a warning.

Yesterday was full of excitement. My brother came home from Maine for his summer visit, we had a family barbecue, and a pretty bad dog bite. Our family sweetheart, Kit pictured above, wanted so badly to give the family dog a biscuit when he returned home from his walk. Apparently, my sister had just run in the house and my dad didn't know that Kit was outside when he came back into the yard returning from the walk. Kit armed with a biscuit tried to give it to the dog and when he took it in his mouth, then dropped it (as he always does), Kit picked it up again and attempted to feed it to him. The large Husky-Chow mix snapped at her face and got her really badly. She was rushed to the emergency room and came home with multiple stitches above and below her lips.

It truly breaks my heart that this little sweetheart had to go through this. Nobody wants to see a little one in pain or possibly permanently scarred. She couldn't eat last night because of the pain and swelling, but she wanted to, which was even more frustrating. I am riddled with frustration and guilt for having not been there when all of this happened. I can only imagine how my sister and dad feel about the incident.

Please let this be a warning to all of you with dogs and children. This could have been prevented by not letting a small child at eye level feed the dog. Children are often the victims of dog bites and apparently, more often than not, the family dog is the biter. I did a little research when I came home last night and found a website, Dogsbite.org which has statistics and information on dangerous breeds of animals and other interesting dog bite stories and prevention tips.

Be safe.

weekend sewing.

I made this sweet little dress from Heather Ross' book Weekend Sewing. I made it with the intention of giving it to my two and a half year old niece. I used seersucker fabric that I just adore! I bought it a couple of years ago thinking that I would make myself a skirt out of it and it just sat there, so i thought this was a perfect project to see it used in garment making. I know that grey and yellow aren't exactly bright, fun 2 year old colors but my niece's favorite color is "lellow." I had a little difficulty taking full frontal photos of this dress so the top picture is a little fuzzy, go figure!

I love this pattern! It is super easy and the elastic thread provides instant gratification. I had taped Heather's appearance on the Martha Stewart Show and watched it in my studio while I was working away on this little cutie, very enjoyable indeed! This is the perfect summer play dress for all the shorties you know, I am definitely going to make another.....

Happy Sewing!

pencil pouch.

I found a sweet little project for my Japanese fabric. (I'm not going to hoard it all!) It is the "Picasso Pencil Case" from Cassie Barden's book The New Handmade. It's a simple pattern with easy construction, and is helping to get me past my fear of zippers. I tend to have trouble with zippers, I either sew way too far away from the zipper that it looks funny or I sew too close and then I can't get a straight line. Practice, I suppose.
Have a wonderful Monday!

sunday stash.

A little Japanese fabric love here to start this fine Sunday morning. I have been reading the 1/4 of an inch blog for a while and thought it was high time to participate in the Sunday Stash show and tell. I have a lot of fabric in my stash and I'm gonna share....

I don't have any particular plans for the Japanesse fabric, maybe blocks in a quilt, maybe various small projects, maybe I am too smitten with this fabric and will stare at it longingly, pet it, drape it, take pictures of it, and never cut into it. Just kidding. I will patiently wait for the right project to present itself. Until then, happy sewing!

summer handbag.

Yesterday I was doing a little re-organizing and trying to get rid of some things that I haven't used in a while. Typically, for me this means shuffling through boxes, getting distracted by photos and keepsakes, then piling most everything back into the same box. There is no exception to this rule; I came across a bag of vintage curtains that I have had for some time and I threw a curtain in the wash and started this purse. Needless to say, the closet looks the same and I have acquired a cute lil' bag.

I made a little stamp tag with "cb" for craftyblossom on it. My friends are always asking me why I don't put little tags on my items and I guess I just think craftyblossom is too much of a mouthful. What do you think? Oh, i sewed some more pockets inside with the floral fabric but the photos didn't turn out... my luck.

On a different note, I received an email from a woman named Connie who is putting together a directory of quilting (maybe sewing too?) blogs. I only had a second to check it out, but it looks like she has quite the list going. She is going to add my name to the list, you should too! Get a gander here. I hope to be back here again soon!