Aprons In Action

I've sent out the call to everyone I've made an apron for and asked for a photo of them wearing it. Here are the first few photos in for a little sew-and-tell.

First up, we have aprons on Mr. Bug's side of the family. From left to right and numbered in birth order: Kaelynn {#6}, Kimberly {#3}, Elizabeth {me, married to #1}, Stephanie {married to #4}, Krystal {married to #8} and Rachel {married to #7}. We're missing two of the sisters-in-law and Mr. Bug's mom, but hopefully they'll send me individual pictures.

This is my family. Moving from left to right is my twin-ten-years-younger, Jill {#4}, Robin {#5}, my mom {isn't she so cute!} and me {#1}. We're missing my brother's {#3} wife and my other sister {#2}. Again, I'm hoping they'll send me photos of themselves with their daughters.

This is my adorable friend, Jenna, with her two girls. She told me that she often has them wear their aprons while doing chores, like French maids do. Isn't that fun! I loved making these pink-a-licious aprons for them.

{l to r: Audrey, Dana, Jenna}

Pictured here is my dear friend Megan and her girls. She has the most gorgeous naturally curly hair and is an amazing cook. They love to cook together and so it was fun to put together an apron that fit each girl's peronality.

{l to r: Chloe, Grace, Jane, Emma, Megan}

This is my sweet friend, Michelle and her girls. These are some of the sweetest girls I know, and they all help their mom in the kitchen. They sent me the nicest thank you note, each of them writing in it to express their thanks. Michelle told me that Jane fell asleep wearing hers on the day they received them.

{l to r: Anne, Jane, Sarah, Emily, Michelle}

This next apron is part of my 'international collection,' one of three aprons sent outside the United States. It went to Mel, my fellow TwilightMOM, who lives in Canada.

Mel's Caption: When I learned how to sew, I forgot how to cook.

And last, but not least in what I hope is only the first round of Aprons-in-Action, is Shaunalei. Her kitchen is painted a cheery Apricot color and so I thought these tulips might be fun to go in there. She tells me that her oldest daughter always comments on how cute she looks in it every time she wears her apron. I quite agree.

Thanks to all who sent me photos! I love to see you in your aprons!

Aprons № 90, 91 & 92: Bunches of Cherries & A Rose Garden

In the last couple of weeks I finished three more aprons, bringing my count up to 92 aprons since July of 2008. That's a lot of yardage and rick-rack. I think that if I'd have been keeping track of finishes on a blog, I'd have pictures of all of those aprons. You can see pictures of some of them here. Some of them I didn't photograph because I was in a hurry to get them in the mail and others, because I wasn't in the mood to stage it. And since I almost always make my aprons in sets of twins, I usually only took a picture of one of the two, even if the rick-rack was different on one of them. But since I am keeping track of finishes this year (and these aprons bring me up to four finishes for February -- hooray!), I have individual pictures of each one.

Aprons № 90 and 91 are twins. Friend and fellow TwilighMOM, Wanda, was cleaning out her stash and sent me a few cast-offs. One of the pieces she sent was actually quite large, about two yards of yellow fabric with adorable cherries on it. I asked her about the yardage, saying, "did you mean to send me this piece?" She told me that she had more of that fabric than she could use and said I should make an apron out of it. So that's exactly what I did. I pulled one of the left-over red fabric pieces from LadyBug's High School Musical quilt for the ruffle and pocket and made two aprons, one for Wanda (pictured on the left) and one for LadyBug (on the right). I love how bright and cherry -- I mean cheery -- they turned out. (Click on any of the photos for a close-up).


Apron № 92 is made from some fabric Mr. Bug's mom gave me. She must have bought it to make a table cloth because it is a border print and the fabric is at least 54" wide. I thought the pretty flowers would make a lovely apron and I had this piece of pink left from another apron to use for the ruffles and pockets.

I have enough of the blue fabric for at least four more aprons, so I'll definitely be making one for Mr. Bug's mom. I only have enough for one more pink ruffle, so I'm going to have to find something else fabulous to go with the others. And I only have maybe enough of this blue rick-rack for one more apron as well. This wide, cotton rick-rack is getting harder and harder to find. I've had to use narrower polyester rick-rack for some of the more recent aprons, which is sad. I much prefer the cotton rick-rack.

I must say that this is one project I am glad to see winding down. I have loved every apron I've made. They are fun to put together. I have fabric and destinations for eight more aprons, a request and ideas for another one, and thoughts of possibly two more after that. That makes a grand total of 103 planned aprons. Mr. Monk would not approve of that number.

Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along: block one.

I haven't done much posting lately because I haven't been getting much done. That is to say, I've been bouncing back and forth from project to project with not much direction, focus or finish. Yesterday afternoon Rachel posted instructions for the first block in the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along and things magically came into focus for me. I ran straight to my little sewing table and began pressing and cutting and piecing to my heart's content.

And here is my finish; two different color combinations of block one:




You can find the instructions for this block at p.s. i quilt: pinwheel sampler quilt along: block one.

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month: Block 1

Cat's Twilight Block of the Month is really exciting. I've seen her layouts, both for the beginner's quilt and the advanced. I even got to test a few of the advanced patterns for her. I consider that quite an honor. I will be using nearly all of her advanced patterns in my own Twilight Quilt, so I will have those blocks to show each month, but I won't be assembling them in her layout. So, I thought that I would follow along with the beginner's blocks and put together a little sampler. I've decided to do them at 3" instead of 5" (I reduced the pattern to 60%) and I'm going to use my favorite shimmery and sparkly fabrics for this little sampler.

Here's my little apple, beginner's block #1. It was fun and quick to put together. I used the very sparkly Hollyberry Fairy Frost for the apple.


And this is my advanced block #1 done at 6" (enlarged the pattern to 120%). I've had it done for quite a while, waiting to go in my Twilight quilt, but since it's the block of the month . . . any occasion to do a bit of sew-and-tell, right?

Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along: In the Pink

All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot.
-Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887


Blog browsing is dangerous. Especially when you haven't slept well the night before. I resisted for as long as I could. But I found one of those projects that just spoke to me and my resolve crumbled after about 12.2 seconds. I joined the p.s. i quilt: pinwheel sampler quilt along. I love Pinwheels and Rachel's sampler looks like so much fun!

I have so many projects going. And I kind of made a rule for myself that I wouldn't start anything new until I finish my Twilight quilt. I looked at Rachel's post and her quilt and imagined different color schemes for it, considering a rainbow of possibilities, including a red, white and black combination. But when I remembered this FQ in my stash, I decided that I had to do the quilt in a pink, brown and ivory color palette. This great calico is In the Pink 2 designed by Buggy Barn for Henry Glass & Co. Do I sound like an ad? Well, I love this fabric. I picked up the pink fat quarter and had to have it. I've already been browsing the shops on-line and have found some more for the back of my quilt at a really good sale price (have I mentioned that I love to find a great deal?)


When I bought the pink, it looked vaguely familiar, like an old friend. I got it home and discovered that I'd previously bought a yard of the coordinate in brown.


Upon deciding to join the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along (just this morning), I pulled the Buggy Barn fabrics from my stash. They were slated for use in another project, but that project won't miss them at all. I also pulled a couple of other pinks and browns; Lakehouse Dots, a Robert Kaufman and a Calico from, dare I say it?, JoAnn's.


I'm so looking forward to this quilt! Thanks, Rachel!