My favorite fabric...(right now)

One of my favorite fabric designers is Sweetwater. I have loved every line of fabric they have put out so far. The quilt I made for my dad was out of their fabric line PURE. I also check their blog often and just recently joined their Label Crew. Every month they send me a pattern using their newest fabric, along with iron on labels to go with it, AND a personalized label with my name on it.

Here's some pictures of what I made with the January kit. Perfect for Valentines Day. It's a little diffrent than the pattern they sent me, but I was afraid to use up to much of my charm packs of Sunkissed. Sometimes when I get new fabric that I love I have a really hard time using it. I want it to stay perfect and I'm afraid I'll mess it up.

I should be getting the February kit in the mail sometime this week...

Meet the Gnomes...

Nipsy
Fimble
Bombus
Deek and
Nelbin

Get to know each of them better at my etsy store Perhaps you would like to give one of these adorable little men a new home? :)

yo yo's

A few weeks back I talked about how we exchange gifts at work for our company party. Here is what one of my sweet and very talented co-workers made for me this year. Aren't they just adorable? I don't know how she made such a perfectly tiny little yo yo!



My favorite use for them so far... bookmarks!



If you would like to learn to make a yo yo, Heather Bailey has a fantastic tutorial HERE!

Shopping

At risk of sounding like an advertisment for this store (which I am not, by the way) I just had to tell you about this beautiful childrens store that my mother and I visited yesterday. I couldn't help pull out my camera (and my wallet) and take a few pictures of my favorite things. I could have spent all day there.



It's called Oopsy Daisy and it is located in West Jordan, Utah (inside Daybreak for those of you who are familiar with the area)

This picture inspires me to make a bunch of cute aprons for all the little girls in my life.





Here's C enjoying a pink frosted cupcake at the bakery across the street.



Umbrellas hung from the ceiling. This looked so beautiful in person. I don't think the picture does it justice, but here it is, so I can remember the idea and perhaps do it in my own room someday.



And this picture reminded me so much of my own 2 little girls, one brunette and one blond.



It's fun to be a girl.

A Quilting Break

I'm not a great cook. I have a few go-to recipes that I really love and besides that, well, we eat a lot of take out. I don't really enjoy cooking. I think it's because my 2 oldest children are such incredibly picky eaters that what I make usually gets shunned for a frozen corn dog. And that just makes me feel bad. It's funny because I really tried hard with my first two children to get them to eat healthy food. It wasn't until my third came along, and I completely gave up hope of having a child who at least tasted their dinner before pretending to throw up, that I got a little girl who LOVES to eat. When she came along, I had already given up, didn't care anymore, and tried to give her the frozen corn dog. When she pushed that away and reached for the broccoli on my plate, I almost fell out of my chair!

The 3 of us (my husband, C, and I) really like this recipe. My mom asked for it the other day and I thought "why not share with everyone". It's super simple, but people hear I'm making Ham Fried Rice and are impressed for some reason. It totally hits the spot whenever I am craving Chinese take out, which is often. Not to sure if this is a "healthy meal", but it does have vegetables that my daughter (and husband) actually eat.

Ham Fried Rice
serves 6

4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 teaspoons oil
4 cups cold cooked rice
1 1/2 cup diced fully cooked ham
1 package frozen vegetables
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of pepper
Dash of chili powder (I put a couple dashes!)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

In a large skillet, cook and stir eggs in oil over medium heat, until eggs are completely set (just like making scrambled eggs). Remove eggs and set aside. In the same skillet, cook the rice, ham, garlic powder, ginger, pepper, and chili powder until heated through. Stir in the soy sauce and reserved eggs.




Our one vice (well maybe not the only one, but that's a diffrent story)... delicious Mountain Dew. So we aren't totally health conscious, but we don't drink alcohol so we have to replace that with something.

Papa's Christmas Gift

I've been meaning to share this one for awhile, but I forgot to get a good picture of it (probably because I only finished it 2 days before Christmas) and it hasn't been at my house. It's been at Papa and Grandma's house , it was my Father's Christmas gift (his name starts with L). I wanted to quilt it in a way that looked very masculine, so I decided on straight lines. My quilter wasn't joking when she told me straight lines were the hardest, oh my goodness this was a pain to quilt! I was desperately running out of time, so I finished up the best I could and told my dad it may need a little TLC work after the holidays are over. Luckily, parents love everything they're children make, no matter how crooked and bunched it is. I do have to say, if you can look past the occasional bunch and pucker, I do really love the straight line quilting look.

Little C enjoying Papa's quilt

(didn't notice she had orange

marker on her hands at

the time!)

P.S. The pattern is called Jelly and Jam by Fig Tree, but of course in true Nancy fashion I had to mess with it a bit. The fabric is Pure by Sweetwater.

Happy 4th Birthday Baby Girl!

Can I still call her that? Baby? Well, that of course is what she will always be to me, and her daddy and her grandparents, and probably her siblings too... the baby in the family. Oh how I love to spoil her. Turning 4 feels like a transition age. 3 is still a baby, but this year she will start preschool, she is a sunbeam at church (she goes to class now, with the cutest little chairs, instead of nursery where they just play the whole time) she has lots of little friends, and she can write her name! I marvel at my children and how well they are growing, with such a couple of imperfect guides as my husband and I (my husband having far superior parenting skills, but still, imperfect just the same). It's our love that has helped them grow so well, not our vast knowledge of child raising. But, all three are truly amazing, teaching us far more about life and what is really important, than we are teaching them. I am so grateful for my children, and especially you today little C! I love you!

