Really?

After I posted the first pics of my little wedding napkin project I got a comment from a reader suggesting that she and possibly others would be interested in contributing a napkin to my wedding. I thought to myself, nah, no one would want to do that. Then this reader posted on Sew Mama Sew and someone else showed interest. Then I had another comment. So, since this dear person named Mary, whom I have never met or even really talked to, planted this idea in my head I have spent a lot of time thinking about how gosh darn cool it would be to have actual real people who read my blog contribute to this. So I am shoving to the side my humble quiet nature and am just going to put the details out there. Even if I was only sent one little napkin I would be beside myself with excitement! If this is something you would like to participate in then hop on over to Mary's forum post and join in the chatter or leave a comment here (if she had a blog of course I would link but apparently she doesn't). The fabrics I am using are random ones that have a combination of turquoise/aqua/spring green. I have found these colors in the Amy Butler Daisy Chain line, the Moda Soiree line, some of Anna Maria Horners fabrics and others (a few samples shown in the pic). My squares are cut 9 inch square, put right sides together and sewn around the edge with a quarter inch seam. Of course I leave a hole to turn them right side out, press the unsewn fabric straight along the edge and sew a quarter inch seam aroung the edge again. Very basic. Oh, and I am using two different fabrics for the front and back. If you want to send one just email me at katebrid at gmail dot com and I will shamelessly send you my address.

Edited to Add: Forgot to mention two things... I clip the corners before turning them inside out and I don't wash my fabrics before sewing with them. I don't think it would make that much difference for the quilt I will eventually make out of these if some were prewashed, but I didn't want anyone to think that they needed to prewash the fabrics.

Mom Awesomeness

My mom (the one who likes to leave witty comments on my blog posts like, "what wedding?") is always a driving factor behind my sewing, knitting and crafting. She is the one that taught me to sew and knit orginally and the one that I ultimately go to when I am stuck on a project. Her advice, which usually starts with, "Now Kate, let's think about this..." has gotten me out of many a crafty jam, and just when I think I know it all about sewing or knitting she goes and learns something new and then happily shares whatever it is (because she knows I can't stand to not know how to do something) in her patient manner. She has finished two great projects lately, and since she has yet to venture into having her own blog I told her I was going to share her finished objects on mine. The shawl above is an example of how she can seriously rock some knitting needles, but it is the quilt below that shows the true depth of her skill and heart.

T-shirt quilts are a pain to make to begin with... the fabric is stretchy, it all has to be backed with stabilizer, you often have all different size squares from cutting around the t-shirt art and sewing it all together gets thick and hard to push through your machine. We both cringe at the thought of making t-shirt quilts, but this one is so special that there was no way she wasn't going to make it. We have a family friend that had a daughter recently lose a long battle with cystic fybrosis, and this quilt was made out of her t-shirts for her sister to take to college. My mom struggled with this quilt from conception to completion, not just because t-shirt quilts are challenging to make, but because the emotional investment and pressure to do a really great job was pretty intense. I am so proud of her for finishing this quilt and for how great it turned out. I know it was a journey for her, and I think it really shows how a quilt can be so much more than the time and fabric invested in it.

3 Down, 77 To Go

Apparently I really am crazy enough to make 80 cocktail napkins for my upcoming wedding because I actually started on this project last weekend. (There is often a large gap between thinking I will do something and really doing it). Getting started was very satisfying, you have a finished object about every five minutes with these! I have already informed my mother and Melissa that they will be cranking out some napkins too, and they didn't seem horrified at the thought, so hopefully these really will get done. I am already trying to decide what sort of quilt to make with them after the wedding. Oh! And they are a real reason to buy more fabric. It is so strange to have an actual reason...

Busy, Busy, Busy

So, not only is the new job completely kicking my butt, we are in the middle of trying to plan every detail of our upcoming May wedding. We finally got out to the vineyard where we are having it this weekend to look around the space and plan for chair setup, tent placement, etc. Definitely getting a little buried in the details that need tending to, but we got a lot done this weekend and I'm sure we will get a lot of other important things finalized this week, like ordering invitations and the final design for our rings. Getting those taken care of will make me feel a lot better. So, want to see the vineyard? It is Three Sisters Vineyard in north Georgia, the vines are all naked at the moment so you have to imagine everything all green and pretty, as if it isn't pretty enough already...

There's my Jay on the left, and our friends Billy and Meredith joined us for the lovely ride in the country.

Hopefully I will be doing some of this the day of the wedding too, we are trying to keep it a pretty laid back affair. I'm just hoping for weather as lovely as yesterday was.

My sewing ideas are leaning towards wedding stuff pretty full throttle right now, I want to make ring pillows for the girls to carry, cocktail napkins that can later be made into a quilt and since we are planning on having lots of quilts at the wedding for lounging and wine sipping, I would love to crank out a simple, pretty one for us in our turquoise-y wedding colors, we'll see.