Viking Princess

I had a friend ask me to make her grand daughter a Viking Princess.

I really didn't know what exactly to do.

Until I saw this.

I was like, that is perfect, and who wouldn't want to win a contest.

As I was writing this I went to get the link

 to the contest and found out that I won!!!

I Totally made this same face.

I totally won Woo Hoo!!

Here are the details, faux suede bodice, sheer skirt with ribbon trim, peasant top under dress. 

The Viking cloak was made out of fleece with a satin lined, fur trimmed, hood.

I found the cutest clasp buckle at the Joanns, totally made it fabulous.

No Viking would be complete with out some furry socks.

My niece Juliette was the model, and did a fabulous job.

I still can not believe I won, I am so excited.

The Babies

These are the costumes that I did not make,

at least not this year.

Baby Kate was Tinkerbell.

This was Lala's costume when she was a baby.

The Flash was confusing to this sweet baby,

so the rest of the photos are not the best.

Front

Back

Matching sparkle shoes.

My sister wanted to have little kilts made to match Merida.

Although I love my sister, and I am sure it would have been cute...

I was not going to play that game.

Since I work for a company that makes dress ups we went with that.

The twins love the color pink, and the color purple.

One is always pink, and the other purple.

Knowing that this option existed we went with this.

It is all they talked about,

being the pink and purple princess.  

That takes care of all the family costumes.

I did sleep well that night, and the next one too.

Until next year...

Ash-Anna's Princess Tiana

My niece Ash-Anna missed the pre-party.

She was trick or treating in her neighborhood first.

She came late so here is her Princess Tiana.

It was taken indoors, at night, in the dark, and with a flash,

so the pics are not as fabulous as they could be.

In person, in the sun, it is very sparkly.

Once again I made a little girls dream come true.

I love doing that. 

Piper's Merida

My sister is a wise woman.

When her daughter told her she wanted to be Merida,

she knew to call me.

I made it two pieces, an underdress made of semi sheer fabric,

and a dress made of cotton velour.

I think it is pretty spot on.

My sister had a family crest pin that Piper wore.

She loved it!!

Check out her awesome archery skills.

That is all her hair, just painted orange. 

Here is her brother photo bombing the picture.

I love the look on her face.

Baby Sister's Clown

Baby Sister wasn't sure what she was going to be.

She went back and forth and wouldn't make up her mind.

Then one day she said that she wanted to be a clown.

Baubi quickly pointed out that that is not allowed.

I have had a long standing rule,

 there will be no clowns, or gypsies for Halloween.

Not because they are freaky, the truth is this...

it is below my skill level.

I think any mother with minimal sewing skills 

can whip together a clown or a Gypsie.

I am not a mother with minimal sewing skills.

It is true I am a sewing snob.

There I admitted it, isn't that the first step of recovery.

After thinking about it I gave in.

It fits her personality to well.

I thought I could make her a Lalaloopsy clown.

Layered tutu skirt.

Orange (because it is still her favorite color) satin tuxedo jacket...

Complete with tails.

I loved it, and it became my favorite one this year.

I especially loved her leggies.

I will work on my sewing 12 step program, 

and maybe there will be some sort of recovery in the end.

Lala's Fighting Snow White

This past spring we went to see Mirror Mirror.

Lala LOVED it.

That is what she wanted to be for Halloween.

She even said so as we were leaving the theater.

I begged her to let me make her the blue wedding dress,

or the Queen's wedding dress.

She said no, that she wanted to be the fighting Snow White.

I told her that no one would know who she was.

She didn't care, that is who she wanted to be.

So I made her dreams come true.

Her bucket is red like the apple, with little mirrors glued to it.

Her sword is from her Musketeer days,

I was right no one at school, or trick or treating knew who she was.

It didn't matter because she loved it.

Her cousin Jess kept on photo bombing every picture I was trying to take.

I finally gave up trying to get him to move, and let him be in the pictures.

They had so much fun together trick or treating.

I love that some of my kids best friends are their cousins.

Gowyn's Effie Trinkette

Gowyn wasn't sure of what she was going to be.

She was thinking of being Emma from Once upon a Time.

We could not find a red leather jacket, and even though I love her a lot,

I was not going to pay full price for one if I did find one.

Her very best friend in the whole wide world was wanting to be 

Caesar (the games announcer) from the hunger games.

Since he has always played along with her,

we decided it was time she play along with him.

So she was Effie Trinkette.

I used a jacket pattern that had a peplum,

and the sleeves from Glinda from the Wizard of Oz.

