Stash boosting bonanza

I don't know what pushed me to do it, but late late last night I decided to look on the local Kijiji hobby listings. The first item that caught my eye was a lit-from-below tracing table. Then I noticed the same vendor had some fabric listed. I sent an email and offered to pay full asking price for the table and some of the fabric if she could deliver.

Sooooooo, for $100, I had all this delivered to my living room this evening:



That's right, NINE jumbo trash bags, stuffed to overflowing with pre-washed, pre-shrunk fabrics (everything from cotton to crepe to faux fur), plus two bags of patterns -- mostly infant and toddler (perfect for my almost one and almost three year old) , another huge bag of new zippers, buttons, velcro and other notions. And the tracing table. I feel like I just won the lottery! My boys just went to bed, so I'm going to spend the next couple hours digging through my new treasures and trying to figure out where I'm going to keep all of this.

Edited to add more pix:







And this isn't even all of it! I actually sent another email to the woman who sold me all this goodness to tell her how much I appreciate the sacrifice this must have been for her, and assured her that I will use up every scrap. Let the projects begin!

Another UFO completed!

It's taken me nearly a month and a half (pitiful!) to complete this simple little project, but Spencer's sleep sack is finally finished. His room is really chilly at night, and he's fond of tossing off his quilts, so I'm hoping this will help keep him cozy -- and, who am I kidding -- possibly even help him to sleep through the night. That'd be a sweet dream for both of us.

Anyway, here's the final sack. Like all of my projects, I've finished it after the kids' bedtime, so no model shots for tonight.



The thrifty part of me loves this project because it cost me virtually nothing. The materials, aside from the bias trim (which was less than $2) were all in my stash courtesy of garage sale finds, just sitting around waiting to be used. The outside of the sack is flannel, the inner layer is high loft poly batting, and the inner layer is cotton. I tried my hand at free motion quilting to quilt the layers together. Let's just say I need a bit more practice, but it the results were fine for this project.

I have more 'for sale' items to finish up before Christmas, and then, hopefully, I'll be able to get started on more projects for the family.

Edited to add new pic:

Old jeans = new wallets!

One of the mommies in my playgroup put me onto this blog entry for upcycled denim kids' wallets, and gave me some supplies to put a couple together for her. They're really cute and easy, and what a great kids' gift -- even last minute!




I'll definitely be making more of these little beauties, especially as my oldest gets better at wearing the knees out of his jeans.

Bad blogger

I haven't posted a thing in weeks, and it feels like I haven't done much, but the truth is, I've been busy doing the same old thing over and over...mostly more of those little backpacks like the one I posted earlier in the fall.

I've also been making cat toys as a fundraiser for the cat sanctuary I made mats for a couple months back, but again, nothing too exciting.

Last night I made a tutu as a birthday gift for a three year old. It turned out pretty well. I hope my son forgives me for posting this pic online!



The final thing I've been working on is a sleep sack for my baby. I don't have a pattern, and I'm thinking it may be too wide, so will have to tweak it a bit once I get the zipper into it.

Where'd October go?

I'm sitting here shaking my head in disbelief that October is already over. Where'd it go? And what have I been doing?

I did manage to complete a couple projects, including these super-cute jack-o-lantern candle holders, which I had perched in my window for the trick-or-treaters to see tonight. Can't take credit for the idea -- it came from another blog (Not So Idle Hands), which I love, but I did change them up a bit with painted lids. The lids are mostly to keep my boys from dumping out the tealights inside. My oldest hides them and my youngest would eat them (=


Sorry for the blurry pic...I couldn't find my tripod, and I've apparently grown shaky in my thirties!

I've also spent a lot of free time working on odd job sewing projects for others. With all the panic about H1N1 swine flu making people lose their minds, I've been selling a few of these shopping cart handle covers.



I'm a germaphobe (despite my messy house), so have been using one of these for years, but now that germs are on everyone else's minds, too, I might add a few to my Etsy shop and see what happens. A long time ago, I read somewhere about an experiment to test all the nasty stuff that could be found on an average shopping cart. The list was LONG and gross, and included feces. Enough said.

October 18th was the highlight of my month...it was the date of the annual Glebe Fabric Fleamarket, so of course I stocked up on lots of odds and ends, including some great pure virgin wool that I got for a steal of a deal. Love it!

Slow September

Between being seduced by the fall premieres on TV, and caught in a supply shortage (how can I not find pre-fab piping anywhere??!), I've not been doing much crafting lately. I started working on one of those cute backpacks for my son. I have a piece of Go Diego Go themed fabric (he LOVES Diego) that I cut and tried to fuse to a bright yellow cotton for the inside of the back, but my fusible isn't fusing. So that's been put on hold until I can figure out a way to mend my only partially fused pieces. I've also been working on machine quilting a charity quilt. I've never worked on a full size one before, so managing the extra bulk has been a challenge.

I'm also considering renting a table at a local craft sale, with proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society. Will have to get hubby on board to watch the kids that day, as well as actually scrape together enough items to sell.

Fast and easy

I had a lovely evening helping some friends make cute little chef hats and aprons for their toddlers on Friday, and then spent Saturday evening vegging on the couch. So tonight, I needed to get something done, even though I didn't have much time. Luckily, I have a book full of such little items, and tonight I decided to finally cross off making a new valance for our guest bathroom. I've had a scrap of fabric for about six years now (three years longer than we've had this house!), and it was the perfect size for what I had in mind --I didn't even have to cut it! Three straight seams later, and voila:


Note to self: must remember to re-tie blind cord so boys can't reach it.