Not so Honest Craft Room

This is definitely not the way this room usually looks :)

I had the day off of work and both kiddos were at their mother's day out program so I had 5 whole hours to myself to sew.  And what did I end up doing?  Reorganizing my craft room.

I went in with the intention of working on a ton of small items for upcoming craft shows but was so overwhelmed by the clutter that I just had to clean, which led to reorganizing and even rearranging the furniture.  I didn't take a before photo but the cutting table and the fabric shelf on the left switched places and nearly everything found a new home.  There is still more to do and you definitely don't want to see the other half of the room but you've got to start somewhere...

 

After I get the whole room done I'll give you a better "tour" :)

September LinkUp

Hopefully some of you had time to complete this month's projects.

If you did, now is the time to link up and show them off :)

Craft Show Prep

All clothing construction has been suspended as I need to get my inventory up for 3 shows I have in the next few months.  

I've added a few new items to the mix:

Three different sizes of journals will be available.  These are the largest size.  I love scrapbook paper and now have a use for my growing stash :)

Another new item I will be offering is the Essential Wallet.  They have two cash/misc slots inside as well as a zippered coin pouch and six card slots.  I'm having a hard time deciding which one I want to keep for myself ;)...

 

While I've been waiting on supplies I've also been restocking my crayon rolls and earbud pouches.

Jack-O-Lantern Cat

This is the third of the free paper pieced patterns that I will be listing for free on my Craftsy shop through the end of October 2014.

Again, this pattern is for those with a bit more experience with paper piecing :)

Cat on the Moon

You've heard of the Old Man on the Moon?   Well this is the Cat on the Moon.

This one is a bit more detailed than the last one and would be better for someone with a bit of experience paper piecing.

Free through the end of October 2014 here.

Free Halloween Paper Pieced Patterns

I once again have a grand plan to publish a series of Halloween themed paper pieced blocks.  With all of the Halloween swaps that I've seen popping up on Instagram lately now seems like the perfect time.  These patterns will be free through Halloween of 2014 so get them while you can ;)

The first is the Happy Ghost...

You can download the pattern here.

I have several others in the works so check back soon :)

September Big City Bags SAL

This month we will be linking up our finished Miss Independent bags.   I will admit this is one of the projects in the book I've been most excited about but I'm just not sure I'll have time to make one...

(Photos used with permission of Martingale Publishing.  Photograph by Brent Kane.)

BTW, Betsy-I need you to send your e-mail and mailing addresses to sewingwithsqueak@gmail.com.  Apparently your a no-reply blogger and I can't get back to you :(.

The Rules

• We will be sewing the books in the order they are in the book.  Only the bag for that specific month will be eligible for the link up.
• The bag must be complete to qualify for prizes.
• On the first of every month I will announce a new project and prize. 
• You will have from September 25, 2014 until midnight on September 30, 2014 CST to link up your project for a chance to win that month's prize.
• You can link up more than one bag a month as long as they were both made during the corresponding month
• Join the Flickr group to see all the projects that have been made. 

This month's prize is courtesy of Sew Me A Song. The winner this month will have $25 to spend on anything in the shop.  There is a wide variety of fabric to choose from (I would go for the Sweet As Honey prints myself) in both yardage and bundles.  The sale section also has an amazing owl print...you all know I love my owls!!

 

 Our Generous sponsors:

Fat Quarter Shop

Pink Chalk Fabrics

Pattern Crush

ByAnnie's Soft & Stable

LimaSews

A Material Girl Quilts

Cluck Cluck Sew

Happy Quilting

Blossom Heart Quilts

Sew Me A Song

Coats & Clark

Martingale  

And a special offer from zipit:  15% off of all orders for those sewing along

Use code sewingwithsqueak at checkout to apply the discount

The Washi That Almost Wasn't

I didn't buy this fabric with a Washi Dress in mind but after I got it I decided it couldn't be made into anything other than just that despite the fact that it was several inches short of the required yardage.

 Even after I took 6" off of the length it was a VERY close call!!  I had enough fabric to make the sleeves but decided this version didn't need them.  I wanted this version to be a little more form fitting than my previous one so I used a 1" seam allowance.  (I'm too lazy to reprint the pattern, tape it all together, and cut it our again.)  This little modification made it the perfect fit!  It's hard to see in this picture but I once again made this one using the cut out neckline.

