Cookie Coma

Gertrude and I are slowly recovering from the holiday madness with the three little munchkins! We haven't gotten much sewing done since we finished the girls Grinch blankets, though we did have a little "incident" making some pajama pants on Christmas Eve (more on the later)!

We spent the week leading up to Christmas making Gingerbread houses with one set of Grandparents, and then making Christmas Cookies with the other set!

Our Gingerbread Village

Santa ate ALL of those cookies!

We even managed to make it by to see Santa before he went back to the North Pole! We were a bit behind on that this year! 

Ascher & Avalyn still NOT impressed with Santa!

We had a great Christmas morning opening packages from Santa, Auntie and Uncle came over to have breakfast with us! Santa brought me the DVD TV Series of the original Batman Series so my Christmas was made! We even watched it for a bit before heading over to Great Grandma's house for MORE Christmas fun! 

Since, I know you're all wondering.. the Pajama Pants Incident..

Well of course, why do things ahead of time when you can wait until the last minute to do them?! I decided (on Christmas Eve) that I wanted new PJ pants for Christmas morning! I had some awesome fabric that I scored during the HUGE clear out sale from the shop! I LOVE this fabric (can you sense the impending doom yet?!) and figured I need some "super easy" pants made out of it!

So what do I do.. I hop on Pinterest, find a tutorial and get to work.. 

The tutorial suggests you use a pair of your favorite PJ pants to draft your pattern.. Ok, no big deal, got those.. 

Cut, cut, cut... Sew, sew, sew... Try on the pants.... 

...... hmmm ....... hmmmm .... &*%*$*$....hmmm... they don't fit.. can't get them over my hips... 

What did I miss?! 

Go back, re read the tutorial.. Well Crap.. yes she is very clear that you SHOULD NOT use a pair of knit pants to make non-knit pants OR cotton pants as it were... 

SO.. this is where my beautiful Christmas PJ pants sit.. waiting for me to have a smaller butt (NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!) or add some fabric to the side seams so that I can actually wear them! 

Maybe I'll have them fixed for next year!

I'm hoping my New Year of sewing endeavors prove a bit more fruitful than the Pajama Pant Incident!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a safe New Years Eve!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude) 

an Event and an Un-Eventful weekend

Whew.. what a weekend we had at Seams Like Home! It was our Grand Opening weekend, and we had an amazing turn out! Thank you so much to all our Friends and Family that came by to say hi, see the new building and enjoy our Grandma's delicious cooking!

If you were in the shop at all last week, you probably saw the huge pile of boxes & a pallet that held our new Bernina fixtures! Some of us (ME!) have been anxiously awaiting these fixtures since we were in the University Mall! We are so happy to have them! They look wonderful and show off our AMAZING Bernina machines so wonderfully!

Featuring the Bernina 530 Swiss Edition

Bernina 830 & Beautiful Bernina in the background

This beautiful image is what you see when you walk into the new shop! 

All the Sergers you could want!  

the Bernina 880 & Sterling Edition goodies

the Bernina 880 Sterling Edition

 Bernina E16 Embroidery machine & Bernette machines

We are so overwhelmingly excited to have these beauties in our shop, especially since we LOVE our Bernina machines so much! 

And speaking of our Bernina machines, Gertrude has been feeling a bit neglected lately because I've been in the shop working quite a bit more this month. But, we did get some bonding time in together today to work on a quilt for my baby Nephew (due in March)! 

I probably say this in every blog post, but every time I sew on Gertrude it makes me happy. I love sewing on a Bernina machine, she is so smooth and so quiet! It's a nice change to hear her purr rather than the crazy screaming of my three little girls; which is wonderful, of course, but the quiet hum is a nice change! 

Our weekend on the home front was a little less eventful! 

I came home from the shop the other day to find our Christmas Tree like this...

I looked all over trying to figure out what happened..maybe the Grinch paid a visit to our house?! I was in such a hurry to get upstairs to play in my sewing room that I pushed him back up and a few minutes later the dog came tearing upstairs because the Tree had fallen over again! Our ornament casualties have been quite high so far this year! Here's hoping you all have far less! 

Happy Holidays & Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (And Gertrude) 

an Elf & the Nutcracker

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time spending a the day with my in-laws. I ended up cooking my first turkey, which turned out amazing (if I say so myself)! My husband was trying to eat it right out of the roasting pan, so I took that as a good sign!

We had lots of leftovers, which meant that I didn't have to cook for the rest of the weekend! 

