Friday, March 16, 2012

St Patrick’s Skirt

I loved this plaid as soon as I saw it! Green, yellow and chocolate brown… all my favs! I didn’t really consider the fact that I was buying PLAID to make a skirt until it was cut and in my hands. What was I thinking??? I can hardly make a skirt, much less make a skirt and try to match plaids!!!

I felt defeated before I even got the fabric home… Thankfully, I have very encouraging sisters who reminded me that even skirts you buy in the store don’t always match plaids. So I resolved to not worry about matching plaids and just concentrate on making a skirt for the first time with NO help!

I laid everything out, cut out my pieces and began to sew them together, absolutely ignoring the plaids or any matching thereof.

Imagine my surprise when I turned up my waistband only to see that I had matched the plaids on the front panel of the skirt and the front of the waistband almost perfectly! I was so pleased that I actually laughed out loud (for real, not just LOL here on my blog)!

plaid skirt 01

The zipper isn’t perfect and it ended up in the back when I expected it to be on the side, but I am pretty darn proud of the way it turned out and can’t wait to wear it in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!

plaid skirt 02

Monday, March 12, 2012

St Patty’s Day

I really like St Patrick’s Day (except for the pinching LOL)! I like green, I like corned beef and cabbage and rainbows! Here are some of the decorations, I put up this year…

st pat decs 01 felt shamrocks for the dining room windows

st pat decs 02

foil shamrocks for the menu board

st pat decs 04 st pat decs 03 Beans and peas make cheap vase filler

st pat decs 10 st pat decs 08 st pat decs 09 paper shamrocks for the kitchen table and tree

st pat decs 06

st pat decs 05shamrocks for the entryway

Can you tell I like shamrocks???

st pat decs 12 st pat decs 07 st pat decs 11Hope you have a happy go lucky St Patrick’s Day!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Strawberry Patchwork Quilt

I am a sucker for most of Moda’s prints! When I found the Strawberry Fields charm pack at a quilt store in Stanwood, I had to have it. I didn’t know what I would do with it, but when has that ever stopped a quilter before??? ;o)

Then Pinterest came to the rescue and I found a pattern for a fun patchwork skirt at Create Kids couture. If you haven’t sewn before, the tutorial does leave a bit for you to just figure out on your own. But, with a little common sense you’ll have a fun twirly skirt for your favorite little girl to spin in until she gets dizzy and falls in no time at all!

strawberry skirt 02 One charm pack contains 42 squares. The 18month to 2T size skirt takes 39 squares. (Bigger sizes need more larger squares than come in a charm pack.) Not only are all the squares already cut out but they are cut with those cute little pinking shears to cut down on the fraying of all those seams!

strawberry skirt 04

I also added some fun vintage rick rack for the hem

strawberry skirt 03

Here’s how mine turned out…

 strawberry skirt 02 strawberry skirt 01

I already bought another charm pack for another one. :o)