Swapping Bracelets

I don’t know why they’ve suddenly popped up, but it seems like I’m seeing friendship bracelets and tutorials for them all over the internet lately.  I got nostalgic reading about them because I remember making them when I was in school (about a million years ago). When I came across a friendship bracelet swap, I decided to wax nostalgic and sign up!  I received my 3 swapping partners in my email box today, made a quick trip to Joanns for the floss, and spent the afternoon poking around tutorials. Now I’m excited to get started!

Pattern Review: Beach Robe

I'd been looking for something fun to make for my niece ‘s birthday in a couple of weeks. When I came across a pattern for a beach robe on the Made blog I knew it would be the perfect gift for this Florida pool baby.  I’ve read Made for a long time and Dana’s tutorials were always well written so I decided to give the Beach Robe pattern a try. Not to mention, $8 for the pattern, $5 for a towel at target and a coordinating fat quarter from my stash was a bargain for a gift. One thing I want to mention is that I really appreciate being able to download the pattern as soon as I click on “pay”.  I know this is a little thing but it’s always tough to wait for the pattern to come in my email who know how many hours after I’ve made my purchase.  I was excited to be able to see the pattern instantly.

In regards to the pattern itself, it was super easy to follow.  I’m definitely what I would consider a pretty newbie sewist, and I had no problems whatsoever.  The pattern is 29 pages long, 12 of which are pattern pieces which were really easy to tape together after printing them. The only part I thought was even slightly challenging was deciding how to attach the hood.  I knew I wanted it to be lined, so I elected to lay the lining and hood right sides together and sew them leaving enough room to flip it right side out when I was done.  Then I just attached it to the top of the already constructed robe. The seam it created wasn’t too unsightly and I it was a bit easier than trying to sandwich the top of the robe between the 2 layers of the hood. I was able to make the whole robe in the course of an afternoon and am super pleased with the results.  The pictures aren’t the greatest, but I’m going to replace them with pictures of my niece in the robe once she receives it. 

A little sparkle

I hope you had a great 4th.  Mine was low key, at home with sparklers.  Couldn’t have been better…

Swoon

One of my many current works in progress includes the Swoon quilt. The pattern is by Camille Roskelly, author of the blog and book Simplify, which I also happen to own. I just love the quilt pattern and it’s really easy, perfect for a newbie like me.  So far I’ve completed the first of nine blocks and while easy, each block is a bit of an undertaking just because it’s huge!

Yep, see..huge!  The great thing about it is that 9 blocks and some sashing equals a queen sized quilt! I can’t wait til it’s done..especially since today I successfully convinced my husband that we need to paint the bedroom. With some new paint and a new quilt I’ll feel like I got a whole new room!

Call Me a Farmer’s Wife

I’m sure you’ve probably seen the Farmer’s Wife Quilt-Along fever sweeping across blog land recently. It was started by Angela of Fussy Cut and Amanda of msmcporkchopquilts and can be found here on Flickr.  The QAL is based on the book The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt and is super addicting! I came into the FWQAL a bit late so I’m currently 2 blocks behind, but here’s what I’ve got so far:

I would really have loved to have made it with more modern fabrics because  I must be honest, I’m totally jealous of some of the gorgeous blocks in the Flickr group. But, I’m determined to keep it scrappy, I’m a new sewist and my stash is very small, and I’ve enjoyed using bits of fabric that were mostly all scraps given to me by other people. 

                   Week 1 blocks

Week 2 blocks

Week 3 blocks

I decided not to go in order with the blocks and so far they have all come together really quickly.  This is going to be a fun, long term project.

Re-Launch

After many months I'm finally back to blogging.  My old blog went by the wayside when I went back to college for my bachelor's degree in nursing.  I've been a pediatric oncology nurse since 1999 when I finished nursing school, though I now work in the area of clinical research (still peds hem/onc).  You fellow nurses out there can attest, if you want to expand and advance in the field of nursing these days you just have to have that four-year degree.  Anyway, once school started, blogging slowed then came to a halt as I no longer had time for anything but the books. 

Thankfully, I finished about a year ago and am now finally back to where I can dedicate time to blogging again.  This particular blog is still in it's growing stages so you might see some frequent rearranging.  I hope you'll make it a frequent stop in your blog travels.