Netbook Sleeve

My stepson's girlfriend asked me to make her a Netbook Sleeve so I immediately thought of the tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson. You can find the tutorial she made here. She designed hers for laptops so I just adapted it for a netbook.
Here is the finished product:

Of course I ended up making two as the first one was a little too snug! (I'm going to keep it for myself and use it for my Kindle and plug).
I'm going to share my fabric dimensions with you so that you can make yours on the first try:)

Flap: 9.5 x 5.25
Main Panels: 10.25 x 13.25

Another thing to note is that her tutorial asks for you to place the fuzzy side of the velcro on your exterior panel at 2.5 inches from the edge. I found 2 inches worked best for me. The finished product still allows for a little extra room which is nice but not too much so that the netbook slides around.

Elizabeth's tutorial is really great! A Netbook sleeve is a really nice functional thing to have and it allows you to showcase some of your beautiful fabric you have on hand!! I used Amy Butler's home dec weight.

Hope you had a fabulous Easter. E.B. stopped by our house and dropped off some chocolate eggs, Hello Kitty sandals and stickers for Miss G. She was quite excited as this was her first offical egg hunt!

5 months

I know I've been MIA for awhile...life just sneaks up on you sometimes and then there aren't enough hours in the day:) So, what's been up in my world you ask? Well my little one is now 5 months. Yesterday I made all kinds of strange faces and funny noises so that she would lay patiently (haha) while I took a load of pictures of her.
Here's just a few.

Mainly I've been knitting and crocheting these days...more on that later.

In terms of sewing, I'm making a netbook (laptop) sleeve today. I'll take some pics later! Hope you're having a Happy Easter weekend!

Those Scraps!

I've been a fan of BumbleBeansInc. Waverunner quilt for some time (she's working on a pattern I hear!) so I thought I would use up some of my Drunk Love Quilt's scraps and see what I could come up with. Here is a block or two so far. I personally LOVE improv quilting...so freeing!!

I love how when you turn a block, you get a totally different feel.

Sewing up long strips will make a nice long wavy block.

More later...

My Baby's 3!

Well, technically she's not a baby anymore as she's turning 3 today!! I can't believe how fast time has passed!! We had her first "friends" birthday party over the weekend at the Little Gym. She and her friends loved it! They ran around the gym with those little high pitched squeals....made me laugh so much as she typically is shy in social situations. That's why I was a little nervous - I didn't want her to be crying at her own birthday party. Phew!

In total there were nine kids and it was a perfect size...a combination of some friends' kids and her friends from her day care.
I had to post this picture even though it's a bit blurry...so colorful and she's soooo happy!

How cool is this cake? I wish I had one when I was her age!! I found a woman who lives locally - who is incredibly talented - and we ordered everything via the internet/email...easy peasy! The characters were so detailed and the kids absolutely loved it!

Daddy had to help with that last candle.

Who doesn't love bubbles? (again, sorry for the blurriness)

When we got home, she had to put on some new dresses and reach for her balloons!

Did I say how much she loves Hello Kitty! She's obsessed. Hello Kitty everything. One of my friends bought her some pajamas - so off went her shirt and on went her pajamas, her princess dress and then a summer dress...and she went to bed like this too!
In this pic, she's asking me - "can I eat my three Mommy" - and then she said, "no more pictures" - well, I guess Miss G!! I took enough....did I tell you I'm a little obsessed with taking pictures myself!

I took this picture of some crayons - well, just because...they're pretty! (have I used enough exclamation marks now in this post!!)

Did I tell you how Miss P just slept through the entire party...how lucky am I! She really is an awesome baby! We're so blessed and I never forget that.

Little Miss P decided to roll over for the first time for her sister's birthday...I was uploading some pics this morning when I looked over - and there she was on her playmat, flipped from her back to her tummy and holding her neck up high. She's been rolling on her side for a while now but she never managed to roll over completely until today. It's kind of cool that it's her sister's birthday today.
After some shopping this morning, and feeding Miss P, we messed around with the camera a bit.

