We interrupt this silence for a blog post!

Well hello there! I apologize for the long silence . . . it seems that my short Christmas break turned into quite a long break. I've been enjoying having Mr. PinSewPress home since he graduated and the time has just flown by!

After some nice downtime with the family, we're in the process of moving! Mr. PSP got a job in Virginia, so we're moving back to our home state after enjoying six years in Myrtle Beach. We're really looking forward to living in Virginia again, but all this packing sure is exhausting!

Today I started packing up my sewing room, and for the first time I sorted everything by color. It's fun for me to see everything laid out like this! It would look even better if I folded everything uniformly, but darn it, I'm just too lazy ;-) (Not to mention short on time!)

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and confirm that I am in fact alive and well. Thanks bloggy friends for checking in with me during my long silence - I didn't intend to go that long without posting! I'll try to come back soon with some good quilty pictures. My mom made Lauren an awesome Dr. Seuss quilt for Christmas, and I have a few quilts in progress myself.

Happy sewing!
Mary

I heart bugs

So in the real world, I pretty much hate bugs.

But in the fabric world? I just love these Tula Pink bugs! I was up late browsing Flickr one night and happened upon a picture of these adorable thumbtacks and I just had to have them! I started clicking around and quickly discovered that Meredith sells these in her shop. After a quick, overly-excited message to Meredith I managed to score them before she listed them in her shop. Woohoo!

I've had these for a couple weeks now and I can't bring myself to take them out of their adorable little container. Here there are posing with my newly acquired fat quarter of adorable ladybugs, scored in a little swap with a Flickr friend. I think I'm just going to stare at these little guys for a while!

Happy Friday!
Mary

Sew & Tell Friday - The Nigella Bag

Hello and happy Friday! Amy at Amylouwho is featuring me today for Sew & Tell Friday, so if you haven't visited be sure to hop on over and check it out! (Oh, and if you finished something this week and blogged about it, be sure to join in the fun and link up!)

My finish this week is a birthday gift for a good friend of mine. She L-O-V-E-S bags so I knew just what to make for her! It was fun talking with her about features she wanted and styles she likes and having her go through my stash to pick the perfect fabric. She asked for a bag with one strap, preferably more wide than tall, with exterior pockets. Here's what I came up with -

I started with the Mabel Messenger Bag pattern and made several modifications to meet my friend's needs. First I added two exterior pockets on the front and a "fancy" (ha ha) faux leather bottom. The bottom was totally inspired by this awesome bag. I found the faux leather at a local shop that sells home decorator fabrics and it was surprisingly easy to sew with. The only major difference is that you can't pin it, but I sewed using my regular 1/4" foot as well as my walking foot and it worked just fine. Oh, and I did use a size 16 needle for this bag since some parts of it where really thick. I love that the faux leather bottom will help this bag stand up to everyday wear and tear!

I'm not a huge fan of traditional metal snaps. I have tons of the 18mm variety, but the magnet is so strong that I often find it difficult to unsnap them. They can also be a bit unsightly sometimes. Enter the hidden sew-in magnetic snap closure. LOVE it! Although it was a little tricky working with the magnet sewn into the bag since it wants to stick to EVERYTHING - my scissors, my iron, the metal plate and feed dogs on my sewing machine. It wasn't a huge pain, but it was amusing!

My next addition was a metal swivel clasp just inside the bag so that my friend can just clip in her keys and not lose them in the bottom of her bag. The fabric I used for the interior is from Kate Spain's Verna collection.

Then I added metal rectangle rings, just because. These were really great during the construction of the bag since I didn't have to sew on the straps until the very end. It was nice to not have to deal with the strap being awkwardly stuffed between the exterior and interior while I was sewing them together. Also I should note that I deviated from the pattern here and made a fixed strap instead of the adjustable shoulder-to-messenger-bag strap the instructions called for.

And for my next trick . . . an interior zipper pocket! This was my very first one, and wasn't hard AT ALL! The pattern includes directions for this zip pocket, and I'm thrilled to have finally learned how to do it.

The fabric I used for this bag is from Amy Butler's Nigella home dec weight collection. It's so pretty, and luckily I have just enough left over to make myself a new ironing board cover. I sure wouldn't mind looking at this fabric every time I have to iron, and it sure beats the ugly cover I have now!

Well, this bag is off to meet her new owner tomorrow. I hope she likes it!!!

Happy sewing,
Mary

Calling all Neptune fans!

Just a heads up that I added some new yardage to the shop!

Happy sewing,
Mary

Sometimes you win!

Like many of you, I enter TONS of blog giveaways but never really expect to win.

Imagine my surprise when I won this fabulous mini quilt from Kristina Wilberg of Sew Domestic!

I had seen this mini on Kristina's blog back in May, so I was thrilled when I saw that she was giving it away! As part of the giveaway Kristina also promised to send some scraps. I was expecting, well, scraps, but instead this is what she sent . . .

Wow, thanks Kristina! Now I have plenty of fabric to make something fun and girly!

Be sure to visit Kristina's blog to ooh and ahh over her adorable new baby girl (born last Friday!) and stop by her Etsy shop Quilted Treasures for fun fat quarter bundles and other goodies.

Happy sewing!
Mary

Neptune Destash

I've been lucky to have fairly easy access to Tula Pink's Neptune line over the last year at my LQS (local quilt shop, if you're wondering!) It seems that the average Myrtle Beach quilter is not nearly as obsessed with this line as my online blog friends and Flickr friends are! Neptune is pretty much impossible to find online these days.

