Josephine Blouse/Tunic

The Josephine Tunic was released by Made By Rae a few days ago and I snatched it up as soon as I heard it was available! Those pleats were calling to me for months and I had fabric washed and ready to go and just waiting for the pattern. The pattern was so easy to follow and put together that I was able to print the pattern, tape the pieces together (much more fun when using washi tape, btw), trace the pattern, cut the fabric, and sew up the shirt all in one day!

Pattern: Josephine Tunic from Made By Rae

Fabric: Novella Rayon from Valori Wells

I really like the pattern a lot. I think it's a better fit for me than the empire waist of the Washi Tunic, even though I love that one too. My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that the sleeve cap is a little poofy. I think I will try to take out some of that next time so they lay a little flatter. 

Oh, and I used the pattern for the C/D cup and the pleat ended up under the bust... so I guess that was wrong. Whoops! I'll try the A/B cup next time and see if that puts the dart where it's supposed to be. It actually worked out fine because it looks a little like an empire seam. and it blends in with the busy fabric. So no harm done. 

This shot shows the pleats better but I was making a face because the sun was so bright. The weather here has been crazy! It's like spring even though it's still February. 

Oh, and those are purple pants I'm wearing with the shirt. Yep, purple. They are hand-me-downs from one of my really good friends. I was afraid with that much purple someone might mention Barney, but I made it through the day without any such comments! 

Layer Cake Quilt

Pattern: Honey Honey Layer Cake Quilt

Fabric: PB & J from Moda

I love this fabric line! It is so pretty. It has all the colors that I love. If you look inside my closet, all my clothes are these colors! I haven't put on a binding yet, but other than that this quilt is done. I serged the edges after quilting so that it would be ok to leave in the store until I can get the binding on it. 

This quilt is the one that I learned the hard way that you cannot leave the computerized long-arm alone. It "ate" a block of my quilt. Super big sad face. I stopped the machine and stared at it for awhile. I managed not to cry, but it's my worst quilting fear - that I will rip a quilt on the long-arm machine. Someday I MAY pick the quilting out and replace the little square with the hole, but I doubt it. My colleague suggested I put a label there. It might take a big label, but it was good idea! 

This fabric just called to me too much to only make one quilt out of it. I think this will be the first time I've ever made two quilts out of the same fabric! I have a Trip Around the World in progress with the same fabric line.

BONUS: Do you spot the mistake?? I just saw it!! Well, that's one more reason to make another one out of this fabric. : )

Trip Around the World

I love what I do for a living, working for the Army, but one of the sad things about what I do is that people leave. About every three years families pack up and move on to their next station. It makes it hard to get to know people when they leave so quickly. 

But every now and then someone makes a big difference. I have been lucky enough to have several of these people in my life - people who helped me become a better person. This month we are saying goodbye to one of those people. My dear friend Stacy (in the middle) is moving.

Stacy is leaving for a really great reason - she got a promotion to a division chief position! This is what she should be doing. She is absolutely incredible at what she does. She worked as the Financial Management Chief here in our garrison, and as such she helped SO MANY of us! We had to throw her a really great send off! 

I toyed around with different quilt ideas and settled on the Trip Around the World pattern. 

I had wanted to make this for a while and was planning to make it as a sample for the store. But after thinking about it I realized it was the perfect quilt for someone continuing her literal trip around the world!

The fabric is Soho Chic from Moda. (I'm making another sample for the store out of PB & J. I'm half way done with the blocks on that one.)

I used the jelly roll method of making the quilt using this tutorial. I used the scraps to add rows in between the blocks, creating an extra point. I purposely used the blue through the middle of each block to really draw attention to the diamond shape. 

Do you see the little floating blue squares in the first border? That was my favorite little detail. 

For quilting I wanted something travel related. And I wanted to use the Quilt Path and let the computer quilt it. I found some cool castle patterns from one of the digitized patterns companies and thought it was perfect! Can you kind of see the castle?  

The quilt is SO busy that the quilting pattern kind of got lost in the quilt. So blah, but at least she knows it's there. These are the two patterns so you can see how awesome they are!

I had a moment of inspiration when I realized the leftover fabric from the backing was the perfect size for a bag. I sort of used a drawstring bag tutorial from the internet, but I didn't have it with me at the time, so I kind of winged it. It worked out ok! 

Here's Stacy receiving the quilt at the farewell party. She loved it! 

Whole 30 - a Food Journey

WARNING: This is a text heavy post with no photos! And it's a little rambly.

My Food History
I don't remember much about food growing up, but I remember that both of my parents were always cooking. We cooked a lot. Everything seemed to be from scratch. I remember begging for instant potatoes and TV dinners because they were a treat! (How silly that seems now!!) I never was super interested in sweets or sodas, but I loved bacon and fried eggs! Looking back I realize how lucky I was that my parents taught me how to cook and that we cooked so much with fresh ingredients. I was a silly kid back then who couldn't stand chunks in my tomato sauce, but I think it set the stage for my future food journey.

