A Simple Easter Gift

 

Every year for Easter I make special baskets for my Niece and Nephew.This year, my older brother is engaged and his fiance has two daughter's. This year I get to make for THREE girls -- SQUEAL!!! :) Being that I have a boy I rarely get the opportunity to sew for girls so I opted to make each of them a cute chevron skirt for their basket.

I just got a new machine and it did not go as smoothly as planned but by no fault of the machine.

 I bought the Brother SE 400.

Which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. It so unbelievably quiet compared to my old machine not to mention smooth as butter. It is reasonably priced and I (so far) would recommend it to others. Embroidering on knit though...there's a learning curve. That is where I ran into problems and had to buy a replacement shirt.

The three (yeah, THREE) lesson's I learned here:

1) Always use larger than your hoop size stabilizer

2) Make sure your fabric is taut and not hanging loose on one side.

3) Never get up during embroidering to look for a camera.

In the end the outfits turned out lovely and I hope all the little ladies love them!

I love how they are all chevron and match but are still unique. 

      AND by the way..the whole GFC thing...   Follow me on Bloglovin' instead:)     Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Family Portrait Day

 

 

 

So today was family picture day and we decided to go somewhere new and went to Portrait Innovations. I can not say enough about them, I loved it. Our photographer, Elizabeth, did a great job and there were really only a couple of pictures that we did not like (and she took almost 80!)

 

Here is a few of my favorite shots::

To see if you have a Portrait Innovations by you they have a website you can check out their website HERE.

They also have special deals all the time that you can print out on their website. 

My ONLY complaint is that they only take appointments 2 weeks (exactly) in advance.

The good bits:

The photographer was quick and got a lot of good shots; very important quality when trying to keep a active toddler focused! They print the pictures right then and there--no waiting around weeks to get them! You can do as many wardrobe changes as you want. You know you do not want 9 poses in the SAME outfit! They are reasonably priced and our package even included 3 hard cover books for the grandparents:)

I am not being paid and did not receive any special discounts that are not publicly available from Portrait Innovations.

Blue green sea quilt - 2

So I picked out the border for the blue green quilt.

I knew I wanted a 2" border of ivory then a 2" border of the accent color and a wider 5 1/2" of the ivory. 

I was leaning towards the aqua green color of the bias tape but my JoAnn's has an abysmal selection of Kona's. They had NOTHING to match the green or the aqua in stock. I went with a touch darker olive green from another brand. I think in the end it was a good thing though and I'm really digging it.

Here it is with the bias tape next to the quilt top. 

I think it looks good for the quilt and the blue green sea name.

Simplicity Bias Tape Machine Review

The big man got me one of these for Christmas and I finally got  to take it out and play with it.

It is a machine that basically folds and irons your bias tape for you. The compact machine comes with a 1" single fold bias tape tip, however there are many other sizes available for purchase. I also have the 1 1/8" tip as well. To make this size you will need 2 1/4" strips for bias tape. Using the method I showed in the bias tape tutorial make yourself a nice pile - o - bias.

(notice I got the fancy bias tape ruler?? REMEMBER for the larger tip the strips need to be 2 1/4" wide NOT 2 1/2")

Then following the directions for the bias tape machine I ran it through the machine. This machine only makes single fold tape. I always use double fold so I opened up the single fold tape and folded the raw edges to the fold line. Then ran the tape through the machine sans bias tip. 

Do I like the machine...

Yes and No. 

It would be totally rockin' if they came out with a double fold tip because it is hard to keep the raw edges folded in and even while it is running through the machine. It is pretty fast though, if your doing single fold. That alone will keep me working on getting more proficient with it. Nothing will motivate you more than burning the crapples out of your fingertips with the other method--even though it is perfectly folded that way.