We stayed home and hid from the Black Friday madness, and only ventured out in the evening to go to the Nutcracker! Our cousin had a few parts, she was part of the dragon and one of the soldiers on horseback! She did great, and it was Alia's first time going to the REAL Nutcracker show! She was so excited that she kept asking me questions throughout the show!

The Ladies of our Family! 

Mommy & Alia

Alia & Auntie

We had such a wonderful time that we may have to make it annual thing! Maybe next year the Twins can even come... we'll see how brave Mommy feels next year!

You're probably wondering where the "Elf" comes into the picture..

Well if you keep up with the Seams Like Home Facebook page, last week you would've seen this cute guy hanging around our page..

He is a FREE project from WeAllSew.com, which is Bernina's Blog and has some AWESOME projects! I absolutely love how he came out. He was easy to put together, as you stuff the limbs and ears before you sew them on so you're not trying to wrangle his whole body trying to stuff him at the end! 

If you are looking to create your own "Elf on the Shelf" this year, he comes together in a few hours (maybe less if you're in a kid free zone!), he is a little bigger than the standard shelf elf, but still very cute! 

This time of year makes me so happy, with all the Christmas lights and SNOW (yay, finally!), it just seems magical! 

I hope you all have a magical week, enjoy the snow and...

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude)

Strait Family Thanksgiving!

This past week has flown by (quite a change from last week!) and I am starting to panic about how to prepare the Thanksgiving Feast for my family! 

Let me just admit right now... this is my FIRST Thanksgiving doing the cooking! :P I'm not going to lie.. I really hope it turns out edible! 

Got my Turkey in the fridge.. lots of veggies.. don't look too closely.. I know I need to clean my fridge! 

Other than stocking up on turkey, stuffing, and lots of veggies we've had a fairly low key week at the Strait house this week! I was able to get a little bit of sewing done this weekend though...

The twins have been a challenge during nap time the last month or so, and last week they destroyed one of their pillow covers, which led to creating these! The zig zag is a minkee and the thing1/thing2 is a cotton (pre-washed of course)! You can find a great tutorial for this at: 

http://www.vanillajoy.com/free-boppy-slipcover-pattern-and-tutorial.html

My number of completed projects has been low this week, however, I do have a fun project in the works to debut next week, so stay tuned (it is SUPER cute)! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I hope you get a chance to relax, eat lots of yummy food and just enjoy your families! 

And because I can, here are some moments from our family this week..

Ascher & Avalyn snuggled up with Mom!

Alia and her foam Gingerbread House!

If you are looking for a fun tradition/conversation starter for your Thanksgiving table, we have a great tradition from my husbands family..

When we sit down to the table, before we eat, we each share three things we are thankful for this year! It is one of my favorite traditions, it is always fun to hear what the kids say! 

Happy Thanksgiving,

Enjoli, Gertrude & Family

Long week... new projects!

I don't know about you all, but last week was a long one for me.

I felt like the days went dragging by.. I had a few new projects in mind (of course, because I have like 100 UFO's waiting for me!) that I wanted to start on, but never enough spare moments to start them. 

At least that's how I felt by Monday night.. ehhh. You know you're in for a long week when you feel like that on Monday night! SO, I decided that I needed a little sewing therapy. On Tuesday night when my hubby got home for work, I was anxiously waiting by the door with my bag of sewing supplies, ready to head to the shop for my sisters "Spiced Chai" class. Momma needed a night off!

As most of you have probably heard by now... I am getting a NEWPHEW! YAY I am beyond excited. So in celebration of him, I themed my Spiced Chai for him! Here is where I'm at ... I only got through cutting the first night.. but it's a start!

I have been saving those glasses and mustaches for a special project, I think they're just so stinkin' cute! Hubby has a basketball game this week on class night, so I don't get to go, but, by some miracle of the stars aligning this week.. I have Wednesday & Thursday with kid-free time, so I plan on getting a big chunk of this quilt together! 

(Not to mention a few other awesome projects that you'll have to stay tuned for!) 

My other "must-do-now-before-I-have-a-conniption" project, was a new wallet made out of some cotton+steel fabric I have been hoarding! :P  This beauty is almost done, due to the mercy of my husband on Friday night! 

Loving those arrows!

I feel like it looks like a hungry monster... see how empty it is.. that's because I spend all my money on fabric! 

As you can see, all I have left to do is sew up the binding.. which.. yes.. I do..by hand! It really is the easiest way. If you know me, you know that I avoid hand sewing AT ALL COSTS! But, this project really requires you to get down and dirty with your needle and thread and sew by hand.

So, after Monday being a bit rough, my week recovered and I got a bit of sewing in... cross your fingers that this week will be a bit smoother, with a bit more sewing!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude)

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

A Happy (Belated) Halloween to you all!

