New Logo

I spent the last two days working on a logo for all my future sewing and quilting patterns. Of course I had to include a silhouette in my logo!

I have yet to decide if I will go back and refresh my previous patterns and templates. The design geek in me is screaming, "YES." She keeps telling me stuff about branding and being cohesive. The very busy "I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do" mom in me is saying "go take a nap!"

What do you think?
~Norma

blog.petitdesignco.com

Eating from the Garden

Lately we've been forced to be a little creative in using up our zucchini and croockneck squash from our prolific plants. One of my favorite places for delicious healthy recipes is Skinnytaste.com

Last night we tried out these zucchini pizza bites. Paired with watermelon, it made a delicious light summer meal.

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Reaping the Harvest

This is the wonderful result of last night's canning session: 4 pints of pickles, 5 half pints of jalapeños, 4 pints of dilly beans and 4 pints of "dilly beans of death."

You're probably wondering how you go about making "dilly beans of death." Its very simple actually, you have too many cooks in the kitchen and then through miscommunication you end up with 1 tsp of Cayenne pepper per jar instead of 1/4 tsp per jar!!!!

*Note to self: do not give "dilly beans of death" as housewarming or "welcome to the neighborhood" gifts.

~ Norma
Blog.petitdesignco.com

New Goodies

I Have a Notion recently had a sale I just couldn't pass up. I was able to order the EQ7 upgrade. I have installed it and can't wait to find some time to sit down and play with the new features.

A few books were marked down to $4 so they made their way into my cart. The bag on the cover of the Kath Kidston book caught my eye.

I never did get around to purchasing a copy of the "Rose of Sharon" book. It literally jumped into my shopping cart! My contribution is block #68 and can be seem on pg. 59 and 31. 

When will I find the time to make such a beautiful and time consuming quilt? The "must make" list keeps growing!

Have you ever made a Rose of Sharon quilt? I would love to see it.

~Norma
Blog.petitdesignco. com

Gingham Binding

Is there anything cuter than gingham binding? Except maybe bias gingham binding!

I made this binding for the quilt I quilted up a few days ago. You can see a peek of the lovely fabric I used for the backing. It is a fabric I bought on a whim years ago because I thought it was adorable and vintage looking. I don't remember where I bought it and there was no information on the selvages.

It took me longer to make the bias binding than it did to apply it to the quilt. I love adding my binding by machine. The method I use can be found here.

What's your favorite method for applying binding?

~Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Sunday Afternoon

My husband and I spent the afternoon processing some of our garden bounty. It was so much easier having help. We made more dilly beans, made our first batch of pickles and jalapeños.

My sweet husband even made cookies to keep our energy up. Canning is hot messy work!

Have you done any food preservation this year?

~ Norma

blog.petitdesignco.com

Feathers

Yesterday I bit the bullet and finished of a quilt that has been on my frame for over a month. I had to "make" myself work on this because I had to rip out some stitching where the tension was less than perfect. The main reason though is that my machine resides in the garage. It has been hot and muggy for the last few months here in middle Tennessee. I have two ceiling fans plus a powerful box fan I use while quilting. I also drink lots of ice water. Despite these measures it is still pretty warm out there! Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do to do what you love!

~Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Sidetracked

I haven't made any more progress on my slipcover as per my plan. We got sidetracked last Sunday. We woke up refreshed from an afternoon nap and decided to start on a little kitchen update. We are adding board and batten to our kitchen walls. We've had the material sitting on the kitchen floor and it seemed like a good time to get things started.

Success... so far

Last night I only got as far as washing and ironing about 9 yards of canvas. I figured that was enough to at least get the main part of the slip cover done. I got up this morning and got right to work. It took most of the morning to get to this point of pin fitted and excess fabric trimmed:

It was actually kind of fun and not too difficult to get to this point. I did make one mistake, I must have been distracted by the kids because I trimmed the front way too high. It's OK though because I'll just make it more of a waterfall skirt. I had intended to only raise the skirt about 3" ... whoops!

