Finished Circle Quilt

Here is the finished circle quilt I've been working on.

I started this project by cutting out my squares and circles. I found a five inch bowl and traced it around 25 circles. Next I cut out 25 six inch squares. If I were to do this quilt again I would probably make my squares seven inches instead of six.

After cutting out all the pieces I applied one circle to the middle of each square. I used a decorative zig-zag stitch to do this. Once all the circled were applied, I sewed my squares together. This is a small quilt with only 25 squares.

After the quilt top was complete I added some batting and a solid blue back. I then pinned these three layers together and sewed. Finally,  attached the binding.

I love the look of the circles and would love to try a larger version some day :)

I'm still alive!

I know I was MIA last week. I'd like to tell you that it was for a really good reason...but it wasn't. I simply got distracted cleaning and organizing my house, hanging out with a sick baby girl, and getting ready for our trip to Italy.

We leave in less than two weeks-which is exciting but also frustrating. I'm currently at the stage where it's too early to pack but I'm constantly thinking of what I need to pack and the best way to pack it. There's so much to think about!

It would be a breeze if it was just me I was packing for...but add a 19 month old to the mix and you've got stress.

Any tips for flying with 19 month olds? That's probably what I'm most worried about :(

We bought some luggage this weekend and I was blown away at the price? (I'm frequently blown away at what things are priced. In my mind most things should be significantly cheaper than they are and when I find out the actual price it takes a while for it to register. For example; socks and underwear, in my opinion, should be priced around $.50. You never see them and you have to own them-I feel like this means they should be cheap.) I was estimating that a good piece of luggage would run me about $29.99. I was wrong. $100 is the standard price, WHAT!

Anyways, I have been somewhat creative this week. I found this quilt on Pinterest last week and am attempting to make my own version. Mine is much smaller and made from scraps I had so technically it doesn't really look anything like this. But I love the circle idea...so stay tuned for that project.



Have you been to Italy? What was your favorite place to visit?

A pillow case dress for grownups

Remember how I have about 100 yards of knit fabric sitting in my closet? Sure you do. Well, after making the pillow case dress for Lilly I decided to make one for myself...but with knit.

I started out the same way I would make a pillow case dress-folding the fabric in half lengthwise and then cutting out the arm holes. Next, I hemmed the top, leaving a large enough space for the "ribbon". Except where I would normally use ribbon I used a doubly thick strip of the same material. I fed it through the casing and then sewed the two ends together (no bows). I cut another strip and cut the edges with pinking shears (to spice it up a little) and used that as the belt.

Total Time: 30 minutes

I Love It.

Thoughts?!

Pillow Case Dress

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We sure did! Yesterday I made a pillow case dress for Lilly. I picked up the pillow case from the thrift store this weekend for .50 cents. I loved the material and couldn't wait to get started.

Pillow case dresses are so easy! It only took me about 20 minutes to complete!

I decided to use pink ribbon because I liked the contrast with the black and white material. Also, it's only about 50 degrees here so she's got a sweater on and some black leggings :)

Saving money time!

Here is a site I've come across lately that has some awesome and adorable deals, thought I'd share the fun :)

NoMoreRack.Com

This site has some great deals! From socks to jewelry to tablets to furniture. You name it, they probably have it...some of my favorites on there right now:

Six pack of designer tights for $15!



 12 Long solid colored tank tops for $29 in assorted colors! That comes to  about $2.25 a tank top!!


What else is great about this site is that shipping is $2 an item, no matter what the item. But frequently they will send you emails about special daily deals. I received two emails yesterday...one was a $10 off coupon and one was for limited time free shipping. I purchased the six pack of stocking in the picture above for only $5...and free shipping!! SCORE!

So, check it out. They didn't pay me to write this I just really like their site :)

Easter Dress

Yesterday turned out not how I thought it would. Normally on Mondays I work all day and Lilly gets to hang out with her BFF for the morning and her grandma in the afternoon. But...when I went to wake her up she was groggy, week and so so tired. I kept a close eye on her but let her sleep and finally around 11:00 she woke up! We ate lunch and she was in a great happy mood and so I decided to go into work for a little bit. She fell asleep on the way there (and slept from 12:30-2:00!) And was great the rest of the day. I think she was just all tuckered out from the crazy busy weekend we had.

Anywho...all of her sleeping allowed me the time to sew her an Easter dress...which I didn't think would actually happen.

I purchased two coordinating 1/2 yards of fabric from Joanne's a while back. With my coupon I ended up paying $2.50 for both 1/2 yards.

I used one of the fabrics for the dress and the other for the trim and "belt". I like how it's "Eastery" but not what you'd expect all at the same time. the strip of yellow down the front has four pleats in it and there is a zipper in the back.

Doesn't she look cute!

Dining Room Brainstorm Session...

So I mentioned on Monday that I purchased a new dining room table over the weekend:


Yesterday I went by World Market and picked up some chairs to match. (World Market is having a sale on their furniture right now and I had a 10% off coupon too...each chair came to $71!)



These chairs are made to have slipcovers but I didn't like any of the ones World Market had to offer so I'm going to go to the fabric store today in search of some fabric to create my own.

I would really like to do a chocolate brown/sea foam green/blue color scheme...similar to the colors seen in the rooms/photos below:





I'm planning on painting the walls a neutral taupe color and then covering the chairs in a blue color. I want to make new curtains as well and then finish the room off with some great accessories. I'd love to do something unique on one of the walls...any ideas? I'm going back and forth between:

1. Painting one wall a blue, like in the above photo (second color swatch in)
2. Wallpapering one wall (I had previously sworn off wallpaper but some of it is just so beautiful! Like this one...

  

I'm kind of leaning towards the wallpaper...but I might have to do when the Mr. is at work, or sleeping.

Thoughts?