Since I know that you were all sweating and worrying about whether I would finish the costumes in time ... you will be pleased to know that I DID! 

I had two very cute little Minions and a beautiful Queen Elsa to take Trick-or-Treating on Friday night! 

Don't they look sugared up?! 

Miss Ascher enjoying a Twizzler! 

Avalyn was busy throwing her Twizzler on the floor! 

This week is short and sweet as I recover from the Halloween excitement and costume creation! 

Have a great week & Happy Sewing! 

Enjoli (and Gertrude) 

Gert's First Weekend Away!

This weekend, Gertrude got to go to a BIG Bernina event with Seams Like Home, the first ever Alaska Sewapalooza! She was in a room surrounded by other Bernina's (7 and 8 Series machines) and she had a great time! Though I think she may be a little worn out.. she has been protesting a bit at the amount of things I've made her do today!

A week or two ago I picked up some blank canvas bags to embroider for the girls' Trick or Treating bags! And as you know, one of my favorite embroidery sites, "Urban Threads" had some awesome designs I just had to put on these bags! The design pack is called "ApotheScary" and comes with some cute printables, so you can have a whole theme going on at your party! :) Gertrude only asked me to stop a few times! I think they turned out pretty cute! (Color coded of course so we know whose bag is whose!)

Gertrude working away on Trick Or Treat bags!

Completed bags! Sergio even got in on the action to help me finish up the inside seams!

Since Halloween is this week, I figured I really should get the twins hats done for their costumes! They are going to be a yellow and a purple minion! Last week I shared with you the gal who was my inspiration (and also who I copied!), though she included her whole family in the Despicable Me fun!

But of course, me and my procrastination... the hats are about 20% done.. :P I have the "hat" part cut out and experimented with some yarn for the Purple Minions hair (Avalyn) but thats about as far as I got today. 

The two Minions have been sick the last few days.. actually all of us have.. I think we keep passing it back and forth, so our schedule has been way off the past week, which of course makes it hard to get much done! 

My hope is that next week you will get to see some very adorable pictures of three little girls, Two Minions and an Elsa all dressed up in their Halloween best! :) And, if all else fails and I don't get the costumes done, well... the twins will just go as each other! :P 

Happy Halloween week and Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and a very tired Gertrude)

P.S: Ohh, I almost forgot. I am doing a Pumpkin exchange (kinda like Secret Santa) with a Moms group I am part of. The other Mom I got really likes tea, so I found this cute little tutorial for a travel tea bag carrier- thing! :P I whipped one up today, and it turned out pretty good if I say so myself! 

 

I even put her initials on it! :P You can put a few tea bags in it, or for those long days, it will hold up to four bags at a time!!

Well, despite my best intentions of getting the twins' Minion hats done this weekend.. I got distracted by this cute little hedgehog baby quilt for my sister! I started this cute project while we were in Valdez for Quilt Festival and have been wanting to come back to it since then! 

This is a great pattern from one of my favorite designers, Elizabeth Hartman! You can check her out at www.ohfransson.com! She even has a new book coming out on November 1st that I CAN'T WAIT FOR!! :) The new book is called, Patchwork City! 

Isn't she just too cute?! Technically her name is Hazel, according to the pattern. Though if my sis ends up with a boy, I feel that I'll have to rename her to something more masculine?! :P Or something like that?!

Anywhooo..  this is what the twins' hats look like currently .. hah I guess I'd better add it to my "Must-Do" list for this week! I know once I get in gear, it shouldn't take me too long.. right?!!

 I promise that next week, I'll have some finished hats to show you! :) 

Until then, enjoy the snow and Halloween festivities!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (And Gertrude) 

P.S: Who can find the boo-boo I made on the first hedgehog?! :P 

Elsa & Two Minions

It is that time of year again... get to work creating the Halloween costumes. The last two years, Alia has been very decisive on who she wants to dress up as.. and well the twins didn't get to vote!

This year, Alia waffled between, Cat-in-the-Hat, Elsa and the Grinch! :P Not sure where the kid comes up with stuff! She finally decided on Elsa, which is great because on our last trip to Denver I hit up a Disney store and bought her a stuffed Olaf and Elsa dress! (Very excited to not have to make that costume!) 

We're missing a few pieces... the crown and shoes... if you stumble across an Elsa crown or shoes, let me know! 

Now, for the really exciting part... The Twins! This is the first year I am dressing them up! And since we celebrated their 2 year birthday with Despicable Me 2, I decided to carry that theme on to their costumes! 

