Kassidy Sews...

Today I thought I would show you what Kassidy made her friends for Christmas.

For those of you who might not know...

Kassidy is my 12 year old daughter

and my baby!

She has been sewing with me since she was very young and got her first sewing machine

when she turned 9.

We have regular "Sew Nite's" together so that we can play with fabric, have fun together and improve on her sewing skills...which I think are important for a young girl to have!

The winters here in Utah are so very cold so she decided she wanted to make hoodie scarves.

We saw some at Target that were way cute but at 20 dollars each...that wasn't going to happen as she has 8 friends

that she wanted to sew for....

so she decided we could make our own.

We took a trip to JoAnn's and she picked out

3 colors of nice thick fluffy fleece.

It was 10.00 per yard but was 50% off...and each scarf needed 3/4 yards...so I say that was a pretty good deal!

Fleece is so fun and easy to sew with because it doesn't fray and so there is no hemming needed...so these scarfs went together quick....no need for a pattern...just a scarf with a hood sewn to the top center.

She made the scarf extra long so that she could fold each end up twice and stitch down the sides for pockets....

and cut fringe on the ends.

We used muslin to design and cut out a test pattern shape for the hood before

 cutting into the fleece.

Kassidy made 9 scarves total...

8 for her friends and 1 for herself.

She did a great job...thay turned out really cute and the girls all loved them!

We also made additional little gifts to go with the scarves that I will post about later.

When I was a girl growing up in a large family with lots of sisters, we would sew most of our own clothes.

My mom taught us all how to sew when we were young and it seemed that her tan Singer sewing machine was always set up on the kitchen table....we would always have to put the sewing away to set the table for dinner and then it would go right back on after the dishes were done!

We made some cute outfits and lots of cute dresses for church.

My sister Tammy who is a year older

than I...was the real seamstress...

what a talent!

She could sew anything but depended on me to choose the fabrics and styles and coordinate the outfits because that 

just happened to be my talent.

Mom would take us girls to the mall to check out all the good stuff...

my sisters and I would find what we liked and then I would sketch them.

Then we would go look for patterns that looked like what I had sketched ...alot of times Tammy would combine two or three patterns for a certain look.

I would choose all of the fabric and coordinate the outfits...

and even do some designing!

 My sisters would pick out the outfits that they wanted (but we all shared anyway as we were all pretty much the same size) 

Each sister was in charge of cutting out her own outfit from the pattern pieces and marking them ...and then Tammy would sew them

and make them fit us.

We always got compliments on our clothes and were always asked where we got them.

I'm proud that I have a mother who 

taught me to sew.

Thanks MOM! 

 I am taking her example and passing it on

to my daughter.

I love the fact that Kassidy saw something in a store and decided to make her own...

a continuation of a family tradition:)

xx

Lori

A Big Project at the Cottage!...

Well hello cute people...it's been awhile!

I took a small break from blogging but now I'm back to my regularly scheduled program:)

Can you see the reason for my little bloggy break in the above photo?...

YEP!

We have been painting at my little cottage!

So far we have the kitchen walls painted....

when I say "we"...I mean Mr. Honey and I.

Kassidy and Sterling have been helping out too which makes it a family project...a big one!

The walls above the beadboard have been butter yellow for 9 years and now they are aqua!

We are installing wood flooring

throughout the house...

and so I decided it was time for a change all around and that the perfect time to do it would be during the long winter months ahead.

The cupboards, doors, beadboard and trim have been white for 9 years too and are still in great shape ...but while we were at it it...we put a fresh coat on them too.

I'm letting the paint cure for a few days before putting the handles and knobs back on. 

I'm also repainting each piece of

furniture in the kitchen...

this is my vintage little girl's cupboard

now painted yellow.

It used to be a jadeite green.

 I love my little cupboard...

I bought it years ago while thrifting

and have always kept it in my kitchen.

When the kids were little I kept playdough, crayons, coloring books, paper,

colored pencils and art supplies in it

so they could sit up to the table and be creative while I was in the kitchen.

Now I keep my baking supplies inside:)  

I'll show you what it looks like inside when I put everything back together!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas...we did!

I did take some time to do a

little bit of sewing for gifts...

I took plenty of pictures and I will show you everything I made in my upcoming posts.

It's good to be back...I have missed you!

xx

Lori

Still on the Farm...

I realize that it's been a long time since I have posted anything about the

Farmers Wife Quilt Along...

but I just wanted to let ya'll know that I'm still on the farm...

And I'm still enjoying being a Farmer's Wife!

So anyhoo...I wanted to use some vintage

fabric in my quilt. 

 So I decided to use a red and gray combo for

#14 because my very favorite

vintage fabric that my grandma

gave to me is in red and gray.

 She was a farmers wife for reals...and I thought it only fitting to include some of her fabric in my Farmers Wife quilt.

The fabric came from her stash that she had for a long time!...she thought it was from about 1950.

