I finally got everything finished in her room, diapers washed and in the drawer, now I just need a baby!

I'm pretty proud, I made almost everything in the room. Bedding, curtains, quilts, name letters, bow holders and bows were all me. The dresser was a flea market salvage and was pretty beaten up before I made it pretty. And the mirror was from Goodwill, and was originally a gaudy gold. Yay for cheap decorating!

You can see the full size pics at my Flickr.

I've been working on some things for Baby Avonlea over the past week or so - it hit me that HEY, I only have 8-12 weeks left before my world is rocked by a newborn! I need receiving blankets and diaper covers and all that other essential newborn stuff! Her nursery is still not finished but should be soon. Our neighborhood is having its bi-annual community garage sale next weekend and I'm hoping to find a dresser that I can paint and spiff up with some fabric decoupage and maybe a nice rocking chair. Other than that I need to paint her name letters, make her crib mobile, and hang some stuff on the walls. I better get cracking.

Receiving blankets:





Squishy soft minkee and thermal cupcake blankie:





And the first of many fleece soakers - I have plans for more to match some shirts she has, complete with embroidery on the bums.

Also known as Works In Progress. I have several I need to finish and I'm trying (keyword there is trying!) to finish them all before I start anything new. Which is very difficult because there are so many tempting NEW projects I could start. I hate having half-finished pieces cluttering up my piles though.

I finished the easiest project first - a quilted pillow. Now I have three quilts I need to tackle that all need sewn together before I can do anything else.



The little weenie dogs are actually cut from one of Beckett's old stained onesies.




I also received my promo material for Avie Adorned. How cool is this stuff? Business cards and "packaging" for my bows! I punch a hole in the cards and then clip the bows on for shipping.



Speaking of bows, I added several new ones to the shop last night. Check it out!

I had the honor of making these little gift sets for twin boys born on the 17th. My awesome friend Cara was a surrogate and carried the boys for a couple from Iceland. They were a little early at 33 weeks but they're doing great and are just the cutest tiny things ever. I got to meet the proud mama and daddy and even got to visit the twins in the NICU yesterday. The hats fit them perfectly!

The reason I haven't blogged in a week..

My brand spanking new Etsy shop!!


Avie Adorned - Custom Boutique Bows

I've been working all week to get this up and running and I'm so excited. I'll be adding lots more over the coming days and weeks. If you love Gymboree, definitely check it out because I'll be doing lots of made to match stuff.

I went shopping with a friend last night and we hit up Goodwill, JoAnn's and Target. Despite being completely exhausted from being out and about for four hours (her even more than me, she's 31 weeks pregnant with twins!) I found some good stuff. Now I just need to find the energy to actually put it to use.

First, from Goodwill, some vintage kiddie fabric. I am in love with the colors in this. It has a very cool weave, not the typical cotton quilting stuff you see today.



Goodwill also had this pretty vintage pillowcase, perfect for a pillowcase dress. I adore that little scalloped edge.



And, two dress shirts, to be made into sundresses using this fab tutorial.



At JoAnn's I found some diamonds in the rough: Alexander Henry Bird Seed and Robert Kaufman Pears. The fabric on the right is a Keepsake Calico that I thought was cute.



And have you seen the Orla Kiely stuff at Target?? I WANT. IT. ALL. My favorite are these pear canisters. Yum. Want! Not to mention, it's almost like she created this collection with MY kitchen in mind. Observe:





Amirite??

Ugh. Lust.

Anyway, I did grab some of her awesome dishtowels and am planning to make them into a bag.



Ahhhh.. so many projects.

For I have discovered how to make bows as big as her head.

I made this bag yesterday using the Everything Bag Tutorial. Didn't take me long at all and I love it. I think I could be growing addicted to making bags. I have a mile-long list of supplies to get at the craft store so I can tackle a few different patterns I have bookmarked.

