Duvet Complete!!

I finished our duvet cover last night while Josh was working late on design stuff. I am so excited about how it turned out! It felt great to sleep under something that I made myself. This was a big, no HUGE project (yes deserving of all caps)! I've been working on this pretty constantly since my post with the mock-up. Lots of measuring, cutting, and pinning, all of which are very time consuming. Plus the only place big enough to lay it all out was my living room floor, barely :). The bulk of this project also made it a bit more challenging at the machine. Everything went fairly smoothly though and it fits our feather insert great! I'm also quite proud of the yellow accent pillow. I was looking online at CB2 and saw this fabulous pillow that I thought would look perfect on our bed. I thought to myself,"I could do that." So I made one for $4.50 rather than buying one for $29.95 plus shipping. I found the embroidery fun and relaxing, though I'm not sure I'd get into anything too elaborate. Just this simple bird took me probably four hours to stitch out. I've grown a greater appreciation for embroidered design and quilt making. I think I'll be taking a bit of a break from projects this large scale for a while. I feel quite accomplished tackling this one. Next to come are pillow sham covers and newly painted walls!

Little Stitches for Little Ones

I got a new book! It's full of gorgeous fun projects for little ones. As you know I'm a big admirer of Amy Butler. This is her second book, her first In Stitches is fabulous as well. I'm using it to make a duvet cover (that project is going really well by the way. I have the top constructed and it looks great!) I love that she put out a book focused on babies. A lot of the kids' craft/sewing books I've seen are very repetitive and not so stylish. Everything in here is very beautiful and practical (huge plus). The design of the book is wonderful as well. A few of my favorites in here are the crib bedding, changing station, and diaper bag... though I'm excited to try out everything. Fantastic!

Kitchen duty just got a bit more cheerful!

How do you make doing dishes five times a day more enjoyable? Buy a colorful rug to go under your feet. I found this rug on clearance at Pier1 yesterday. I loved the colors, patterns, and textures. I saw it and said "oooo" and when I saw it was on sale I said "OOOO, I think I need this for my kitchen!". I rarely just buy something because I like it but I think its fantastic and it was a great deal, plus it matches the colors in my kitchen and makes kitchen duty a bit more cheerful. (Please excuse my non-manicured toes.)

8.5 Yards of Beautiful!

I ordered myself a little treat with part of the payment I received for the portrait I did, which they LOVED by the way. Josh and I have been wanting to add a bit of color to our bedroom. Of all the rooms in our house our bedroom has been the most neglected when it comes to decor. We'd love it to be a space that we actually enjoy being in. Our room is on the smaller side so the focal point naturally becomes the bed and bedspread. I've decided to start there. I'm making a new duvet cover for us to provide an anchor of interest in the room and then all the small decor elements will be inspired by the colors and feel of our duvet. I'm using the Patchwork Duvet Cover pattern from Amy Butler's In Stitches book, modified of course. I can never seem to do things the simple way. Fortunately this time my modifications save me a lot of fabric which in turn saves a lot of money and doesn't look quite as feminine for Josh's sake :). Because I am a severely visual person I had to create a mock-up of our duvet before I could figure out how much of each fabric I needed. I threw one together in Illustrator so that I could also balance the colors and patterns and run the result by Josh, because unlike most husbands out there mine has a strong opinion on the decor of our home. Luckily we have very similar tastes. He loved it! I'm so excited to start this project and have a unique piece like this that we'll be able to use everyday. The fabrics are a combination of Amy Butler and Heather Bailey designs. Those are two of my favorite fabric designers so that makes the project even more exciting!

Missed the mark.

I have to say this little jumper dress turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I tried drafting my own pattern based off the New Look! pattern I used for Liv's top and dress. Although it looks darling on the hanger it does not fit Olivia. It turned out much too wide, maybe she'll be able to wear it as a tunic in a couple of years... do you think leggings will still be in fashion? :) I learned a lot about construction, because of all the mistakes that I made. The pictures hide a lot of the hiccups I had along the way, I feel no guilt in keeping it that way :). All of the fabric was leftovers given to me from my grandmother, as well as the buttons, so at least no money was wasted on this venture. I guess the triumph here is the actual attempt and completion, hopefully the function will work out in a year or two. I am proud of the fact that it is fully lined. I think I will be needing to invest in (or make) a dress form for myself and one that is child size if I plan on constructing any more dresses on my own. That would have eliminated more than half of my struggle. I can really see how much of a value those are now. Looks like this little frock's future will be looking cute on its hanger for a while, hopefully not forever.

Portrait complete!

I've finished! That's a wonderful feeling. This is a painting for a couple's tenth wedding anniversary, a surprise gift from the husband to the wife. I was a bit intimidated by this project simply because I haven't painted in about two years! I was pretty sure it would all come back to me, thankfully it did. But the pressure is always higher when you're painting for someone else and selling the piece. You have to meet the unknown expectations of the buyer and meet the quality of the price set. I hope he's pleased with it and it exceeds expectation. It was fun to break out my watercolors! Doing this portrait has made me want to do one of each of my children, so hopefully there will be a couple more portraits to post in the not to distant future :).