When he was born, I tried very very hard to convince my parents to name him Kleenex Box.

-- Yesterday, my son decided we should call him "Chocolate Thunder" pronounced Chocolate Fundahhh! This was an alias of Thing 2 in Cat in the Hat (The Mike Myers version), not some strange porn we allowed our children to watch.

-- I sure do love chocolate pudding. Pudding is just a fun word to say. You know how you name a computer, and the name scrolls across the screen? I named one of my computers Pudding. I also sometimes call Olivia 'pudding'. I do not call her chocolate fundah.

-- My favorite places to go when I was a little girl were LeeWards (a huge craft store similar to a Michael's) and Saint Paul Book and Stationery (an office supply store). My favorite places to go now are craft stores and office supply stores. And Anthropologie.

-- I have a scar in the middle of my tongue from where it used to be pierced. It looks like there's still a hole there. I'm glad I did not pierce my face.

-- Here's what I order at Starbucks: a tall soy no whip mocha. I am a creature of habit.

-- I change into fresh socks at bedtime. Otherwise my feet get cold, and wearing dirty socks to bed is just gross.

now, if you're reading this, and you've never done the 7 things meme before, consider yourself tagged. Please leave a comment here to let me know you're playing along - and I look forward to learning a little bit more about you!

xoxo

ps: the great giveaway poll closes tomorrow evening at 7pm. Get out and rock the vote!

two five oh (two fitty)

I should've known this was coming. I should have been better prepared. I realized yesterday that I was writing my 249th post, which makes today - YES! my 250th post. That's giveaway worthy, dont'cha think???

The photo above is just a little something I sent off to a friend this week. I don't have a pic of the giveaway, because I haven't decided what to offer you yet. I'm going to put up a little poll on the sidebar and let you lovies decide what the grand prize should be!

So here's what we'll do:

1. Leave a comment here. Any comment about anything. Please be assured that I treasure all comments, but Blogger makes it exceptionally difficult to respond to your comments unless you have made your profile available. The comments are forwarded to me with a reply address of noreply@blogger.com - so I can email you directly if you leave me your email address in the body of your comment somewhere. But know that your comments always make me smile.

2. Head over to the poll and vote for what you think the giveaway should be.

I will (randomly) choose a winner on Monday evening at 7:00 cst. I will send out whatever gift is ahead in the polls at that time.

Remember, you're ALL winners in my book (insert cheesy grin here)!

Now head to the polls!


xoxo

Vogart 279

"These designs will bring joy and brightness to any home. The Cross Stitch Pillow Cases are truly magnificent and the floral patterns are bright and lovely....The floral motifs would be stunning as a decoration for a blouse."

xoxo

Tootsie's Quilt

My mom is turning sixty at the end of March. And I thought it was about time she had a handmade quilt. And I'm just the kind of gal to make one for her. So I'm sharing some pictures of the QIP - the quilt in progress.

But first, (and while I give mom time to turn away from the computer before she ruins her somewhat surprise) a little background on Tootsie:

When I was pregnant with Olivia, I asked my mom what she would like the baby to call her. "Grandma." Grandma What? The baby would have more than one grandma; she'd have a plethora of grandmas. She said "Ummmm... Grandma Tootsie." It was a joke.

Except that I kind of liked it.

Here is how we use the term in conversation: The kids interrupt me to ask, "Who are you talking to on the phone?" and I say "grandma" and they say "which grandma?" and I say, "MY mom - Grandma Tootsie." And my mom groans.

And for the record, it's Tootsie as in Tootsie Pop. And there you have it. Now, back to the quilt....

I didn't want to surprise my mom with a quilt that she wouldn't thoroughly enjoy, so I involved her in the fabric selection process (with only a minor disagreement about my penchant for kelly green, and her current aversion to the same).

If you've seen my mom's house, and I will assume you haven't because that would be either quite a coincidence or very bizarre (unless I know you in real life, in which case in wouldn't be bizarre it all, it would be very common, as the Toots sure likes to entertain) , you would know that walking into her house like walking into a kaleidoscope - the gal likes her color. Every time I go home, the house is just a little bit crazier. And so we needed lots and lots of colors.

My idea was to make her a lap quilt for the couch in her living room; something she could snuggle into while reading or watching tv. We sat down together in front of the computer and agreed on the fabrics: the Mod Girls collection from Sis Boom, with a little Kaffe Fassett thrown in for good measure. I bought all of the fabric from Sew, Mama, Sew.