It's one of several that she gave to me

that are in 4 yard cuts.

When I asked her why

she always bought 4 yards...

she said,

"Well...that's how much it took to

make a house dress"

Because the blocks are only 6 inches finished...the pieces of the floral aren't very large but I really liked the way it turned out. I have always loved red with gray... 

and I think the touch of green

adds a nice pop!

I decided to play with the color combo and set up a little vignette around my quilt block for a photograph.

I usually take pictures in my studio so I grabbed a few sewing related things in there that are red, gray and green.

A fun pair of vintage sewing scissors...

Of course I used my red gingham

tomato pincushion.

I collect vintage toy irons and this green one fit into my little vignette perfectly:)

I added a few old spools of thread

in red, gray and green...

A very old thimble from

 my other grandma...

 and a sprinkling of green vintage buttons.

I love playing with color...especially using vintage color combinations!

#14

Butterfly at the Crossroads

Fabric Used;

Gray stripe - Cherry Fizz

Red solid - Sew Cherry

Tiny red floral - ?

Gray floral - (my grandma)

I'll be making another block soon to show you!

I hope that you all have a

quilty kind of day my friends:)

xx

Lori

Making Aprons from Old Shirts...

Well I've told you how much I love Pinterest.

I always find something inspiring while I'm happily pinning away.

Last month I came across a photo that brought back memories from a project that I made when I was in Junior High.

It was a project that we made in our church youth group (Mutual)...they were aprons made from our brothers, dad's or grandpa's old button down shirts.

I can still remember the aprons that I made back then...I used my brothers western shirts...you know...the kind with the snaps instead of buttons.

It's real easy and fun to do.

You can find basic instructions here.

These photo's are from this site where the Pinterest picture originated. 

She has used two different shirts to make one apron and has added a few embellishments and even a log cabin block for the pocket on one.

Here are a few without embellishments or pockets....I like these too...

simple and basic.

I will be making some again for Mr. Honey and for Sterling to wear in the kitchen on Sunday's over their white shirts and ties in between meetings.

(they are probably tired of wearing mine...haha)

I will keep the collar on for the neck...

or I will use a standard butcher apron

as a pattern and

simply finish them off with bias tape.

The idea of re purposing clothing...

or making aprons out of

old shirts is not a new one...

it's been around for a long time!

Our grandmothers lived by the motto

"waste not want not"

and we would do good to live by the same!

I still can hear my grandma saying...

"Use it up...

Wear it out,

Make it do

or Do without"

It would be fun to make a few just for sentimental reasons for Kassidy out of an old plaid shirt of her grandpa's...

I'll have to ask each of them for one.

For her... ruffles would be a must for sure:)

She likes a feminine apron.

See the tutorial for the ruffled front apron above here.

And speaking of feminine aprons...

I wanted to show you this one that my friend Rae Ann made out of an old blouse.

I took this picture of her apron and the pocket below at our Aspen retreat.

She saw the possibilities for an apron in the blouse because of the little red pinstriped fabric, the pleats at the top and the red eyelet trim around the bottom...

makes a cute ruffle apron!

There were darts on the back of the blouse and she just left them in and cut a pocket out of the back for the front. Cute huh?

I loved making my aprons out of old shirts

a long time ago ...

and I'm glad I found the pictures on Pinterest to remind me to make more!

So now you can go look in your own

Mr. Honey's closet or take a quick trip

to the thrift shop.

Look at mens old button down shirts or womens old blouses in a new way...look for an apron inside of them:)

Waste not...want not.

xx

Lori

Jolly Jabbering...

If you are wondering why I am showing you random pictures from my little cottage...

I suggest that you

click here

to check out my interview today over at the awesome Fat Quarter Shop blog...

the Jolly Jabber...where you can find out all about them.

Don't forget to leave me some bloggy love while you're there!

Have a quilty kind of day:)

xx

Lori

Butterfly Quilt...

Last year I told you about my "Autumn Butterflies" quilt that I started.

Click Here...

to read all about it.

While at retreat ... I was able to get a little bit more time to work on it after I finished my Sew Cherry Swoon quilt.

This quilt is the perfect project to use as many different fabrics as you can...for alot of variety.

I have chosen fun prints from my stash

that I that I thought would make a great butterfly and would contrast nicely with

my brown solid background.

I'm making 100 butterflies for my quilt and I am about halfway there...

I have started joining them into rows of

 2 x 10 butterflies.

As you can see, these are wonky butterflies and are fun to do!

I cut the wings 3 1/8" x 6 1/2"....

 and added my brown background pieces

(cut 2 1/2" x 4 1/2")

 to each side of the wing on an angle.

I trimmed them up and sewed the wings to my brown gingham butterfly body.

(cut 1 1/2" x 6 1/2")

You can follow Amy's tutorial just like

I did if you want to make your own!

xx

Lori