The Wonderful Delights of Moda Bake Shop

Hello again! It's been a while, but if you follow this blog, you've probably come to expect my unannounced absences. But I'm back this week for a couple of link ups that I'm so excited about!

When I first started sewing, I started looking at as many blogs as I could to see what others were doing and learn more about the art of quilting! I was so happy when I stumbled upon the Moda Bake Shop. Moda is an amazing fabric company that's constantly introducing beautiful collections from some of the best designers in the biz! But what I love about the Bake Shop is that they show you what you can make using their special pre-cuts. All of the tutorials are free and take you step-by-step through the process of a quilt.

I was so excited when my dear friend Stefanie gave me a Moda jelly roll for my birthday! I knew I had to head over to the Moda Bake Shop and find the perfect tutorial. I decided to use this one and hopefully I can finish it by Christmas! You've seen this picture before, but this is the last one I took.

The fabric is Jovial by basicgrey for Moda

The Moda Bake shop is full of other tutorials that I can't wait to try. I can't wait to show you the one I'm working on right now...but it must remain a secret until I give it away!

I pinned this one a while back, but I think I'll need some more practice before I can master it.

The bake shop isn't limited to quilts though! I am in love with these little coin purses! And they have the cutest projects for babies and kids! 

Even if you don't quilt or sew, there is enough eye candy to keep you coming back for more. Have you ever checked out the goodies at Moda Bake Shop? I hope you'll stop by for a visit!

Lunch Break Make: Pencil Skirt

Did you ever think you'd see a Lunch Break Make again? It's only been eight months since the last one! Honestly, I didn't even plan on this project being a part of this series, but I was pleasantly surprised that this came together so quickly! I found this tutorial on Pinterest and already had some fabric that my sister gave me so I ended up with a FREE skirt! Woohoo!

Easy and comfortable!

Like I said, I mostly used the tutorial on Pinterest, but modified it a bit so it was even easier. Be sure to use a fabric with a bit of stretch so you don't have to bother with a zipper or elastic thread. After measuring, I folded the top and bottom over two inches and made a hem and waistband. Then I sewed together the two ends, basically making a tube. I tried it on, and pinched the extra fabric in the back and pinned. Then I took it off, inverted the spots I pinned and sewed them to make darts (sorry there is not a picture of this). And you're done!

See through fabric is better with a slip under it!

I loved pairing it with my flats for work, but I first tried it on with some nude pumps and loved that look too. The possibilities are endless with this skirt! I hope you'll try it out, and if you do I'd love to see pictures!

Happy Birthday, Stister!

My "stister" hit the big 3-0 last week! It was so much fun to gather with our whole family and a lot of her friends to celebrate this milestone birthday...and she was definitely surprised!

The whole family!

My brother-in-law's cousin had a condo in Jersey City that he let us use with an amazing view of the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty. There was lots of food, friends, and good times.

Party time!

When I asked Kyleen what she wanted for her birthday, she said she would love to have something I made. I knew she also wanted some placemats and napkins, so that's exactly what I made! I wanted something to go with her Fiestaware dishes in Peacock and Scarlet and I LOVE the Amy Butler fabric I found for the placemats! It had both the teal and red and a pop of yellow, Kyleen's favorite.

The finished product!

I love the way they turned out! It was the first time I've ever used piping, and it really wasn't too difficult! I used a different color of piping for each placemat. I also made some coordinating napkins and I really love the fabrics I used for them too! I had a lot of fun creating a table setting using the linens, dishes, and some other decorative items she had around the house! Kyleen folded the napkins and I think it's just so cute and colorful! It helps that these are some of my favorite colors. :)

Love the pewter pieces and yellow candles!

Yellow napkin! 

Red napkin!

If you know my sister, you know that this is so fitting for her bold personality! I'm so glad she loved the linens and that I've been able to make so many fun and special gifts lately. Happy Birthday, Kyleen! I love you!

Sewing Goodies

Not to brag, but I have some amazing friends and family.  Everyone has been so encouraging of my new quilting endeavor and I'm so excited to continue learning and practicing and making more and more quilts!

But now I am going to brag and show off the new goodies I got from some of my favorite people!

This adorable pincushion is from my brother-in-law, his wife, and my three favorite nieces:

Isn't it so so cute? In fact, it looks similar to this one I pinned a while back.  So needless to say, I love it! AND, Melissa made it! With the help of our oldest niece, Abby, of course. 

