If you don’t know about the two talented ladies from Sugar City Journal, now you do. They make ridiculously stylish and modern and cute and functional clothes for their kids. And I have been waiting patiently for their patterns to be published. Luckily, I was first in line when they came out and snatched up the pattern for the village frock dress. I’m hoping it will become my little girl’s chirstmas dress. And I was thinking about making it in velvet (or velvette) but the more I think about it the more expensive it sounds. And I’m guess velvet is hard. Any suggestions?

The picture is the packaging (duh). It’s made out of a paper bag and stitched at the sides. On the pattern itself it says, “you are a sewing genius.” Yeah! And here’s the back of the package because it’s as nice as the front.

Popping in to say there are a few city skirts now in my etsy shop. There is just one size, but it fits 2T-4T–just right for those cute preschoolers. There will be more little people bags in the next couple of days as well, for all those who asked. Hope you had a good holiday weekend!

Things will be quiet here for a week or so. My daughter is off at grandma’s house and my husband is at a conference (with the camera). It’s just me and my boy this week. I might get a lot of sewing done, but he might not let me. Either way I’ll be back next week.

I was lucky enough to score this Drew Beckmeyer print from Tiny Showcase. Tiny Showcase, if you don’t know, is (in their own words) “user-submitted, limited-run, amazingly high-quality and archival artwork.” Basically little, affordable art. I didn’t know I loved Drew Beckmeyer’s work until I found it there, but I do.  The scenes he paints are usually fantastical and the colors he uses are stunning and so perfectly modern. I know that graphic design type art is really popular (and affordable as well), but it’s never appealed to me. Not because I don’t love graphic designers, because I do, and not because it’s not beautiful, because it is. Painting just seems to have more warmth, more depth.  But there is no accounting for taste.  I’ve wanted to buy art for our home for a while now. We only have a little, but the art we do have was made by people we know personally and I liked that a lot.  Our friends have become so talented that now we can no longer afford their work (long ago I bought a painting with a 6-pack).  But good for them! and good for me now too, because I have this tiny piece on my wall.

This was my month for the one quilt project. I was pretty picky with the instructions (well I’m picky, I can’t help it) and the fabric choices were not super thrilling (unless you like gray as much as I do).  But I did ask everyone to incorporate a 3D or textural element into their block, which I was pretty excited about. Granted, I have no idea if this will even work in a quilt, but whatever. I used pleats for my block and thought it turned out well until I read my directions and had to add another strip of fabric to make it the right size. I’m going to put all the blocks in a line down the middle of the quilt. And once (if) it gets done it will go in our bedroom, because I spilled bleach all over our quilt. real swift, meg.