To Market To Market...and felt food tutorials

I just finished this darling little market bag, isn't it cute?!
I love all the sweet little felt food.

The pattern is by May Blossom by Simone Gooding (check out her beautiful blog HERE!). It was so easy to make, really, I'm not just saying that! I made it for Pine Needles and it will be headed there tomorrow (where you can also buy the pattern! The sooner the patterns sell out the sooner I get my cute little market bag back :), but me and C couldn't help play with it just a little bit before I took it to the shop. I have a feeling I will be making a second

one over the next few days.

There are so many adorable examples of free felt food patterns and tutorials on the web.

HERE! is a site that has linked to a ton.

Triangle, circle, square!

For the employee party at my work we always draw names and make a gift for another employee. It's fun, but pretty stressful, especially when you are sewing for some VERY talented women. This is what I've made for my person this year. I'm going to tuck these in a little basket along with some sewing supplies, thread, needles, that sort of thing. Hope she likes it (hope she doesn't look too close at my stitches!).

The pin cushion is just my tomato pin cushion pattern NOT squished into a flat tomato shape. My husband gave me the idea to make a circle pincushion, square needle case and triangle scissor holder. Brilliant! I got the scissor holder from this cute blog... http://www.themotherhuddle.com/tutorial-little-scissors-case/

Sweet Slippers Tutorial and Pattern

Click Here To Print Off Pattern

I needed a little pampering after the holidays. My kids go to a year round school, which means I had them home for 4 weeks in November, sent them back to school for 2 weeks, then got to have them back home for winter break. Needless to say, I am ready for them to go back to school for awhile. In celebration of them going back tomorrow, I made myself a little "good job mom" present. My suggestion, before you begin the after holiday clean up, take a couple hours while the kids are back to school and make yourself a pair of these super sweet slippers, you deserve it!


I started off with a half yard of cotton fabric (Riley Blakes Sweet Divinity line), a half yard of pink dot minkie, and a half yard blue felt (not pictured). I had PLENTY of fabric, I could probably make 2 or 3 more pairs of slippers, depending on the size. You'll also need my super quick drawing of a pattern. You can print it off for free HERE!

You'll need to adjust the pattern to fit your foot (I really hope you're making these for yourself, because we all need a bit of pampering!). This pattern fits me perfectly, but I am aware that I have a rather small foot. I am a shoe size 6 and my foot's pretty narrow. If you need to make it larger, DON'T just enlarge the pattern on the printer, it will turn out too wide. You'll just need to add lenth (and perhaps a very little width, depending). Start by placing your foot on the pattern of the sole. You'll want it to be about a half inch larger than your foot. The best way to do this would probably be to actually cut the pattern directly in half and add inches to the middle, so it does not distort the shape of the sole. You'll also need to do the same to the side of the slipper. REMEMBER, these slippers are made to fit snug, like a sock. Otherwise they will slip right off! Don't make them too large.

On your pattern you'll see a side labled "fold". Place that side on the fold of your fabric (as you see below) and cut out twice from the cotton and twice from the minkie. With your sole, cut twice from the felt and twice from your minkie. You can use fabric instead of the felt if you want, I just had a hard time thinking about walking around my dirty floors which such pretty fabric on the bottom of my slippers.

Here is a picture of what you should have cut out for the outside of the slippers. You'll need all these same pieces cut out of the minkie as well. Make sure that you cut a right and a left foot! *see below*

Pair up an outside piece and an inside (minkie) piece and pin them together, right side together. When you are working with minkie you'll want to pin REALLY well. The stuff is so stretchy and so slippery. If it wasn't for how wonderfully soft it is, I would never, ever sew with it. Sew a scant seam along the inside curved edge.

You'll then fold the lining and material apart, and place the edges on the bottom (where the heel will be) right side together, with the lining against the lining and the material against the material...

I hope you can see that OK in the picure above. Make sure that minkie is touching minkie and cotton is touching cotton. Sew along that egde. This will make the heel. *see below*

You'll now turn it right sides out so it resembles the top of your slipper. Pin it in place, all the way around, like I've done in the picture.

You'll now want to sew the lining and the outside together. Sew a scant seam all the way around the slipper top. See my picture below...

Now to attach the sole. Turn the slipper top so you see the minkie side and pin that to the felt sole piece. You'll notice here that you need to pay attention if you are making the right foot or the left foot. Make sure that you turn one of the soles around so that you don't end up with 2 left feet.

Now sew where you have pinned, all the way around the sole. Once that is done, place a LINING SOLE on top of the WHOLE THING. Make sure that your get the extra fabric out of the way of the seams (as you can see in the picture, I pinned mine out of the way). Pin it in place (always pin!) and sew almost all the way around. Leave a small whole on the side, where you can easily reach in and hand stitch it closed, to turn it right side out.

Turn your slipper right side out, hand stitch your turning whole closed and slip it on for size.

Adding a cute little felt flower and a button (you can find my list of felt flower tutorials HERE!) gives it just the right touch.

My favorite place to nap? Up in the top bunk of my daughters' bunk bed, right after I make the bed, wondering what my 6 year old is doing right now at school. Ahhh, a few minutes peace...

... Until my 3 year old pokes her little head over the rails and tells me she's playing "princess barbies take a bath". Oh please let it not be in the toliet!