If you know my girls at all.. you would know that when Avalyn (7 minutes the youngest!) gets crazy, she very closely resembles a purple minion! And Ascher, while a bit more mellow..is still the more mischievous one, so she gets to be a yellow minion! 

Just to give you an idea! :P Her hair can be that crazy, though her teeth aren't quite so terrifying! 

As soon as I decided, I of course went straight to Pinterest. And what did I find...

The Perfect Tutorial!!

First, let me say a HUGE thank you to Blogger "Another Big Bite" for posting this tutorial and doing all the hard work of figuring it out!

She has a great tutorial on how to create these hats! If you're looking for some inspiration, or even just something cute to make you smile, head over to her blog! Her and her hubby dressed up as Lucy & Gru! Super Cute! (Not sure I can talk my hubby into dressing up as Gru though!)

I've collected my supplies and plan to tackle these this week, hopefully Gert and I can work through them and get something half as cute as what she has done!

I hope all of your Halloween crafting is going smoothly! Please post pictures of costumes or projects you are working on!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (And Gertrude) 

Baby Projects.. the Beginning!

So as it turns out my sister and my sister-in-law are both pregnant right now, due within a month of each other! In my opinion this is AWESOME! I get to have two sweet little babies to snuggle at the same time! Since my babies aren't really babies anymore, I have to get my baby fix somewhere!

This means that I had better start cracking on baby stuff! I love making baby stuff, and now I have two SUPER reasons to make all those adorable blankets, burp clothes and bibs!

This past weekend I was at a Women's Retreat with our church and had the perfect opportunity to try a new baby project! One of the gals was teaching the self-binding receiving blanket, which if you can believe it, I had never made before!

We actually used a great tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company for our "pattern".
(Found here: http://quiltingtutorials.com/basic-skills-techniques/binding-baby-quilt-receiving-blanket/)

This is a great beginner project, that is very easy to cut and even easier to sew! You could probably just watch the tutorial once and have it down!

This is your chance to use that super cute flannel you've been saving for the perfect project. You use one each of a 30" & 40" square. The way you sew them together gives you beautiful mitered corners! You top stitch the opening closed so you don't have to do any of that pesky "hand sewing"!

Here is the cute one that I made for a new little baby girl at our church! Can't wait to see pics of her wrapped up in it!

This is also a great opportunity to play with those cute decorative stitches on your sewing machine! 

(And yes, this is a hotel bed.. I definitely set up my sewing machine and mini iron in my hotel room!)

This is a must-do project, especially because of all the ridiculously cute flannel out there that is just begging to be used for like a million of these blankets!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (And Gertrude) 

Moda Modern Building Blocks is FINALLY here!

Sometimes at  Quilt Market I get a bit fanatical about certain new products/fabrics that we see! This was totally one of those products! We were walking around the showroom floor and Moda always has a great booth, so I was just quietly admiring it, until ... OMG Modern Building Blocks Quilt practically jumps off the wall and screams to me... "YOU MUST MAKE ME, YOU MUST HAVE ME... NOW!"

So, of course when we finally sit down with our Moda rep. I basically badger him on the WHEN, WHERE, HOW SOON, etc. of when I can get my hands on this wonderful kit! I tried to talk him into letting me take some part of it home.. I couldn't convince him.

All of that to say.. last week when these beautiful kits showed up at the shop.. I was ready to halt all ordinary daily life activities and go pick one up. Unfortunately, most days I act like a grown up and decided not to just abandon all the kids for my kit. (I went the next day!)

I have decided that since it is such an amazing project, that we MUST do a workshop at the store next quarter where we can all cut and sew together, though I have to admit, I'm starting mine now.. gotta be able to give you all some tips and tricks!

And, my first tip.. LABEL ALL FABRIC! While Moda did a great job putting the fabrics together and packaging it all so beautifully.. they did not label the individual pieces.. so, here is my labeling system.

The fabrics come layered by smallest size to largest size cut. The first stack is all the Fat Quarters up to the 3 yards of the off white fabric!

 

I didn't take a picture of the 3 yard piece of fabric.. it's pretty obvious which one that is! Also, because it confused me the first run through.. the binding fabric (it is Navy) is included and is tucked in between the 3/4 and one yard pieces! 

I labeled each piece with its color number and name, since as you go through the pattern card, the fabrics are only labeled by color number. 

Once I cut the first block, I labeled each of the pieces with their corresponding letter, and put the entire stack in a zip lock bag. 