I made the rouched fabric and then made her skirt. 

I even put the flowers on her bum.

Here they are together, Caesar and Effie.

The funny thing about this is that Gowyn HATES the color pink.

Baubi's Iron Man

Baubi... 

Since she is now 15 she decided that she wanted to make her own.

I am not going to lie to you, I was not happy about it.

She and her friends wanted to be the Avengers 

They were going to have a tutu party, 

watch the movie and tie tutus to their hearts content. 

They started out with seven girls. 

Which then dwindled down to four girls.

Then her friend who was going to be the hulk...

Her mom decided that the hulk was stupid,

 and nobody would want to be him. 

So she made her a superman tutu costume instead.

By this time Baubi was so sad her great plan was ruined.

She wanted to have a big group and three just isn't as impressive.

One super awesome costume would have been better.

It was then at 6:45 on Halloween eve that she realized the error of her ways. 

If she had given me a days notice, or even told me all this in the morning

 I probably could have made her dreams come true.

Instead she stuck with her plan and owned it.

Here she is Iron Man, 

or at least the girly version.

Her friends all had the same shirts, which were mens shirts that I cut down.

Thor and Captain America had tutus that matched.

Tors was black, silver, and red in the back to be like his cape.

Captain Americas was red, white, and blue.

In the end she was still happy.

This is her Tebo pose, 

or her I should have listened to my mother prayer.

You may recall from last year, that her cousin Johno loves her.

Last year he was Little John to her Robin Hood.

This year he was her Captain America.

They had way too much fun together.

Johno's dad made his shield, it is metal and awesome. 

I wonder what they will be next year.

In case you were wondering what I was going to make her.

I was going to use the same pattern as last years Robin Hood.

I was going to make it red with a gold blouse and gold trim on the skirt.

Would have been adorable.

Lesson learned the hard way.

My Halloween Report

I am still alive, and here I am to report on Halloween.

I have been debating about one big long post,

or little posts for each costume I made.

I feel a little bit like a looser for not posting anything for a long time.

I also like to see that I have a list of posts.

SOOO you are getting a bunch of new posts from me today.

Here is a group shot with Grandma and Grandpa.

I made all but five of those costumes. 

I am not counting Grandma and Grandpa. :)

My state Fair Report

Every year I enter the Utah State fair.

This is my report on how I did this year.

I only entered seven things this year into the state fair.

I say only because I have been known to enter like twenty things before.

The problem with why so few is because Lala and Baby Sister

 are close to being in the same size category.

Also I was a bit lazy this year and didn't make Easter dresses.

I entered the girls Christmas dresses and Gowyn's skirt.

They all won blue ribbons.

 Lala's baptism dress 

Won a blue ribbon.

Her Other dress however got a red ribbon or a second place.

I was not at all happy about it.

I did in fact yell at the top of my lungs upon entering the building,

and seeing this perfect dress with a red ribbon hanging from it.

"How could that dress get a second place"

Good Looking had to calm me down.

It's true.

I only entered one costume in the fair this year.

It was Lala's Belle costume.

It took a third place ribbon.

It lost to another Belle costume.

I still think mine was better.

I only entered one quilt and it was this one that I made with Grandma Kath.

It got NOTHING, not even an honorable mention.

I know that I am new to quilting and this is a tough category,

 but come on throw me a bone or something.

I have said this before and it is true.

"I never thought of myself as a competitive person until I entered the state fair."

I know that I take it way to personally, but still a second place on Lala's dress.

Are they crazy? 

Did they not get enough sleep the night before?

OK

 OK

 I will let it go.

The four blue ribbons that I got,

 did bring me up to over fifty blue ribbons.

I guess I should look at the bright side. 

Have you ever entered the fair?

What is your ribbon count?

Erin's Blessing Dress

My sister Vicki has a best friend.

We grew up across the street from her.

They were even born one day apart from each other.

First Vicki and then Erin

They have been best friends ever since.

Our parents have been friends since college.

What I am trying to say is that we go way back.

Two years ago when my sister got married Erin followed right behind her.

She was married last year.

When my sister got pregnant this year,

Erin was right behind her again.

Vicki had her baby girl on the 31st.

Erin is going to be having her baby girl next month.

I am sure that those two will be best friend also.

It has been so fun seeing the two of them sharing each step along the way.

Erin's baby shower was yesterday.

I have been thinking about what I could make for her.

I mean she is just like family.

I called her on Thursday to see if I could make her a blessing dress.

