A winner and a 2+2 Blouse

Today is two years of blogging!

2 years that have seriously changed my life. I love having a blog to show off my crafts and get feed back and occasionally inspire someone like I'm inspired by all the blogs out there. And my blog is a place to show off my two girls to my family back in the states. Only my parents have met Ava in person and she's 2!

So thanks everyone for stopping by and leaving comments:) I feel loved.

Want to know who won the most adorable polka-dotted bag?

If I tell you, you still have to scroll down and look at the new shirt I made Emily.

The winner is....#8 Kara,

the other girl with long monkey arms!! yay! I don't have to mail this to her! I mean..thanks everyone for commenting! I will have another giveaway sometime in the future..

now look at the pictures I posted even if you didn't win:)

*I used random.org for the number choosing*

Another 2+2 Blouse for Emily. Fabric is Lecien, Folklore and Robert Kaufman gingham.

It's a size 6 and way to big for her but still so stinkin cute! She can wear it next year.

Completely copied from this flickr-er.

2 random blurry photos of Ava and Emily.

Jon calls her Heath when she looks like this (the hair and that's Heath Ledger I'm talking about and I had a hard time finding a photo of his bad hair!)

You know, I was against blogs a long time ago. Stupid reasons that I won't go in to. But then sometime in the summer/fall of 2007 I discovered the Black Apple, Wee Wonderfuls and Angry Chicken blogs (just to name a few who caught my eye back then). I was blown away. Seriously. I have been sewing forever and all this time I have felt alone with the sewing. I didn't know to many people my age who sewed. It wasn't cool. The Fabric store I worked at in the States for so many years had only a few young people. And yes I work at a craft store here in Germany and yes there are young people but it wasn't until we moved to our new location that the sewing part of the store took off. At the other location it was old lady quilting for the most part:) Am I right girls I used to work with??

So anyway, I'm so happy I'm not alone. Thanks everyone:)

It's been 2 years since we first met...

*Alpha Banner Maker from Kelly's Digital Designs.

Next Thursday will be 2 years since I started this blog!!

In honor of this blogiversary, I am giving away this adorable toiletry bag made by me!

All you have to do is leave a comment with your name.

Your name must be within the comment if you do not have a blogger account. And I must have your email address. So to recap:

Name must be WITHIN the comments as in

"hope I win! Jennifer, parrishplatz@blahblah.com"

Thank you all my loyal blog-checker-outers:)



And those that visit every once and a while or if today is your 1st day.

*thanks Kelly for being the model:)

I will announce the winner on my actual anniversary date, Thursday the 25th so please check back.

Seven pictures of one quilt

We've had so much snow here so we've been going out almost every day and enjoying it while it lasts. Emily and Ava have been playing with their snowball makers (those things are sooo cool!) and Igloo/sandcastle makers.

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What you are about to see is 7 photos of one quilt. A little over kill but I like details and close ups myself. And I just felt like it. My blog. My rules. Read The Host and you may know what I'm talking about.

The quilt is called "Easy Lap Quilt" from the book, Bend the Rules Sewing. It's this same quilt here. The fabric is Recess by American Jane For Moda.

I was supposed to round the corners but I forgot. I remembered as I finished sewing the binding on. oops. The quilt is about 44"x55".

The backing above.

The binding below which Emily calls " eyeballs and buttons"

And the quilting I did. Wobbly lines, straight lines and zig zags.

I'm going to post a little give away this Thursday in honor of my 2 year blogiversary. I will keep it open for comments till the day of the anniversary (Thursday the 25Th. One week) at which time I will announce the winner! So check back Thursday to see the fabulous item I will be giving away:)

Weekender Travel Bag

My sisters birthday was yesterday so I can finally show her birthday present!! An Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag . I can't remember the fabric line (Corinnea do you know?). Hopefully my sister will email a picture of her carrying it so I can post it. You have to click on each pictures to make it huge so you can fully appreciate the fabric and there's little metal feet on the bottom of it!

This is bag #4 I think. It gets easier every time especially since I do some things a little different than the pattern calls for to make it easier. I'm going to post pictures on flickr of a construction tip I have for making this bag.

The inside..

A new little (about 10 long"x 7"tall x 4" deep) bag for my purse. I got the tutorial from here. But I altered it just a little to be bigger. I also made it with french seams.

Japanese coated cotton lined in Robert Kaufman gingham.

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Yesterday we went to a birthday party at an indoor playground.

It's called Kidzworld in Gaufelden.

Kayla the birthday girl and Emily .

A huge crocodile air slide.

It's a baby one

no reason for these other than she's cute. Are those not the cutest pj's? and extremely messy. Poor thing has my eyebrows.

a mini toiletry bag or box bag. It's perfect for binky's or ..... stuff. Emily is officially off the binky!! Four and half years old and finally done. She was only using it at night for a long time but recently we just told her we couldn't find it when she asked for it. It worked! Let's just hope she doesn't find a stray one someday. Me and my sister used to scoff at older kids with binky's before I had kids. Karma is all I have to say about that. It is totally inevitable that if I say something negative it will come back to me. It's almost comical how often this happens but its not! While some people never seem to be troubled with Karma...

It's super tiny. about 4.5" long.

The inside.

If it was yours, what would you put in it?

mini quilt

A mini band-aid quilt. I could not get a decent photo of this. It's not as cute as I had envisioned but it'll do (donkey). Fabric is Cloud 9 Organic and some other's thrown in.

no reason for this picture of the girls in an Ikea bag either.

I bought a nose douche today (nasendusche) from a German Apotheke. That's a neti pot to those who can't sprechen. I have been suffering from sinus pains for a couple of days now. Hurts so bad I want to shake a kitten! I'm going to irrigate my nose tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm sure everyone is going to be waiting by their computers.

Mendocino Shower Curtain

Shower curtain made from Mendocino by Heather Ross fabric. It's the same exact fabric I made the duvet from but with a very pale pink background. This was sooo hard to photograph!

Shower curtains are super easy.

1. 5 yards of (approx.) 44" wide fabric cut in half to make two pieces that are 2.5 yards by 44".

2. join them together along the long edge with a 1/4-1/2" seam (your choice). You can leave the selvedge with the writing on it if you want. I used 1/4 seam because i was matching my mermaids and had only so much to work with. Iron the seam open or serge together.

3. Fold over sides first: 1.5" then fold again 1.5", iron and sew close to edge. Sew both sides.

4. Fold bottom up 3" then another 3", iron and sew along edge.

5. Fold top down (always fold to the wrong side of the fabric) 2" then another 2". Iron and sew edge down.

6. Measure your shower liner and mark where the holes are on your shower curtain and make button holes. You can also use grommets but make sure they are big enough for your rings to fit through them. My liner has 12 holes but my fabric was wide enough for 14. When hanging the curtain, I folded over the end ones and they shared a ring with the one before it. Make sense? Probably not. Oh, I made mine longer than usual becasue my curtain rod is really high.
I hope I didn't leave anything out...



Where I joined the two fabrics together (below).

Here's Ava rocking out to the Dinosaur song. I had to post both videos because they both equally make me laugh. She didn't know the video was recording so she really got in to it:) Emily looks like she has a neck brace on. It's pretty funny.