Bippity Boppity BIBS!

It's shameless commerce Tuesday.  Today I am featuring reversible boutique baby bibs.  That's like getting TWO cute bibs for the price of one! 

 

Cute. Cute. Cute.  You'll notice my favorite little piggy fabric is back, paired with pretty pink and white Carolina Gingham.

And no one will mistake a slightly bald baby girl for a boy if she is wearing one of the pretty pink floral bibs.  Any LSU fans in the crowd?  Check out the purple and gold fleur de lis bib.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the boys!  How could I, with 6 grandsons?  More little boy bibs are in production.  See?  All cut out.  New items will be added.  Soon, I hope.  So check back often.

 

These precious but practical bibs are made from high quality designer cottons and Carolina Gingham, with a thin layer of preshrunk white cotton flannel as batting to add softness and shaping.  The bibs have a covered metal snap closure.    Perfect for a baby gift, shower gift, or Christmas gift for a special baby.  And I offer FREE domestic shipping on all orders. 

 

To see more boutique baby bibs, visit this section of my Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower?section_id=8146356.    Or view the slide show shop widget in the border of this blog.

 

The Christmas rush is on!  I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo (my granddaughter Madeline's favorite movie).  But instead of , "Keep swimming.  Just keep swimming. "  I'm humming, "Keep sewing.  Just keep sewing."  

 

TTFN           

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

 

Light At the End of the Tunnel?

Many of my Etsy friends will relate to the "I Quit My Day Job" success stories that occasionally appear on the Etsy blog. 

 

Well, I didn't quit my day job.  My day job quit me.  I will be furloughed without pay for at least 30 days beginning December 2, 2011. I have already survived a loss of benefits and reduced hours and pay.

 

I am more fortunate than some of my coworkers who have also been furloughed.  I have a seasonal tax job that will keep me employed nearly full-time evenings and weekends from January through mid-April, and I will be able to pick up a few (very few) preseason paid hours at the tax office in December.   I also have my little Etsy shop, which will keep me busy and provide some extra income.

 

I am trying to think of this as an unpaid Christmas vacation – my first since 1976.  I will have some precious time to spend with the grandkids while they are on Christmas break before tax season.  And I will have a windfall of free time which I can easily fill with projects.My lists are always longer than my days.  I will add more items to my Etsy shop and complete some handmade gifts. 

                                                                          

When I went to our Thanksgiving Eve church service last Wednesday night, the gospel lesson was from Matthew 6:25-33.  The timing was perfect.  It is just what I needed to hear this week.  I kept the program insert, and it is tucked in my wallet as a gentle reminder.  Here is an excerpt:

 

Jesus said, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? …. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these." 

Perhaps there still is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.

 

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/pasqueflowercreations

Lily of the Valley photo by Jeff on Scripture Zealot Blog

Light at the End of the Tunnel was re-pinned from a Pinterest post.

Thanksgiving Eve: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

One of my favorite old (1987) movies is Planes, Trains & Automobiles, written and directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy.    It is a funny yet touching saga of two men who encounter incredible transportation obstacles trying to get home for Thanksgiving.  I think most of us have a homing instinct that is especially strong as we approach the holidays. 

 

I'm an empty nester.  Only one of our five children will be home for Thanksgiving, and that makes me a little sad.  Yet I totally understand the demands of the modern workplace and the expense and aggravation of travel.    

 

We will eat the traditional meal, and I will enjoy a 4-day weekend.  The grandsons will watch the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. The guys will watch football.  Lots and lots of football.  And I will thank God for my many blessings:

 

Family

Friends

Good health

Freedom

A warm home

Food in the frig

A reliable computer

Fabric

...

Whether  you're feasting or watching football (or both), I wish you and yours safe travels and a very Happy Thanksgiving. 

 

I'll close with this quote from the late great Erma Bombeck:

 

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence.  ~Erma Bombeck

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

 

Oven Mitts for Holiday Baking or Gifting

It's shameless commerce Tuesday.   Oven mitts have become a "hot" item in my little Etsy shop lately.  The little piggy oven mitts sold last night, but I am ordering more of that cute, cute fabric designed by Maria Kalinowsky for the Timeless Treasures Green Acres collection.   I'll be posting several more fun oven mitt pairs in the next two weeks in several fabric options – from pretty to cute to retro-inspired to funky.

 

Here is a recent comment from a happy buyer, Megan, who bought a pair of Amy Butler floral mitts with red and pink polka dot lining.  You can visit Megan's adorable shop, Lilac Saloon, at http://www.etsy.com/people/LilacSaloon.  But I digress.  Here's what she said (in two separate Convos):

 

So, I really want to buy these (and am about to!) but I just had to send you a message first. I have this old nasy oven mitt (only one!) that was in a box of kitchen stuff from one of my parents. They gave it to me when I graduated from college, I think. I've been using it forever (5 years maybe?) without even thinking "this is gross and ugly (xmas fabric!!) and I should just buy a new one" until a couple of days ago. The inside feels all torn and gross and I just can't stick my hand in there any longer!!

