I'm Honored!!!!

Wow, what a nice surprise!  Gwen from In Over My Head blog nominated me. 
The rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.   Thanks so much Gwen!!!!!  Happy New Year!!!!

2. Add The One Lovely Blog Award/Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post.

3. Share 7 things about yourself.

4. Pass the award on to 10 nominees.

5. Include this set of rules.

6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs.

Here go's 7 things about me!

1)  I love Jesus Christ!
2)  I'm the proud "Mee Mee" to five beautiful grandkids! #6 is on the way - August 2013
3)  I plan to retire from my fulltime job in August 2016, with 37 years of service!
4)  I love to cook and bake!
5)  I learned to sew in 7th grade.
6)  I love sharing my sewing knowledge with others.
6)  I love to participate in community outreach projects at my church.
7)  I love watching old movies on TCM.

Now the hard part, selecting 10 nominees:

1)  Welmoed at There She Sews!
2)  Cathy at The Noble Pig
3)  Adrienene at Real Life Live & Unscripted
4)  Sunni at A Fashinable Stitch
5)  Bunny at La Sewista
6)  Meloyde at Meloyde's Needle Notes
7)  Lori at Girls in the Garden
8)  Sandy at Sandy's Sewing Niche
9)  Trudy at Sewing with Trudy
10) Claudine at Rolling in Cloth

Check out these facinating ladies!  

Happy New Year!!!!!

A little tidying up!

The Sewing Center is in need of some sprucing up! Well enough is enough!

I have begun what I'm calling "Operation Declutter."  I was doing a pretty goodjob of keeping things organized, but when I started packing for the November retreat I left things in a mess. 
Upon my return from the retreat I began working on various projects, hence the disarray!  Well I'm determined to get this place in tip top shape!  I'm tackling every corner until it is pristine!!!!  I will also be making new labels for my rolling storage carts.  I may even move some things around.  Starting this evening I'll be off until next Wednesday so I should be able to get a lot accomplished.

Here's some fabric organization steps I've taken.  I've snipped a piece of each fabric that's in the drawer and attached it to a safety pin which is then attached to the handle of each drawer.  I can see what I have without rummaging through the drawer.  The fabrics in these drawers/bins are not large enough to make a garment, but can be used for bag or pocket linings, self interfacing, hats, scarves, small projects, etc. 

As I am a garment sewer, I don't own many quiltingfabrics.  This center drawer contains my lot of 1/4 - 1 yd pieces of cotton.  I can see each piece at a glance!!!!!

The colored drawers contain embroidery thread and supplies.  I am making new labels for the drawer fronts.  The white cabinet that holds my embroidery machine will also get a good cleaning out!

This cute "cord tamer" was made by our ASG NG Leader, Vivian Vaughn.  She painted an empty toilet paper roll with mod podge to make it sturdy and then covered it with fabric.  It's a really practical tool. 

In between the organizing I made a very comfy pair of pants.  Sandra Betzina Vogue 1197.  These came together very easily.  I used the size 12 and actually made no adjustments. I purchased this knit from A Fabric Place.  It's like a ponte knit.  I will shorten the next pair by 2 inches as I usually wear low heels with this type of pant. 

Well back to the Sewing Center for more organizing! 

Merry Christmas

Borrowed this from a friend!

Wishing everyone a wonderfully blessed Christmas & Happy New Year!!!!

Busy yet productive weekend

This past weekend I was busy sewing and making cookies. 

I completed two embroidered bath towels. The fountain scene is embroidery library.  They wanted something that resembled the fountain in Savannah, since the GD's name is Savannah.   After embroidering this on the towel, it was just too heavy, almost like a metal!  So I removed the background, kept the fountain and enlarged it.

This is a combination of three different designs.

I made a Ravens Christmas tree skirt for my daughter. I quilted the tree skirt and did free motion embroidery on the Ravens panels. 

Go Ravens!  When loose or tie, Ravens til we die!!!!!!

I also finished this beautiful pillow for my Priest.

Pattern review Night in Baltimore

A few of us met up at A Fabric Place in Mt. Washington to celebrate the 11th anniversary of Pattern Review! It was so nice meeting the lovely sewers/bloggers.   Kathy from the "Kathy Sews"  blog left before we decided to take a pic!  We talked about sewing and ate great cake!  Thanks Michael &. Josh for hosting!

Breakfast with Santa

Our church had it's annual Santa Breakfast today.  It was a great success!  I ran the pillow making table!  The kids really loved making tied-fleece pillows.  Here's some of the posing with their finished pillows!

I'll be there...

November is PatternReview’s anniversary month – 11 years!  Yay!
Come and help us celebrate at our combination Anniversary and Holiday Party!
(We’ll have cake. )

Date:   December 12
Time:   6:30 – 8:30 PM
Where:

Busy as a beaver!!!

Hi blogger friends!

I've been very busy sewing for church and family! On this past Saturday we celebrated my wonderful mother-in-law, Pat's, 70th birthday. I made 120 luggage tags for the guests.  She loves to play cards so I used this card-themed cotton.  They were a big hit!!!!  I've included the simple instructions below.

This was also the First Sunday of Advent.  Here are the altar cloths that I made for church.  We had a special visit from the Archbishop of Baltimore, Bishop Lori!  I am proud to say he wore vestments made by Dressed to a Tee!  I met him and he said he loved them!

Now it's time for some Christmas sewing.....pjs for the grands, aprons for my sisters, something for my Facebook sewing swap...until next time!!!!!