So, thank you for indulging me here - especially today! A fellow blogger recently got flack for writing about her life - someone said she wasn't genuine or real and that she was trying to portray her life as perfect. Well, life is not perfect but I too, as Camille, choose to share the positive things in my life on this blog. Life can suck at times - we all know that. In fact, we got some really bad news an hour before our daughter's birthday party. Kids can be a handful, babies and eye infections, colds, runny noses, weight gaining issues (baby and Mommy!!), sleep deprivation, life stressors.....but like I said, I want to focus on the positive here and keep the "not so nice" stuff more private.

Cutest Little Dress

Okay, I should really be doing things like cleaning my house, thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner, you know - those fun things! But, what am I doing you ask? Surfing etsy, flickr, blogs, etc. I just can't help myself...when a Mom gets a few minutes to herself, and in my house these days, they are few - all I want to do is relax and surf the net. Usually I like to sew, but I just don't have the energy as I was up with my little one last night.

However, I did find the cutest, little knitted dress pattern for Miss P...here it is if you're interested. It's called the Sadie Dress....I think I'm going to have to have it! Sigh..

Single Girl Quilt Along - Ring 1 & 2

Ring 1 & 2 a photo by BlueberryGabs on Flickr.

Combos of pink, fuschia, plum and purple

*So far the best way I've found to piece the inner and outer archs to your rings is to first crease each piece in the middle (as suggested in the quilt along and DS' instructions) and place a pin - then match up your ends and pin, THEN go back between your three pins and pin appropriately (wow, hope that makes sense to everyone:) This avoids your ends not matching up/fabric overhang once completed.
I only had to rip out one outer arch because when I reached the end, I had at least a 1/4 inch overhang and it didn't look good.... once I did the the way I suggested...ends matched up perfectly and you have a nice finished block.*

The Colour Purple

What little girl doesn't like the colour purple? I know if you ask my daughter she immediately says "pink" and "purple." While I've been waiting for my single girl fabric to arrive (backround fabric came yesterday - yeh!), I decided to continue working on a rag quilt for her in various shades of purple.

Have you seen Rita's Poseidon quilt - I absolutely love quilts made from solids so this was my inspiration. I thought the frayed edges of a rag quilt could look like the white borders of the Poseidon and the squares could be in varying shades of purple.

Tips for Rag Quilts

Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Chain piece - absolutely is a time saver and an efficient way to piece your squares. Sew from one corner to the next diagonally in your square and do not stop at the ends - place your next "square sandwich" under the presser foot and continue sewing from one side to the other.

2. Fold as you go- A quick way to achieve accuracy in piecing these rag squares is to simply fold the top fabric diagonally by hand (before you place all three layers together) and use that line as a guide to sew from one corner to the next. Who needs to press or mark? Why? An extra step is not necessary! You can always do improv style which I've been known to do:)

3. Flannel - I like to use flannel in between my squares of Kona cotton and minky fabric. It not only adds softness and warmth to your quilt but an extra layer which will add to the overall "fluffiness" of the frayed edges. I have used batting which is fine too but you need to cut your batting squares smaller as they do not fray - again, an extra step!

4. Accuquilt Go Fabric Cutter - I got to pull mine out and use my rag quilt die for this project. I do like it a lot but I don't enjoy picking out the loose threads in between the die. With the Accuquilt, you can cut double layers of flannel, up to five-six layers of cotton and single layers of minky fabric. The edges come out pre-cut which is awesome! No cutting by hand!! My only critique about the Accuquilt is that I wish the rag dies came in a size approx. 7 inches. The 5.5 inch die is a little small for my liking in terms of the finished rag block size (rag quilt squares are too close together as the finished size is 3.5-4 inches depending on the size of your seam - I use 7/8 of an inch, some people use 1 inch) and the 8.5 inch die is a little too big. I prefer to have finished squares at least 5 - 5.5 inches like this project I did in the past.

I didn't have my Accuquilt then and cut my fabric the ol' fashion way; I used 7 inch squares to start with...love the finished square size and LOVE the softness of Heather Ross' poplin fabric. It was a great way to use some of my Mendocino fabric and it's great for kids!

Okay, off to feed my little one and maybe spend some time cutting out my Single Girl template for the outer arch...wish me luck!