The second bunch of fabric to arrive this week is also from Moda. This time it was the “Pumpkins Gone Wild” line from Sandy Gervais. Really fun and bright. I love the falling leaves one and the all-over funky floral is really cool. I think I see a groovy witch or seasonal apron coming soon out of some of these.

Remember when I mentioned a couple weeks ago that she was going to repaint her bedroom? Yeah, about that. It is a hair past half-way done. This means that the second floor of our house is completely and utterly trashed. Almost all of her earthly belongings are piled either in the hallway, the guest room or the “spare” (formerly my sewing/craft) room. The laws of physics would indicate that there is no possible way that all of that crap will ever fit back into the smallest room of the house, her bedroom. It may also explain why it has been virtually impossible for her to accomplish and maintain a clean room for the past year or more. I see many trips to Goodwill in my near future.

This month we’re playing with some cool Artgirlz products and making funky paper dolls using rubber stamps, colored pencils, fabric scraps and our imaginations. (Doesn’t the one I made look just like me?!?)

They did a great job choosing coordinating fabrics. Amy’s great colors and patterns make it pretty easy anyway! Emily chose Temple Garden and Full Moon Polka Dot from the Lotus collection with Oxford Stripe for the lining. Lauren selected her fabrics from the new Midwest Modern line; Optic Blossom in linen, Martini in mustard and Happy Dots in grey for the lining.

This was my first time making this pattern too. As with any pattern, I’d advise reading through the directions before starting. Amy Butler patterns are very clear and detailed. This one doesn’t have a lot of diagrams and there were one or two steps that may have been clearer with a diagram. Also we had a little trouble getting the top of the bag pieces and the top bands to match up evenly. We managed to fudge around enough that the end result was fine. I haven’t found any references to this problem in other online reviews of this pattern so it may have just been our mistake. I’ll have to make another sometime to see if we weren’t precise enough in our cutting this time around. This turned out to be a two session project. On the first day we got through the first 6 or 7 steps in the pattern and finished up the last 4 or 5 on the second day. The laying out and cutting of the pattern pieces always takes longer than you expect it to and with the last few finishing steps it is always important to take your time and be sure you do a nice neat job.

The finished bag is very roomy and the pattern includes instructions for two interior pockets. One is divided and quite deep, Lauren commented that this one is the perfect size for her eyeglass case. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to add a zippered pocket to the lining or a smaller cell phone sized pocket to the nice wide strap. I’d also suggest adding a magnetic snap. The other feature I like about this pattern is the use of fusible fleece for the lining interfacing. It gives the bag a nice body and protects your belongings a little bit. (One caveat: the fleece interfacing I ordered came in non-fusible so we used a temporary spray adhesive to stick the lining and interfacing together during assembly. This worked just fine, maybe better than using fusible as my luck and experience with some fusible fleeces has been hit or miss.)

Overall I’d give this pattern an A and Lauren and Emily an A+!

We had a nice, quiet, laid back holiday weekend. A little swimming, some book reading, a few social events. Friday we just hung out by our pool most of the day and then went to friends’ for a picnic. Mini-Me wanted to go to the fireworks (Mr. Mess and E didn’t want to go) so she called a friend and I took them. We parked here at the store and walked downtown to find a place to watch. We found an unoccupied spot of grass near the river. Impromptu and casual, just the way I like it.

Saturday we did a bunch of housework, had friends over to swim and make s’mores in the firepit and Little E (can’t call her “Little” now, it’s almost her birthday!) had two friend over for a sleepover for her birthday. Sunday morning we got up and went up to Rockford to the Discovery Center Museum. I’m not sure why E chose this as her birthday outing destination but the girls had fun and it wasn’t very crowded so I was able to enjoy myself too.

Yesterday I spent putting away laundry and just decompressing from the weekend. I need a day like that on a regular basis. Time to get caught up on schedules, bills, paperwork, laundry and my favorite stupid television shows! Later in the afternoon the three of us girls went to the nail place and Mini-Me and I got pedicures and E got a manicure. Made it seem like a real vacation. Perfect.

First of all we had our official ribbon cutting here Tuesday afternoon. Many members of the Chamber of Commerce and other local business people came out to show their support. I was so thrilled to have the mayor, Don DeWitte, attend and do the official ribbon cutting with me. As it turns out, it was like old home week for him. He grew up in the house directly behind the store here and spent his youth running this neighborhood!  
Wednesday and today I’ve been doing a lot of what I opened this store to do; teach people to sew. Yesterday I had two return students that made pajama pants with me last week. This week they came in to make the Amy Butler Birdie Bag pattern. We didn’t quite get through the entire thing so they will be coming back next week to finish up.

Today I had a fun morning doing my part to contribute to “Burgess Camp.” My friend Judy has her 5 grandchildren come for a few days every summer and they do all kinds of fun things together. I was thrilled to be able to offer them a morning of crafting fun. We made fish in a bag soaps and some “dragon tear” magnets. (The youngest grandchild informed me that the flattened marbles are actually “REAL!” dragon’s tears! Who knew?)   

Then to wrap up my week Chris, a new sewer and new student, came in to make her first apron. She is a natural! She chose fabrics from the Moda Christmas selection (25% off for the month of July!) to make her sister a cute hostess gift.  So it is official, Chris is the winner of the first Christmas sewing/craft project completed at My Eclectic Mess 2008! Drop the balloons!!!!

So now I am off for the holiday weekend to spend some time with my husband and kids, probably a large amount to be spent lounging in a pool float. Mini-Me is planning to repaint her bedroom (I think this may count as the 8th or 9th time one of the upstairs/kids’ bedrooms have been painted since we moved into this house 11 years ago!) I would really like to have nothing to do with the entire project but I doubt I’ll get so lucky. Did I mention that the room is currently dark brick red?

Someone please pour me an icy cocktail, I’ll be there in a few minutes!

Now that I’ve been at this for a month or so I’m seeing the need to adjust things a bit. I’m going to be changing the way classes are scheduled and possibly lowering the maximum number of students per class. This will give me more flexibility in what classes I can offer and provide more personalized service for students. Plus with physical space limited, it will make it more comfortable for all of us. Stay tuned for changes. I’ll post them here, in the newsletter and have new flyers in the store.

Way back in March before I even had any real furniture here in the store I met with my Moda Fabrics rep. She had all the new holidays lines for 2008. It was really hard choosing because I had never done this before and they were all so cool. They’ve started to arrive this week and I’m thrilled with all of them.

To get everyone in the mood for holiday crafting I’ve decided to put all these new fabulous fabrics on sale for the month of July! They are regularly priced at $8.99/yard and for the month of July they will be marked down 25%!!! Stock up now and get ready for gift giving and decorating early.

Read them here:
TribLocal
Courier News

I was interrupted while typing this to talk with a reporter from the Daily Herald! Nice.

I stopped at a couple places Sunday afternoon after we got home from the airport to look for copies of the Courier News but had no luck. If any of you blog readers get this paper and still have Sunday’s edition I’d love to see the article in print. I don’t think the TribLocal article made it into the print edition.