Summer project...

.. so Maya got this Butterfly project from one of her friends for her birthday. We finally got around to ordering the larvae. It got here last Thursday. Over the weekend the caterpillars turned into cocoons. Only a few days later the first butterfly emerged out of its cocoon. It was amazing to watch it fly for the first time.

At first I was a bit sceptical about ordering caterpillars and the putting them into this mesh cylinder to watch them grow and turn into a cocoon and later into butterflies. It was weird to purchase caterpillars strictly for that purpose. We watched all 10 butterflies emerge out of their cocoons.

But as soon as they were flying around in their "home" we decided to let them free. Some of them flew out right away, whereas others needed some time and even crawled on our hands and feet. Amazing.

Maya got a new dress....

... finally.

This is still part of her Birthday present. It was a big work in progress. I had it buried in one of my boxes far too long. As part of my cleaning up on Saturday I went through pretty much all my fabric boxes and pulled out all kinds of stuff that was abandoned and forgotten. So I came across the unfinished dress, looked at the smocking and knew I had to take everything out. So I was once again united with my BFF the seam ripper.

After some swearing I was finally able to smock the fabric. I really started to like the result. The dress is similar to this one I made a while back from the book Weekend sewing. This time around I sewed the top down first before smocking. That way it was a lot easier then the first time around.

I also used a different fabric for the straps and the bottom. I love it. And of course more importantly Maya loves it.

Happy Birthday Max...

.. so today our Golden Retriever Max is one year old. We got him Last November, almost 9 months ago. At first I was a little sceptical having "two" babies in the house. At the time Zoe wasn't even one yet and still on all fours. Max sheds and shed and sheds. So needless to say I was constantly cleaning and making sure the floor was clean and no doogie hair was in Zoe's eye sight. Well it has been a battle and I kinda gave it up. You can never clean enough with Max in the house. And one point I decided to get a little more relaxed. I simple had no choice. Otherwise I would probably be insane at this point. But besides the hair Max is really a great dog. He loves Maya and Zoe. Max is a wonderful family dog.

So this morning I finished his doggie bed/blanket. I think he likes it although he still prefers sleeping on the floor. So time will tell. After I finished his bed I baked him some peanut butter cupcakes and some blueberry ones for us. Hhhhmmmm. I think we all loved our cupcakes.



For Max's doggie bed I pretty much used all fabric from my scrap box and randomly sewed them together and then quilted. The backing is made from a brown sheet I found last night at Wal- Mart after I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the back.
So his bed is basically a big pillow cover. I attached snaps (with my snap press from my diaper making days) on the side so I can take of the cover and wash it when necessary. The inner is made out of two shower curtains sewn together so I can wipe it off if needed. We all really like it.
I hope Max gets acquainted with his new bed soon. If not I am pretty sure the girls would love it in their play room.

Wow it has been a while...

... since I last posted. We have been extremely busy around here. Summer is in its full swing. We had my mom and brother from Germany hence the lack of posting and sewing.

They left last week so of course after that I had to get back on my sewing machine.

My first project I wanted to make was a little (or big) blanket/ bed for our dog Max who turns one on Saturday.
So I just started piecing random strips together. I wanted to use some fabric from this big scrap box that was filling up my sewing room. I really liked the outcome and so did Maya.
And of course she wanted to have whatever I was making. I guess she wanted to have the first project dedicated to her after this rather long and not so typical break of sewing.

So we decided (or I guess more she decided) to finish her quilt that was hibernating on my shelf since hmm I don't even know when. All it was waiting for was to be quilted. I just couldn't decide on how to quilt it. I really wanted to try stippling so that was actually a learning curve. But I have to say I really enjoyed it. And I definitely have to make more quilts.


A little detail I added to the top part. Maya was jumping up and down after seeing this.

So I guess I only have a few days left till the big party. Hopefully I can finish Max's blanket/ bed on time.