My Food Journey
When I was in college I gained A LOT of weight. Seriously. A lot. Most of it could probably be attributed to Mc Donald's, late night studying and early mornings, and a very long commute. Oh, and a breakfast burrito every morning. Rob and I learned about Dr. Atkins a loooong time ago and read his book. It makes sense! Don't eat so much sugar. Duh! But sugar is in EVERYTHING. So Rob and I started changing our habits and the way we cook and we lost a lot of weight. But when we would go back to eating bread and pasta it would come back. We were tired of the weight roller coaster.

A couple of years ago we watched the movie Food, Inc. It rocked my world. For real. I can't look at food the same way after that. This began a new chapter of the food journey. Changing for health reasons and not for weight loss. I've learned sooo much in the last few years about what goes into food, who makes it, what secret ingredients things have... It put me on a quest to change everything.

Whole 30 and Paleo
Paleo is an interesting concept that reminds me of Atkins, but I think it's better. Paleo means eating only natural stuff and not processed in any way. Whole 30 is also very similar, but even more strict. We have been using concepts and recipes of both during 2014 and it's gone pretty well.

I can't honestly say we went 30 days because we had some cheat days. But since we had been changing the way we eat for so long I think we were ok. For Whole30 you eat only natural foods, no dairy, no grains, no legumes, no white potatoes, no sweeteners artificial or fake. It's rough. The no dairy is what hurt the most. Everything else was no problem, but I seriously missed cheese! The one thing that I did do is learn how to drink my coffee black. Yep, black. Now, it has to be a GOOD coffee, but I can do it!

The Wrap Up
After 30 days I lost 13 pounds and have completely changed the way we cook. The first few days I purged our kitchen of all kinds of seasoning packets, packaged foods, sauces, salad dressings, ... anything with chemicals and sugar. It felt good to get rid of it. Then I was forced to cook fresh because there was nothing to fall back on.

Recipes
Some of my favorite recipes were Pumpkin and Beef Sautee, BLT Omlette, and this amazing dry Sugar Free BBQ Rub. We even learned how to grind up our own pork and make sausage patties! I'm working on perfecting breakfast sausage. I'm not quite there yet, but we have lots of ground pork to practice with!

The Kids
The kids didn't really get fully on board. They still had to eat at school, so they couldn't go 100% all natural. In the beginning Ethan was devastated by the Whole30! I cried every night begging for pasta and saying his dinner was ruined! By the end of 30 days though, he ended up in the kitchen with me helping me cook. He actually did all the meat grinding the other day! I just cut the meat into pieces for the grinder. That's been fun - having him cook with me. He was the main one who needed a food reset. Haven is pretty healthy already, but Ethan was slipping into some very bad habits. I think these 30 days have actually been the best for him out of all of us. He's making better choices now. I have tried not to force decisions on him, or ban him from anything. I don't want him to sneak things or to go nuts when he grows up and discovers junk food. So instead of denying him things we talk about what's in it and why it's not a healthy choice and what might be better. If he still "NEEDS" it then I might give in to a small portion, depending on what it is. There are a few forbidden foods in our house - like gatorade, poptarts, bread with corn syrup, and other things with dyes and chemicals that gross me out. But I'm still willing to let him have a little treat to keep him from bingeing on it later on. Now he goes for a package of blueberries instead of a bag of gummy bears. I'm proud of him!

Overall
Ok, that last bit got pretty wordy. I guess my overall thoughts are:
1. the Whole 30 and Paleo are really good concepts and I think we have discovered a way of eating that I feel really good about.
2. Giving up dairy was too much, and I think I'm going to keep eating cheese and yogurt.
3. Making everything fresh is not really that hard and I've really enjoyed teaching those skills to my kids.

Soooooo..... if you are thinking about giving these a try - go for it.

XO Table Runner and Mini Quilt

I have been obsessed with these little blocks lately! They are so easy to make, and depending on where you put the print or the neutral you can completely change the look of the block. 

So this table runner is not a new idea, but I had fun making it, and I took pictures while I was sewing! So I'm sharing the XO Table Runner and Mini Quilt.

XO Table Runner Tutorial

Materials:

1 Charm Pack (I used Table For Two from Moda)

1/2 yard neutral (I used the white on white from the line)

1/2 yard for backing

1/4 yard for binding

Step 1: 

You need 40 squares of your print for the block. I pulled the two cream squares out of my charm pack and used the other 40 squares. If your charm pack comes with less squares you may need to supplement with some yardage, or a second charm pack. But anyway, you need 40 squares.

Cut those 40 squares down to 4 1/2"

And cut 80 squares from the neutral that are 2 1/2"

Step 2:

Put one small square in the corner of one large square (right sides together) and sew across the diagonal as shown below.

One thing that helps me with this is to put a piece of tape lining up with the 0 on my machine. Then I follow the tape with the bottom corner of the square. Pretty washi tape makes it fun! If this doesn't make sense, you can draw a line across the diagonal of the square and then sew on the line. 

