Bobby's Christmas Quilt

This last Christmas Bobby asked me for a quilt. I've always really appreciated how supportive he is of the things I like to do with my time. Like my cooking, and that very short time that I was into scrapbooking, and my sewing... So when he asked for a quilt, I was pretty excited. And lest anyone should question the manliness of my man, he also asked for a gun-cleaning kit. ;)

He had some suggestions for me. He wanted me to incorporate some other fabrics besides cotton, namely corduroy and felt. (Don't worry, I let him know that felt for a quilt would be a bad idea.) He wanted it to look kind of pieced from my fabric stash, but still look cohesive. (These are not his words. Keep in mind this conversation happened about three months ago.) So I started searching craft blogs and flickr pages looking for inspiration and I ran into this lady. (Hello lady!) I love her quilts. Some of hers look really advanced, but a lot are really fresh and simple. I actually borrowed an idea from her for Franny's birthday quilt, which I'll blog about soon.


The quilt measures 84 x 68 inches. He wanted it to be nice and big enough to cover his whole body. I used a chocolate brown corduroy on the front and I'm happy with the added weight it gives the quilt. I also loved the puckery look on the corduroy after it was washed a couple of times. My only complaint about the corduroy is it stinks. It smells awful, but it's getting better with every wash. After the first wash I was laying around with it watching TV and I could barely breathe because its smell was so strong. Anyone know what that is?
My favorite side of the quilt is actually the back, only because it's such a surprise. It was obviously a lot more work, but the front was so simple to put together I didn't mind the extra time. I sewed straight vertical lines to quilt it about 1 1/2 inches apart and that took much longer than I anticipated. But quilting always does.

I couldn't decide which fabric to use for the binding so I finally settled on a scrappy binding, and just used a combination of all the fabrics from the quilt.

I didn't actually get the quilt finished in time for Christmas. (I was up until 1 AM quilting it on Christmas Eve.) But it was done by December 28th which is a lot better than that time it took me three years to get my friend Betsy's daughter her "baby" quilt. So maybe I'm getting better at judging how much time I need for a quilt. He uses it all the time and has told me repeatedly how much he loves it. Bobby, you're the best!

Mental Note: less TV next weekend

I found this tutorial last week and subsequently became obsessed with making these:

First I made one for Sophie, then for Jack's birthday present, and then Franny wanted one, too. A pink one. I worked on Franny's all afternoon on Saturday before we all went out to eat dinner. I worked on it a little on Sunday, too.

This momma is fighting a major addiction to her sewing machine lately and judging by the amount of time our television is tuned into ESPN, I gather that football season is in full swing. These two factors added together equal not anywhere close to the most attentive or exemplary parenting. As we sat together last night for dinner (we had this and it was scrumptious- I didn't get around to taking pictures), Franny asked me, "Mom, what happened to Pocahontas' necklace?" "I don't know," I replied. "Kokoum took it. He not very nice to Pocahontas," she said. The conversation takes a different path and then all of the sudden we hear Franny say in an urgent voice, "the warriors are coming!" I said, "okay, Franny, I think it's time to re-enter the land of the living."

I did make a mental note then to limit the TV watching next weekend, but still, I had to finish her quilt. The football game was over. Bobby and I were in our room watching the Golden Globes while I put the finishing touches on Franny's doll pillow when she walked in the room. When Bobby asked Franny where her sister was, she answered, "Sophie's asleep." Bobby and I ran upstairs and here's how we found her:

Fell asleep sitting upright while watching Disney sing-along songs on YouTube. Awesome. Sorry, kids. I'll try harder next week.



However, the kids do seem to love their new doll quilts!

Sweet Sassy Molassey

So, my sewing addiction is pretty much out of control. I just can't get enough. So, I decided to start selling a few things to help feed that addiction, which led me to create this blog with my talented friend Jenny, which then led me to open an etsy store, which I have named Sweet Sassy Molassey. Catchy, huh? ;)

So check it out if you have a second. Let me know what you think.

I think I'll keep the blog as a place to post stuff that I'm selling online, as well as just little projects I work on at home for my family or to give away as gifts.

Now I haven't hit it big yet. No tax ID or business cards or anything like that. I don't have a number for customer service or sales, so while we're still such a small outfit I thought I'd answer some F.A.Q.'s.

