Tillie Studio

Trying to spring things up a bit

I have intended to post a couple of things for a couple of weeks now, but somehow the month of April got away from me.  The time I have actually spent sewing has been productive, although my to-do list continues to grow.  Here are some of my recent items...and all are on their way in the mail today! 

charity bag

This past week got away from me.  B is in Atlanta on one of his annual golf outings, and I am at home, trying to take care of some business...although my motivation has sunk knowing that it is going to be a cold and dreary weekend.  I was busy this week making placemats and napkins...but of course I forgot to take a photo before dropping them in the mail.  I seem to always do that as I am always in a hurry to complete something and get it to the post office.  Dumb.  And the placemats were really pretty, too.  I also popped a new baby gift, and a custom onsie in the mail. 

On the "completed projects" front, I wanted to post a bag I have made to be donated to the alumni association where I work for an annual raffle (and wine tasting) they have.  I did not plan it out before I started sewing it, which is not usually a good idea, as half way through I realized that I had not planned out how I wanted the handles attached, and had to improvise.  I am pretty pleased the way it turned out and hope that it brings in lots of $$ to fund some graduate students. 

Sunday laziness

What a nice long weekend!  I did not get anything checked off my to-do list...at least nothing BIG, and this weekend is already nearing a close.  Not sure where the time went, but I got to have quite a bit of fun.  I got together with lots of friends on Saturday...friends from all different parts of my life, from middle school, to college, to the past few years...all together to enjoy dinner at Thalia Spice, a restaurant a block away from my house that I have never been to.   I have no excuse for not having checked it out before, but am glad to know there is such a cute and trendy place so close...and the fact that it is still BYOB for the time being makes it more of a draw.   So dinner was followed by an excursion to another bar where I got to watch my UNC Tarheels make it to the final four!  Woo hoo!  Probably stayed out a little too late, but that's okay.  Gotta get a little crazy sometimes.  Early this morning B and I spent two hours on a "conference call" with friends of ours in Virginia...a way I could happily start every Sunday morning.  Then we headed to Cleo's and Amanda and baby Claire joined us for brunch.  Since then I have spent the afternoon relaxing on the couch and watching bad Sunday TV.  I am looking forward to Rock of Love later tonight...

Anyway, I finished a bunch of those scrap bibs...so here are some photos. 

   

The motherload of all postings...#3

In case you were thinking you could escape more of my musings about this terrible Chicago winter...no such luck!  It has been snowing and sleeting ALL DAY and I have heard some thunder and seen flashes of lightning.  Cooper is bored...This is what Coop does when he is bored with the hopes that I will feel sorry enough for him to start a game of fetch...

The motherload of all postings...#2

On the fabric front...I LOVE this fabric by Jason Yenter...I am not sure what I want to do with it.  Does anyone have any ideas?
I have an assembly line of bibs started...I went through my bag of larger scraps and was able to cut out about a dozen bibs from that fabric.  It always makes me feel good to use up my scraps. 

The motherload of all postings...#1

I am still coughing at this point, but am not allowing myself to be sick any longer.  I have had it!  I have a bunch to post about, and I am going to start in no particular order.   Here is my new friend...I decided to go for it and get the serger I REALLY wanted...the one with Jet-Air threading and lots of bells and whistles. 
My lessons start in a couple of weeks, but I have already discovered one HUGE time-saver that my serger accomplishes for me...
I ran over the edges of some newly cut fabric with the 3-thread overlock stitch before throwing it in to be laundered, and when the pieces came out, there were no frayed edges (duh!) but there was also no need to iron as they were flat and perfect!  I cannot tell you how much time this is going save me. 

Sunday's projects

I had my first fun with snaps today.  I cannot imagine how I ever managed before I had this amazing tool.  It is so easy to use and the snaps look great.  I am very pleased with my purchase. 

In addition to watching lots of bad movies today...I finished up a handful of toiletry clutches made with Heather Bailey's fabric.  They will eventually all be posted to the store on the website, for anyone interested.  Cooper couldn't get enough of the camera today and kept shoving himself in front of the lens.   I love this one!

 

Below Zero

So this Chicago winter has been no fun!  Every where you go you hear people ranting about the cold and when it is going to end.  Aside from the ridiculous cold weather, we have had more snow this year than in the last 29 (at last I checked) and while there have been some sunny days scattered in there, I don't get to enjoy it much with my schedule keeping me in the office until late into the evening.  My windowed office downtown has a lovely view of the gray stone building across Madison (it is lovely Chicago architecture, at least) and my Evanston office is in the basement, a nice basement, but still a windowless basement.  So anyway, what might Chicagoans (who are well-known for their love of sporting outdoors) do in the dead of winter?  Well I have been sewing as much as I can...filling orders, making gifts...anything I  can come up with that uses my beautiful stash of fabric.  And I have been caught by my husband unfolding, ironing and refolding yards of fabric...what else am I going to do?  The Netflix selections lately have been pathetic...the grown-up fairy tale Stardust was a highlight...and the beautiful and heartwarming movie Once.  Not much else.  So here goes a random smattering of project photos in no particular order...

Pretty New Things

Here are some of my favorite reversible jumper dresses.  I am working on coming up with a boy jumper to show off some of the adorable boy fabrics I have been collecting.  I am bummed to be left with only scraps from the Freshcut line of  fabric, so it looks like I will have to start a quilt at some point soon.