Next is another adorable little pincushion that Santa brought:

My mom picked up this little jewel on a stop in Amish country. I think every quilter needs one of these!

One of my best friends, Ashley, from Claudie Belle Designs, hooked me up with some essential sewing tools:

I was in desperate need of a seam ripper! But I also love the thread stand and pincushion mason jar. She sells these in her Etsy shop along with so many other cute things, so you should definitely check it out!

And last but not least, major props to my wonderful hubby who gave me this fancy new pair of Gingher fabric shears:

I also pinned these specific scissors and he got them all on his own without ever seeing my board. Is he the best or what?!

I am taking a short break from the sewing machine after all the Christmas craziness, but I can't wait to put all these things to good use.  I have two MUST-DO quilts that I am really really excited to start, so STAY TUNED!!! And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of my new little hobby!!! :)

Lunch Break Make: Button Ornament

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Friday night, Marcus and I decorated the house while watching Home Alone (one of my top five favorite movies of all time). I just love this time of year, and it's such a fun time in our lives as we create new family traditions and combine the traditions we grew up with.

My family never really had a tradition of making ornaments, but my mom insisted on keeping EVERY (and I mean every) single ornament I ever made in school or church and they ALL go up on the tree year after year.  We joke that we have the tackiest tree on the block, but it really is fun to see all our "artwork" and it's special to have a tree that's so personal to our family and full of stories and memories.  

This is the second Christmas for Marcus and me as a married couple and we don't have any handmade ornaments on our tree yet, so over Thanksgiving, I decided to make one!

This is a perfect Lunch Break Make. It takes about an hour, and once again, you can do this at your desk at the office, or on your couch, or if you're like my sister, on the train while commuting into the city!

Here's what you'll need:

Styrofoam ball, ribbon, glass-head pins, buttons!

Starting with a larger button, stick two pins through the button holes into the foam ball:

Repeat!

Continue to cover the ball with buttons, using small ones to overlap.

Tie a pretty little bow with your ribbon, and pin it to the ball.

And then you have a lovely handmade ornament! 

I used a combination of green and red, but you could use any color combo you like.  Wouldn't a white and silver one be pretty?

I originally saw this ornament at Curbly, and I'm linking up at Tip Junkie- check it out for lots of fun ideas!

Christmas Projects

Does anyone even remember what Thanksgiving was like? It's only been a few days, but it seems that everyone is in full Christmas mode now!  We had a great time in Texas- we marked everything off our list and had a great time with our families.  Max made some new friends too!

Now that we are back in Nashville, it's time to start decorating for Christmas and think about our gift list.  I'm trying to make several gifts this year, so I'll be spending a lot of time at the sewing machine in the next few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, I joined my friend, Lauren, and some lovely ladies from her church for a sewing lock-in! I worked on a few projects, but I was most excited about two pillows I made.  I had several scarves left from when I went to Africa and needed something to do with them, but didn't want to give them away.  So I decided to make some pillows for Marcus's grandmothers.  Here is one of them!

Tonight, I was a little over-ambitious and tried a project I found on Pinterest.  I found these adorable stuffed animal sleeping bags and thought they would be so fun for my nieces, Abby and Lucy (baby Clare will be getting something else). Melissa, I hope if you're reading this that you're far away from the girls! :) This was a little above my skill level, but it turned out ok! Hopefully the second one will be even better.  We'll switch the stuffed animal out for one that fits a little better.  I hope they are a hit!

I'm excited for all the other projects I have on my list, and I'll be back next week with another Lunch Break Make!  Let's just hope there's enough time to get it all done.

Have you started your Christmas shopping/making? What's on your list this year? I'd love some ideas for my father-in-law...

Soaking It Up

If you've spent any time at all in the blogosphere, you've likely heard of Design*Sponge (did you catch my pun in that clever title?). The lovely Grace Bonney started the blog in 2004, and since then it has grown into one of the best DIY design resources on the web.

Grace recently published a Design*Sponge book and has been touring the country sharing it with her loyal followers! Last night I joined my two friends, Lauren and Kellie, for one of the last stops of the tour at West Elm (side note: this was my first time to go to West Elm and I will definitely be back- so much cute stuff!).  The book signing was really neat- Grace was obviously there signing books and meeting her fans, there were refreshments from one of our favorite neighborhood bakeries, Sweet 16th, and one of Kellie's friends designed an amazing backdrop for fun photos (I don't know where to find these, or I would share them with you)!