#1. Will she be offended if I don't buy anything? Heavens no! I have never been the kind of person who is comfortable selling things to her friends. Even at a garage sale. I'm only doing this for Amy Butler. And Michael Miller. And Sandi Henderson. (These are all fabric designers. What can I say? I have expensive taste in fabric.) No, but seriously, please do not worry! I would hate for anyone to feel obligated to buy anything from me that they do not want or need. Phew, now that THAT's cleared up...

#2. How would she feel about a trade? Great! I love trades! Just ask!

My Mom's sewing machine

I snagged my Mom's sewing machine while I was home for the wedding. I figured I better make a break for it while none of my other sisters have any interest in sewing. :) I love having her sewing machine in my house. I can't really explain why, but it just kind of feels like she's nearby when I see it on my table. Those of you who knew my mother know she's an amazing seamstress. She made this:

and these:


and all of these:

She can do anything. Naturally, I've always wanted to enjoy sewing, because I've always wanted to be like her. Cooking has never intimidated me. Pie crusts, bread making, baking in general, yes maybe that once intimidated me because the measurements need to be exact when you're baking and I like to be more flexible when I'm cooking. But sewing freaked me out. It just never came naturally and I screwed up a lot of projects HORRIBLY. I would over-think everything and get nervous working the machine. I always felt like I was going to break something and then my Mom would yell at me. I once asked for her old Singer sewing machine that she hadn't used since either before she got married or before she had kids and she told me no, that she wanted to hold onto it. My Mom's not really the sentimental type. I was totally surprised that she wanted to hold onto something that she was obviously never going to use again. So instead she bought me a Brother Walmart special for Christmas one year. Maybe she recognized that I was not a natural-born seamstress, because she researched what was the best model of the cheapest brands. She gave me a pair of Gingher sewing shears, a 25 dollar Joann's gift certificate, and my brand new sewing machine and I decided my first project would be a pair of pajama pants for Bobby. So one night while Bobby was at his night class, I set to work on my sewing project. I bought a pattern and some cute fabric that actually matched a "quillow" my Mom made for him while he was on his mission. I set up the sewing machine on our kitchen counter because we didn't have a kitchen table and spread out all my tissue paper patterns. I was so confused- I was holding up pieces, trying to decipher which ones I needed, etc. when I started to smell burning. I look up and one of the pieces had caught FIRE from the candle I was burning. Well, I've never seen anything burn that fast. The tissue was burning rapidly and there was ashy pieces of pattern paper EVERYWHERE. Somehow I managed to still sew the pants without the necessary pieces, but the pants ended up being too small for Bobby and even too short for me. Bless his heart, he did wear them once for me.

Also, until a week and a half ago, I did not know to get my bobbin thread to come up and be ready to sew. It's embarrassing to admit. I'm embarrassed, but it's the truth. Thank you Jessica and Jenny for all your help. I'm sure I'll need more but you have both been so helpful. Ashley's birthday was coming up and I had this great idea to give her an apron. Cute sassy aprons seem to be all the rage these days for my demographic. I thought about buying her one, but then I thought, "what if sewed it?" Then I found this tutorial on this girl's blog. It's a great tutorial and really inspired me to start sewing. It is all I want to do now. I've made four aprons so far.



I also made this cute little purse for Franny. We have a reward system in place for her where I give her pennies whenever she makes a good choice. She can trade those pennies in for a bigger reward later. This system is called a token economy. I'll write more on that later. I learned about it at the autism conference I went to a couple weeks ago.



She loves the purse and wants to take it everywhere! It makes me so happy. I adapted this tutorial and didn't bother with the boomerang clip or the ID window and just added some decorative stuff and a strap. Also, I made it just a little bigger.

I have to laugh at myself. I mean, I am sort of notorious for never finishing projects. This is not really me to get into these projects. I mean, I've been to Walmart three (or is it four) times this week to pick up more fabric and sewing notions. Just ask Betsy if she's gotten the baby quilt for baby Emma yet. Oh yeah, how old is she now? Almost 2 1/2? Sewing makes me feel better. It's probably a combination of wanting to be like her and wanting to do something that would make her happy and proud. So I feel a little embarrassed about being such a super-spaz, but I think I'm just going to roll with it and hey, at least I'm learning to sew!