My Sewing Room + Birthday Fabric

Today I thought we'd take a look into my sewing room!

I'm super lucky to have my own space in our home for sewing.  When my husband and I moved a little over a year ago we knew that we would need 3 bedrooms: one for us, one for an office for him (he's in the process of writing his PhD dissertation so he's in there a lot) and one for a sewing room for me.  Last week was my 27th birthday and as a gift he made me a new sewing table, so I thought I'd show it off, and while I was at it, why not show off the while room?

New Sewing Table and Ironing Dresser

Sewing Tables

The table on the right is the new table and it measures 8'x3', the table on the left was a graduation gift from my husband and it measures 7'x2'.  He hasn't had time to do it yet but the plan is for him to drop down my sewing machine into the table so it's flush with the tabletop.  That way it will be SO much easier to quilt on.

Tower with scraps, Supplies Shelf, and Dressform

Desk and Dressform

Fabric bookshelf!

A Peek into the Closet

I also got some yummy fabric!

Yummy Fabric from Purl Soho

30's Reproduction fabric from Aunt Barbara

Fabric from Beckah

Knit Cowl from Beckah

The stash stack fabric wasn't for my birthday, but I thought I'd show it off anyways since it's so pretty.

September Stash Stack Fabric

EDIT: Just in case you were wondering, the ballerina painting above my sewing tables was painted for me by my sister Jen when I graduated college, and the dog portrait over my dressform is a portrait of my dog Davey painted by my mom as a birthday present last year.

New Sewing Kit

I can't believe that it's already October 3rd!  Where did August and September go? 

In anticipation of Sewing Summit (which is only 8 days away!) I decided that I needed a way to keep all my quilty tools organized.  With hundreds of quilty people in attendance all bringing their own tools I knew that things would get lost if I didn't have some way to keep my stuff all together.

Thus came an idea to make myself a large pouch to hold everything.  Using the Perfect Zip Bags pattern from Elizabeth Hartman and a Gnome Paper Piecing pattern from Bubblestitch I whipped up this pouch to match the amazing pouch I received from Karen as part of the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap.

Gnome Pouch

Pouch From Karen

The pouch is mainly linen, but for the background of the paper piecing detail I used Kona Bone, the same fabric Karen used to make my little pouch.  I also lined the pouch with a grey dot that matches the fabric inside the wonky house pouch.  For a fun detail (and since the back was boring) I embroidered my Blog logo "Sewing By Stephanie" onto the back.

Detail of back of pouch

I made a few modifications to both patterns.  For the gnome pattern I omitted the lantern that the gnome guy usually holds and added in the grass.  For the bag pattern I made all of the dimensions larger than the pattern calls for so that I would end up with a larger bag.

After making the bag I used it for a few days and then decided it wasn't enough.  Knowing myself I know that I would still manage to lose my tools while at Sewing Summit, even if I took this bag with me.  Then I saw this post by the Sometimes Crafter as part of the Sewing Summit Travel Handmade series and knew I needed to make myself something like it.

I didn't use a pattern, instead I just pulled together all the tools I knew I wanted to take with me and figured out what size I would need to make it so that it would all fit.

Open Sewing Kit

I made this out of the same linen I used for the gnome pouch, and for the lining I used one of my favorite dot prints.  There are three layers of pockets: one large one in the back, two medium ones in the middle, and four smaller ones in the front.  Each layer is padded, and you really can't see in the pictures but the back is quilted with a swirly design.

Open Sewing Kit

I added a velcro closure and a piece of felt on the flap to hold pins.

Closed Sewing Kit

And on the outside of the flap I did a little more embroidery (you know-- just to make it match).

I still have a TON of stuff on my "to make" list before Sewing Summit next week, including:
-4 swap items for our roommate swap
-PJs
-Pouch for the pouch swap
-Luggage tag
-Name tag
-Camera Bag
-Organizer

I've been holding off on making both the camera bag and organizer because I want to make them using Pat Bravo's Rock and Romance fabric line.  The fabric was just released yesterday and I ordered it from the Fat Quarter Shop as soon as I heard.  Hopefully it'll arrive in time for me to make both the organizer and camera bag before I leave for Sewing Summit!

Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles =

Today I wanted to show you some awesome pictures of a project I finished up this week, but after uploading the photos I see that none of them are up to par with the standard of photography I try to keep.  Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles = not so good photos, so pics of the new project will have to wait.... sorry.

I've also been getting a little piecing done as well as some embroidery and some quilting, but alas, no pictures of those projects either.

I'll try to get some more pictures taken today, but until then I'll leave you with a picture I did manage to take this week of my new baby.

I got the Janome Sew Pretty Sew Perfect machine both as a travel machine and also as a beginning sewing machine for the little girls I teach to sew.  It's 3/4 size and slightly slower speed I hope will make it easier for little hands to learn on.  How cute it is is just a bonus!

And while you're here, I should take the time to mention that my fabric mosaic for Rachel of Stitched in Color's "Softly Against Black" mosaic contest has made it into the finalist round.  You should be sure to check out all the finalists and vote for your favorite mosaic while you're there!

Oh! and P.S.  This is my 95th blog post.  I'm planning something big for #100, so be sure to stick around!

September Bee Blocks

What?!?! It's not even the end of the month and I've already finished my bee blocks? Crazy!

Here is my September block for Anneliese in Stash Bee.

I used a lot of Good Fortune scraps while making this one.

And here are my BELIEVE at do. Good Stitches blocks for Vicki.

I love the grey/black/white/red/pink color scheme that she chose.

I had a lot of fun on this one getting the squiggly lines to match up.

And since we had one member of our do. Good Stitches group drop pout in September I was two blocks short for the quilt I was planning so I made two additional blocks.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday, I know I'm planning to!

Pattern Making

I'm excited.

I just found out that Michelle of Michelle Patterns is now selling a pdf e-book detailing all the steps that go into making a pdf sewing pattern in Apache Open Office, which is a free software you can download from the internet.

I've been wanting to venture into pattern making so I snatched up this pdf as soon as I heard about it.  It's regularly $20 but you can get it for 50% off through Sunday if you use the code patternmaking.

If you're interested in getting your own copy you can find it here.

I've already downloaded the Open Office Software and I'm so excited to get started!

Softly Against Black Mosaic + A Good Mail Day

Yesterday, it seemed as though the stars aligned and three of my favorite things came together....

Yesterday, Rachel of Stitched in Color (one of my favorite bloggers) announced that she was pairing up with Alice of Fresh Modern Fabric (my favorite shop to get fabric online) to offer a contest to make a fabric mosiac based on the phrase "softly against black" and this picture:

.....which I love and has been the desktop photo on my computer for months.

Here's the mosaic I came up with.  It was hard to narrow the fabric selections down to 12, especially since I thought at first I would get to choose 16, but I eventually got it to the right number.

.... And as for the good mail day, I had the best swap package sitting in my mailbox today.  I received my package from my secret partner Karen in the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap and she did a great job making things that were very "me".

I had told her that I loves gnomes and dachshunds, and she went snooping in my Flickr favorites and discovered on her own that I love wonky houses.  Here's what she sent me:










I love it all so much!  The package totally made my day!!! Thanks again Karen!