The beautiful book!

After the book signing, we weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed to Holland House, a neighborhood "Bar and Refuge," for a glass of wine, which quickly turned into a cocktail. I'm always a little nervous when I order a drink that's not one of my standard beer selections or the always-classy Beringer White Zinfandel. But this drink was a success!

The Original Cinn (Warm Jacket)
Hot chocolate with fireball cordial and ginger-chartreuse whipped cream!

I loved my first book signing and it was so nice to spend time with my sweet friends outside of work! Have you checked out the Design*Sponge book yet? What project will you do first?

Introducing: Lunch Break Makes!

I'm so excited to share with you what will hopefully be the first in a regular series of posts here on the all-new Wish You Were Here blog! If you're anything like me, you've probably been spending a lot of time on Pinterest and discovering new blogs chock-full of inspiration for cooking, decorating, gifting, and wearing.  While my list of projects continues to grow, my time to work on them seems to get shorter. Many of the bloggers I follow are fortunate to call blogging their full-time job, but most of my friends do well to find the time to even read a blog every day, much less try out those awesome free tutorials they read about.

Thus, the idea for Lunch Break Makes was born.  In each post, I'll show you a tutorial for a project that I was able to complete in under one hour- on my lunch break!  It will be a way for me to tackle some fun and easy projects, and hopefully serve as some encouragement for all you working women!

So are you ready to get crafty? How about a really cute scarf to start things off?

This first project is one that I finished in exactly one hour. The best part is that the only supplies required are old t-shirts and scissors- so you can even do this at your desk without leaving the office!

I found this project on Pinterest and followed this tutorial at Kevin and Amanda. I had tons of t-shirt scraps leftover from my quilt, so I picked out some favorite colors and got to work!

I chose four different colors, but you can use more or less! I think if I were to make another one, I might go with a solid or two colors at most. After you have your shirts picked out, cut off the hems and set them aside.  Then, cut the shirts into strips, 3/4 inch wide.

I used my rotary cutter, but scissors will work fine. And don't worry about getting each strip exactly 3/4 inch (you can tell I definitely didn't!). The tutorial suggests 32 strips. If you want a longer scarf, cut more! I stuck to 32, so 8 strips from each color.

Once you've cut all your strips out, stretch them out! Then wrap them around your hand to create little ringlets.

Now take those hems you set aside and cut them into five inch strips. Then, just tie your ringlets together, and you have yourself a scarf!

I hope you'll give it a try!

This week I'm linking up at Tip Junkie for Tip Me Tuesday!

Doneski!

Remember that quilt I started blogging about last September? Well, after a little over a year (including a nine month break), I am so so so happy to announce that my quilt is officially complete! I still can't believe I actually made a real live quilt, from start to finish, all by myself! :) I definitely had some help along the way (thanks, Pam!), and it's definitely not perfect, but I love it. Hopefully it is just the first of many quilts to follow, and this one will always hold a special place in my heart.

In my last post about the quilt, I showed you the mini-quilt I made.  Since then, I did all the same steps, just times about 30! After pinning all three layers together (the front, back and batting in between), it was time to quilt! I decided just to stitch around the perimeter of each square.  Then I added the binding- and it's amazing how that really made it look finished (I know, imagine that. The last step made it look finished!).  The REAL test, though, was washing and drying the finished product. I was terrified that the whole thing would just fall apart.  But it stayed all in one piece and it's beautiful. :)

So do you want to see it?

Ok, here it is...

What do you think?

This is the front! 

The backing is green and white (KD colors, of course!)

Love my quilt!

I can't wait to share my next quilting endeavor with all of you! I'm also going to be joining my friend Megan for her new weekly post, Thankful Thursdays. Sneak peak: I'm thankful for FALL! 

Mini Quilt!

Ladies and gentleman, I think I'm officially hooked on quilting! My lessons with Pam have continued and I'm now ready to put my quilt together. Last night we practiced by making a miniature quilt in the form of a pot holder! Ta-da!

