Seriously... San Francisco!

I would have loved to go to San Fran... why didn't he take me!!

Gnome a fan of MJ?

This makes me wonder when this photo was taken? It doesn't look like there is any flowers or anything on the star... was it before MJ's death? Or just really cropped in?

Gnome goes to the beach

Gnome on tap

I wonder which bar our little gnome was visiting? Incase you missed it, our gnome was stolen and a mysterious package was delivered with several photos of his travels.

Gnome

Two years ago our garden gnome was stolen from our house. Then, two days ago we got a note.




Last night I returned home from work to find a mysterious anonymous package full of pictures of our gnome who apparently has traveled quite a bit. I'll post a photo a day of the gnome with the hope that the mystery will soon be solved.

My new machine

I learned on a Pfaff and I tend to gravitate towards them because of their solid feel. So when I went searching for a machine I decided to make that the first stop. I checked out Janome and Bernina but ultimately the Pfaff Expression 2.0 won out for me. (That and it was 1/2 off! )



While there are A LOT of features on this machine, here's the ones I find most valuable:
- 9 mm stitches
- A large space on the inner opening of the machine so I can move fabric around easier.
- The IDT system, which really just means a walking foot
- Dual lights
- Needle up and down
- Large range of motion for the needle
- A good amount of space under the foot when the foot is up, which allows you to work with thicker fabrics easier.
- Some "serge" functions that will come in handy if I don't want to get my serger out.
- one touch button holes - 5 varieties
- comes with 7 great accessory feet (I'm still learning what all of them are and what they do)

Bottomline, I love this machine. While it has a lot of functionality, it is simple to use. As my husband put it - "you are no longer restricted by the capabilities of your machine, now it's just learning to do the things you want to do!"

A legacy

I've been thinking a lot recently about legacies. More specifically, the legacy that people leave behind when their time here is through. A month ago, my grandmother, who had been struggling with Alzheimer's, passed away. As part of Grandma Belle's estate, my mom gave each of the grandchildren a generous gift and asked each of us to purchase something in her honor. Something to honor her memory and that would have brought her great joy. When you think about it, that's a big charge. How do you honor someone's 86 years of life!?

After a lot of thought, I decided to buy a new, more advanced sewing machine that would allow me to accomplish a greater scope of work -- especially fashion projects than I could have with my old machine.

While my grandmother never taught me to sew, it was one of her passions and something she passed on to my mom, which recently trickled down to me. Unfortunately I was not interested in sewing during the years that Grandma Belle was an active seamstress. Looking back now, I would have loved to of had a sewing session with my Grandma Belle. To see what tips she had learned from her mother and grandmother, play with her button collection and see the projects she was working on.

I can only imagine what she would say about this machine if Grandma were here. I know she would love this sewing machine. She would say in her sweet midwestern accent how advanced it was and how much things had changed since her first machine. She would sit behind the machine to try it out and no doubt softly bite her lip as she did sometimes.

This gift is more than a machine. It's an opportunity to escape stress, to honor friends who I love with handmade gifts and to challenge myself. And from this gift I look forward to moments ahead of calmness, challenges and inspiration. Just as Grandma Belle would have wanted.

Smocking is easy

My friend's little one was celebrating her first birthday so I decided to try to make her a little party dress. I am in love with the Weekend Sewing book from Heather Ross and when it finally came in from the library I was ecstatic.
The first thing I made was this dress. However, for people like me who do not have the book, I found a handy tutorial on Martha Stewart's website. I'm planning on making one my size soon.




I'd recommend watching the Martha Stewart video, but after you do that, here's a few tips that might come in handy for smocking:
- Buy elastic thread and hand wind it into the bobbin.
- Surprisingly you only need to use elastic thread in your bobbin. And the color of the elastic thread doesn't matter because the top thread you choose will be the only visible thread.
- Hand wind the elastic thread so that it is not stretched but isn't gapping or appear loose.
- You will use more than you think. Try to pay special attention to your bobbin to make sure you aren't going to go out of thread in the middle of one of your smocked lines.

For this dress, I used LizzyDish's new line of fabric through Andover Fabrics called Red Letter Day. I love this fabric. It looks like lollipops or balloons or whimsical trees. A great little print!

I'm noticing that many of the pattern books such as Weekend Sewing and Simple Chic Sewing have looser fitting garments. Smocking could be an excellent way to add a more fitted look to some of these potentially poncho-looking garments.

Button screensaver

Have I mentioned I love buttons? Oh, and this amazing screensaver.

Birthday Buttons

I have amazing friends and family who understand my crazy little quirks... like my love of buttons. For my birthday I got several jars of beautiful vintage buttons and thimbles from my sweet friend Sandra.

Several are in sets of 4 or 6... perfect for a little top or accent on a skirt. I can't wait to use them.

I also got some vintage and hand-stitched buttons from my in-laws. I'll post those pix soon!

Burda Sewing

I just got a one year subscription for Burda for my birthday from my in-laws and husband. I can't wait! Burda is a magazine filled with patterns. The subscription is something like $80 a year, but with the huge amount of patterns that you receive, it equals out to about 17 cents per pattern. The patterns are in style and not matronly looking at all.
One of my favorite bloggers, Assorted Notions, does tons of Burda so I'm excited to try my hand at it.

I should get my first issue in about a month and a half. I'll keep you all posted.