Holiday catch up!

Gosh.... It's been several weeks since my last post! I needed a little hiatus during the busy holiday season .

December was a CRAZY month for me. The first 2 1/2 weeks was solid packed with work travel, all the last minute end of year meetings to try and squeeze in before the holidays. 

Then my daughter, Melissa, and I were off to the Netherlands for a long weekend just before Christmas. It was a GREAT time!!! I got to meet my new niece and she is the most adorable tiny 5 week old ever. I was immediately smitten by her alert steel blue eyes just watching you. I did not want to leave without her :) we also got to celebrate my brother and his wife's wedding. They had a civil wedding back in September but had the wedding celebration the weekend before Christmas. We enjoyed spending the weekend in Leiden, Netherlands. 

I wore my new dress that I finished up after thanksgiving for the wedding. It was comfortable, looked quite nice and wore very well! Since I knew we would be walking to and from the wedding celebration I wore the dress with black leggings and black ankle boots. 

Once back home for the Christmas I have just been enjoying the time with the family and friends! Lots of relaxing, playing games, movies and just good old fashioned family time!

Now it is New Years Eve and I got one last project done for 2013! A new super hero apron for my hubby. It's the small things in life that make him happy and I am more than happy to oblige! 

I lined the entire apron in muslin to give it a little more body to it. The straps were made on my serger using the triple cover stitch and the 1 1/2" belt loop maker. I  made buttonholes to thread the straps through. The big front multi pocket has a light interfacing and is matched perfectly to the main fabric that you can't even make it out in the big overall picture. A fun project to finish up the new year! 

I'm wishing everyone a Happy New year!! I'm looking forward to 2014 :)

Catching up after a very nice Thanksgiving break!

Last week, Thanksgiving week, I did not do any traveling!!! It was so lovely to just work for home for 3 days and then spend 4 days off with my husband :) we both truly enjoyed the time together.

Thanksgiving day we went out for a very nice brunch, just the 2 of us! We celebrated our actual Thanksgiving meal on Sunday with a big meal and family and friends. It was nice to end the holiday weekend that way.

On the sewing front of things, I got a bunch done!! (Although, still haven't touched that darn skirt!!)

I sewed up several Christmas gifts, which I will wait to do a full share. Here is a sneak peak of one I made for myself ;)

I also finished the baby quilt for my new niece!!! I can't wait to give it to my brother and his wife. I had fun making this. The backing is a super cuddly lavender fabric that for some reason was very hard to photograph the actual color! It is super soft. To keep the quilting looking neat I just did 1 1/2 inch apart channel quilting using a walking foot. This was a great technique to use with this backing. That label I designed on my embroidery machine and used a leftover block piece.

A other completed project was another McCall's 6796 easy knit top. This was a refashion form 2 short sleeve polo shirts that were in the donate/recycle pile. I used one red and one black. I cut the back pieces off and traced my pattern front and backs on them. The sleeves were then traced onto the front pieces below the button placket. I placed the hems and used them as the hems a for my new shirt.

As you can see, I also embroidered them! I wanted a Holiday shirt that wasn't too in your face holiday. This design is part of Floriani's Lu-Lu Christmas. So there are little holiday embellishments in the embroidery. Like candy canes, little x-mas trees, snowmen and poinsetta. It is fun!

The last project I am almost done with is a new dress for trip to Netherlands in two weeks. I also plan on wearing it this Saturday evening to a holiday dance party. No pics yet!

I'm currently on a crazy week of travel :( 

Newport News, VA Monday night:

Winchester VA Tuesday night: very pretty here! So close to the Shenendoah mountains.

Tonight I'm in Newburgh NY and Thursday night in Syracuse, NY.

Can't wait to be home on Friday afternoon!!! The weather better co-operate!