Anyway, I haven't been able to figure out what I want to make with my small stash, so I think it's time to let it go . . .

7 Fat Quarters (still available)

One half yard of SS Pink in Coral SOLD!

Two "Deep Sea" prints SOLD!

You can find these goodies in the shop!

Happy sewing,
Mary

The whole school of fish!

Remember when I was lamenting that I didn't have any super adorable goldfish in bags?

When I published that post back in July, I was mostly hoping someone would take pity on me and send me one teeny tiny goldfish.

However, I got much more than I expected!

When my blog friend Amy and I agreed to do a fun one-on-one swap, she said she wanted to make something for me based on one of my previous posts.

Just look at this amazing mini quilt she made for me!

I can't even tell you how much I adore this little quilt.  I just love Amy's version of the goldfish in bags!  The bags are linocut prints that Amy hand-carves on linoleum blocks from her own original designs.  The fish are hand painted with freezer paper stencils.  (If you'd like some of Amy's original goldfish in bags, she has some of her prints for sale in her shop.  And if you're curious about the linocut process, Amy did a great post about it here.)

I also adore the colors on this mini, all the great Make Life prints (one of my very favorite fabric lines!) and the great mix of hand quilting and machine quilting.  This mini is hanging in my sewing room and I love looking at it every time I go in there!

Amy also sent me this great handmade card, also with a linocut print.  This one is just perfect for a beach girl like myself!

(I haven't finished my end of the swap yet . . . but I'll be done by the end of the month!)

My goldfish luck didn't end there . . . almost as if they had coordinated it, I got this package in the mail on the very same day - a surprise from Mr. Pin.Sew.Press!

We have a policy of not getting each other birthday or Christmas presents.  Instead we like to give each other little surprises throughout the year.

Let me tell you, this was a huge surprise!  I had actually made peace with the fact that I'd never own these little guys, and I can't believe my husband went to the trouble of tracking these down! 

I'm happy to report that all my new fish are getting along nicely.

Thank you so much Amy and Mr. Pin.Sew.Press. for making my day!  I promise to take good care of my new pets :-)

Happy sewing,

Mary

P.S. - I think Blogger hates me . . . I can't get rid of all those extra spaces in the middle!  What's the deal?

Organize your rulers

I love all my Omnigrid rulers, but they can be kind of awkward to store.

I came up with this solution and it has worked SO well for me!

I got this simple plastic mail sorter at Target for $5.99.

It holds everything perfectly, from the smallest ruler (4"x8") to the biggest (12.5"x12.5").

Do you have any great organization tips for the sewing room?  Please share!

Happy Sewing!

Mary

For the love of goldfish (and aqua and tangerine!)

I really love these little guys . . . 


1. goldfish to go, 2. Heather Ross goldfish, 3. 5 little coasters, 4. goldfish squared twin quilts, 5. Heather Ross Baby Quilt, 6. Heather Ross Baby Quilt, 7. Passport Cover, 8. Goldfish & Tangerine Dot Car Seat Strap Covers, 9. goldfish

Aqua and tangerine has to be one of my favorite color combos. (Did you know there's a whole Flickr group dedicated to aqua and tangerine?!) And these little goldfish just make me smile. They have names for pete's sake! Adorable.


All you fabric addicts out there know just how rare these out-of-print Heather Ross prints are. You can't find them anywhere! They were certainly long gone by the time I started sewing. 

Except that I did find them on Etsy today. And I was pretty excited until I saw the price. $45 per yard. Per yard! Seriously? 

If you're looking for a real bargain, I just checked back on the link and the price is down to $42.50. You can find the goldfish in bags here and the swimming goldfish here. Still out of my price range (by about $30 a yard!), but if you snatch it up will you please just cut out one teeny tiny fish in a bag and send it to me? Just one? I'll feed it and take it for walks and everything, promise.

Thanks :-)

Mary

you've got mail!

Today was a great day for mail . . . new sewing goodies!

First, 50 beautiful zippers from Zip It Zipper Supply:

I heard about this shop from Anna over at Noodlehead.  I used to buy my zippers one at a time from Walmart for about $2 apiece.  Then I discovered Zipit and I got this pack of 50 8" YKK zippers for $24 (including shipping.)  I'll do the math for you . . . that's 48 cents per zipper.  Awesome!

Jennifer, the owner, even included some cute little goodies from her other shop, KungFuCowgirl Kawaii Goods and Supplies.

So cute, and of course Lauren thought these were just for her.

Then, another package with my very first yard of Japanese fabric!

I got this great Kokka patchwork print from Hawthorne Threads, which is probably my favorite online fabric shop.  It's definitely the most user friendly and visually appealing online fabric shop I've visited.  They even feature customer creations that show each particular fabric in use.  I find that really helpful for estimating the scale of the printed fabric.  Oh yeah, and the owners are very friendly and provide excellent customer service.  And did I mention they do a weekly giveaway?  (Nobody's paying me to say this, I swear!)

Last, but certainly not least, is a tiny little package (envelope, actually!) that I received last week:

My very first quilt labels!  I ordered these from Sweetwater Street.  You may already be familiar with this company through their awesome fabric lines "Authentic" and "Make Life".

I'd really like to make a habit of labeling every quilt I make.  There are some great tutorials out there for making your own labels, which I might attempt in the near future.  Rachel has a super easy one here, and Julie has one here that uses Photoshop and Spoonflower.

Well, it's time for me to log off and head out to the the gym, because unfortunately sewing just doesn't firm and tone, you know what I mean?  :-)  (If sewing were exercise, I would be one fit lady!)

Happy sewing!
Mary