Busy, very very busy!!!

So much to say, and lots to show!!

I have managed in to get so much done in the last couple of weeks!!  I had fallen in love with this dress from Fairytale Frocks & Lollipops.  I looked at the dress for a couple of days and decided I just HAD to have that pattern. It is an E-Pattern, so I was wondering how that would work for making a dress. Well, I must say it was AMAZING! The directions were fantastic and the service was amazing. I emailed them with a question, and they replied to me in a very timely manner, answered everything, and were so nice.

I had originally started making the dress for my girls for Christmas. BUT, I ran out of time sewing other projects. I had managed to get everything cut out, but that was about it. Then I thought, hmmmm, perfect Easter dresses, but just never got to it. Now that we are approaching summer, we have 3 weddings to go to. So, I finally made the time and got both dresses done. I am so happy with how they turned out!

The Girls love their new dresses.

When we get dressed up for the wedding the bows will look much better :)

It is a full skirt, and all those pleats...hand pleating both the dresses took  almost 3 hours!

I am so happy with the pattern, the service and the outcome, I know I will be going back to Fairytale Frocks and Lollipops to purchase more patterns! They have very large selection of patterns, you can get paper patterns or E-patterns. I highly recommend checking them out :)

Now, on to some rather exciting wowing news!  I shared with everyone that I had entered into the McCalls Quilting Quilt Design Star Challenge. Well, the other day I received notice that I was selected to move on to the challenge 1.  I was so surprised, really there was 148 entries, and they were all amazing, and they narrowed it down to 15 contestants! What a tough decision for the judges!!

So, for challenge 1, I have about 3 weeks to make a quilt top following a certain criteria that has been given to us.  Needless to say, my mind has been going into overdrive, thinking, planning, envisioning, and deciding what I am going to create. I think I have it figured out. And I think I have a fabric selection picked out.  

What do you all think of this selection??

I really think the black background really helps these bright colors pop!!

I am looking forward to creating this and seeing the final product!!

Thank you everyone for the support :)

Christine

McCalls Design Star 2012

A few posts back, I mentioned I entered into the McCalls Design Star 2012 Contest.  The voting is still going on for the entry round.  I am hoping that I will advance to the next round, oh that would be so exciting.  This is the first time I have entered in this. There is such amazing talent out there! All the quilts are fabulous!!!

This is the one that I entered in for my entry quilt:

This quilt by far has been the most challenging piece I have done!! This was a "I can whip this off in a couple of weeks" kind of project! Well, over 2 years later I can say that it is FINALLY finished!  This piece if work, really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I like things rather symmetrical, rather balanced.  So the fact that this quilt is more "unbalanced" took a lot of work for me to position and like how it looked.  This step alone probably took me over 2 months. I would tweak it, add something, move it around, take away. Then I would put it away completely as I needed a break from it...lol.

But before all of that, I had chosen these amazing fabrics, I fell in love with them and they look so great together...however the are NOT cotton! Silly me, they frayed, I used fusible interfacing which helped but it was still a large undertaking.

To add some more detail to this beauty, I did some decorative stitching, machine embroidery, and added some beads to it.

When this was all said and done, I LOVE IT!!! Would I ever make this again....nope....at least not with the fabrics I chose!!

There is a botton on the right side of my post that will take you right to my quilt if you would like to vote, and if you pop over there, check out all the hard work that was done!

Hope you all have a fabulous night!!

Christine  

Need some blogging help please :)

Hello Everyone!!

I am seeking some help! It may be a simple thing, but to be honest I really have no idea how to reply to comments that are left on my blog :(  The only thing that I can figure out it to send a private email if the person who left a comment has an accessible email.  I have seen some blogs where you can post a reply right to the comment ( I hope that makes sense!)

I have had some truly amazing comments left, and I am super grateful for each and everyone, but I would like to thank people for them personally.  So if anyone can help me out that would really make my day!!!

Thanks you so much!!

Christine :)

Progress!

