Last weekend Luke, Frankie (my dog), and I went to Mood for some fabric shopping. I felt bad making Luke and the pup wait, so I tried to be quick. Frankie had fun though, she had her first dog celebrity sighting and got to meet Oscar de la Renta, the Los Angeles Mood dog that hangs out in the store ;)


Even though Mood Fabrics is a 3+ hour drive from my house I make the trek when I need garment fabrics. You have more than likely checked out their website, so you know there is a huge selection (and even more in person!), but what really keeps me coming back is the customer service. The last two times I have been lucky enough to be helped by Silvana, she is amazing! Seriously, if you are ever there make sure you ask for her. She was so patient even when I asked a million questions, helpful, knowledgable, and fun to talk with.

Anyway, here is what I bought:

 Silk in a wild print.

This fabric is actually more of a wine color. I messed with the settings in Photoshop, but still couldn't get the correct hue :( The polkadots are my ironing board, fyi.

Another wild fabric. I've been super into fabrics that have a sixties feel to them, so I immediately fell in love with this one.

Over the last few months I have been (not so secretly) jealous of Oona and her fabric shopping trips, namely her trips to the Michael Levine Loft in the Los Angeles fabric district aka Downtown LA. A few years ago I ventured Downtown and found Michael Levine, but not the Loft that Oona goes to. I have been wanting to go since she posted about it, but honestly I am afraid of driving in LA :( This weekend my husband Luke was kind enough to be my chauffeur and took me to some awesome shops.

Let me tell you about the weather in LA this weekend, HOT!!!!! When we got Downtown at 9:30 am it was already above eighty degrees and the Loft did not have AC. I was literally dripping sweat while sorting through boxes of fabric.

 Oh no big deal, fabric is just $2.50 A POUND!!!!

A happy kind of chaos.

Can barely carry all my treasures!!!

Next we went to a Hawaiian store that carries Hawaiian fabric and NBA fabric. This store had AC which made me very happy. So happy that I forgot to take pictures :( I was in such a good mood that I even bought some LA Lakers fabric for my friend Pari. She watched my dog over the weekend, otherwise I would NEVER buy Lakers fabric (I'm a LA Clippers fan).

My dad was clearly disgusted when he was sold a lukewarm water. I laugh so hard every time I look at this, I can't believe Luke got this picture! Don't try and pull a fast one on Tom!

Here are my treasures:


 The color doesn't show up correctly on screen, but it is a beautiful Tiffany blue.

I got a LOT of this twill. I think it will make a pretty fall dress.

 Lebron really liked my choice.

 Handsome.


I like this one, but I am giving it away!

 This fabric was from the Hawaiian store ($5 a yard) and I love it. It's so Old Hollywood to me! Celebrities used to eat at the restaurant Ciro's, which is what caught my eye. Did you guys know that I am obsessed with Old Hollywood? I am constantly reading biographies and autobiographies of stars from the 20s through the 60s. I have a couple of tribute tattoos planned, I might get one this week...

I see a future Renfrew out of that mustard jersey!

I had a wonderful wonderful weekend! On Friday night I decided that I wanted a new shirt to wear the next day, so I made one. Knowing how to sew is definitely a perk for those new clothing impulses :)


I made my second Sorbetto and once again added sleeves. The fabric is a quilting cotton with a print that I adore. The Sorbetto is such an easy pattern to sew up, so I bought some pretty purple fabric to make another one, but without sleeves this time. Pretty soon I will have a closet full of them!



Can you tell that I love leopard print stuff? When my friend Pari and I went fabric shopping on Saturday I bought this fun knit for a shirt. I've never sewn with knit, so wish me luck!



When I come home after shopping my husband Luke always jokingly asks me, "did you buy me any presents?" This time I had something! This huge panel of canvas will be perfect to hang in our garage.



In my past few projects I have made muslins just to test the fit of the most important pieces and have not made a wearable muslin. For the Truffle dress I decided to change it up with my muslin and completely make the garment from the fabric above. It is a wild print, but it is most similar to the fabric I am going to use when it comes to feel. When I wear it I will look like I have time traveled to the 1960s! haha



To celebrate the eighty degree weather yesterday Luke and I went with some friends to Avila Beach and had a blast. The weather was definitely warm, but the water was the opposite. I got in, but even after five minutes it was so cold that it hurt! Yesterday was so much fun, I can't wait for summer!



Last night I worked on the crib sized quilt top. The top will be completely finished once I add a border. I keep going back and forth with this quilt. Should I give it to Luke's little sister or to my goddaughter? Little Dailey (goddaughter) has already gotten a blanket from me and Ariana (sister in law) has not gotten one and she LOVES the one I made for her mom. The size might make it more appropriate for a baby, but Ariana loves the color pink. I need to think on this.

Do you remember this quilt block from my quilting class? I found the fabric I am going to use for it and I am so excited!


It will be very girly, but I'm making it for a baby girl, so it's perfect.

This is the second quilt I am making. Can you believe that she made this from the fabric pictured below???




The pink fabric (above) is what I chose for my project. Now that I look at it, I'm not sure if I am going to give it to Luke's sister, it doesn't have enough purple in it.



