Awesome Girls' Night Out

Last night three of my very dearest gal pals enjoyed a fun night at Applebees courtesy of a certificate one of us received to celebrate their "Girls' Night Out".  And celebrate we did!  Two Cosmos, two Bahama Mamas and four peach sangrias later, not to mention a yummy dinner, we were having a rollicking good time!  I was having such a good time I forgot to take pictures!

The highlight of the evening (and there were many) was creating our "princess" aliases. (Even big girls have dreams of princesses.)  So to Princess Starlene DeLauria, Princess Leah Charms and Princess Lorelei Grace, thank you for a lovely evening.  Who needs high tea when Applebees makes killer Cosmos?

cindy (Princess Penelope Calliope)

Dress Making Madness

I'm in a dress making mood.  I made one for Mackenzie because she's been asking for something "stretchy" for casual wear.

I love the fact that I was able to "play" with the pattern and the embellishments.  Mackenzie loves it:

It was that ability to "play" that got me going.  I bought a book Absolutely A-Line by Wendi Gratz that has 26 variations on a basic A-line dress.  A-line dresses are my all time favorites - easy to make and easy to wear.  I gave it a try:

Here's another one with a ruffle

I tried a pillowcase dress:

And, I found a cute ladies white gauze skirt at Goodwill that I turned into a little girl dress.  I'm especially happy with this one.  It's not quite done - see the pins?

These are all going in the new Etsy store (Pretty Pretty Cindy).  I'm having a great time breaking into my large fabric stash.  Now can you see why I haven't posted much lately?

cindy

Raggedy Rag Quilt

Do you really like rag quilts?  Love that look of raggedy edges?  This is the rag quilt for you.

I'm still using my favorite fabric (flannel) and I used another piece of flannel in the middle of the square "sandwich."  I used 5 inch square blocks and a 1" seam allowance on each side.  Yes, that means the end measurement of the block was 3" square.

 

It produces a dense, warm (heavy) quilt with lots of rags.  I'm not sure I would do a 1" seam allowance again, and if I did, I would definitely start with a minimum size of 6" square block.  This is still a very pretty quilt, but it takes a lot of squares to get to a crib or toddler bed size.  

One very cool trick I learned was the stitch I used to make the "X".  I used a "S" curve, which I bet is a stitch on almost every sewing machine.  By using the "S" I ended up with an effect on the smooth side of the quilt that I really love (and didn't anticipate).

My picture is not great, but each block matched curves and I didn't do anything special in using the "S" stitch.  Here's another view that might be a little better

I still like these rag quilts and can't wait to try more variations.  Next time I'll try some big squares.  My sewing machine will thank me.

If you are looking for more basic tutorials on rag quilts, check out my post here.  I also have some additional tips on making rag quilts here.

cindy