Some days you just get on a roll, and for me today was one of those!!

I managed to get all the vacuuming done, floors swept, bathroom cleaned, laundry washed/dried/and put away (all 3 in one day is a huge task...lol),  lawn mowed, grass seed put down, lawn watered, playing outside with the kids, games inside, cuddle time with all 3, and all errands done...phew what a productive day!

Tomorrow, hopefully I can get the rest of my "to do" cleaning list done for this weekend and maybe get a bit of time to do some sewing.

I will share a picture of what I am working on at the moment. More details will come on another post.

Have a good night all!!

Christine

Self Reflection

Sometimes life just gets so crazy, so much happens...good and bad, and sometimes we need to just stop, step back and take a look, and act.  This is where I am now, I am trying to to stop, step back, and look.

This last year has been non stop for me, but the last 3 months have been over to top. It was getting to the point that I was struggling to keep up with everything, staying focused was hard, sleep was minimal, and just overall, I was so overwhelmed with everything.

I did manage to alleviate one of the significant stressors, and started a new job a few weeks ago. Leaving the one place of employment was such a good choice, and removed a decent portion of negative stress. There is still stress with learning a brand new job, but I consider that more positive stress as its a new challenge and I am learning new things and growing as a person.

With being in such a funk, I find that even things around the house has slipped. I really REALLY need to purge A LOT of stuff. I feel that my place is over run, and cluttered. Its clean enough, but right now I really want the less is more. I feel that if I can purge at least 30% of everything (Hopefully more!!) that having the open clean space will help me in feeling refreshed....seeing less clutter hopefully will help with decluttering my mind.

As a result of everything, my balance of work/family/personal time/ has been out of whack. I do spend most of my time with the kids, which is tremendously important. But I think I need to try and steal a few minutes of time for myself, to give me a bit of a lift and refreshment.

I know what I would like, changes that need to be made, and the goals to be reached. Now comes the acting part. This seems to be the biggest challenge. Is it fear? Change? or plain and simple where do I start? There is the desire, the want, but not the energy, and the lack of time.

So, here is what I am thinking....DETERMINATION!!! I want to achieve things, I want to be out of the funk, I want to feel refreshed, and really, there is only one person that can do that, and that is ME!! I need to make a plan, and stick to it! So, I think tomorrow I will make a list of to do's, and then try to cross off 1 or 2 things a day. I think if I make all the tasks small and easy projects it will be more motivational. and the more I can cross off the more uplifting I think I will feel.

What do you all think?
How do you get yourself on track? and keep yourself focused?
What do you do to keep a happy lifestyle balance?

Here goes nothing, tomorrow will be day 1 of being  a better person, and achieving some goals!!

Om a good note, look at the sweet item I found, I am so gosh darn excited!! I have wanted one of these for so so long.

look at how pretty it is on the outside!

Look at all that room on the inside!!

It is in amazing shape, and what makes this even better is that I got it for $10.00!!! I am looking forward to filling it with some goodies!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Christine

100 and pretty excited!!

Hello Everyone!!

I was looking over things and I realized that this is my 100th post!! Wow, that really is a milestone for me!

What a great post to share something really exciting, at least for me :)  I entered into a McCalls Next Design Star Challenge, and my submission was accepted!!!!! Voting starts today for the first round, and everyone can vote everyday for 1 quilt.  There is such amazing work and creativity that has been entered. This year, there is 2 different categories, amateur and professional. I have entered into the amateur category. I would love to advance to the next round

There is a link to the right of my page that takes you to the quilt that I entered into the contest. Feel free to click it and if you would like you can vote to :)

This quilt has been a long time in the making. This was supposed to be a quick to do wall hanging. Little did I know that it would take me quite some time to finish. This quilt challenged me on so many levels, I learned lots, I discovered things I like, and some things I dislike, but I can say I tried and learned :) And I can finally say, I have finished this...one UFO off my list...wooohooo!!

Hope everyone is doing well, and have a fabulous day!!

Christine