Sewing Room Update # 879

Posted by on April 9, 2012

I hope everyone had a good Easter! It was such a beautiful weekend here in Montgomery! On Friday I got my valances back that I had made for our office/sewing room. YAY!! Since we hosted the family Easter lunch and egg hunt yesterday (32 folks), I was so glad they were ready in time and we hung them Saturday afternoon. These pictures are not great. While our office/sewing room has these 2 windows (see below), I can’t take a decent picture in here for the life of me. Outside of these windows is our (covered) front porch, so I don’t get great sunlight (and I am not a professional photographer!!) Trust me – it looks a TON better than white walls and no window treatments! I love the new wall color and the bright valances tie in the green desks. And you’ll see below, the black gingham-ish trim and pleats tie in all the black (chairs, bulletin boards, etc). This is Jeff’s office too, hence the TV mounted on the wall obstructing partial view of my pretty valances. 😉

 I still have my thread stands and Expedit cubbies. Those are several of Browder’s paintings and such from his art classes on top. 2 calendars on the other wall – we keep 2 months pretty full. Side note: I recently asked Steve (Sewingmachine.com) about my thread and the threat of dust. He told me that dust CAN accumulate on your thread if it’s stored out in the open. Such dust CAN get in to your machine too. But, if your thread is not directly under an air vent you should be fine. He saw my set-up and seemed to think mine was OK. I have started dusting mine off before I use it just in case. If you are like me and use your thread daily, it’s not reasonable to keep it stored covered up somewhere. If you store your thread on stands like me, just check to be sure it’s not directly under an air vent. If you see dust on the thread or the spool, wipe it off before using it!

Same setup w/ desks and machine. I had several people suggest me moving things around, but the way it is now I can sit at my desk and everything is within reach (except for fabric and thread). I have my iron, machine, hoops, etc. all within reach, so this is the best possible setup of our furniture. I do share this space w/ Jeff, so it’s not like I can completely take over! 😉

Closeup of the valances. This is Waverly Modern Essentials from Joann.com. The black gingham I got at King Cotton here in town. I love the colors!

 I have posted before that my machine used to be on a Craftsman tool chest from Sears. My machine is now on a file cabinet “desk” from Home Decorators, but I still use (and love) my tool chest. It’s where I store all of my hoops, stabilizers and “junk”. The top is a GREAT surface for hooping as well! I would recommend either of these pieces as a machine stand. Both are sturdy and I have never had my machine vibrate or move AT ALL. p.s. The “real” machine stands are great too!

 Precut 12″ squares from sewingmachine.com on the left, 8″ squares on the right under my machine toolbox. Fil-Tec Magna bobbins and my big roll of sticky stabilizer. All of this is from www.sewingmachine.com! The other 2 drawers were too messy to show you! 🙂

And… I posted a while back about throwing away my samples. Several of you got on to me 😉 for throwing them away, so since then I’ve kept them. They are done usually on stabilizer if I don’t have a t-shirt to do them on. OK folks… here is my pile of samples. What am I supposed to do with them? Any ideas??

Reminder: Our current 35% off sale at www.appliquecafe.com ends this Wednesday, April 11th! We are also gearing up for the upcoming Everything Applique Conference in Birmingham, AL on April 28th! There is still time to register ~ the deadline is Monday, April 16th at midnight. Check out the EAC link to register or for more info! As of right now there are over 600 folks signed up to attend! I’m really looking forward to a fun time and getting to meet so many people I *know* on Facebook and through my blog. SIGN UP!!

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Happy Easter!

Posted by on April 6, 2012

Long time no write (again)!! The past few weeks have been a blur! Last week was Spring Break. I started out the first weekend w/ a yard sale at a friend’s house (because sadly they don’t allow them in my ‘hood). I always love a good yard sale, and I sold all but 1 box of stuff junk. Feels good to get rid of random things you find around the house! It’a always amazing to see a) who comes to yard sales and b) what they actually pay money for. Always entertaining.

Wednesday we headed to the lake for a couple of days with 2 other families. This was our Spring Break on the cheap. The water was freezing but the kids had a blast! Thursday we all (13 of us) went to a place called Niffers at the Lake to eat lunch. The manager guy challenged us all to hula hooping for free *stuff*. It doesn’t take much for us to jump on the chance to get something for free. As I tell my kids, “if it’s free, it’s me”. Anyway, surprisingly enough I can still hula hoop. The guys got a free beer and the kids all got free jolly rancher popsicles!

 And look at my precious G! He had the hand going and his tongue hanging out. It was (and still is) so cute! When we got back to town he insisted on a trip to Walmart to buy our own hula hoops! The kids have had a blast with them and it has been cheap entertainment ($3/hoop). Maybe good exercise too?

 Following lunch we all took a tour of the Lake Martin Dam. Aside from the “dam tour” jokes, it was actually fun and very interesting! We got to walk across the dam and go down in the dam to see the “stuff” that makes power. Educational, fun and FREE!

The kids went back to school Monday for a short week and no school tomorrow, so we get a long weekend for Easter. Jeff & I are actually hosting Easter this year (even though I have no dining room, coffee table {sold in the yard sale} and the furniture we ordered from the den is not in yet). I’m trying to look past all that and not worry about it. I think we have 35 or more folks coming for lunch after church (and of course an egg hunt). I hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Changing subjects… There is a new blanks supplier in town ~ https://www.facebook.com/blanksboutique. Right now they are taking preorders, then fulfilling those orders (versus you being able to just go online and order). The owner sent me a couple to try out and I really like them! Very thick and soft!! Here is a new design from AC I sampled on the girl tee. This company is actually out of Birmingham and hopefully they will get to a point where it’s easier and faster to order. They are now working on their 2nd preorder so check out their FB page! You can also request a price list and from what I remember they are very inexpensive!