She was blown away with the offer.

She was offered a family dress but didn't really like it.

I cut out the dress on Friday,

sewed it up on Saturday, just in time for the shower.

There they are (Erin and the dress)

She always makes that face, and I am glad that I got it on camera.

Here is the dress alone.

It is a full length princess dress, it has a 34" long skirt.

The fabrics are satin and sheer.

The sheer is embroidered with this lattice pattern, 

and there are sequin flowers on the center of the points

You can see it sparkle a little more in this picture.

Erin has a very sparkly  personality, 

and so I had to use this sparkly fabric for the dress.

Erin is also very tall,

I am standing on my tippy toes just as much

 as she is squatting, and she is still taller than me.

She was so happy about the dress, 

and I was so happy I got to make it for her.

Her older sister is my same age 

and is due with her first daughter the same day as Erin.

I get to make her dress too.

 I will show you that one when it is done.

My sister Vicki's dress is going to take a little extra time. 

It is full of shadow embroidery. 

It will be fabulous when it is done.

Don't worry I won't let you miss out on that one.

I hope you had a great weekend as you can see 

I finished my weekend sewing projects.

I hope you did too.

Christmas Swap Quilt

OK we are back and ready to talk about my Christmas swap.

Are you ready? 

Let's go.

I started my Christmas swap last year because I wanted to remake my quilt as a Christmas quilt.

You can read about it here.

Last year I had to take two spots in my swap, to fill it up.

I knew I did not want to have repeats in my circles, so I wasn't sure what to do

 with my second package of swap fabrics.

I thought about making a Christmas zig-zag quilt, but decided to wait.

First things first I had to make my circles.

Now I know you have admired my Jeweled wedding ring quilt,

 and you totally want to make one your self.

This is how you start.

You need to make 525 patterned circles.

I know you can do it because I did it.

here is how I do it.

  First things first, you need a circle.

A two inch circle to be exact, 

I found this glitter container was exactly two inches.

Next get some of your thicker template plastic.

trace your circle.

I then took one of my quilts, circle templates,

centered it and traced around that.

I then drew a cross, that way I know exactly where the center is.

It helps when you are fuzzy cutting.

I now know where the center is,

and what will be showing when the seam allowances are gone.

I know, pretty brilliant. 

Now go to your fabulous stash of Christmas fabrics that you got,

 or will get from the Christmas swap.

Take one square at a time, and fussy cut away.

Note how the template lets you perfectly

 center your little Christmas packages.

                                     

Cut on your traced line...

And voila a perfect little two inch circle.

Repeat with all your fabrics.

Yes all two hundred of them.

Now last year when I was making all my circles, I was left with a quandary.

What to do with the scraps.

I thought about having a giveaway or something.

Then I thought to myself what is someone going to do with those scraps anyway.

Then I started thinking about what I would do with them, and this is what I came up with.

I think you are going to love it.

I cut them up in to two inch squares.

You may notice that those are not true square squares.

It is not going to matter.

I separated them into three baggies.

I didn't want the chance repeating a fabric, so I kept them separate.

You may be thinking

Robyn what are you going to do with a square missing a whole corner?

I am making snow balls.

Are you ready for phase two?

OK let's go.

You are going to need a solid background fabric.

I loved this white on white, I mean it even looks like snowballs.

Cut them four inches square.

Now take your two inch squares, and mark a diagonal line.

Making sure that you are keeping one side perfect, and true. 

  

See what I mean.

Line up your little squares around your big square.

Making sure that the true side is in the middle.

Take it to your sewing machine, and sew on the lines. 

Line up your ruler so that you have a 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim off all your corners.

I have wondered what to do with those triangles. 

I think I am going tot let them go.

Press and look at that cute snowball.

Like I said I had two spots in my swap, 

so from my other pile I took one of the four inch squares,

and sewed it to the side of my snowball.

Repeat

Sew them together.

Look how cute and scrappy they are.

Want to know what is even cuter?

                                       

Sewing a lot together,

because if you look closely...

there are stars.

See how stinking cute is that.

I have a lot more to go but I can't wait to see it all done and adorable.

There are still two spots available in my swap.

If you totally want to copy me you can, 

I'm not going to stop you.

Here is the link to the sign up sheet.

If you only want one spot I will let you do that too.

the deadline is August 25, so you can't think about it too long.

Until next time have a great week end.

I think when the Olympics are done, I am going to be going through withdrawals.

I am now totally in love with synchronized swimming.

It just makes me giggle with joy.