guess who has 2 new tricks?

As of today, this guy can now clap AND stick his tongue out.

(yes, I created this post for the main purpose of helping me to remember when he did these two things but also because I haven't posted pics of the little bear in a while!)

You'll have to excuse my absence...

I spent the last two weeks making 15 of these outfits:

and then spent the following week in "Egypt" at our vacation bible school! Woohoo!

I have worked on my quilt a bit though.

... and sadly, that's all my fried brain has for you today.

I am a dirty cheater.

Remember all that progress on the Crazy Mom Quilt -a-long that I talked about here and here?

Well, until today, I was cheating... a little

.

The weeks of the quilt-a-long were as follows: week 1- cutting fabrics (check!), week 2: sewing strips of fabric together (done!), week 3: cutting said strips into 490 squares (erm... say what?).

You see- I have no patience! So for the next week, where we actually started sewing the pieces together, I just cut as many squares from each fabric as I needed, thinking I will just cut as I go.

The problem with that is that knowing you have cutting to do before your sewing, makes you dread the sewing. Once you've started dreading the sewing, you get a little behind and before you know it, it's 3 weeks later and you've got a box that looks like this on a shelf in your sewing room:

Yup. A Center block, a few squares and a TON of strips that needed to be cut. So today (during Noah's loooooong nap!), I cut and cut until I thought my hand would fall off.

The box now looks like this: (dang that Mickey! I loathe him!)

BTW, I'm planning to use this box-o-randomness to place my squares- whatever I pull out, I use. Thanks to the wonderful kdmade for the awesome suggestion. My neurotic controlling self is having to let go a bit, but I'm surviving.

I am sewing weeks five and six tonight! It is so much faster and more relaxing without all the cutting! Lesson learned: while procrastination is easier, it's never better.

Thanks! ... and the giveaway winner!

Thank y'all so much for all of the awesome comments- I mean, I realize that I was basically bribing you to leave them, but they were so insightful- especially the ones that mentioned things they'd like to see in my etsy shop!

One thing that was mentioned more than once was cloth wipes. I've actually done a custom order for a wonderful mama of two boys for some flannel/terry cloth wipes. She says that she loves them and they've held up well so I definitely plan to add some to the shop in the future!

Another thing mentioned were unpaper towels that snap together! I have made two sets of thsoe so far, one for us and one for my dad. I would love to make them and sell them, but I already know of an awesome friend who sells them in her shop- mamamade!
She actually doesn't have any listed right now, but I'd check back- her's are way cuter and way neater than mine could ever be!

Another couple things that I've made and I'm planning to add to the shop (as soon as I have a second to sit down and list them!) are minky-backed camera strap covers:and monogrammed camera strap covers:

I love your ideas of more boy stuff, more hair accessories for mamas, patchwork camera strap covers (quilting + camera strap covers = instant awesomeness), more kitchen accessories and all the others! Whew! Y'all are just full of great ideas! Now, I just need the time to create these things! :)

Ok, ok enough babbling- now on to our winner!

The winner of this linen/Modern Meadow clutch is....

#45- Jackie!

Jackie, please email me at jwpbride @ gmail dot com with your address and I will get this out to you ASAP! Congrats!

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Y'all. I am so lazy...

So.. about my entry... just refer to my last post...
just this once we'll call it "in-the-photo-almost-wordless-wednesday", mmkay?

(almost) wordless wednesday

(Taking a cue from Cassie...)

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

I can't paint, but...

I sure can slap some Thickers and fabric up on a canvas to create something that makes me happy to look at!

We are currently re-doing our living room- I am so tired of all of the dark colors and "drab-ness" when my kitchen (which is connected to it!) is such a bright and happy place!

So far, we have gotten some new furniture, arranged it all the way that we like it and we are now in the process of taking down the (mostly black-framed) wall art, replacing it with lighter and more FUN pieces! I've also made a couple pillow covers (inspired by this and this from the awesome Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew). The next (and last!) step will be to paint in the den and the hallway! I am so excited to have this almost done!

... probably because it's been hanging there blank for a good 2 weeks waiting for me to get to it. I'm pretty sure everyone who came in our house thought I was trying to make some crazy artistic statement with a blank canvas on the mantle.

much better.

Don't forget about the clutch giveaway that ends on Friday!

Modern Meadow Hoarding, 100 (AND ONE!) Followers and a Giveaway.

It's no secret that I'm a little obsessed with Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. I bought the fat quarter pack in "cool stream" for the Crazy Mom Quilt-a-Long (as I'm sure you know, because I mention it about every, oh, 7 seconds! I love it so far!) and I have not been able to throw ONE SCRAP of it away!

I wish I was joking, but literally zero pieces have made it to the trash bin.

I may have to be on "Hoarders".

Anyways, the first thing I did was obviously the quilt- here's my progress so far (as of this minute, I'm a week behind. Oh well. I'll catch up! ):

Next, I took some of the scraps from cutting the strips and braided them for a necklace to wear with my favorite navy shirt!

The third thing I made (see how ridiculous this is getting?) is the sneak preview I gave you a couple of days ago! Joe and I both have little black softcover bibles that we received from the headmaster and teachers when we graduated from high school- they're identical on the outside except for our names inscribed veeeeery small on the front right corner (which mine isn't even the same anymore but that's beside the point!). Also, every Sunday I end up dropping papers or forgetting my pen so I really wanted to make a bible cover! I saw this tutorial over at Amy's Creative Side, but I didn't really want handles (weird, huh?) and I had some linen scraps so I made this:

I used my snap press (YES! I always want to use it but never have a reason to!) so that it basically folds over and closes- keeping all papers in that handy pocket or between pages! Score!