 Do that over and over until you get through all 40 of your squares. 

Step 3:

Now, if you are crazy like me you can do this next step. If not, feel free to skip it. But really, why not go ahead and go for it?? 

Go back through your whole stack and sew another stitch 1/4" from your first stitch, closer to the outer corner. We can use these little scrap pieces later!

If you did this extra step your blocks will look like this now.

Step 4:

OK! Now switch your blocks around and repeat all those steps on the opposite side of the block.

Here's what you have now! If you skipped the crazy step then you'll only have one stitch on each square.

Now take a break and enjoy my kitty "helping" me sew! I swear they make fabric out of cat nip, because my cat goes CRAZY for it. Maybe in his former life he was a quilter... 

Step 5: 

In order to keep the block 4 1/2" I have a pressing trick. Line up the corners of the squares and press. Don't worry about the stitching line. Really. Just line up the corners. This way you don't have to square up the blocks later!

Do you see the yellow fabric there? I recovered my ironing board FINALLY. I made it myself! 

Ok, so now you should have a nice neat pile of squares that look like this.

Step 6:

Now snip off the scrap corner. Be careful that you only cut those layers and don't catch the top layer! Cut between the lines of stitching. You can use a rotary cutter, but I think scissors are easier here.

And here's your pile now!

Step 7:

Do yourself a favor and iron these little babies now. Trust me, if you don't do it now you'll be tired later and miss out on all the fun!

Blurry pile of tiny half square triangles.

I don't know if you are interested, but I thought I would share my sewing set up. I sew at the dining room table, and this is my little corner that I've taken over. I lowered my ironing board to sit next to me so I don't have to stand while I press blocks. When not in use, my board fits perfectly under the 3-seater sofa, and my big quilting mat fits under the 2-seater. It's my hide-away quilting room!

Step 8:

The reward for all your hard work pressing! Now you get to lay out your table runner! All 40 of your blocks are exactly the same, so all you have to do is rotate how you lay it down to make your X and O shapes.

Step 9:

Sew the pieces together. My method is to flip the right block over the left block,

and then make a pile of that column's blocks.

 Then I take that pile to the machine and sew them together on the right side. Then I lay those blocks back on the table so I don't have to worry about getting them out of order.

Step 10:

Repeat the piecing method, sewing the pairs together. 

When you get all the pieces sewn together across the row you'll end up with four rows that look like this.

Step 11:

Flip the quilt over to the back side and press each row in opposite directions. This will help your seams to nestle together when you sew the rows together. 

Closeup of how the seams go in opposite directions.

Step 12:

Sew your rows together, give it a good pressing, and you have a table runner! I am liking pressing my seams open these days to get a super flat quilt top. But feel free to press all the seams one direction. Whatever makes you happy!

Here's my table runner in action, sans quilting. 

Step 13: 

Quilt and Bind! I used a walking fit to echo the shape of the x's and o's, and also a stitch in the ditch between all the blocks. Then I bound it with one of the light pinks from the line. 

The backing is a panel piece from the line. It was too wide to use the whole width, and too narrow to just use one strip. But I went with one and added two pieces of fabric to the sides. I really like how it turned out!

Table for two please!

Valentine Mini Quilt

Now we get to use all your little scraps!! I had so much fun with this part!

You will have 80 little half square triangles to play with. You can use all of them, or only some. I had some fun playing with layouts.

Chevrons

Diamond

Pinwheels

Boxes

Here's the one I went with. I love it!

This little guy isn't quilted yet, but it will be soon. It's the perfect size for a placemat, but only having one I don't think I will use it for that. Could be a candle mat, or a table topper. But I think it will hang on my wall as a mini quilt. It's a little big for a true mini quilt, but I'll forgive it. 

Show and Tell

One of our employees, Whitney (left) is getting married, and leaving. Charly (right) wanted to make her a quilt and our new Valentine's fabric line was perfect. She made a simple strip quilt and it turned out great!

 But the real fun was in the quilting! I mentioned on Instagram that our shop got a Quilt Path. It's a computer that controls our long-arm! We downloaded a pattern called "conversation hearts" and let the long-arm do all the work while we stood back and squealed oohs and ahhs.

 Can you see it?? CAN YOU???

Here's the back view. The words are backwards, of course, but it helps you see how awesome it is.

 Last week I taught a class on how to do the Double Slice quilt. Lucy finished hers! It's a great quilt for beginners to build their skills and for anyone to get a quick and easy project put together. And it's a good size. One of the ladies in class made hers for her mother!

We have an amazing art instructor running a program called Canvas and Corkscrews. She has full classes almost every time she offers the class and runs private parties. I finally joined one of the parties and painted! I don't normally enjoy painting AT ALL, but Marta made the class really fun, and made everyone feel like they can paint!

So proud of my painting!

I thought about posting a pick of the sample painting, but decided not to. If I don't compare my painting to anyone else's I really like it. It's when I start comparing it to hers that I start picking it apart. Which makes no sense, right?