I'm in freakin' trouble

I have this thing for paper.  I love paper.  All kinds, colors, textures.  I love looking at it, touching it, buying it and then bringing it home to look at it and touch it again.

I really got into scrapbooking.  I have done half a dozen scrapbooks in the past 7 years.  I spend a lot of time on each one, making each page look perfect.  One day I will post some pages from my little guy's scrapbook that I'm not even close to completing, even though he's 17 months old.

So here's where the trouble comes in.  Turns out, fabric is similar to paper.  The texture and colors have me sucked right in and since I now know how to sew, I am obsessed with fabrics.  I went to the fabric store this weekend, and spent waaaayyyyy too much money.  Here are some of the fabrics I bought:

I love the bright orange and aqua in these fabrics.  Those colors go great together!

PINK!!  I can't wait to use these.  I am making some quilts for a few little girls so I know I will use them up.

I bought these as extras, but I have a feeling I'm going to be building a room around the black, lime and grey dotted one.

I've also spent the last couple of days scouring Etsy for fun fabrics. I came across these cotton chenille ones that I love, so I bought a yard of each.

This fabric is Bicycles by Michael Miller.  I love the greys and blues.  I would like to one day design a room with these colors, and maybe even go with a vintage bicycle theme.

 

I clicked "buy" as soon as I saw this fabric!  I adore it!  I am seriously considering building my little guys room around this fabric for his "big boy" room.  I could totally do something with this, and keep the same wall colors that we have now.

This is probably the most practical fabric I bought this weekend.  I know I'll have no problem using up all of these.

I ordered this one for a specific project that I am working on. I hope it gets here soon, because I'm really anxious to get started on it!

Well, I'd better get sewing, I guess!



I can't believe it's come to this

I'm using my Blackberry to take pictures for my blog.   This makes me sad.  I really miss my camera. 

Anyway, enough whining.  I'm totally showing off today!  I decided months ago that I really wanted to learn to sew.  I have a sewing machine, but it's only been used by my Mom to make me stuff.  So I chose a project (a rag quilt for my little boy), and her and I went shopping to pick fabric.  It was WAY easier than I thought it would be!!  It was a really easy project, but here is the step by step.

First, I chose 8 different fabrics.  I used 1/4 meter of each pattern.  I washed and dried each piece before I started.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Then I measured them out and cut 7x7 pieces.  I also cut 7x7 pieces of white flannel and stuck them together.

Here is the layout of the pieces:

Then, I stitched an X into each square - the flannel on the bottom and the cotton patterned fabric on the top.

I laid each square out in rows, then sewed them end to end with the edges facing up, so I had 7 squares in a row.  Here is a close up of the fabric.

Once I had the 5 rows of 7 squares stitched, I had to sew the rows together.  This was a bit tricky, because I didn't know what to do with those edges that were sticking up.  I just stitched over them, because this is a "shabby chic" look - it doesn't have to be perfect.  So again, I took 2 rows and laid them down flannel side together and sewed a whole row. 

So now you have a 2 layer quilt with flannel on the bottom and the squares on the top.  The next step is to cut out a piece of white cotton that is the exact size of the quilt.  I used a crisp white cotton sheeting fabric.  Then, I pinned the white cotton to the quilt, and sewed the edges all the way around about 1/4" in from the edge. 

All the corners were stitched down, so I took scissors and snipped them all so they stood up.  I washed and dried it so it would soften the edges, and VOILA!!!  As soon as it was done, I handed it to my little guy and he took and said "bebe" (his word for blanket) and dragged it across the room with him.  Success!!

If you want to start sewing, this project is perfect because it's easy and doesn't have to be perfect.  It's also a very quick project to do.  It took me in total maybe 6 hours.