Thursday night I had a fabric cutting bonanza. Cutting the fabric for this quilt was a lot harder than others. I had to lay six identical pieces of fabric on top of one another, pin it, and cut precisely using a triangle ruler. Thank god I had a sharp rotary blade!


Since I cut through six identical layers I ended up with six identical pieces. I had some fun laying the pieces on my mat and seeing all the fun variations I could do with the blocks. Not sure if I am excited or stressed when it comes to sewing this up...

I started 2012 knowing that it was going to be a busy year, but I have (knowingly) made it busier. At the beginning of the year I decided that I want to make twelve garments from Colette Patterns and cohost a sew-along with Sarah,  I want to read at least one book a month, I want to be a contributor for The Sew Weekly (have yet to post anything other than my introduction post, but I am working on something now), I want to learn some basic embroidery, and I want to focus a little more on garment sewing which means cutting back on quilting. What a joke. That last idea lasted twenty two days.

How amazing is this quilt? When I first saw it my jaw dropped, the main center area (not the borders) is made from one piece of fabric which is cut into pieces/strips (?) and sewn together to get that separate color effect. Bobbi (the quilting instructor for the class I'm in) pulled this off by choosing a fabric that didn't have a lot of dead space. I don't know exactly how she did it, but I'm going to learn :) When I saw this quilt I knew that I HAD to make it.



The "quick and easy" quilt will be made up of blocks like the ones pictured above. With a few more blocks and a border it will be a perfect crib sized quilt. I'm going to make it for my friend's baby.


I have been eyeing this fabric from Quiltin Cousins for some time now and it will be perfect for the crib sized quilt. Hopefully there will be some left, I've got my heart set on using it! I am going with my friend Pari and my new quilting friend Stephanie for some fabric shopping this weekend.

My "To Do" list for this year just got a little bigger. How are all of you doing on your New Years Resolutions?

Last Saturday my husband Luke and I went to Los Angeles for some shopping, an NBA game, and some fun! Our first stop was Mood. Let me say that my husband is such a good sport when it comes to fabric shopping. He always gives me good feedback when I ask him sewing questions (he doesn't sew, but he humors me), he gets me tall bolts of fabric that I am too short to reach, he is patient, and he doesn't rush me. This time he also entertained himself by picking out buttons for a sewing project that doesn't yet exist. He just wanted the buttons.

Sorry if you don't like cats, but my blog is filled with pictures of my cats.


 I bought two fabrics. I know, only two! I am trying not to be a hoarder, so I am only buying what I need. Plus, being in Mood is kind of overwhelming to me because there are so many different choices. The red lawn fabric above is what I am using for my Sorbetto. I love red white and blue!

This sheer silk fabric is a very light pink with black polka dots. I'm nervous to use it, I've never sewn with a texture like that.

In case you are new to my blog, my husband is a huge Los Angeles Clippers fan. We ordered tickets for the game against the Milwaukee Bucks as soon as we could. We got seats in row eleven!! I have never sat so close and now I feel spoiled, like I never want to sit farther back again :)


The only sewing related thing about this photo is that I made myself a Clippers headband. I would like to get more fabric, but can't find it anywhere :( When I eventually find some I plan on making myself a dress for future games. I'm going to look wild, but who cares????

Since we got to the game really early we got to watch warm ups. That's Blake Griffin making a layup.

The game. I can't get over what good seats we had!

Look who we were sitting next to. Hell yeah, I took that photo stalker status.

1. Animal Jersey Print
2. Red and White Stripes
3. Pink Charmeuse
4. Yellow Polka Dots
5. Mint Linen
6. Black and Red Plaid (totally dreaming on this one! $80 a yard will never happen!)

Here are some fun cotton fabrics I found online.
1. Retro Bows
2. Retro Sewing
3. Hawaiian 
4. Birds on branches
5. Painter's canvas in sage
6. Pineapple

Let's talk about fabric and look at pictures of fabric because that's what I like to do! I am very excited to make another quilt for a Christmas present. I won't say for who because it's a surprise :)

The quilt will be very Americana, so red, white (cream), and blue. The fabric pictured above will be for the main blocks inside the quilt.

 The gold star fabric will be a thin 1.5 inch border and the plaid fabric will be a 3 inch border. At least those are my plans for now.

This fabric will make up the main 6 or 7 inch border at the edge of the quilt.

I met up with my mom for lunch at Fig in Atascadero (melted brie, greens, and fig chutney sandwich on fresh foccacia bread = amazing lunch) after my fabric purchases and she couldn't really envision how my quilt would all come together. I think that a lot of people think the same when it comes to the color choices I use for my quilts, but maybe that's how it is for everyones quilts...?

There was an end of bolt sale, so I bought up the rest of the Michael Miller poodle fabric. There ended up being close to 2 yards. What to make, what to make...

Lebron likes the fabric too.

I got a couple of cool things to make my sewing life easier. The item on the left is used to turn long, narrow pieces of fabric to the opposite side. For example, this is used for skinny straps on dresses or tiny loops for buttons. I was cursing myself when I didn't have this to make ties on my cape.

The second purchase is used to keep my bobbins organized. As you can see, I don't have many bobbins to keep track of, but it is nice not to have them rolling around in my sewing box!