And I have spent countless hours cutting and piecing and pinning and sewing to get to this - the completed quilt top:





I'm going to back the quilt in chenille, and bring it to my mom for her birthday (when I'm flying to Minnesota for her big Elvis-themed birthday bash). If she doesn't think it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to her, I'm taking it back and keeping it for myself.

xoxo

Show and Tell

Today I thought I'd share a few of the treasures I picked up at the Kane County Flea Market a couple of weeks ago:


This is a little decorative drinking cup from an (obviously very cool) midcentury vanity set. Oh, how I love it! I think I'll use it to store pretty pencils or something, though, as I don't think I could bear to muck it up with my ever-present Burt's Bees Chapstick. Moisturized lips are a must in my book.


And these little lovelies? Well, I think my stomach went all aflutter when I found them:

They're sample button cards, and I just want to eat them. Don't they look yummy?


I bought some large (14x18) shadowbox frames last week when they were on sale at Michael's and I think these little darlin's will fit perfectly in them.

What kind of treasures have you found lately??

xoxo

I Can Fly

I'm an accidental collector of vintage children's books. I started buying them when I was decorating my daughter's nursery and, to be honest, I couldn't afford any other kind of decor for her room. So I bought some wood boards, painted them, and glued images from vintage children's books onto them.

But it was hard to find reasonably priced books with really vibrant and cheerful images, and I began searching farther and farther for the books. I think the market for the Dick and Jane books was hitting a high at that time (2000 - the year, not a price), and after finding out what they were worth, I was determined to find them for less.

And, being a bit compulsive (as I surely am), my searches started in earnest. By the time I had reached saturation point in Olivia's room, I was a confirmed junkie in search of children's books from the 1940's and 50's. Have you seen how great the illustrations are??? I started decoupaging with them, using the illustrations to create new stuff with a vintage feel.

My love of other items from that era - the aprons, the fabrics, the housewares - all stemmed from the collecting of, the searching for, the hunting down of the books.

But then I started sewing.

And I've calmed down on the book collecting now, opting instead for vintage textiles, paint by numbers, or other tchotchkes, but I still can't resist flipping through the stacks of books when I find them.

And I realized I must have hundreds of them - I know I do (it's more like whether I have thousands of them or not). So I thought I'd start sharing some of the illustrations, in all their fabulous (sometimes marked up or torn) vintage glory, here with you.

Now, I love the idea of a blog schedule, like doe-c-doe adheres to, but I'm not sure I can be as organized as to say I'll post these every Friday or whatever. So let's just say this will be a "regular" fixture here, okay?

Okay.

Let us commence with the show:

I Can Fly (A Little Golden Book)
by Ruth Krauss
Pictures by Mary Blair
Simon and Schuster
1950

I, for one, especially like the little pastel-roofed houses under the swinging girl, and then the owlets in the bottom picture.

xoxo

early morning phone calls

When my phone rings at six o'clock in the morning, I know it's Elorie calling. We've been chatting over coffee in the wee hours of the morning for years. We talk about cake baking and sewing techniques and our "mutual quest for self improvement" ( I dare you to find an adult ed class that at least one of the two of us hasn't attempted). And this morning, when she called, she reminded me that it's been almost exactly eight years since we first met, both of us pregnant with our first children, at a prenatal yoga class. How appropriate that she only realized it herself while engaging her mulabunda at yoga last night (please don't ask me what a mulabunda is or how one might go about engaging it - my yoga days are over).
Soooo..... I just wanted to say happy eight years of early mornings, El! Thank goodness for free long distance calling. And that picture up above? Well, that once vaguely resembled the two of us, before my hair was was shorter, and her hair was blonder.

xoxo

collecting: paint by numbers

Over the weekend, I picked up another vintage pbn to add to my ever-expanding collection:


I know that lots of people set price limits for items they collect, but I take everything on a case by case basis. I've spent anywhere from $1 to $40 on a paint by number. This one seemed worth its $20 price tag because I love the colors. And if I love it, I gots to have it! Lots of the sailboat-themed paint by numbers end up in my son's room. Some day, I'll show you more of them, but for now, I'll just give you a little peek:



Have you ever seen these postcards over at the Curiosity Shoppe? I dig em. I sometimes think about cropping down some of my less-than-favorite paintings, but I'm a little intimidated. Maybe if I had a good table saw... hmmm.... I sure do love a good power tool - maybe for Mother's Day???


xoxo

Wednesday-ing

These are not robin's egg blue robin's eggs. Which really pisses me off. I've searched everywhere for those slightly lighter than this shade of blue whoppers, to no avail. What the hell, man? I know they sold them last year. I have proof. But this year, I had to buy a jumbo pack of the mixed color whoppers and weed out the ugmos to come up with the perfect presentation. Now my whole Spring is going to be screwed. It's just not the same.

I guess, though, that life is pretty good if that's my biggest concern.

Here was my day:
- took the kids to school
- got dressed. this is a bulleted item because I don't necessarily get dressed every day. Sometimes I'm just way too busy to bother with that sort of thing.
- went to the school for a meeting of the Creative Arts Showcase that I'm co-chairing.
- ran to the grocery store for stuff for dinner (also unusual at my house. I'm a very poor excuse for a "lady of the house" and June Cleaver would be very, very disappointed in me)
- came home and ate a pb&j in front of the computer
- went to get the boy from school
- made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with the boy. he got mad that we were not making sugar cookies.
- picked up the girl from school. ate cookies and milk with the kids. jackie ate TWO cookies, after telling me he didn't like them. we talked about school: apparently, both of them learned "nothing" at school today, and nothing interesting happened there, and it was boring
- took the girl child to gymnastics. brought the dogs in the car, and they drank my water, as I am trying to use travel mugs instead of water bottles, and this particular one did not have a lid. Damn Dogs.
- came home and am blogging.
- next, I will make dinner. It will be stir-fried tofu with veggies and brown rice. I do not like meat, and I especially do not like to cook meat, and so if I cook, it will be vegetarian.
- on his way home from work, jack will pick up Olivia from gymnastics and bring her home, and we will eat dinner and the kids will complain that they don't like the dinner and they won't eat it.
- then the kids will have baths, etc. and we will read some Lemony Snicket
- the kids will whine because they are hungry (because they did not eat their dinner) and I will tell them "Tough Cookies!" or something similar.
- the kids will go to bed, and I will have a glass of red wine and watch Project Runway while doing some embroidery.
- then I will watch some more random tv (probably Jon Stewart and then Chelsea Lately) until I get sleepy, and then I will go to sleep.


Tonight's Project Runway prediction: I'm thinking Jillian. What about You????

xoxo

brother, can you spare a dime?

Hmmm... just let me check my handy coin purse. And quit calling me brother!


This was a fun little project to make, and I see many more in my future. I wish I had one of these back in my schlepping-to-the-laundromat days (and there sure were plenty of those!).

Put a Cork in it

Okay, so I wanted a sweet little inspiration board in the HQ (as opposed to in my office, where I have a ginormous bulletin board). But the walls are low and angled, so I don't have much room for stuff on the walls. So I came up with this:


It's an honest-to-goodness bulletin board, with thick cork and everything. But it looks much less menacing than those in office supply stores. Here's how I did it:

I took a large wooden embroidery hoop (I have a bunch of these laying around) and laid in on top of an old cork board that was gathering dust in the basement (no new materials were harmed in the creation of this project). I traced the wooden frame onto the back side of the corkboard in pencil.

I got out my handy drywall saw and got to sawin'. I love tools.

When I had the circle all cut out, I laid a piece of upholstery-weight fabric on top of it, and wedged it into the interior hoop. Then I set the exterior hoop on top of that, and tightened it.


I flipped it over, and stapled the fabric down onto the cork.

Then I got a little picture hanging tooth and hammered it into the wood hoop, so I could easily hang it on the wall.

Since I hadn't used my glue gun in a long time, I got that out, too, and filled in all the crevices between the fabric and the hoop.



Ta-Daaaaaaa!

Lovely Designs for Baby's Wardrobe

A very merry first day of March to you and yours! As Easter comes really early this year, I thought I'd better get this vintage transfer pattern out to you posthaste! So, without further ado, please allow me to present a sweet bunny image from Vogart 708 - Lovely Designs for Baby's Wardrobe:




**the same rules apply as last time: Make or sell whatever you'd like using the pattern, but please don't sell the pattern itself.**

Happy Weekending!

xoxo