I have an Etsy shop as well, and so always look on Etsy first when I want to buy something. I just spent 45 minutes looking through ALL the oven mitts on Etsy. I actually sorted them by Highest Price because I want really cute and quality ones (but don't want it to come with an apron, etc, like some of the pricey ones do!). I started to get down into the $20 range and got worried I wouldn't find anything! Then I found YOURS!!!! They are exactly what I had in my mind that I wanted. Normal shape, two mitts that match, a bit girly but not tacky. 

And you seriously ship them for free?! I'm only in the next state over so that's good :)

Ok anyway, just wanted to say thanks for being awesome. And saving my hands from the NASTY mitt I have been mindlessly using for so long.

 

. . .

 

Just got the mitts today! They are beautiful and sooo well made. I love them so much and can't wait to use them!
I attached a photo of my yucky OLD MITT next to the beautiful new ones! What an upgrade :) Thanks again so much.

xoxo
Megan

Megan's photo is shown above.  These mitts are perfect for holiday baking or everyday kitchen patrol.  I use high quality cotton fabrics with heat resistant Insulbrite batting and an extra layer of flannel for softness.  The mitts are fully lined and SO comfortable -- no scratchy exposed seams.  Looking for an affordable Christmas gift, hostess gift, shower gift or housewarming gift?   Just sayin' … .

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  Wishing you safe travel and happy times with your loved ones.

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

 

Strip "Tease"

My local quilt guild has a monthly block exchange.  It's sort of like a quilt block lottery and the price of entry is one quilt block.  The November exchange block was  a diagonal strip-pieced 8.5" square block.  The only guidelines were: 1) No strips wider than two inches; 2) Use Fall colors; and 3)  Block should measure 8.5".

 

And I won 12 blocks!  Now I need to decide what to do with them.  Table topper? Table runner? Pot holders?  Scrappy mini wallets or coin purses?

 

I'm open to any suggestions from my creative blogging buddies!

Now, if I could only win the REAL lottery!

 

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

 

Tree Skirts and a Sewing Tip

I'm sewing Christmas tree skirts for my two youngest adult children by special request. They picked the Starflake pattern designed by Linda Johnson of Calico Cat Patterns & Designs:  www.thecalicocat.com.   The pattern includes three sizes:  36", 48" and 60" in diameter.  I opted for 48".  Both Jeff and Allison wanted traditional reds and greens.

The Starflake pattern looks deceptively simple.  But there are a LOT of bias edges in those diamonds, parallelograms and pie-shaped edge pieces!!  I used dark green batik to help stabilize the star point units, and the straight-of-grain red strips on the outer border of the center star also helped anchor the adjacent stretchy edges.

After taming the bias, the next challenge was to achieve nice crisp points where the light-colored diamond shapes intersect with reds and greens at odd angles.   I love to sew.  But unsewing?  Not so much!  So I devised a method to minimize wear and tear on my seam ripper and my nerves while joining those tricky fabric intersections.

Here's the tip:  When trying to achieve perfect points at angled fabric intersections, I machine baste the challenging intersection using a long stitch.  I stitch only about one inch, and then check to see if I have a nice point before stitching the entire seam.  That way, if I need to unsew, I only have one inch of large stitches to rip out instead of 16 or more inches of regular length stitches.  It took two or three machine basted attempts on my first star point unit, but by the third unit, my basting was pretty much right on target.  Once a basted intersection passes my inspection, I change my stitch length back to normal, and sew the long seam, sewing over the basting stitches. 

The top of Jeff's tree skirt is pictured above, along with a photo of my machine basting trick (the seam ripper is my pointer in that photo).   This project was back-burnered while I caught up on custom orders the past two weeks.   I still need to machine quilt both tree skirts and bind them.  I hope to get them in the mail and on the way to D.C. and Brooklyn before Thanksgiving.  Wish me luck!

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

 

"Check" Out These Bibs

It's shameless commerce Tuesday.  Today's post features gingham check baby bibs.  I discovered Carolina Gingham by Robert Kaufman while shopping for fabrics for this custom order:http://www.etsy.com/listing/76212729/1-yard-18-carolina-gingham-by-robert at Angela's Fabric and Trim:http://www.etsy.com/shop/angelasfabricandtrim.   You have to feel it to believe it!  It's a 100% cotton, and a bit weightier than regular gingham without being coarse or scratchy or stiff.  Wonderful fabric!  

I used covered metal snap fasteners for the back closure, and added a layer of preshrunk white flannel as a light batting between the bib front and back.  The bibs were made using ModTods Baby Bib pattern: http://www.etsy.com/shop/modtods.

Custom orders have been the mainstay of my Etsy business for the past two months.  So today, rather than promoting a particular product, I'm promoting the fact that I do custom orders.  

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower