Finished Apron for Swap

I just wanted to share my finished apron for the Amy Butler apron swap that I joined in. We were allowed to pick out any apron pattern we liked but it had to be Amy B. fabric :) I sure hope my secret swap partner likes it! I had a lot of fun making it for her and am very happy with how it turned out. I finished all of the seams with french seams so that it looked just as great on the backside as it did on the front *grin*.

I had to have a little fun and try it out of course *grin*
Yup... fun and flirty, yet functional. LOL.

~ Rosina

Enlarging Patterns

Oh how I wish all pattern books supplied full size patterns instead of those itty bitty drawings that you need to photocopy and enlarge. My apron pattern for the Amy Butler apron swap just happens to be one of those itty bitty patterns and when I took it in to Staples to have them blow it up 400% there must have been some massive error in their calculations. I got home and pulled out the copies hoping to get straight down to business and found that they weren't big enough. EGAD!

The front panel pieces were supposed to measure 4 5/8" at the top of the waistband but it was only 3" and since I wasn't heading back into town before the mailing date I had to break out the tracing paper and ruler. I can't even remember the last time I had to think really hard about fractions! It probably didn't help that I didn't start working on it until after midnight either. LOL. Thank goodness when I pulled it out again this morning to double check the measurements everything was correct :)

It actually wasn't such a bad job and this way I got to add the seam allowances right into the pattern. Maybe I'll just do them by hand from now on.... then again maybe not *grin*.

~ Rosina

Will You B Mine?

A couple of good bloggy friends and I are swapping handmade Valentine cards that our children are making for each other and with the mailing deadline of Feb.1st just a couple of days away I thought we'd better get cracking! We found all sorts of fantastic valentine craft supplies at the dollar store the last time we were in town. There were paper hearts, foam shapes, glitter, ribbon roses, and so much more. It was hard to keep to a budget and not just splurge by grabbing tons of everything. LOL.

My daughter fell in love with a cute little critter kit to make these adorable 'Love Bugs' as she calls them so we made up a whole bunch of them to. Not sure what we're going to do with all of these love bugs but they're awful cute and she's having fun hiding them around the house for me to find *grin*. How about you, what sort of Valentine crafts are you up to?

~ Rosina

Fabric Eye Candy

I received my secret swap partner's name from Holly for her apron swap and thought that I better get my butt in gear and pick out some great fabric and hurry to so that I can get it mailed to me in time to leave me at least one day... maybe two to get it sewn up *grin*. I don't know what it is but I get a totally absurd mental blockage when it comes to matching colors! I must have clicked back and forth through the pages of Amy Butler fabric over at Fabric Supplies etsy shop more than a dozen times before I finally made myself a little collage of my favorites to help me sort out my thoughts :) I'm pretty happy with the ones I decided to go with so far. Now if only I could walk to the mailbox tomorrow and they would all be waiting for me.

~ Rosina

Owl Swap

Apryl from Meridian Ariel is hosting a great little Owl Swap and she does some really fantastic paintings on book pages to like the one above. Isn't he adorable *grin*. I am crazy about owls and actually just finished drafting up a cute little guy that I was planning to make into a rubber stamp so joining in on this swap was perfect timing! If you want to join in you still have a couple of days left. So hurry on over, January 14th is the last day :)

Amy Butler Apron Swap

Mommy Holly is hosting a great apron swap and if you love aprons and Amy Butler fabric then you are going to LOVE this swap!! You can use any apron pattern that you want but you must use Amy Butler fabric to sew a great apron for your swap partner. Hurry on over, you can still sign up until January 9th.

~ Rosina