The LAST thing I made is for one of YOU!

As you will note to the right, I now have 101 followers- that's nuts!

Thank y'all so much for reading all of this random crap (baby junk, sewing junk, cooking stuff, some photo stuff!) and leaving all the sweet comments about things I make!

I used linen and (obviously) Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow 100% cotton prints to make this clutch/bag. The finished size is a one and a half inch taller (for a finished size of 9" wide by 6 1/2" tall) than the ones that I sell in the etsy shop. The finished size is and I want one of YOU to have it as a thank you for helping me reach my first milestone of 100 (and 1!) followers!

Win It!
To enter, leave me a comment here (don't forget to include your email address!) telling me a crafty fact about you! Do you like to sew? Are you a bad-a with some knitting needles? Can you scrapbook the pants of anyone who dares challenge you? I want to know!

Want more chances to win? Leave a separate comment letting me know you did any of the following:
- Follow my blog (if you're not one of my lovely 101 already!)
(warning: SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION AHEAD)
-Go check out my shop, wee little winslow, on Etsy, come back here and tell me one thing you'd like to see added to the shop ("for you, your home or your little one")!
- Become a fan of wee little winslow on Facebook

I will choose a winner on Friday, July 16th and notify the winner by email.
If I don't hear back in 48 hours, I'll pick another winner.

Good luck and thanks so much for reading all these ramblings!

McCalls 5388

Remember back at Easter when I made my dress and then had this epiphany that with my akward proportions, I should really start making my own clothes more often?

Well, 4 months later, I made a shirt.

the front:
Close up of the front pleats:
Hanging (sorry it's so bright- my camera was majorly acting up- that's also why the first pic is so out-of-focus!):
It's McCall's 5388 which I had seen Rae make a few times and I thought I'd give it a shot!

Here are a few things I did differently:

• I did pleats instead of ruffles. I thought it would be easier but it wasn't really because then I had to worry about everything lining up just so. I still like the look of it, though- especially with this fabric!
• I made version D without sleeves (used version C's directions at the end)

Things I will do differently next time:

• I accidentally put the bias tape in the arm holes too close to the edge, thus making the armholes a smidgen snug once they were finished. I'll know better next time.
• Another bias-tape-booboo: this was the first time I had used bias tape, so I knew I'd mess up SOMETHING! :) I didn't follow the directions when they told me to "baste then sew"- I figured I could just go slow and sew the first time around. WRONG. By basting first, you can then sew on the right side of the fabric along your basting stitch and get the stitches exactly where you need them- not too close to have the bias tape flapping around (which is what I did on the back) but not so far from the edge that you stitch past the bias tape completely (which is what I did on the sleeves). Live and learn, people.
• Take an inch out of the yoke- apparently this pattern is known for being wide in the yoke, but I figured I'm a bigger girl, it might not hurt to leave it be. I was wrong- it goes almost to the edge of my shoulders!
• Add an inch of width in the back. The front is loose and lovely, but the back is sort of... boxy. It felt snug in the back, but loose in the front (which is the opposite of my usual problem with tops! haha)

Over all I thought this pattern was great- there were a few things I had to read over a couple of times to make sure I knew what I was doing, and a few words that I wasn't familiar with and had to google (like "understitching"- which was so easy once I saw a few pics- and "slipstitch"- why didn't you just say blind hem?). I've already bought the fabric to make this again- I always need a nice plain white summer top to wear with skirts and pants and this seems like the perfect pattern for that! I bought the poplin and bias tape yesterday, so now I just need the time!

what's going on...

(embarassing confession: I love the celebrity cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On". You know, the one they made right after 9/11 with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake and Destiny's Child before Destiny's Child was just Beyonce? *sigh* Don't tell my emo husband, but I have a special place in my heart for 90's pop music.)

Moving on!

I've been busy lately! I've been doing a TON of monogramming locally and getting ready to re-stock my merch in a local shop called The Monkey and the Mermaid - my sewing machine has been going full blast!

I'm super stoked about this next project- I entered an i-spy swap over at fabriKate designs! Have you seen an i-spy quilt? Well, you use fabric squares that have something on them (ice cream, airplanes, whatever) so that when you sit down with your little one, you can play i-spy on the quilt! Genius, right? Check out these 2 from Obsessively Stitching:

So cute, right?!

As you can imagine, getting a bunch of little pieces of fabric is a pain in the rear, so the swaps are a great way to get the fabric you need! You send in 200 squares (20 each of 10 different fabrics) and in a month or so, you get back 200 DIFFERENT squares! Awesome! I just bought my fabric for the swap and I don't want to show it all until I send it to Kate, but here's a sneak peek:

PICKLES!

I LOVE IT!

I'm also trying to figure out what to do with all this mess.

It was a Robert Kauffman jelly roll, but I pulled it all apart and sorted it by color because I felt like they didn't all flow together.

... and now I only like these two stacks:

Wow... it's really obvious that I'm a mom of a boy, huh?

Any ideas on what to do with it?

The last thing I want to show you is sort of a secret.

Well, it's not so much a secret as it it's just not ready yet.

I'm not going to tell you what it is.

All I'm going to say is that it has something to do with the number of followers I have creeping slowly to 100, and something to do with maybe giving one of those followers something really cute.

But that's all I'm saying.

in the photo friday, v 2.0

This one's short and sweet because we are currently on vacation with Joe's family... in the mountains!