After a couple more hours of setting up my sewing machine, trying to keep the almost 3 year old from touching anything and general distractions, I was able to get it sewn together. By golly it actually fit quite nicely:

 I am pleased as punch with the results. I did end up with 2 little tucks on one arm but it's not something I feel I need to re-do. Tomorrow after church I will tackle the skirt. Once that is done I will serge all the seams and then I plan on top-stitching for that nice crisp look. I probably won't be able to tackle any of the 8 cushions until next weekend.

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Date Night

I've got a date with my not-so-white-anymore couch tonight. I'm prepping yards and yards of natural colored canvas so that I can get started on that slipcover I mentioned. The canvas is more off white/almond colored than I had hoped but it will do for now, especially since I don't really know what I'm doing! Ha!

I often dive into projects without really knowing what I am doing but I'm usually pretty confident going in because I tend to research things to death. I plan on making a basic slip cover with a box pleat skirt. The cushions will be individually slip-covered as well. I am forgoing the piping because I don't feel like making it and because I'm not 100% in love with the color of the fabric.

How about you, do you have any weekend sewing plans?
~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.co

Random Homesteading

These pictures are all from a few weeks ago before the garden exploded.

New (used) Toy

I guess I shouldn't call it a toy since it is very useful and I will definitely put it to good use around here. I picked up this baby off craigslist for $50. The lady had it listed for $75. It's a Brother Lock 929D I've learned the art of bargaining from my shameless hubby! The one thing I have learned from him is: it doesn't hurt to ask. I had her drop the price over the phone before I drove 45 minutes out to get it.

I really should have taken a "before" picture because it was so dirty! Had I not talked the lady down on the phone I would have once I saw the state of the machine. Nothing a soapy rag, paint brushes, oil and about 2 hours time couldn't handle. I haven't tried it out yet because I have yet to get some cones for it. Eventually I'll take it in for a tune up because I couldn't get into all the nooks and crannies.

My first project is going to be a slipcover for my couch.

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Roan Mt. and Roan Mt. State Park

This is still a continuation of the trip from last month. In reality it was only 4.5 days but I took a ton of pictures at each destination.

Roan Mountain is one of my favorite places in Tennessee. This is the second year that we have been able to spend some time in this beautiful place as a family. My lucky husband has been traveling here several times a month for some of his job sites.

Tennessee Life

Just a few pictures of a beautiful overlook we found as we traveled into East Tennessee last month.

This is the Veterans Overlook at historic Bean Station (one of Tennessee's earliest settlements.)

I love this beautiful state we live in and love that the children are exposed to so much American history here.
~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Museum of Appalachia

One of our favorite places we visited in June was the Museum of Appalachia. My husband had a 3 hour meeting to go to so we were lucky to find this amazing place. There are lots of old buildings, old artifacts and farm animals running about. It's my kind of place. I could have spent hours going through each of the buildings but he kiddos wanted to move through faster than I could read. 

If you are in the Clinton TN area it is worth a visit. They have an awesome gift shop, a yummy restaurant and plenty of quilt related eye candy to look at.

These are just a few of the many photos I snapped.
~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Norris Dam State Park (part 2)

Before we left Norris State Park we made sure to stop by and visit the Rice Grist Mill and the Crosby Threshing Barn. It was a great way for the kids to get a peek at how life used to be and the worked involved in processing food. I may have gone a little photo crazy.

I couldn't resit the beautiful weathered patinas of the wood.
~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Norris Dam State Park

My husband has an awesome job. He is a construction manager. The company he currently works for is doing the work at many of the Tennessee state parks. He gets to travel to several of the parks throughout our beautiful state. Lucky for us it just happens to be summer vacation which means we get to tag along.

We kicked off our adventures last month when we went to Norris Dam State Park in east Tennessee. The kids and I got to play while my husband has to go to meetings and job sites. A storm had rolled through the night before. When we got up it was a lovely overcast day.

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Dairy Days

Last month our city hosted "Dairy Days" at the local farmer's market. The kids had so much fun and especially enjoyed visiting with all the dairy cows.

These adorable doe eyed Jersey calves really make me want a farm!

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com