It has a cute little puff sleeve! I believe you can see in this photo too how THICK they are!

And a cute ruffle around the bottom of the shirt. The shirt is intentionally made long, and after washing it shrinks to the perfect length. Check out the Blanks Boutique Facebook page for more info on expected shrinkage.

 I also did a boys tee! Again, very thick and soft! It’s kind of hard to compare them w/ a photo, but you can maybe see that the BB tee on the left is thicker. The Kiddy Kats shirt on the right is a smidge see-through. These are both 5T/5/6’s w/ 5×7 designs.

Back to Easter… Yesterday I hosted Sissy’s class Easter egg hunt at my house. The kids were SO cute! We have a great yard for it, hence us getting to host Easter I guess. That is Sissy on the right running to get some eggs!

 

 I actually made her a shirt this year! Every time I go to Walmart I pick up their girl Garanimals blank tees (when I see her size). I have bought about 10 white ones, plus purple, yellow and today I found a hot pink!

Here are a couple more things I’ve done for her (which is a miracle b/c I never sew for my own kids). I got these shorts at an overstock sale last year for like $8. Not sure if they were meant for a boy (no ruffle), but I thought they were cute! This is the AC Fat Fish minus the little fin. Again, this is a Garanimals tee ($3.88 I think!) Thank you Garanimals for not putting a pocket on them this season! p.s. Another reason I bought the shorts is because I knew I had matching fabric, which is always a plus.

This is an outfit (2 pairs of bloomers were included w/ this A-line top) from the same overstock sale. I got it last year but it seems to run big so she never wore it. I added the AC Loopy Flower, which is one of my all time favorite designs! Love the Michael Miller Ocean Ta Dot fabric too!

 I think that is about all I have? Soccer has started (practice) and all 3 kids are playing. Jeff is coaching Mallory & G’s team (along w/ our niece) and Browder also plays (with Jeff as asst. coach). Needless to say our April calendar is jam packed.

Does anyone have a vinyl cutter? I actually do but have not learned how to use it yet. My niece has a Cricut and has recently started doing things, which made me get mine out and want to learn. It comes with software and a how-to CD so I hope to find some time to learn how to use it! It’s a Silhouette SD. Not sure if this is it (below) – mine is still in the box! I’ll let you know how it goes! I have had it for probably a year and 1/2 and am just now getting it out.

Have a wonderful weekend! HAPPY EASTER!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Family | Tagged:

9,000

Posted by on March 22, 2012

First of all, we reached (and exceeded) 9,000 fans on Facebook this week! I do not know where the fans keep coming from, but I appreciate each and every one of them! We have never done paid advertising (yet!) and we don’t really believe in fan-drive contests. I guess it’s good old word of mouth, my blog, search engines, etc! Anyway, I love to see that number grow and we’re amazed every day that this is our JOB!! Now… here are a couple of cute Monag brand sleeveless dresses I did yesterday. Monag is a great source for blanks! It’s better if you can order wholesale, which means you have to order in bulk to get the best price. Here is the AC Mermaid. 

 The Flower Flip Flops:

I did quite a bit of work yesterday so that I could take a break over Spring Break and also get my machine serviced! I get asked quite a bit if I take orders. I have also been getting lots of calls and emails lately wanting me to do customer work. I have to say that I do a tiny bit right now. I would LOVE to do more, and I certainly enjoy it. The truth is with 3 kids I have ZERO time these days for much more than keeping up with email, laundry, cooking, errands, my household and 3 kiddies. It’s the season of my life right now which I’m sure you can all relate to!

I think I mentioned in my last post that we had our stairs painted last week as well as our OFFICE/SEWING ROOM (FINALLY!!!)! Here are our stairs “before”. Nothing really wrong with them, but I didn’t like *ALL* of the oak (trim, spindles, handrail, stairs…). The poor painters came to our house 3 mornings in a row at 7:00 AM to paint these stairs. The first time they painted them a stark white, which was TOO white. The 2nd time they painted them to match our trim, but didn’t cover all of the white too well. The 3rd time they did enough coats so that the stairs now match our trim. Before:

 Here is “after”. Again, nothing over the top or mind blowing, but definitely BETTER! I wanted to get rid of as much of the oak as I could, so we painted the spindles and handrails and all! It looks a TON better! I think once I put something in the space beneath the stairs (and do our dining room which is to the left and pretty much EMPTY), it’ll look much better and I won’t obsess so much about the stairs.

We also had our office painted, again. We had it painted white when we moved in. If you have read my blog in the past 6 months you know the white drove me crazy.  

You can’t tell too much in this photo, but this is the “after”. It’s a nice Benjamin Moore color called Elephant Tusk. The contrast with the white-ish trim is MUCH BETTER!! Again, not Pinterest worthy or anything extravagant but a huge improvement!

Here is my fabric and my valances are being made this week (and/or next). Mainly the floral with the checked in the pleats and maybe some trim. I think they’ll look great and tie in the green and black! I might also recover the chairs in the checked fabric – to be determined!

 Lastly, I have to give a shout-out to my homeys! I spent Thurs-Sunday with these girls down in Mexico Beach, FL. We had the.best.time! It was roughly a 4 hour drive both ways given our stops for lunch, bathroom breaks, etc. We never turned the radio on and didn’t turn a TV on the entire trip! I met all of these girls in college and whenever we get together, we have the most fun! Last year we all went to Charleston and we’re already planning our trip for next year! A few of us are pledge sisters (1993 Phi Mu Troy University). I love these girls and cherish our friendships. We have a way with being *real* with each other and no one cares where you live, where your kids go to school or whether or not your dress came from Target (and not Banana Republic)! Anyway, I miss them and so enjoyed our weekend together. The weather at the beach was incredible too!!

 

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