You may want to sit down...

If you're the excitable type you my want to sit down...I actually sewed something!!! I know you all have been stressed and worried that I may have fallen off the face of the planet ;), and you may have nearly died of shock when you actually saw a post from me on your reader list. Well I'm happy to announce that I'm still alive and better yet have gotten some sewing done this month!

Yes, it felt good to dust off my precious Pfaff. A friend of mine and I got together and worked on some pillows. It was great fun and I was able to teach her a few new skills which was way more fun than just plowing away on something by myself. We're hoping to take our piecing practice and start on full size quilts soon, of the half square triangle variety. I do have a great excuse for not having sewn, and therefor not blogged in about two months...well other than the fact that I have four small children. I watch another two year old little girl during the week. That totals five young ones running around my house during the day. And two two year olds in the same house for extended periods of time equals lots of attention, and a lot of times policing, on my part. I've been watching her for about six months now. It's been a great opportunity for me to help out a family that we are friends with and also earn some extra income for my family. But it does mean much less time for sewing and such. I'm also working with my husband on a new and exciting venture which I will be sharing about soon!! That is something to be watching for, excited to share!

Back to the pillows. My initial inspiration came from these beauties. I saw this photo and swooned and sighed and knew I must make some copies for my living room which is gradually getting a bit of a face lift. I love the solids and it was very fun choosing and combining colors. I have one more color block pillow in the works, the first triangle pillow I made didn't make the cut. Triangles are a bit tricky I learned. I referenced this tutorial to help out with piecing triangles. I also used this tutorial for adding in the zipper. I love the pop of color of the contrasting zipper, adds so much interest and character to the back of the pillow. I like that the back becomes as intentional as the front.

I am quite pleased at the outcome of my pillows and am pretty proud of how well my corners lined up! They also coordinate perfectly with the new print that I ordered from Lab Partners, a lovely online shop. The gold ink on their prints is beautiful. And it is very reminiscent of Alexander Girard, one of my all time favorite designers. It's a nice sight every time I walk into the room, which is a lot!

I feel much more confident about taking on a quilt after this project and am excited to get started on that. I also like that you can work on a quilt in phases and it can be as slow going as you need it to be. Because that seems to be my reality right now, working on projects in bits and pieces when I can sneak the time in :).

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring! So Happy Spring! Hope you're enjoying some sunshine and green wherever you happen to be. I'm very excited for warm weather settling in and hanging around for a while.

Storage Bench.

This was my fun New Year's project. I actually made it til midnight on New Year's Eve because I was priming this beauty. My grandfather made it in FL and my dad drove it all the way across the country for me, lovely man or men rather. He and my brother drove out to visit over Christmas and meet up with my mom and sister who flew in from Hawaii. The original vision of this bench was this gorgeous Herman Miller bench, which was only slightly out of my reach price wise...just a bit. My grandmother ended up seeing a picture of the bench over Skype, told my grandfather what I was wanting, and he surprised me with this in about one afternoon! I had no idea I was going to be able to have a new piece of furniture for Christmas! It was such a fun surprise.

I primed the wood, then painted it with a few coats of high gloss (wipeable!) warm white, and painted the inside a pretty blue (leftover from my bathroom).  It took some time but I love how it turned out and it gets everyday use. We so needed a place to store diapers and wipes and blankets and books and all those things that pile up when you have six people living together. Plus the extra seating is awesome! I'm planning on making a removable cushion for the lid of the trunk space. And I have visions of a pretty tray with a little vase of flowers and a strategically stacked set of well designed books decorating the tray sitting beside the cushion. Perhaps that's a bit unrealistic with a near 1 year old, 2 year old, 4 year old, and 6 year old. More likely it will be a little spot to draw or build Lego towers. I'm good with that too.

*Side note: I made the pillows out of Orla Kiely for Target place mats.

Felt Brooches.

The one thing that I did manage to make for Christmas was a few felt brooches. I really enjoyed making these and even made one for myself. I love it, adds the perfect finish to a sweater and would also look great on a scarf. I drew my inspiration from here. Mine aren't quite as perfectly executed as Applique Originals', but I'm quite pleased with them none the less.

Holiday table runner.

Hello and happy 2012! Wow, hard to believe it is upon us. My family had a wonderful Christmas, I hope yours did as well. My parents, as well as my brother and sister, and her new baby girl and dog were able to visit and stay with us for a couple of weeks. It was a full house, but it was wonderful to see them and spend time.

I wish I had awesome handmade Christmas gifts to share with you, but I get a big fat "F" on completing my gift list this year. Don't worry my kids didn't go without. There were plenty of gifts from the grandparents under the tree. And I am looking forward to making all of the planned gifts at some point this year. They really are things that I am excited to make, I just didn't have the extra time this time. Oh well, it was a lovely holiday none the less.

I finally took pictures of the table runner I made for Thanksgiving, which was also used on Christmas and I'm quite sure will be used for various other occasions. It's been used and washed and has held up great, which is something to be excited about :). I just used odds and ends from my stash and had fun with the stitching. I love how it turned out.

