My Elf Pop Puppies

I had so much fun sewing little dolls for my girls at Christmas time, that I decided to try Elf Pop's Dog Pattern for someone's birthday that's coming up.

I think this sweet little style of floppy handmade dolls will be the 'raggedy ann' of this generation. Elf Pop sewing patterns are very well written and come from Raynor in Scotland whose designs include charming little girl and boy dolls as well as some adorable animals.

The instructions are very thorough and even provide little tips like using fabric glue for attaching your felt pieces before you sew them on. I didn't happen to have fabric glue on hand, but one of my kids' glue sticks worked great. :)

I admit my choice of fabrics is kind of crazy. I was going for a cute dalmatian look with bright accents, but maybe it's too busy. It doesn't really matter, though because I know my kids will love them. Hug them, kiss them, sleep with them, even fight over who gets to hold them. It doesn't matter how many toys we are tripping over, someone always wants what the other one is holding.

Don't you just love those floppy arms and limbs? They are all over the place!

Here are Elf Pop's little people dolls in case you're not as enamored by the critters as I am. Can you get over those hairstyles? There's one that would be just right for each of my kids. If you love these little guys you'll be super excited by our giveaway that starts tonight! Check back on our {giveaway page} after 11 sometime.

Happy Sewing!

Sew Can She Sewalong Part V: Submit!

Yay! Our sewalong has been such a sucess! I have had so much fun sewing my herringbone blocks knowing that 'sew' many of you have been doing it right along with me. And we have so many beautiful and ingenious projects!

Here's your assignment for today... Send me your project photo by 10 pm Eastern tonight! Keep in mind that I can  only include one photo of each project in the collages that I will send to our judges. They will look a lot like the collage above that I made with Picasa (except I'll work it out so photos don't get cropped). I'll put numbers on these collages instead of names so our judges can be as unbiased as possible. So if you want to show several views of your project please make your own little collage that will be included in a big numbered one.

Here again are our four judges. I have asked them to assign points based on creativity and project execution. The entry with the most points wins the $50 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop. It will be delivered by email for instant shopping fun!

And it's my turn now to show you how I finished my quilt top and back. I decided to put a solid border around my blocks and I love it so much! It matches the back of the pillow I made as my 'bonus project' with the scraps. You can see it in this blog post {here}.

The back will be this Tula Pink and solid lavender combination. I'll be sure to show you the finished quilt when it's done. I'm not nearly the quilter that many of you are. Can I say how impressed I am by the girls who have finished their quilts already? Wow.

Did you see the little sewalong participant age survey we did on the fb page {click here and scroll down until you find it}? Don't miss your chance to tell us all how old you are, lol! We've had people from 11 to 66 sewing along.

Now I'll let you get back to finishing up. Be sure to email your entry photo soon to caroline@sewcanshe.com!

Making the Easy Zipper Pillow from My Poppet's tutorial

I must admit... seeing all the beautiful herringbone pillows show up in our Sewalong Photo Album, I really wanted a pretty pillow. I didn't have anything pretty in my bedroom. When I realized how well the colors on my mini quilt top (made with the scraps from my herringbone blocks) would go with my lavender bedspread,  I got so excited to make a pillow out of it. This would have made a tiny quilt, but it made a gorgeous (not to toot my own horn or anything) huge pillow. {You still have a few days to send me your project photos for the sewalong... click here to go to our fb page.}

Making this pillow cover, I didn't want to get into anything too fancy that would distract from my crazy piecework, but I did want a zipper. So I turned to Cintia's lovely tutorial on her blog, My Poppet. You can visit the original tutorial by clicking on the photo to the left. It is also found in our site Archives on the Home Love page.

This tutorial is so beautifully written and easy to follow, it was just what I wanted.

Have you ever had almost enough fabric to make what you wanted, but were just a tad shy? Well, that's what happened when I picked this red linen for the back of my pillow. Luckily I found a strip that I had discarded because it was too skinny for the border of my Herringbone Quilt {you'll see that tuesday :) }. It was just enough to make my piece of red linen big enough. I also like the seam there for some reason. It adds character.

My other minor hiccup was the zipper. The only ones long enough that I had on hand were these huge chunky plastic ones with a separating bottom. I decided to go with it anyway, being careful not to lose the slider before the zipper was secured. I would have to cut the bottom part off anyway so that separating thing would not be an issue.

I really appreciated the way that Cintia's tutorial showed the correct way to make the zipper teeth point when you sew the top. No more messing up like I have on zipper pouches. By the way.. this tutorial is just like a big easy zipper pouch. If you can make zipper pouches, you can do this in 20 minutes. Once you do this, zipper pouches (at least the unlined kind) will be a snap.

And that was it! We were off to the store to see if they had a pillow form the right size. If you plan to do this I highly recommend checking pillowform sizes before making your pillow cover. That way you can adjust the size of your cover to fit the form if needed. I just happened to be very lucky. And I was prepared to squeeze in a slightly larger pillowform if needed, but I didn't have to.

Have a nice weekend everyone, and don't forget to {enter our giveaway} for a beautiful fabric bundle from Skye Reve Fabrics and 3 pdf patterns from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop. It's the last day!

5 reasons to visit your local quilt shop today...

In case you didn't already know it, today is 'Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day!' When Sarah texted me about it this morning I needed no further prompting, I simply thought when and where?  So we loaded our two preschoolers in a minivan and drove down the road to The Quilt Place in Rockledge, Florida. With all the fun fresh in my mind, here are 5 reasons why you should head out to your local quilt shop too.

1. Inspiration! Check out those beautiful quilts on display. They probably have all the patterns available too.

2. Advice. Sarah wasn't sure what kind of a border to put on her herringbone quilt (for our sewalong) and the sweet associate gave her lots of good advice. Bet you can't wait to see it. :)

3. Find new favorites. I'm embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Philip Jacobs before today, but it seemed like every other bolt I was drawn to had his name on it. Gotta learn more about him..

4. Bring your quilt to be professionally quilted. Or at least come to watch. It is mesmerizing.

5. To buy beautiful fabric! Well, duh you say. But I love visiting quilt shops because they carry the best of the best. And all of these beautiful fabrics were in their bargain nook. Can you spot the Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler?

And, of course, when you support your local quilt shop you are keeping this lovely art form alive in your community. The big brand fabric stores are happy to sell you cheap fabric and lots of it, but your local quilt shops will bring out the artist in you. Get to know them!