This bag (and some other goodies that will be forthcoming) is part of a super special event that I will have more info about on Sunday. So keep yours eyes peeled!

I needed a break from sewing the states quilt blocks, so I decided to do something completely different today. My friend Rachel made a cute tote bag for her little boy and it inspired me to make a bag. My current "purse" is actually more of a giant tote bag (it's this one) and for the little amount of things I actually carry (wallet, cell phone, camera) it's way too big. So I made this smaller one to carry this spring.



The straps were originally supposed to tie in a knot, but the fabric I used was too thick and the straps were too short, so I had to improvise and just stitch them together. The straps are still a little short for my liking.



It has a nifty little pocket inside that fits my cell phone perfectly though. I have a ton of this skully denim left (literally, like 4 yards). I think I need to make a diaper bag to match.

I am so proud of this thing. My first "real" quilt and it actually doesn't suck! It's not perfect - there are tension issues and I got a little messy in some parts of the quilting. But I am in love with it. Photo overload, I know.

Ignore DH's legs. I still haven't found a good spot to hang quilts for photographing.



The back.



I decided to add a little personal touch and free-motion her name into the bottom corner.



I love the way a quilt looks when folded.





Folded nicely on her crib.



And big brother had to get in on the action. He is so fascinated with all the things I make for his little sister. :)

After watching me work on the baby's quilt for so long (which by the way is FINISHED, I just need to take pictures), Sawyer proclaimed to me yesterday that he wanted me to make him a quilt with blue, green, yellow and orange in it. I started digging through my scraps and some fabric I've had laying around for at least two years caught my eye. I have this great Alexander Henry states and capitals fabric, as well as this map panel. I knew instantly I wanted to make him a quilt of the 50 states.

I was originally going to just do the panel on the front and the AH fabric on the back, but the cut I had was smaller than the panel. So instead, I decided to fussy cut each state and make a block to feature each one. Then I'll put the panel on the back. I absolutely LOVE how they are turning out so far. The blocks are so fun to make, too, since they're all different.

Here are a few of the blocks so far:







I have all 50 states cut out, although I'm not sure if they will all make it onto the quilt. I'm going to try though.

My latest project is the most time-consuming: Avonlea's quilt. It's about 47" x 60". I didn't intend for it to be that big, it just kind of happened, but I'm glad now because it should be big enough to use on her toddler bed.

It took me a day to cut and piece everything, then another day of basting and beginning the quilting. This is 2 days of work so far and I'm about 25% done with the quilting. I'm doing free-motion quilting, which is where you lower the feed dogs and use your hands to guide the speed and stitch direction. The pattern I'm doing is called stippling, which is basically just a continuous squiggly line over the whole quilt. I've never done this on a scale this large before (in fact, this is only the second time I've done it in general), so it's a little intimidating, but I'm really happy with it so far.

I wish now that I had made the blocks a little more detailed and the sashing a little thinner, but I still love it. The back is really cool too, I can't wait to take a picture of it.

I have to say that this is really exciting for me. I have always been an avid reader of several quilting blogs, my favorites being a quilt is nice, Crazy Mom Quilts and Handmade by Alissa. I love to marvel at the intricate quilts they make. I could also spend hours browsing quilts on Flickr. Until now, I've been too intimidated to try anything like this myself, figuring I would just be an in-the-ditch quilter for life. I'm so glad I took the plunge though and can't wait to make more.

Okay, on to the pictures.

Laid out over the table:


Close-up of the quilting:


Here you can see the difference between a quilted section and unquilted section:

I feel like this is turning into a home makeover blog, but hey, I'm proud of my handiwork and like to show it off.

Last night we painted:



A couple days ago I finished the crib skirt:



And yesterday I made a quilted wall hanging. My first ever attempt at freehand quilting:





Today we're hanging the chair rail and curtains. And after that, pretty much all the heavy lifting is DONE (other than putting together the crib when it comes) and I can focus on making accent pieces!