2011 in review

wow. what a year...

1. spinny skirt k, 2. pippa and percy, 3. Pretty blouse, 4. baby sun caps, 5. Dress for K: neck detail, 6. spinny skirt, 7. 90 minute shirt for B, 8. Backpack for first grade: front view, 9. skirt for B: front, 10. baby pants, 11. simple pocket skirts for my girlies, 12. custom dollies: brothers & sisters, 13. skirt for me, 14. Stocking for Dixie, 15. summer scarf, 16. Audrey cape, 17. handprinted fabric: trial one, 18. Girlies in pjs, 19. family reunion dress: finished, 20. tinkerbell, happy and ready to go!, 21. ladybug (thinking about candy?), 22. custom spinny skirt, 23. superhero capes, 24. printing three: whales, 25. stockings for kids: two, 26. oven mitts for thanksgiving dinner challenge, 27. roll-up totes, 28. fayette (custom order), 29. voile infinity scarf six, 30. woodlands ornaments, 31. madeleine, 32. brooksher, 33. echo chevron pillow, 34. fayette (custom order), 35. stocking ornaments

you can see more of the year in my made in 2011 flickr album. 

link up your 2011 recap :: a little gray: a look back, a look forward

(some of) my goals for 2012:

little folks voile quilt
little apples quilt
two *more* new stockings
design and print a fabric line
summer dress for me
B's children at play dress
go to sewing summit
join a bee (maybe... any suggestions?)

i'm also linking up with Resolved to Sew 2012

head over to Very Berry Handmade to see lots of fun sewing goals for 2012

(*psst* and you just might win a prize if you link up too!)

here's to a productive, happy, and healthy year!

oh, hey. i used to knit things.

going through my own little recap of things i made in 2011, i realized that i haven't picked up my knitting needles since july (when i finished this dress). i think i'll need to rectify this. maybe a week in napa sans sewing machine will help? is it lame to knit on my honeymoon? hmmm....

also, there are a few knitting projects i never shared. shame on me ;)

last winter, i made a scarflet for myself and a scarf for Nick, both out of some amazing green wool (that used to be a sweater).

in the early spring, i was volunteered to make some hats for a co-worker who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was starting chemo. 

i also made her a cowl with some hand dyed yarn i had purchased from ewe and me yarns on etsy.

so, yeah, need to find that knitting bag. i still have a sweater's worth of hand-dyed cashmere that i haven't touched, among other things. i'll probably start with a hat for my brother, since i promised him one about this time last year. 

too many crafts! not enough time...

fan photos

* Super J *

originally posted here. tutorial from the long thread.

* spinny skirts *


more about this spinny skirt posted here.


and a few more skirts posted here.

remember these fayettes for Amy?
(the fayettes were gifts for her daughters and nieces)
she sent me this:

Fayettes were wonderful... 5 very happy little girls. One wouldn't put hers down, one squealed with delight and brought hers to Longwood Gardens so she could see the lights, and 2 girls are asleep upstairs right now with theirs. {my daughter} said, "I want to learn to sew so I can make things like this" and "tell Ms Rachael thank you for me."

 how amazing is that? makes my day.

decemblur

*title stolen shamelessly from Leslie of maze & vale (don't worry, i warned her)*

wow, this month has flown by! and i have all sorts of countdowns that are about to be finished. here's the short list:

one day... pick up my brother from the airport

two days... friends, parents, sister (and others) arrive from out of town

three days... new year's eve

four days... wedding(!!!)

six days... napa

i can't believe that all of these things are here! mere days and hours away. 

would you be surprised to hear that things have been busy? that i have a few things to share? that i may or may not get to most of them? ;)

here are a few, in no particular order:

crazy forts. on christmas afternoon, this monstrosity took over the living room. it's basically a giant tinker toy covered with a sheet, containing two little girls with their new leap-toys and (besides the confused and pacing animals) kept the living room strangely quiet for quite some time.

mini bunting. i made this little guy to go on top of the wedding cake. yay for crafty weddings and, um, yay for last minute crafty ideas?

gifts. my lovely grandmother made us this cross-stitch for christmas. every time i look at it, i smile. i remember cross-stitching with her as a little girl, and i hope that at 90 i'm still crafting, in whatever form. ps. that amazing print in the background is from corid (a gift from Nick). 

guest post. i'm guest posting today on a brighter yellow about the echo chevron pillow i sent Kodi for the Holiday Handmade Sekret Exchange.

impromptu quilting WIP. i have this sitting on my sewing table at the moment, waiting to be made into something (a pillow, most likely):

it started with these strips that i cut out to start Nick's stocking (based on this tutorial from Kate at Swim, Bike, Quilt!):

obviously i cut out way more strips than i needed. one thing just led to another, and three squares became nineteen. that happens to you too, right?

alright, then... i'm off to knock some things off this to-do list.

happy crafting :)

rachael's choice fat quarter bundle

a little fun for you on this dreary post-holiday day...

an exciting competition dreamed up by Laura at Quokka Quilts for a new Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle. over at Fat Quarter Shop, they have a whole section of Blogger's Choice Bundles and maybe, just maybe, mine (or yours?) could be listed there too. awesome! and in addition, the winner gets a half yard of all fifteen fabrics they selected. super awesome!!

here's what i put together (via mosaic maker):

woodland: teal toadstool dots :: bella solids: gray :: little apples: pencil leaves

heirloom: steel sunburst stripe :: woodland: pink wee little elves :: ruby: cotton aqua sundae

ruby: cotton sherbert dot :: bella solids: ruby ice :: ruby: cotton grey dainty

riley blake: pale pink solid :: ruby: cotton sherbert sundae :: woodland: teal wee little elves

woodland: gray toadstool houses :: ruby: cotton aqua and grey dot :: sophie: tomato soup houndstooth

think you can do better? let's see!!

1. go to The Fat Quarter Shop website and choose 12 coordinating prints and 3 solids from their selection.
2. either a) create a blog entry about your set of fabrics; or b) if you don't have a blog, upload them somewhere they can be seen in one link - eg flickr, picasa, etc. you must include pictures of your fabrics, which you can 'borrow' these from the FQS site. Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations (one of the four judges) notes that it would be very helpful if you could do a photo collage of your various prints.
3. Go to QuokkaQuilts and link in your entry by 15 January. 

in addition to the other submission links, you can check out Laura's bundle choice here. what fun! let me know if you link up a fat quarter bundle; i'd love to check it out.

rainbow girls from spoonflower

a week or so ago, i got my first spoonflower prints in the mail. it was a bit of an experiment, helped along by a half-priced fat quarter sale. here is what i received (and the stuffed girlie i made with one of the pieces):

this is the graphic i uploaded to print the fabric (based on this print, girl image licensed from yaelfran):

i learned a few things, which is always good right? most importantly, if i'm going to make plush girls, there needs to be more space in between the images on the fabric. the colors actually all came out well, and i ordered a little swatch piece which is a good reference for other colors.

i thought i'd mess around with the graphics in photoshop last night. i realized pretty quickly that making the types of patterns i want is going to require a level of precision and patience which i rarely possess. in related news, i only made it through two (out of six) full stripes. there is something about this pattern i like, but i'm not sure if it's quite right enough to commit to completing properly. i'll be thinking on that one... 

my goal for 2012 is to design a full line of fabric. i have a few ideas/themes i'm kicking around. in all likelihood, the full line won't be with these graphics. i have a few others in various states of preparation that i think would work better for a whole line (with colorways and everything!), but we'll see how that goes.

do you have any crafty goals for 2012?

merry happy

miss K feels that presents must be organized,

put in piles, and opened "in order."

she got some sparkly blue make-up at dad's this morning.

B was insistent that she was NOT tired.

we may have finally found a hat she'll actually wear.

this one, well, she'll wear just about anything.

the girls got me some interesting presents:

very bright pink gloves

a hershey kiss ornament

a reindeer snow globe

can you feel the joy?!?

we spent quite a bit of time this morning with B's new

littlest pet shop toys. thanks, Grammy & Grampy.

had to add one more...
Nick with his new nook and K with her leapster.

i hope your day is filled with smiles, hugs,

and chocolates.

two new stockings

i'm not sure that the girlies are as excited about this as i am, but santa will arrive tonight to find pretty new stockings hanging over the fireplace! (check out that awesome stocking on the left. yup, that's mine. and i made it. i'm not proud.)

the first stocking (started here) is for K. i ended up using invisible thread for the quilting. i did zig zag stitches around the applique pieces and then extended those lines across the rest of the stocking, but in a straight stitch. the back is the same print from the woodlands as the bottom strip on the front (pop flowers in red).

for B's stocking, i was inspired by this square from Amy at made During Quiet Time:

i worked out a litte improv piecing to put my lights together, and they came out pretty well. (particularly considering that i didn't measure too much and wasn't too precise. eep.) i like Amy's shape better, and perhaps i should have looked at the picture before starting to cut, but here's what i came up with: 

i quilted around the lights and then did straight lines across most of the stocking, which i'm quite happy with. the back of the stocking is leaves aqua from aneela hoey's little apples.

the main fabric is from robert kaufman (mixmasters dot-to-dot), and the lights include fabrics from: little apples, the woodlands, meet the gang, and sophie.

two more stockings to go, but i don't think that santa stuffs mommy and daddy stockings anyway, so i'm fine with the fact that they won't even be started by tomorrow morning. instead, we'll be trying to get children to sleep and enjoying a bottle of wine.

if you're the christmas celebrating kind, i hope that santa is kind to you and yours!

from us

to you...

merry everything

and

happy always!

(a sentiment stolen shamefully from

a dear friend's adorable holiday card)

more freebies

in case you missed it, i posted some ideas for printable gifts here. i printed out these fabulous paper dolls for some lucky little girls on my list, and i think i'll need a few more sets for myself. don't forget the great printable gift tags in this post, you know, in case you're not completely finished wrapping (or shopping?) already. as i have seen the most amazing free downloads out there recently, i can't help but share a few more with you.

these tags from Sea Urchin Studio and more from My Owl Barn: Still More Printable Christmas Goodies

free Holiday Knit Gift Tags from Eat Drink Chic (via Pretty {much} Art)

printable trees from molllie at wild olive

Free Holiday Tag Printables by We Love to Illustrate (via Jenny of Stumbles & Stitches)

a little something you might need next week.... thank you cards. check out these lovely flamingo cards posted today by Ez at Creature Comforts

and OOH i just found this Holiday Roundup post from Ez with oodles of gift tag links, like this one from Caitlin Keegan Illustration

luckily, we're done shopping and wrapping (phew!)... tonight, we'll be celebrating our christmas eve tradition a night early. wishing you a merry christmas eve eve!