We used some of Pam's leftover fabric scraps and some special batting that is actually heat resistant, specially for hot pads. I started by pinning all three pieces together (top, batting, and bottom). Then I stitched around the perimeter using a special "walking" foot on the sewing machine.  It's used for quilting because you typically have multiple layers of thicker fabrics.  Then I proceeded to quilt across the pad.  I used a simple vertical line, but you can really go crazy here and stitch however you want. Finally, I put the binding around the edge.  

Repeating this for the entire quilt will be a more time consuming task, but it's a great feeling knowing that these are the last steps and I will have a completed quilt! I've already been searching out my next project on Pinterest.  Better not get ahead of myself! Stay tuned for a final post featuring my finished t-shirt quilt!

Dusting Off the Sewing Machine

Remember that time last September when I took a quilting class (if not, read about it here.)? It's only been about nine months, but this past week, I finally made progress!

If you've been keeping up with the Womacks, you know that Marcus has been doing a lot of traveling the past two months.  Last week, he was in northern Alabama on a mission trip with his Jr. High youth, and when I found out my friend and co-worker, Pam, was an experienced quilter, I recruited her to help me move forward with my little old t-shirt quilt.  Pam is our Africa Field Manager and, therefore, spends about a third of her time on the field in Africa (imagine that!).  You can read about her many adventures on her blog, Pam the Nomad.  So, my goal is to finish the quilt by the time she jets off to the other side of the world again!

The first thing I did was lay out all my squares on the bed to decide how I would place them:

Next, Pam reminded me how to work the sewing machine! Even though I've had the machine since I was about nine years old (it was a Christmas present from my uncle one year), I clearly haven't put it to good use in quite some time. Needless to say, my sewing skills were pretty rusty, but with a little help, I picked it right back up (it's like riding a bike!). 

After a refresher lesson, it was time to start putting the squares together!

I made two rows of five squares, then ironed the seams before putting the two rows together.  And here's how it turned out!

I am so pleased with my work! I ran out of the backing material, so I have a few more squares that need that ironed on, then I can put the rest of the rows together and finish it!  

While I was busy sewing away on the machine, Pam was also hard at work crocheting this beauty:

(As you can see, Max was a fan.)

I am so thankful for new hobbies, the fun times I'm reminded of when I see all the different t-shirts I'm putting together, and good friends who teach me new things (and keep me occupied when the hubby's away!). This was our first, but surely not the last of summer nights filled with frozen pizzas, yummy cocktails, good friends, and lots and lots of crafting!

My First DIY Project!

I'll start by saying that I love our house.  It is small but cozy, old but updated.  We were very fortunate to have an awesome landlord who did some great work on the inside of our house such as adding crown molding throughout and carpet in our bedroom before we moved in (the outside landscaping is another story).  Because we are renters, there is only so much we're able to do around the house. But my recent addiction to HGTV has me inspired to do some small things to make our house more like our home.  I've spent many hours watching shows and following DIY blogs, and this weekend, I decided to take action.

And so, without further ado, I present to you our bathroom cabinets!

Notice the (not so) lovely leaf knobs.  I've stared at them for months and my dislike for them has grown in intensity over the past almost year that we've lived here.  With a free Saturday and a lingering gift card from the wedding, Marcus and I made our way to Lowe's to pick out some replacements.  It didn't take long to pick them out.  We mulled over some different options for a few minutes and quickly decided these were the ones for us.

We like the fact that the oil rubbed bronze that matches most of the accessories we already have in the bathroom.  They are simple and classic, which appealed to Marcus, and at a little less than $3 a pop, they didn't hurt our pocketbook, err...giftcard balance.  With such a small bathroom, there were only five knobs to replace.  After a stop at Buffalo Wild Wings (and Ross, Best Buy, Marshall's, Old Navy, and PetSmart) we headed home to try them out.  They were so simple, I was able to switch them out myself. Only a phillips head screwdriver was needed to unscrew the old ones and screw the new ones in place.  The whole thing took about fifteen minutes.  

And voila! Here is the finished project:

I'm so pleased with the result.  It's not a huge change, but it makes me feel so much better having made the change (and it's easily reversible when we move out).  First DIY project=success!! Have you done any small projects around the house that made a big difference?  I'd love some more ideas and tips that made them successful.

PS Contrary to what the picture shows, Max was of no help to me during this project. BUT he stayed mostly out of the way. :)