Charise Creates: June 2013

6.30.2013

Sunday Stash Vintage Edition

I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was very busy - out in the yard. Lots of yard work and my hubs finally painted our front porch. Woo Hoo!!!! Nothing like a little 4th of July party to motivate one to get the house in order : )

Today's Sunday stash is a find from a local thrift store - Value Village. I rarely find anything there - it is in a busy area of Seattle and picked over.

I did find vintage flea market fancy - green leaves - before the reprint ages ago.

I love this retro 70's fabric. Very Marcia Brady : ) I think it would be a cute hand bag or tote.

The Fire King baking dish was also a lucky find! A good day at Value Village.

[Left - New Ball jar, Right - Vintage Ball Jar]

I was reading the latest Country Living and spied this page. Ball jars are now available in blue!

I have a small collection of vintage jars and I adore them. They hold my thread and I just love the beautiful turquoise color. Country Living has a link to an online store but I did an online search and found them at my local Ace Hardware store. The new jars are definitely brighter and smaller than the vintage ones (New on Left, Vintage on Right ) but I think they will be perfect for storing buttons and the like! They are also about $2 a piece!!!

I thought it would be fun to show you my "photography studio". Inspired by Lynne of Lily's Quilts - she shared hers on Instagram. I was pleasantly surprised to see she uses a similar method for her blog photos! I use a piece of white poster board which I tape to the back of the chair. I set it up in the SW corner of my house which has the best light. It works wonders when you have little space for photograpy! I also love to use picmonkey to brighten up my photos - definitely a must for grey Seattle photo shoots : )

Hope your weekend was lovely !!!

Charise

6.27.2013

I'm in Love.....

OK... this is a bit embarassing but I'm referring to my new i-pad mini. I have been waffling for so long and probably one of the last people to get a "smart" device. Instagram pushed me over the edge. Sadly Flickr is quiet and many of my Flickr friends have headed over to instagram. Flickr is great for organizing photos and is the place I met most of my lovely quilting and sewing friends! It is a wonderful tool for groups and quilt alongs. I'm not abandoning Flickr but I do love the community and sharing on Instagram. Pls visit me there - you can find the link to my account on the right hand side of my blog - I'm @charisecreates. Here are a few pics I've taken on Instagram and shared in the past few days..........

I'm almost finished with these pouces for a class at Drygoods Design. The left one is finished. The one on the right is basted, just need to stitch the frame to the pouch with some bright red perle cotton embroidery floss!

My quilt came back from Quiltmaker Magazine - so happy to have it home!!

I'm adding another border on my "Color burst" quilt! It is getting too big for my design wall!!

I hope you are enjoying the summer!

Charise

6.23.2013

Sunday Sewing & Sunday Stash

I hope you had a good weekend and Summer Solstice. I was going through some sewing bins and found this block in pieces. I think it was an option for Ayumi's ringo pie block that I abandoned! I have wanted to make a pattern from this block for ages. Hopefully soon ~ It was fun to put it together : )

I had a wonderful first week of summer break and a wonderful weekend.

On Thursday, I met Melinda (quirky granola girl) who was visiting Seattle from Maryland! We have known each other two years online via Flickr through the Farmer's wife bee, Cocorico Bee and Ringo Pie bee.

She is the loveliest person and we had such a fun afternoon shopping for fabric - of course : )

I also had a wonderful afternoon with my friend Sue who loves fabric as much as I do!

Here are my new acquisitions!

I heart these lovely new Atsuko Maysuyama prints from Lecien. Becca at Sew Me A Song has a nice selection in her shop here.

Sweet Low volume fabrics. From Left to Right:

Avalon for moda, Posy by Aneela Hooey for Moda, Avalon for Moda, Basics by Alison Lindhardt for Adorn.it

Fun Pink, Red and Aqua

From Left to Right:

Timeless Treasures, Boho by Urban chiks for Moda, Giddy by Sandy Gervais for moda, Chemistry, Lakehouse dry goods, Avalon by Moda, 30's collection from Lecien.

Some of these have already made it into my Pretty Triangles quilt!

Charise

6.17.2013

Sneak Peeks : )

I'm so excited to share a little sneak peek of a book I will be in. It doesn't come out until December but C & T publishing has a picture of the cover on their website! You can find it Here and is available for pre-order on Amazon too! It is a paper piecing book with lots of small projects - 37 to be exact. You can see my round apple pouch in the upper left hand corner and if you look very carefully my calendar block is the center right on the bottom center pic! Lots of my Ringo Pie Bee friends are in the book as well as ladies from the "Sew out Loud" quilt along!

I also just finished a project for the Liberty Lifestyle Blog! I just love Liberty fabric and I am so honored and excited to be working with Liberty. It is a fun and easy project that I promise you will love! Liberty has been a favorite fabric line for some time. I did a little post about designing with Liberty here.

This is the first day of our summer break and I am working on creating structure to our day. If any of you lovelies have ideas for things to keep your kiddos engaged and busy during the summer, I'd love to know your secrets : )

xo
Charise

6.13.2013

Sewing for Friends and More Sewing for myself

Life has been busy here. School is over tomorrow and I've been trying to get as much finished this week as possible since both my boys will be hanging out with me for the summer!

I've finished my "Craft it Forward" items and posted all but one of them today. Thank you ladies for being sooooo patient : ) I'm embarassed to say it has taken me almost a year. The past year has been busier that I would have ever dreamed but it is good! I've had the opportunity to design and create lots of projects.

I finished this little set today! A friend is having a baby girl - and soon! I purchased the booty pattern quite some time ago from Beth at Weepereas. It is a fabulous pattern - super easy to follow and fast to make. The booties are reversible - you can't see from the photo but I used the ice cream print for the inside.
The peasant dress is a free pattern from Sew much ado. It is available as a 0-3 month pattern for free and she also has larger sizes available for purchase. It is also a wonderful pattern and I see myself making more of these sets for friends expecting baby girls.
The dress fabric is the Little Lisette line by Liesl & co. for Joann Fabrics and the Ice cream truck booties are Heather Ross fabric that came from some p.j's by Munki Munki.

Last week I was incredibly inspired to do some more sewing for myself.

I made the adorable peasant top pattern that is a free download at Marth Stewart.

Then I made another one - this time from a sheer georgette fabric - pictured above. I narrowed the sleeves in order to fit the pattern on the amount of fabric I had on hand. My next version will be short sleeves - perfect for summer!

Anna at Noodlehead and Kerry at VeryKerryBerry posted the cutest tees from Skirt as top. I headed on over to Skirt as top and printed out the pattern and instructions.

It is a great pattern and the instructions are easy to follow.

I made the blue one first and then went to a local fabric store and purchased the coral fabric.

The coral fabric is incredibly sheer and a bit had to work with.
A little trick when working with very sheer fabrics - to help the fabric lay flat and keep from curling, spray with starch and iron. It works like a charm!

I added the self knit trim on the arms - inspired by Anna!

If you wish to do so, cut two strips 2" x 14" and follow the same instructions for the neckline.

I'm inspired to sew more - I can't wait to get started!

Charise