I hope you've had a lovely welcome to a brand new year and are looking forward to all that it might hold. I for one am excited that I will not be pregnant this year. We are officially a complete set. There are 6 in the Emrich family and I am so looking forward to having my body and energy back to enjoy and be more involved with my family. That being said I still have a few baby pounds to shed, which is one of my resolutions for this year. I want to get back into those pre pregnancy jeans that are waiting for me in a box in my closet :).

Decking the halls, or hall :).

December has arrived! I'm ready! It's snowing outside and it feels like Christmas. My family had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, I hope yours did as well. Thanksgiving with friends is super fun. If you've never tried it, it's the way to go. That being said my family is coming in just a couple of weeks to stay with us for a few weeks, and I couldn't be more excited!

December first is here. My two oldest have been waiting for it to arrive so that the advent calendar fun could begin. I made this calendar last year and it has been by far the most popular, most responded to project I have ever done. I've had multiple people ask me if I'm selling them or have templates for the project. All of your interest has encouraged me to take this project to the next level. So, I'm planning on creating a PDF pattern of this advent and a limited number of handmade ones to be available online for next year (November 2012). I'd love to hear your feedback, and if a pattern is something that you would be excited about. Anyway, that's the plan. I would be excited to and would love to be able to share this with as many people who would want to make one!

As far as decking the living room, I made some felt mistletoe (tutorial here) and completed our set of four Christmas stockings. I made stockings for my two oldest a couple, or three years back. And am now getting around to making Henry's (sorry buddy, but you didn't even notice what you were missing last year) and Audrey's. My focus with decor and gifts this year has been working with what I have. It's so satisfying to go look through my little fabric stash and make things come together without spending a dime. H and A's stockings may not be as elaborate as the first two, but they're still nice and they coordinate...and I didn't have to spend $20 on ribbon, for real. I've also hung some paper snowflakes and reused garlands and things from previous years. I love having the Christmas tree up and lit. The coziness of our home automatically doubles. Makes me want to listen to our Dean Martin holiday album on a loop.

I've been working on Christmas gifts, some of which I won't be sharing until Christmas has past. Some surprises in life are very fun. But you'll get to see some of what I'll be making, be sending your positive crafting vibes so that I can actually finish all the things on my list! And I did make a lovely table runner for the Thanksgiving table that I'll be sharing soon...also made from items in my stash :).

Well, Happy December to everyone! Enjoy the beginning of the holiday fun and all that comes with it!

Our Sweet Little Chick.

Baby #4 on her first Halloween. She was so cute and squishy, and loved going trick-or-treating with her brothers and sister. Sweet girl.

Hiccup, a Night Fury, and a Terrible Terror.

I just barely managed it. My two oldest were clad in handmade costumes for the Halloween event downtown. I finished Toothless' tail an hour before we left in classic Katie form. My kid's love the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon'. I'd be lying if I said I didn't also. Jackson decided he wanted to be Hiccup for Halloween and Olivia excitedly jumped on board with the theme declaring she must be Toothless. I had so much fun making these costumes. I designed them as I went, I enjoy the problem solving. I made everything from supplies I had on hand and a couple items from the thrift store. I should mention now, I did NOT make the green dragon costume. Two was all I could handle this year. Old Navy and their awesome seasonal sale helped out with that one. I was so excited to find out they had a dragon costume, otherwise I would have made myself tackle the task. Even Henry needed to be on theme. Since he's green the older two deemed him a 'Terrible Terror'...very fitting I must say ;).

The Toothless hat is actually a modified version of the 'Cozy Winter Hat' from 'O + S Little Things To Sew'. I added a center seam to the basic pattern to allow for the spikes, and modified the ear pieces. Then of course I added the teeth and the eyes. I got the idea for the wings from this tutorial. The dragon tail is simply sewn onto the waist band of a pair of Olivia's old leggings. I was so excited to see how that turned out while worn. It moves around great, looks perfect. Of course my daughter, full of personality as she is, thoroughly enjoyed shaking that tail around every chance she got. Her treat bag is a fish made from felt. Those of you who have seen the movie know that dragons favor fish as a snack.

Hiccup was pretty simple. I made his vest and fur shoe covers out of faux fur, his belt from faux leather, and his tunic from a XL men's shirt I found at the local thrift store. He borrowed leggings from his sister and I cut strips of an old t-shirt for the "leather" lacings on his tunic and around his sleeves. The viking hat we bought at one of those traveling Halloween stores, that was our splurge. That thing was probably more than all the materials for both costumes put together, but it does complete the costume. His treat bag is meant to be a basket full of fish, also made from felt. I made Henry a treat bag in the shape of a fish also. That was the only piece of handmade on him. Though he wasn't any less cute!

Our baby girl stayed home and napped. She's finishing up a cold and cutting SIX teeth! Her poor little gums were bulging that day. Three teeth have broken through and she's in much better spirits now. She will be dressing up tonight on the official holiday. She's going to be a little chick. Not exactly on theme. We're pretending she escaped from a farm on the Isle of Berk. I realize that's a stretch, but it's going to have to work. The costume is actually our oldest's first costume. Both the boys were too big for it on their first Halloween, so it's kind of sweet that we get to use it again.

So there you have it. A viking, two dragons, and a chicken (soon to come). Have a Happy Halloween!!