DISCLAIMER: It took me about half an hour last night to go through and sort/label each of the fabrics, and then about an hour to sort/cut my pieces for BLOCK 1 this afternoon .. I'll get back to you on whether I am just slow (because I don't want to mess it up) or if I come up with a better system. 

Right now my idea is to cut block by block that way I can cut a few blocks, then sew a few blocks to avoid getting bored!

Anyway, I am SUPER excited about this project and can't wait to do the "workshop" at the store. I might even have to make another one with a few of my favorite prints and solids! Stay tuned, and make sure you get over to Seams Like Home to pick up a kit.. they are going quickly! 

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude)

And we're off... Again!

I'm finally feeling like I've recovered from our trip to Valdez (which was awesome and exhausting), just to turn around and head back out on Wednesday. Though I really can't complain because this time I'm headed out with the hubby to Seattle to watch the Broncos/Seahawks re-match! :) We're Broncos fans, so we're hoping for a little better outcome this time! 

And, in true Enjoli fashion, I am cramming in three projects before we leave! As of last night I have 1 of 3 complete! I decided that I needed a blanket for the plane, a nice big carry-on bag to carry said blanket and a new stroll around Pikes Place bag! :) My husband thinks I'm crazy, maybe I am, but at least I'll be crazy in style! 

For my "stroll around Pikes Place" bag, I chose the Noodlehead 241 Tote! I used mostly Art Gallery, Indelible, as well as an Angela Walter print for the lining. I decided to make the strap adjustable, but once it was done, I decided I liked the length and stitched it down. If I decide to, later I can just undo that stitch and adjust the strap a little more. 

I'm not going to lie, I am pretty excited with how it turned out. 

Here is the pattern if you want to make one too! It really is a simple bag to make, and like all of her patterns, the instructions are great!

For my extra large carry on bag, I chose the Noodlehead Poolside Tote! (Are you sensing a trend?!)

As you can see, we're still in the construction phase on this one! I have all the pieces cut and interfacing fused, now just to find a few moments to sneak away and start sewing! I used more pieces from Art Gallery's Indelible line, as well as an awesome striped denim we had in the shop!

Here is the link to find this pattern, it is going to be BIG, but I think it will work perfectly to tote my plane blanket and reading materials!

And, for my cozy plane blanket, I'm pretty much making it up as I go, but I have some awesome fabrics cut and washed! I am using a few of our new Birch Organic Cottons, and a coordinating Organic Fleece, which is oh so soft!

Doesn't that look comfy?! The two prints are the organic cotton and super soft once washed! And I won't tell you how soft the fleece is, you would be jealous! Though, I will say, if blue isn't your color, we have it in brown and yellow too! I may be buying more of it! 

So, all of this is to be finished by Wednesday afternoon, since I have to be at work by 3, am teaching that night and then headed to the airport at 10 pm! Hmmm.. do you think I can do it?! 

I hope you all get some sewing in this week, and if you are football fans ... look for me in the Seahawks stadium! I'll wave!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli (and Gertrude) 

Valdez Quilt Festival was a Blast!

Well we made it back from Valdez on Monday night! It was a busy but fun trip! We had a bit of sun while we were there too! This was the gorgeous view from the Convention Center! 

We had a booth where we were selling notions and other items. It was a fun week spent enjoying some sister time too! 

Gertrude had a good time, I think she enjoyed being out of the closet for awhile! We put her to work stitching out a new OESD Free Standing Lace Pumpkin design. The table she was on was a little wiggly under her weight (don't tell her I said that!) so she was stitching slower than normal to keep from jumping off the table. 

All the ladies were quite intrigued with her and that she could stitch such a design. We even had a few ladies come by to say "Goodmorning" to her every day, and one gal that gave her an encouraging pat on her way by! It took three days for Gertrude to stitch out the Pumpkin and the ladies checked on our progress everyday. 

Gert was quite proud of her finished pumpkin! 

Gertrude's little cousin, Timmy got adopted by teacher Brenda Clyde and was happy to be headed home with her on Sunday afternoon! 

We stayed at the cutest B&B just before you head into Valdez. The owner Suzy took great care of us and we had delicious home cooked breakfast every morning. It was kind of bittersweet, as we were the last guests to stay at the B&B. The B&B is closing and the property had been sold. Suzy was off on a grand adventure to Germany, then on to Idaho to live next door to her son and his family! 

We had such a great time in Valdez, getting to sew and visit with other quilters. We even got to spend time with friends we made our first year working the festival! We look forward to heading back again in 2016! 

If you didn't make it this year, check out the Festival website and make plans to join us in 2016! We really have a fun time!

Happy Sewing,

Enjoli & Gertrude