I have several different versions of this dress in mind.  I have already bought fabric for a Halloween version.  And I definitely want to make one with long or 3/4 sleeves.  Looks like I will be purchasing the expansion pack before long...

My Very First Washi Dress

And it's nearly perfect!  The dress was made using the very popular pattern from Made By Rae.

I cut a large and the only alteration I made was to elongate the darts a little.

 The fabric was purchased during a great sale at JimmyBeansWool.com.

The whole dress was quick and easy to complete and I will definitely be making many, many more!!

Congrats Betsy!!

You are the winner of this month's prize.  A great bundle from Blossom Heart Quilts!  I have never had any Japanese fabrics to I'm jealous :).

You can see more of Betsy's stuff here.

My Little Bubble Guppie Boy

Squeak has been obsessed with Bubble Guppies for most of this year.  He has the DVDs, the toys, the books...and now the pants.

I made him a pair of pants quite a while back and I learned a lot from that experience.  This pair fits much better!!  I made the back a little deeper to accommodate his diaper and made the waistband a separate piece so I could use wider elastic.  I even managed to hem them to the correct length on the first try.

Oh, and there was just enough fabric left to make a matching pair for Fred.  Squeak didn't seem that impressed but Princess couldn't wait to start playing with him :)

I had grand plans for the photos for this post.  I was going to get a really cute pic of Squeak holding up Fred while they both had their new pants on.  Instead I had to bribe Squeak with cake just to get him to look at the camera.  Oh the joys of having a two year old...

Around the World Blog Hop

I was nominated by CeLynn of CeLynns Sunflower Patch to participate this time around. CeLynn mad been playing along with my Big City Bags Sew Along and makes wonderful, wonderful things so be sure and check out her blog if you haven't already.

I'm not going to lie...I completely forgot about this until today. That means this post is being done from my phone and that it was very hastily put together. 

Q.  What am I working on? 

A:  A vast variety of things!!!  I spend most of today cutting projects and doing prep work for upcoming craft shows but I did manage to finish up this mini earlier this afternoon (good thing to or I would have nothing to show you!). 

I offered to test out a pattern for a quilt block I saw on Instagram. The pattern is by @annsphotos. I'm sure she has a blog but I don't know what it is :(. 

I decided that for this test block I wanted to break out my hoarded Nordika fabrics and make four blocks to put together a mini for my office at work. 

I had to alter the pattern a tiny bit to get them all to fit together properly but it was worth the effort. The quilting did give me some trouble (had to be picked out twice!) but I'm happy with the end result!! 

Q: How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

A:  I'm definitely not doing anything original or extremely creative but I do everything FAST. I couldn't say if it's because I'm trying to get it done before the kids interrupt me or if I'm just anxious to get started on the next project :). 

Q:  Why do I write/create what I do? 

A:  I've always had trouble sitting still. I always have to be doing SOMETHING. Even if I'm watching tv I need to be cross stitching or doing sudoku or cleaning (yes, even cleaning is better than nothing). And of course because I love it. Even when I hate the process I still love creating. 

Q.  How does my writing/creating process work?

A:  I wish I knew...then maybe I could put it to better use ;). As I said above I'm not overly creative but I can usually look at something and figure out how it's done/replicate it without too much difficulty. 

I suppose you've heard enough about me for now. I hope that if your a new reader you'll stay and take a look at some old posts. I'm on a clothing kick lately but I'll eventually get back to quilting :). 

And since I forgot about this blog hop entirely I did not get around to asking my three other ladies to participate after me. CeLynn--I'm sure your used to my flakiness by now and hope you'll forgive me!!  Thank you so much for asking me to play along!

P.S.  I will edit this in the morningfrom a  computer to provide links where necessary so check back then if you'd like. 

Another Art Caddy

This one for a little girl having her third birthday party.

She is a huge fan of Doc McStuffins so I ordered some themed fabric online and paired it with some prints I picked up at JoAnn's.

One thing I did differently this time around was to add a lining to all of the pockets to make them a little more durable.

She was too busy opening all of her presents to pay much attention to it at the actual party but hopefully in the future she'll put it all to use :)